We’re having showers here this morning and the air feels heavy, warm and springy.  When it’s raining, I miss my little walks, and this past week has been so very hectic and unusual, I decided to take the umbrella, and you (will you walk with me?) and search for spring in the rain.

We can handle it.  Do you have enough room under the umbrella?

And please watch out for the puddles.  Thank goodness we wore our Rocket Dogs and not our flip flops for this walk, although it might feel good to get our toes wet.  Still, we’ll wait a few weeks on that.

Oh look!  The daffodils are so happy.  We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for them, and now they are here.  I think it’s only fair to the daffodils that we DO come out in the rain and see them.  Don’t you?

We must stop here.  This is one of my favorite plants come spring.  This is Akebia, or chocolate vine, and it has the most beautiful, most sweet-smelling blooms ever.  Some people consider it invasive, but I keep it confined to the arbor here and have not had a problem with it the 4 years or so that it’s been here.

It sort of looks to me like this garden creature has daffodils for arms.  What do you think?  Is it just me, or does he have daffodil arms?

I can be desperate for spring.  It can be still cold outside.  It can be snowy blowy outside.  And yet, hellebores. 

 And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Let’s stand here under the umbrella and look at the goldfish for awhile.  Do you mind?  Isn’t the water pretty?  I love the camellia that’s fallen into the water.  Are we in Japan?  I think we are.  I know I am.  Are you?

Shall we make up a Haiku to remember this moment?

Dancing down.  Raindrops.
With the weight of spring they fall.
Flower, go with them.

Oh, be still my heart, the violets are peeking out at us!  They are true harbingers of spring.  When they come, I can breathe a sigh of relief.  And speaking of heart, their little leaves are heart shaped.  Violets are good medicine.  These violets have made a tincture that sits in my herbal medicine cabinet.  Shall we have some, so that spring within us can wake up too?

I love you, violets.  All of you.  You can always live in my garden.

Uh, sorry.  I’m not letting you talk at all.  Do you want to talk to the violets?  Do you have a haiku to share?  Are you ready for spring?

Thank you for walking with me.

It’s about 70 degrees here today and sunny.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Michaela and I are going to spend one hour or so in the garden, preparing a couple of little spots for things that can be planted now. 

• peas
• garlic
• spinach
• maybe more…

Thomas remains in the hospital, recovering, and I’ll be going to see him later.  In the meantime (when it rains it pours) the washer is broken, so I will be going to a laundromat, BUT I have a lovely old book about a little Chinese American girl whose grandfather opens a laundromat.  It’s called Soo Ling Finds a Way.   I bought it about a year ago at the thrift store, but we’ve not read it yet.  I think we’ll turn our trip into a tiny unit study.  What else would a homeschooler do?

Have a lovely day!

Seen today during lunch.

I’m gonna be okay.

But I didn’t mean to.  I would never do that to you on purpose.  I said we’d have daffodils in February, but here we are two days from March and the little daffodil blooms are still scrunched up, showing only a hint of the yellow to come, and it’s very, very cold out today.  Maybe hubby was serious about this being a long winter after all.

This, my favorite mosaic birdbath, has suffered a lot of wear this winter.  She’ll need repairs once the weather warms, but even the wearing itself is a beautiful process in the garden: a little bird sits on the tiled shore of an icy pond.

I’m okay, though.  Really.  I’m fine.  Really.  I’ll be okay.  (Spring?  Spring, where are you?)  Yes, I have a menagerie of warm little birds in my office, nestled in and around my plants.  They can sing to me while I work today.  (Really, I’ll be okay.)

I worked on pins last night, at the end of a long, productive day.  We had another amazing FIAR co-op at the EPA in Research Triangle Park.   Then home again, home again, jiggety jog, to work on budgeting, grocery lists, filling up Michaela’s cereal boxes, and bill-paying, all before settling into my desk this Friday morning.

I love the pins I’m working on now.  It’s my “women of the world series.”  As soon as they’re ready, I’ll put them in the shop. 

Michaela and a sweet friend discuss what they’re looking at on a worksheet, where they have to try and label pictures taken from electron microscopy.

We also learned about pH, environmentally friendly architecture, and a few other amazing tidbits.

Have a lovely Friday!

Oh, the blues.  But maybe not the kind that you might think.  Imagine my delight and surprise (or as my 21-year-old son says, just to remind me of days gone by — PRAH-PRIZE!) upon seeing a bit of blue shining forth from the otherwise cold and half-sleeping grass in the yard.

You may remember a little story last year about Veronica umbrosa and Veronica persica, one wild and one nursery bought, growing here in my yard. 

Well, here sits Veronica persica, waiting on spring.  Just like me.  I was so excited to see her.  Annie and I visited with Veronica for awhile before moving on to the next smelly thing that Annie might need to investigate.  Annie wasn’t nearly as excited to see Veronica as I was.

I’ll have you know that some internal voice had prompted me to wear blue yesterday morning.  Perhaps I could hear Veronica whispering, all the way from her spot in my garden.  Wear blue today, wear blue today.  Even my late Grandma’s apron trimmed in blue.  I wore it all day.  And my newest pin, with the bluebird.

It was SO bright and sunny yesterday that I called The Carpenter at work and said, “Look.  The greenhouse…” 

He said, “I know.”

We are hoping to have it done before too long.  But you know paying taxes and Oreo’s surgery put some building materials on the back burner.  Sigh.

Today looks to be a day such as yesterday.   I’ll be working, but it’s all okay.  I have hot tea, and more blue I can slip on.  Or yellow. 

This was in the yard yesterday.  Yes, that blossom has been visited by some creature, but I imagine that creature is as hungry for spring as I am, so I can forgive it.

And this was in the yard.

And this!  Can anyone say breaks and lunch outside?  I think I’m gonna be okay.

I must admit, the snow is awfully pretty.  It is so unusual for us to keep getting snow like this.  The children are always happy if we get one snow during the winter, but now we’ve had…three, is it?

This snow is not that deep, but it is a beautiful snow that swirls down from the trees when the wind blows. 

It’s the kind of snow that sits easily heaped up on every little thing, and I so enjoyed my little morning stroll through the garden. 

The sky was extremely gray this morning, making it seem as if the snow would start pouring out of the sky all over again.  By the time my walk was over, however, the sun was shining brightly.  This snow is not expected to hang around for very long.

The dead stalks topped with snow reminded me so much of cotton plants.  Have you ever seen cotton in a field?  It is a beautiful plant.  It is a powerful plant, full of wonder and history that makes one laugh and cry inside, all at the same time.

Today is a work day for me, but I just wanted to stop in and say a snowy good morning.  Each day, I look for the things I have to be happy about.  I hope to have a little time tonight to work on pins.  I like adding the charms and I have new clay, ready to be worked with.  

A sun-shiny day and a day off, all at the same time. Does it get any better?

The view from underneath the little snowdrop is so pretty.  Pretend for just a moment that you are a garden fairy.  This is your umbrella, your sky, your home.  Do you feel happy?

There are little tiny blooms on the rosemary right now.  I’ve talked about rosemary before.   It is a lovely herb.  Good for cooking and has a strong, rich scent.  I especially love it because it stays green through the winter here and blooms — like now — even in January.

Yes, that’s Cookie trying to get into the picture I took of the daffodils.  The daffodils are getting taller and taller.  I love how you can see the yellow just waiting to burst forth and sing a song of spring.

I think this is my Star of Bethlehem poking through the ground.  It’s so bright, I don’t really care what it is.  If it says spring is on the way, which it does, it’s fine by me. 

Snowdrops in bloom.  They surely do like to look at the snow, even though we don’t have any on the ground here; they point their little faces downward.

In other happenings, I have been wanting to share a week of feminine and frugal dress, and lo and behold I visited the blog of friend Hannah over the weekend and found she was thinking the same thing.  I am having way too much fun following her week right now, so I’ll do mine soon. 

Also, my friend Jenn asked about the contact paper counters I mentioned in my post last Wednesday, so I wanted to answer her question here.  Unfortuntely, yes, contact paper does sort of ruin the counters.  One you’ve left a layer on for a long time, the counter surface is very sticky when you take it off.  To me, this was not an issue because we own the house and the counters were so yucky to begin with, I definitely prefer contact paper to what was there.  Also, my carpenter husband will hopefully put in new counters one day, which I will not have to cover. 

Here’s the original post about the contact paper counters if you’re interested.

Michaela and I are working with clay right now.  We just took a break for her to make cheese toast and cinnamon toast for her brothers and herself.  It’s a nice slow day with sun shining in the windows.  I have a cup of hot tea in hand.  Mmmmmm.

Enjoy this day.

My walk this morning was so pleasant.  We have very bright sunshine here this morning and a bit of its brightness was captured in every little drop of rain left on the spirea.

I have to tell you, I was searching for those daffodils I told you we’d likely have in February, and I found a few.

They may look like they’ll be blooming right around the corner, but it will actually take awhile for them to reach full height, and there are several varieties of daffodils in the garden, so they pop through and grow at very different rates.  Some won’t show themselves until much later. 

There is beauty to be found this time of year.  It lies in things that perhaps we don’t see when other, more showy plants are in bloom. 

Dear Goldfish, I am happy for you that it’s warm enough today to turn your pump on.   I know you love the cheerful bubbling as much as I do.

The thermometer in my office window says actually 70.  Yes, 70.  Now that’s in the sun, so it’s not right, but the air this morning feels like spring.  I took my shawl with me on my walk this morning.  It’s actually in the high 40s right now, maybe even close to 50. 

Ahh, the fun of testing out pins.  Does dressing each morning get any better?

I hope you have a lovely Monday.  My children will be working in the yard today, picking up sticks and putting them in a pile.  We must make the yard neat for the not-so-very-far-away-after-all springtime.  I’ll be at my desk working, sipping on hot tea, and dreaming of all the things I love.

I took a little walk in the garden this morning. There was a tiny birdie there.

We were doing a photo shoot for the Etsy shop.   It was a bit chilly, but I was wrapped in my bright red shawl, and, well, Ms. Bluebird has feathers, so we were both fine.  Annie, on the other hand, was trying to pull my arm out of its socket, which made it impossible to get a clear picture, so in she went.  Just want you to know what a photo shoot here is really like.

We spied a little snowdrop in the garden this morning.  So sweet and bright and pretty in the midst of so many dead leaves.  The cycle begins.  I feel the need to order mulch, rake up the dead stuff and begin to brighten up the garden.   After all, there should be daffodils next month.

Dear Snowdrop, you help me hang on.  I love you, Little Snowdrop.  Uh…

I hope you have a lovely day.  Ms. Bluebird is sitting here with me this morning as I type, but I have plenty of hot tea and Annie to curl up in the chair behind me, so I am not lonely.  Just wishing I had the day free to sculpt little birdies and make pins and play outside, but there’ll hopefully be another day for that soon.  I cannot complain.  I can hear my mother-in-law say sweetly, “Count your blessings.  Name them one by one.”

Enjoy this day.

Winter may be slow getting here but she does finally make it each year!   While it’s not nearly as cold here in North Carolina as it is for some of you, the air was frosty this morning and my fingers stung while dipping out food for the bunnies and taking the time to talk to them and check their water bottles (which were a bit frozen, by the way).

Though Annie was pulling on her leash like a prize sled dog, I managed to capture with my camera some of the beautiful pictures the frost had written onto the leaves and flowers.

When cold comes, and even sometimes when dark comes, little flowers bow their heads.  It’s a sweet and gentle message to me on this chilly morning.

The mossy green patina on a short mosaic wall caught my eye this morning and beckoned me to stand for awhile.  What will I do with this day?  As always, there will be many things I could focus on.  I certainly need wisdom to choose what is worth my attention and what is not; come evening the day will be gone whether I focused on worthy things or not.  It would be nice to have a feeling that I did worthwhile things. 

The pinkest of blooms brightens up an otherwise sleeping bed.  This time of year I am always torn over stray buds.  Cut before they open, they make beautiful additions to potpourri.  But left alone in the garden, they are special in a way that says, “leave me right here.”  What’s a girl to do?