Here I am, again.  Finishing the blog I started yesterday.  I am using a new computer and still getting use to it so if this blog suddenly goes away, I will throw up my hands and say, “I give.”

More pictures of the moon.

Like a big, red rubber bouncing ball.  It was beautiful.  David stayed outside for the whole duration of the eclipse.  Next time I will dress warmer and stay out with him.

Spring has sprung finally.  Old Man Winter keeps hitting us with cold weather, snow, tornadoes and cold, wet rains.  It seems it has rained every single weekend for the last month.  I really hope it will be nice this Sunday for Easter and our Easter egg hunt.  David and I have prepared 300 eggs to hide for our grandchildren to hunt. They are all teen-agers or older so no candy for them.  They get money.  My grandson is hosting two boys from Japan and I am wondering if they have ever hunted Easter eggs.  They will be here for two weeks and I am looking forward to meeting them.

With Spring comes beautiful flowers, bushes and trees.

This flowering Quince is one of the earliest bloomers.  This bush has bloomed every year we have lived here which is over forty years and it probably bloomed many years before that.  Someone planted it long ago and I thank them because it has provided us much pleasure in seeing it bloom every year.

Redbuds are so pretty. They bloom wild in Indiana, but I planted this one. We have a couple more in our back yard.   You can see this tree from a mile away when we are coming home.

Our poor magnolia got burned by the frost.  We had some warm weather and it bloomed and then a cold snap that burned the flowers.  This has happens too often in the Spring which is why I am not that happy when warm days come in February or March.

This picture does not do the Weeping Cherry justice. It has beautiful pink blossoms all over it.  Our whole front yard is a vision of pink.  We also have an Azalea that I didn’t get a picture of, but it is so pretty, too. Reminds me when we drove through the south one time and it seemed every house had an azalea blooming.  We also went to the Azalea Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. The whole town was blooming and they had antebellum houses we could go through.  One year we went to Natchez, Mississippi and I did a tour of antebellum houses.  I love the south and at one time we thought about retiring in the south, but life got in the way.  We got too many dogs, then chickens, then health issues and we decided we were better off where we are and I do like the changing seasons.

Got some more pretty fabric.  That is another reason we cannot move. I have too much stuff!   And a lot of that stuff has to do with quilting. And I do have quite a hoard of fabric.  I could make a quilt every day until the day I die and there will still be so much fabric that my poor children will have to dispose of.  Sorry, kids.  And I will probably buy more before it’s all over.   Right now I am working on a major project that is going to take some time to finish and I cannot show it as it will be given to someone at some point.

Fruit bar cookies.  Only fruit in it are raisins. My husband’s very favorite cookie. My mother use to make these when I was a girl and they have stood the test of time.  I still like them, too.

Here is the recipe:

Be sure to use a large pan and follow this recipe above, cool a bit and then add 4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and two teaspoons of baking soda. It will be thick.   Spread this in a 9 by 13 greased and floured jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.  Before completely cool ice with a mixture of confectioner’s sugar. 1 teaspoon of vanilla(I use imitation vanilla which is probably a sacrilege to some of you)  and milk.  I don’t have measurements for the icing.  I just mix the sugar and milk together until is spreads nicely.  I hope if you make these they come out alright for you and that you will like them as much as we do.

So Easter is this Sunday.  It comes late this year.  We will attend church and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus with our church family and then we will go to our daughter’s house for dinner and the Easter egg hunt.  I hope the weather will be nice.  It is supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow!  Yikes!

A blessed Easter to all of you.  He is risen!  Bye.

 

 

What past am I writing about?  Just a few days or weeks really, but they seem so long ago now.  I look up and the year is already three months old with nine more to go and if they go as fast  as these three did, I will be writing about Christmas again!  I don’t know if it’s my age or if time is really traveling faster, but it seems to be a blur at times.  Back in the fifties there was a movie “The Time Machine.” It starred the man who was in the tv show “Mr. Ed,” a show about a talking horse. You have to be old to remember that!  Anyway, in the movie, the man was in a time machine where he could watch out a window and see the seasons changing rapidly.  That is how fast it feels time is going for me.  I didn’t mean for this to be about time traveling, but that is where my mind has wandered.

Last blog I said I would tell you about an author I really like.  Her name is Jenny Colgan and she writes about a little island off the northern coast of Scotland.  A made  up island called Mure  between the North Sea and Norway.  An island where seals live and puffins and where whales come to mate.  Where everyone knows everyone else.  She picks one main character on the island to write about in each book, but they all are connected and you feel like you know them and their families.  There is the book mobile lady who is also a caretaker of the children of a man whose wife has died.  You can imagine how that will end.  Another book tells of a girl who has a tiny bake shop who becomes the head of a group of employees in a grand hotel.  There is a chef who does things his way, but is so good at what he does, he gets away with being obnoxious.  Another book is about the island librarian.  These are just a few of the characters she writes about.  Ms. colgan has written about another island  off the Cornish coast and about other things.  She is just so good at describing the characters and the landscape and the beauty in all of it.  Her books are a delight to read and I usually hate to finish one I am so engrossed in the lives of the people in them. To me that is what makes a great author.  I am reading a book now by a different author and I really don’t think she has anyone editing them because she writes about something and a few pages later she changes where it was taking place or what they are looking at. For instance, the heroine in this book was looking out a window,presumably during the day as she was describing the flowers and lawn of a particular house and then proceeds to say how dark it was and how  many stars were in the sky.  If it was so dark, how did she see the lawn and flowers out a window?  Maybe I am  nitpicking.  I love to read. Rather do that than watch television in many cases.  David and I have discovered a show on Britbox called Shetland about a detective solving murders on the island with his comical,at times, sidekick called Tosh.  I have become engrossed in that.

Remember when I told you we went outside in March and watched the partial eclipse of the moon and I was in my nightgown and got too cold to I went inside?  David took some pictures of the moon and it was beautiful.

I just lost half my post and it is late so I will end for now and finish this blog another day. So, bye, for now.  See you later!