Earth Day

And what a better way to spend it than digging in the dirt. Now begins the season when my feet and fingernails are not often clean. I cannot pull weeds or plant things with gloves on and I despise walking in the garden with shoes on so that the dirt clumps up in the shoes...soooo no shoes no gloves and dirty dirty fingernails and feet!
I was however feeling a tad overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. There are gardens (oh there are lots of them) to till, veggies to plant, flower beds to clean up from last year's growth etc etc etc and I am thinking, 'Oh dear friend Mary how come you didn't tell me that there is so much work in the spring' . although I think you may have and I didn't believe you until I started to dig in. Then I realized it does not all need to be done in one day...phew! I did get onions, radishes, beets, lettuce and spinach in as well as a garden tilled and then that was enough of that. Cleaning last year's dead stuff out was all worth it when I was able to see new green growth coming up underneath it all. That inspired me to get the camera out, set the macros and take some close up shots.

This is the tree that was planted in memory of my mom. I find it interesting that red was her favorite color and look at the first color that this tree comes out with!
Jess, this is the PixiE magnolia, it's going to make it up here in the northland!
Another one of our newly planted trees is budding nicely.
And this is some of what I found after I cleaned out the old growth from the flower beds
Sedum coming through
Mary what is this? You gave it to me last year-Lambs Ear maybe?
You gave me this as well...what is it my friend Mary? And no I no longer have the markers by these plants. What happens to them do you think?
David spent the past three days working on the fire pit area. We...well he as I, thankfully, had the flu when he started this project and wasn't able to help him...I'm feeling bad about that...not. Anyway, he laid pavers and then sawed them (with a hand grinder!) to make the rounded edge. In the center will be the fire pit. Nice nice nice.

I had to end with this. One day last week on a walk by a local lake we found that the ice was out about three feet from the shore. Just enough for Tack to get a good swim in!

Minnesota Finally Has A Second US Senator

Or do we? Al Frankin has been deemed the winner but Norm may file yet another lawsuit. And so the story goes with Minnesota making national headlines.
On to topics that make more sense.
The snow is slowly melting here in the north land and the mud is dryng up. We can finally make it up our driveway fairly easily and yesterday I planted tomatoes, some herbs and a few flowers. Well I planted starter seeds in doors but hey I did dig in the dirt and it felt good.
Last weekend we stayed at the Leonard hotel. A very nice hotel that offers not only a room with a TV, our own private bathroom and a great supper of grilled chicken kabobs and grilled shrimp on skewers. But the creme de le creme is spending time with one of our three granddaughters. Oh how they change. Julia continues to teeth, drooling all over the place, chewing on everything she can get in her mouth, running a low grade temp etc but despite all of this she almost always has a smile on her face. She is sitting up on her own, rolls all over the place, loves to be on her feet in her walker and I swear she says momma. Len and Kel have 5 (yes 5) cats that Julia loves. The cats don't love her so much, in fact all but one run from her. She is eating new foods all of the time and seems to like most...when she isn't 'spitting it out' at her mom or dad. She finds it fun to make sounds with her lips and especially when her mouth is full of food. Oh and did I mention that she loves her grandma?
Julia playing peek-a-booGrandma having fun with the camera
When daddy found out that he was having a girl his fear was that she would be a girly girl and how was he going to handle that.....well well daddy picked this girly girl frilly, cute as can be Easter skirt out for his baby.
Grandparent-hood is the best. We just wish that we could see all of the grandkids more frequently.

April Fools 2009

As my good friend Mary says, "That Mother Nature is quite a trickster" and she proved it today.
After three days of snow..

We woke up to at least 12 inches of snow on the ground

However it was 40 degrees and the snow is beautiful. The dogs and I enjoyed trudging through the woods listening to...absolutely nothing. It was very quiet and peaceful.
Last week when the weather was nicer we took our walks at the Federal Dam Park. The geese were enjoying the warmer weather.

And we spotted this guy along with four of his friends. They had been feasting on a road kill in the ditch. We drove right up to the tree that he was in and he held his position for quite a while. We were so close that it is easy to see the feathers in his wing.
And then he flew away. This is a favorite shot of mine. I love to get them in flight, there is just something majestic about it.
I think that this is a pretty cool shot. If you look closely you can see two eagles in the tree while the third eagle flies by.
We have spotted more eagles this spring in a group than ever before. It has not been unusual to see two to four of them together.

Soon we will be able to plant right Mary?

Another Family Member's Special Day

Happy birthday to Jennie. Not only is Jen a new momBut she has recently started her own business. Jen has taken her love for yoga to another level and is sharing that love with others. I have put Jen's Facebook Yoga link below. Of course she does live in Corpus Christi so fly on down if you would like to attend one of her classes! Seriously, Jen will answer any questions you may have via email. David and I have used her expertise frequently.
Facebook | Jennie Woelpern's Notes

I don't think David and I will ever be able to do this no matter how much you tutor us Jen!Have a great day!

Grandma's Gotta Share

We have recently received updated photos of the grand kids. They grow way too fast and I so wish that we were all closer so that Grandpa and I could personally see each new spurt. However we are not close and are thankful that our kids keep us updated with photos.

Dezbah is growing like a week. They are currently living in Arizona with Melvin's mom on the rez. Here she is looking ready for Easter in her purple outfit

Abs was born a serious young lady but she has since begun to belly laugh and will be walking soon I am sure

Kelly reports that Julia loves her first pair of sunglasses and by golly it looks like she is quite pleased with them!

Sort of reminds me of her great grandma!

Back Home

And we have gone from our typical Isla fashion ofShorts, sleeveless tops and no shoes

To our typical northern MN fashion of

Coats (blaze orange being the favorite), camo hats and dorky muck luc boots for walking in the mud and water...ahhh Minnesota!

Although we miss our newly made Isla friends we are glad to be home. It is the simple pleasures that you forget about when you are in a place such as Isla....being able to flush toilet paper, finding a GOOD tasting cheeseburger, being able to drink water from a tap and sleeping in your own bed...to name but a few.

Bugs, is it any wonder why I don't often post pictures of me? And Len I can see you shaking your head thinking, 'Only my mom would post a dorky picture like that'.

The Progession Of A Day

On Isla Mujeres Quinta Roo Mexico

The rising sun over the water beckoning a new day

A beautiful sunset, at the end of a wonderful day, from a friend's rooftop
The moon as it rises with the promise of another day
There is not much more that can be said as we spend our last full day on this magical island except for thank you to all that live here for sharing your little gem in Quinta Roo

Our 'Fill In' Animal Family

We miss our dogs but have found fill ins for the time being. Not only have we met the neighborhood locals that live on our street (and wonderful people they are) but we have 'adopted' their animals as well.

This is Petey. He lives down the road with Joy. Joy has lived here for 23 years and is the owner of Cielito Lindo Beach Studio Apartments. They are very nice by the way....if you are ever in need. Anyway her and Petey walk by our house every morning. He has an awful story that turned out quite good. Joy rescued Petey as a 10 week old pup that a local fisherman had on his boat ready to go out fishing and Petey was going to be bait for sharks. The culture as it regards to animals is interesting here to say the least. Dogs and cats are wild for the most part. In an effort to control the population the municipales capture the dogs that don't have collars, and electrocute them. Because they cannot catch the cats they poison them. Many folks are attempting to educate the islanders on how to care for animals and it seems to be working. However, their way of thinking seems to be skewed in my opinion. For instance, the vet here will nutter or spay for free. But the locals choose to not have this done in many cases especially with the male dogs as they feel that the male dogs can only be happy if they are able to have sex and reproduce. BUT they don't feel that their dogs need to be given water, 'They will find it if the need it' is the thought, and they are often kept on very short leashes tied to the houses. So Petey got very lucky!
Then there is Whiskey. He is a beautiful dog that all of the fishermen actually like. It could be because a fishermen owns him and he hangs out with them everyday as they are cleaning the fish. He too has quite a story. About a year ago he was hit on the main road by a taxi. He was drug for about a block 'screaming' the entire way. along with other injuries he broke his jaw which had to be wired in order to heal. You would think that he would have learned to stay off of the road....no. Sometime later he was hit again not suffering as many injuries. The taxi drivers here (some of them) actually veer to hit the dogs. As an animal lover you can bet that it is not only hard to see these animals treated so terribly but to hear the stories!
And this little lady(the one under David's chair, not the one on a chair!). We have no clue what her name is but she lives with a family down the street. She had never been to see us but one day we had our doors open and had our Isla friends over for breakfast. In came this little pup and sat right down by David. Of course she got her petting. She stayed for quite awhile and we haven't had her come by since!
Now the birds...the locals respect these animals for some reason or another. The taxis veer to miss them and all of the locals talk to them. Every morning when we open our doors we have at least three of them waiting to be fed their bread crumbs.Because we have a kitchenette we eat breakfast and lunch in our room. This is where we get our vegetables, fruit and wonderfully fresh squeezed orange juice.And in the very same building is the meat market. Just makes you want to become a vegetarian doesn't it?
And of course the tortilla factoryA bird dance on the beach?
No they are just waiting for scraps from the fishermen as they come in.The beach before the crowds come. The crowds have actually been less this year with the economy such as it is. The peso is at 14.20 to 1 for US dollars which is good for us but then of course they raise the prices of their goods.Well our beach time is coming to an end so I better get to it and soak up as much as I can.

Simple Words To Live By

Pay attention in class
Complete your tasks


Do not compete in the classroom

I couldn't get the online Spanish to English conversion to figure this one out for me but I am guessing it is something like-Help your classmates
On line conversion couldnt figure this one out either...and I have no clue!

Be kind to your friends
Do your grooming
Attend your classes on time
Complete your tasks
Respect your colleagues
These are painted on the walls that surround what is like our elementary school.
The spelling down here is interesting, and their sentence structure is way different than ours. When they convert a message to English for instance it will say- Do not parking, as opposed to No parking. So unless you are fluent in Spanish converting isnt so easy.