Easter past and present

Not an Easter goes by that we don't remember the wonderful "Easter at Axel's" when we were in Germany in 2007 with our friends, Hartwig and Margret.  Hartwig is one of the very few readers of this blog, so I want to remind him of  how much we treasure and remember that Easter with his family.

The Photos from Easter at Axel's are HERE.

A description of the 2007 Easter Sunday, is HERE.  We saw the sun rise in Prague, then drove the autobahn at record speeds back to Parsdorf so that we wouldn't be late for Easter dinner at Axel's, where we blessed the food chanting the German kindergarten grace:

Piep piep piep
Wir haben uns alle lieb! (we all love each other)
Bon Apetit!

Our friends and their children and grandchildren made this a very special day for us.

Gettysburg - part 1

It was still raining this weekend in Southwestern PA when we decided to go to a place we'd never been before.  The weather looked like it might be a little more promising in the eastern part of the state, so we went to Gettysburg.

We did some homework, watching a DVD movie of the battle (during which I fell asleep) and looking around the web a bit.  Then we got a coffee at Starbuck's and headed across the state of PA via  the PA Turnpike.

Got this sweet photo of tulips while we were waiting for the Starbuck's coffee.  (Tulips not quite open in Cranberry TWP).

As we headed east, we crossed the Allegheny Mountains ...

Things are getting a lot greener at the lower elevations, but a little behind higher up.

We've become very dependent up our GPS system and didn't bother to check the map before we left.  The last 60 miles we were routed off of the turnpike and down a foggy and windy 2 lane road up and over a couple of mountains. 

But in due time we made it to Gettysburg, the rains lifted, and we found our way to the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center ...

to be continued ...

Down by the stream

It's a little colder and sunnier than usual today.  We ventured off the main path to walk by the stream.  That probably wasn't a good idea because it is still quite muddy and many trees are down which I had to climb over or around.  Jubilee enjoys the off-the-beaten track smells though.  Occasionally she sees a squirrel or chipmunk and she is off to chase it.  They always get away.

The entire stream bank is literally covered with skunk cabbage.

Nobody's eating it, not even bugs.   

Budding is continuing everywhere and the birds are busy, though this nest was empty and appeared abandoned.  Probably too exposed.

white, pink and yellow trees

I don't know why, but I never fully grasped that the colors of Easter (eggs, baskets, etc) reflect the colors of the trees and shrubs as they begin again. (Where have I been?  Florida?!)

The skunk cabbage over at the park continue to proliferate.  It doesn't appear that any of the animals are eating it, and I wonder what eventually becomes of it ...

A cold, windy and rainy weekend

We went to Wellsville (NY) again this weekend to get John’s bike.  The weather was cold, very windy, and rainy most of the time.  I enjoyed seeing the gradual and subtle colors of spring in the landscape. 

 Joe is looking for land around Wellsville where he can grow Christmas trees.  Says that Jack and Luke will come up in the summer to help him ...

We went to eat at a vegetarian kind of place in Alfred - Cafe Za ...

Loading up ...

Getting back to Cranberry TWP, the trees at our apartments are blooming white!

And I saw this lovely feather at the Knob Hill park this morning ...

Filed our income tax this morning.

my smart, smart dog

I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph Jubilee at the time, but this story needs to be part of this blog.

Today, at the park, I lost my car keys.  Since there is a lot of mud I stick mostly to the main trail now, going all the way in one directions up to the top of a hill where there are houses, then back down to the starting point, then all the way in the other direction to the big hill.  I was at the big hill where I took the photo of Jubilee trotting sideways when I realized my keys were not in my pocket.  My pockets have too much stuff in them anyway - gloves, bags for picking up dog droppings - but the key ring is fairly large and I thought I would have noticed if I had dropped them.  I didn't notice, but I had no keys.

I walked all the way back to the starting point and the parking lot with my eyes scanning the ground and path every inch of the way.  I didn't think that I had ventured off the path.  No keys.  Jubilee was ready to go home and confused when I started back down the path.  I had to retrace my entire walk.  She followed behind me (she usually races off ahead).

I was just past the stream at the bottom of the hill (where the skunk cabbage is), and starting the long climb up to the houses when Jubilee went over to the left, about a yard into the leaves.  I looked at her and just below her head I could see a little bit of blue from the keyring.  She seemed to have just walked over to them to show me where they were!

Now, is this a coincidence or what?  Would I have seen the keys if she had not walked over there, and why did she go to exactly the place where the keys were and stop? 

Animals are amazing beings.

don't ask me

Don't ask me why I like these photos (I think it's Jubilee's sideways trot) or why I seem to be as obsessed with buds as I am with ice and weeds!  Who ever knew?

 (Look at the shadow of that bud!)