Eastering

On Saturday, we celebrated Easter with the family tradition of Eastering.  My grandfather originally created this as a way for family members to all come together, to enjoy the arrival of Spring by getting outside for a hike and a potluck with hot dogs and marsh mellows cooked over a camp fire.  The Easter bunny was also invited.  He/She filled the children's basket will all types of treats and then the sneaky bunny hid them (mine was often up a tree).  As children we were allowed to invite friends to go Eastering with us, and as we have grown older,  the  cousin's families have gotten so big that each now holds their own Eastering outing at which friends with their families are invited.

Saturday was a perfect day, with good food, a warm hike and for the boys- baskets filled with toys and treats.

I hope that your Easter was lovely filled with family traditions.

Primrose Lane with butterflies

 My Mother's Garden is filled with primroses and butterflies.  She has planted a primrose lane.  The butterflies - Swallowtails, Mourning Cloaks, and skippers as well as honey and bumble bees are abundant throughout the garden. 

Violets

"Violets, sir?" from a play my sister performed in college.  I picked a volet from the garden to share with my mother, as I have often done since I was a child.  As a child my father would bring home violet bouquets.  What a lovely scent to have a violet bouquet in a vase on you bedside table.  It is amazing how a small purple violet can remind you of so many memories.   May the scent of sun warmed violets perfume your spring breeze and bring with it memories.

The Apicot Tree

For me, the apricot tree is the first herald of spring; and not just due to the childhood verse " popcorn popping on the apricot tree (although I do sing it each spring.  The blossoms of the apricot tree appear with the warming days of spring, and the renewal of memories.

On the mountain road to Brigham city, orchards are filled with trimmed and squared trees.  This process allows for the fruit to develop to its best potential.  My favorite trees are older trees most often found in gardens or on property lines.  They have grown with gnarled and twisted trunks sculpted by wind and weather.  Their untrimmed branches brush the sky.

Recently,  our Utah weather included rain, hail, slush, and large lazy snowflakes, and yes this was all in one day.  As the weather cleared, and the sun came out;  I walked in a friend's garden.  Her apricot tree old and gnarled was at the back of the yard near the property line.  It's branches covered in bloom framed our mountain, Ben Lomond.  Standing under its branches, I was surrounded by a storm of falling petals.

The blossoms of the apricot tree heralds the renewal of spring and memories.

Blustery Day

We awoke this morning to a fine, crystalline snow falling and blowing.  A perfect day to snuggle in the blankets with my dog, Mollie at my side and write a note and a letter or two.

Summer Heat

This summer has been hot with little precipitation.  My neighbor' s on reservoir water have had to conserve.  We have had 18 days of over 100 degree temperature.  The monsoonal rains have mostly hit to the south of us.  Bushes have already changed color.

Neighbors

I have the cutest family which lives next door.  They have two young daughters - 2 & 4 years old.  Last week after the rain, they let the girls splash in the muddy puddles.  This morning they planted sunflowers.  They are creating memories.

My sister and I were 5 years apart, our mother allowed us to splash in puddles, and dance in the rain.  I am reminded of memories.

Like a tapestry

This morning my mother's garden reminds me of a tapestry.  It is green with the sweeping curves of feathered fern fronds woven with dotted knots of blue forget-me-nots, and the more showy yellow, orange, and pinks of Iceland poppies, fringed with pink English daisies.  An occasional spike of lupine blossoms adds color.  And while it lacks a unicorn, it does include a iridescent ruby throated humming bird flitting through, visiting the flowers.

More Spring Color

The Mountains that surround the lower valleys are covered with a soft almost velvet, spring green with highlights of bright yellow- green Maple trees.  In the canyon the Maples leaves have appeared and flowered.  We are still waiting for the Oaks.  My mother's garden is filled with blooms - tulips, daffodils, and all colors, red, pink, purple, blue, yellow, white primroses.  The neighbor's plum tree has scented the air as well as dropping petals of confetti throughout the neighborhood.

On the freshly mowed, green lawn Mollie lies, enjoying the warmth of the sun and chewing on a stick.

Spring Green

Recent rain has made the grass in our yard and on the hillside turn green.   The addition of warmth and periods of sunshine have made the canyon's choke cherry trees pop green leaves.  Spring green!

An Impatient Wait for Blossoms

This morning Mollie and I set out to collect a handful of branches from the fruit trees that grow in the canyon.  The canyon is filled with plum, apple, cherry and an occasional, and rare peach or apricot trees.

In the 30's a dam and water pipeline was built by the WPA project to insure irrigation water for the Northern Wasatch Front farmers, although now it mainly irrigates the lawns.  It is my theory that the fruit trees in the canyon came from the fruit packed and eaten from the WPA worker's lunches.  The seeds from this fruit volunteered, and the trees now grow in concentration along the pipeline.

Over the years my mother or I have trimmed branches from these trees to bring in the house, allowing them to warm and bloom, providing us with an earlier enjoyment of the blossoms of spring.  We currently have a vase filled with apple tree branches which we are impatiently waiting to bloom.

The snow is melting

The snow in our yard is melting, the snow drops are in bloom, the temperatures are reaching the mid 60s, and tomorrow rain is forecasted.  Did you notice that I said rain instead of snow?

Spring is on its way to Ogden Canyon.  Oh, how lovely!  Mollie and I enjoying sharing a patch of sun that falls through our window onto our spring green bedspread.

Missed You

Work as usual has become more involved.  We just held our annual fundraiser - an Art Auction on March 2.  Lots of work prior to the event to organize donations and works of art, bid cards, and programs.  And now after the event, writing thank yous, paying artist, creating reports, and updating website pages.  This along with every day projects.  Yes, I will get the Spring class schedule out, as well as the winter newsletter.

I have missed visiting and following favorite blogs, writing updates to this blog, checking out the new items in my favorite etsy shops, and reading the books, and magazines piling up on my bookshelf and on my nook.

Thank you for understanding, and I hope to add new post soon, after all spring is coming to Ogden Canyon.  It is a great time to share all the beauty that makes its appearance with the melting of the snow.

Winter White

The white of winter snow needs the contrast of blue skies and sun to enhance its sparkling crispness.   The gray weeks of inversion made us all deary, even the landscape.

Winter ice cream

Yesterday,  we made raspberry ice cream, my grandma's recipe.  We used clear icicles  from the neighbor's house in our old fashion ice cream freezer.   Yum what a wonderful winter treat and it reminded us of summer's warmth as we also often enjoy it our cabin in July and August.

Grandma's ice cream
1 quart milk
1 pint cream
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
Juice of three lemons
1 package of raspberries

Combine milk, cream, evaporated milk and sugar.  Mix for ten minutes then pour in raspberries and lemon juice.  Turn until it freezes.

New Years Eve

In reading one of the blogs, I follow,  they suggest that they are setting goals and not resolutions.  What a great idea,  I will see what goals I can set for 2013.  I suppose one of them should be to check in here more often,  and  of course to share more photos, paintings, and creative writing with you.

Best wishes to you with the setting of your goals for 2013.

Christmas feast

After a day of stormy weather, the sun is out,  the sky is blue,and the temperatures cold.  Stetller Jay and Chickadees are feasting on dried Elderberries and black sunflower seeds.

Inside, we are preparing for our Christmas Day feast.

Christmas Morning

Remember the excitement of Christmas morning?  As children we had to wait for our father to confirm that Santa had arrived,then we were allowed to open presents.

Then we were able to share the excitement again, when we got to watch our children or in my case my niece open her presents on Christmas morning.  My sister always allowed me to stop by to participate.

And I anticipate, some day my niece allowing me to share in the excitement as her children enjoy the excitement of Christmas morning.

My best wishes to you and yours on this Christmas morning.

Chrispness

Even though I am not a huge fan of winter weather,  there is beauty to enjoy when waking to the view of a fresh winter white landscape, crisp and smooth reflecting the light of the sun and a clear powder blu sky.

Resilency

Even though we have had a number of nights with a hard freeze,  my mother's primrose plants continue to blossom.