A Vintage-Style Easter Table

Beautiful Spring! It just perks me right up. I never thought I'd be blogging again here, and just look at the posts lately--full of color. Bright red chairs on the patio! Flowers blooming in the garden! Lots of exclamation points!

I didn't spend any time at all on this table for Easter--nary a chick or bunny or flower arrangement in sight but, as Auntie Bucksnort pointed out, the colors were rather nice. I wish you could see the blue border on that faux-vintage fashionably-wrinkled ordered-from-Amazon tablecloth.

I was just making a rather prosaic baked ham with some green beans and fresh tomatoes on the side, but then good friends arrived, bringing a vegetable antipasto mixture with fancy crackers, strong Canadian beer, polenta (in the photo next to the tomatoes), fresh mango chutney, and roasted red peppers. Suddenly, we had color and conversation and a feast!

Happy Spring to you all! I guess I'm a little late with that...

For My Northern Friends

Down in the Alameda neighborhood in town, the willows are leafing out and the daffodils and fruit trees are in bloom. A little north of town where we live, our neighbor's lilac is blooming and my pansies are putting on a good show. I planted them last fall and they have bravely bloomed all winter long. Soon they will give up as the days grow hotter. 

I am posting these photos for my friends in the North--no, not to make them envious, but to reassure them that Spring is making its annual march toward them up from the South. In a couple of weeks, they'll be seeing an end to all the snow (we hope) and the new beginnings of springtime.

Springtime in New Mexico

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love

                                                                                                            ~Tennyson

Spring Greens Three Ways, for Skywatch

On our way to pick up our box of locally grown organic vegetables...

Spring greens

... we stopped to admire the new grass and foliage at this farm in Mesilla... 

Spring greens

... and to watch the beautiful cattle munching away at... spring greens! And all of it was happening under a beautiful southern New Mexico blue sky.

Spring greens

For photos of scenes under skies all over the world, please visit Skywatch Friday.

A reminder that spring is on its way

Look at what is blooming out on our front porch...

... and look at what will soon be blooming!

The first day of spring is one thing,

and the first spring day is another.

The difference between them is

sometimes as great as a month.

~Henry Van Dyke

A Reminder of Things to Come

After a nice spell of really warm days here in eastern New Mexico, the daffodils and forsythia and flowering trees are all blooming, but the latest cold front moving through has made it pretty cold out there for the last few days.

As a reminder of things to come, I've dug out some photos from past gardens here (the 2nd and 3rd photos) and in New Hampshire (all the others). 

Look!

This photo was taken last night in front of my house. As much as I loved living in New Hampshire, I am so grateful to be here in New Mexico now enjoying the sunshine. Back in New Hampshire, my old friends won't be seeing spring flowers for another couple of months...

Such a Lovely Spring

We've just had visitors from New Hampshire and had a chance to see our part of New Mexico through their eyes. They loved seeing leaves out on the trees, as theirs are still in bud. Here are some of the flowers that are blooming now around the house.