Helping Out Spring

At least the forecast for 3-5 inches of snow on Saturday has been changed to flurries and light snow. I went outside today to pick up the dried out strips of ornamental grass that had blown into the netting. Nothing to get excited about re the daffodils and crocus.

This afternoon I went to Meijer to buy an Easter lily. There was an ad featured in the circular. Not one lily. The employee said they expected a truck by tonight. Phoo! The ad came out last weekend, but there wasn't even display space set aside for the lilies. Slow in arriving apparently.

I bought a small pot of pink tulips which I had planned to buy along with the lily. 

I also got out of the closet my blue with white flowers apron. It joins the pretty blooming apron I recently bought on Etsy. 

It's going to look like spring inside at least if I have my way. 

Spring Robins

The calendar says spring has arrived, and sure enough I saw 3 robins today. Well, maybe only 2 because the one I saw in the backyard may have been one of the two I saw earlier in the pear tree out front. The blustery wind has caused the loose dried out strands of the berm ornamental grasses to get caught in the netting I put over my crocus to keep the rabbit from eating them. Too cold to go out and clean them up.

I have some money from donations to buy books for the retirement library, but no space on the shelves. I spent some time Monday weeding the books. It is getting harder to find items suitable to discard. I don't necessarily remove books because they are old, but because when I flip them open I see how tiny and crowded the print is on the pages. I still have pretty good vision, but I wouldn't attempt to read these pages unless the book was compelling. The printing standards for spacing and margins have certainly changed in the last 50 years. 

I withdrew 18 fiction books; today I ordered from Better World Books 16 titles to fill series gaps. I am picky. The book has to be in very good condition and priced right. I know from past experience that searching over time instead of all at one time, one is likely to find some good deals. I am less picky of condition when buying at a library book sale where the price is 50 cents to a dollar. These Better World Books tend to be $4-$5; free shipping though.

One of the series I completed thru purchases earlier was The Irish Angel series by Jill Landis. When I shelved the new additions, I noticed book one was off the shelf. I wanted to read this series; the book didn't reappear until last week, maybe 4 months after it left the shelf.  I had a good read the past few days, all 3 books. This is a "new" author for me, but I will be on the look out for more of her books. 

This morning after returning from helping a neighbor download a PDF file onto her computer, I remarked to my husband that so many people never use the right button on the mouse which does allow one to do a Save As procedure. He looked at me and said, "You can do that, save a PDF file?" I showed him how; he wanted to email one as well. Two people in one day learning how to use right click. I should start a right click crusade in my neighborhood. Just kidding. I have told folks to hold down the control button and click on "p" to print when they seemed befuddled. At least these people do use a computer in their senior years. 

At Last A Day To Walk

52 degrees, sunny, hardly any wind. A good day to ramble around the neighborhood. I see lots of daffodil shoots in yards, even one tulip plant. My lilies and irises are above ground now, too. The quince bush planted last September by the landscaper has teeny buds. I almost had given up hope and assumed it had died. 

And then the surprise. Flowers! Under one of the apartment windows these yellow spots of sunshine were blooming. What are these? They are not crocus. They were in a sheltered part of the building.

The roof around the chapel steeple leaked this fall. It was decided that it was too expensive to replace so it was removed.

The little dome over the front part of the retirement apartments remains.

Plants weren't the only sign of life outdoors. Two boys shot hoops in their driveway, a cluster of boys were fishing in the pond (though it is posted No Fishing), someone sat in an Adirondack chair on the patio, and three seniors enjoyed sunshine on a bench.

Things are not going to warm up much next week, in fact it will be colder, with a chance of snow next Saturday. Still the hints of coming spring gladden the heart.

March Bloom of the Month; Battling the Bard

I stopped by Martin's today to pick up my free March Bloom of the Month. It is a dozen roses this month. My husband got an extra smooch at lunchtime. 

I am getting antsy for spring flowers, but with a few small snow storms and colder temperatures, my daffodils are not growing very fast any more.

My nephew who is a Shakespeare scholar bought his mother this puzzle for Christmas. He doesn't work on jigsaw puzzles though. Fortunately, the other family members pitched in to put it together. We borrowed it this week. We worked on it yesterday, but now all of the easier sections are done. Time to get out the magnifying glass.

I have almost completed my federal income tax return on TurboTax. I think I might wait until next week to do the state one.

It will be interesting next year to see what difference the new tax code makes. Not much I am thinking. We already don't itemize.

Where the Red Fern Grows

I think I first heard of Where the Red Fern Grows in my Children's Literature class in college. While sorting thru the paperback drawers in the retirement library to find some to discard, I noticed we have two copies of this book. I brought the shabbier copy home to read with the idea of discarding it. It is a beautiful story full of lessons about family, hard work, loving nature, being aware of and depending on God. I have put it on my bookshelf with the idea I might read it again later; that is fairly rare for me.

I would not recommend this book for younger children. A teen would probably do OK. Actually older adults are probably the best audience because they have memories of their own unsophisticated childhoods that correlate to this book and have felt and accepted the hard things of life. The coons do not let the dogs kill them without putting up a fight. Animal lovers might blanch. This is not killing for sport; the hides are sold. There are incidents of loss and death that would be too upsetting for a young child. I cried several times. 

As 10-year-old Billy roams the fields, hills, rivers of his Ozark home, he is obsessed with wanting two coon hounds. His parents are sympathetic but barely make ends meet. There is no money to buy hunting dogs. After waiting and trying the next year, Billy comes across a fishing and hunting magazine left behind by the river. An ad for red coon hounds catches his eye. He determines that somehow he will earn the $50 to buy a pair of hounds. It takes him two years. 

It is love at first sight when his pups arrive. Old Dan and Little Ann have different personalities and skills, but they complement each other well. Their success in the hunt spreads throughout the countryside. The devotion of the dogs to each other and to Billy is reciprocated by the lad. Through them, he learns lessons of love, perseverance, sacrifice. 

The narrator is a man looking back at his childhood. He remembers how he loved his home and Eastern Oklahoma where he hunted, but has not seen since his early teens. He fondly thinks of his father, mother, sisters, and grandfather. Mostly, he sees how his beloved hounds played a big part in making him the man he is. 

Laguna Beach, California

Dana Point has free parking in the harbor area and on its streets. There is a pay machine at Salt Creek Beach where one inputs the space number and the time wanted and after paying receives a ticket receipt to display in the car. 

Many of the other coastal cities are not as generous. San Clemente has a similar machine near its pier parking, but also meters. Laguna Beach is especially unfriendly in providing free or low-cost parking. The street parking uses meters requiring quarters and near Heisler Park and downtown, the cost is $2.50 per hour. There is a 2 hour limit as well, though how they enforce that I don't know. 

After using up 10 quarters for Heisler, I didn't have enough for street parking in the retail district. Instead we parked in a lot at $10 per day, with no hourly option, just a flat $10 no matter how long you stayed in the lot. This is actually not too bad a deal if you are staying 4 hours or longer. Unfortunately for us, we only stayed about 2 hours: time to eat lunch at Slapfish, walk near the beach and along the retail streets, and then finish up with ice cream in a shop near to the parking lot. If we had discovered this lot before going to Heisler Park, we could have avoided the meter and would have done better cost-wise. One of the lots is on Ocean Street and the other is on the street directly east of the beach and near a bank. 

Heisler Park is not to be missed. Lovely views, lots of benches, and if you are adventuresome, tidal pools to explore.

To the south of the park is a swimming/sunbathing beach. No beachcombing allowed, however.

People were enjoying the warm sunny day.

Next to the public changing/restrooms and below stairs leading to a hotel, was this interesting mural and landscaping.

We ate at Slapfish which was part of a small eatery mall with a shared patio and up the block from the beach. Good fish tacos.

Some of the stores on the main north/south street surprised me. A nursery, especially. Given the difficulty of parking, a place where heavy items would need to be loaded into vehicles seemed impractical. 

A woodworker's shop was intriguing but it wasn't open. Pretty cutting boards in the windows though.

Another shop on the main highway going thru town:

Many of the professional offices had interesting planters. I really liked the lights at the one below.

We stopped in several art galleries, passed by more cafes and jewelry stores, and peeked in a hardware/housewares store. Lots of people eating on patios. This bird perched on a café sculpture, was on the lookout for food left or dropped by diners.

Now that I know what to expect, I would probably plan a visit to Laguna Beach differently than what we experienced. It is an expensive place to dine and shop and park.

This is the last of my California trip blogs. I will close with some photos of a walk I took thru a development across from our condos and on the trail west of our place. The Niguel Coast development was ungated and not too hilly so would be a good place to bike as well. We were blessed to have such nice weather for outdoors activities. Though most of the architecture had a California look, some seemed to be more like New England houses. At least there was pretty good variety.

 Houses viewed from the trail that edged the golf course and also went east facing the hills:

It was wonderful to bask in sunshine in my native state.