Hurray for Spring

 

Huge clusters of snowflakes were falling yesterday for the first day of spring but the Daffodils were just waiting to bloom. I brought a few inside and they were happy to open up. Still waiting for my Snowbird and Super Snappy peas to show themselves.

My Birthday

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day. The weather was beautiful - sunny and in the sixties. I went to our monthly Master Garden meeting and our guest speaker was a tree whisperer. He claims he has healed many trees by touching them and talking to them. He gave a power point presentation showing various trees around the country he has worked with. The most impressive was a old tree in Santa Barbara. He sensed from talking with this tree that something happened about 80 years ago in a nearby parking lot. He asked people there to research for him. They discovered there had been an earthquake 79 years ago and the toxic waste was dumped in a near by parking lot. The town has put a barrier in the ground. We were given house plants to practice with during 10 minute meditative exercise. Very,very, interesting!

In the afternoon I helped some other master gardeners with a horticultural therapy program at Mana house which is a temporary home to enable single women with children to get on their feet and become self sufficient. They decorated clay flower pots using colorful tissue paper and glue. They then learned about different varieties of house plants and chose one to plant in their pot. We will be going there once a week for five weeks.

For dinner Bill took me to Charlie Browns where we had an excellent meal. Later we went to a restaurant in town, The Riviera, where they now have a jam session upstairs on Wednesday nights. First the house group plays. Musicians sign in as they arrive and are put into groups. They have a small free buffet which is very good. A friend's husband plays the drums and his family was there. We had a real good time.

Bill gave me a game of Sequence which I had requested. We had played this with Leo and Kristen and it's a lot of fun.

It's Been a Year!

I started my blog March 2, 2008, over a year ago. I've enjoyed doing it. Now it's time to plant peas again. This year I'm trying two varieties, Burpee Super Snappy and Snowbird and I planted them on the 11th. It was a decent day and the soil was ready. Later I looked back at my post a year ago and read that I had soaked the peas in water with a little vitamin C for superior plants. My peas did do very well last year. Maybe I'll plant some more on St. Patrick's Day.

Another Movie

Last night we watched The Confessions of a Shopaholic which is based on a series of books by Sophie Kinsella which I had read a long time ago and enjoyed but can't remember much about now. When Bill asked how closely the movie followed the book I had no idea. But we did enjoy the movie. It was light hearted and had us and the audience laughing.

Some Live Entertainment

Friday night Bill and I went to a performance of The Secret Garden, a musical, at Brookdale Community College. It was fabulous!!! A friend's son, Zach, who attends the college, played a major role and was great. Zach has a wonderful voice and seemed to be so comfortable on the stage. He'd love to be on Broadway and I hope he makes it. The little girl, Mary, was wonderful to watch also. Her facial expressions were so good. I thought of our older granddaughter having that part and how marvelous she would be, of course. We were pleasantly suprised to get 3rd row center seats. I had only ordered our tickets a week earlier. The theater was only half filled which seemed a shame. Tickets were only $10 each.

But this is not all!! Monday night we went to our library to listen to Heather Mulvey play her guitar and sing Celatic and American Music. We had gone to her performance last year and enjoyed it very much. Once again it was a lot of fun to listen to her. She encouraged us to sing along to some of the songs we knew. Once again we did not have a full house. The show began with only four in the audience. By the end there were about 12 people present although 20 people had registered to attend. This program was free. We did buy her CD which she was in the process of creating last year.

For more entertainment we went to the movies last night. But this gets its own post.

Another Movie Nite

Our latest movie was Slumdog Millionaire which just won a number Oscars. The movie shows the poverty of Indian slums, but even worse we see the cruel lives of orphans trying to survive and being so abused. There is more violence and cruelty in this film than I care for but there is also love and hope. The acting by the children was wonderful!