Aren't they beautiful? Like little jewels hovering in the air. I love the way this one's wings light up in the sunlight. I first noticed the activity today when i took the dogs out this morning. There was a swarm of dragonflies in the park. It was when I was checking on my roses that I saw another swarm in our backyard.
Most of the dragonflies are hovering around in the air (one even buzzed my ear) but these ones are taking a break and clinging to the chain link fence. I don't know if they are freshly hatched or if this is the behavior they exhibit for their mating season. In either case, it made for some nice photographs.
This afternoon at lunch, Michael and I were sitting at the table in the kitchen when I looked out across the road by the mailbox and yelled, "Blayze got outside again!" Michael said she must have snuck out when he came in the door. (She tends to do that sometimes)
I kept watching as he went down the stairs to go outside and I yelled to him, "Wait, that's not Blayze." He looked out the door and the border collie in question was walking toward our house then it turned and went back into the park. "Sure it's her" he said. I had the other three dogs around me and then Blayze must have heard her name and she walked out of the bedroom where she was taking a nap. "No honey, she's right here."
We decided we should get a hold of this loose dog and find it's owner. Mike went out into the park with a handful of treats and I went to find a leash to bring to him. He followed the dog along a neighbors fence line and finally got it's collar. It was a cute little border collie mix. I brought him the leash and he took the dog into the park to see if it belonged to anyone there. The people in the park said it wasn't theirs and it had been wandering around all morning. Luckily "Bandit" had ID tags. I got my cell phone and we called both numbers on the dog's tag. We got voicemail each time but left a message on the cell phone. Then we called the vet to see if they could track down the owner's address according to its rabies tag. As the vet had me on hold, the owner called and we arranged to put the dog back into their house while they were at work. They were only 3 blocks away. They gave us the access code to the laundry room. When we got there, we found that bandit lived in one of the nicest houses in the neighborhood. Now why on earth would that doggie want to run away from there?
Strawberry season is going strong here in Minnesota. It was a late season, so there's plenty more strawberries to be had. Michael and I picked 16lbs yesterday.
We sold our house. Now we can start building the new one. In the meantime we'll be renting at a little duplex not far from here. I'll be sad to say goodbye to my flowerbeds and big kitchen, but it's only for about a year. Then things will be new and better! I just have to keep reminding myself of that for the next year.
Aren't they beautiful? Like little jewels hovering in the air. I love the way this one's wings light up in the sunlight. I first noticed the activity today when i took the dogs out this morning. There was a swarm of dragonflies in the park. It was when I was checking on my roses that I saw another swarm in our backyard.
Most of the dragonflies are hovering around in the air (one even buzzed my ear) but these ones are taking a break and clinging to the chain link fence. I don't know if they are freshly hatched or if this is the behavior they exhibit for their mating season. In either case, it made for some nice photographs.
This weekend was a bridal shower for our oldest niece who is getting married in June. I originally tried making this recipe, but it was too sour and not what I was looking for. So I changed the recipe and added twice as much marscapone and half as much lime and added a dash of vanilla to take the bite off. They turned out just like the light lunch dessert I wanted all along. 
I also made 2 of the blueberry lime pound-cakes that I made for Mother's Day. Her colors are wasabi green and pink, so I used limes and bleeding heart blossoms as my decoration.
Today is one of those days when the air is heavy with the perfume of lilac and other spring blossoms.
We have a large patch of violets in the woods on our new property. It took me about 30 minutes to pick all these. It didn't help that I am six months pregnant and my joints were killing me from bending over or squatting to pick flowers. 
I followed the recipe I had to a "T" but it neglected to mention that you often need to add a drop of blue food coloring because the flower infusion turns pink when it gets diluted with sugar. Arg!
I recognize the Baltimore Oriole in the above photo, but I have no clue who the little guy in the lower picture is.
