Spring Fever ALREADY!

Oh my I can't believe that I am tired of winter already! I honestly shouldn't be since I usually feel that "cabin fever" in January and February every year. Here in Michigan we have been hit almost daily with accumulations of ice and snow and the temperature has been pretty wicked. Always single digits during the day and below zero at night. The other day we actually had a temperature in the 20's and it seemed like a heat wave :-)

I make sure I'm outside in the back yard many times during the day playing with the dogs. That really helps to enjoy what nature has blessed us with. It's beautiful and sparkley and just down right pretty as long as you aren't shoveling or driving in it.

I am definately waiting patiently for Spring and Summer when my gardens show off all their colors. These are a few pics of flowers that I have been looking at to get me out of my slump. I thought a nice bright pic or two would be appreciated by you too!

ENJOY

Ahhh my Stargazer Lilies! (sniff) I can still smell their beautiful fragrance. I am definately looking forward to these beautifes growing again this year! I was given this plant when I retired from my job. This is quite the perennial gift that keeps on giving Awesome plant!

The Phlox grows in my moonlight garden area. I have only white plants there with a pretty white and copper bird feeder.

I also have large amounts of sunflowers germinate yearly..... NONE of which I plant! The birds always drop large quantities of the seeds from the feeders when flying over the back garden. We had a lovely display last summer and the summer before. I even did a scrapbook layout a couple years ago about them. It's funny to see how my style of scrapbooking has changed only in 2 years. I'm now so into the embellisments I can't figure out when to stop adding them LOL! This LO seems so basic and plain now.

TFL

Darlene

A Full Weekend

My husband and I decided to make a one day trip to our house in the upper part of lower Michigan. We feed the deer up there and it was about time to make another trip with goodies to eat. This past fall we had delivered a few loads of sugar beets so now it is time for some yummy 3rd cut alfalfa hay.


We woke up early this past Saturday morning, packed some water for the dogs, and headed to the feed store to load up on hay. My husband and the man at the store managed to jam 19 bales of hay in the bed of our truck. Unbelievable how much that bed holds!



There was a snowfall predicted for our area which is the opposite of what we are used to when we travel upnorth. We usually leave our home here and hit a bit storm on the way up there but not this time.



There is alot of snow upnorth. They started getting hit with storms on Nov. 15th and it really hasn't melted in between much. We had at least 2 feet in our driveway so we knew we weren't even trying to pull in there .... 4 wheel drive or not. We didn't want to take the time to plow it out first since we weren't staying the weekend.





My husband Tom decided he would make ump-teen trips in 2 feet of soft snow and carry hay bales. I felt so bad for him because I couldn't help. They are just too heavy for me. I had suggested bringing a tarp so we could drag a few at a time but he insisted on carrying them himself and have me rest. What a nice guy he is :-) Once Tom made a few trips with some hay he had packed the snow down so it felt like 1 foot he said instead of two!




Sadie had decided to take it easy on this trip and relax LOL! She is usually running around like a crazy girl but I guess she was tired this time.


It didn't take long before she got nice and warm in her blanket and took a snooze.
I think these eyelids are getting a bit heavy....







Gretchen, on the other hand, was having a blast in the snow and a big help to Tom....NOT!



She loved climbing up the mountain of snow to watch Tom and wait for his return.


Tom got all the hay set up at the back of our fenced yard and we were ready to go when my cousing Mel stopped by to say HI. He invited us down the road to his house for a drink or two. We decided to take a break before heading back home. We sat and talked, had a few drinks and talked some more. Three hours later (and dark now) we started our trek back home. We knew there was a winter storm hitting our area at home but we honestly weren't sure how much was accumulating. We definately found out as we got closer south. The expressway finally became totally snowcovered and slippery. You couldn't see any lanes and there were vehicles and emergency vehicles off the road and all over the sides of the road. It was a long trip home but we made it! Tired and hungry we unpacked and crashed for the night.


On Sunday we chilled most of the day. Tom said he actually was feeling his age after carrying all that weight and I was achy from doggie day care responsibilities on the trip. I did alot of walking with the dogs and playing and then of course they think they are lap sized dogs (even though they aren't )so my hips were feeling the extra weight. Of course we had to shovel our driveway and decks here Sunday morning. Whew....lots of work this weekend.



All is normal today but more snow is predicted soon and some really bone-chilling temps coming up in a couple of days.

Keep warm everyone!
Darlene

The "girls" and their 1st snow

Here in Michigan you never know what the weather will be! We woke up the other day and had at least 1" of packable snow on the ground. The dogs just loved it. We have a 4 year old Brittany named Sadie and a 5 month old German Shorthaired Pointer puppy named Gretchen.I couldn't get them to come in the house. They played for hours chasing their "jug". They have the cutest toys but choose to play with an old plastic jug! Who would have guessed ;-o.

Scrapbook Room Update:

I've really been working hard on my scrapbook room this week. It took about 3 hours to completely clean out the closet. It was a craft room for many years after my son moved his bedroom to the downstairs bedroom. I kept collecting more and more craft goodies and that's BEFORE scrapbooking became so popular. I have drawn a diagram of what I have in my mind for closet organizing and then also a diagram for shelving units for the wall area in the room over my work top. I will be painting soon and I can't wait to see this room finally become an organized pretty space that I want to go into and be creative. I'll post pics every once in a while so you can see how it develops. I'm always multi-tasking so this room will probably take me a couple months with holidays coming up. A little work here and there will always get me to the goal eventually.

Have a great week!