Eye Candy.......

everywhere.....just everywhere. Green grass, trees leafing out and the flowers....oh the flowers. It amazes me how these delicate looking flowers can withstand the brutal winters we have here.....hidden underneath the soil, sleeping and waiting for the sun's warmth to entice them from their sleep to poke their heads above ground and explode in gorgeous colorful beauty for all to see. I love summer but this time of year is special. Its rebirth....and anyone who slows down long enough to absorb the beauty of it is rewarded with a calmness.....something soothing for our busy minds.....a time to take a deep breath and just sigh and say.......oh yessss.

Everything outside is perking up and I love it. Today I awoke at 7 a.m. to a very dark morning. I let the dog out and heard the rumblings of thunder and then saw a few flashes of lightning. I got her safely back inside and within five minutes we had a thundershower. A nice soaking one that does the plants and grass so much good. I looked at the dog and she looked at me and we decided mutually that this is Saturday.....and Saturdays can be what you want them to be if you don't have to work. So we went back to bed and snuggled under the comforter and listened to the rumblings of the thunder and the rain pattering on the roof before dropping back to sleep for a couple more hours. These are the occasions that I experience a sense of well-being and thankfulness. Thankful for the blessings that I have, that I'm warm and dry and safe.

Its been cloudy and rainy all day and the same is forecast for tomorrow. I don't mind because I know we need it to make everything out there grow. I checked my peony bush and right on schedule, the ants are frolicking all over the buds, encouraging them to open up and expose their beauty for all to see. You know peony bushes are fussy. This particular one belonged to my best friend and next door neighbor. When she moved out of state, she told me I could have the peony bush that grew beside her front door. Another friend dug a hole close to my front door which faces the same direction as hers and walked over to her house, dug up her bush and brought it over here and plunked it into the hole by my door. This was in November. I don't really have a green thumb even though I love plants and some of my green thumb friends told me that peony bushes are finicky and it would probably not bloom for a couple years since it had been moved. So I prepared myself for it but was pleasantly surprised when it did bloom, right on time.

Now this has always been a funny story with me because it was as if the peony bush didn't realize it had been moved since it was facing the exact same direction and apparently my friend plunked it down into the new hole the same way it was taken out of the old one. Anyway, it bloomed and I picture it opening its buds and taking a look around only to be shocked that it had been moved while it had been sleeping. After gasping in horror, it promptly lifted its leafy skirts, curled up its roots and refused to bloom for two years afterward, being all indignant over the move. But finally it got itself calmed down and back on track. It has doubled its size and has bloomed every year now for 18 years. This picture is a few years old and doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea. Its just beautiful.