And on to a pretty good week!

When last we blogged, things were looking irritating at my house, but situations were resolved and it turned out to be a pretty good week!

My High School kids are usually very fun and quite cooperative.  They are a cool bunch and my mornings with them are generally quite good.  My elementary kids, for the most part, are the same, but I have a couple classes that are so SO big.  Like 30 kids in the classroom big.  And since it is a class and a half, they are very noisy as well.  And things aren't getting any quieter as the end of the year approaches.

So, a couple of my days during the week are ones I dread a bit, as an hour is a long time with all that constant correction and reminders to not shout at the kid they are sitting right beside....  it's exhausting.  Anyway, Tuesday, these children were actually pretty productive and fun- after I read them the riot act and possibly frightened them.  Ha, like I am so scary.  Anyway, that was a surprisingly good day, followed by days of little glimmers of good news.

It has been a week of eyebrows raised in little moments of surprise- cancelled meetings- and days of warmer and dryer than expected weather...  things like that.  Today we have an inservice all day and then its Friday and then it is a weekend that is going to include some kayaking!!  YES! With a friend I haven't seen in like FOREVER!!  Double YES!

I now have a several clumps of flowering little daffodils, and a few full sized blooms have occurred just yesterday!  Woo hoo!

And back, briefly, to Monday.  The MA had to help someone late in the afternoon deal with a tax situation, and then had some business things to attend to.....  which is no different than ever, but bad timing.  The NEXT day he got home at a reasonable time, raked the lawn for a while and then we did go for a little ride.  I don't think I stopped talking literally the entire time that we were in the truck.  Lol.  I know you all find that hard to believe, right?

It has been nice getting back to spring activities- the lawn is being dealt with, I have the grill out, starting to fetch the different pots of perennials from their winter beds and getting them woken up.  Making plans for kayaking and Bayfielding and all that good stuff!

Anyway, I hate it when my blog is hanging on a downer sort of note, so I decided to do a quick update.  It really is a good week.  I like this!  :)  My camera contains some really nice daffodil shots, but I didn't get around to editing last night- I had a fun twitter thing going on, and I can't be witty and creative all at the same time I guess?  That and I had done some fast down and dirty weight lifting the last few days and I was SO tired.

Well, though it doesn't feel like it, I have to go to work today.  Inservice days - where I have to sit all day- make me just a little nutty.

But I will find some joy - I am sure of it.

Rock on all you beautiful people!!!

Signs of spring

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I was walking around in the fairly warmish weather (anything more than 40 is warm by our measure these days) and I headed over towards the garden and taDA- bees in the hive there.

We had 2 living hives when we put them to bed for the winter last October, but this past March it was determined that this hive was not living any more.  We had been feeding them sugar candy since they were out and about during those warm days in early March, and we wanted them to live.  But a few weeks after we began doing that, the MA didn't see any activity at all in this hive and so---- it was assumed they hadn't made it.  So no attention has been paid to that box.

Well apparently they were alive, as yesterday I found a lot of kids hanging out around that box!

It's an alive hive

Makeshift feeder

I didn't feel like attempting to suit up and put the sugar water I made inside, because it isn't set up for it right now.  So I just placed a jar of sugar water outside of it with a make shift place where they could get at it. A bee had already found the drips from when I flipped the jar over, so I know they have found it.  The other hive has a nice fat sugar candy loaf from the weekend, so they will be fine.

So I will be interested to see what is going on this afternoon!  Another fun fact was I heard the spring peepers for the first time last night as well!  Just a couple, but still there!  They will be vocal today when it warms up closer to 60!  YAY for spring!!!

And speaking of said spring, I would guess that my little Tete-a-tete daffodils could be blooming by the weekend!!  They are located at the base of the lovely Lola! This is one of my favorite moments of the year is finding my first daffodil blossom.

And of course, lets not forget this wonderful little combo of bees and crocuses!  It has been so fun to see the bees waking up and flying around to get what they can from the limited food sources that is in northern Wisconsin right now.  There is probably way more than we think, as the strong hive had a continuous stream of bees going in and out of the box flying off and arriving in a line from the north. I wonder if some of the trees are starting to have some pollen already.

So I have to get myself ready for work, meow, and need to finish this up.  Funny how these quick posts manage to not be so quick.  But that is ok, I have time!  And celebrating spring is certainly worth the time and is a joy!!

Bees and ice

My my my, I have fallen behind on blogging.  Last time I did that I ended up having various stupid things happen to me and then I had nothing but time to write out my woes ..... maybe all a coincidence, but maybe not!  HA!  

Smith Lake is starting to thaw

Anyway, I have been wanting to blog for a while, but I have this life that keeps me hopping.  The play, in specific, was a time consumer.  I will say, this was quite the remarkable group of kids.  No drama, everyone took care of themselves, and their props and costumes, and it was pretty amazing.  I enjoyed them very much!  They all (well almost all) listened when I ask them to get out of the way of the stage crew, and they cheerfully cleaned up after themselves and it was good.

Stage crew

I had company on my porch!

Anyway, this particular past weekend, Saturday was just a spectacular day.  Warm (yes- 65 in March- warm!!) ;) and sunny and lovely.  Why, I even sat in the sun in the morning on my lovely yellow Adirnondack chair.  After doing a bunch of errands, I went for a walk down to the lake, carrying my new camera equipment, which is incredibly heavy!  Lol.  I was so happy to be outside, and in the sun and not in school. It has been really cloudy/rainy/icy and I haven't been as active as I want to be.  So, it was a great thing to be outside.  I checked out the ice and refused to walk out on it, though there were people who indeed walked out right in front of me

So the other interesting thing that went on is that we have verified that indeed one of the bee hives has lived through the winter.  Upon discussion with a fellow beekeeper that I know, I found out that the Mad-Middle son had some pollen patties left, so the bees got some protein, which is probably pretty important at this time of the year.  You should see those poor bees flying around trying to  find something to eat.... they did hang out in the driveway, I assume drinking water.

I took pictures of the bees from a safe distance (they were a little cranky) with my new long camera lens.  I put out one honey frame that did not get cleaned out completely, and they were all over it.  Bees are such interesting little things. 

The kids cleaning out a honey comb

Lots of bee butts in the air

I did cook up a batch of sugar candy for the hive this weekend as well.  Want to make sure that they get enough calories for the next month of bee famine. Anyway, I made it and left it until the MA could put it out, as I was too tired to go out on Sunday afternoon when I got back from the play.  We removed the 3 discs from the paper plates and he sort of folded them up a little and left.  He marched right back into the house less than 5 minutes later with said sugar candy because the bees were still hanging out - similar to the photo below.....

They sure are messy in the spring- here they are hanging out outside of the hive on a lovely 60 degree day. 

Unbeknownst to me, he laid the blob of cooked sugar water on top of a package of chocolate chip cookies (that's right- nothing homemade this weekend).  Right before we went to bed, I heard a rustling from the front room, where he had gone to lock the door and such.  I looked into the room to see him trying to pull the table cloth out of the sugar blob, and then started to try to remove the sticky mess from the cookies package.  This candy is not rock hard, and eventually flows and bends.... especially since it isn't really very cold out.  I rolled my eyes so hard at this one!  Shaking my head, I took the whole mess and threw it into the freezer overnight.  good grief.  I was able to fairly easily take the now frozen sugar mass off of the plastic package and lay it on another paper plate, where it stayed until the bees were presented with breakfast Monday morning.....  always an adventure living with this supposedly intelligent person who is in sort of work induced state of stupor.   Similar to what I am like most afternoons, but have the luxury of recovering from my stresses in relative peace and tranquility.  At least now that the play is done....

We all have our work crosses to bear I guess.

Anyway, onto a definitely not spring-like week.  While we have started off warm, things are looking to go downhill quickly.  We shall see!  I won't jinx it here...  

Until next time, be a joy giver!!  

May Day! Already?

I changed my calendar to May this morning!  HOLY smokes how did that happen??

Lovely May sunrise

It is a beautiful morning, just a few clouds that made a lovely sunrise possible.  Warmish out (who am I kidding, my feet were freezing when I was standing out there barefoot) with the promise of a lot of smiles.

May is a time of anticipation.  Students are anticipating the end of school.  Seniors are anticipating graduation.  Teachers are anticipating a rest coming in just a few weeks.  Summer always holds so much promise and thoughts of adventure and respite.

This past week has been a lovely gift in the weather department- walks have been taken and gardens have been worked in.  I know that I have to begin lifting up some heavy weights as I have aches where there should be none.  But this will start and indeed already has.

May has the promise of visitors too!  I will get to see my grandkiddos this month and my boys and my Sarahs and I am so so excited!  Speaking of excited, it seems the Mad-middle son and his lovely Sarah could be having an addition to their family coming in the fall, and I can hardly contain myself! Life is so full of lovely surprises.

May has a number of birthdays I enjoy, too, most notably my little Greggy and my seester Rose!!  Two of my favorite peeps!  (don't worry all the rest of you, you are my favorite peeps as well!)  

May is looking to start off really well- it is Friday after all!  AND I "may" have a day trip of pictures, coffee and Lake Superior planned!  And this will be good.

Hope your May Day is spectacular!  And most importantly - full of joy!

Spring on pause

I assume you can see the disturbing view from the window....

I went out on Sunday and brought in a few of my daffodils so I can enjoy them in here.  Heaven knows being outside isn't particularly enjoyable at this point.  

The forecast has changed wildly from day to day- right now this is looking like the last day of snow.  Ha- we shall see! But warmth is not part of Mother Nature's plan for a while.  Oh well, it is still April!

And as many people have mentioned- this won't last.

But until that time where it is warmish again,  I will enjoy 3 of my daffodil varieties!  

Hope you find something bright and warm and sunny in your day, too.  And hopefully you can spread a little of your joy.

Art show and other thangs

Yesterday turned out to be a very busy, but ok day.  I hit the ground running at school and barely got time to sit.  After starting some new projects with the High School kids, I also was zipping around getting ready for the art show I put up after school.

I will say I used to do a lot more to prep for art shows.  I used to make sure I had little name tags and most had some sort of faux frame and just fancied it up in general.  I just do NOT have time for that anymore.  People don't seem to notice, or else they just don't mention it.  I have too many classes each week to have the time for fussing.  My two rooms still look like a bomb went off in them in certain places, I am making a little headway, but it is a constant battle.  Oh well.

So anyway, an art show went up at the Credit Union and it was SO sweet- I had 3 people from the community in that hour tell me how much they liked seeing the art work.  It was fun to hear their obvious joy!  It will be up for a couple of weeks.  Every time I put up a show I see how my preferences as an art teacher is mixing some realism with a lot of abstracty stuff.  It makes me happy to see it, but I wonder how the community likes it.  Not that them liking it is any overriding goal of mine.....  Just a random musing, here.  I want them to express themselves more than I am worried about a specific method.

Speaking of adorable (well I am now) I had a Kindergarten class yesterday who was exuberant shall we say!  Lol, that means they were not quite in the listening mode.  We had a project to finish, so we did that and then usually free drawing makes them very happy.  That was one NOISY group of kiddos, so I pulled out some origami paper and enticed them a few at a time over by me for mini cup folding lesson refreshers.  I eventually lured them all over to me and we even took a pic of our finished cups.  It was nice to have the noise level drop for that last 15 minutes and they LOVE to fold origami things.  So cute.

I have been LOVING this gorgeous spring weather!  I have put on over 20 miles on the road since last Friday.  I can kind of feel the stiffness in my lower legs today, mostly because I am almost back to my regular speed of walking.  I have been purposely walking faster- gotta get my groove back.   My times on Runkeeper don't look a lot faster as I have been taking photos with this amazing new phone.  The camera is really nice and there is an excellent in app editing system now that lets me circumvent Snapseed or Aviary.  **LOVE**

Speaking of ANNOYING, I went to pick up phone case at our local retail business establishment and they had NONE for iPhone 6..... are you KIDDING me?? I am not exactly in the first wave of 6 buyers.  Usually I am way far behind on phones and trying to scavenge for an old case.  Ugh.  I have some specific needs for cases, and so I like to be able to feel them to make sure they aren't too slippery and I don't want them to interfere with sliding in and out of my pocket when I walk,  etc.  And of course it needs to be minimally bright and preferably cute.  Sigh.  So, Amazon.  I might have my own personal shopper, ahemcoughRosecough, look for something for me.  :)  It should be here tomorrow on good old April 15.

Anyway, that is what I have this morning.  I do plan to get in another weight session tonight and most likely a walk again.  If nothing else I will take another spin down to Smith Lake.  It is a nice shortish (2.5 mile) trek with lots of hills and of course the gift of Smith Lake at the end.  

Be a joy giver today everyone!!

Spring is arriving in the north

Ohhhh so exciting!!! It is going to get warm today! And stay warm for the foreseeable future. Of course this is a relative thing, but 60's and eventually 70 is going to be amazing!! Expect to see pale northern legs and toes in shorts and flip flops!! :)

Lola is happy for sunshine too

This morning was frosty but that is ok with the promise of warmth and sun. Yay for Wisconsin. 

Frosty daffodils- these will bloom by the end of the week!!  Woo HOO

Hen and chicks that lasted the winter

This will indeed be a joyful day!  Might have to work in the flower garden at some point!  :)

Desperately seeking sleep, and spring and other elusive things.....

I am sitting here (when I started this that is) at 6:30 in the am wondering how in the heck I find myself checking my powerball numbers (no bueno) and sitting in the dark instead of sleeping.  Sort of the story of my sleep life lately, either I am awake a long time (which is fairly typical) or I wake up by one means or another early in the morning (sigh), or a more recent occurrence-  become awake at 3 in the am and then not get back to sleep.  I really do need someone to lock me in a room with sedatives and/or margaritas and a pillow and keep me there for a few days.  Shove some food under the door but don't for heavens sakes wake me up at 6 am.  Ah well.

So the play is almost complete, and it has been a really good one.  A few minor glitches here and there that ALWAYS happen, but it has been a powerful synergy of fun.  The costumes are gorgeous (rented specialty costumes are the way to go!) and the lighting is spot on!  (HAHAHA)  We have been really working together so so well, and that doesn't always happen.  It has been a special group of kids to work with!  

My stagecrew members are almost all first timers with a couple putting in their second year.  This is somewhat unusual, as most years I have a few 3 or 4 years experienced kids.  This causes a small set of problems that involve them worrying all around me while I continuously tell them that this is an easy play to change.  Don't worry, it'll be fine!! They do believe me now.  They get so worked up about things sometimes.  And then they miss some of my best jokes!!   Not yesterday though!  Last night when intermission hit we had to get the ship off stage.  There are a lot of pieces/parts to it, so it takes a lot of the kids to do it.   We safely got all the sea-life off stage,  and I walked out into the middle (these things pop into my head, no fore-planning) turned and looked and said ok, we need to move the ship- ALL HANDS ON DECK! HAHAHA! Oh I was on fire last night!!  There were more but that one was fun.  Most of them laughed, but I may have seen an eyeroll.  I guess you had to be there. I told them that is what they get when the art teacher gets to take a nap!! 

Sunday performance is the most relaxed and sometimes a little unscripted.  It used to really worry me  because people have been known to get carried away.  Since I feel responsible for what goes on during the performances, for the most part, I remind them that there are people seeing it for the first time.  We don't want to ruin the integrity of the play, I feel sometimes like I am no fun in that regard.  Some visual jokes are ok, but......   You know what I mean.  So they have fun and I spend a lot of time monitoring the undertones.  And speaking with some prime suspects during makeup sessions.  I think we will be good, though.

So, I would like to say that spring has unnecessarily teased us with her warmth and now- what gives here Missy!  I have a spring weekend to enjoy and the high yesterday was like 31*.  COME ON!!!  You can do better than that.  I wanted to go for a walk this morning and it is 21.  Seriously.  I'll probably go anyway, but I refuse to wear multiple layers.  SPEAKING of spring- a certain partner in all things hiking and Bayfield and Washburn and photography and I just MAY be planning a day trip- soon very very soon.  And we don't care what the temperature is or if it wants to snow or whatever.  Take that spring!

In spring's defense, though, for the time being the snow is almost gone, and my daffodils have peeked their little heads up to see if it is safe.  I told them to hunker down for a little bit, not quite warm enough for them.  It is so nice to see bits of green!  I need to go out and chat with Lola too- I miss taking her photo every day.

With the end of the play upon me, I suddenly have time after school.  The 3rd quarter is up on Friday, so I will have a lot of things to do for that.  AND I certainly need to spend time in my art rooms catching up.  I may go as far as to go home, walk and then go back to school like I did in years gone by....  We shall see.  But I need to spend time in my room organizing and (pretend your aren't reading this anyone of you who feels the need to tell me no all the time) climbing around and putting things away on all the  high shelves that I haven't been able to get to.  I need a minimum of 3 sessions, one for each of the rooms I have.  Then I have to change the display cases and probably prepare for an art show or two.  SO much to do in my rooms.  I have kept up with the necessities, but now I need to dig in deeper.

It would be nice to sleep before all of that is accomplished tho!  I see some amazing cloud formations outside, the pictures are asking to be captured.  I can feel a need that has to be satisfied here and pronto.  I quick walk to the flowage might just be in order- 21 degrees or not.  Because I can, and I know that simple things like walks are not always guaranteed.

Take advantage of your opportunities when you can and alway always be a joy giver!!

Bee update and other stuff

blood root

I was planning to do separate bee updates and posts from other things, but you know, it takes a long time to do one and I am too damn tired to do two. So folks, you will have to BEE PATIENT AND FORGIVING!  HAHAHAHA  these bee jokes are just going to go on and on, you know that, right??  :)

Brushing the bees away from the queen cage

carefully replacing one of the honeycomb dealies where the queen cage was

Our bee tools- hive tool, paint brush, multitool and spray bottle of sugar water

Anywho, we went into the hives tonight and took the queens out of their lil cages.  They could have been out already, but the corks that we were supposed to remove and replace with marshmallow fell into the cage, and then got in the way of the queen getting out.  sigh.  Well that was no big deal, and we just pulled the screen off the cage and dropped her in.  For anyone who thinks they can tell a queen bee from the rest- that is highly unlikely.  I mean she looked exactly like the rest of them, except she was holding her butt up in the air, very unqueenly if you ask me.  But hey, what do I know.  Anyway, she disappeared into the crowd.  I am sure they know who she is.  Interestingly, they had already started "pulling comb" on the side of one of the queen cages.  VERY fascinating stuff.  It is a trick to deal with those bees all clinging to the different parts.  We were trying to replace the combs without squishing anyone, which we mostly succeeded with.  Everything is all good to go now, we shouldn't have to do anything except fill the feeder pail once in a while.  They can take it from here.  We will just keep an eye on things and make sure there aren't marauders around.

Removing one of the parts of the hive to make sure the queen got out of the other cage - you can see the watering pan that has rocks in it for the bees to land on to get water

Crazy isn't it

And of course we had the cork issue here too.  

The bees had started to make comb on the queen box!

So today I went for a little photo shoot of some flowers both planted and wild and got a few nice shots. It gives me so much pleasure to have these flowers around and I am assuming that pretty soon the bees will start visiting these different blossoms as well.  They were pretty busy in the hive today, haven't seen anyone out and about quite yet, but I bet that will come soon.

Crocus

Blood root

Anyway, here is a selection of some of my finest daffodils and there are a few mayflowers and blood roots too.

And as we go into spring, and then summer- remember to be a joy giver!  And save some of that joy for yourself.  If you can't bee happy with you, how can you find happiness in the little things in life.  And those little things are everything!

Pictures: the next chapter- Nature at it's best/worst

There has been a lot of whining, crying and complaining about winter this year, but so far it looks like perhaps it won't last into freaking MAY like last year.  I am ever so optimistic. 

So I have been keeping a daily, photographic diary of Lola, mostly on Instagram, and I have seen some of the deepest snow levels up here, ever!!  It was pretty incredible to have Lola to measure it against.  I can't wait for the plant growth to begin so we can see how high the daffodils and lilies and poppies get.  Better than snow for sure.

The best shot that I got of this super quick trip to Holy Hill

However, there are no photos of that yet, so we will have to make do with a couple of Lola and of course other parts of the Northwoods- and even a pic or two from southern WI.

Lola at her deepest

Ambience?

Early morning after the snow

Waiting for spring

Glow

Favorite tree

Trio

Winter stone house

Melting is started

Shadows

Sparkle

The ongoing beauty of the sunflower

Spring is here

While in Janesville, we swung past the old GM plant that is in decay.  It was a major part of the Janesville economy and it is so SAD that it is in disuse.  Next time I will get a better pic of this cool 50's style, deserted, gas station.  We were in a hurry.  This was a stunning thing to see in many ways.

After the baby shower was finished Greg led us to Holy Hill.  He knew I would want to photograph that building.  It was after hours for the grounds, but church was just letting out, so all was good.  I got a few good pix against an amazing sky that lovely day.

My buddy the stone house- in the melting stage

3 seasons in one pic

Hang on Lola, spring is coming

I loved the sparkly sun hiding behind the clouds of this last one.  So much hope for a new season.  And with hope there is bound to be some joy!