63 years young on the first day of spring

Good evening Friends ~ Hope you all had a good beginning to this week. It was beautiful down here where the tropics begin. We really appreciate these gorgeous days we are having before the summer’s heat and humidity settle in.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and 63 years ago a little baby girl was born prematurely by about a month. It is hard to believe that that baby is now a senior.  Her body knows it, but in her heart and mind she still feels much younger.

Today she was thinking about gardening, crafting, etc.  About how we as humans, always want more and more.  With all the eye candy that is out there, all the hype about what we should have, what we should wear, who we should be, it is easy to become discouraged. Wanting more is a disease.  Contentment is what I desire.

** A poet once wrote: “As a rule, man’s a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool. And when it’s cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not.” **

How much time and energy is wasted by wanting more and not being content with what we have been blessed with?

***

I got way behind with my Take A Stitch Tuesday, TAST, stitches and was feeling burdened and discouraged.  Yesterday I sat down and finished the little piece I had started with the Cretan stitch. It was a bear, then came the Herringbone and the Chevron stitch all equally bearish. I work part time, garden, craft, cook from scratch, and this was all becoming too much for me to keep up with.  I was all excited, and then got deflated.  I felt better after finishing up my piece, and now have week 11 and 12 to do next.  I really couldn’t get the hang of the Cretan, Herringbone and Chevron stiches, and it shows in the piece.  I may or may not use these stitches in my needlework projects, time will tell. The other stitches were couching, detached chain and chain, and the running stitch.

Yesterday DH went to HD and while he was out he found ‘curbside’ a couple of coffee table frames.  When I saw the one and the iron pieces that were part of it I thought of them being added to the caravan.  The colors are perfect.  There are 6 of these and DH is already working on an idea for them, which I’ll post about later.

The other day we were looking for something and I found these two candle holders packed away from when we had our little antique/collectible shop.  Don’t even know how long we’ve had them or where we got them, probably from the flea market we frequented many years ago.  One had a chipped leaf, but the chip was resting in the candle holder.  DH fixed it.  I found these online and they are English Staffordshire fine bone china, worth around $20.  They are resting in my scullery window area now. Definitely FlowerLady pieces.

Yesterday I worked outside for about three hours and it felt so good. There are so many things in bloom and filling the air with their scents right now. There are at least 4 jasmines, basket flower, roses, begonias, a bush penta called Panaman Rose, that is sweetly scented after sunset.

Below are some pictures taken in the last couple of days.  Can you see the real sweet little surprise in the picture below?  I couldn’t believe it.  The red flowers in the foreground are the firecracker plant blooms.  A real hardy and easy plant to grown. Looking through the gate you’ll see amaryllis blooms, also a reed orchid.

Basil blooms.

Cape honeysuckle and Golden dewdrop, caravan in the background.

Confederate jasmine is just starting to bloom  I look forward to this every year.

Night blooming jasmine.

Cape honeysuckle.

Spicy Jatropha.

La Marne roses

Caldwell’s Pink or Pink Pet.

Climbing Maman Cochet.

I am planning on fixing Chicken Cordon Bleu for my bday dinner.  We’ll start off with margaritas, and vegetable crackers with cream cheese and topped with anchovies and capers. For side dishes I’m not sure of yet.  For dessert, we bought Neopolitans from a bakery that makes these wonderful delights.  I’ll take pictures tomorrow.

I’m getting sleepy now, having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I’ll close this post.

Have a great week.

FlowerLady

***

“Do not spoil what you have

by desiring what you have not.”

Ann Brashares, Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood