catching up...

Time seems to fly by and blogging falls by the wayside so I thought I would do a couple of collages to catch up. First up are some Easter bonnet cuties...

Brooklyn stayed at Grandma & Grandpa's house for a couple days after Easter and I drove her back up north on Wednesday. She modeled her new "Harley Princesses aren't afraid to get dirty" dress for her Harley riding Grandpa.



During her stay, she had dinner with Bailey and had a play day with baby Korra.
 

We are having winter weather this week with freezing rain, snow & sleet. Here is a map of one of the weather modals I saw this morning, the white bullseye is where we are located.



The birds seem to know that the worse is yet to come because the feeders are extremely busy (fight for space kind of busy). The redpolls, Harris sparrows & woodpeckers are easily scared off by those darn starlings.



The robins are actually eating from the feeders since the ground is too frozen for worms and the house finches and the juncos enjoy not having to search for food as well.



The chickadees and house sparrows are feeding as well but sadly I have not seen my male cardinal since Easter weekend. I guess he finally left in search of female companionship - I was so hoping one would find him here :) All of this crappy weather has me really missing the beautiful wildflowers I saw last month in east Texas...
 

as well as the ones seen in west Texas.
  I'm hoping to be back later this week with a "those weathermen were wrong" update and not a digging out post :)

Easter with family...

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with our family...

and one more photo in the Easter spirit...the "vacation kiss" photo from our day at Hodges Gardens State Park, Louisiana.
 

Happy Easter!

I'm home but spring's didn't follow me...

After two weeks of cycling Texas and experiencing beautiful spring weather and blossoms...

my own garden looks like this!



The poor little flamingo's head can't even be seen peeking above the snow anymore!
 

Texas was filled with flowering trees, shrubs (like shown in the last post) and wildflowers and I'll post more photos after I catch up in the office and it get used the drastic change in weather :)

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

While the snow and cold are still in Minnesota (some weather guys are calling it Marchuary, cause it looks and feels more like January) I invite you to "think spring" by taking a walk with me in the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden in Nocogdoches, Texas.

a birthday wish and St. Patty's beauties...

I love red in the garden...

 My favorite red in the garden is still Mr. Cardinal! Oh, how I wish that a female will join him this spring and they stay and nest. Since I've only seen a female here once in the 32 years we lived here the chances aren't good but it sure would make for an awesome spring :) This winter I'm also enjoying the red heads and cherry breasts of the wintering redpolls.



I love all they all gather in the tree by the pond and come to the feeders in a group.

  It's a given that the redpolls will be heading north soon but I can sure wish for my cardinal to stay. Since we still have lots of snow on the ground, I thought I would look back at other pops of red I love in the garden including the reddish orange lilies...

and the bright red of one of my favorite clematis, "Rebecca"...

 

 and of course the ruby red throat of the hummingbirds!

 

a birthday and cute granddaughters...

First up, Jeff & I (and Bailey) would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our daughter-in-law, Tammy!  We hope you have a wonderful day and get lots of love and kisses from N & B :)

Since Grandma Marsha didn't get any February ruffle skirts done for my favorite little girls they each got 2 for the month of March. I made simple little Snoopy shamrock ones for the holiday, St. Patty's, that people usually think of when they think "March" and also Easter themed ruffle skirts. I asked Jayme & Tammy to send me photos of the girls in their skirts for my March header and all the photos sent were so cute that I'm sharing them in collages. Both of them were so cute in their Snoopy skirts and I made an "oops" and got Bailey's hairclip a little on the large side :)

Next up is Bailey's ruffle skirt - the green fabric has little Easter bunnies on it.
 

Brooklyn didn't really feel like having her photo taken so Jayme called me on Facetime and Grandma told her I wanted a pretty picture of her in her skirts. She was then okay with putting on her Snoopy skirt and even played peek a boo with Grandma while her mom took a few photos. Then I asked her to put her ruffle skirt on and the answer was "no" so I tried to distract her with talking while Jayme changed her skirt. Big mistake as you can see in the middle photo - silly girl! I guess she likes the Snoopy skirt better :) She was happy to pose later and managed lots of smiles...
  Now I just need photos of Emma & Mari :)