Above are photos showing spring in my front yard and a ceramic bowl that was fired last week.

I haven't blogged lately, mostly because nothing much has been happening around here. The flowering plum tree out front is blooming - very lovely - covered with pink blossoms. Out back the forsythia is blooming, but not much of it. I cut it way back last year and evidently cut off most of the stems that would have had blossoms this spring. That darn bush grows 4 foot a year and just takes over the flower bed. I have several other bushes along the fence line and they also are vigorous growers. The place is a jungle come summer. However, there will be on radical change this year. I have/had a large juniper growing along the fence. The heavy snows in February ruined that evergreen. Five or six major branches split from the weight of the snow. I went out yesterday and sawed off those broken branches. What is left is not worth keeping. I'm going to cut the entire tree down - or perhaps pay someone to do that. The yard will look rather different back there, but the change will be interesting. The birds will be unhappy, as they would fly into that tree and perch there waiting for the feeders. Oh well, that's the breaks - literally in this case!

Yesterday afternoon, Patty invited me to accompany her to a new (to me) craft store - A.C.Moore. We went to the one in Glen Burnie, near where I lived before I moved to Laurel. We had an 'interesting' drive getting there. I actually could have directed Patty to the street where the store was, but she has a new GPS, so we used that. It's a great little device, as it not only gives directions, but also checks for road hazards, traffic jams and suchlike. As a result, we followed a somewhat convoluted path, but didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic. The store is quite an experience. It's bigger and better than JoAnn's or Michael's with a huge selection of craft, art, and scrapbook supplies. The kind of place where you always end up buying something.

When we left there, we decided to go out to dinner. We ended up on the outskirts of Columbia at a place called Mimi's. I think it is aiming toward French cuisine, although it's hard to tell. My food was adequate, not great, but the service was fast and the prices reasonable. They offer mini desserts, an idea which I love. Unfortunately, they were out of bread pudding, which Patty tells me is delicious, but my dessert (apple crisp) was very good and just the right size.