Bow and the Dandelion

The nice thing about spring, when it finally comes, are the blossoms and the flowers. This is a feast for all the senses, the eyes, the touch, the scent of flowers in bloom.

No, I'm not much of a gardener. Everything around here grows on its own, or it does not grow. But whether the flower is a domesticated one or wild, there is still a feast for the eyes.

Teyman and I go for walks three times a day. I show the pictures of what I see to Bow.

Today, I decided to let Bow feast on some of the flowers himself. I picked some dandelions and brought them to him in the pens.

Bow decided that dandelions were a feast for the mouth as well as the eyes.

However, since his belly was full, he decided to take a nap rather than finish off all the flowers.  I should take a nap, too. Tomorrow I'm going to Jefferson City to attend the senate hearing on some anti-primate legislation. I should rest today and smell the flowers.

Grandma's Poppy Seed Cookies

The weather has been very strange lately. We went from snow to spring flowers in a single day, the day that Sword set off for grandma's house.

Then we had so much rain, that the ditches got flooded.

But when Sword came back yesterday afternoon, bearing gifts from grandma, there was a lull between storms and the birds were rejoicing.

Soon after that short moment of glory, it started raining again.

But for that one moment nature was at peace.

My mother sent along with Sword her famous poppy seed cookies. Bow and I had some with breakfast this morning.

The cookies are made with lots of butter and a small amount of sugar, so they are not particularly sweet. But they are my favorite cookies!

This is my mother's own recipe, but the closest thing available commercially would be shortbread.

Bow was very dainty in his sampling of the cookies.

The reason it's so dark in the video is that we just started Daylight Savings Time. I don't see that it saves anything, especially in a town where everything closes at five. But there's nothing like your favorite cookies to help cheer you up when you have to get up and eat breakfast in the dark.

The Feast Outside

For lunch today I prepared an alternative salad for me and Bow. It consisted of cherry tomatoes, sliced green onions (scallions to some), sliced radishes, and English peas in the pod. I prefer this kind of salad to the kind that is mostly lettuce and coleslaw.

After lunch, I went for a walk with Teyman.  We had Bow's blessing, with the understanding that I would take pictures and get video footage, so he could see what we saw when we were out.

We saw leaves falling from the trees, heard the birds singing, and even observed butterflies enjoying a feast of their own on the wild flowers that pass for weeds by our shot-up rural mailbox.

Teyman allowed me to watch the butterflies for a long time. When we got back, Bow seemed a little impatient. But he calmed down and watched all the footage with me.