Spring ! exhausting...

   Why does the warming sun and bursting flowers of Spring make us feel the need to make changes in our homes ? Is it just me that starts to see that the walls needs painting...and the porch does too. The deck needs to be power washed... and the house does too. The yard needs raking and replanting and...and...and.
   Spring is exhausting.

 Is it just me ? Have my eyes been shaded by the lack of sun  throughout the winters gloom?
 These windows need washing. The curtains certainly need to be cleaned, or maybe I just need new ones.
   






I guess it is natural
because there are a ton of old branches down on the lawn that Mother nature discarded, and the healthy limbs have begun to sport bright green leaves. On the ground, the winds are trying to blow the crinkly brown ones away so that the new spikes of grass can pop up. The birds are sloughing off those old drab colors and eye-catching 'Crayola' feathers are emerging. The sun has discarded it's cataract and now shines with renewed intensity. All of nature is putting on a show that makes our breathing deeper and our hearts happier.

Weeping cherry

Goldfinch starting new plumage

  Cardinal on weeping cherry

This  Cardinal is in a Red Bud tree. I wonder why this  purple bloom is called a red bud? It sure does make the cardinal look orange.

 All of nature is doing its very best to show off. Easter is close now, and the colors I remember as a child of our painted eggs and our  Easter Sunday  clothes are reflected in what I see around me. Pinks, yellows, purples and pale blues. I remember one Easter my new dress was a robin's egg blue. I had a new white hat (kind of like the shape of a 'pringles' potato chip)… it clamped on the sides of my head. On the top in front were some pink and yellow flowers with  a bright yellow and black bumble bee on one flower. I had a new pocketbook too, but I don't remember it. Probably black patent leather with matching shoes, and I'm sure I had white gloves as well.

I remember waking on Easter Sunday to our painted eggs and chocolates and other surprises in our hats that were turned upside down and filled by 'the bunny'. Then it was off to church and home to a huge Easter dinner. I remember a lot of preparations for that Sunday, which included cleaning and dusting, etc. 

Yes. Now I do remember..Spring is exhausting !

Goodbye Penny

These are my last photos with Penny, our beautiful Australian Shepherd. She was a special girl.

It's almost April. I have been to Myrtle Beach with Bob in February and Florida this past week. I stayed with my cousins in their condo in Gulfport. They have a little dog named Abby, who is 10 years old, the same age as Penny when I had to make the decision to keep her going on needles and  pills and things she hated or let her be free of pain. She hated all the pills to the point of hiding from us. I truly knew she was unhappy, in pain and sick, but she rallied again and again throughout the 2 years she was sick...for me.In the first part of November I said goodbye. I am finally able to write it all down.
 Penny is buried out under the magnolia and peach trees with her dog sister Belle, and our last 6 rescue cats. Each passing of a pet is traumatic for us, but Penny was the hardest for me. Maybe it was because she was our last. Like the last child that leaves home. I hope she's running and jumping with Belle and all my beautiful animals that have enriched my life and left me with an aching heart.
 Goodbye sweet Penny.