They're Baaaccck!

The hummingbirds, that is! :D (They arrived "home" last Sunday! I was so excited to see them!) This little fella was just hilarious! He would perch there are on the crook for the longest time, and chase off any other hummingbird that dared to come near. There's a feeder hanging on the crook that you can't see in the picture. He's done this on and off every day this week. Just too cute. :D

It's been raining a slow, steady rain all afternoon. The best kind of rain. The forecast was for strong storms but we've been blessed with a good, soaking rain. :) And since it's been raining, I've been inside. I have done NO sewing, none, nada! Some day I'll get back to that. :( I put the pieced borders on a tablerunner, oh, I don't know, what? a week ago, maybe?, and realized that I put one on wrong so I just quit and haven't been back in the sewing room since. :P Instead, I've spent every minute, from the time I've rolled out of bed :D until time to get back in the bed! outside. I haven't planted the first veggie seed this spring, and I can't decide if it's too late to fool with it or not. Every Spring I have visions of this huge veggie garden with abundant produce all summer long, and enough to can for the Winter, too, ROFL but I haven't managed to actually get that dream to come true yet. :) I won't be satisfied, tho, until I put at least a few seeds in the ground, even if it's just a couple of squash, tomatoe, and cucumber seeds. :)

We have a storage building that I had been wanting moved closer to the house, and that was finally accomplished, so I've been playing in it, moving in flower pots and dirt and tools and all those fun, outside things that I had piled up on the back porch. I must say, the porch really looks much better without all of my clutter on it, and Randy is soooo happy to have it cleared off. LOL

Thanks to all of you who shared your friendship, concern and hugs with me over the tragedy at VA Tech. I still reel from the shock of it, and I know that the town and school will never be quite the same, but hopefully will become even better and stronger over time.

In Shock

On Monday a friend called. Randy answered the phone and came to find me, saying we need to turn the TV on. There's something going on in Blacksburg. I sat here in stunned disbelief as I watched the horrific scene taking place in my hometown. As someone else put it, I can't stand to watch it on TV and yet I can't stand NOT to. I'm just heartbroken for everyone involved.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a lovely Easter, and that the Easter Bunny stopped by your house. :D

Brrrr Somebody Build a Fire!

Man, these 20 and 30 deg temps are hard on a body after having such unseasonably warm days for the last 3 weeks!! It's an absolutely GORGEOUS morning but cold! So we do have a fire going in the woodstove, and I would imagine we WILL have one for the next several days. Thank goodness we decided to get this stove; the wood heat just cannot be beat when you need something to snuggle up to. LOL

Here's a picture of my birdbath that I treated myself to with my birthday money from Lilie (one of my seesters *g*). Isn't it just the cat's meow??? I LOVE it!! I just have to remember to dump the water out of it tonight so it won't freeze and crack over the next few nights. There goes the Weatherbug buzzing to tell me there's a freeze warning for tonight. :) And our apple tree has been beautiful. Den (one of my brothers) told me last night that his cherry tree has been loaded with beautiful blooms, and now there's a freeze on the way and it will most likely get frostbitten. Such a shame...I would imagine that there are a lot of people that will be either out covering plants with blankets and rugs or will suffer losses.

We had the most ferocious storm night before last that we've had here yet. And I thought I had gone through several that were really bad. They always come right at bedtime too which makes it even worse. But we are the fortunate ones, so far we really haven't sustained any damage. I know there were lots of people that did suffer a lot of damage from this storm.

I plan on working on 'belated' (yes, I'm getting worse and worse about getting cards in the mail on time :( ) birthday greetings today, and I'm going to FINALLY work on the second block of the Whig Rose today. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it...well, after I make us an almond pound cake, of course :D, which I'm going to do right now. Oh, and I'm going to make a loaf of homemade bread to go with the stew that I cooked yesterday. THEN I'm settling in by the stove and sewing some.

A Gorgeous Sunset,

Homer Kitty on top of Sug's van , and Tree Swallows billing (kissing ;0)

Happy Birthday to 3 Seesters, One Brother and One Niece

My Mom got carried away when it came to April babies...so I'm sending a very special happy birthday greeting to Nita, Den, Flan, Glorie and Sug!! Hope this is the most wonderful birthday for each of you! :D

I just have to share a couple of outside pictures. The first one is of a pair of eagles that were on our lake bank Sunday a.m. Absolutely awesome!!! The next one is a pair of swallows. I thought it was the one of them 'kissing', which they actually do, and it's called 'billing'. Alas, I chose the wrong one...they are so small in photo file that I often can't tell if I have chose "THE ONE" from the group. :( I'll find it tho and put it up later. I also bought a birdbath as my birthday gift from my seester, Lilie, since she told me NOT to buy any more fabric or thread with my gift from her. LOL So I bought a birdbath! :D I'll post a pic of it later too. :)

Sug, the next picture is of the swallow flying from the nesting box. Fifth Avenue is officially rented! :D All rental properties have been snapped up now. :) I think we have our first batch of baby bluebirds already in one of them. :D

I'm headed back outside...all of the pictures enlarge if you click on them. :)