Spring has sprung

 

Mom Virginia is home from rehab. Yay!

She's not as active as usual, but enjoys postcards from her nephew Jeff, TV shows and her view of the mountains and hills. 

She occasionally gets outdoors for a walk, but the other day she went too far and got exhausted. 

Fortunately, Sam was home and came to her rescue, sirens blazing. 

Mom's 87th birthday passed by while she was in rehab, so last week we celebrated with dinner at Mi Casa, including chef Santa's wonderful carrot cake. Mom ate every crumb.

Sam has been on spring break and spent a few days canning vegetables. 

But first, we had a delivery!

Mom's stove was 25 years old and had begun turning on the propane gas at odd times, which of course is unsafe.

So Sam installed a new one! We are really enjoying it. 

One Saturday we found the Produce on Wheels truck and scored 70 pounds of produce for $12: tomatoes, green peppers and eggplants. Borderlands Produce Rescue

Sam has been collecting canning jars and consulted our friend Tracy to learn the steps.

He also prepped and froze and vacuum sealed, using some of his vintage kitchen gadgets. 

And ended up with 16 quarts of salsa and much, much more. I would have helped, but the kitchen is too small (I dodged that bullet!).

On the first day of spring (or maybe the day before), I was finally able to clean out the greenhouse and get some seeds started. 

We're a month behind schedule compared to last year, but we'll see how it goes. 

The first step was reading the back of the seed packets to see how they should be planted.

Then I made a list. I later scratched off the yellow squash because it has to be planted directly into mounds. Okra, radishes, turnips, corn and luffas will also be planted directly in the soil.

I went ahead and planted all our remaining seeds, since some of the packages are 2 or 3 years old. If everything comes up, we'll give away the extra seedlings to friends and coworkers of Sam. 

 

I had a couple visitors wanting to see what I was doing. I think this one is a Clark's Spiny Lizard. 

On that note, I'll leave you with a few recent photos of our winter desert colors.

I like the shapes here.

And the golden color of the Mormon Tea. Now that spring has arrived, many things will be turning green . . . or at least our version of that happy color.

May your world also be bright and happy as you look forward to spring and summer.