Happy to be here

Lately, I've been watching The Tudors, a sexed-up, soap opera version of Henry VIII's life. I've also been reading Ken Follett's World Without End, which is a historical novel set in 14th century England, so I've been immersed in court intrigue and knights and vassals and plague and corrupt monks and cardinals.

And may I just say that I am thrilled to live HERE and NOW?!!??? I am very grateful for private land ownership, women's rights, antibiotics, and hot and cold running water, among many other things. Oh yes indeed.

Why no new post?

Because nothing, absolutely nothing worth talking about has been going on. Really. So unless you want me to talk about how sleepy and achy I felt this weekend or hear me describe looking for songs on iTunes, I'd suggest you'd just move along now. Nothin' to see here, folks.

Girls' weekend

We had a really nice weekend up north with just the girls. Sliding, ice cream, and baby bison were all on the agenda. I'd tell you about picking wood ticks off the dogs, but Kate says I need to toughen up.

I always suspected as much

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Happy day

We drove out East this past weekend to attend a family wedding. The bride was beautiful, the wedding was lovely, and it was nice to see family we don't see nearly enough.

Lots of love and best wishes to Nate and Elizabeth as they begin married life together!




**Click on the slideshow to see it in album format...

At Last

Spring finally announced its presence with authority this week, and I, for one, couldn't be happier. May is one of my favorite months, when the long, cold fingers of winter have finally loosened their grip, the sky is blue, the sun is bright, the birds are singing, and you can practically hear the buds bursting forth.

May also means a lot of outside work for me--cleaning the driveway of maple flowers, cleaning the gutters of maple flowers, cleaning the driveway (again) of maple flowers, pulling maple seedlings, weeding, digging, fertilizing, trimming, mowing, hauling outdoor stuff out of storage, and did I mention cleaning up after the maple trees?

I've also done several inspection tours of the garden this year, checking for bare spots, looking for what survived this year and what didn't, where things need to be dug up and moved, and so on. As long and cold as the winter was this year, it was a good one for the garden, because all that snow kept things insulated, and we didn't have the thaw-and-freeze cycles that have killed so many plants in years past. I'm always surprised at what makes it through and what doesn't. This year, I had a clump of Italian parsley that somehow survived, and it looks like the cilantro has reseeded itself quite nicely. The Oriental poppies I had left for dead have come back healthy and HUGE. The verbena didn't make it, but that was a long shot. I had given up on the swamp milkweed, but I just noticed yesterday that there are little green shoots starting to poke up.

So, I predict several trips to the garden center over the next couple of weekends to collect mulch, peat moss, new pots to replace ones that broke, and many visits to the plant section to linger over all the choices--do I want to try tomatillos again this year? How many flats of impatiens? Shall I do all white again or go for a mix? Any good tomato varieties? How about herbs? How's the perennial selection? Decisions, decisions...

In other good news, my committee work is almost wrapped up, which means I can start choosing my own reading again. You have no idea how excited I am about this. I have a long, long list of books, books that have waited patiently for me while I slogged through my assigned titles. So many happy hours of reading pleasure to look forward to! I can't wait!

Doggone Blues

Now busking for Milk Bones on a street corner near you: