Reporting on Mom Nature

March came in like a lamb this year. Every day since March 1 has been lovely.
It especially seems like Spring is awakening because of the "simultaneous contrast" of the extreme winter of February!
(I just had to use that expression I picked up on Wednesday at the Flint Institute of Arts "movies at noon". This week talked about the later Impressionists and their struggle to eliminate line, and an exploration of color mapping, but that's another blog.)

Finally, saw a robin on Thursday. I've been outdoors every day since March 1st looking, waiting. Ever since that sighting, which is not really rare seeing as how there are "rogue robins" now who overwinter in Michigan, but for me it was my first robin of the spring - ever since that sighting, the bird chorus is singing whenever I open the door.

In the backyard Snowdrops are blooming. The honey bees are interested - amazing that there is enough to life in the world to bring the bees out, before the crocuses have even broken the surface of the soil. The pussy willows have broken bud - but barely, there is no pollen going on yet.

Yesterday I found honey bees entering a hole at the bottom of my compost bucket.

There was an (unusual for us) east wind blowing yesterday - and was it warm! Besides the honey bees, it brought life to the streets: teenagers- walking, hangin' out, skateboarding, pumping the bass and driving with the windows down - signs of spring.

A Day to Bless the Sun

Somehow along the path this morning I ran across this reference (link) to a tradition called The Blessing of the Sun and somehow it fit with my mood today. Although we got five inches of snow on Sunday night, it just feels like Spring is coming... Is it because there is the sound of birds calling now instead of the quiet of winter, or other obvious signs of of the season, or just the noticeable change in the length of day and the noticeable warmth coming from my old friend, the Sun.
So for a while before I kept my movie date at the Flint Institute of Arts, I amused myself a bit by reading up on The Blessing of the Sun.
(Don't you love Google (link)?)
So, God created the Sun on a Wednesday, and this is a special one.

After the movie, my friend and I sit around a while and talk about the film, and our worlds, and sometimes, like today, about our creative lives. What a joy to have someone to talk to. Friends are like blessed sunshine.


Along that train of thought, about creativity, here's my latest stepping stone. (I threw it on the melting snow outside the back door to get a photo of it in the blessed sunshine. Isn't that poor croaked crocus, the one of the bunch that had the strength to stick up out of the snow, pathetic?)
Can you guess what the flower on my stone is? Herb had a hard time. I guess I need to learn more about cutting glass to achieve more botanically correct leaves. It's been so long since he saw a dandelion, I'm sure that's it.

Here is a line from Wikipedia about The Blessing of the Sun:
"Birkat Hachama (ברכת החמה, "Blessing of the Sun") refers to a Jewish blessing that is recited in appreciation of the Sun once every 28 years, when the vernal equinox, as calculated by tradition, falls on a Tuesday at sundown. Jewish tradition says that when the Sun completes this cycle, it has returned to its position when the world was created."

Green Thumb Sunday - er, well, I'll catch up

I know, it's Wednesday. But the weather is so frigging (I never say that!) windy and frigid that I'm staying indoors at home instead of my best day of the week outing to the Flint Institute of Arts Wednesdays at Noon movie and coffee with my progressive and gardening friend Sharron. I need gas, and there is no way I'm standing in this cold long enough to fill the tank. So today I'm taking the time to try to figure out this thing called Green Thumb Sunday. Sharron is home with a headache watching Will and Grace reruns.
Garden bloggers everywhere apparently post a photo of their garden, or a plant, or some gardeny visual image, every Sunday. So watch for it... if I get the blogroll thingie running. I'm not tech saavy, as they say.
So here below is my first photo for a belated Green thumb Sunday of one of my favorite flowers, a purple poppy I grew in my herb garden.

Green Thumb Sunday

Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
And, Thank you Tricia!

Here's another shot of that poppy: