Blow the House Down!

Yesterday was cool but sunny and I spent all day working in the garden. Today was not so nice. I was out early pulling plants to take to a plant swap this afternoon. It was cold and windy.

The swap was great and I was in a good mood until I got home. The wind continued to increase all afternoon. I pulled in the driveway and just about cried at the sight of my brand new screen room.
I thought the wind had ripped it down and it probably would have if John hadn't taken the canvas down. The wind blew so hard it knocked the flower heads off of these iris.


Even here in Snowville it is supposed to be safe to plant after Memorial Day. Our new vegetable garden was planted yesterday. We should have waited until next weekend I guess. We're under a frost warning and a FREEZE advisory tonight!!! So here's what the vegetable garden looks like tonight.


Four weeks of school to go. I'm really counting on summer to be here by then!

Dancing the Night Away

Nikki and Liz had their dance recital on Friday night. I had the chance to see several of my students perform, past, present and even future. The pre-schoolers were adorable as always but my girls were certainly the stars!

It is impossible to get a good picture with my little camera from 50 feet away, especially if the subjects are moving. Here are the best two of the night.

Seven

Alex is about to turn seven so we had cake and ice cream for him here last week. He invited the kids who live next door so we had seven kids - quite a crowd for my little house. We won't be able to see him on his birthday because he's at Disney. I think he'll remember his 7th birthday forever.

Road-eo in the Rain

The regional road-eo was today and boy was it a miserable day to compete. I got soaked through when we walked the course. I'd just start to dry out and it was time to go outside and get soaked again. The judges had it much worse than we did as they had to be outside all day. We had a very long delay due to lightning.

The scoring system has changed since I last competed and a few other things had changed. I figured I did OK on the written tests and pretrip. I was one of the last drivers on the course and by then it was no longer fun, I was wet, cold and ready to go home. I made some mistakes and was very unhappy with myself.

I was shocked when they announced that I'd finished 2nd in my class! Woo-hoo!!!! I'll be competing at the state level in July.

Thanks Miriam!

Miriam at AnceStories has kindly nominated The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree for the One Lovely Blog award. Miriam is one of the first friends I made when I started blogging and I do hope that one day we will be able to meet.

I feel quite undeserving of this award as my recent battle with the blues has kept me from blogging the last few weeks. I'll try and do better ;-)

I am supposed to nominate seven other blogs for this award.

Kerri, at Colors of the Garden, is another person that I formed an early friendship. Her pictures are always beautiful and she shares her knowledge freely.

Edith at Hawa's Musings is another bus driver and her spring isn't going any better than mine. She's currently looking for the positive and I hope this award cheers her up.

ThreeCollie is another" neighbor." She and her family work harder than anyone else I know on one the the few remaining family run dairy farms in New York. At Northview Diary I find beautiful pictures, a smattering of politics and lots of humor.

Notes of Life by Nikki-ann is beautifully done. I love being able to visit Wales without leaving my living room.

No matter what life throws at her Susie stays positive. Her west coast pictures at Susie's Space, help me through the long winters here.

Heather is another bus driver. I find her younger outlook on life refreshing at A Day in the Life.

Velda is another "neighbor," never mind that Lake Ontario and the US Canadian border are between us. Velda's Place is about family and friends with some local history thrown in.

More Apple Whine

I've been away from blogging for quite awhile now. I was sick enough to be miserable but not sick enough to miss work for a couple of weeks and then things (mostly work) simply got so stressful that I basically stopped doing anything I didn't have too. Instead I've spent hours in the garden, read a few novels and become addicted to Peggle.

We normally keep our routes from year to year, however due to a change I'm not sure I can talk about yet, all of our routes for next year went up for bid. The not knowing what we were going to get was stressful for everyone. Some of the drivers will be loosing a 1/4 of their hours and others are loosing overtime that they have come to count on. Bidding is finally over and I am quite relieved that I will have routes very similar to what I have this year and will retain 40-45% of my students. Knowing that I will be loosing so many has made me quite sad, as I've had my routes for five years.

We also had to move into our new facility before it was finished. I'm thrilled for our mechanics that they have such a great garage to work in. We've all been told not to say anything negative because it will be great once it's done, and I'm sure it will be. It is much larger than than the very old and cramped space that we've left behind. I anticipate loosing lots of weight walking up and down the giant hill gentle slope that we now park on. I hope the flat tire I got from a screw in the new parking lot was a one time thing.

There have been lots of other little things that by themselves don't amount to much but so many, so close together just piled up. I've found myself angry over things that normally I'd just shrug off. Hopefully with things starting to sort themselves out things will get back to normal - and so will I.

Twig Turns Three

My youngest grandchild is already 3!
Happy Birthday Twig!

Belated Happy Birthday

Nikki is nine! Where have the years gone? I remember coming home, exhausted and depressed after the death of my father, and getting an early phone call the next morning. She had waited for my return and refilled my soul with joy.

Happy Birthday Princess!