It's Spring!

It's finally reliably warm enough that we have to open the windows, and that means that the sounds of spring can be heard all day and into the evening.  The first birds start their chirping about 5:30 a.m, followed by the noise of the newspaper landing on the sidewalks, and bikes whirling down our street.  Spring is not a time for sleeping late; too much noise from outside and too many things to do.   We're our own gardeners, so you know we're busy weeding, pruning, mowing, and planting.  It's okay since these activities will slow to a grind in the next month or so as the summer heat sets in.  Spring is the time for all this garden busyness, and we like the results.  

Spring is also busy because it brings many celebrations like Mother's Day and birthdays.  For Mother's Day I wanted Ben to take a photo of me and Paul together.  Paul was cooperative, Ben was a good photographer, and the only problem was choosing among the several excellent shots.  What do you think?     

The actual celebration was at one of Dawn and my favorite restaurants, Oak at Fourteenth Street.  We left the kids at home and just enjoyed being with the men who made us mothers.  

Of course I thought of my own mother on Mother's Day.  Among other things, I think she'd be tickled with how plush our lawn is!  My Mom was a great grass grower.

 I gave myself two gifts for the big day.  The first was a 4-week Saturday morning class called "Very Beginning Watercolor.  I was especially attracted to the word very.   All I really know about painting is that I like the feel of a brush in my hands.  And that I need to learn a lot more about how to shade things in art.  The very first class we worked on exactly that.  I thought my shading on these pears was okay, but check out the little shadow at the bottom right side.  They all need work, though the green is the best, I think. 

The second was a new outdoor chair that would be perfect for reading and snoozing on the patio.  I'm sitting in it right now as dusk begins to fall, swiveling and rocking not only the chair but the hammock back and forth in the most soothing way.  It took me a while to find it, but I'm very happy that I did.    

Yesterday Ben took me for a hike up to the part of Amphitheater Rock that's used for rock climbing.  A couple of weekends ago he had volunteered a day of his time to improve the trail that rock climbers use to get up and down to the part of the cliffs where they climb, and he wanted to show me where he had been working.  Do you see the washed out gully on the right of this photo?  That's the old trail.  Ben, on the left is on the new, improved trail.

Ben helped move the rocks and gravel that were used to make these nifty stairs. 

Takes a strong person to do all that hauling!  Way to go, Ben!

We have a beautiful week in store for us, followed by falling temps and showers through the weekend and then down to the 60's again for next week.  Still, we all agree that spring is here for good now.