Tulips

The mountains still look cold and a little forbidding, as you can see by the new picture I put in the title position, but the tulips are beginning to do their thing. I played with the bottom photo - enlarge it to get the full effect. (If Dwight can do it, so can I.) The symmetry of flowers amazes me. Looking in the heart of these white tulips with their yellow centers and the carefully arranged centers, it is obvious that the Creator has a strong sense of order. That is a comforting thought to me in this chaotic world we live in.

It is chilly outside today, and I have to make a decision about whether to plant my perennial geraniums that just came in the mail - or do I wait a day for better weather? What a choice.

Father and Daughter, April 11, 2009

Julia, Andrea, Jennifer, and friend Cindy were visiting us the second and third week of April. It was great to have so much family here at one time. This picture is of Andrea and her dad, taken in front of the Logan LDS temple on April 11th.

What a weekend! - But Spring is Trying - in more ways than one.

I never did think this frog looked very welcome - but if he looks disgruntled, it's because we had very chilly weather this weekend, as well as a mini-hail storm yesterday afternoon. Woke up to 24 degrees F this morning and frost everywhere. Thank goodness not many of the tulips or daffodils are in bloom yet - saved them from total destruction.

However, as you can see, there is a cheery note here and there in the flower beds. Who can resist a daffodil? Not me! Their bright note is to compensate for the panic I had on Friday last week, when I went on my blog (s) and discovered that only a few of the pictures showed up, with lots of little red x's in little boxes where the pictures should have been. It took hours of research, talking with my brother, the Curmudgeonly Professor, who is far more experienced at finding answers to knotty internet problems than I am, and then finding the answer on line. One of my internet security programs had decided to ratchet up the security settings, and wouldn't allow internet social networking, nor would it allow media-pictures. That really blocked a lot of my innocent offerings. So, after about four hours of tearing my hair out, I managed to fix the settings, still filtering out the objectionable material that can come my way, and, voila! The pictures are all back in place. Phew! Who would think that this would take so much time? Is it worth it?

I just wanted to drop a quick hi to everyone. I won't clutter this beautiful blog with my monster truck pictures or pictures of my bulldog swimming, but they will be on a separate blog if you really want to look. It's fantastic to see what everyone is doing and I'm hoping to get a "family directory" to see where everyone is. Since we are always on the move, it's always a treat to see familiar faces. That's all for now!

The Weather in a Week

A week ago, we were enjoying lots of rain that eventually turned to snow - Ken and Dorothy, who live outside of Albuquerque on a mountain, evidently had even more snow than we did, and Ken sent these gorgeous pictures taken after the snow storm.

Last week, the birds were just plain bewildered - this week, they're busily finding all the worms they are able to in our now very green lawn. It's amazing that one week could see this great a difference, but you can see from the new picture with the blog title, that the mountains don't want for plenty of snow this beautiful spring morning.

Easter with the McNeills

Hi family - I hope everyone had a great Easter.  I finally got around to posting some pictures on my blog and I wanted to show off my beautiful children to you too!  These are my favorites.  We also started a tradition of an Easter egg tree last year - so here are a few of the eggs hanging from a Mesquite tree branch as well.  Happy Easter!  

Miniature iris - harbinger of Spring

I'm pretending that I can see these this morning - they are covered over with our beautiful snowfall from yesterday that is beginning to melt. Nothing else is blooming in our yard - yet, but there is hope. We lived through income tax day, and there are occasional blue skies today, although the weather man says there is a 60% chance we'll get snow again today. The grass is getting greener - we need to remember these cool days when the heat of summer is upon us.

Easter Morning

Since the only flowers in my yard are a few miniature blue iris on this chilly Easter day, I had to find a picture from last summer's plentiful blossoms. White seems appropriate for the joyful day of Resurrection, and red to remind us of the pain involved in the events of Good Friday. We are reminded that this chilly, cold spring will soon pass, and we'll be enjoying days of seeing the tulips and the daffodils bloom, with other flowers to follow. Our choir of some 35+ members sang "Joy in the Morning" today as the closing song for Sacrament services. It

certainly fit the wonders of the day.

Brigham Ralph Consoliver

Since I don't have any recent pictures of Brig, this is just to remind everyone how he looked when he was 6 weeks old. Wasn't he cute? Anyway, to be born on April 6th is very special - sorry we didn't get the Happy Birthday in earlier.

Chris had a birthday, too!

This picture was taken a couple of years ago when we were last at Sequim. Chris has grown into a tall, handsome young man - ready to finish high school. Hope your March birthday was happy!

Late Happy Birthday to Bethany and Arilla

Bethany's birthday was April 2nd - she is far more grown up today than she looked in this long-ago picture. I'm sure that Bethany could add more recent pictures to this posting.

Arilla is really shining these days. Happy belated birthday from the 30th of March. How did I get so far behind???? We love both of these granddaughters, and are proud of their accomplishments.

The Newest Member of the Holman family - Adam Winter Holman

Adam Winter came to join Suzanne, Jonathan, and Blake on Friday, April 3rd - our fourth great-grandchild. Congratulations to the happy family!