Sunday, March 29, 2015

Sunday Gratitude

Today, our spring break comes to an end. It's back to school and work tomorrow.


It's been a beautiful week and there is a lot to be grateful for.

We all slept in, almost every day. I usually get up at 5:45 during the week, 7:30 on weekends. However, this week, with just a very few exceptions, I slept later than 8:00. This just shows me how much we all needed some rest and really good sleep. Today I feel so much more rested than a week ago.

I enjoyed going to the Swedish bakery in our neighborhood in the morning with the Geek. It was lovely when we met friends there and walked back together, stopping at their garden, chatting and talking about the new gardening season. They had loads of oranges and gave us a few from which we made fresh squeezed juice we had for breakfast. What a treat!


I did a lot of gardening, planting some more peonies and clematis. My French lilac is already blooming and I enjoy its beautiful fragrance. My freesias got knocked down during a brief rain, so I cut them and brought them inside where they filled the house with their lovely scent. They still do, and I enjoy it. The first poppies have opened their beautiful blooms, however, the deer had their share as well. Happy deer...

The Geek built a clothesline for me - out of redwood again, our favorite wood. He added a huge planting box and a trellis on one side and there will be a little "seat" on the other side where I can put the laundry basket while hanging the clothes on the line to dry. I am so happy. Pictures will follow when it will be complete.


It was wonderful just to spend time with my family. Having time to talk during dinner, watching movies afterwards. My daughter loves the British series "Mr Selfridge" and we watched the two seasons together before the third season starts tonight. At the beginning I wasn't too enthusiastic, but then the characters grew on me and I quite like the series now. It is not as good as "Downton Abbey" though.

On Friday we went to the South Bay to go to the German bakery in Los Altos. We had German pretzels, raspberry cheesecake and great coffee. Across from the bakery is a German grocery store and we just loved it - it's wonderful when you find food that you're missing. We also went to IKEA which I always find inspirational, and returned home via Highway 1 up the coast which was lovely and so much more beautiful than boring and crowded 101.


Yesterday Kaefer and I went prom dress shopping. She had some ideas about her prom dress and honestly, they were all a bit on the expensive side. Both my husband and I are very conservative when it comes to spending money, so I offered Kaefer to go with her and see whether we can find something in our stores here instead of doing our shopping online. Guess what? We found quite a lot of affordable AND beautiful dresses and she finally decided to buy a stunning red dress that suits her so well. I'm very proud of her that she didn't mope but went with our suggestions and was a very reasonable girl.


And now it's your turn - what are you grateful for on this Sunday?


10 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

I do love your garden and your gratitude filled post (and attitude).
Here I am still wrestling with the garden - and so very grateful that I can.

GlorV1 said...

Carola, I am most grateful for having come here to read your post this evening. What a wonderful and happy post and it makes me happy that you are happy. What a wonderful post this is and beautiful photos of your flowers. You have inner peace, I can feel it. Enjoy your day tomorrow and continue your rays of sunshine. Thank you. I needed this post today or should I say this evening.

Unknown said...

Ich bin immer wieder dankbar, dass ich Deine schönen Gartenbilder bewundern darf :)
Sooo schönen Klatschmohn hast Du, beneide Dich jetzt schon um die tollen, dekorativen Saatköpfe ;)
Und einen schwedischen und einen deutschen Bäcker in der Nähe, das ist schon was! Und dann auch noch einen deutschen Lebensmittelladen, wow! Da bekommt man bestimmt auch den richtigen geschmackfreien Essig für echten Kartoffelsalatgenuss :))
Und was hast Du Schönes bei IKEA gefunden? Hast Du vergessen, zu zeigen :))
Wünsche Dir eine wunderschöne Woche
【ツ】Knipsa

Cheri said...

I am a tad envious of all the beautiful Spring you are experiencing. But grateful to know that it will get here eventually!

Pamela Gordon said...

Your garden and flower photos are beautiful. It sounds like you have a lovely week and weekend doing some fun things. Today I'm grateful for the melting snow. :) Simple enough. It's still very cool but the snow is melting slowly and that gives us hope. Have a beautiful week.

Linda Kay said...

Carola, I hope you have a wonderful week back to work and into your routine. But glad you had a great time off as well.

chasing the sun said...

Wow! Beautiful garden! Have a happy and a good week :-)

windrock studio said...

I am very grateful that you share so much of your life ... your beautiful garden, your precious, smart girl, your handy husband who puts up a clothes line for you!
Sounds like such wonderful and restful family days that you enjoyed. I'm also happy that Mr. Selfridge has returned, I liked this from the very beginning.

John's Island said...

Hi Carola, I sure enjoyed reading about your week and the photos are excellent, as always. I can't get over how the color in that raspberry cheesecake goes with the flower picture above it. Cool! Hope all goes well as you get back into your regular routine. Looking forward to your next post. John

Cynthia Schelzig said...

Fabulous flower shots! Nothing like that here yet of course. We just had THEEEE worst storm that I can ever remember in Bayern and today AGAIN...this wind is unreal!!