Tag Archives: spring

April 23, 2012 · 5:36 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Pink Snow

Every morning — before the insanity of the day — I walk. I started this about 8 years ago when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure (way too young) and realized if I did not get my arse moving I was going to find myself in trouble. What started as a practice for my physical health wound up being the key to my mental well being as well.

I walk in all weather. I have snow, rain and sweltering heat gear and there are few excuses for no walk. Being a dog person, my canines have been my personal trainers, never taking no for an answer. Mel, rest her crazy little soul, walked up until her very last day. Now Miss Iko the semi-psycho puppy would never except any reason to miss the walk.

Each time of year has its wonders. I love to walk in fog (I know… weirdo) and there is something incredibly challenging about walking in extreme temps, both hot and cold.

But there is absolutely nothing more magical than the pink snow of Spring. I can not stop taking pictures of this because it will never cease to dazzle me. The top pic is my favorite but here are a few more that I have taken over the last few days.

Enjoy. And don’t forget to stop and notice these things. They were created for you to enjoy, remember to be grateful.

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April 12, 2011 · 1:00 am

Time to Cry Tuesday – Sugar Magnolia

” Sugar magnolia, blossoms blooming, heads all empty and I don’t care…”

It was that kind of day, right? Well, here in NY it was, anyway. Topping out in the 70s it was one of those early days of spring where the buds are starting to burst out into flower and you can just feel the universe shift towards gentler days. When the air has that essence of earth and growth and all that damn snow is simply a memory.

That would be, of course, if you were not tethered to the basement! Have no fear, I found a way to sneak a little of it in. Take in the mail, let out the dog, stand on the front stoop, you know… commuting for those of us who work at home. On one of these little mental health breaks I noticed my prized magnolia was starting to bloom. It’s not that this tree looks so spectacular, it is the fact that it survived at all that makes it so impressive.

Some years back, this tree died. It made me sad because it was the very tree that I would hang all the kids’ projects in when they were little. Bird feeders, wind chimes, charming little paper plates & tongue depressor mobiles slathered with tempera paint that simply had to hang proudly in front of the house for all to see. This tree had a real personality and the perfect branch from which to hang all these treasures. When it died it felt like it took the ghosts of all those sweet memories with it.

Last year I looked at the ground and saw that a shoot of the tree had started to sprout from the root ball. This season it looks like it will most probably be more of a bush than a tree, but it is flowering nonetheless. And it has a mentor across the lawn; a pear tree that was taken down by a falling willow years ago and grew back to twice its original size.

You could say this little section of the front lawn is a lot like I am…

stubborn as hell? I was thinking more a survivor – but yes – probably both.

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April 4, 2010 · 9:50 pm

Spring at last!

When you can end a weekend day like this how can you ever complain about anything?

Doesn’t suck.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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March 23, 2010 · 12:18 am

Time to Cry Tuesday – Spring

There is something about that first weekend of warm weather that can all but break your heart. One minute you are shoveling obscene amounts of snow and a few short weeks later you are trimming back the perennial garden and marveling at the crocus blooming all over the neighborhood.

Ok, a little corny. But honestly, I never tire of those first warm days when nothing can seem all that bad if you can be outside and feeling the sunshine. One day walking around the city, drinking beer at an outdoor cafe and people watching, and another in the ‘burbs doing what we ‘burbanites do was the perfect cure for anything that ails.

I suppose my elation with spring is because I come from a family of garden junkies. My earliest memories of my grandfather were of him tending to his garden, which in my youth was beyond magnificent. My mom’s love of the garden was passed down to both my brother and I. And although in the past few years her bones have fallen victim to a couple of, what shall we call them, garden mishaps, she still plugs away out there and her garden shines for all the attention she showers upon it.

Even though this weekend was a fleeting tease of spring finding ourselves thrown back into a stint of miserable rain, it was just enough of a taste to keep us hopeful that the warmer weather will be here to stay before we know it.

Spring. It almost makes you feel like anything is possible.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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March 16, 2010 · 6:50 pm

Keep on Truckin’ Mama…

… truck my blues away!

Have you ever found yourself on the Cross Bronx Expressway when it is at a complete standstill?

That’s a joke. If you are from NY you know that the Cross Bronx Expressway is ALWAYS at a complete standstill and you avoid it at all costs. Except when you are a completely happy-to-be-out-of-the-basement idiot listening to your ipod at 10, while you are driving on a painfully glorious 60 degree almost-spring-you-can-taste-it sort of day like today. Then you mistakenly take the Throgs Neck Bridge instead of the Triboro to the Harlem River Drive when you are going to Jersey and you find yourself smack in the middle of the worst 10 mile stretch of road in the universe! Or at least the east coast because I think all of Southern California is probably the equivalent of the Cross Bronx only with better scenery.

So there I am.

Stuck between 4 tractor trailors.

And I have to pee.

Like, so bad that it seems a waste not to have to go for a sonogram with a bladder that full. (inside joke for those who know about having to take a pelvic sono). Only I could bring the word ‘pelvic’ into a post about traffic and trucking. Yeh, I know, part of my charm.

So, to amuse myself, and to take my mind off of the fact that my bladder was very likely going to burst any moment, I pulled out my camera and started to find things to take pictures of. What? You don’t do that?

Well, lucky for me that I had that camera because somewhere around exit 5 this red truck pulls up alongside me with my last name on it!! (ok, maiden name but I use it for blogging and work so it counts). Thanks Zimmerman Truck Lines for truckin’ my blues away. (ok, painfully corny, sorry)

I took it as a sign that I was meant to be there at that moment.

Huh? Whatever, just humor me.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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March 10, 2010 · 10:29 pm

An Equidistant Moment

It’s moments like this I am absolutely certain I was born to carry a camera. And I always wonder if other people notice this kind of stuff.

Right after we saw the white dogs with orange socks, we came upon this odd little scene on the World Financial Plaza. This was one of the first warm days in NY and everyone was trying to catch some time outdoors. The odd thing was that these five seemingly unrelated people decided to do so in almost the exact same way. They were spaced perfectly (hence equidistant), legs crossed on the same side, each one reading, as if they had been set up by an art director. Of course this was not, in fact,’a shot’.

It was real life.

I mean, seriously, what kind of art director would have kept that guy in the powder blue sweater on the left side there. He is the wild card in this shot. I mean, for G-d sake, he is not even crossing his legs.

Damn rebel!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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