Spring?

Hello out there!!!!  I have been gone much longer than I meant to be.  Again.  I feel like I have been rather boring.  Not a whole lot going on in my world.  I am busy. All the time.  But nothing that is very exciting, or blog worthy.  Just normal everyday stuff.
The entire month of February has felt like Spring.  Some days, like summer.  We reached the 90's a few of those days.  The trees bloomed.  The birds began nesting.  The chickens began to lay.  It was weird.  I would have loved to have had more winter.  But I have to say, being outside has been kind of nice too.
The other night, Drew's girlfriend Christine, brought over the most beautiful lemon cake!  Drizzled with a tart lemon glaze, and sitting atop a pretty cut glass plate.  I just so happened to have this bowl of lemons on the island.  We have been picking fruit in the grove every few days.

  

She made it with lemons that were from our grove.  Her parents and brother came over last weekend and  picked lots of oranges and avocados and grapefruit and lemons.  This was their thank you.  And boy did we enjoy it!  Christine said it was one of Ina Garten's recipes.  It was moist and dense, almost like a pound cake.  The glaze drizzled on top was the perfect finishing touch.  Sweet, but puckery too.  So good!  It was a lovely afternoon snack with coffee!  Speaking of coffee.....a friend of mine recently told me about this instant coffee from Trader Joe's.  I turned up my nose, and said, "oh no...I wouldn't like it!  I am a coffee lover, and brew a pot of coffee every morning."  If I want a cup in the afternoon, I use my new Keurig.  So she brought me some to try.  And I'll be, if it isn't just delicious!!!

I love the way it is packaged.  And it looks so cute in one of my red jars, at the coffee bar next to my new red Keurig.  Mix one packet with boiling water, and voila, you have a nice hot cuppa to pick you up in the afternoon.

Each packet contains a little cream and sugar.  Another thing that I didn't think I would like about it.  I do take creamer in my coffee, but no sugar.  This is very lightly sweetened.  It is delightful!  I will be stocking up on more the next time I go to TJ's.  They would be great for travel, or a picnic, or tailgate party.  YUM!
I was doing a little yard work today, and it struck me how beautiful everything was.  The grass is getting nice and green.  Things are beginning to bloom.  I couldn't resist putting a pretty yellow Primrose on the porch.

I still need to put my Spring baskets on the front doors.  The flowers on the porch are beginning to put on a show.
My Kalancho is bursting in pretty pink blooms.

Little lavender blooms in a pot with a bird on a stick.

I love it when the roses take on that rusty hue, a few weeks after they have been pruned.

I gave them a boost today with chicken poop tea.  Best fertilizer ever!  I simply use a scraper to remove the, ahem.....chicken doo from the roosts and below roosts in the coop, scraping it directly into a large bucket.  Then with high powered nozzle on hose, I fill the bucket and let it "steep" for a while.  Give it a stir, and then pour onto bushes around the base.  Being careful to not make it too strong, or it will burn the plants.  I have found just the right balance.  It won't be long before my roses will be showing off dinner plate sized blooms!

Although things are springing to life on the ground, the trees, still skeletal in their appearance, looking out of place with the signs of Spring around them.  Do you see Miss Maui standing guard in the corner?
There are two swings in the front yard.  They both get an awful lot of use.  One is on the lawn, the redwood A frame that we brought back home from the cabin.  The other one is a glider on the porch.  We have had it for about 25 years.  It still keeps gliding along just fine for me.  I love to sit in both.  As well as the swing in the grove out by the chicken run.  There is just something about swinging.
Another sign of Spring, is the huge population of Bunnies around here.

Can you see him?  There under the orange tree, with the little cotton tail?  When I open the shutters in the morning, there are often several eating grass.  So cute.
So, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what it is exactly that has prevented me from my usual posting schedule here on my blog.  I have wondered, could it be the Insta Gram craze?  It is so fast and easy to post to IG, and it is fun to see what everyone is making and doing.  Is that filling that blogging slot for me?  Is it that I feel like I have already written about everything of interest to me, and shared it with you?  That I am really just very boring, with not much to tell?  I have no intention of stopping my blog.  I continue to get a lot of pleasure from both blogging and reading all of your blogs.  There seems to be an ebb and flow to most things, and so I suppose with blogging as well.
As you know, I am on a quest to learn to knit better this year!  I have been having a lot of fun, finding projects, learning new techniques, and trying something new.  I am working on socks now.  I have a friend who has graciously shared her time and knowledge with me.  My socks are of the easy sort.  They are tube socks,  made of chunky yarn.  However, I am learning to use double point needles.  VERY awkward for this crocheter!  I also learned how to do the Kitchner Stitch to seam the toe.  And I have learned a lot about how the stitch should look when correct, as opposed to incorrect.  And how to fix it if it is the latter.  I learned the correct way to back out of stitches, and how to use a stitch counter.

AND, today I ordered my first big girl set of interchangeable knitting needles and cords!  I ordered them from Knitpicks.  I also got two balls of sock yarn.  My next project will be real socks.  With a real toe.  And a heel!!!
I have been doing more knitting than usual, and a few of my regular chores have been neglected!  Like ironing!!!

It's supposed to be a rainy weekend, so I think I will rent a movie, and iron away on Sunday.
One last thing.  I haven't been doing a lot of thrifing lately either, but this find was fantastic!  I walked into one of my favorite haunts a week or so ago, and there it was.....calling my name.

A beautiful aqua leather purse.  It was clean, and appeared to be only very gently used.  The label on the inside said Coldwater Creek.  The price tag read 7.00.  And it was 25% off of that!  I was in love!  It has pockets on the outside for my phone, which I like.  It has plenty of pockets inside too, with magnetic closures on both the top of purse, and on the two outside pockets as well.  It is soft and supple, and screams Spring!
I hope this finds you all well.  I know that while we are experiencing an early Spring, there are many of you who are being hammered with storm after storm.  It must feel like Spring will never arrive.  I hope you stay warm and safe, and that soon,  the snow will melt, and bright sunny Daffodils will be in your yards instead.
Be Sweet!
XO  Kris