Spring 2013: Day 2

The last day of winter looked like this in our garden.
The first day of spring...grey and rainy.

Second day of spring: Behold!

Someone once said:

"March I hate you; you are holding hands with Spring but married to Winter."
 

Personally, I would be really bummed if March (and April and May and June for that matter)
didn't have some snowfall.
Snow and spring flowers look so wonderful together!
Spring rain...eh, we need it but it doesn't do much for me.

Crocus in snow.
I. Love. It.

Their little white caps are cuter than cute.

Crocus play the snow!

 

I think the first time I ever saw crocus in the snow was in Edinburgh Scotland.
The multi colored blooms on white looked like sprinkles on white cake frosting.

 

OK...I got carried away with taking pictures, again.

 

 

 

The temperatures have been in the 60s here lately so the ground is still quite warm.
It is interesting to see what surfaces held the heat and melted all snow that touched it.

Cotton batting, cotton balls...

Blue skies alternated with grey skies today.

A spin around the garden after making work related calls was made for a nice break.

Tate and Frenchie joined me outside.

Frenchie is very careful of her white boots as she carefully picks her way through the snowy paths.

The little crook on her tail says she likes being outside with me.

Tate is sometimes careful and sometimes not.

The japanese maples are sure pretty in the snow.

Frenchie kept very close to me...

 

The downside of having an 80 ft. tall sequoia in our back yard:
Those brownish things are barbed bits that stick to cat fir and will prick one's finger if touched.
Messy thing it is.
Sequoias really belong together in their own space where cats don't brush into their droppings!

Tate hunked down beneath the japanese maple and watched Frenchie's every move.

At one point he was clearly considering pouncing...

I kept taking photos of the crocus.
Did you know that 10% of all photos ever taken were taken in 2012?
Wonder how many of them were of flowers?

Tate: Wonder how many of them were of cats?

 

Tate: There probably wasn't enough cat pictures taken.
I think he's right.
Doing my part to correct that oversight in 2013 at least!

(My apologies for this post to all those who are done, done, DONE with snow due to the heavy snowfalls that fell on the Northeastern part of our country.  Sadly, I  think our storm is headed your way next and it is supposed to be a Palm Sunday doozie.)

New Chapters

Every two years I find myself once again at a decision point:
What kind of glasses frames do I want on my face this time?

Over my 40+ years of glasses wearing I've had black wire frames, many shades of tortoise shell, brown with turquoise in back, brown with pink in back, black with blue in back, and most recently, deep purple with lime green in back.

Getting new glasses is like turning an internal page to a new chapters in life.
For awhile I have been feeling the urge to indulge in some really bold glasses, in either red or orange.
When it came time to choose a new pair, I finally found just the right pair to make the bold move.
The designer: Prodesign: Denmark: 
same designers as my last frames.

After I got them I realized just how much red I already had in my wardrobe.
Red down jacket, red purse, red cord jeans, red turtleneck, red flannel pjs.
The red frames went well with my every day black or grey turtlenecks and my white blouses too.
Blue, green, yellow...every color seemed to work with the red.
Could red really be a "goes with everything" color?

Red glasses seem to match my mood, whether it be sporty, glam, or just out of the hot tub grungy.

The most curious part of the whole deal was trying to find some guidance on make-up colors to wear with red glasses.
Should I go face neutral, with pale lips and blend in beige blusher?
Or go with intense red lips and ??? blusher?
I did a google search and found absolutely nothing on the subject.
Not one helpful tip anywhere!
How odd is that?
I finally asked a make-up pro; she voted for bright red lips and mauve or mocha blush.
After buying about five shades of red lipsticks I found that I liked the bright red lips with the frames.
I liked a mocha pink too...
and orange.
Fun!

So the frames are one part of the new chapter in my life.
The next three months I will be involved in a project that will be keeping me pretty busy.
It already has kept me away from blogging much as I underwent on line training the past couple of weeks.
Last week I was sent to California for five more days of training; this week I will begin doing educational assessments of Salt Lake City area second graders as part of a nation wide study that follows American children from Kindergarten to fifth grade.
The same study is done every ten years when a sampling of kindergartner's are selected.
Each spring the child is assessed on reading, math and science.
Their parents are surveyed about the child's home life.
The assessment with each child takes about two hours (and second graders are the sweetest!) while the parent's survey takes about 40 minutes.
Some of the results of the Kindergarten study year are already on line.
If you are interested, you can read about the study HERE.
I am hoping that I will have as much fun as I think I will have doing this project.
For better or for worse, the next few months may be pretty busy.
Busy is good!

3d printing is SOOO 2012.

Some of you may recall a post I did over a year ago about 3d printing.
(For those that missed it and don't want to go to the link, 3d printing is way of printing an object, like a wrench, or motorcycle, that is fully functional.
Seriously.
The link to the former post has a video that will show you that actually happening.)

It was such shocking idea at the time.
Well, saddle up for a new shock:
Technology has marched on.
Now there is 4d printing.
What does that mean?
It means the object prints up, and then assembles itself.
Oh.my.stars.

Check it out HERE.
And HERE.

Yikes!

Lava Hot Springs, 2nd visit

Doesn't this look like some European spa, perhaps somewhere in the alps?

It sure felt like it was when we were there last weekend.

It was hard to remember we were only a two hours drive from our home!

 

A few years back Bernie and I drove the two hours up to Lava Hot Springs Idaho for a Valentine's Day weekend.

This past weekend we went for another weekend.

Boy did we wonder how we could ever have stayed away for so long.

During our first visit we used an old hotel's private mineral pools; this visit we were encouraged to try the municipal pools.

Oh my goodness.

They were awesome!

There were five hot mineral pools, two with soft gravel bottoms, two with air jets, and each at a different temperature point with spring fed water flowing through them freely.

The hottest and most scenic pool was this pool.
When we arrived there was one other person soaking; he was engrossed in a book at the far end of the pool.
With the steam rising around us, for all we could see we could have been all alone.

The pool was edged with rock stairs so we could rest in water levels to suit ourselves.
Eventually we decided we needed a slightly cooler pool and shuffled off to this pool.

Of course we eventually tried all the pools.
On Saturday the snow was falling heavily with quarter sized flakes sizzling away on our water warmed skin.
We soaked for two hours in the snowfall.
I don't think I have ever been so totally relaxed and blissful in my entire life.

The next day (when I took these pictures) the skies were blue and I appreciated having the option of soaking beneath the red tarp like covers.
No worries about sunburns for me!
I commented to Bernie that as much as I had been longing for some tropical beach time, this actually was even better as I could lounge in the water without needing sunscreen and long sleeved tee shirts to fend off the sun.
Plus no messing with air travel!
We had packed and been out the door and on the road in under an hour.
The sound of the water running, the play of the water reflection on the red tarp, and the surrounding snow covered mountains just did something to me.
My brain quieted.
I relaxed.
There was no need to do anything but breath and enjoy.

A stream runs next to the pools and through the heart of little downtown Lava Hot Springs.
Downtown being about six blocks long...

We were staying in a three bedroom house that was a rental available through Graystone Manor, which is where we had our breakfast each day.
The manor proper has five luxurious bedrooms which were booked, but we got to peek inside them before the guests arrived.

With the snow falling hard, it was easy to imagine we were in some European setting.

And since the Manor was just across the street from our little house, it was a lovely little walk to breakfast each day.

This was looking down the street.
Cute little 1940's bungalows lined the street on each side.

We walked the same path under a full moon on our way to our dinner.

Our bungalow came with a state of the art kitchen.
We later learned that the owner of Graystone Manor had intended to live in the house with her family.
She loves to cook and had the kitchen remodeled to suit her cooking needs; I was more than happy to let her do all the cooking for us up at the Manor for the weekend!

The bungalow could sleep eight, but was just right for the two of us for the weekend.
When we weren't soaking, napping, or eating I was re-reading "The
Best of James Herriot", which was such a perfect books for our snowy weekend getaway.

The bed had a wool filled mattress pad.
I had heard how wonderful such a thing was and can now testify that all I had heard is true.

The little 1940's era whimsical lamps and art added to the quaint feeling of the place.

One of the upstairs bedrooms....two beds in there and across the hall was was a boy themed room.

Well, back to Greystone Manor.
Inside the entrance was a Valentines worthy welcome.

Outside the kitchen were cookies and hot drinks available all day for the guests.
At another table there were six kinds of wine, also available to the guests throughout the day.

The breakfast and dining room.

We had the table in the back corner beneath the window.

Breakfast on Saturday, with Danish Aebleskivers. 

Thought this was a great idea to use individual tea strainers for powder sugar!
That night we had a lovely four course meal and the next morning we were served
Dutch pancakes, or what I had always called Deutch Babies.
The food was delicious, and Vicky, the owner and head cook was so delightful!
What a go-getter she is, with a full time job with an hour commute each way, and also owning/managing the Manor flawlessly.
She told us the building's history:  It was an abandoned church building and when she bought it it had suffered from years of neglect.
Now it is a lovely inn and also has a non-denominational chapel for wedding and room for a good sized reception too.
To see more about Greystone Manor visit HERE.
There is a side link to Vacation rentals; we stayed at the Lyon House.

Five inches of snow fell on Saturday, by noon on Sunday most of it had already melted away.
We promised ourselves to come here more often, and definitely to come in all four seasons.
I confess, I looked at some real estate listings while we were in town.
The thought of living two blocks from the pools, in a little bungalow with a library just a block away sounded mighty appealing to me.
At the other end of town there is a water park with huge water slides, high diving boards and play features that any grandchild would enjoy.
There was also a very active senior center and workout center, several churches, campgrounds nearby and a university just thirty miles away.
Hmmmm....
It is a very relaxed place to live, according to Vicky.
People walk to the pools in their bathrobes, and according to her, no one raised an eyebrow when parishioners show up in their bathrobes for Mass.
The pools open at nine and stay open until 10 at night.
Above the pools is a mountain peak that has a lit letter "L" glowing in the dark.

The gentle sounds of passing trains in the distance added to the sweet home feeling of the town.
It was hard to pull ourselves away when it was finally time to head home Sunday afternoon.
A "Brigadoom" like feeling haunted  me; was this place for real?
Would it always be as relaxing as it has been the two times we have visited?
I plan to find out.
Two hours is not that far to drive after all.
For a weekend, or even for a day!