It's in the Air

Spring is in the air, and it's feeling pretty nice!  My azalea bush is blooming.

The trees are starting to turn green.

The Minnesota Horse Expo has come and gone.  I took this shot at the rodeo, it's one of my favorites!

The wild flowers are blooming.  The woods at the farm was full of them.  The hepaticas are blooming.

I love the variety of colors they come in.  So delicate.  There were also blood roots and spring beauties blooming.  The woods is slowly waking up.

We went to our first Twins game of the year, and didn't freeze.  The Twins did not win...no surprise there!

The maple tree in our front yard is blooming.

The crab apple tree is making a come back, I was sure it had died last summer when it lost all of it's leaves.  It's not very thick, but it has flowers and leaves.  Yea!

The lilacs are starting to bud.  It's supposed to be 80 degrees today....that should get things growing quickly!

It's warming up, baseball is being played, things are blooming and starting to grow, Billy will be home from college next week...

...yep...it's definitely in the air!  Happy Spring!  Thanks for stopping by.

Bookends

The cat pictures are bookends on each side of the flowers.  Yup, that's all I got.  Here is Greta on this end...

some wild flowers in the woods...

 a sunflower in a bouquet on my piano...

 and Molly on this end.

Bookends....the cats...sigh...I guess I shouldn't wait until late Friday afternoon to blog.  There aren't many creative juices left.  Oh well...yeah for the weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Blossoms

I took a little trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last week.  It was a sunny and warm day.  I knew that the colder weather was forecast, so I wanted to get out there while it was nice to see what was blooming.

There were pansies, and Scylla, and wild flowers and some daffodils here and there.  But best of all, the magnolia trees were blooming!  Mostly white ones, but a few pinks.  They are beautiful.  I'm always surprised to see them blooming in Minnesota, it seems like they should be further south.

The Apricot trees were also in bloom.  I hadn't noticed them before.  Like apple blossoms but so thick.  Some pink, some white.  I liked the pink ones the best.

So pretty against the blue skies.  And there were so many bees!  It was encouraging to see the bees.  A chatty gentleman that was admiring the trees mentioned that there were at least 3 varieties of bees in this one tree alone.

Back to the magnolia trees.  Do you see the cute chickadee?

Birds and flowers, two of my favorite things.  Warm days and blue skies rank right up there too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best Buds

Best Buds...not the BFF best friends forever type of buds...I mean the buds that come out unexpectedly, like this Amaryllis bulb that budded and bloomed for a second time this year. 

And like the first buds on the trees after a long winter.  Especially this crab apple tree that has come back to life after losing all it's leaves mid-summer last year.  So glad that it's back without much damage!

Buds...I guess this cat is a good buddy, but you can't tell by the intense look on her face.  She's leery of the camera.  And of being woken up.  She's really just pictured here because she was in my photos of the day.

Like I had said, this post is about buds like this.  The lilac bush outside of my office window.

And the tulips springing up.  The best buds of all.

Spring, a time of rebirth.  It's one of my favorite times of the year.  Has spring arrived in your part of the world?

Thanks for stopping by!

Springy

Spring has been trying to arrive here.  We've had some nice warm days.  Days where you can envision that there will be tulips blooming outside before too long.

I love tulips, mostly because they are such a sign of spring!

April showers bring May flowers.

Flowers like tulips!

WHAT!?!  I don't think that the April showers bringing May flowers includes snow showers!  Big flaky snow flowers!  Almost white out snow showers!  Yikes.

But the good news is that the snow melted quickly.  And added some good moisture to the soil.

And the Scylla are blooming at the farm...another sure sign of spring.

And pretty sunsets that are looking a little warmer every day.

Yep, spring is on it's way, snow showers or not!  I hope that the days are pretty where you are!  Thanks for stopping by.

Back Home

Vacations always seem to go by too fast.  But we came home to weather that was nicer than when we left, which is always a treat!  We got home late on a Monday, Eric had to get to the tax guy and then hop on another plane for a business trip on Tuesday...and I had two weeks worth of work to do in 4 days.  The beauty of having your own business and no backup for vacation days.  

Besides that, we came home to a fully blooming Christmas Cactus.  Maybe we should call it an Easter Cactus...but it bloomed at Christmas time too.  Lots of blossoms, it was crazy.

My lily bouquet was in a cold room while we were gone, it was still nice when we got back, an unexpected surprise.

My back ordered pink boots arrived while I was gone...tough to get on but comfy once I get into them!  A swim suit that I ordered for the trip arrived while we were gone too.  Shucks.

Two of the four amaryllis bulbs that I had planted for Christmas shot up and bloomed again while we were gone.  That's never happened before.  Things were blooming like crazy around here.

I made a fancy cake for Easter. It's a Pioneer Woman recipe... Lemon Lime Pound Cake  in a fancy pan.  I've made it twice, it's very, very moist...and weighs about 10 lbs...or at least it seems like it does!  Delicious.

My niece and her family were there.  This is my great niece with her bunny.   Easter is so much more fun with little ones and bunnies to share it with!

Holidays wouldn't mean much without family or friends.  Thanks for stopping by.

Spring Vacation 2015

Eric and I went on vacation in the end of March.  We flew into Las Vegas, drove to a few parks in Utah and then finished up relaxing near Phoenix.  It's always good to get away and see new sights!

When we planned our trip we decided to fly into Vegas because the airfare is usually not too bad. We weren't planning on spending time there, just get a car and some sleep and then go.  But a couple of weeks before our trip I noticed a comment on Eric's sister's facebook page...her friend said "two weeks until Vegas, I can't wait!"  What, that's the day we were flying in.  So calls were made, plans were laid and we ended up spending a day in Vegas with Eric's sister and her friend, relaxing at the MGM lazy river.  Lots of fun in the sun, but I think my liver was fermented for the rest of our trip.

The next day we traveled to Zion National Park.  We intended to get there by sunrise, but getting up that early wasn't happening after our lazy river day.  We had a slow start, but made it with plenty of time to enjoy the sites.

We did a little hiking, but enjoyed most of the sites from inside the shuttle that runs through the park.  It was a beautiful sunny day!

Then we hopped in the car and made it to Bryce Canyon in time for the sunset.  We didn't find a great spot to watch it, but that was ok, we were coming back for sunrise the next morning.

Sunrise was beautiful, very cold but beautiful!

We spent some time seeing the sites there, and then hopped in the car to drive to Page Arizona.

While in Page we took a tour of the Antelope Slot Canyon.  It is a magical place.

So mystical and beautiful.

And then we made a quick stop at Horseshoe Canyon.  A semi long hike to an area with no guard rails.

It was pretty cool, but I didn't want to get too close to the edge.

I was glad that Eric had a camera too and could get the full picture of the place!

Then it was back in the car and on to the Grand Canyon for sunset.

Pictures never capture how vast and beautiful the canyon is.

We came back for the sunrise.  I thought that the Bryce Canyon sunrise was cold...this was colder, and windier!  But worth it!!

We had left Minnesota to warm up, it wasn't happening here!

The weather warmed up as the day went on.

Do you see that tiny person on the cliff?  They are braver than me!

From the Grand Canyon we traveled to Sedona, AZ.  We didn't plan for enough time there, but found a tall hill to watch the sunset.  And paid a $1.00 each for the privilege.

From Sedona we traveled to Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix.  We golfed...this cactus was blooming on the golf course.

We had one day with nothing planned, so we went to the Botanical gardens.

Fun to see how different the plants are in Arizona.

They were having record breaking warm days there in the mid 90's.  It felt pretty nice!

We took a hot air balloon ride while in Phoenix.  Something we had never done before.  It was awesome!

I thought that it would be scary, it wasn't.  I didn't realize how big the balloons are.

Up up and away!  There were 18 other balloons that went up that day.  Seeing them made our ride that much more fun.  Another beautiful day.

We went to a couple of spring training baseball games....and relaxed.  These flowers were on the fence that surrounded the pool where we stayed.  In full bloom and gorgeous.

We didn't save enough time to spend by the pool though!

And just like that the sun was setting on our spring vacation.

Back at home, back to reality and back to work.  Thanks for taking a peak at our trip...but most of all, thanks for stopping by.