It has been a busy week with work, school stuff, doctors appointments and waiting in line at the post office. Now it's time for some gratitude.
A new regional park was opened last weekend and the Geek and I decided to go for a hike there on Monday (remember? that was a holiday). While it was still busy, we didn't experience the craziness of the two days before. It was easy to find a parking space, chat with the ranger and then take off. The park has a sunny part and a shady trail through the redwood trees, connecting to a bigger state park. We chose the sunny part, leaving the shady part for the hot days in summer.
It was beautiful. We hiked up the mountain where we were rewarded with wonderful views over the mountains, vineyards and the plain over to the Coastal Range where the coastal fog already rolled in. We heard birds and listened to the wind rustling in the leaves of the trees. It was so relaxing and refreshing. How lucky we are to have such a jewel so close by!
After our hike we went shopping at CostPlus World Market on our way back home - the Geek still had a coupon we wanted to use. Lucky for us they had a special on a German chocolate we love and bought quite a bit of that. It's always nice to have little reminders of our native country at home!
The first tulip of the season appeared in my garden! Tulips usually don't do too well here since winters are not cold enough. When I buy bulbs - these ones I got at Costco - I first give them a six week chill in my fridge before they go in the ground. Even then they are only good for one season and seldom come back the following year. I simply can't imagine a spring garden without tulips, so I repeat this every year. The nice thing about it is that I can always have different colors. These ones are yellowish-white with a pink edge around the petals.
Our coyotes are still here. At the beginning of the week they were very close and howled at 5:00 in the morning which actually got our neighbors talking. Many didn't know what this "eerie" sound (their words) was, and we advised everybody to take special care of their cats and small dogs.
I have worked at lot in the garden and am still not done. Last year's poppies have re-seeded like crazy and are crowding out the other plants. So I am out there almost every day pulling poppies and thinning them out. I'm also planning to change the path through the garden (this is at the front of the house) - I have lots of ideas anyway. I enjoy my garden every day and I love the work. It feels so good to spend many hours outside and work up a thorough sweat.
And our sunsets - they are still spectacular.
I feel so blessed.
What about you?
Beautiful, meaningful post, filled with such gorgeous pictures ;o) Big Hugs ;o)
ReplyDeleteUnd ich bin dankbar für die Dinge, die Du hier zeigst, alles wunderschön und hat mir ein Lächeln ins Gesicht gezaubert :)
ReplyDeleteDas letzte Foto ist ein Gedicht :))
Hab noch eine feine Woche
【ツ】Knipsa
So schön - besonders die Tulpen !
ReplyDeleteLiebe Grüße - Monika
Blessed for sure. We have a cherry tree down the street that is flowering, but we are getting freezing rain and temps today in Texas. Poor little tree.
ReplyDeleteThe sunset is spectacular! It is good to see all the green in your pictures (I am not complaining about our snow, really, it is just nice to see green :) I never knew tulips needed the cold to bloom. Tulips do well in Ohio. Unfortunately so do coyotes, our neighbors have seen a few lurking about and of course you can hear them now and again. Have a great week!
ReplyDeletebeautiful blooms and skies! glad you had a nice park experience. we have lots of coyotes here. i never allow one of my dogs out by themselves at night - always make at least 2 be out there together. even though my 4 are large (70-115 lbs.) the coyotes will take them down if given an opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis last fall we got another new regional park too, they are so much fun to have. Your photos are lovely!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos! So nice to see those bright spots of color. Things are so dreary here.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are beautiful! So lovely to see blossoms again! It's still snowy and white here. And green grass! ahhh! Looks like an awesome place to hike.
ReplyDeleteTulips and daffodils alreadyWe have only spikes showing and it will be a long time yet before there’s more than winter flowering perennials on show.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos.
Like you, I am always glad to see something German in the shops and always buy it. We have Aldi and Lidl and although they sell not a lot of German stuff, there’s always chocolate.