SPRING!

Today is the first day of SPRING!  YAY!  Does it look like spring where you live?  Here at Willow's Cottage it does today.  But don't count on it being warm and sunny next week.  This week's *Friday Fave Fives may have some references to weather.  And also some wonderful blessings.  This is how things evolved on this last week of Winter here at Willow's Cottage. *follow the link to join us by sharing your blessings.

1.  Weather.  On Friday, we experienced some wild winds and rain and many communities in our area lost electric power for several days, including our daughters.  Then, over the weekend the weather seemed like spring was coming.  I spent two houses Sunday afternoon doing some clean up in the garden beds.  Then the frigid weather set back in, and we had ice and snow and below freezing temperatures.  Why is all this a fave?  Well, our weather isn't boring :)  We go from sunshine and daffodils to snow in 24 hours.  And we were all safe from falling trees and accidents.

From sunny daffodils from the garden...

to snow

2.  Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day.  And it was my Birthday!  T, S and L joined the Professor and me for breakfast at Denny's because I like their multi-grain pancakes.  Then in the evening, all the family (except Younger Son Dr, Mike in San Jose) enjoyed dinner at our house.  We ate green salad, green roasted veggies and two kinds of pot pie and a shepherds pie.  Notice the green and pie theme?  My choice for birthday dessert was triple berry pie.  Yum!  It was all so yummy!  Dr. Mike did text me to wish me a Happy Birthday, as did my brother in Oregon.  And many friends and family.  I felt greatly loved.

3. My Birthday Present(s).  Of course, I loved my presents.  A knitting pattern book.  A "coupon" for my daughter-in-law to help me organize all the books in our 'library'.  And last but not least, a trip to Goodwill because everything was 50% off on St. Patrick's Day AND there was a HUGE bin full of yarn bundles.  PAL and her mom and I may have mostly cleaned out the whole bin.  There were some high quality yarns in so many different colors.  When we brought them back to our house, we opened them all and shared them with the knitters in the family.  We all walked away with so. much. yarn.  Me?  I probably have a life time supply of sock yarn now.

PAL was very excited.

4. In the afternoon, the doorbell rang and I opened the door to a friend holding a bouquet of flowers!  The ladies in my Saturday morning Bible Study group gave me a beautiful gift of flowers and special cookies.  That was a wonderful surprise.

5.  Always Walks.  We managed to get in two walks this week.  One was inside the local mall where we just walked around in circles for two miles.  The other walk was today (Thursday) outside for 2.75 miles in sunshine and 60F temperatures.  As we were walking back on the local path by our house, I commented to The Professor that I am thankful to be well enough and active enough to be able to walk.

Bonus:  crocuses from my garden.

What blessings helped you say good-bye to WINTER and welcome to SPRING?