I like #297

 Welcome to another week of things to like!

Last night we had bad storms here, tornados and hail.  Luckily I'm fine, but there was quite a bit of damage south of us where the tornadoes came down and around us with bad hail damage.  I was going home from work (trying to get home to the dogs before the first big cell came through and was a bit scared when I got stuck on the freeway.  I really wish people wouldn't block the freeway by parking under the overpasses in the middle of the road.  It's dangerous for everyone.  Anyway, I got home to the dogs right as the first mesocylone was passing directly over our house (I took this pictures out of my car window as I was pulling up to my neighborhood), and thankfully the spinning storm didn't fully drop into a tornado on the ground and I got home safely.  We all watched the weather for hours (that's what you do during storm evenings) and it so sad to see the damage from where the tornadoes did come down.

The dogs do not like the stormy weather mostly because they have to have their harnesses on but do not get to go for a walk. 

In other exciting news, a couple of my dahlias are starting to peek out of the ground.  That's always exciting!  There are also a bunch of viney things sprouting too.  The sprout on the right below is a dahlia and the sprout on the left is a viney thing.  The viney things are always pretty, they grow up the fence and make lovely flowers, but they take over everything and choke out everything else so I try to be careful about how many I let grow with my other flowers.

Things have been so busy and crazy here with work and travel that I haven't done anything creative in quite a while but I did take an hour on Monday evening after I got my grant reviews and make a cute springy/summery wreath.  I have fall and Christmas wreaths, but saw Jeni's recent blog post gathering all her vintage sheet projects (one of which was a wreath like this one).  I didn't use vintage sheets but like all quilters I have plenty of random scraps so I followed her tutorial to whip this up.  The flowers have a fabric center and the outer edge is made from a crocheted (knitted?) felted easter basket I made a long time ago.  It was cute- green with the frilly purple edging but it was too small to use for anything and really floppy (wouldn't stand up by itself) so every year when I got out my Easter decorations I'd put it back in the box.  Finally this year I took it to the studio to reuse the materials and it was sitting on the work table when I did this project so I chopped it up and used it for the flowers, leaves (and the hanging hook).  It was a fun quick colorful project.

I hope there are some things to like in your life this week and no one got hit by bad weather!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

NPS Sites in 2023

 I mentioned back at the beginning of the year that one of my goals for this year was to visit at least 12 NPS sites this year.  I decided I'd start a running post tracking them, and then update as I go.  In the first part of the year I traveled a bunch so I got a chance to visit several.  Sadly I think the rate will be slowing down as I'm back home more.

1. Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, January 1, 2023

2. Petrified Forest National Park, March 4, 2023

3. Cesar Chavez National Monument, March 5, 2023

4. Walnut Canyon National Monument, March 11, 2023

5. Cabrillo National Monument, March 29, 2023

6. Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, May 2023

7. Big Thicket National Preserve (Near Houston TX), October 2023

I Like #296

 Welcome to another week of things to like.  We are still swamped at work, but it was Easter week last week which is a big celebration for us.  And we've had gorgeous spring weather here so that's been a real delight.

I loved seeing this bed of tulips outside my building at work.

And inside the house, my beautiful pink houseplant is blooming!

I built a new raised bed this weekend for my little garden (it's from Vego garden), and then on Saturday morning I went down to the free Norman Compost Center and filled up 12 dog food bags with compost. After hauling it all back, I finished filling up the new bed and replenishing the old beds and planted all the rest of the garden. Of course Spooky and Blue helped.  It was such a nice day to be outside.

While I was working in the garden, I saw the most gorgeous giant humingbird moth feeding in my dahlias.  So fantastic.

And the weekend culminated with wonderful Easter services, so joyful and celebratory.  A great relief given some of the stress and chaos that's happening at our church just now.

I hope everyone who celebrates had a happy Easter!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I like #295

 Welcome to another week of things to like!  I missed last week because I was at a symposium in La Jolla CA for people who have and study the type of inherited retinal degeneration my lab has been working on for years.  It was a wonderful and inspiring trip, but I'm very glad to be home after bunches of traveling.

The symposium was held at a lovely hotel near the Torrey Pines golf course, unfortunately I never could figure out how to get past the golf course down to the ocean (which maybe you can see dimly in the horizon of this picture).

The first afternoon I arrived, I was able to visit Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument.  One of the coolest things about it was walking down to the tide pools.  The tide pool creatures were similar to the ones we see at Asilomar, but the rocks are really different.  Really pronounced layers (so cool!) and lots of bioturbated rocks (where the shapes were formed by the presence of little creatures).

After I got back I spent the weekend cleaning out my garden,  I'm still not finished, I have a new bed to build and need to go get compost, but it's so much better and I planted a bunch of flower seeds and some annuals after taking these pictures.

Before (so messy from last year)

And after

And so exciting, my crabapple tree is in full bloom.  So beautiful!!

Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!