on monday spring was making promises in my neighborhood: the snow was almost completely melted off of the grass (which i swear was starting to get a greenish blush to it), the pond was losing it's ice caps and i even found some crocus and daffodil buds just beginning to push there way up out of the muddy earth (without using a magnifying glass). i've lived in the high desert all of my life and i know that "spring", in the way that most other people understand it, isn't really going to get serious around here until mid to late April. BUT i also know that there will be teensy tiny little signs showing way before then if one is paying attention and who isn't paying attention by this point in the year~!?!~ as i said, on monday, there were some promising signs. and then on monday night it began to snow. it snowed ALL night long. we ended up with an accumulation of 14" and some drifts that were quite a bit deeper than that. the school declared it's first snow day (which around here takes a HUGE amount of snow to make happen) of the year and even my dh was unable to get to work. within the space of 10 hours we were suddenly plummeted back into winter. sigh. not just any old sigh but a BIG heavy sigh with tears welling up in my eyes . . . i should be completely used to this but apparently i'm not . . . so i've gone to my indoor plants for solace.

this little fern that i have growing within the sheltered walls of home sweet home still thinks spring must be coming. after all the daylight hours are getting longer and it resides safely within a temperature controlled environment . . .
i accepted what gifts that it had to offer with gratitude and didn't breathe a word to it about the harsh realities that are just on the other side of that big pane of glass . . .

i've recently received a package in the mail from Cathie at http://www.clevelandgirlie.blogspot.com/ and wanted to share the wonder and whimsy of her sweet art with you.

these three pieces are art squares that she created and upon seeing them i fell head over heels in love with them. i happened to be visiting her blog and stumbled upon them on one of her posts. i was excited to see that she had them up for sale but this post had been written a while back and i did not think it possible that these would still be available but decided to link over to her etsy shop just to make sure . . .

you cannot imagine the noisy glee with which i discovered that they could still be mine~!!~

and with a couple of clicks they were exactly that: ALL MINE~!!!!~ yyyiiiipppeeeeee~!!~

the joys of the internet know no bounds~!~

i encourage you to visit her charming blogspace. she is a talented mixed media artist with a wealth of creativity to share as well as lots of delightful daily blogginess~!~
a bit of remedy for the late winter blues . . . enjoy yourself.