Another year older

and yet no wiser. Yes, my birthday has come around once again. It's not a year that ends with a 0 or a 5, so it's not 'a big one'.

My parents came up for a birthday dinner for me, along with my in-laws, a rare and special treat. They, and the kids, and especially C, spoiled me hugely!

My parents gave me fat quarters of fabric in orange and purple (neglected colours in my stash), cool metallic machine threads and special needles to use with them. Big J gave me a gorgeous fat glass apothecary jar and a Michaels gift card (he does know me well!), the little bits (with some help from papa) gave me a rainbow of summer shirts (much needed) and C gave me a gorgeous 8 gig ipod nano, in the most awesome cobalt-purple colour! I have been coveting one for ages!

On top of that, there was lemon cheesecake. Bliss I tell you, bliss!

Tooolips...

I love living in Ottawa :) Tulip Festival hasn't officially started yet, but everything is in full bloom.

Near the War Memorial

Lilacs 2010

I love lilacs. My parents bought me a pair of little lilacs for my birthday last year, a purple and a white. They're small, but they're thriving, and rewarding me with a handful of small fragrant blooms this year...

After the rain...

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. ~Dolly Parton

Don't like the weather?

Then just wait a minute...

Yup, it snowed last week. This week - it's 29C at 6:45pm. I think Mother Nature has Alzheimer's, she's forgotten what a day in early May should be like...

Go fly a kite

A perfect day for it, windy and balmy and overcast. We went to the big field beside the community centre (too many trees in our yard) and the bits had a blast. Yes, I had to untangle their strings more than once, but that's OK. I did manage to get quite sunburned though, through the clouds. I'll never learn...

Blooming

Our fruit trees are mostly in bloom (the pear isn't quite there yet, but is only a couple of days away from full flower). The smell in that part of the yard is intoxicating, particularly from the plum tree, those blossoms are amazingly fragrant.