Blooms and Cats

Look what I found in my garden this week.

Hellebores are blooming.  They have been blooming for 3 weeks now.

The last 2 daffodils. 

My 3 Cats

Nosey

Brutus

Beau

And hiding inside my garden shed is my lawn mower.  It will get to come out this week.  The lawn is ready for it's first mowing.

Until next time,



A dozen red roses for me?

Look what my husband brought me today. 

37 years ago God sent me my soul mate, my best friend.  We were seniors in high school.  We dated 4 months and were married on spring break.  See, young love does survive.

I love you hubby.  Happy Anniversary. 

Super Moon

THE MOON came closer to the Earth last night than it has been in almost 20 years, appearing 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter. 

I took the camera outside around 10pm and it was very cloudy.  I was able to get these shots.

I think the filter that I had on the camera was causing the "blue dot" to appear in the picture.

My husband woke up around 5am this morning and the moon was so bright that he had to go outside and snap these photos.  Again we think the filter was causing the duplicate image. 

Thought I had better blog about this since it won't happen again for 28 years and I will be OLD then....lol. 

Until next time,

Texas Rangers Spring Training Photos

This post is for any Texas Ranger fans that might happen upon my blog.  I wanted to share a few photos I took on my recent trip to Phoenix.

We went to 2 Rangers games and we sat on the second row behind the Rangers dugout.  Great seats!!  I cannot afford to sit this close at a regular major league game but it is very affordable during spring training. 

Elvis Andrus

Michael Young

Ian Kinsler

Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz after both scored a run.

Derek Holland

Neftali Feliz

Kinsler sliding into third base.

Michael Young

Josh Hamilton

Can you tell that I LOVE baseball?  I can't wait until Opening Day of baseball which is April 1 for the Rangers.

Until next time,



No Service Required

Last week I was in Phoenix, Arizona at baseball spring training watching my Texas Rangers play ball. 

Several weeks ago I was summoned to serve on the Federal Grand Jury for the U.S. District court for a period of 5 weeks starting yesterday, Monday March 14.  So we scheduled our trip to be home on Monday so I could start my service......but no.....they didn't need me....false alarm.  I am very thankful that I didn't have to serve since I came home from Phoenix with a cough and a sore throat.  The court would probably have sent me home anyway. 

We met my best friend (who lives in Indiana) in Phoenix.  She is a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs.  Her husband is a huge fan of the Cincinnati Reds.  Of course me and my husband are huge fans of the Texas Rangers.

This is my best friend and her husband.  I took this picture while we were visiting the Phoenix Zoo. 

This is me and my husband at the Rangers spring training ballpark in Surprise, Arizona.  My husband is wearing shorts since the temperature was 88 degrees F.

Today as I was sitting in my sun room, catching up on my blog reading and replying to emails I hear something going on outside my window.   I look out and this is what I see.

That is a raccoon on the side of my house!!  Looks like they have come out of hibernation.  When I first saw him he was hanging from our guttering, then he hooked him claws into the stone on the house.  He couldn't figure out how to get down and I was not going to help him....scary.  After about an hour he finally hopped down and was gone.  Ugh, I really detest raccoons. 

And I end this post with one last picture of my mini daffodils. 

Until next time,

Birds, Birthday and Blogging Break

Today I looked out our bay window and what did I see?

This beautiful hawk.  I think it is a Red-Shouldered Hawk but I may be wrong. 

What a gorgeous bird. It is about 12 inches tall. 

Yesterday we celebrated my granddaughters 11th birthday here at our house.  "Peace" was the theme of her party.  She wanted a peace sign cupcake birthday cake.  My daughter bought her this cake at Walmart.  We like their fluffy icing. 

Several posts back I talked about our generator and how we had an electrician wire it into the house so if we ever lost electricity we could simply start it up and "poof" we would have power.  So you know where I am going with this....yes...yesterday just as the party was getting started we lost electricity.  18 people were at my house, a dark house, with no water which means no bathrooms.  So my husband went outside, uncovered the generator, pulled the cord and indeed "poof" we had power. 

Someone somewhere was using a back hoe and they cut an electrical line that connected 5 sub stations.  40,000 homes were without power for about 3 hours.  Everyone was leaving our party, walking out the door when the power came back on.  We got a laugh out of that.  It was a good test for the generator, better than during an ice storm. 

I will be taking a short blogging break but I hope to be back soon.  I have to go "serve" my country, in a way that a 50 year old can serve.  More on that later.

Until next time,

And the Gardening Year Begins

Here at Empty Nest Gardens Spring is in the Air.  With temperatures in the 70's it was a good day to plant onions.

My planting area is 8 foot by 3.5 foot.  I started by added 2 bags (3 cubic feet total) of Miracle Gro Garden Soil.  I turned it into the soil using a garden fork then using a garden rack I smoothed out the surface.

I bought 4 bunches of Texas Supersweet onion plants ($1 per bunch).  These are my favorite, they are so sweet and mild.  This is the only type of onion I plant. 

Just using my finger I poke a hole in the soil and insert one onion plant.  I do this over and over and over until they are all planted.  I water them in well and insert my onion label that a friend gave me years ago.  I should be eating green onions in about 4-6 weeks...yum yum.

In the garden a sure sign of spring are the blooming daffodils.  Aren't these just gorgeous?

I need to go pick a few daffys for my daughter.

Until next time,