The Garden is beginning to bloom

This month is moving along at a steady pace, and recovering from surgery seems to be going smoothly, last Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. the surgeon called me with the result of my biopsy from the fibroid removed on the 4th, there is no cancer or precancerous cells, which is great news.

When the doctor first told me who was calling I felt my heart drop to my feet, at nine in the evening I never expected to get a call from the surgeon and with good news too. I really hadn’t given it much thought because it’s rare for a fibroid to be cancerous. I am relieve though because my thought since falling ill in 2020 is what next? I hate to be so negative but it seems this old body is fighting me in regaining my health.

I haven’t done any stitching on any of my hand embroidery projects since my last update, I’ve just been so tired I don’t have the energy to do much after my daily chores and errands are done. I’m not about to stitch and then have to snip it all out because I didn’t like it. So I’m getting in some letter writing and reading.

A few days ago while watering my plants I noticed the gardenia shrub has quite a few large buds they should open in a few days.

The Mexican petunias have been blooming daily and a few bees have been taking turns between them and the dandelions.

One of the stray cats that visit my yard has taken to sitting on the roof, I think for a better view of the birds coming and going to the feeders. I picked up a hanging basket of Petunias on Friday purple, pink and white. I love these simple little flowers and they add much needed color to my patio.

Here is a quick look at my gardenia shrub 3 days after the photo above was taken, I cut 3 lovely blossoms to stick in a vase my living room smells wonderful and the bees have been buzzing around the sickly sweet aroma all day.

Oh the stray cat was under the shrub and ran off while I was cutting the flowers, she did stop when I spoke to her.

Happy Easter

 Resurrection (an Easter Poem) by ~ Dwight Lyman, 

“The first Sunday

after the first full moon

after the first equinox of the year,

rise early and lean outside

in the spiced air, listen to bells ringing.

Morning bells

bells of far churches

chuckling their delight for the advent of another spring

in a world that has dawned.

Easter

and already the snows have grown weary

they drop their coats

and troop back into the darkness.

Already the gale, barking wind

discards his piercing shrillness

and his iciness

he bounds forward on us warm and naked.

Already the distant sun, long aloof

forgets herself

wanders our way, smiling broadly.

Already the crocuses and daffodils

the jonquils, the dogwoods, the wisteria, even the white iris

alone in the field by my house

cast off their shyness, vulnerably

expose themselves before the world

unprotected and beautiful.

And it is spring. It is spring.

I look beyond the empty lot, out past

steeples that stand like toys

on the far street, suddenly

I see earth supple before me like a gardener

like a mother suckling rich seed-mouths

and they spring up.

They spring up, they spring up

in eudicotyledon splendor of living

resurrected in body once again.”

Interesting to note this year Easter fell on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox.

Happy Easter to All Celebrating Today

Easter is on the Way

 This week flew by in a flash with today beginning with a splash, heavy rain has been falling all morning and it's expected to rain throughout the weekend.  

 I'm happy to say I have spent a little time crafting a few things for Easter, these cute little stuffed bunnies I actually had cut the fabric two years ago but falling ill so severely did not leave me the energy to finish. I'm happy to say they are now completed and ready to display.

I have put them in a small wooden basket with an Easter egg dish cloth to line the basket and added those fun pastel eggs you can use chalk on to design.  I left them plain for now.

 Yesterday I made some Easter Bread, it's an old recipe which I have adjusted to living in Florida by using sugar crystals on the top instead of a glaze. I learned the first few years living here glaze and the humidity don't mix well.  For years I left it plain, then one day I came across the sugar crystals.

This is a very similar recipe to my Irish soda bread, I use raisins, currants, candied fruit and for the Easter bread I add nuts.  I can't recall but I vaguely remember the recipe was once for Hot Cross buns which I changed to make small loaves of bread.  My use of added the candied fruit came about when I had left overs from making fruit cakes at Christmas time which was in high demand from several family members and friends now long gone.

Back in the 1980's when I was at my baking best all you could buy was the candied fruit in separate containers, so I would have, lemon, orange, pineapple, citron, then raisins and there was always left overs that would be tossed away.  Then one year when I didn't make as many fruit cakes I had so much left that I just stuff them in the pantry a few months later while I was making Irish soda bread I decided to toss some in and the rest was history, everyone loved my Irish Soda bread so I just kept on making it that way.  Now I can buy a mix or candied fruit in one container that goes from Christmas to Easter.

April Showers Bring All Kinds of Things

 The month of April is moving along quite nicely, with bouts of heavy rain and wind, hot humid weather and chilled nights into the 40's. I'd say a typical Spring in north central Florida.

On Monday the 4th of April I had surgery to remove uterine fibroids. I was at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning and home by 2 in the afternoon, all went well in the surgery and as usual by day 4 at home I was hit with the overwhelming need to sleep, which I did till Saturday evening when I finally started feeling better again.  Thursday was horrible weather wise, the air was so humid I think you could have moved it with your hands, I had to use my inhaler to get in some air which in turn loosens up the lungs and has me coughing for days. This always happens after I have general anesthesia, I think my lungs finally start working right again and it taxes my body and all I want to do is sleep. In the meantime we were hit with torrents of rain through most of the morning, it was a fast moving storm and by afternoon the sun was out, the air much drier and comfortable, by Friday morning it was quite cool.

My progress on my hand embroidery pieces is coming along at a slow pace, lost the entire week to sleep so I didn't dare pick up a needle.

Moon Flow by Cozy Blue above I actually worked on Wednesday afternoon while I was feeling alert I am ready to start the moons, which would have been started the next day but didn't happen by then I was just weak and sleepy.

The progress on the new Greenman is coming along at a slow and steady pace which is fine with me.

I am in no hurry to get this completed though missing just about an entire week of stitching does begin to get annoying but recovery comes first and stitching while foggy headed isn't an option.  I feel tired but clear headed today so I should be able to get some stitching done today, in fact I plan to take my work out to my patio table and soak in some sunshine, fresh air and do some slow Sunday stitching. Which is where I am posting my link today over at Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2022/04/slow-sunday-stitching_0799150108.html

Between stitching I have a few Spring issues of magazines that I want to read later today.

I wish all of you a wonderful day whatever you choose to do.