And a Partridge in a...

I want to take a picture of every spring flower I see. I saw a house the other day that had an azalea (pinkish purple) next to a forsythia bush (bright yellow) next to some small tree that was just leafing out (bright green leaves), and if it wasn't on such a busy street, I would have stopped to photograph the color combination because it looked beautiful.

I'm kind of in love with our Cleveland Pear tree. It's only a few years old, and it's already ginormous. It has wonderful green leathery leaves and the white blossoms make it look like it's covered in snow. We walked by a restaurant in Ferndale last weekend, and they had twinkle lights on their pear trees, and at night, they totally looked snow covered.

Here are a few pics:




If you want to see some seriously beautiful TTV pictures of springy flowers, go check out my bud Alli's blog. Aren't her pics dreamy???

So back to my pear tree-- we had this tree planted in the right of way (which is the area between your property line and the street) by our City Forestry Department for a measly $150 or something which is really CHEAP especially since they do the planting in the right of way. Lots of municipalities especially in Michigan offer this type of thing, so check with your local Parks & Rec or Forestry division.

Speaking of Parks & Rec, do any of you watch the NBC show??? If you do, it is LITERALLY my job on TV. Well, I'm more Mark Brendanawicz (who's a city planner), but I think the writers should contact me because I could give them sooooooooo much material. :) If you haven't seen it, you can watch most of the eps on Hulu.


I love all the characters, especially Aziz Ansari's. Ryan's mind was almost blown when he heard AA would be starring in a movie with one of his other faves, Danny McBride AND it's being shot here in Michigan.

Ok, that's all kiddos. I hope your weekend isn't flying by like mine seems to be. Bleh. Plus, the weather isn't too great, so that's a bummer. Good news is that Ryan's taking Q to Jungle Java tomorrow morning (aka Lord of the Flies in a strip mall), and I don't have to go! Yippee!!!

xo

Cookie Coma

So my cousin came over today, and the hubbies watched basketball while we baked then proceeded to eat our weight in valentine cookies, cookie dough and frosting. Great for my "diet", right? We did not, however, see eye to eye on the cookie recipe or the frosting. My grandmother's recipe that my cousin and aunt uses calls for anise. I like black licorice, but not when I'm eating sugar cookies. So I won out on that part. However, I like to make icing over a stovetop and it gets all good and buttery and crackley. Jana makes hers with a hand beater and it gets all fluffy. Still good, I admit (didn't stop me from eating any), but I like mine better. So there you have it. I have about 2 dozen for the potluck at work, a dozen for Q's daycare party, Jana took about 1.5 dozen, and then I made 5 plates for my friends at work. I don't have any to spare (thank God).

So that's that. I'm dreading work tomorrow although it's been nice and slow. But I'm trying to THINK SPRING. I've been getting some advice from my friend at work (landscape architect) to draw up a landscape plan for Jana. There are some GREAT opportunities for those in the Detroit area to get some cheapo trees and shrubs through The Greening of Detroit plant sale and ROOT program. So tell your friends.

Last but not least, I wanted to post the pics of the valentines I gave out in 3rd grade. Also, the MJ sticker pic is for Jessie who said she had an "I heart Michael Jackson" sticker. I also had several other MJs-- the weirdest I can think of at this moment was a teddy bear with Michael Jackson outfit stickers you could put ON the teddy bear. Hmmm...I will try to find that one next time I am home. Have a good week, all. xoxo