Testing testing...

Testing whether I can upload photos from my iphone directly to blogger instead of having to import them to the computer first. Well, it seems to work. In a week we are off to a new adventure. Several of you have told me that they like to travel vicariously with us. Get ready to visit Spain and more!

We hope to find warmer weather on vacation because here right now we do not have days where we can leave the coats at home. This day we had a gift card and even ventured to have blizzards at the DQ.

My amaryllis have started to show off their beauty. Looks like we will miss most of it.

Doing our walks only in the neighborhood gets old so we took adventage of our Botanical Garden membership. That had come with some free tickets for friends so Marthat and Jerry joined us.

Yes, yes, I took plenty of photos. The next two photos have info that they are both "Springstar" and related to onions/allium. I would like some in our garden.

This one is often found as a houseplant in Germany. 

It was good to have a nice walk-about because we had gone to Hobnob for lunch before LGBG. 

Oh yes, and last year's extra little pot from Costco ... making a bud too. It is fun to look every day and finding another one peaking out of one of the bulbs.

James has the opposite problem of me. He needs to put on some pounds. So I had to back "Pflaumenkuchen" with last fall's plums from the freezer. Definately a success. Especially with whipped cream.

Sunday March 24 - last opera of this season. James didn't think changing our regular seats (like for the last performance) was necessary. So we had an excellent view again. Madama Butterfly was just awesome! 

Standing ovation was well deserved. For everybody and everything. 

Right now there seems to be so much to do. Not sure what to do first. And we are in Holy Week. It is always a special time for us. Wishing you all a blessed Easter too.

I am so proud...

... of James. He is really pushing himself. To get better you can't give up and have to push yourself. He certainly does. We are having a good time. Here are some updates.

Didn't report in my last blog: Saturday February 17 James was already fit enough for us to watch one of the twins' basketball game. Number 42 and number 45 (our twins in blue) did good but the other team won by a lot because they had a girl player who dropped every ball she threw at the basket. 

Owen blocked ...

... and Colin got the rebound. 

Then he passed it to a team-mate who did get a basket. Well done!

After the game we stopped at their house. Sarah had agreed to give Papa another hair cut. That made him happy.

Monday February 19 was "President Day" and we saw them again. We helped out a bit with "sitting"

We still love playing "our" game. Look at this score sheet! We learned the game in summer of 2019. In all these years (almost daily!) neither one of us ever had zerro points. Well, I had the perfect game on this day!

A few days later .... high scores.

In March we had more nicer days weatherwise. This day (the 3rd) it was so lovely that we decided to give the Botanical Garden a try again. Since we are members and don't have to pay anything it doesn't matter how much time we spend in it. 

The orchid expedition unfortunately was already over. Still some pretties but not what we had hoped for. But there were plenty of other blooms. Here only a few examples. 

And afterwards we even sat outside on our back patio with our coffees and cards to play.

Next day I took a good look at our garden. The rhubarb had come up and had looked never better.

I have three plants. See the little red spot on the bottom right?

Ha-ha, and inside the Christmas cactus wants to have a different name. It is almost Easter. And he did very well all through Christmas and the winter too.

Wade had carried my two pots with the amaryllis bulbs from the garage into the sunroom. A little water and right away they started to become alive. This photo was taken March 4.

Just a little while ago the pink early winter camellia had stopped blooming. Now the late winter ones (3 of them) have started blooming. 

How can you not enjoy a day were the sun is shining. We had to run an errand but decided to stop here before returning home. 

Lot of things are going on at the church. Parties and work, ha-ha. Examples: One Sunday we celebrated the 20 years our priest served this congregation. Other days I had planned and lead two Saturday mornings for the church ladies to make blankets for cancer patients who get very cold when they go for their treatments. They were  blessed at the Sunday service on March 10. 

I am also still helping with the BOM (Block Of the Month) of the quilt group which meets monthly at our church. I really need to catch up with posting patterns and photos on my other blog account. 

I had volunteered at the last meeting to sew the donated blocks together. I could not wait to see how it would look. I think this quilt will look very happy once it is totally finished.

Back to James' progress. We have made several very successful walks in our neighborhood. I have installed a new app on my phone to track them. Look at what we did yesterday!!!

Yes, reason for happiness!