SNAPSHOTS: A Birthday Weekend

All you can eat sushi, The Avengers, zoo trips, an evening at the fun fair and a visit from the nephews and niece was how we spent our weekend celebrating Joe's 30th birthday. Funnel Cake (mmm) coated in a thick confectionery sugar layer with the most deliciously squeezed lemonade with a gorgeous rainbow covering Detroit's sky was how we finished Saturday. A day spent with the kids raiding Uncle Joe's Transformers collection and completing on his video games. After a dinner of Coney Dogs, a trip (our first in over a year) to the zoo to not only renew our membership (more on this to come) but to see the blossom, watch the butterflies fluttering around and try to seek out the Polar Bear. And while it's fun being an auntie, they sure tire you out, that iced tea cocktail in a bath on Sunday night felt very well deserved. 

How was your weekend?

  

SNAPSHOTS: Magnolia

With it's cup and saucer shaped flowers, Magnolia trees make those blue skies all that deeper. Their large showy flowers of pinks, whites and maroons shine out against the deep spring blue skies. Those first signs of the pinky white tips peeking out echo the lighter nights, the added spring warmth to the air. Their branches, heavy under the weight of blossom also become the perching ground for Floppy - my broken tailed squirrel and his companions, my feathered sparrow friends and sometimes the delightful Cardinal and his wife who's red plumage stands out all the more against the blossom backdrop. This Magnolia tree which stands proud in our front garden right before my office come craft room, the established rows of raspberry bushes that fill up my back garden for starters, we did well with our house and having all this nature and wildlife outside my door, this makes me one happy girl. 

LIFE: And Dances with the Daffodils

While spring seems to have waved a hello and as quickly vanished in my little corner of Michigan, the garden is starting to pull itself into life even if the days are grey overhead. Every corner is filled with promise, a hit of a red petal from a tulip, a bright and bold yellow of a daffodil head banging in the breeze. Peer out of the front window and you'll glimpse the pinky shades of an opening head of Magnolia tree blossom, a tree buzzing with the life of sparrows, finches and squirrels. The lawn, once brown from being buried under a mountain of snow, the pecking ground for robins who bathe and splash in my bird bath. A veg patch has been ranked, multicoloured carrots, radishes and onions making the soil their new home. Wild flower seeds finding their feet in the weeded soil. Kitchen windowsills are aching under the weight of fifty sunflowers reaching, craving the sun and soil. Not yet little plants, not yet.

GREEN FINGERS: Things Down The Garden

I've become one of those people that enjoys a daily wander around her garden. I love trying to spot any differences, perhaps a new bulbs sprouting through the soil, trying to poke it's way through some of the remainders of fall crispy leaves. With April showers firmly heralding springs arrival, things are starting to happen in my little patch of land, and most of this weekend was spent enjoying the sunshine while trying to create a bit of order. 

What will be the veg patch. 

One of the happy occurrences of inheriting a garden is not knowing what may, or may not be hidden under your soil. I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting any spring bulbs to pop up, but hiding away a couple of crocuses have appeared, a few green shoots of daffodils in the front, and some bulbs of unknown plant origin are circling the magnolia tree. Granted in the time since planting my old additions into the soil, I'd actually forgotten just what bulbs I did buy, but I know these ones weren't mine.

Little little sunflowers

Slowly warmer days, sunnier skies and the decreasing chance of frost has allowed me to get back into the garden and get my hands dirty. From cutting down some plants to get my vegetable patch cleared out, raking up leaves from autumn (yes really, my excuse is that they kept the soil a little warmer for the bulbs over the super cold winter months) and working out what needs doing. 

My orders for vegetables have all been made and I'm far to excited to get them planted out in May (the chance of frost lingers around until then sadly). For the next couple of months i'm going to pretend to know what i'm doing when it comes to planting carrots, radishes, broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoes and onions to name but a few. Adding a couple of rhubarb plants and starting off a small herb patch. 

Not to mention all the wildflower seeds, sunflowers (that are taking over my kitchen) and some new plant additions to try and brighten up the shade. On Saturday I pretended to know what I was doing in pruning some roses and moving a load of raspberries. I even added in some stepping stones from a mix match assortment of falling apart pavers that once hid under the pine tree. They are wonky, they are chipped, but I laid them and that pleases me. Hopefully they'll survive. It's all exciting times around here I tell thee.

LIFE: Photo an Hour March 2015

Another month, another attempt at me keeping up with the photo an hour link up with Louisa and Jane - so far, so good! Oddly enough this year they keep falling on Saturdays were our plans go out the window (we had a great stock fill up at an estate sale the weekend previous so there was so real need to hit any this weekend) but they kinda show how daily life for me really is. 

9 am // because we'd finished off all the yummy cinnamon & raisin and the banana bread muffins (thank you Thomas the Baker) it was back to the odd Reeses Puffs for breakfast. I have to admit, a sure sign of me getting older much be this eating of breakfast malarkey. And ya know, awesome Yorkshire slang coasters. 

10 am // you can always tell when life gets busy by my lack of cross stitching which basically made up last week. I'm totally slacking on the SAL piece i'm working on so it was high time I tried to catch up.

11 am // both cats were having one of their rolling around like beached whales sessions. Smokey (pictured - you can see Ed doing the same here a couple of days previous) loves paper bags - sitting on or in them, but nothing beats rolling around on a paper bag showing off her tummy because she wants tummy rubs. 

12 pm // because it's just awesome to put Transformers into badass poses. 

1 pm // after wrestling with the self service machine in the Post Office I met Joe at the garage (well technically he met me at the cross roads because I HATE HATE HATE crossing roads in America, especially when they are five lines by myself) where the car was getting an oil change and something else done. I got highly amused watching it go up and down while reading months old magazines in the waiting room. 

2 pm // trip to Meijer to finally get me some potting compost for starting off some of my seeds inside, some little pots and some veg seeds for when it gets warmer to sow (radishes, fancy coloured carrots and onions). 

3 pm // back home via Toys R Us and I finally got around to trying some local tea. Joseph Wesley is a Detroit company and one of their teas (no 2.) was inside of a Mitten Create box I won before Christmas. I'm not a big loose tea drinker, but this was pretty tasty.

4 pm // binge watching Armitage III while trying to get back to doing some more sewing but Ed has other ideas. This is a typical scene if i'm on the sofa stitching on an afternoon because she can see straight out into the front garden and see the girls on the feeders. That and she wants attention.

5 pm // know me and you'll know Taco Bell is a massive weakness of mine. The new Sriarcha Quesrito being a new favorite of mine. Tasty tasty in my tummy.

6 pm // trying to catch up on blog read and, while having a break from the anime, we watched a couple of episodes of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after hearing great things about it. It certainly lives up to the hype. 

7 pm // it took a while for the sun to come out today, but i'm loving not only hearing the birds chirping away in the morning, but the lovely lighter evenings. 

8 pm // enjoying a slice of banana bread (baked from a 1944 recipe) and how the rest of my evening was spent - enjoying some whiskey, watching more anime and working on some blog posts. 

So that was basically my Saturday, nothing really to write home about but just the little things that pretty much make up my life daily, which if you're interested you can find me sharing over on IG. How was your weekend?

EXPAT REVELATIONS: The Seasons

Weather and the seasons, that age old tradition that us Brits love, love, love to talk about. As you might have noticed, it does frequently feature on my blog. Which is why I enjoyed putting together this topic for the Expat Revelation series with Holly. I didn't consider the seasonal differences before moving here I will be honest. Maybe if I had, I would have been mentally prepared for the differences between South East Michigan and East Yorkshire. 

Michigan is both warmer (yey) and colder (boo) than Yorkshire. Average temperatures hit a high of 82F (28C) in July to a cold 17F (-8) in January. It seems in the last three plus years that America has been home, all averages have been smashed. Especially the average cold temperature, -8C would be a pretty warm seeing I've spent most of 2015 in -20C. Luckily, Michigan is a lot dryer than good old Yorkshire, not that that's at all surprising it does like to rain in Yorkshire. Less rain, more snow, I can't win. 

So let's start as we mean to go on with the season right out my window, winter:

PHOTO: NOAA via The Detroit News

Right now i'm covered under that super cold whiteness. Yes it's that cold and wintry.  

I have to admit, I have never seen as much as snow as I have until moving here. In winter you're guaranteed a good foot or four or snow throughout the season with -20C becoming the new norm this year. In fact in 2013 we hit about 100 inches in total of snow. Around here winter is measured by how much the Great Lakes freeze over. Currently that stands at nearly 85% of the Lakes being covered by ice. Which is pretty awesome when you consider the Great Lakes is home to 21% of the worlds fresh water by volume (ta wiki for that fact). Unlike the UK, Michigan doesn't grind to a halt and just gets on with it. Wearing four layers becomes the norm, -8C feels warm, and snow shoveling is a nice winter work out.

Spring brings hazy days but not until late April and May. Temperatures are much like a warm British summer day. As  far as seasons go, it's pretty uneventful but lovely all the same. 

Oh summer with your long hot days around the high 20's into the 30's (C). Still a little hot for this Brit to fully enjoy. Sometimes we get a tornado watch or warning when it's the season (late spring through early summer). Sometimes one passes through, although rarely. Long warm days lead to stormy nights. The thunder is eerily loud and threatening enough that it use to scare me the first year or so.

And what's the result of those warm spring days, lovely summers and a mild autumn with it's colder nights? A beautiful colorful colourful autumn finale. The fall colours Michigan has to offer because of it's seasons is one of the reasons I love calling the mitten home. Burnt oranges, to crisp reds and dazzling golden yellows, the Michigan landscape comes alive. By the end of October the trees are naked and Thanksgiving always rolls around with a snow shower or three.

We're lucky in Michigan that we actually get to enjoy all four seasons with their quirks and charms. According to all the seasonal information out there, Michigan is more cloudy than the norm. It's one of the affects of being surrounded by all the Great Lakes. Many leave the mitten and it's surrounding northern states for the warmer climes of the south to retire, it certainly tests what you're made of. But those fall colours, having those of your doorstep, that makes it all worth while in my book.

GREEN FINGERS: 106 Spring Bulbs

A tiny cocoon, it's skin peeling, it's roots dancing in the light autumnal breeze. Over a hundred little promises of spring flowers, of rich daffodil yellows, pinks of tulips to blues of aliums all set to bring colour and life to the depths of shade in my ever green garden. Planting them in their little six inch or so beds, tapping their soil bedding gently above their heads, wishing them a safe winter sleep until they begin to poke their little heads through the cold, crisp spring soil.

If you yearn for spring bulbs, now is the time to be getting your fingers dirty.

Daffodil, tulips they call for memories of an English spring garden, of bright, golden and happy blooms heralding the arrival of warmer days. Astbiles for privacy in pinks and purples, for bleeding hearts - flowers as pretty as their name might suggest. Of finding that balance between color and tempting pollentators into the garden, for the wildlife needs my garden a little more then me.

While the ground might turn cold, covered in weeks, months on end of deep, crisp white snow and frost, hidden, sleeping underneath little bulbs all ready and waiting for a grand push, for a new start in my garden, the first push and step into adding some much needed colour. And as 106 bulbs find their way into my garden, a new life from my first ever flower cutting is starting to form a new life on my window still.

It's all fun as a newbie gardener.