March 31

We all went out to dinner tonight for Eileen's birthday.  (She had to work last night so we celebrated tonight.)  Dinner was at Umami on Williamson Street.  Then we went to the Tornado Lounge for pineapple upside down cake.  It was all very good, and the places much cooler than anywhere we (Rick and I) usually go.  Most importantly, Eileen had a wonderful, happy birthday time....  Mary

Tornado Lounge

March 30

Today is our younger daughter Eileen's birthday.  This 20 year old picture is one of my all time favorites of Eileen.  It's a school picture.  When we sent her off that morning I told her we'd pay her two dollars if we could see the gap in her teeth when the pictures came back.  She definitely earned the money.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!   Mary

March 29

Daffodils inside and daffodils outside.  I love this time of year....  Mary

March 28

Had a lovely day off.  We got a quote on new windows for the studio plus a new sliding glass patio door.  Not cheap, but we'll only ever have to replace them once.  Just a day or two more and the little flowering tree out front will be in bloom.  If the wind is in the right direction, it perfumes the kitchen....  Mary

March 27

A very lovely spring day after yesterday's chilly damp.  We are back to more seasonable weather, and the flowers are slowing down just a bit.  The daffodils in front are probably at their peak.  The ones that are not opened may have been zapped by the cold.  We'll have to see what comes....  Mary

March 26

It probably gets boring just like any other job, but how cool must it be to get to pick the Astronomy Photo of the Day for NASA?  That means you get to look at all the photos that don't make the cut as well.  All day just looking at amazing, cool, awesome, phenomenal stuff out there in space....  Mary

M82: Galaxy with Supergalactic Wind

March 25

Today was a perfect spring day.  Not too hot, not too windy, just lovely.  And we did go to the Arboretum to see the magnolias and rhododendron and red bud.  Next Sunday the lilacs should be out....  Mary

Even the trees with nothing on them were spectacular.

The ancient old red bud with its gnarly trunk.

Next week for the lilacs!

March 24

This afternoon I took an art class out at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point.  It was great fun with a very nice group of women.  When I walked out of the studio there were lovely tulips blooming along a rock wall, my first of the season....  Mary

March 23

The magnolias in Madison are in full bloom.  Unfortunately, I haven't had my camera with me, or it just wouldn't work to stop and take a picture.  We definitely have to visit the Arboretum on Sunday.

There was an old magnolia tree next to my grandmother's house.  As a child I can remember waiting for the flowers to burst out each spring.  Back then we went to her house every Sunday after church.  We'd eat endless amounts of sugary treats, watch Flash Gordon reruns, and in nice weather run around her huge side yard.  She had nineteen grandchildren, and sixteen of us lived in the same town.  In fact twelve of us lived right across the street from each other.

I know GG hated all the magnolia petals dropping all over her sidewalk and driveway, but I loved that tree.  Even when not in flower, it was a wonderful bent old tree....  Mary

Magnolia Tree

March 22

While looking for something completely different, I came across the image below of the Veil Nebula.  According to Google, nebulae are large (36 times the area of the moon in this case) well, nebulous clouds of cosmic gases.  Pretty amazing and entirely beautiful....  Mary

Veil Nebula

March 21

Eileen's cats had never been upstairs in our house until old Mittens was gone.  They lived downstairs, and Mittens lived upstairs.  Now it's a nice, completely finished, carpeted downstairs, but clearly they are enjoying the upgrade to the whole house.  It has only taken them a couple of days with the screen porch being open to decide it's the only place to be.  All day napping on the screen porch.  I'm definitely coming back as a house cat in my next life.  Duvy is the very definition of zenned....  Mary

Monster

 

 Duvy

March 20

My mother said that all the magnolias in Illinois are in bloom.  I haven't seen any here yet, but my route to and from work is mostly University and retail, and our neighborhood doesn't have any.  This may call for a trip to the Arboretum....  Mary

Magnolia Tree

March 19

We've gone from zero to sixty in about 24 hours.  Yesterday there were tiny buds on the trees and bushes, now there are leaves.  Apparently I planted little short daffodils down in front and big tall ones in back.  It should be spectacular in a couple of days when all the daffodils open up....  Mary

March 18

Today the daffodils were opening right before our eyes.  Patches that were just green foliage in the morning were full of yellow flower heads by noon.  It is quiet a sight, and the first day of spring isn't even until Tuesday.  At least the temperatures are supposed to cool off a bit by the end of the week. 

I planted lots more daffodil bulbs last fall, but I can't remember what kind they were.  I guess we'll all  be surprised when they open....  Mary

Daffodils

March 17

Now that it's summer even though it is still technically winter, we've started doing some serious spring cleaning.  Rick is working on the garage which is in desperate need of a thoroughly cleaning.  With the last year of illness, moving, funerals and all, anything that didn't have a place in the house (which also filled up into a large mess) went into the garage, mostly stacked on top of the last thing.  It's time to sort, file, purge and clean.  It may not be meditative, but it sure is satisfying....  Mary

A work in progress

March 16

Another record breaking day for temperatures.  Purple crocus have come up as well.  JK and I met for coffee, and we both decided to plant more crocus this fall.  You really can never have too many crocus....  Mary

March 15

According the weather folks, we're 35-40 degrees warmer than normal.  Coming out of Costco tonight, Anne and I heard the spring peepers in the ponds off the parking lot.  Sure hope winter doesn't sneak back up on all of us, especially our little amphibian friends....  Mary

Spring Peeper

March 14

Unbelievably warm today at 80 degrees, almost too hot.  But Spring is busting out all over.  The yellow crocus are just gorgeous.  The trees in front of my building at work are covered in catkins.  I even saw a tiny butterfly on the way home, actually probably a moth, but it's only March 14!

Each year I tell myself not to get all stressed and scattered and inattentive and miss the whole magical month of May.  I think I'd better start reminding myself of that a bit earlier and not miss March and April....  Mary

March 13

Even more crocus opened today, and I got home in time to see them.  We will be 78 degrees tomorrow and highs in the 70s for at least a week.  Now the question is, do we dare plant our annuals a whole month early?  Or do we use Mothers' Day as the guide like in the past?  It would be great to get a long, long growing period, but do we risk 12" of snow in late April?  It's been known to happen....  Mary