With the extremely warm temperatures we’ve had over the past several days (89 on Saturday, 90 on Sunday and 89 on Monday) the trees and bushes are on fast forward. If you blink you might miss the further unfurling of a leaf.  On Friday there was just the tiniest bit of green fuzziness appearing and now it’s an explosion! Last night I could still see through the trees and into the back woods, but this morning the leaves are out so much that it’s not possible. They’ve doubled overnight.  It’s a little early for them to be so advanced but it’s kind of nice. They say we have one more day of this unseasonably warm weather and then we go back to more normal temps in the 60’s. I’ll be glad for that. I don’t need summer heat in spring! Photo above taken yesterday; photo below taken this morning.

The forsythia is still in full bloom but soon its leaves will take over the flowers.

I’ve got a new lens that I am fooling around with, a Lensbaby. It’s an odd little lens that allows you to blur objects by tilting the lens around and have one spot that it’s in focus. The photos above were taken with it. I still need lots of practice but I’m semi-happy with some of the results.

While the trees are on fast forward, there are still some things that take their time. The ferns are taking it slowly. See all the little fronds waiting to unfold?

The Lensbaby also came with a set of two macro lenses. You know me, I am a macro girl! It creates some other-wordly looking results.

I’ll be interested to hear what you think of the Lensbaby results.

The dogs aren’t too happy about the weather either. They can’t go with me anymore in the car when I go on errands. That’s their favorite thing to do. Hopefully today will be the last day of that and we can enjoy some lovely spring weather along with our newly green trees.

P.S. In case you are wondering, our trip to Mexico is still on at this point. We are waiting to see what happens in the next few days with the swine flu, but unless they cancel all travel to Mexico we will still go!

I don’t have much to say lately. Sometimes I think I should just stop blogging. I mean, who reads this anyway? This blog was started three years ago when we first moved to New Jersey as a way of letting friends and family left behind know what was going on in our lives. I think that purpose pretty much failed since I know many of my friends just don’t read it. I can keep it for myself as an online diary but I could do that offline just as easily. I hate spammers leaving links to their websites embedded in comments. Just yesterday I had five; all of them total crap.

Rick is in Las Vegas this week at the trade show. I do miss him when he’s gone. A lot. Thanks goodness he doesn’t have to travel that much anymore. I opted not to join him this time as I preferred to go to Mexico instead and we couldn’t afford to do both. Plus, as much fun as Vegas is there is only just so much to see and do that you haven’t done before.

I always struggle with what to eat by myself. This time I thought I’d give some frozen dinners a try and ended up throwing the first one out last night (yuck) and the second one I tried wasn’t much better. I wonder how people can eat a steady diet of that junk?  Yet I always see people’s shopping carts piled high with just that. I think a grilled cheese sandwich would be much better and just about as easy.

I am so looking forward to our visit to San Miguel de Allende in less than two weeks and seeing my in-laws. It’s exciting to be able to see where they are going to live. When I tell people they are moving to Mexico some look at me blankly and ask me this question that I find hilarious: “What nationality are they?” Maybe it’s because Rick and I have lived as ex-pats in several “foreign” countries (Germany, The Netherlands and France) that I don’t find their move a bit odd. Who knows, in years to come we might find ourselves living in Mexico for the winter and the cabin for the summer.

We had our first thunderstorm of the year last night, and of course it was just as I was going to bed. At first I tried reading but with the light on I couldn’t really see the lightening so I turned it off and enjoyed the storm. By the way, does anyone have any idea why they call them thunderstorms and not lighteningstorms? The thunder was so close and so violent last night (not a word normally used to describe thunder but last night’s thunder can only be described in that way) that it literally rocked the house. It felt like an earthquake! My poor house trembled and shook at the concussive blasts. Wow. Mother Nature was sure having fun with us a couple of times.

I am proud to say that it was Bella’s first thunderstorm and she slept through it. Not really sure how she did because it was enough to wake the extremely dead. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced thunder like that. One strike must have hit on the ridge above my neighbor’s house because the lightening and thunder were pretty much simultaneous. So much so that it made me get up to look out the window to make sure their house hadn’t been blown apart by the blast. I kid you not!

Before the storm the peepers were giving a free concert. I sat in the sunroom with the TV off, door open to the night, reading my book. Their cheery trilling acts like a balm for me. I am always amazed at their froggy musical compositions. How do groups of them stop and start at the same time? Their harmony is spot on with one group carrying the main tune and other groups chiming in as needed.  Then all of sudden they all become quiet like someone turned off a switch.Do they have a frog choral conductor?

The peepers are only one of the things I love about living in New Jersey. (I mentioned above that it’s been three years since we moved here. Three years. Where does the time go?) Colorado was my home for many many years and I did love it but it was, well, kind of boring compared to living here. The seasons are so separate here and we have the fauna to remind us exactly what season it is. We have the peepers in spring. Next come the fireflies which arrive in early summer, June through mid-July. I wish the fireflies would stay longer because I find them so magical. When the fireflies leave it’s time for the cicadas to sing their loud scratchy songs from the trees. It’s the sound of summer.

I did finish my second “Down Mexico Way” dish towel and am onto my third. Here is the lovely señorita. Pollo anyone?

Okay, enough going on and on about not much of anything! On to the rest of the day!

Welcome to my view!

The world outside my front door is yellow and blue. The forsythia hedge glows.

This naked tree appears to be wearing it as a skirt.

Yellow daffodils nod their frilly heads in the sun.

And now for the blue. This little flower is all by itself in the middle of the front yard.

Do I dare to say I think spring has finally arrived?

A progress report on both Spring and my first tea towel completed!

Spring is somewhat hesitant this year. Instead of bursting forth in a glorious display she is taking her sweet time. Frankly I don’t blame her. The weather has been a bit here and there. We’ve had rain, snow flurries, temps well below freezing at night and climbing only in to the 40’s during the day. Yesterday was a “nice” day; sunny and making it almost to 60 but the chilly wind made it feel colder. The forsythia hedge has a few bloomers but it mostly looks like this. Waiting. Afraid to bloom.

Things are popping out of the ground left and right. I can see that my foxglove have broken ground and here is my bleeding heart bush.

The bank of ferns are starting to show their heads as well, but they haven’t grown much in a week. Smart plants.

More rainy weather is on the way for later today and tomorrow. I know, I know. April showers bring May flowers. Maybe I am just expecting too much from April. It’s hard to get out and trim up the main flower bed with all this rain and wind. I could bundle up in warm clothes and gloves but that somehow just doesn’t feel right. Aren’t you supposed to be in the garden working with the sunshine streaming across your back instead of the wind whipping your hair around your face so that you can’t see and the cold turning your fingers blue?

I have only one hyacinth and I’ve been checking on it daily and watching its progress. Yesterday when I went out to get a photo of it this is all that was left. Bella strikes again!

And look at this poor daffodil bud. Nipped in the bud, so to speak. Even though I put the bulk of daffodils behind bars this poor bud must have been sticking out so it got chomped on. Darn dog! I may have to fence the whole flower bed off is she continues in this fashion. I certainly don’t want her ingesting the foxglove! Maybe it’s a stage she’ll grow out of. Personally l think she’s part truffle hound. Always digging and finding things in the woods that I didn’t know were there.

Behold the first completed tea towel! Ta-da!

These particular towels have a hanging hook at the top, so I placed the pattern in the corner at the bottom so if it was hanging on a hook the design would be right side up. I’m satisfied with the way it came out although I could nit-pick at several things. I would have been finished a lot sooner if I hadn’t had to rip out several things several times. My color scheme did not work once I got it all stitched—too blah. The pattern seemed to have the quality of disappearing ink as time went on because it got lighter and lighter until I could barely see it in spots. What’s with that? I was afraid to rip out the clothing stitches in case the pattern was too light so Rick had the brilliant idea of leaving the stitches in place and just working the new stitches right next to the old. It did work. I almost left it this way because I thought it was interesting, but in the end I ended up ripping them out. Then I ripped out the new stitches on the trousers ..... well, you might be getting the idea that parts of this fellow just weren’t working! What do you think, should I have left it double-stitched? Do you like that effect?

Also in the photo you can barely see the imprint for the scarf. That’s how light the pattern became, so at times I had to guess. Same with his shoes—the pattern was pretty much non-existent.

This towel was a learning curve since I have not done this particular kind of embroidery before and it’s been a loooong time. I learned a few neatness tricks as I went but the back is not exactly what I would hope for. Still, not too shabby. And it certainly kept me occupied. I was surprised how fast it went when things were going well. The cactus went without a hitch and was the most fun thing to stitch.

Now on to the next one: the señorita with the chicken on her head. Her skirt looks like it could pose a few problems, but maybe just a series of straight stitches? Here she is hot off the pressing.

I’m hoping she doesn’t start doing the disappearing act too.

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The day before yesterday was a bit like Christmas. I had ordered several things due to arrive in the mail and I assumed they would all arrive on different days having been sent from various parts of the country on various days. (1. a new, faster camera lens. 2. A guide book on San Miguel de Allende. 3. My iron-on embroidery transfer patterns and towels.) When Dennis (our mailman) drove in our driveway and up to the front door I knew he had a package for me. I walked out to greet him saying “I thought you might have a package for me today!” He responded with “Not just one, but THREE packages for you!” Like I said: Christmas!

Alas, trying out my new lens in the kind of weather we’ve been having is not much fun. After the rain stopped I snapped the photo above. I liked how the raindrops clung all glisten-y to the wind chime. (My other lens did not allow apertures below 5.6 even when completely in manual mode, so I wanted something faster so I could shoot in lower light situations. )

I was very excited about starting on the embroidery. In anticipation of their arrival I had purchased an assortment packet of floss at Michaels the day before, and since the surface of my iron was shot I also bought a cheap new one. I was ready to get this project started!

I chose the “Down Mexico Way” patterns with my mother-in-law in mind. Rick’s parents are in Mexico (hence our visit to San Miguel) for several months and I thought they would be cute in her kitchen. I don’t think she is reading the blog while she is there because she only gets online to read her email since she has to go to Rick’s cousin’s house to even do that. But in case she does read this: Surprise!

I had a false start with the transfer. I don’t know if the iron wasn’t hot enough or what, but it wasn’t transferring. And even though I had the pattern pinned, it slipped and left a double impression. If I looked at it with my eyes crossed it might have looked normal. sigh. Since the transfer was so light I decided to wash the towel and see if it would wash out. It did and I began again. This time I turned the iron temperature up one notch and instead of keeping the iron moving across the transfer I left it in one place for 5 seconds, then moved to another part of the pattern. It worked! Nice dark lines. See for yourself.

It was like magic! I have never done this before and after the fiasco with the first try at an impression I was very pleased.

Sometimes I have a hard time choosing colors for things. I am not an artist, so planning it out ahead of time always helps. I photocopied the pattern and tried different color combinations. I wanted to use as few colors as I could. After trying a few different ones I decided on this:

And here is the WIP:

It was fun and relaxing to do. A very different experience than knitting altogether, so it’s a nice change. I hope to get quite a bit more done today but it’s so dark (rainy) I will need to sit under a good light source instead of my usual spot in the sun room.

Also on my schedule today is a quick trip to the grocery for coffee, trying to keep the dogs entertained since they can’t go outside, and another Spanish lesson with the Rosetta Stone. Rainy days can be enjoyable as long as you have something entertaining to do!