There have been some spectacularly cool late spring days these past few weeks. Being outdoors has been so refreshing. There are beauties blooming all over my yard. The hybrid tea roses are outdoing themselves. At last count there were eleven blooms on my bush called Gypsy, there are several Tropicana buds, along with a few Tiffany and First Prize buds. Next week they should really put on a show. The rose bushes are only one year old, so I am very impressed with their performance. Along with the roses, I have had yellow and orange daylilies, pink and white hybrid lilies, and lovely hydrangeas. I must admit, the drought is really taking its toll on my oak leaf hydrangeas which are too far away from my watering source to water regularly. I picked the first gardenia blossom today and the scent is just fabulous. I have it sitting on my computer as I type, so that I can enjoy the aroma.

These past few weeks have been a lot of fun with the ending of school and beginning of summer. We have been making plans for all the summer fun we're going to have. Although I am a little worried that as it hasn't rained in days and days, that this summer may be full of cloudy, rainy days. Let's hope not; the kids are looking so forward to having the freedom to golf and swim. And speaking of golf, I got an e-mail from my mother today. She is in the United Kingdom for a few weeks. Here's what she had to say, "....we are going to St. Andrews today. Rode the beautiful countryside yesterday .... Lots of sheep, castles. Had lunch on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Saw Prince Andrew. Walked nearly 6 miles... We are well." Well, indeed. Now, if that doesn't sound amazing, I don't know what does! I CANNOT wait to hear about the trip and see wonderful pictures of the Old Course! Maybe she'll even let me share some with you.

Til then, dreaming of bagpipes...

What a wonderful Mother's Day this one turned out to be. After a very full weekend, my children and husband made sure Sunday was a day just for me. After church I returned home to be treated to a brunch with all the trimmings cooked by my children. And as "icing on the brunch" after cooking, they also cleaned up quite thoroughly. In addition to this wonderful treat, I was given a beautiful book on garden design, a book on tea, scone mix with Devonshire clotted cream, and a large Ghirardelli chocolate bar. My children know me very well, and I suppose because I wasn't really expecting anything, this was one of my best Mother's Day surprises ever!

I was able to celebrate with my mother and mother-in-law on Saturday in between piano and ballet recitals. We had a nice lunch at a lovely restaurant here in town which, not too many weeks earlier, had celebrated its centennial birthday. Now that we have successfully navigated the rough waters of end-of-year recitals, we are trying to complete schoolwork. My daughter has also completed a first round of ice skating lessons which went very well. And lest we think we might get a break, ballet and ice skating lessons continue through the summer. Such is the life of a mother. I have become Mom's Taxi Service, but what a pleasure it is to be able to take them places that bring them such joy. I am fortunate to be able to take my computer with me, so that I can do a little work while taxiing.

It's time for summer articles, and I have some intriguing ideas percolating. Be sure to check back in a couple of weeks to see what you may find. Until then, I wish you a few of those late spring days with cool breezes and sunshine ...and a yard full of beautiful blooms to enjoy!

This has been such a crazy month for me that I have not been able to get here even to update my blog. Hopefully, you have enjoyed perusing the articles and haven't missed the blogging. Easter was glorious here, but a bit cold I must say. After days and days of 80+ degree weather, we plunged back down into the 30s for a while. This set me to spinning about trying to cover all the fresh new plants I had just put into the ground. Thankfully, most all of them weathered the couple of sub-freezing nights we had and are still looking quite good.

On the home front, my children are keeping me busy, busy, busy. The two older ones (boys) are really into their golfing these days, as well as being serious piano students. My younger one (girl) is consumed with ballet and ice skating lessons. All are busily preparing for upcoming recitals (why are they all on the same day?) Which leaves me being "mom's taxi service" much of the time. My daughter just turned 10, so I officially have no babies in the house. As one of her birthday cards so aptly put it, "single digits are so last year." The perils of motherhood...

On a lighter note, I made scones for the very first time yesterday and I served them with lemon curd and Devonshire clotted cream. Yummmmmm! The perfect accompaniment to them was the vanilla nut cream flavored coffee. What a treat for just a run-of-the-mill Saturday morning. I must admit, I felt very English!

Wishing you a thankful and well-spent day...

"For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come..." So says the lovely verse found in the Song of Solomon. I am seeing all evidence that the winter is gone, and the fact that the time of singing is here is manifested in the birds outside my windows. What more could I ask for than the glories of spring for inspiration in doing my spring articles. I have spent the past week planning, digging, planting, mulching, watering and generally wearing myself out in my yard. And I must say that it has been a great week for it with sunshine every day and temperatures bordering on tropical. I am also seeing the evidence that work done last year in planting bulbs actually paid off, for there are tiny shoots of green in various spots around my yard.

My lovely Lady Banks rose, planted in spring of 2006 (pictured right), is about to burst into cascading buttery yellow color (below). All of this is evidence that after the dormancy of winter, life does indeed renew itself year after year. The seasons are dependable, they are orderly and are not random. They shout of the fact that there must be a Creator; there must be a Grand Design. I am thankful for the rejuvenation that comes along with the changing seasons. May you, too, be refreshed and renewed as spring manifests itself in your world.

One thing you never really realize until the website is published is how many changes will need to be made and how quickly they will need to be made. Such has been life over the past two weeks. I discovered right off the bat that I had coding errors on most all my pages. While trying to not be too discouraged, it was rather a challenge to work out all those kinks. I am very thankful for the many web developer help sites available on the internet, as I have really needed them. I am particularly thankful for www.webdeveloper.com's forum for Dreamweaver developers. The host of that forum was particularly helpful to me. I have learned so much, and I have made change after change after change after change. Hopefully these changes have added to the ease of navigation on the site, as well as the sheer appaearance of it. Anyway, this will always be a work in progress, so I am getting quite used to it. Wonderfully enough, it will soon be time to write the spring articles...and a zillion more changes will begin. I can hardly wait! :-)