Happy Spring

Spring in Minnesota is a time of contrasts. Take, for instance, the fact that the local drug store was selling windshield-wiper fluid and watering cans in the "seasonal" aisle:
We were looking for sidewalk chalk for Girl-child's Easter basket; that was something I used to do, was put sidewalk chalk and bubbles in their baskets. Unfortunately, the drugstore was out of sidewalk chalk.

As the children have moved up in the world, so have their gifts, and this year each received a book and a movie in with the jelly beans. Boy-child and I just watched his new movie, The Iron Giant, which was lots of fun; I hadn't seen it in ages.

Easter is a time for renewal, which is hard to remember when you're going to the nursing home and visiting your mom, but it was relatively fun this week as the kids went with me and we took her to Dairy Queen. My mom loves Peanut Buster Parfaits. Boy-child was fascinated by Gudren, a woman in the Memory Care unit, who seems to have forgotten her English today. We found out that she was speaking Swedish; it must come and go for her still, because I know I've heard her speaking English before. I do wonder if the Somalis, Central Americans and Mexicans think about the possibility of their own mental demise, and their possible loss of English, in the future. I wonder if anyone will still know their languages when they get old; Lord knows there are precious few who speak Swedish around here these days.

I found a new knitting magazine recently that comes out of the U.K. They had an article on Spanish yarn shops, which makes me want to go to Madrid in the fall. The only drawback is that the shops are Spanish style, which we experienced in Chile, and we know that didn't get us far last December. I still think it would be a future field trip worth investigating.

To bring me back in the springy mood, I just take a look at the lovely hostess gift I received today. These remind me of how much fun I have planting on Mothers' Day weekend, and how much I enjoy flower season:
Thanks, Sue!