An April Weekend.....Roses and Honeysuckle, Flowers for the Garden, Baking, Hockey, Meals, Church and more.......

 Friday was a memorable day......

I cut my very first bouquet of honeysuckle and roses for the year 2021!

I put them in my favorite rose vase and placed them in the hall.....

.....where we shall see them as we come and go.

American Beauty roses.......hard to find now.

Louis Dean brought these with him when we married.

He dug them up at his house in Brownwood and planted them here.

We lost one bush two years ago.....and have been looking for another to replace it.

Alas, most nurseries only carry the knock out roses and currently popular varieties.

Later in the afternoon, we went in search of a few flowering things to replace the ones we lost in the Deep Freeze of February 2021!

I shopped Home Depot although I actually prefer the gardening section at Lowe's.....

but we only have Home Depot - TWO of them - here in Irving.

We pretty much packed the Big White Truck!

Granted, that pine box looking thing is from Louis Dean's bathroom and is going down to the ranch's bathroom. See the bucket of Drywall Primer?

I'm redoing the walls in Louis Dean's bathroom.

I'm going for the 'Glazed Italian Plaster' look .....aka .....Stucco or plaster!

Louis Dean unloaded our plants and I came in and spent the rest of the afternoon baking......

Pumkin Muffins for my Rayne Roo who will be returning to Texas to spend a few months of her summer vacation! She dearly LOVES pumpkin muffins and it is our tradition - she and I - that there will always be a fresh batch waiting for her when she lands at the airport.

I told Summer they are waiting and ready in the freezer at home.

Next I baked up some mini Simple Kahlua Cakes.....using my beehive cake pan.

I don't normally eat my own baking - but this cake was really good!

Recipe:

1 cake mix - it called for yellow but I used a Devil's food

1 box (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup oil

1/2 cup of water

3/4 cup coffee flavored liqueur

It was nearly dark when I went outside to plant my recent purchases!

I do so love gardening by moonlight - and with all the fairy lights plugged in!

Louis Dean said - on Saturday morning - "Wouldn't it be nice to have a day to just simply BE and not DO anything?"

That pretty much happened.

We had a nice relaxing morning and then arrived at the hockey rink to watch all four grandquads play.

Trystan and Kailey are on one team and Logan and Harrison on the other.

Since we have seen more games from Harrison and Logan - we opted to stay put and watch Trystan score a goal and Kailey play with all her energy and personality to win their game.

Down at the other end of the rink, Amber is congratulating Logan on their team's win!

It was a Win! WIN!!!

We both took good long naps as soon as we got home!

Louis Dean got his wish!

I did do a bit more work in the flower beds once I was up......

and I cooked us up a healthy Saturday night supper....

fish, garlic steamed potatoes, cooked fresh spinach with a sliced boiled egg and sliced tomatoes.....and a roll.

This Sunday marked the first church service Louis Dean has attended since late 2019!

My knee replacement surgery kept us home early on in 2020 and then Covid hit.

He came once eariler this year but stayed in the car......

so this was the very FIRST time he has been inside the church to worship with the congregation.

He was pretty happy about that!

We meant to go out to eat after church but decided to stop in at Home Depot for a couple more plants.....as in a plumbago to replace one I thought we had lost.....but when I got it home - I noticed the old one is coming back. Now there will be an abundance of plumbago this year! They have the prettiest little blue flowers! Next was a stop at Sam's which only yielded a bag of avocados!

Texas Roadhouse was our lunch choice but we missed the turn in and had to do a go around.....and then discovered a whole slew of people waiting outside. So we came home and ate from what we had for next to nothing! $$ saved to spend elsewhere......as in tomorrow night when we will meet up with Dean and Sherry in Hillsboro to attend a meeting of the Hill Country Beekeepers. I'm certain a dinner out will follow. 

And that's one of the reasons we dropped our kitties off with their Aunt Amber!

She is such a good sport about taking them in and this is perfect for us since we will return to the ranch and the plumbing situation that is actually - at the bottom line - no different than when we arrived there last month. No water of any kind inside the camper. Granted, we have 220 wiring done in the big bathroom, but no sink or working toilet. Not that Dean has not tried! He has spent quite a bit of precious time down there at the camper/cabin. First he fixed that three way break in a major water line......and many repairs on the toilet......

However, we are going back rested and refreshed. Louis Dean has had an entire week off from any kind of plumbing repair......unless you count the hole in the wall behind the dishwasher and the leak he found and fixed and putting the dishwasher back where it goes. Still.....our mental and emotional attitude is so much better now that I am certain we can deal with things as needed.

We just NEED to get back to the country!

I said my goodbyes to Samantha......

and told Tabitha how much I love her.....without her ever turning the slightest bit toward me.

As we were leaving, Harrison wanted to show off his hockey skills.

We admired him and his 'hat trick'.....who KNEW what that even meant???

Then I tried MY hand at it and it is nowhere near as easy as those players make it look out there on the ice! And guess who tried it next??? We were all shocked! Louis Dean seemed to have fun. though.

He asked Harrison for pointers and one was not to swing the hockey stick like a golf club!

I will close tonight's journal entry with some beautiful and professional photos of the famous spring  bluebonnets of Texas!

Shared with permission from the photographer....

Gloria......via Facebook.....

Is barbed wire a Texas 'thing?'

Gloria took these photos in Ennis, Texas.....

a famous place for bluebonnets!

This was April 15, 2021.

Thank you, Gloria, for allowing me to share your beautiful pictures!