Monday Monday! It's Spring!

 

Azaleas and bumblebee in my garden Sunday Afternoon!

Good Morning and Happy 1st Monday of Spring!  Yes, it is definitely springtime here where we are in Florida, although some may think we jumped right over spring and landed in summer already, as it has been quite warm in the higher 80's in the afternoons, but it cools down nicely in the evenings and early mornings, so if you have things you want to do outside, just do them early in the morning or later in the evening and you'll be just fine!  The only bad thing is we still aren't getting any significant rains and everything is extremely dry, so much so that we were under a "Red Flag Warning" yesterday due to the dry winds, lower humidity, and bright warm sunshine.  Not a good time for fire pits or burning leaves/trash.    

Thankfully, our birthday celebration for our son Scott yesterday was all cooked indoors, even though we had BBQ pulled pork.  I forgot to take pictures of the food...but it was all good.  I put the Boston Butt roast in the crock pot on Saturday night when I was ready for bed. It cooked on low all night long, and by morning it was all cooked and falling off the bone and ready to be "pulled"/shredded.  It turned out really good!  

In case you are interested in how I cooked it, this is what I did: 

The Boston Butt was about 6 lbs., bone in.  I added 1 regular can of low sodium chicken broth, 1/2 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar, and about a cup of Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ Sauce, in addition to rubbing the meat with some garlic powder, salt and pepper and a little chili powder.  I placed all ingredients in the crock pot and set it on low for 10 hours. Perfecto!!!

Yes, we also had some Bush's Country Style Baked Beans, a Tossed salad, and Rose brought her delicious deviled eggs. Oh, and we used some "sweet Hawaiian style" hamburger rolls for the pulled pork sandwiches, per Scott's request. I also baked the cake Scott requested...it was a vanilla cake with fudge icing.

Here's the pictures we DID take, during the birthday party time after lunch:

The most important picture! Blowing out the candles! It's a family tradition!

Then came the gift time, and these are just a few of the things he received...

And then the family pictures around the table...

Of course Benton and Rose were there...

And Rose's sister Sherrie was also with us...she's still visiting from Minnesota,  but will be heading back to the freezing north on Tuesday. 

Here's "Daddy"....a.k.a. my hubby, a.k.a. John:

And your's truly with hubby...

And here's the whole gang, thanks to Scott's expertise with setting the timer on the cellphone camera and then jumping back into the picture before it starts snapping the photo:

After we finished the cake, etc., some of us went outside to walk around the yard...

Yes, our grandpuppies Sugar and Spice were there for the big occasion...

And here's the sisters Sherrie and Rose...two lovely flowers in my garden:

And we were surprised to find these two lovely flowers blooming again:

"Hippeastrum, click on this link for more information and a previous post I wrote about discovering these for the first time"

The come up every year and surprise me!  I didn't plant them. I think they "traveled" over to our yard from some plants in my neighbor's yard! What a lovely "gift"!

Oh, remember back when our son built a couple of "cat beds"  for our porch kitties? Well they never used them as such, so I decided to "repurpose" them into planters to add to my Butterfly Garden...

I planted some butterfly type flowers in them, and hopefullly they will start growing and blossoming soon...

There's Coreopsis flowers

And a "Scorpions Tail Plant" and some Native Florida Milkweed.

Hopefully they will attract lots of butterflies to our garden!

Well, that's about it for yesterday's excitement. Not sure what's on tap for today...well, yes, there will be the Ladies' Bible Study this afternoon, and the usual stuff this morning. I need to get a move on. The sun is almost rising and Hubby just put Blackie back outside after his breakfast. Oh, yes, he was around yesterday too, but we had to keep him in a separate place away from the doggies...they almost "got into it" when the doggies first arrived and Blackie came to greet them...but not very nicely and it was utter chaos for a second or two...thankfully the doggies were on their leashes and Benton had them well in hand or they would've been high on the chase to get Blackie...but Blackie was back up in his favorite tree pretty quickly.  Whew! That was a close one!!!  I don't think they are ready to be best friends just yet! LOL.

Oh, yes, the Bluebirds have been quite busy in their "nest" lately. I do hope we will see some Baby Bluebirds before too long....

"For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers are springing up and the time of the singing of birds has come. Yes, spring is here." Song of Solomon 2:11-12 TLB

"Father, please give me ears to hear the music of the wakening world around me. Amen."

Amen!!!