Floral on Friday

Would anyone like to cook supper for me? I have two chicken breasts thawed and a hundred things in the fridge and cupboards to go with them. It's Friday and I have never felt like cooking on a Friday evening. I would much rather have a couple of beers and wind down from the work week. I'm doing that now and have no desire to cook but am hungry. Oh well, I'll get to it in a second!

It has been a beautiful week to be commuting. The apple blossoms and some of the cherries are in bloom across the land while hedgerows and edges of fields are at their most beautiful. My house is filled with bouquets of apple blossoms and lilacs and I am picking bouquets of both in a few minutes (before getting dinner) to carry to some friends tomorrow. How beautiful this season is!

We received much needed rain but not a lot of it. I can finally plant seeds but only if the wind slows down. We've had an awful lot of wind this spring but it's not that unusual here, really. Seed will blow away if their cover of soil won't stay on. I would go now but I have to cut flowers and make dinner. I'd better get away from here.

Music, sweet sweet music: It Might As Well Be Spring by Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini
Romek Ouchowski - Come On In My Kitchen -Please

Asking For Rain?

We have nice weather for this long holiday weekend and I am enjoying it to the fullest. I wore myself out gardening on Tuesday, doing house cleaning on Thursday and yesterday on my day off, I did a bit of both but mostly took it easy and enjoyed the beautiful day.

I have to work today so missed an impromptu family reunion at my Dad's in a neighbouring province. All of Dad's grandchildren except for my oldest son got together yesterday for a barbecue. One of my daughter 's greatest skills is getting people together and she pulled this off in less than a week. If I'd had more time I could have asked someone to work for me later today but it did not seem fair to do that at the last minute on a holiday weekend. I got several phone calls during and after the event and they all said they missed me.

I've not planted seeds in my garden yet as we have had no rain and lots of wind. The seeds would blow away in these conditions. Having an early spring did not translate to an early garden. I do have lettuces coming up from last year's crop so that will bode well for early salads. My asparagus is not as productive as usual but I think that is due to the dryness. I am still getting 6 to 8 spears a day and I am the only one in the house eating it so it is adequate. My nephew was just here and said he doesn't leave the watering up to God and planted his yesterday.

I don't have much to report except for the wonderful weather so I will get to the music. Gardening and rain are covered today. Freedy Johnston has a lovely song called Evie's Garden and Fred Neil has a song that is my wish for this coming week, A Little Bit of Rain.

Magic Moments

There are so many beautiful spring landscapes to gaze upon on my drives to and from work that it is difficult to choose one to show you. I will limit it to a couple but please go to An Island Walk to see what I saw (gazed upon) on the way home from work tonight. It was an incredible experience. I got to share it too though I was alone. A man who was passing the other way pulled around in his van and parked on the side of the road behind me.

We saw the eagle at the same moment. A young raccoon was lying dead in the middle of my lane and an eagle and a crow were scavenging. They flew up from the road and into a hay field on my left. I got my camera, got a few shots, looked around and saw another male eagle sitting in a planted field to my right. I got a few shots of him before he flew in front of me to sit with the other fellow across the road. All the while crows were dive-bombing the eagles in their usual way.

Just as one eagle flew up to a spruce tree in the field, a female landed beside the remaining one. I got a few more photos then both birds left the ground, the male flying to the same branch as the other male and the female landing in another tree nearby.

I spoke with the driver of the other vehicle. He too had a big grin of amazement at what he had seen. It was a pretty cool experience. Twenty minutes earlier had been rush hour at that section of road. I was a bit later than usual as I had attended a wake after work. This was merely a case of being in the right place at the right time.


For music I've chosen something with a title that describes how I felt. Passing Stranger by Scott Matthews tells of the situation. The being in the right place at the right time aspect; sharing it with the stranger who was going the other way and most of all coming upon three bald eagles in the first place. Keep on Looking by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings is advice I'd give anyone on their commute. It's what I normally do when driving and today it paid off. As I've said many times here, It's a Wonderful Life which I bring courtesy of The Felice Brothers.

Hey, Mom, Here's Some Flowers

This photo is to show a mishap that I had today. I took 85 shots in my garden and it turned out I had my camera set from last night when I was taking photos of a sunset. The shots of the garden are very dark and unsalvageable if you don't have the software or skills for post processing. I don't. I will try to add some light from Picasa but they are probably toast. That's okay but the light is not at all nice outside now, two hours later.

I am feeling very tired. It's my day off and I have a case of low energy which is not like me. I've done a ton of chores, have a great supper in the works and am writing in a blog but without the pep I am usually blessed (or cursed) with.

I made a plan to sleep in today because I was tired after a hectic week. I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:03 and reminded myself that I had decided to sleep in so slept for another hour. I woke up groggy. I think if I had gotten up at 6:03 I would be fine now. I have learned this lesson before but tend to learn the hard way.

Mother's Day is weighing heavily on me. It has been twelve years since I lost my mom and Mother's Day has been the hardest day of the year ever since. Her birthday is soon as well, so I always have kind of sad thoughts of her in May. It is getting easier though as I worked hard to stop making it a terrible day for my kids. They used to sit helplessly by as I cried inconsolably all day. I'm past that thankfully, but my heart is still heavy.

This mood is bringing the music today as I think of my mother who is gone too soon. She died at aged sixty from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This is the music of my mood. Beth Nielsen Chapman covers the old, Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child and Gillian Welsh's song, Orphan Girl, by Crooked Still. Tomorrow I will celebrate her instead of thinking of the unfairness of this terrible disease. I think I will make her a card.

Soon, I'll Relax

Ive only a short time for a post so will put my day in point form in as brief a way as possible.

• Did the whole coffee/blogroll/breakfast thing.
• Very remorsefully called someone to apologize for forgetting about a date we'd made for me to help her.
• Made plans to fulfill my obligation to this person for one o'clock.
  
• Did a pile of cleaning work.
• Did a bunch of landscaping/beach tending, whatever you want to call it.
  
• Picked a whole bunch of daffodils making bouquets for a number of people. One, of course, for the person I forgot.
• 
• Picked a big bunch of dandelions for me though I may use a couple of those daffodils for the bathroom bunch that has wilted.
  
• Realized that my painting group meets for a whole day tomorrow. They loved the soup I made the last time we had an all-day session so they'd asked me to bring soup again.
  
• Popped a large, frozen roast of beef into the oven to make a large pot roast.
• Returned three phone calls all the while,
  
• Continuing that day-off cleaning thing. (It's not really a day off as I have to work this evening but I don't work in the daytime so it kind of feels like a day off)
• Made coleslaw
• Paid some bills
  
• Prepared some of the things to make soup which I will do later as,
• I have to work tonight

I left early to make my obligation because I was going to a beautiful area. I wanted to stop for some photos which I did. I will do the same when I leave for painting in the morning. I'm really busy and have not been out photographing or walking. I'm missing the forest. I've not seen or smelled a Mayflower this year and fear I'm too late. I know where to get them but it's too long a walk. Busy as a bee, I am.

I'm picking totally random music - with eyes closed. I'll pick the most appropriate song in the screen that goes with the post:

• Bruce Springsteen and James Brown - In the Midnight Hour
• Dan Auerbach - When The Night Comes
  

This is what I have to do after work before I fall into bed tonight. I'm an early bird and like to go to bed early too (around ten) but I won't be tonight.

• eat my dinner
• drive to work
  
• work three hours
• drive home from work
  
• make soup
• get painting supplies ready for tomorrow
• deal with the soup