Birthday, Sun and Snow

Well this has been an interesting week- especially the last 2 days!

 These are not sunlit pictures but I'll start off with these and work my way up to sunshine!

 Wednesday evening we started to get slammed with the storm they were promising.  Though it was not as bad as it could have been it was so disappointing to see after we had already melted down and it truly felt like spring around here.  I zoomed in on this picture because of the interesting wavy design of the snow on the roof.  

 Thursday evening when the snow had stopped. 

 The Fairy Garden under snow!

 Daughter and husband at a restaurant- two rays of sunshine in my life!  

 My mug...on my birthday.  My friend Linda from California sent me this centerpiece arrangement.  I decided to hold it up to show off the pretty flowers. 

I didn't want a whole cake for my birthday so I settled for a pretty cupcake from the bakery!

 The day after my birthday the sun is out and a welcome sight!

 We're visiting family for Easter and I pray that this will have melted!

The robins have arrived so we're going to put out some meal worms for them since they can't get to the ground easily!

Wishing you all a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Joining:

My Little Home and Garden

for

Sunlit Sunday

Sunny Moments

Another Sunlit Sunday!

I was on the phone chatting in the living room and one of my cats "Teddy" jumped off the sofa to do some sun bathing.  No time to do a fancy set up so I just snapped a quick shot.

With Easter nearing I have set up an Easter Egg tree and I caught a shot with a little sunshine on it.  My Mom always put one together when we were kids and I've revived the tradition in my home now for several years.

 Teddy had been enjoying the sun until it moved off.  

The Christmas Cactus is still blooming.  The daffodils that I had brought in from outside (and talked about in my last post) have grown a lot taller but there is no sign of any flowers coming yet.  

It is a nice sunlit morning today.

A frosty sunlit morning!  Even though it's a bit early we put out our patio table and umbrella last weekend.  To say we have cabin fever is an understatement!

Happy Sunlit Sunday!

Joining Sunlit Sunday

Couldn't Resist- Started Playing With the Fairy Garden

With all the nice weather we've had I just had to go outside to do something.

 Hubby used the leaf blower (you can see him in the left corner of the picture) to clear off all the debris that has fallen from the trees during the winter.  The burlap around the shrubs were removed but we haven't opened up the fountain yet. 

 I brought out the cement fairy cottage.  I decided I wanted it higher up so I built up a couple more rows of brick pavers and added a step in front.   I'm just playing at this point with my ideas but this is a good start. 

I picked through all my stones that were spread all over to cluster together to create a little hill next to the steps.  My goal is to help it look like it's been there a while.  The more I fussed the more of the little accents came out.  It's so incredibly early for me to be out there doing stuff like this that I keep waiting for buckets of snow to fall on us again.  

I stored the stump in the garage too because the little table set is stapled down to it and I worry what the weight of the snow would do to it.  I just fluff some soil around it and it looks like it's really in the ground.

I don't have outside water access right now so I couldn't clean things up but the rains we're getting may help with that.   

Elsewhere in the yard this is what mice and voles do under the snow.  What a mess they made this year.

 A little bleak looking but a start!  Once the plant life grows the magic begins!  Let's keep hoping that this early spring weather continues on!

It's only March 12th but it feels like spring!

It seems like all of us are experiencing an early start to spring. I can't tell you how happy I am that all our snow has melted already with the exception of the giant piles of snow that are man made from all the snow clearing that has to be done in parking lots etc. 

 Backing up a little- I took this in January on a pretty sunlit day.  There is a buffalo farm not far from us and they just looked so cozy this day relaxing in the sun I had to take a picture.

 I couldn't help but admire how the snow accented our big ash tree one Sunday morning in February.  

 Notice this area on the tree- it looks like a heart doesn't it?  It was close to Valentine's Day and I thought that was interesting!

The backyard garden area...though it looks like a lot of snow it was much less as compared to our normal snowfall...no one is complaining about that part!

The turkey's have been visiting....they scatter easily when they spot me taking pictures

The winter garden...This is why I don't clear everything away until spring...love the ornamentation of the dried plants in the winter.

Last fall I set a pot of daffodils (that I never planted in the ground from last spring- LAZY) right next to my rose shrub last fall.... eventually it was buried by much more snow.  My plan was to dig it out and bring it in for some early blooms to enjoy.

As you can see in this picture the snow piled on pretty high.  We had several warm ups and melt downs which made for very dense icy snow and I literally couldn't dig them out.

We've gone from this to...

this in a few weeks...

Today the deck is empty and all the snow is gone! Hooray!!  It's not pretty but just being able to see the ground makes me happy!

About 2 weeks ago the Christmas Cactus started to bloom again. 

I intended to join the Sunlit Sunday party when I took these pictures but got distracted.

Finally due to the fast thawing we're experiencing I was able to dig out the pot of daffodils.  They had started to grow late last fall because it warmed up again.  All the green that appeared seemed to just go into a state of suspension.

I set them on the floor where they'd get some sun and in only a few days they've really taken off.  This is all the same greenery you saw in the picture before. 

Enjoying every minute of the sunlit days around here and looking forward to being outdoors again in the garden.

I will be joining-

Sunlit Sunday