Outside My Window Today ~ 4.5.09
Outside My Window…is an amazingly beautiful day right now….a bright blue, sunny sky ~ not a cloud in sight ~ and 61 degrees. High today is forecasted to be 70 degrees……..yea baby! But all good things must come to an end…..clouds will come later this evening…..thunderstorms on Monday but still warm and then the mid 50’s on Tuesday!! Ouch.
I am thinking…about all the things I want to get done around my house ~ inside and outside ~ during my time off this next week. On my list of things to do is to get the flower garden on the side of my house in order. I’m hoping I get my sunflower seeds this week so I can get them started. In case you guys missed that on my blog, you can get some free Lemon Queen sunflower seeds if you sign up to volunteer for their project. They will send you the free seeds; all you have to do are plant and watch when requested. Couldn’t be easier, and you get some beautiful flowers for your gardens…..check it out here, The Great Sunflower Project. I would like to get my backyard garden started as well and my kitchen painted. Not such a big kitchen so that won’t be a big chore to tackle, just dealing with the inconvenience of everything all torn up while painting.
I am thankful for…what appear to be flowers coming out on my dogwood tree! Now this might seem a bit odd, but I have a dogwood tree beside my house that doesn’t think it is a dogwood tree. I have rarely had blooms……it usually goes straight to leaves so I miss out on the beauty of the blooms each year. I have explained to it that it is normal to bloom, even though the other trees around it do not and it is ok to be different. Perhaps my talks are working, my tree seems comfortable in its own bark these past couple of years and there have been more flowers. Yea! They really are beautiful trees…….it is the state tree/flower for Virginia by the way. They are all over the place…..but it is a particularly awesome drive down the Colonial Parkway between Yorktown and Williamsburg to see these beautiful, blossoming trees all along the way. Once they bloom, their leaves are a dark green and in the fall turn a beautiful orange. I believe the flowers peak in mid-April…..I think I will take a drive down the parkway and get some photos for my blog.
From the kitchen…not sure what I’m in the mood for right now. I bought some white Arborio (Italian rice) this past week so I think I’m going to try out several Italian Risotto recipes I have this coming week while I’m off.
I am creating…an infusion of grapeseed oil and lemon balm. Lemon balm is a mint with a distinctly lemony scent and can be taken as tea or used in creams or lip balms. If taken as tea, lemon balm can help nervous disorders of sleep and/or stomach/intestinal issues. Lemon balm in creams or balms is now primarily used to treat viral infections of the skin, especially cold sores and herpes. It doesn’t cure them, but it relieves itching and helps the lesions heal over in a few days.
I am going…to be doing lots of chores today so when I have my time off I won’t have a lot of unplanned stuff to do. I have too many plans for those days, don’t want to be doing everyday stuff I could have done earlier.
I am reading…the May issue of Runner’s World. There is a good beginner’s guide in this issue if someone is interested in getting into running. Hey, never too late…..I was 45 when I started running! 🙂 There is also a lot of articles and information on the Boston Marathon coming up this month. Hmm, you won’t see me though…..I would have had to run in a Boston qualifying marathon (for those of you who may not know “run speak” ~ you have to run in a marathon that the Boston marathon committee sanctions as comparable enough to qualify for theirs) with a 4 hour, 5 minute finish time to qualify to run in Boston. Confusing……..hmmm, maybe…….but put simply, I don’t run that fast! 🙂
I am hoping…even though it is cooling down some the weather permits me to finish my outside projects while I’m off.
I am hearing…someone’s annoyingly loud radio from outside…..with lots of base. Grrrrr…..why can’t some people realize that not everyone wants to hear or particularly enjoys their selection in music! I want to yell outside and ask them to ‘turn it down to normal hearing levels please’, but they wouldn’t hear me!
Around the house…far more clutter than should be. I was sorting through recipes and other paperwork last night. When I got sleepy, I didn’t gather up the piles before bed so I get to do that this morning. Bags of clothes that no longer fit Cailin to give away to a charity…..and a container full of her stuffed animals to go into the attic. Guess she is growing up in more ways than one.
Plans for the week include…so many I don’t know where to begin to list them. Outside gardens, inside painting are the priorities right now. In what order those occur depends on the weather.
One of my favorite things…is seeing the trees bloom. All the pollen that is soon to be covering everything in green powder is not so good, but you know warmer weather is on the way.
A picture I’d like to share with you…sometimes even on a rocky road, you can find beauty…..
