showeredwithgrace

Making fresh flower fairy crowns this morning.

Ate the first strawberry of the season off our strawberry plant today ~ still warm from the sun . . . (forgot to take pictures).

   

This day ~ two years ago ~ was Rose Red's baptismal day.  May our sweet little imp walk always as a child of the Light.

The new aquarium at our Wildlife World Zoo was lots of fun.  We were able to pet the sting rays, starfish, sea urchins and horseshoe crabs.  The penguins too, were great fun to watch ~ and the fish were beautiful!

 

There was of course much more but these fish were my favorite. 

'And Then There Were Four' . . .

Week Two: 

 

Definitely seeing more leaves and the roots on our beets have really taken off.  Sweet potato is finally sprouting ~ but what happened to our red carrot?  It looks like it's gone dormant or something ??  Hhhmmm.

The beet though . . .  now that's exciting.

This week's  unplugged project:  Wrinkle

We made paper flowers in anticipation for spring.  First we tried these which were too complicated for Rose Red so I ended up making only two by myself.  They ended up looking more like full blown roses rather than the shapely young roses they were supposed to end up looking like (however, I think we liked the romantic look of our full bloomed roses better)

  

   

 

But prettier still were the ones we made together.  They were very simple ~ just colored tissue cut into two size circles, stacked and pierced through with pipe cleaner which was then twisted into a stem.  Finally we wrinkled the colored tissue into beautiful flowers.

 

   

   

 

 

So cheerful !

 

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Tomorrow's the day ~ we've been creating lovely valentine suncatchers this afternoon to prepare.  If valentine's has crept up on you too, this is a simple and quick craft.  All you need is clear contact paper and cut up pieces of colored tissues, scissors and ribbon to hang if you like.  We cut the contact paper in squares, littered the sticky side with colored tissue, topped with another square of contact paper and pressed them together.  Then we cut them out into heart shapes and hung them up.  Easy peasy.  And soooo pretty.

Spring is in the air

 

Cardinal in Mesquite Tree.

And this darling Cactus Wren gathering feathers for her nest.

In honor of the day ~ polishing up our pennies with lemon juice to make them sparkle.

 

 

I think Abraham Lincoln would be pleased.

Our friends have a Koi pond.  They built it themselves.  Yesterday Rose Red and I went to visit them and take a look.

 

 

 

 

We have a pet desert tortoise ~ did you know?

She is hibernating now (tortoise on the left).  Our friends care for her since we were renting for a while and couldn't keep her with us.

 

This is her home.

 

We are hoping for baby tortoises this year.

 

 

 

Early Valentine's gift from Pappy.  She's a dynamo on the soccer field.

Snow moon brought snow.

 

 

 

 

Powdered sugar mountains ~ and we don't have to shovel it.  It's all good.

 

This morning's remnants of February's snow moon.

 

 

 I've always been a night owl so this is a considerable accomplishment for me.  Dh leaves for work early and  breakfasts by 5:30 am and River by 6:30 am.  Rose Red tumbles downstairs about 7 am.  Now dh is happy to let me sleep and grab a quick non-nutritious breakfast and suggests that River at almost 17 should be happy to do the same.  I however, find an immense satisfaction in rising early before the sun to prepare this meal for my family.  It brings a sense of peace and order to my soul.  So I do ~ every morning at 5 am.  Thus, I am able to witness these small miracles every day ~ snow moons in the morning, rosy sunrises, the waking of the birds and the silent slinking away of the coyotes.

 

  (You were with me there for a while though, weren't you?)

A little fun with Pappy.  Hello?  hello?

 

     

It's so delightful how well these telephones work with just plastic cups and thread.  Great fun for a rainy day.

Peeking into my neighbors yard (sshhh).  Look how adorable (do you think it is homemade?).

What's wrong with this picture ?

 

We shall call it 'The Case of the Missing Parsnip' or 'Peter Rabbit goes Abroad'.  Regardless . . . somebody absconded with our parsnip.  As far as our table top winter root garden goes it shall heretofore be known by the title ' And Then There Were Four'.

Week One:  We are beginning to see evidence of sprouting in our root vegetables.  In two of our jars the water became cloudy and the vegetables have not yet produced sprouts (sweet potato and parsnip) so today we changed the water out of those two.  And since it is rainy today we placed them all out in the rain to fill up with rain water.

 

 

 

    

desert-winter nature table

live cactus wren from backyard (audubon on table)                                                                    

 

This weeks unplugged project ~ float.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

We discovered that when our walnut boats were not completely filled with wax they tended to fill up with water instead.  As you can see by this last pic they would capsize ~ we are now working on the new improved version.

We had a lot of fun with this project though and were able to put some 'old' art projects of Rose Red's to use making the sails.  Moldable wax would work too but all we had was the candle.

   

Our fairy dusters are blooming.

 

For our bird friends ~ a nest-warming gift.

Wonderful little book about a hummingbird by Keith Baker ~  Little Green.  Vibrantly colorful cut paper collage illustrations.

Just a little hummingbird fun.

 

 

 

sipping nectar like a hummingbird

"hummingbirds burp when they drink nectar"

~Rose Red

 

We spied this little momma sitting on her eggs in her tiny nest up high in the mesquite tree.

Trivia:  Did you know that hummingbirds can't actually walk with their legs?