Mid Easter week ~ kind of a long post

 

Hello Friends ~ I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this Easter week. We are  being blessed with another spell of cool weather and that is really wonderful.  Of course for all of you who are getting another round of really cold weather and even more snow this is so not wonderful at all, as you are more than ready for spring.  I hope one of your Easter blessings will be warmer temps.

I have fixed lamb for Easter dinner for many, many years so bought it again this year.  I only buy this at Easter time, because it is so expensive, but there will be plenty for leftover dishes. I usually roast it but this year plan to do it in the crockpot so that while I’m at church, Easter dinner will be cooking. I cut off most of the fat, cut slits into the meat and insert garlic slivers, then rub on a good mustard, and sprinkle on chopped rosemary, then some Italian bread crumbs. Yummy!  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

I’m hoping to have a gardenia flower to enjoy for Easter, and the dancing ladies orchids are about to open. There are two long spikes with all these little spikes coming off loaded with little orchid buds.

These might even be open tomorrow.  I bought a pot of these at a yard sale last spring and these are the first blooms for me. Spiderwort blooms are in the background.

Speaking of buds, here is the first moonflower bud and I am so excited.  Planted the seeds not that long ago.  This is on the back arbor.

I think this is Confederate Rose.  I have two shrubs of this and I notice little babies in my main garden, so I need to transplant them. This was also grown from seeds.

Here is my favorite hibiscus, Hugs-n-Kisses.

This is my favorite Salvia ~ Salvia coccinea

These spread happily from self-sown seeds.

The other night as I was sitting here at my computer,

I heard and felt huge explosions and after a second or two I realized what it was.  Fireworks.  Someone has been doing this in the park near us for the past several years at this same time of year, so it must be a celebration of some kind. We always ran out to the street to watch.

Last Friday a pkg. came in the mail but I wasn’t here to sign for it so had to wait until Monday to pick it up at the PO. It was the alcohol ink markers I had ordered along with the trays to hold them.

So Monday afternoon was partially spent clearing off my work surface to make room to hold them and emptying ‘too lg.’ of little glass jars holding beads into smaller containers just made for beads.  I may get a couple more of these when I can, to take care of more beads.

The trays for ink markers did not come with a top, so I went looking for a piece of glass out in the workshop, and then looked for the glass pliers and glass cutters. The glass and pliers were easy to find, but I had to look for the cutters. I asked Jesus because he knew where they were, and I was standing in an area and could just feel them being there and started looking and YIPPEE there they were.  But lo and behold, they are old, little cutting wheels wouldn’t turn on some, and finally I found one that would scribe a line but not that great of one, took the pliers and snapped and a piece came off, but I had a couple of other pieces I had to get and finally did.  I need to get some new ones and put an oily cotton wad at the bottom that the wheel will sit in, the cotton at the bottom of these was all dried out.  I love that workshop and feel Mark in there. It was a dream come true for him and we built it to code from his plans. Before he left this planet he told me it would now be mine and to do with it what I want. What I want to do is straighten it up as I’ve added lots of stuff that was stored in part of our bedroom out there.  Plus I use tools and instead of putting them away just throw them on the work benches.  That’s not cool and workman like. And, I stumped my baby toe on a piece on the floor which hurt like heck and turned purple. It doesn’t hurt now but is still a tinge of purple.

Anyway after cutting the glass, I put tape around all for edges of the glass so as not to cut myself and laid it over the top tray.

Here you can see the colors, and I want to get a set of skin tones to add to these.

They all will be used for coloring silk ribbon and even crochet threads.

Bead containers and some of my beads.

I used one of the brown tone inks for the flower in this piece I am still working on. The flower petals stand out much better now.

Well, I guess I’ve rambled enough.

Have a wonderful Easter and think on why this holiday is celebrated for many of us.

God, as Jesus, gave His life on a cross and then resurrected again, so that we’d be free from sin and have life eternal. Faith is a gift, and the choice is ours, to believe it’s all true or not.

May God’s love and peace fill and surround each of you.

Enjoy your spring blooms, the good times and good food enjoyed with family and friends.

FlowerLady

P.S.

I almost broke down in the grocery story this past week. I was looking at Sherry, as I like to drink a little bit before dinner. Well, I saw Osborne Sherry from Jerez, Spain as a clearance. Seeing these brought back memories of our going on a Bodega tour with the USO when we lived in Spain while Mark was in the US Navy. My eyes filled and cried out to God to keep me from breaking down right there in the isle. He did and I put two bottles in my cart, for the memories. One of Fino and one of Cream.

The Navy base was in Rota. We could see the gold domed cathedral of Cadiz across the Cadiz bay from our apartment, we lived on the fifth floor. Cadiz was one of our favorite cities.  While walking those ancient stone streets and seeing all of the little shops along them, we decided that we wanted to do a lot of different things to make money and that’s what we did.  We didn’t make a fortune, but we had love and laughter and I am forever thankful.

Tears are filling my eyes now, so I will end this and tell you all to love, love, and love. You never know when you will have had your last chance to do so.