Botanical Garden

Thanks to all the rain we had this pass winter and spring, the flower garden has done quite well this year. The lilies are beautiful...

Amaryllis

Calla Lily

Rain Lily

Spring Break Adventure

With only a few days left of Spring Break...I took the grand kids on an adventure to the park. The first stop was the huge "climbing" boulders...to see who was bravest.

Of course every adventure has to have some wild animals...I think this bird was just trying to get warm...
Some of the trees were just starting to sprout...check out the dark clouds...looks like it might rain.

Good thing we brought a sack of bread to feed the ducks...

it looks like they haven't eaten in hours!

What is that hiding in the reeds?

A duck preening his self, after his morning snack.

A photo op at the waterfall...

and here comes the rain...

nice weather for ducks!

Oh by the way...
Last Friday I taught my first Heritage Scrapbooking Class for Scrapbook Barn. The ladies were wonderful...good class participation, great comments and questions. This Friday is the Heritage Scrapbooking Workshop 4:30 to 6:30...bring a Heritage project and join us...you can sign up by calling Scrapbook Barn.

It was a dark and stormy day...

Arizona has been in a drought for so many years we had forgotten what rain was...we have been making up for it in 2010.
The Valley of the Sun gets about 2 1/2 inches of rain in a "dry" year and about 5 inches of rain in a "rainy" year. Since January 1st (66 days) we have received about 4 1/2 inches. So while this may not be a big deal to somebody in Seattle...it's a really big deal here...good for the garden, the farmers, ranchers and the desert...the desert should be full of wildflowers this Spring.
And, it was a great opportunity for me to play with the options on my camera!

First of the Season...

Spring comes early to the Valley of the Sun and the garden is loving all this rain we have been getting lately. This is the first Iris of the season...hopefully there will be many more for us to enjoy.
These Violas, planted in the Fall, are spreading out and filling the flower pot...

I call it my Phoenix Suns garden...get it...purple and orange... the "Suns"...

Cape Cod...without me!

Where have I been for the last five days you ask...gathering up all the toys I will need for my Heritage Scrapbook class at Mystic Paper this Wednesday. I have a new found respect for teachers...there is a lot of prep work to get ready to teach a class!

While I have been at the bench in my "Wizards Room", my mom and aunt Mary took a trip to Cape Cod...without me! The weather was rainy and windy, which made it hard to walk on the beach and pick up shells. They were forced to find other activities, like antique shopping.
Which worked out well for me... Mom found me some wonderful old books...they even smell old

The "Book House" books have a publishing date of 1937...

The weather cleared up the last day they were there and

they were finally able to walk on the beach. Sadly for mom and Aunt Mary...

there were no shells or rocks on the beach for them to pick-up.