Life is good

Spring is here--the sun is shining and the flowers are bursting forth.  Lovely scents layer the air and life is good.

The tests are back!  All blood tests are normal.  There is a cyst which will be closely monitored for awhile--I will be having a mammogram every six months for awhile.  All that's left is to see a skin specialist and I will be home free.  Life is so beautiful!  Thank you for your prayers.  They have meant the world to me.

Hearts in a Snowstorm - Guest Heart Thursday

We were all disbelieving when they said snow would fall and stick.  Especially here.  It snowed all day long, but beyond a smattering of white on the daffodils and blossoming plums, it didn't stay for long.  Winter, so deeply in love with Spring--rarely gets to hold her hand.

Then under cover of darkness, Winter came bearing gifts, leaving Spring a graceful coat of white, softly draped around her shoulders.

It was a gift of love, you see--Spring stole Winter's heart away, as he declared his love, sprinkling love's sweet tokens into her arms...

...snow hearts embellished with sparkling ice diamonds.

Of course a spring snowstorm isn't complete without leaving bare foot and hand prints in the snow!

Trees bowed to the beauty of winter's gift.  Can you see the hidden blue hearts?  They're snowflakes, of course.

This morning, when I arose to investigate, of course I found a heart waiting for me to take its picture.

In the Spring sunshine, I found a droplet in the cedar tree--yes, there's a heart there, too.

The fragrant blossoms of fruit trees were laced in white.  Do you see the snow heart?  This one is for you, sweet SissyBoo!  It is unexpected and beautiful--just like you.

For more heart art, photography and altogether fabulous heart stuff from around the world, visit Clytie at Random Hearts for Guest Heart Thursday!

Shadow on Filbert Leaves

I captured these wonderfully sun-drenched leaves on my last walk with my darling Sister Clytie. This is a wild filbert tree--I love the way the sun illuminates the leaves and that crisp shadow of leaf .

When I was young, my siblings and I loved playing in the thickets of filberts growing between the house and the old Oak tree.   We made rooms and corridors from one place to another by knotting and tying the nimble branches of the filbert trees together.  Wild blackberries and honeysuckle vines would twine up through those living walls to fill the air with fragrance and an occasional snack!

Years later I found thick knots where the limbs of the wild filberts had continued to grow after we'd tied them together.  Ah, childhood--sometimes I wish I could go back there.

Shadow of Blossom

Our crab apple tree is dripping wi;th blossoms this year.  It is just covered!  I caught this early morning beauty of shadow, just before the sun disappeared behind a bank of rain clouds!

Think Pink!

It has been raining "cats and dogs" over the past few days. The deluge has filled our back yard with enough water the fish pond is overflowing! Though I am grateful for the rain, it has a way of, er, damping my spirits.

I was looking through the pictures I took on our walk last week--Sissy and I have so much fun taking pictures together over at the abandonded mega-church and in the forest--and I found this photo.

These amazing pink blossoms stretching up into the blue, blue sky are growing out of a confused rubble of glass and debris. Isn't it wonderful to know beauty can grow in the midst of such destruction? There is always hope. Think Pink!