Adventures

Springing Forward With Shades of My Green With Envy Moments This Past Week

Shelley

Ms. Snarken’s signature attempt to take over another post started out like this, “It’s blah outside… the greens of Spring are hard to find. What will you do to pull off another post? I don’t envy you.”

“I dunno…there are always bird and bunny photos.”

“Haven’t you had enough of those yet? You’ll have to start calling yourself the Bird Lady.”

Ignoring the obvious in her words of springing forward wisdom, I scrolled through my SD card to see if I had any photos that would fit or if I’d have to take more.

This one is a keeper. It shows how the bunny blends into the brown grass by the fire pit. I adore the vintage vibes to it. The fire pit is on the to-do list to remove this summer. Not the best ‘green’ I’ve seen though.

Even the bunnies are scrambling back and forth trying to find fresh green grass to eat. The photo below is blurry, but it fits the week that was. We practiced Spring-ahead mode all week so our cats wouldn’t be too messed up. Now I feel like I’m late for something.

I paused to see if Dessy wanted to pose as she begged to be fed. Um…nope.

A picture from the past shows her beautiful green eyes. It’s hard to resist that let’s play look. Aww…

I scrolled some more. Ah, yes! We did get some freezing rain last week. It was fun to see the rain drops hanging on the tree branches.

The Cardinal couple and a shy House Finch were impressed with the moisture too.

Here’s a photo of a male House Finch posing for you to enjoy.

I had watched a couple of Mourning Doves investigate the rocks and the wellhead. This one watched the other one put on quite the show.

With its signature green eyeliner, it glanced up at me. Doesn’t its beak look like it is glowing?

Closed its eyelids as it preened.

Fluffed and puffed its feathers and dropped a plop of poop. Who knew I’d be at the ready with my camera as I witnessed its poop dance. Jealous, aren’t you? Do you shake your head when you shake your whole body? Or are you like a dove and keep your head steady? Did you just try to make sure? 😉

After scrolling through recent photos on the SD card, I wasn’t quite satisfied. Mr. asked what the prompts were. I told him, hoping he might be able to help. He streamed his thoughts with minimal effort.

“Cat eyes, dove eyes, Matcha, garlic stick, your cup. . .”

“Um, duh, thanks!”

With the power, fueled by my afternoon ceremonial Matcha snack, Mr.’s advice, camera at the ready, and all 3 prompts written on a post-it note, I set out to make them all fit together.

The green Matcha in the signature cup with Mrs. scrolled across the surface with circular wonders fit them all. Could I stop there?

Um…you know me, nope, I had to keep going.

“You can live your whole life not realizing that what you’re looking for is right in front of you.”

David Nicholls

Circular green wonders exist when I look around in life surrounding me in our home-sweet-home.

I took a sip of the green bubbles in the Matcha froth.

The parsley, sage, and rosemary paintings (painted by my youngest daughter) on the soft green wall.

I watered my plants and smiled at how happy the green Shamrock was to greet the warm sun through the windows.

I put fresh water in the vase where a couple of Umbrella plant sprouts are getting their roots to grow. Soon I’ll be able to plant them in pots.

The contrasting greens of the new sprout are fun to see.

And then, I realized I was done. I came full circle in our kitchen/dining area. Well, dang, it was easier than I thought it would be. I bet Ms. Snarken is green with envy. 🤔😉

Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hills’ Stream of Consciousness Saturday Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “signa…” Find a word that starts with “signa” and use it in your post. Enjoy! Terri Webster Schrandts’ Sunday Stills Mar 10 Monthly Color Challenge: GREEN (any shade), and Anne-Christine for Lens-Artists #290 Circular Wonders.

PS – What is your favorite shade of green? What is your favorite sign of spring? Do you drink tea? What flavor do you like? Do you like to propagate your own plants, if so have you had luck with Umbrella plants?

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

47 thoughts on “Springing Forward With Shades of My Green With Envy Moments This Past Week”

  1. Do you shake your head when you shake your whole body? Or are you like a dove and keep your head steady? Did you just try to make sure? Heck ‘ya I checked. I shake both head and body, thank you very much.

    Your daughter’s paintings are beautiful and look great framed like they are.

    1. Thank you for sharing, Ally, I love it that you played along. I do the same. 🤣

      I appreciate your compliment for the paintings. I have Thyme too, it’s just on another wall. All I had to do was help pay her way through SAIC and with talented gratitude she’ll paint for me upon request 😊😉

  2. I love your photos, Shelley! The birds are so cute. Your daughter is very talented, they paintings are beautiful. There are groups trying to eliminate the stupid daylight saving time. It serves no purpose today and nobody wants it. I hope this is stopped soon. Arizona doesn’t use DST. Smart!

    1. Thanks, John, I appreciate your words of encouragement.
      I agree, let’s just pick one or the other and stop changing. I’d even be content with a compromise of 1/2 hour. Just do it! 🤣

      1. A half hour was mentioned on the weather channel yesterday! This just has to stop. Why it hasn’t happened yet is ridiculous.

  3. Your photos are lovely, Shelley, and don’t ever worry that we’ll get tired of seeing those. In addition to being beautiful, you remind us that there is beauty all around us.

    The quote by David Nicholls is wonderful.

    1. Thank you for your words of encouragement, Dan.
      I’m jealous of the photos you shared in your posts – wow you’ve gotten a lot of rain!

  4. Ms Snarken should be green with envy, Shelley! WELL DONE on these green images! I’m glad you could include the L-A circular theme this week (I had just done this back in November). I almost used my image of the hummingbird in the green background with the circular red feeder but realized I had already shared it. Your morning dove sure put on a good show for you, LOL! Your cat’s green eyes are beautiful and so are the images of the birds against the green background! Love those cardinals!

    As for the ridiculousness of daylight saving time, I keep reading how our votes to abolish it are ignored or overruled by government in favor of the idea that we save money by being outdoors longer and saving $ on lights and electric. I cry BS since I have to get up in the dark and keep the lights on longer. We used to change the clocks late in April for 6 months rather than the 8-month time frame we use now. I don’t know of anyone who is in favor of this ancient idea for saving energy. I think we should cast our votes for politicians who want to abolish DST. Grrr.

    1. Hi Terri – I love reading your comments and words of encouragement. You’re so lively, even if you’re tired from the time change!

      Yes, I agree with the time change – it is ridiculous and not necessary. How long does it take to decide that it isn’t worth keeping the ancient idea? Now it makes me wonder about the people running in our state who agrees and who disagrees and why…!

  5. Hi. You have some really fine photos here. The one with the cardinal is terrific, not only for the bird’s bright red color, but also for the amazing patterns formed by the tree branches. Neil

    1. Hi Neil, thank you for your words of encouragement. I’m always tickled to see the pop of red in the tree. We have a lot of Cardinals in our neighborhood this year – the males sing to us as we walk by. It’s magical.

      PS – I’m still smiling about your visit from Edgar and the children’s book attempt. 😊

  7. So many shades of green in life. I wonder about the number of shades of green in nature – even creating a line-up of natural shades. In our house, green is mainly an accent color … such as an accent wall – actually in three rooms (same shade twice). Both are very rich tones – plus one room that is a sage color. Green is also an accent on some art work. Oh well … great green eyes on your cat. 🙂

    1. Yes, and funny you mention the wonder about shades of green in nature. My mind went there when I was looking through the photos and I even said to myself, “I wonder if Frank did an essay on shades of green in nature?”
      Thank you, Dessy uses those beautiful eyes to melt our hearts and to get fed regularly. 🤣

        1. Thank you for sharing the link, Frank, I knew you’d have an essay on Green. I enjoyed the lessons about Emerald Coast and seeing Margaret’s paintings. It was another delightful essay to read!

    1. Aw, dang…I know exactly how you’re feeling. Yesterday it was only 18 degrees. I hope that the cooler temps are keeping the trees and the plants from sprouting too early. We can get snow up until the middle of April here.

      Thank you, I love those paintings too. I think of her every time I look at them. They were a Mother’s Day gift from her in 2021. 🥰

  9. You did very well coming up with a slew of green items to photograph … the prettiest were a pair of wondering cat eyes. Dessy’s eyes are a beautiful shade of green!

    My favorite shade of green would be an earth tone, like a mossy green or an avocado color, nothing bright though. I am not a tea drinker, but I have several boxes of green tea, still unopened, bought in the Fall. I get home from walking or errands and have a snack before work, so that’s coffee, some V-8 low sodium juice, then two glasses of water with my vitamins. By the time I remember I should have the tea, it is getting late in the day. I’ve never tried matcha tea but I know it is good for you. Right now I have no greenery in the house and it’s looking a bit sad outside too. When we moved here in 1966, the next-door neighbor was in her 80s. Her husband bought her one rose bush as a housewarming present. She kept propagating that pink rose bush so that her entire yard was filled with pink rosebushes. I wrote about Mary and her prized roses once. After she went to live in a nursing home, her house was sold and the new owner cleared the yard of rosebushes to put up a huge workshop for woodworking, a metal shed for the mower, plus kept his boat back there on the grass. Mary would have rolled over in her grave had she known.

    1. Thank you, Linda, the more I looked around, the more green I saw. I can see you enjoying those shades of green – nature walks are a great place to see them.

      Oh, dear on the roses – that’s so sad as it takes a long time to get them to be so happy and to regrow each year. Your story reminds me of when the trees across from our front yard were torn down and a huge shed was built that houses a bunch of equipment. It took over the view of the sunrise. That guy has so many toys…so many toys…

      1. Yes, green is so vivid in the Summer and everything is still so blah in the tail end of Winter.

        I’d be bummed about the “new view” blocking the sunrise too. And your story reminds me of my first WP follow, Uncle Tree. He lives in Nebraska, across from a golf course. So he had an unobstructed view of the sunrise like you HAD. On the outskirts of the golf course was a bush that was misshapen and missing some branches in the inside part of it … it was heart shaped and sometimes he would photograph the sunrise, honing in on the sun coming through the bush making it look like the bush was on fire. One day he came home from work and was sitting on the patio and noticed the bush had been trimmed almost to the ground.

        1. Yes, the blahs are here! The ice on the lakes have all melted too. I guess Phil was right that spring would be early.

          Thanks for remembering about the pre-shed sunrise views. Aw…I’d be so sad too to have that bush trimmed. 😭 I’ll have to look back at my photos of the lot before the shed was built. I did enjoy those sunrises!

          1. Well our Michigan groundhog said Phil was wrong. We are supposed to have two weeks of cold weather starting Sunday and the “snow” word is being bandied about.

            You’ll find something … without a clear vista, sunrises and sunsets are nothing special for me.

          2. Yeah, we’re going to get a cold spell too. 😏
            We’ll both figure something out for the prompt, we always do. 😆

  10. I love all your bird photos, and would happily be called The Bird Lady if someone decided that name fit me! Signs of spring around here: it’s awfully rainy and soggy, and the daffodils are already blooming, which seems early. My husband’s favorite spring flower is hydrangea and mine’s tulip, so I think I’ll have to get us a nice bouquet for our anniversary on the 20th. 20 years–woot! I look forward to more of your beautiful springtime photos, Shelley!

    1. Aw, thank you, Rebecca, I’m grateful you’re a fellow bird lover.
      I wish you could share some of the rain with us, but if we get rain too early the flowers and the trees budding take a beating when another snow storm arrives or bitter frost pops back in for an appearance.
      I wish I could grow hydrangea’s and tulips. They just don’t seem to survive here. I love that idea for your anniversary! Ah…20 years is a wonderful accomplishment to celebrate. Congratulations!!! 🥰😍💐🌷💖

  11. A lovely gang of greens Shelley 😍 Where would you be without the ideas men in your life 😁 Probably looking into Dessys eyes and asking her if she knows of anything green you can use in your post 😂

    1. Thank you, Debbie! Dessy is a charmer. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for your Sunday Stills on a Monday for the green prompt!

  13. Green is my favourite colour – and plants are my favourite hobby plus animals of course. You have pleased me with everything! Dessy’s circular wonders stay with me…and you had me at the matcha again, and your daughters’ paintings. Sigh…my day’s worth of green!

    1. Aw, Anne-Christine, I’m happy you found joy in my post like I found joy in yours! We’re green with joy not envy, that’s special indeed!

  14. Full circle indeed. Dessy’s green eyes are the best…and she knows exactly how to use them, doesn’t she? I love the brilliant colored cardinal! Who cares about green when a cardinal presents himself like that. lol. You reminded me that I forgot to get a shamrock plant this year. I was so busy planting my raised bed with veggies and planning our next trip, it went by the wayside. I guess it’s not too late, but maybe I will just get a shamrock shake this year. I hear they still make them . Great post, Shelley.

    1. Thank you for your words of encouragement, Donna.
      Yes, Dessy uses those eyes often to get her way.
      The male Cardinal has become very comfortable with seeing us, so he’s around often which is fun to see.
      You plant new Shamrocks each year? I wonder if I planted mine outside if it would come back next year? Hmm? My vote is for you to buy the plant, the shamrock shake would give you enough sugar to last a lifetime. You’re sweet enough without that! 🥰

      1. lol. Love your love. Thank you Shelley. No I don’t plant the shamrocks outside, I just love them in the house this time of year. I should try it outside. You are lucky to have the cardinal. They are pretty elusive here.

        1. You’re welcome! 🥰😊 My shamrock loves living in our tea house throughout the summer.
          I bet the cardinals would melt in AZ 😅

  15. I love the mood on the tree branches and then on the House Finch, the colours so beautiful. Your daughter’s paintings are gorgeous, you’ve found the perfect setting for them.

    1. Thank you for your words of encouragement, Sofia. I was happy with those two photos too.
      I love staring at my daughter’s paintings, they are treasures to me. 🥰
      I enjoyed your take on the prompt too. Well done!

  16. I just bought a shirt recently in a color called Fairway, kind of a muted green with shades of gray. I like that color. In fact, green might be my favorite color. Just about any shade…

    My favorite sign of spring is the return of baseball, of course!

    I’ve never been a tea drinker, nor a horticulturist…

    1. I bet that shirt looks great on you with your gray hair. The shades of green you described are my favorites too.

      Yes, you and baseball are a happy spring thing.

      I wasn’t a tea drinker until our daughter introduced us to Matcha.

      Not a horticulturist…but you have a daily blogging track record that is astonishing!! 😉

    1. Thank you, Kirstin. I think the nasty weather is less annoying for me knowing I’ll escape it for a bit. 🤣

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