so... how was your trip?

Very nice, thank you. I had a great time being with family, just hanging out, sitting around talking.

Just going that far north, that much distance from where I sit here in middle GA - it was amazing to realize I had the opportunity to enjoy spring all over again. I saw some huge, beautiful bushes of forsythia - looking like thousands of tiny yellow butterflies hovering together. Lots of dogwoods out along the byways and planted in yards - more pinks than people care to plant around here. Azaleas still loaded with blooms - in some places so covered with bright red, they looked on fire. Gorgeous swags of lavendar, aromatic wisteria twining through the treetops out in the woods. Lots of happy, smiling daffodils nodding in the breezes. Masses of luscious tulips, planted in huge beds, enough to make your mouth water- surrounded by so many pansies you could not see the dirt.

A sweet, round, happy baby. Who is trying her best to figure out how to crawl. They get up on all fours, and then don't know what to do next, so they sway a bit, then collapse, to roll over, get back up into a sitting position and start over.

I accidentally bought some flowers. When we were at a street fair, I saw some gallardia that the grower said she had started from seeds, and had just that morning dug up in little clumps to bring into town to sell. The gallardia is also known as 'blanket flower' and found in places most flowers cannot tolerate: at the beach. In the hot, dry, salt laden sand - they bloom all summer in spite of miserable growing conditions. Mine are supposed to be red, instead of yellow/orange.

I had to hesitate before I bought them, with a small fear that they would not get through airport security - but then I thought: plants. Only dirt and green stuff. Not a weapon. So I got two clumps, wrapped in damp newspaper, and tucked in a plastic grocery bag.

But TSA wasn't so sure they were harmless. I now wonder if they might be contraband, or some drug that is  legal in California for medicinal purposes only. I left my little plants in my backpack and put it through the x-ray scanner, and the guys decided they needed to inspect my stuff. Probably my fault - as I forgot to take the little zip-bag with toiletries out, and also had a bottle half-full of water. We enjoyed going through my stuff. They checked through all my business, kept the water bottle, and let me go. He told me I could drink the water if I wanted, but I would have to go back through the scanner if I did, so I told him it was his bottle now. Why they would want to scan my water, inside my person, I will never know.

Got to the gate as they were boarding, so that was perfect timing. whew.