SPRING

Spring is on the way!

~ lakeafton ~ 1 Comment

I’m feeling righteous because I spent an hour removing all the dead plants from my garden to reveal the daffodils, day lilies and I’m not exactly sure what else is growing..

I’m feeling righteous because I spent an hour removing all the dead plants from my garden to reveal the daffodils, day lilies and I’m not exactly sure what else is growing out there.

We have been waiting for weeks wishing for the snow to disappear. It is gone now, but the weather persons said we may get another dose of white later this week.

Actually, I think it was Tuesday was the perfect day to work outside. It was sunny and spring warm.  Today I was determined, so even though it was just 40 and the wind was blowing in spurts, I persevered.

God gives us Spring each year. I revel in the new green of all shades that magically appear from the earth.

Now a poem:

SPRING BLESSING

GREETING

 

May this arc of the orb

bring passion, brightness,

stunning Aa ha as you

rediscover another star

in your orbit.

 

May your thermometer sprout

new hopes and wishes,

re-bloom your fantasies,

restore technicolor eyes,

as you absorb your world’s population.

 

Richard E. Lake

14 March 2012

We have been waiting for weeks wishing for the snow to disappear. It is gone now, but the weather persons said we may get another dose of white later this week.

Actually, I think it was Tuesday was the perfect day to work outside. It was sunny and spring warm.  Today I was determined, so even though it was just 40 and the wind was blowing in spurts, I persevered.

God gives us Spring each year. I revel in the new green of all shades that magically appear from the earth.

Now a poem:

SPRING BLESSING

GREETING

 

May this arc of the orb

bring passion, brightness,

stunning Aa ha=s@ as you

rediscover another star

in your orbit.

 

May your thermometer sprout

new hopes and wishes,

re-bloom your fantasies,

restore technicolor eyes,

as you absorb your world=s population.

 

Richard E. Lake

14 March 2012

 

A BIG BLACK CAT

~ lakeafton ~ 4 Comments

After Van Gogh (pictures above) died last spring, I did not have a cat. I didn’t want one right away. But as spring began to come around the corner, I decided I wanted company in my home.

Three weeks ago I went to a cat shelter and looked at dozens of cats. Two black cats took my eye. Then I went off to Florida on a vacation. Last Saturday, after I had come home, I went back to the shelter to visit the black cats. The first one didn’t seem interested in me. Then I looked at Coco in her cage. At first, she seemed noncommittal, but I didn’t leave. It was then she came to the front of the cage and demanded attention–rubbing, petting. The director suggested I sit with her in a large empty dog cage. She continued to be loving and attentive.

My daughter, who was with me, declared that I may not have chosen her, but Coco had chosen me. We have now had a week together to get to know one another.

I have learned she will sleep in the bedroom with me, but decide that it is time to rise about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. when I want to get a few more hours in bed. The past two nights, I’ve gotten up, she’s has left the bedroom, I shut the door and get back in bed.

Coco is a nibbler when it comes to eating, and messy when it comes to drinking. I’ve not seen her do it, but I believe she plays with the water. Now her dishes are on a place mat. Coco has definitely made me her person. I do as commanded.

The first cat I had as a small child had followed my mother home, at least that is the way she told the story, was a large black cat. It did everything I wished. I could dress him in doll clothes and feed him with a doll’s bottle. That trick saved his life when he had pneumonia after being trapped in a cold creek.

The first cat my husband and I had was nearly black, a charcoal tiger. He loved snow and following my husband by leaping from one footprint to the next. When we returned from living overseas, we were joined by Himself and Herself, two mostly black kittens, who were with us for fourteen years.

Black cats are part of my past and present.

 

JUNE:  A MONTH OF STRAWBERRIES & MEMORIES

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I have a lone strawberry plant in my backyard which is doing its very best to give me the flavor of fresh-picked summer. So far I’ve had 12 berries, but more are on the way. It is a “forever” plant so throughout the next two months, I may find one or two bright red berries every few days to keep  that first warm berry taste in my mouth.

 

When I was a child on Dad’s farm, a few wild berries grew along the driveway. I watched them daily as they blossomed, formed green berries, and gradually turned red enough to pick. Wild berries are small, perhaps the size of my little fingernail, but twice as sweet as cultivated ones. If there were two berries or more, I’d share them with Mom and Dad. That very first taste made all that watching so worth it. It was the promise of more and of a sweet summer.

 

As an adult I continue to cherish the first taste of locally grown berries. Whether from my back yard, the Thursday farmers’ market or those from “pick your own farms,” they are a treasure.

 

When I have a dish of berries, I struggle deciding whether to make a biscuit shortcake, have them in a bowl with sugar, or just sit down and enjoy them one by one. It is a dilemma!

CELEBRATE MAY DAY TODAY

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Celebrate May Day the “Old Fashioned Way.”

Find a nine-inch square of paper. When I was a child we used scraps

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MAY DAY BOUQUET

of wallpaper. Today I chose a piece of colored computer paper

1. Fold it into a triangle

2. With the fold toward you take one of the points and fold it to the middle of opposite edge.

3. Do the same with the other point.

4. Now fold the front flap of the top into the front bottom cup.

5. Poke or punch a hole into the top flap.

Now go outside and find flowers – even dandelions will be pretty. Tuck them into the pocket or cup you have made.

 

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HOW TO FOLD

As children we would hang them on a friend’s door, knock, and then run and hide. The person coming to the door was surprised and hunted down the giver to thank them with a kiss.

* * * * *

You can use this cup for many things. It will hold a drink for a short time.

As a teacher, I always made them for children who lost a tooth at school. It could be safely stored in a lunch pail or coat pocket for the tooth fairy.

Mostly I remember the fun we had making these baskets at school and then going home to search for flowers. I’d beg my mother to let me go down by the creek where I knew the May flowers were in blossom along with purple, white, and yellow violets. I never really went alone because Chum, our cowdog, would not let me. He assumed the duty of protecting me no matter wherever I wandered.

WHERE IS SPRING

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Icicle lights have hung on the front of my porch since the beginning of Advent. Now they are gone back into hiding for several months. Christmas was four months ago, but the cold weather has remained. The question everyone in the Northeast is asking: When will Spring finally arrive?

My daffodils are up and in blossom, so I feel lucky. On a pleasant day a few weeks ago, I cut and pulled away the dead leaves from last year’s plants. The perennials in my small garden are sending up sprouts and tentative new growth, but they too are longing for warm weather to do their stuff.

The only plants that seem to have no problem are the grass and wild garlic. Of course, I don’t want them where they’ve chosen to grow.

The sky is gray. Where is the sun and warmth we seek?

Know this! It will get hot this summer and we will be moaning about it. It is always safe to complain about the weather. Wait a minute, day, or week—it will change.