Getting my Spring on with Memories to spare

On Saturday it was time to clear out the last of the  burgundy and gold that survived through St. Patty's Day and get my Spring on.  Because I have lots of trinkets and treasures to display and enjoy doing so, it is time to meet Spring inside.  The cold March wind blowing today amidst the sunshine precludes me from further outside yard work. I have cleared out the front flower box, trimmed all the winter ravages from plants along one side and most significantly clipped all the rose bushes and removed the tons of winter leaf mulch. This photo shows the barren rose garden, awaiting the growth and eventual blooms.  Pretty good dent on spring clean up is already accomplished, so I can retreat to my computer. I can use the respite from the wind and maybe my achy shoulders and hands will too.

While I was pruning roses, despite the protest from the arthritis in my hands, I was aware of how it is a "good thing" that I no longer have the 400+ rose bushes that I grew in CA. I loved them and considered them my therapy after long days in state government bureaucracy, but now I don’t require such respite therapy. Furthermore, I could no longer maintain that much gardening. My amusements have shifted here in MN for reasons of seasons and other interests. Someday we will get to travel more in the RV, taking more trips for pleasure and less to check on the elderly of my family. Well RV travel means not being here to monitor and care for gardens, so I am converting to a lower maintenance landscape which means fewer roses. Not being wealthy enough to afford a staff of dedicated landscapers and gardeners ala Martha Stewart, I have downsized my efforts from roses and even vegetable gardening. After all one has to be around to weed and harvest. There are enough fresh veggies at the farmer’s markets and stands locally to assuage my need for home grown items. While I may dream about strolling through lushly gardened grounds, it will not be my reality; instead I defer to the lawns which Jerry mows on his rider and I have relinquished further gardening attempts for a time. Things can change and I can return with a vengeance, but for now I will be content to limit my efforts.  Here with the umbrella bunny from Roberta, I  will begin to share my trinkets and interior  decor.

Now inside it is time to spring up as well,  and point out the change of some of my trinkets and treasures to match the season. Last weekend I brought out the bunnies to Easterfy the inside of our home. Jerry tolerates these spurts benevolently, with comments like, “Pat’s playing with her toys again.” Seeing Laurie’s over the top Easter mantle decor on her blog, inspired me to get busy. (see her blog at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie  http://bargainhuntingwithlaugieblogspot.com/2010/03 ) So, Saturday I bunny hopped around the dining and living room spreading my limited baskets full of Easter joy!

I changed the outside wreaths and am very happy with the forsythia wreath especially. This one is at the front door which we use the most. This leads me into a diversion about our two front doors, almost shown here. The “side” front if you will enters into a hallway and another and then through the kitchen while the main front goes into the formal entry and the living/dining room. I’ve not seen another home before this or since with two front entries, but we did not build this house. The original owner builders were quite particular; he was a master craftsman and carpenter and she was a fanatic about cleanliness and design. I suspect they felt that the side front entry was more practical while the main front more suited for formal entertaining, at least that’s the way it plays out with us. A comical aspect along with the two front entries is that each door has a doorbell and despite our owning this home for almost eight years, I still have not identified which door bell ring goes with which door. This results in my running to and fro to answer a doorbell which gives me a spurt of aerobic when there is a ring at a door, especially when I am downstairs writing like now and the door bell rings. This house is known to UPS and the mail delivery gal who always use the side front bell. Neighbors are accustomed to the garage door or the side front, having lived here longer than we have. However, children selling wares and others might wander to the main front. My penchant for making it easy on myself most often results to my opening whichever door I go to first, usually the side front, and waving at whoever is at the other door to walk back to me. I could and will at another time write more about the ways I manage to be confused in this 4,000+ square foot retirement home. But for now, I want to share some of my Easter bunnies and décor.

Mel commented on Facebook that  she understood the enjoyment I get from bringing out my collection of bunnies, it's the "memories."  She gets it.  Nearly all the bunnies were given to me by my best friend, Roberta through our career years; Roberta died in 2002 so every time I  bring out something that was a gift from her I remember her.  For a time she was really delving into minatures and so came many of the bunnies in my Easter parade on the corner of our mantel.  But look at  Big Bunny Mama Shopping, whom Roberta unleashed across the top of my desk one day when I was despairing of how I'd find time to shop for Easter cards!   We worked in downtown Sacramento which had a mall in walking distance and gift shops nearby and so that day off we went to shop for cards.  Today Bunny Mama Shopping still makes me laugh when I wind her up, and here at least 20 years later, she still works when wound up.  That's something else I love about this collection, nothing was made in China. 

A woman I knew in Penryn, CA  held craft fairs twice a year in her Victorian farm home to sell some of the numerous crafts she made.  This pink ceramic bunny was one of her works and the Polish Easter egg in front of it was hand painted maybe 50 years ago in PA by an elderly woman; surely a dying art.   Somewhere with the Christmas collections are the fabulous beaded ornaments of all shapes that this same elderly woman made.  Actually I could rescue some of those for display as Easter fineries and just might do that.  Today on the rare  occaisions when I do attend craft shows, I am annoyed at the duplications,  mass production, touching up of things made in China and lack of artistry.  Either the market has shifted dramatically or what people would sell is just not anything of interest to me. Maybe a combination of both. Then again I remind myself that I do not need to acquire anymore items.  Yet,  now and then someone cannot resist picking up something for me and sometimes that someone is myself.  My friends and I all agree that we must downsize and not acquire, but then something shows up that is just too tempting to pass.

One such recent example is this exquisite Czech glass vase of multi colors that my best friend, Sandy, in CA, procured last November for my birthday.  She apologized for adding to my accumulation, but she  went to an estate sale and when she saw this she thought of me. It has a spot of honor in the living room where the sun beams coming through the huge picture window shine and glisten across it.  Despite all the cut glass and crystal vases I brought from my aunt's home in PA, I had nothing in these color tones. I don't know whether or not Sandy intended to give me another task, but this Czech vase has accomplished that as I try to find different displays for it through the seasons.  This array uses blue glass marbles in the bottom to support 3 beribboned eggs on sticks and a small garland of ivy with beaded pink flowers.  The bunnies at the bottom came from our son, Steve.  Of course those bring a tear, as I recall him bringing them in  almost 25 years ago saying, "Sorry Dad, but I found more junk for Mom!" 

Some people do not collect and some do not decorate--they might be considered minimalists.  I have never been one of those; I am Teofil's grand daughter and have a genetic desire to collect, I can't imagine just using something one time and then tossing it.  I have decided that as long as I enjoy this and have the time and energy, what does it hurt?  Besides I have lots of storage space, so it is not a problem of where to store it until next year.  My  dining room presents a challenge, not because it is difficult to decorate but because I have a selection of permanently placed items, antiques, glassware,  leaded crystal.  I have tried to compensate with a smattering of bunnies and Easter angels. Those who know me are well aware that angels have been my primary collectible all my life.  So do not be surprised to see my "Easter angels" on the dining room table and sideboard.  They look springlike and so I use them at this time of the year.  The brown  ceramic bunny in the dish next to the gold roses reminds me of  Mikey, a little boy who lived  out the back side of our property in Newcastle.  He is a young man today in CT and we still hear from him, but I recall when he brought this bunny to me, wow 21 years ago!  I think when he  gets settled down and maybe has his own family I will package  up this bunny and send it to him; I expect he will be very surprised.   The smaller laughing bunny was from one of my staff long ago; it has the cutest grin. I posted many of these photos on Facebook, but that does not afford me the space to write about them and share my memories.  Notice all the doilies which are hand work from my Aunt Virginia and my grandmother.  If I did not decorate, I would have no use for these lovelies either. 

This will suffice for now.  Besides Jerry has just strolled by to  ask if I am going to continue to sit here or if I have dinner plans. He cannot understand how I can take so much time to write but then again he can because he knows my verbal fluency.  :)  Tonight will be a treat!  I think, as we will experience my own home made pizza.  So with this, last photo of a favorite bunny dish, I sign off and  ascend upstairs to the kitchen when the pizza dough has risen to nearly exiting its container.  Risen whole wheat dough awaits adornment with sausage, cheese and other finery!  Meantime here is my  prize bunny cabbage dish/candle holder that I bought in 1986 at an estate sale.  I wanted to give this to my grand daughter when we were moving from CA but knowing my DIL's proclivity for tossing I did not.    I can't imagine him being tossed into a dump somewhere.  He is awaiting his annual adornment of jelly beans and peeps.