I am Deluded..it is Spring, right?

Well, as much as I love beautiful, fluffy, flaky, crystalline, icy snow, I think it really stinks when it's supposed to be Spring around here. Its timing is waaaay off. We need daffodils and tulips and magnolias and nest building sparrows twittering amid the buds on our maple tree. I need to wash clothes and hang them on our clothes line. My daughter needs to be able to transplant her flower seedlings outside.

My husband loves to initiate projects with the kids. He and my son are going to build an 8 ft. trebuchet and launch things with it in the Summer. (No, I'm not concerned, why do you ask?) Any way, he thought he could help my daughter plant up some flower seeds and we'd see what happens with them. It is her job to water them and see how they're progressing. She's doing a great job of it.

My husband set up a long table in the living room, displacing our other furniture--because this is more important, that's why--in front of the windows where the seedlings will get some needed light. And, there they're growing beautifully in the egg cartons we saved from the farmers, and the plastic trays our friend Neo-agrarian lent us (and thanks for the seeds too!).

Let's look at these hopeful, bright, tender shoots leaning hard into the light. Grow little ones, grow!

Look how earnest and innocent they are:



This one still has the seed attached...



Look at this beautiful leaf growing into form.


And here, past this micro grove of seedlings, on the other side of those windows, you can see snow piled up on the bushes outside.


It's in the crooks of trees where mighty branches join up with thick trunks.


It's on the buds that are setting out their maple propeller seeds that will litter our lawn in a few weeks time.


And, the snow is on my clothes line.

Springtime in the Chicago area is a fickle thing and always has been. How I am lulled and seduced by the first hints of it every year is amazing to me. Why, why, why do I never expect any more snow after we've had our first freakishly warm day of the 70's way back in March? Why? How do I not learn from my mistakes of the past?

It will ALWAYS snow again. Always. I must remember that and never forget it again.

Winter's Last Hurrah...Maybe

We got a good couple of inches of snow a couple of days ago, so we could take the kids sledding yesterday. They love to go sledding. They get completely bundled up and don't mind the cold. I used to hate to take them sledding or any outside activity in the Winter time when they were little kids. It took an impossibly long time to get them bundled up, the layers upon layers, and then they would be too cold after a couple of minutes. I joked that it took a half hour to get them properly dressed and then we would only go outside for 5 minutes, but I don't think I was really that far from the truth.

Look how much fun they had sledding:

Too pooped to pull.


Man down.


Race ya...

The place we go sledding has a giant resevoir that fills with flood water in the Spring and Summer and makes a great sledding crater in the Winter. It is right next to a parking lot in a big park. The parking lot gets plowed and the snow gradually builds up through the winter into a giant mountain. The kids were done with the sledding and then went over to the mountain to explore.







They loved it up there. And then they saw me down below in the parking lot taking pictures of them. They started to throw snow balls at me. "OK. But, just don't hit me!", I naively yelled up to them. They thought that was hilarious. "Really, you guys. Don't hit me, because that will probably hurt...I mean it!!"

She missed.

Oops. "Sorry, Mom! Are you OK?" My son nailed me, and then we went home.
Aaah. Happy Winter memories. Good times. ( I was OK.)

The Melt

Here you see the melt. So, that means that my husband has finally started riding his bike to work again. It has just been too cold, and while my husband usually still rides even during the winter, the arctic weather we've been having has been too much even for him.

You know what I did yesterday...I didn't buy anything new!! Still!!!

I just thought I'd throw that out there in keeping with the original purpose of this blog. We're still not buying it.

Orchids at Xcaret

We walked on a path through the jungle vegetation on the way to an orchid greenhouse. I was struck by the beauty along the path.










I'm sure you can grow these anywhere in the world, if you get the conditions right. You don't have to go all the way to a greenhouse at a Mexican eco-park. Still, I was overcome by these orchids' beauty while I was there.














Today, here in Very-Republican-Town, Illinois, it is hovering around zero degrees with a wind chill of negative 14. And, in the summer it will be in the 90s with 80% humidity or even higher. We'll get ours in a few months from now--but, the wait is very long.

A Morning in Mexico

This is a typical sunrise on the Caribbean in Mexico. Please take note of the billowy clouds. Also, notice the sun rays streaming down from behind the cloud. You may also wish to note the warm water lapping the shore wave after soft wave.

This is a typical closed bloom that you may find in a cluster of flowering plants, or shrubs or individual flowers scattered here and there. Note the unphotoshopped, natural, original color.

Now notice what a little time will do for a flower. This is an open blossom expecting some interested bee to come along soon...It's almost indecent, isn't it, the way it is calling out for attention?!

Good morning fellow citizens who live in cold areas as I do! Living where we do, we can all appreciate how brisk it is. We can appreciate the change of seasons...whenever that might happen a couple of distant months from now.

Come on! It's not that bad. It could be in the single digits with wind chill.

Oh...

It is About 12 Degrees Here...

It is cold, very, very cold here. If you lived in the Yucatan Peninsula or other climes south of the U.S. border, you would not feel the bitter cold. No. You would feel warm tropical breezes and see blue skies filled with billowy white clouds. Sure, occasionally, there would be a rain shower, but it would pass and then all would be beautiful again. The air would always be soft....except in hurricane season. That's only a couple of months to worry about though.

And since it's the tropics, there would be tropical flowers all over the place which you would soon come to regard as easily as geraniums in a suburban garden in the north. You might even become complascent and jaded. Maybe your eye would no longer catch the brilliance of it all. Hopefully not. Hopefully you would still see the wonder of it all. Hopefully, you would still be moved.

As a visitor, at certain points, I was almost breathless every day. It was beautiful and if I ever lived there, I don't think that I would become jaded. We don't have geraniums that look like this here in Very-Republican-Town, Illinois...



It is 12 degrees here and there is no sign of it warming any time soon. Let's look at the flower and pretend that it is warmer than it is. Maybe that can sustain us for a couple more months...

Hola Mis Amigos y Amigas!!!

Hola!

We are so glad to be home--we were very worried about our 23 year old cat, Daisy. We all were dreading getting a phone call that something bad had happened to her and we felt guilty for leaving her knowing that it would stress her out...but, she's fine! Hurray! Thanks Unnamed and M. for taking such good care of her while we were gone.

We did not miss the snow and record breaking cold here while we were down in warm Mexico. We don't mind coming back to it, but it was nice to take a break from it.

I've never traveled somewhere warm during the winter. I've just remained cold for 3 months and then felt heartened when the change of season has come. I like the different seasons, but I've discovered on this trip that I love the tropics too. It was soooo beautiful in Mexico. We saw plants of all sorts. Here are just a few:

Palms of all sorts...



Mass groupings of these purple/fuschia leaved plants
the leaves were purpley/pink!!



On the way to the beach, we saw an iguana lazily dozing and resting on a tree right next to the boardwalk.


It was grey for several days. We only had a couple of clear, sunny days, but the water was warm and inviting always.





And, there were flowers everywhere...

Amazing to go away to such a beautiful, warm, interesting place and then in a few hours come back to this.



Hello suburban squirrel footprints on our front step! Good thing I like all of the seasons.