Here's The Deal . . . .

For the next week & a half, I will still have 2 jobs.
I've decided I don't like having 2 jobs.
Plus, there are some family issues going on,
so I want to ignore my blog until April Fool's Day.
Or at least until 2 weekends from now,
which, I believe, is Easter weekend.

My plate is full.
So much so that I even dropped out of my concert for this season
since I was missing too many rehearsals.
THAT was a tough call.
Singing is my life.
But with getting up at 5 am to shower & get ready & drive 45 minutes to class,
teaching for 5 hours,
getting to work to put in the needed hours,
then going to rehearsal,
Mondays were a nightmare.

I won't be repeating this experience.
But, more on that later.
Until then,
after a long, white winter,
enjoy the spring.



Go outside, sniff the wind,
and drink in the sun.



See you on the flip side.

May in Hampton Roads

Late March & April are really the glory months around here - the azaleas are in full bloom, the Bradford pears are full of blossoms, redbuds cast a purple haze. Flowers are everywhere.

Then comes May. Just the word 'May' conjures up images of children frolicking in a field of blossoms. Ladies swinging on swings with flowers in their hair (thank you 'Camelot'). It's a lie, I tell you, a lie! Not here anyway. Aside from roses, May isn't very colorful in these parts. All of the early spring bulbs have long since disappeared, most of the spring blooms have withered away, and most yards are devoid of any color except green.

Don't get me wrong - green is a beautiful color. One of my favorites, in fact. And the greens of May are bright and vivid. Intense greens that glow in the sun before the heat of summer dries & dulls them.

But you have to avert your eyes to avoid seeing the poor azaleas after they are finished with their color. Sorry azaleas, but you are pretty dang ugly without your blooms. Look at these before & afters:

Pretty sad. There is one unexpected jewel, though. If you lift your face and breathe deeply, you will catch whiffs of a sweet scent. Weeds. Delicious, fragrant weeds! I am referring, specifically, to honeysuckle and ligustrum.

Honeysuckle evokes powerful memories. We didn't have any in Illinois, where we lived until I was 7. But then we moved to Chapel Hill, NC, and there was honeysuckle everywhere. In both white & yellow. The vines covered the entire north side of the property our apartment was on. Is there anything that paints a picture of childhood freedom more than snapping off the bottom of the flower and pulling out that one precious drop of sweetness to fall on your tongue? Dining on honeysuckle is like turning back the clock for me. I love the stuff.

Ligustrum is a weed bush. Referred in old times as a privet hedge, modern developers use it to excess because it is cheap and grows fast. Both sides of my front yard are bordered by these bushes, and one of my neighbors takes particular glee in wielding his electric hedge trimmers and shearing them to within an inch of their lives, into smooth symmetrical shapes. He usually did this in early spring, just when the new growth started, so they rarely had a chance to bloom. But this year, he is feeling the years creep up on him (he is in his mid-eighties) and hasn't gotten out the shears yet. I'm glad, because now the bushes have had a chance to bloom, and ligustrum flowers have a sweet perfume that brings a smile to my face.

That little vase of sweetness is now in my living room. And look who I found in my front yard on this overcast & drizzly morning.

A red letter day

A red-letter day because one of my 4 faithful readers actually asked for another blog post, and it hasn't even been a week. So I can't disappoint, even though I know he was just being polite. The trouble is, absolutely nothing intelligent or witty has crossed my mind this week. Wait, let me think . . . . . . nope, nothing.

I have been very busy at work preparing a presentation (over with as of this afternoon), so when I got home all week, I kind of zoned out. Besides, night before last, the furnace konked out (during the frigid temps), and it is just limping along until Saturday when it can be fixed properly. Luckily, it limped just enough Tuesday night for sufficient hot water to take a shower, but I had to turn it off after that. DURING THE COLD SNAP! I think I am ready for spring now. With the price of #2 fuel oil & the lack of snow, winter has definitely lost its charm.

But if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes....

Doesn't every city take questionable pride in that dubious claim? Really, with the exception of San Diego, which has the nicest weather in the solar system, most everyone else's weather changes, quite often in fact. Or 4 times a year at least. So we in Virginia Beach are nothing special when we make the same claim everyone else makes.

Last weekend, we finally got our (or I should say 'my') long-awaited snow and frigid temperatures. And again, the good folks to the south of us got multiple inches whilst we got only a wee dusting. T'aint fair. The problem is, this beautiful fluffy stuff came after some very mild, warm days, so all the spring the flowers were blooming. As a result . . .

These are my flowers

These are my flowers on ice.

Kind of makes you wonder if it was worth it. Between last Sunday and this coming Sunday, according to our local Hippy Dippy Weather Man, we will experience a 50 degree temperature increase. Holy cow!!

But this snowfall was nothing if not tenacious. In one of our courtyards at work, notice that the snow dast not cross over into the sun.

Don't you cross that line, you hear me snow?!

On one side is sun and spring. On the other side is shade and winter. Literally. It was as if someone spliced 2 different photos together. Weird.

I'll try to think of something brilliant for next time.

Feb 20th is supposed to be winter, right?

Well, you'd never know it by living in my fair city this year. There were a couple of close calls, but alas, only a few wayward flakes flew by. On the other hand, my friends and family in North Carolina - south of me, SOUTH, below, closer to the equator - reaped the benefits of our close calls. Look at this from my sister just south of Chapel Hill...

Awwwww

I love those pictures. And this picture, shamelessly stolen from my friend Rosie's blog (she lives on the Outer Banks)...

I ask you, what business do those people have getting my snow? When I look around here, what do I see?

My daffodils, drooping because the damn temps can't decide whether to be up, down, up, down.

The crocuses are blooming, and I love this one with the milkweed seed pod that floated by for a visit and sparkled in the morning light.

These are blooming abso-stinkin-lutely everywhere.

This is my camellia, a winter flower. It should be the ONLY color I see the middle of February, thank you very much. And now it's cold again with the possibility of another close call for snow that we won't get. Those daffodils are toast.


So, on this cold, but snowless night, BS & I had the last of our chili deliciousness from last week, and I made a dip for some blue corn tortilla chips.

Chopped onions caramelizing in olive oil & butter.

Oops, wait a second........I had to wipe off the camera on account of I drooled on it.

Mix with sour cream, lime juice, chopped fresh cilantro (I still had a lot left over), finely shredded cheese, some hot sauce, and those chips won't know what hit them. I was pleasantly surprised, having just pulled it out of my a......uh......made it up on the spot. At first I thought I put in a little too much lime juice, but BS reassured me of its perfection by pronouncing "that shitz the bomb." I can always count on him to give it to me straight.

Look - doesn't that look like a mound of snow? What, no? Well, I really didn't think so either, but I'll take fluffy white stuff wherever I can get it.

And in keeping with the whole seafood theme, I put it in my favorite pottery bowl with the blue crab on it and . . . . . wait, there is no seafood theme? Man, I can't get anything right tonight, can I?

I love Friday.