Early Start

Mike and I were both awake early this morning. There seems to be a "witching hour" in the morning when it's really too early to be up, and yet too late to go back to sleep if we are awakened. We're heading to the beach this afternoon, and so maybe the anticipation of the trip has us both too wired to go back to sleep. Either way, awake we are, and there's still plenty to do before we go. The food is packed...a pretty simple job for a quick trip. I still need to pack my personal belongings, water the flower pots, and fill the bird feeders. Also, for this quick trip, the kitties are staying home, and so I need to leave them plenty of food and water. They have strict instructions not to have any parties while we're gone. And under no circumstances may they invite any squirrels or birds into the house.

There isn't a whole lot to say about yesterday. Spring mornings always start with a walk around the house to see what's blooming. There's nothing new, although I'm watching the poppies and peonies like a hawk. Still just one has opened, but there are lots of buds on this plant and its neighbor to the north.

The lithodora is a carpet of dark blue. It's a ground cover plant, and it spans an area about ten feet in diameter.

I noticed the dappled willow tree is developing pink tips. 

This tree was planted to replace another tree that had to be taken down several years back. I'd seen them around town, and thought they were so pretty. In spring, they put out these pink shoots. Here's a picture I swiped off the internet so you can see what I'm talking about.

Ours has never looked like this in the approximately three seasons it's been in the ground. Maybe this will be the year. Looking at this photo, I'm thinking we might need to give ours a haircut and shape it a little better. It's pretty shaggy as it is.

Back inside, I went to work on my slow-stitching. It was the rarest of mornings when both kitties shared my lap and my quilt.

After breakfast, we had more business to take care of in town. We were able to finish the banking business we'd started the day before. I hate that sort of thing. It always seems so boring and time-consuming. We had some lunch and then headed for home. Mike had plans to help Matthew move into his new rental house on the other side of town. Matthew was mostly moved in, but he needed some help with some of the awkward and heavier items. While he was gone, I finished the top-stitching on the Dancing Chickens block. This block is called "Sipping Tea Under the Tree."

It's ready for hand-stitching now, and you can see there isn't a lot to do there. I can probably finish it up in one sitting. I'll take it with me this weekend. There is still a little bit left to do on the Irish Blessing stitchery. I'm hoping both pieces will be finished when I bring them home again.

The kitties have been spending a lot of time outside these days. The weather has improved from our usual winter gloom, and the squirrels are running roughshod over the place. Smitty has caught four in the past couple of weeks. Sadie is there for moral support. She's always ready to come in before he is, and I'll often find her napping on the catio, even though the door is open.

When Mike arrived home, it was cocktail hour, and I was itching to try out the strawberry-infused vodka. It's life span has included infusing:

Rebottling:

And now...consumption. This is the Lemon Drop Mike made for me yesterday. Very tasty and refreshing. I gave you a link to the recipe in yesterday's post. Mike makes it simply by 1.5 ounces of the infused vodka to 1.5 ounces of sweet and sour mix. He also adds a dribble of fresh lemon juice. I like the tartness. Pretty, huh?

And that was a nice way to end the day. 

So I won't be blogging over the weekend, but I'll be back Monday to tell you all about it. Erik and Mae are joining us for dinner on Saturday evening, and so we're looking forward to that. We're expecting reasonable weather, although not particularly warm. Still, we're hoping to get out for at least one walk on the beach, or maybe a hike if the weather allows.