Springy Winners

Merri sent this awesome photo, which is truly indicative of spring.
And Lynda sent this one, among others, to show spring has sprung in Charleston. She captioned her photo thusly: "hearty confederate jasmine that lounges in my back yard."


Another lovely shot from Merri's trip to Austin, TX.


And some sweet violets from Laura


Here's another indication that winter is behind us: DAIRY QUEEN!


In other news...
Lenore's platelets were not cooperating, so the long weekend was surgery-free, which meant plenty of time to bike ride, garden, and Merri came out Sunday to go kayaking with me. We also participated in the Memorial Day parade with flag festooned Minis, and we celebrated Lenore's birthday. Here's me waiting for the tide and ordering a pizza while kayaking.


Here we are in action.



Here's me afterwards.


Merri thought this was funny. I thought this was funnier:



Saturday we recorded our friend Herb singing his infamous banana song at the Farmer's Market.

New (Old) Swing!

We call it vintage...


Lenore spotted this swing at a garage sale in our neighborhood. When she first saw it, the price was $75. The next day they dropped the price to $25, so we sweet talked a very nice guy with a pickup who was there buying a pinball machine into taking it over to my house. Score! He and the now swingless seller even carried it into the back yard and set it back up.

Contest Inspiration

I've got new potholder loops and time in the waiting room to fill, so send me your photos -- see contest guidelines below...



Lenore took this one -- the ants are hard at work getting the peonies prepped for blooming. Last year we had to import ants, but it didn't work. This year's crew seems much more industrious.

Here are some irises in my yard and flowers around the neighborhood. Does anyone know what the pink star flowers are?

New Contest!

Send me a photo of new growth that exemplifies SPRING in your neck of the woods. If you don't have a garden per se, just give us a glimpse of flora that makes you smile, even if it's a balcony begonia, a pansy on the pier or um...a lilac on the lanai. I'll post your pics, and first one in wins. If there's a tie, we'll flip a coin or let Hoops decide. I'll try to post a picture of the potholder prize this weekend.

A New Basket for Potholder Loops!

My mom gave me this lovely basket to keep my potholder loops in -- it's much nicer than having them scattered randomly around the chair. Hoops likes it too. She quickly deposited her orange scrunchy into the basket for safe keeping.



Later, she re discovered it as if it were a long lost friend. Sometimes I suppose there are advantages to having virtually no attention span.

Also pictured here is the adorable cell phone sleeping bag that Laurie knitted for me. It's my prize for winning her movie title contest.



Speaking of contests...

(coming soon!)

Fungus Among Us

Merri and I went mushroom hunting last weekend, but only found one sad little morel that had seen better days; the prior weekend, I found quite a few more, and they were SO delicious! Lenore tried not to gag as I was cooking them -- not a big fan of mushrooms, that Lenore. We found lots of other mushroom growth, but opted not to sample. Here's just one example of some we did not eat.



After fungus hunting, we decided to check out the native wildflowers in one of my favorite little pockets of wonder, Trout Park Nature Preserve. I promised I'd post this picture of me trying to capture the blooming May Apples.



I was moderately successful. The May Apple colonies at Trout Park are hundreds of years old. I look forward to wandering through this place every spring.






Here are a couple more natives: Jack in the pulpit and red trillium.


I liked the way these were all lined up.

I Want to Talk About Fungus, But First...This!

Odie's new bike! It's a Victory Hammer, and even though my new bike gets better gas mileage, this is indeed a SWEET RIDE! See more images here. In case you're wondering, the color is called "Solid Nuclear Sunset." Ooo la la! Somebody's going to need a new potholder cuz he's gonna be such HOT STUFF on two wheels. And I am totally telling mom!

Grape Hyacinth

These were inspired by this year's grape hyacinth crop...which, sadly, is already fading. Hence the need for purple and blue sky potholders. Lilly of the valley is now creeping across my back yard garden along with the ever-invading creeping Charlie, which I am not trying to stop because it smells so good when I mow and it's more interesting to me than grass (which doesn't grow very well under the maple tree anyhoo.)


And you never know when you might need to clarify some beer! From About.com: Creeping Charlie "...was one of the principal plants used by the early Saxons to clarify their beers, before hops had been introduced, the leaves being steeped in the hot liquor. Hence the names it has also borne; Alehoof and Tunhoof. It not only improved the flavour and keeping qualities of the beer, but rendered it clearer." Great on info, not so great on the grammar, that About.com. If that weren't enough, botanical.com reported the creeping stuff as being "diuretic, astringent, tonic and gently stimulant. Useful in kidney diseases and for indigestion." No wonder my squirrels are so robust!



Here's another glamor shot of my new bike...


I'm slowly getting it pimped out -- still need to add a computer, toe clips and perhaps a canopy with a fringe.

Shocks...Pegs...Lucky!

Behold my new bike!! It's posed in the very location where, moments later, my dad would catch a delicious bass (really!). I won't be taking it off any sweet jumps, but we spent the weekend riding up and down the increasingly bumpy bike trail. Though it's quite a bit heavier than my sleek road bike, it's a lot more comfortable, so I think in the long run, I'll probably ride it a lot more. That brings me up to 5 bikes, so I might need to have a sale. For those of you who would enjoy reliving the Napoleon Dynamite references via "lego vision," see below. :)



Here's the real scene -- the lego version is pretty true to form except for the weird explosion at the end. What's up with THAT?



In other news, I threw caution to the wind and planted some tomatoes, even though it could technically still frost. I held back on the flowers only because the creeping charlie or whatever it's called has taken over the rock garden, and I ran out of time. I'll have to garden in short blocks of time because I can't kneel on my knee yet, and the bending over like a linebacker thing has seriously pissed off my hamstrings.

Schließlich!

Ich nahm meine abschließende Prüfung heute auf Deutsch. I think it went OK -- Lenore helped me a lot with vocabulary drills. The whole class was disappointing though, because the teacher spoke English 99% of the time, and we very rarely actually practiced speaking German in class. Kind of stupid. I'll probably sign up for 3rd semester though, because it's still better than doing nothing I suppose. Here are Lenore's favorite vocabulary words (which means I won't forget them!)

Glucklich (imagine a little umlaut over the u)
Ausgezeichnet!
Kaputtmachen
Neugierig

Tonight we will go to Dairy Queen! And now I'll have more time to watch Netflix and make a few more potholders. I feel another contest coming on...

Future Black Belt

This has nothing to do with anything, I just thought it was hilarious. I love that at three, she has such a fine sense of indignation! Something tells me she has older brothers.