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.

Happy Spring and Slow Sunday Stitching

 Spring arrived in north central Florida with sunny skies, clear cool air and birdsong from the early hours of dawn to my walk in the park and home to sit outside with a cup of tea and my newest hand embroidery project. 

I began stitching the Greenman with Weeks Dye Works floss in Monkey Grass 2158,  for me the greenman has always been a symbol of Spring and nature so beginning him on the Vernal Equinox seemed like a good idea.

I like using Weeks Dye Works floss for my greenman/greenwoman pieces because of the shades of green in each skein, and the names are herbs and other vegetation.  I may also use a few Gentle Arts floss.

I am also working on the Moon Flow piece by Cozy Blue, I bought the kit planning to have it stitched by today unfortunately I had a few days where I didn't feel like stitching.

I love the kits from Cozy Blue, I'm partial to Moon Phase patterns so I bought the kit and the pattern, I made this one in 2017 called Lunar Blossom I also bought the pattern and an iron on pattern to use.

I like to have a kit or two to stitch especially when the pattern is pre-printed on the fabric it takes care  of tracing the pattern.  A friend of mine suggested a company called Avlea and I bought a kit from there called Aegean Sunrise.

Here is my progress on the Moon Flow kit,  I started with the flowers and now I'm working the center leaves then I'll move on to the small flowers then the moons and the leaves on the outer rim.

The bright yellow fabric is what attracted me to the kit, I bought the pattern too so I could make it on a different background.

I'm linking my post to Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2022/03/slow-sunday-stitching_0188912250.html

Check the link to see what other bloggers are slow stitching today and perhaps add your link to what you are slow stitching this fine Spring day.

 Here are the links for the 2 kits I mentioned Cozy Blue has an Etsy shop and a Website to shop on.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

https://cozybluehandmade.com/

https://www.avleaembroidery.com/

And Spring rose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And Each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

rose from the dreams of it’s wintry rest.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Art Janie Olsen

Happy Spring

 Happy Spring!

Art by Janie Olsen

And Spring rose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And Each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

rose from the dreams of it’s wintry rest.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 

Fresh from my oven this morning my traditional Irish soda bread.  I have been making this bread for several decades, changing it every few years either adding raisin or currents, sometimes caraway seeds and candied citrus left over from the fruitcakes of Christmas. 

Signs of Spring's Arrival are Popping Up in My Garden.

 Every day I walk around the outside of my house to the sounds of birds, bees and the scampering of a squirrel or two. Today I noticed the pear tree has flowered, last week there were just a few small buds. It's a scrawny tree that doesn't get much sunlight when I first moved into this house almost 3 years ago there was a few small pears. I don't know who planted it where they did because it is overshadow by a very large oak tree and several other trees so I think it was doomed from the start.

March 7 2022

 

March 1 2022

I also noticed the yard is full of fallen leaves, it looks like autumn in the north, I have documented this falling of leaves in March in my garden journal and it happens every year so I'm sure it's normal for my area in Florida.

  A few other blooming plants in the yard, the purple flowers, I believe is Spiderwort, are everywhere in the backyard, there were a few bees buzzing about, the ever faithful dandelion coming up through the driveway. 

I can't recall the name of this shrub the flowers don't last too long. I think the plant below is Indian Hawthorn.

There are 3 of these plants along the side of my garage, they are quite pretty the flowers are like stars and remind of jasmine. 

There are signs of Spring's arrival everywhere except in the weather where the temps are in the high 80's. We are expecting so rain tomorrow and Wednesday.  We need it everything is so dry and there is yellow pollen everywhere which makes my allergies flare and my car looks like a breaded pork chop.