Oh, what a beautiful day!

The weather for this Environment Week has been gorgeous, with just enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes down during the day. I should be out in the garden, but I had to share a few pictures... I've always been fascinated by back lighting, especially on flowers, and how the sun shines through them...

And the light coming through the sprinkler caught my fancy, too...

There's a fair fluttering at our birdhouse these days... Mom and Dad Sparrow have a wee brood in there, and we are keeping an eye on them -- and they on us -- in a mostly peaceful co-existence (though I get scolded a lot for encroaching on their territory as I weed the garden). It's been fun to track their growth through the volume of sound that comes out of the birdhouse -- at first it was the tiniest noise, but now it's a loud chirping!

Here's Mom going in...

And checking if the coast is clear...

Even Shadow pup agrees that it's a perfect kind of day.

Have a good one yourself!

Springtime in the Rockies

This weekend, our family took a little break in the mountains. We were all really tired and in need of some down time, so we didn't even go skiing. We just got a room with a kitchenette and hung out together. We had lots of good chat time, one meal at a marvelous Greek restaurant, plenty of swimming at the hotel's indoor pool, some lovely strolls through town, a stop at a wonderful bakery, a visit to the Athabasca Icefalls



-- we've never seen a waterfall frozen before -- a log in the fireplace, some interesting TV movies and  books. It was a good, good weekend.

Saturday was cloudy and snowy, which was fine by us, because it fit with our lazy mood. The chilly wind bit our cheeks when we went out, and if I hadn't seen the cracks in the Athabasca River ice, it might have been November rather than April.

Sunday turned out to be a glorious spring sunshine day that had me singing all the mountain songs I could think of on our drive home. I couldn't help myself!



"How Great Thou Art" always comes to mind in the mountains. Especially the lines that go, "when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze." How can a soul not sing with vistas like this? Of course, I was looking up to lofty mountain grandeur when I took these shots, looking for the right angle while wearing just a light sweater. I'm happy to report that Spring is returning to the Rockies, brooks, gentle breezes and all.



Signs of spring

After a long winter that looked like this last week,

it's been hard to get motivated to think about the garden. But I did place my seed catalog order a while back, and it finally arrived yesterday, to my delight. So last night, I did this:



Soon to emerge from the soil are sixty tomato plants (hopefully) -- Romas, Oxhearts, Little Rubes, Golden Heirloom and Sweet Millions cherries, Bush Beefsteak and Golden Russian. And on the windowsill? Lemon Basil, Red Rubin Basil, Parsley, Summer Savory, and six jalapeno peppers. I can't tell you how happy these two little planters make me now, and especially when it comes to salsa time! And I have a box of flower seed packets for the front yard to dream about,  to be planted alongside last fall's 70 tulip bulbs that are waiting for the snow to melt.

At the moment, though, someone else is waiting in the front yard...

Hopefully he won't stay too much longer. Today's almost-spring sunshine ensured that I was wading through puddles on my way home from work this afternoon!

A spot of Spring

I don't know about you, but by the end of January, I like to have a few fresh growing things in my life. These pretty little narcissi often find their way onto my kitchen table this time of year. They come from Burnaby Lake Greenhouses in BC, and they make me happy. With all the grey winter skies we've been putting up with lately, they're a spot of Spring sunshine, good for the soul. Once they've died back, I cut them down and save the bulbs to be planted in the fall, often forgetting where they've been planted until they surprise me the next spring.

Today I'm also thinking about the seventy tulip bulbs I planted in October, imagining them slowly spreading their roots under over two feet of snow and four inches of soil. God did a great thing, creating spring bulbs!