Spring Week: Lenten Rose

There is a Lenten Rose right outside the front door at Cedar Bluff. This plant has resided along the walk near the Japanese lantern in the roadside garden for several seasons. Our specimen, Helleborus "Ivory Prince," blossoms in early spring before the daffodils and tulips. By March, as the snow melts, the helleborus is sending up big fat burgundy buds that open into soft pink and mauve bending blooms. The photo shows the plant in blossom last year.

My sister Heidi -- Aunt Opera from Pennsylvania -- first drew my attention to this plant. Our Lenten Rose is about 12-14 inches in height during the summer. I admire the plant for its early blossoms. This year I've been watching five buds push out of the cold ground. Currently, due to our early spring snowstorm, the plant is under three feet of snow. The sun will melt the snow next week and this marvelous plant will almost be blooming. What a botanical wonder!

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Spring Week: Foggy Bluff

Spring brings foggy days to the Thumb of Michigan. The contrast of a warm spring wind and cold water in Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron can bring fog to the county.

Today's photo shows a fog like that that occurred in March of 2006. The snow is gone, the ground is warming up, but the water is still cold. The result -- fog along the shoreline.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler.

Spring Week: Spring Greens

The First Week of Spring 2011 has been decidedly gray this year. Green. That's what I'm ready for.

Here are some of the green yarns from the Graywood Designs Studio Store. I love the color names. Split Pea. Clover. Celery. Wild Asparagus. Just right for this time of year when our spirits long to bend into another spring.

Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler



Spring Week: Turbines in Clouds

Wind turbines east of Ubly brush the clouds on Monday morning, March 21. Huron County is surrounded by water on three sides. To the west lies Saginaw Bay, to the north and east is Lake Huron. The topography is fairly flat on the west but the land rises into hilly ridges in the center of the county. Weather patterns moving off the lake or the bay bump into the ridges and drop moisture. Here the clouds are low enough for the blades to disappear as the  turbines turn.

Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Spring Week: Sunshine ATC

It's Tuesday of the First Week of Spring and the National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning of sleet, ice and snow from 8 pm tonight through 8 pm tomorrow night. Yipes, sounds like this could be a genuine nor'easter sweeping down on Michigan's Thumb. Ed made the comment this weekend that the farmers won't be moving on the land until the sun warms the ground. So far, so cold -- that's the theme that Mother Nature is playing this week.

So, today's image is about sunshine. Here's an ATC that features a rubber stamp image that has color added via Tombow markers and watercolor pencils. The words -- "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine" should run through your mind as you comtemplate this ATC.

ATC Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler





Spring Week: Malted Eggs in the Bunny Bowl

It has been a difficult task but I was willing from the start to take it on. I have now taste tested three brands of malted milk Easter egg candy. Here are the results so far:

#1 -- Whoppers malted milk eggs -- made by Hersheys. Small and pleasantly malty, these candy eggs have a chocolate shell that I could taste. About the size of a jelly bean, they went down easily. Purchased at a local Walgreen's. Tested by Ed and WJ.

#2 -- Brach's malted milk eggs -- Purchased in the grocery store in Pigeon, I liked the color of these eggs. They are much larger than the #1 product. The texture of the malted milk was pleasant, not powdery. I couldn't taste the chocolate coating. Was it there? Hmm, have to buy another bag to check. Tested by the GW staff, assisted by Tessa (who hid the rest of the bag from us!).

#3 -- Bulk bin malted milk eggs -- These came from the grocery store in Bad Axe where they were side by side with the Spring Yogurt Pretzels (those were really good!). The bulk bin eggs were the largest eggs that I taste tested. They lasted the shortest time in our household. Maybe they were just too big to stay around very long. Good tasting, just disappeared. Tested by WJ and Ed.

As you can tell, there isn't a lot of difference separating the rated candies. Buying them several weeks before Easter assures fresh stock. Just so you know, the candies shown above are the bulk bin large malteds. The Bunny Bowl comes out every spring and is a treasured gift from friends Dave and Jill Harmon.

Spring Week: Spring Nest ATC

"If I ruled the world

E'ryday would be the first day of spring,

Every heart would have a new song to sing,

And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring. . ."

-- from "If I Ruled The World"

Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse from the musical, "Pickwick" (1963).

Today is the First Day of Spring and I've had the Tony Bennett/Celine Dion duet version of "If I ruled the world" playing in my head for several days already. Here in Michigan we will probably have a chilly First Day of Spring. On Saturday, as I'm writing, the temperature is 34 degrees in mid afternoon and my walk down the bluff at noon was cold and a bit snowy.

Today is Full Moon. Tomorrow is the Vernal Equinox, so that puts Easter Sunday way late this year since Easter is the First Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. The moon will be especially big since the moon is at perigee, the closest that it will be to Earth in 2011. Astronomy Magazine's website says the Moon will be 221,565 miles from Earth's Center. (Hmm, consider that my Blazer just turned 245,000 miles on its original GM engine and that some frequent fliers log more than a million miles. Makes one think, doesn't it?)

Today is the start of the Willow Blog's Spring Week. There will be posts all week that relate to the theme of Spring. Some will be photos; some will be scans. I hope that my readers will enjoy the serendipity of this single theme.

The image above is an ATC (Artist Trading Card). The base is a white heavy paper cut 2 1/2" x 3 1/2," the same size as a baseball collector's card. I applied Derwent Inktense pencil, washed the color with water and sprayed the surface with Glimmer Mist. Two rubber stampings -- a bird in sepia and a nest using black -- were applied. Color was added with Tombow markers. When viewed in person, there is a slight glittery sheen to the artwork. Glitter and computer monitors don't go together, however!

Happy Spring, Willow Readers! May there be a blessing of something new for you in this season.

ATC Copyright 2011

Wanda Hayes Eichler