Spring Around Here

 While I have not been posting much of late, and still have not caught up visiting many blogging friends, you can see from this sketch that my nine year old granddaughter, Haley, has pictured me with pen in hand after she and I were working on reading together one day. [very kind of her to make me appear thinner than I am]

 Several weeks ago I was thrilled to see Mt.Hood from 307th Street near our home.  We are dashing about through many April showers so views of Mt. Hood are precious and few!

 One day between showers, my oldest daughter and her five daughters and I, hiked around our ponds to see what we could see.  Molly caught this beautiful little green frog who soon leaped down along his way.

 We admired the Holly trees still showing us their pretty red berries.

 Last year we could not find any Trillium in the woods, but this year we saw four!

 Johnson Creek is full and flowing along at a merry clip.

Thanks to Karen's post, I believe we saw a patch of Salmon Berries.

 These Pansies somehow survived our winter.

 Our neighbors across the drive had profuse blooms in their Camellia hedge.

 The Mallards are visiting us, and we hear geese cheering their way south in the skies over us.

 The Wild Cherry tree has gorgeous white blooms.

 Although, they were battered by an impressive hail storm recently.

However, after one such storm I looked up and saw this rainbow through the window to the right of the fireplace, then saw the other end of the rainbow through the window to the left of the fireplace.  By the time I aimed my camera through the left window the rainbow had faded and did not show up well in the photo, but seeing the rainbow that way is an exciting memory for me!

 Aren't these sweet heart coasters and hand painted card lovely?  My dear blogging friend, Pat, blessed me with them. Thank you again, Pat.

 Completing this crocheted pocket for my iPhone is my main crafting achievement since my last post...unless you count frogging many rows of a baby blanket as an achievement...sigh...

 While driving around our neighborhood I loved seeing this row of trees.

 The local nursery arboretum was coming alive with fresh colors.

 The Saturday before Easter my five granddaughters went hunting for eggs in the yard.

Sarah was pleased to find this one.

 Then on the way to church on Sunday while my youngest son in law was driving, this flock of sheep and our church sign came into view. Sheep not only remind me of my love of trying to tame fiber into yarn and fabric, but they also bring to mind numerous scripture verses that challenge and comfort me...chief among them, Isaiah 53:6 NKJV All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; Psalm 23 NKJV The Lord is my Shepherd...He restores my soul...I will fear no evil for You are with me...

Joy, my retired nurse, blogging friend from northeast England, sent me a wonderful hand-made card and note and a book mark for Easter, which I really appreciate and I thought some of you might like to see as well. Thank you again for your kindness and encouragement to me, Joy.

What season is around you there?  May you know comfort and joy in it!

xx
Gracie

Stormy Seaside Scrapping

Hi, All!  Thanks for coming to visit.  Four fabulous days on the Oregon Coast with good friends truly did fly by as we worked on our scrapbooks, ate out several times, shopped a bit, and enjoyed our surroundings and visiting with each other.

During our stay, a series of storms continued to roll in from the West over the waves.  We had one blinding flash of lightning followed within seconds by a mighty crack of thunder, but our power just flickered and the  steady flames in the gas fireplace provided welcome warmth.

We laughed a lot, shared some tears and our faith in God, prayed, listened to upbeat music, and made progress on all of our projects.  I finally finished my granddaughter, Rosie's first year album [she is now 28 months old]!

Three deer visited the yard of the house where we were staying, and between storms we saw a rainbow over the ocean, and one colorful sunset.

One of my friends and I also enjoyed knitting: she on dishcloths, and I on the current preemie blanket I am knitting with Lion Brand 100% acrylic Creme Glacee Helado yarn on my size six KnitPicks circular knitting needles.

Now home again, I'm enjoying our one perfect Camellia blossom, and I had fun swimming laps in the pool for an hour this afternoon with Teresa.

I got permission to share a photo with you of my precious new little California friend, Ian, modeling the baseball cap I crocheted for him, too :)

My week is off to a great start!  How is your week progressing?

Collaging

 Since my last post, my good friend Teresa came to meet my newest granddaughter, Sarah, while my oldest sister, Carolyn was visiting from CA.  Teresa generously brought beautiful pink booties she crocheted for Sarah. Thank you again, Teresa.

 After a week's fast and fun visit, Carolyn left, and one afternoon I came home from running errands and found a box waiting for me from my good friend, Betsy.  She sent me this lovely blown glass teapot because she knew I would enjoy it and I am!  It is sitting on a wonderful doily that Betsy crocheted. Thank you again, Betsy.

 Last February my good friend, Fran, gave me these primroses which have persistently bloomed on our front porch through our months of drought, and weeks of rain and frost. I am perplexed...wondering how they can be so hardy in spite of my care or lack their of! Thank you again, Fran.

 Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are visiting our front pond and we have already started hearing a new froggy chorus from the pond, especially at night.

 This last weekend I had great fun attending our worship art group at church.  We worked on making vision boards/folders. I don't have a good spot for a vision board on my wall so I opted to make a folding version from file folders.  I really am enjoying collaging the surface of both sides...not quite finished yet.

 Then I think I am going to put the words walking with Jesus on the folder and make foot shaped pieces of solid colored paper with words like love pray enjoy patience mercy and glory as goal reminders.

 Sunday afternoon my youngest daughter, Elisabeth, took this photo of the radiant rainbow we saw while standing on our front porch.

 My oldest son who lives just outside of NYC sent this photo and the next to show us how much snow they got from the East Coast blizzard!

He, his family and neighbors got plenty of exercise, and thankfully one of the neighbors helped clear pathways with his snowblower.

 This morning I enjoyed watching the sunlight stream through our windows onto my collage of collections.

Looking at all that I surround myself with can you tell that I love the simplicity of Japanese art displayed on the backdrop of black and white shoji screens?

Hoping your week is a satisfying, creative collage!

Gracie xx