May Apples and Maple Leaves

Brand new maple leaves.


May apple umbrellas.

Spring Beauties

Sunshine and Shadows

Hobbit Hole

It is a rather non nondescript part of town--nothing particularly special about the neighborhood. I drove past the house twice because I couldn't see the address due to the overgrown evergreen hedge that lines the sidewalk. When I finally pulled up in the driveway, the first glimpse of the little stone house took my breath away. It was like walking into a scene from the Lord of the Rings.
There was a narrow stone pathway that led up to a little oval green door with large iron hinges that opened into a hallway with heavy dark beams and a rough stone floor. Then into a living area with a rounded stucco ceiling and big round windows, that looked out into a meticulously maintained wood land garden.
The interior of the house was dusty and cluttered, but filled with many beautiful and unique antiques. The 89 year old gentleman I had come to see invited me to sit down in one of two beautiful carved wooden chair and told me the story of how actress Bette Davis commissioned this pair of chairs to be carved and used them frequently in her home. (The patient's nephew confirmed the story.)
If I ever think I want to go back to working in the hospital, all it takes is a little house like this to remind me why I love being a visiting nurse.

Spring Bulbs in the Front Flower Gardens

Spring bulbs are so easy. Tuck them in the ground in the fall and you have instant color in the spring. Then they come up year after year with very little maintenance the rest of the year. If only keeping flower gardens looking so nice through the summer and fall was so easy.

Here are my new flower beds by the front of the house. To be able to appreciate them, you have to realize what the front of the house had looked like for the past 40 years or so. This is the before picture, taken last spring: I knew from the time I moved in that those yew bushes had to go. When a truckload of free top soil appeared on craig's List last spring, I knew the time had come. Ripping them out was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done, but it was so worth it!
The flower bed by the driveway...Why didn't my forsynthea bloom this year? I cut it back like I was suppose to. Here's what it looked like last spring before I got the rocks around it. The forsynthea is beautiful.
Tulips by the driveway...these aren't quite at their peak...The main front garden isn't at its peak yet either, but it is starting to look pretty...

First Planting

Mmm, I love freshly prepared garden beds.

And the little sprouts that will be shortly going into the beds.spinach, kale, collards, lettuce...

And even better will be the baby greens I will be harvesting in two weeks!

I just love daffodils.

I just love daffodils. Sorry. If you read my blog you'll just have to put up with them.

Hike Down the Mountain to Town

This is the winding road up the mountain to Machu Picchu. There is a rough stairway that runs along the far side of this winding road that leads down into village. Terry and I hiked down the staircase, across the river and into the town. I figured it would be easier then hiking up the mountain. An hour into it with aching, trembling calves, I wasn't so sure. Who knew that waking down stairs could be a challenge. The next two days we were both so sore with muscles aching that we has no idea that we even had. The steps varied from fairly tame...
...to quite challenging.
And there were some pretty nice views along the way. As well as some very pretty flowers.

Machu Picchu--land of orchids and dandelions

Llamas run free in the ruins.
Orchids grow in wild beauty.
If you don't like clouds, wait 5 minutes and the sun will come out. If you don't like sun, wait five more minutes and the clouds will be back. Sort of like Michigan.

Amid all this splendor, the humble dandelion lives its quiet life in a crevice.

Hey, don't eat all my worms!

Seriously, by the time I'm done digging up my garden for planting, I don't think I am going to have a single earthworm left, unless I keep the chickens under lock and key until after planting season is over. They crowd around me while I am digging and gorge themselves on worms. I have worked hard to get my soil to a state where worms thrive...I'm not too sure that I am happy about my chickens eating all my worms. But I also don't want keep them locked up all the time and the only time I can really let them out is when I'm outside at the same time, or else they will wander off and get into trouble. If I'm outside that usually means I'm doing something in the garden which means there are usually plenty of unearthed worms. The up side is if they are eating worms it distracts from them getting into the neighbors' yards. So they get to follow me around in the garden and eat worms.
Locked up after terrorizing the daycare kids next door. Sorry girls, I know you mean no harm, but there are some little children who just aren't used to having big white birds chase them around!

Daffodils

Rhubarb

Rhubarb after being accidentally covered with mulch all winter. It simply glowed after the mulch was removed today.

Gorgeous Ranch For Sale (No, Wait...)

Tomorrow we are going to look at this gem...."GORGEOUS 2400 SQ FT RANCH W/3 BDRMS & 2 FULL BTHS SITS ON 10 1/2 ACRES IN THE MIDDLE OF 6500 ACRES OF THE PINCKNEY RECREATION AREA. THIS BEAUTIFUL RANCH HAS 3 FRPLCE. THIS HOME HAS ALL ANDERSON WINDOWS AND THE KITCHEN CABINETS ARE ALL AMISH CABINETS. ALL BEDROOMS, DINING ROOM, AND LIVING ROOM HAVE HARDWOOD FLOORS. THIS IS A WELL BUILT CUSTOM HOME."

Gosh, that sounds like my dream home. A beautiful well built house on ten acres in the middle of thousands of acres of recreation land. What more could you ask for? Can't wait to see pictures! Oh, wait, are you sure that's the right house?

How come this is the only picture available of this gorgeous ranch on 10 acres? Oh, my, where are all the Anderson windows? Couldn't they have got a photo of at least one Anderson window? And I want to see those Amish cabinets in the kitchen. Actually it looks pretty pathetic, even ugly...If it weren't for the promise of 10 acres in a beautiful nighborhood (I googled it, so I am pretty sure the area is nice) and maybe a decent house, I would have completely passed this house by. Hopefully it won't look quite so bad in real life.

Actually ever since we've started looking at property to buy, I've been amazed at how so many real estate companies have no sense at all when it comes to posting photos of property. Tomorrow we are also looking at another 10 acres and a house that features a "BEAUTIFUL KITCHEN THAT HAS CHERRY CABINETS". The photo however shows a room that is completely dark, and if I squint hard enough, I think I can make out a shiny object that sort of resembles a stove. Being that the kitchen is the most important room in house (as far as I am concerned anyway!), you'd think the real estate agent might try to make a bigger effort to show off that beautiful kitchen with those cherry cabinets.

Hopefully we will find the perfect piece of land at the right price under the right circumstances. We really can't afford to buy right now, but with property prices the way they are right now, there couldn't be a better time to consider buying. One of these properties might just come along at just the right time and right price.

Stopping to Smell the Flowers

I have a love/hate relationship with my job. It is the perfect job for an introverted idealist whose occupation has to be something that is truly useful and helpful, and who doesn't like to have people standing over her shoulder watching her work. I see 5 or 6 patients in a day, then the rest of my work is done in my car or at home. I will stop at the office for an hour or two every day to pick up referrals and do my homework on patients, but for the most part, I do my charting, phone calls, and e-mails in the car or from home. A big part of my job is case managing, making sure that patients have the things and resources they need to be safe and healthy in their homes. I love that part of job. The major draw back with being a visiting nurse (and you will hear this over and over again) is the huge amount of charting that is required. Some days I spend more time charting then doing actual patient care. It can be extremely time consuming and frustrating. That is the part of the job I hate. There are so many days when the charting spills over into my evenings and weekends and consumes all my free time. The problem is, it has to be done, I can't just put it off. If I did my patients would not get the care they need. Some days like today I wonder if it is all worth it. And I have to force myself to stop and smell the flowers.









Like these pastel hyacinths. They are all wet with spring and rain and smell delicious.



I also stopped working for a few minutes and made some Olive Oil Crackers. The recipe is here. Sometimes you just have to stop and do something totally unnecessary in order to keep yourself from going insane on a weekend when you have to work (and again, its not the nursing part of the job, it is the paperwork).

Ah, there they are!

Sprouts! I knew there was something hiding under all that that snow yesterday. Wintersown red Russian kale.

And here are the crocuses in my herb garden.If you look really hard you can see French sorrel, chives, and lavender starting to green up.

Scilla in the lawn. Someday I want my lawn to be a solid blue carpet in the spring. I'm working on it, bulb by bulb.

The main garden. My, what a mess. My gardening style is kind of random. I'm realizing I need to get my act together. Right now the only method to the madness is the fact that there is a black walnut tree on one side, and lots of plants don't grow well next to black walnuts.
Daffodils getting ready to bloom!

Somewhere under the snow....

Somewhere under all this snow there are some brave little sprouts. I know they are there, because I saw them Saturday when I got home from Peru. Kale, collards, lettuce, and poppies are sprouting. It snowed Sunday evening and it hasn't melted yet. I hear temps are going to be in the 50's tomorrow, so maybe the snow will melt. As nice as it is to be home, this cold weather is taking a bit to get used too!Winter sown milk jugs covered with snow on April 7th.

Purple crocus surrounded by ice crystals.

Fabric shops in Cuzco

Next time I am in Peru I am going to add into my travel budget extra money for spending in the these shops...
For this trip I allowed myself 60 soles (about $20) to spend...and ended up with 2 scarves and 2 wraps.
The colors are such a feast for the eyes!