happy April

It's a grey dreary day - again - but at least it looks like it's stopped raining and is up to 50 at noon.

More photos from the Keukenhof - won't you be glad when my stuff finally starts blooming?!

Neighbors on both sides of us had their huge, covered docks put in yesterday and this morning. Kind of blocks the view, but that's lake living. We usually wait for a nice day to put ours in because we do it ourselves.



When Kyle was here last weekend, he dropped off two of his season tickets for the Twins-Yankee game on the 9th. Friday Mark found out he may have to go to California April 8 (fly out Easter Sunday - don't you love it). If that happens, I'll be pounding the pavement looking for someone to go with me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY!!! Hope you're having a fun day.
(Another photo of my favorite garden - I just love it!)

I want to see my tulips!

More pictures from the Netherlands. We were there last spring for Queen's Day celebrations. Queen's Day celebrates the queen mother's birthday and Amsterdam is the place to be. Quite a party. Here is one of the new friends I made that day. He was a good sport.

At the Keukenhof, there are beautiful gardens and tons of sculpture exhibits. This was one I thought was really cute. Ceramic pigs look to be more well-behaved than poodles! (Love the fence.)

Isn't this pretty - like catching a glimpse of the yellow tulip road. I have more tulips pushing up through the ground - hooray!!! The red shoots from last week are definitely tulips, and now I can see green shoots nearby which would be the daffodils.

When we were at the Keukenhof, I ordered about 125 bulbs for me and 90 or so for my next door neighbor. They shipped them in October. I can't wait to see all of them blooming. I think everything I ordered there we could have bought here - maybe cheaper even. But I did see tons of new tulips that will be offered to the public over the next few years. I have my list and know what to watch for! Last year I did a lot of moving (what a surprise - that will probably be on my headstone!) and think I displaced many of the tulips I've had for years. So may be replacing quite a few next fall.

The lake is starting to melt along the shoreline. Still people fishing out in the middle though - drat! At least we haven't seen cars or trucks out there for a couple days! The average ice-out date is April 15. If we get the nice weather they're predicting, maybe it will be early this year - that would be nice.

New Dishwasher

More pictures from the Netherlands. I think we took over 700 pix last spring - over 4 days. I promise not to put all of them on this blog. Although, they were all fabulous and you would love to see them, of course!

I LOVE my new dishwasher! It holds wine glasses!!! My old one didn't, and I always had to handwash the wine glasses and my Mexican margarita glasses (with the cute little cactus stems) and my new Mexican glass water glasses. So I am VERY happy. I may even start cooking sometime soon so I can run a load through! (Or maybe I'll just drink enough to fill it up.)

Aren't these guys adorable? I mean, they're not poodles, but still... When I was growing up we had 2 goats for awhile. The male was Frankie - and I can't remember the female's name?? But Frankie got into the corn crib one day while we were gone, and literally ate himself to death - GROSS! Great, now I'll be up all night trying to think what the other goat's name was.

Other news - we had a really nice day, and so I went down to the Arb (Univ of Minn Landscape Arboretum) and walked. Everything is covered with a foot of snow, but still good for the soul just to be there.

Kobie had 2 seizures in less than a week and is acting kind of strange. He's very clingy and won't let us out of his sight. My poor baby. Tess and I would both be totally lost without him, so hope this isn't a pattern that continues.

Patti & Ron - hope you're having a fun time in Texas with Mom & Dad!!!! Ryan sent pix of their trip to Hawaii - what a brat! Looked like they had a fabulous time.

parlez-vous francais?

More pictures from the Keukenhof

I am taking French lessons. It is great exercise for my brain, but I need to spend more time on it outside of class. Nadine, my teacher, is from France and now lives here with her American husband and two sons. Susan also takes the class. Today Susan brought biscotti for us (VERY yummy - she made it with craisins), and Nadine sent each of us home with a half loaf of bread that she had made this morning (also yummy - Susan and I think she should show us how she makes her bread during one class). I took French in high school and college,and really found it sort of easy. Now that I am much older, it is HARD! But also fun and I'm enjoying it very much. Maybe sometime I'll attempt to do an entry in French!!

Sears delivered and installed my new dishwasher this afternoon. My old one decided to quit on me last week. The new one is very similar to my old one, but it's always fun to have new stuff!

Last night we watched A Good Year. Russell Crowe stars with a good cast, a fun, light-hearted story, and great scenery. We enjoyed it.

Sun After the Storm

The Keukenhof Gardens

I'm ready for spring, so think I'll post some of the pictures from our trip to the Netherlands last spring while I'm waiting for my own bulbs to appear. This was one of my favorite gardens. I always go for the bright colors when I buy bulbs, but this mostly white garden with just a touch of orange and pink and blue really was gorgeous. I may try and do something similar next fall in an area that HOPEFULLY I'll get planted out this next summer.

We have a beautiful sunny day - low 20's but melting like crazy. Supposed to be in upper 30's by end of next week. Sounds good to me. Kobie & Tess are having fun in the new snow and come in completely covered with little snowballs sticking to their fur. I've been ironing - yargh! I think someone should start a campaign for "tee shirts - the new dress shirt." Oh well.

New book - High Profile by Robert B Parker. Jesse Stone series. I like his Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall characters. Spenser, not so much. Also last week read I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. Fast read and a hoot. Thank goodness for the Hennepin County Library system - the best! I used to buy all these books (!), but the last 3 years or so, I started using the library again. It's wonderful. This summer they're going to put in a bike trail where the Dakota Rail line was and then I'll be able to bike right to the library. Fabulous.

THINK SPRING!!!