Nice enough for a hike

It was still sunny and warmish when I got home from work so we decided to hike up Bunker Hill after supper.  It felt so good to be out in the fresh air after all of our nasty weather.  I could tell I haven't had much exercise lately. This is NOT a tough hike but I could feel my muscles protesting working hard.  :)

 Looking down on the new boat harbor

We spotted two ptarmigans...or maybe it was the same one twice.  A little hard to see in the grass.  Nice camouflage!

 Still lots of snow on the mountains

Sitting at the top and taking in the view.  It was a lovely day but I still needed a hat to keep my ears warm.

Maybe it's Spring, Finally

African Violets always remind me of my Grandmom Pratt, my Mom's Mom.  In her house in New Jersey, they filled just about every room, on windowsills, on end tables, and along multiple glass shelves lining her windows.  Sometimes she'd let us take a watering can and pour a small amount in the bottom of their pots, being careful not to get the leaves wet.  Somehow I got the impression  that they were hard to keep alive and have never tried to grow any till now.  A couple of weekends ago, I went to a craft fair at the Senior Center and one of the seniors had African Violets for sale.  It's funny how just the sight of them took me back in time to those days at my Grandmom's house.  Impulsively, I took two and brought them home.  So far they are doing okay, but I am a little afraid I am going to kill them off.  A couple of blooms have already died on one of them and its leaves don't look too great.  Grandmom would probably not be impressed!

My tomato plants, on the other hand, are going crazy!  We do not have enough room for the wild growth that's going on in our dining room!  I am very excited that several plants have already started blooming so I am diligently using a little pastry brush to help pollinate them (which you have to do if they're not outside and getting naturally pollinated) and hoping for little tomatoes to appear.  Won't that be great??! My grandparents also always had a fabulous vegetable garden and Grandpop's Jersey tomatoes were his pride and joy.  Hopefully my little Alaska version will be almost as good.

My friend Tammy had a birthday recently so Melanie and I took her out to breakfast and Andrea stopped by from work for a quick visit.   Happy birthday, Tammy!  It's been very hectic around town with all of the end of school activities, prom, band concerts, awards ceremonies, and graduation.  Most of my friends still have kids in school so they have been wrapped up in all kinds of events.  There's a part of me that misses all of those fun times, but I am also glad that I can just come home and relax instead of running all over town like I used to!

I think the weather has finally broken and we've had a few nice days. At least the snow is melting and we don't seem to be expecting any more!  Everyone has about had it!  It was the worst winter in awhile and it seems like it has taken its toll on most of us.  Thank goodness for sunshine, rain showers, and flowers starting to bloom in the yard.

Meanwhile, we are beginning the countdown to vacation, leaving here on June 18, arriving in Dallas on June 19 for a quick overnight stay with Sarah's family before catching an early morning flight to Amarillo on the 20th.  Hoping that baby Luke will stay put till we arrive!  We'll be in Amarillo with Bonnie's family for a couple of weeks, depending on when baby makes his appearance, and then will go back to Dallas to Sarah's and to Abilene to Susan's to visit everyone else.  I am more than ready, as this has been one of my longer stretches without any time "outside."  I spent over an hour on the phone with Alaska Air tonight, trying to work out the rest of our itinerary.  Even the AK Air agent had pity on me for living way out in the middle of nowhere on the most expensive route ever.  Of course, her pity did not extend far enough to give me any kind of a break.  Out of her hands.  Man, the days of cheap plane tickets are apparently long gone.

When will it end?!

So we had a couple of sunny, almost warmish days and then this!  I am so OVER winter.  It's May!  I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to face yet another morning covered in white, continuing flurries throughout the day, and the sound of the poor maintenance men's shovels outside the door.  If I think I am fed up, what about them?!

I got up early this morning when Rich went to work, did a few things around the house, and then napped on the couch for a couple of hours, due to 1) not sleeping much last night, 2) being all congested and headachy and 3) general malaise.  I had the weirdest dream that I was sleeping on a plane traveling to Anchorage. In the dream, I woke up with a start to the realization that we were flying very low.  I looked out the window and determined that we were coming in for a landing in downtown Anchorage, which seemed curious and a little confusing. There were people on the streets clearing the way so we could land, which the pilot accomplished with no problem.  I have no idea what this means but at least it ended well and was not even very scary.  :)  Even though we still have several weeks till vacation, it's probably my typical Nervous Nellie lead-up to flying out of here.

Blogger Steve is back, much to his fans' delight.  :)  Check out his blog and the info about The Tutu Project here.   What an idea!  You have to admire a guy who's willing to have himself photographed in a pink tutu to cheer up his wife and to raise money to fight breast cancer. Every time I see something creative like this, I wonder, "why didn't I think of that?"  Not that I really want to have myself photographed in a pink tutu and nothing else, but you'd think I could come up with another idea that would do some good and go somewhere. Apparently not.  Or not yet.  :) But I digress.  Bob Carey did think of it and leaped (or pirouetted) into it body and soul.   Go to Bob's website here, look at the photos, and make a donation--you can buy a print, his self-published book Ballerina, a T-shirt, or send money for the cause.  Here's his Facebook page, too.  Thanks, Steve, for telling us about The Tutu Project and I think you are just the kind of guy who would do the same thing if your lovely wife needed cheering up.  For the record, I think my husband would, too, but I know when he reads this he will really be hoping he never has to prove me right.  :)