Friend Makin Monday - Spring Love

Happy Friend Makin' Monday!

Thanks to Amber at {aefilkins} for hosting!

1) Favorite thing about Spring?

The beginning of daylight savings!

2) What am I doing for Spring break?

My "Spring break" days are long gone! I don't even know when Spring break technically is. The crowd at Disneyland last Friday said it was then but Easter isn't even for another two weeks. Anyway, whenever it is I'm certain I'll be doing the same things I usually do every other week!

3) Favorite Spring flower?

I really love ranunculus - they are so beautiful!

4) Do you have a garden?

We have a lot of trees, shrubs, and flowers around the front and the back of the house. It's not what I would consider a garden to be and it certainly isn't what it "could" be. In time, I guess.

5) If so, what do you grow?

We have several hardy bushes mixed with camellia shrubs, iceberg roses, and sea lavender. It's a total mutt of a garden - except for the front yard which was professionally landscaped and everything beautifully coordinates. Additionally, I'd love to plant a vegetable garden but we have a lot of rabbits in the area and I'm afraid they'll eat anything we plant!

6) Do you do Spring cleaning?

I adore Spring cleaning! I wish I could have a full day to myself to clean the house from top to bottom. It's a sick, sick dream - I know!

7) What is your weather *really* like right now?

Warm days, cooler nights. We live about 2-3 miles inland from the ocean and today the haze rolled in making for a humid day.

8) Snapped any weather related photos lately? Share them.

I took both of these today - randomly, with my iphone - while walking the dog. They were just so beautiful!

9) What's your favorite thing to do on a sunny afternoon?

Hang at the beach - hands down! I love the way the sun reflects off the ocean at that time of day! Planning on doing lots of that this Spring and Summer!

10) Favorite T.V. shows from the Spring line-up:

Parenthood. I'm also really excited to see Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

Spring is the new Fall

I've wanted to participate in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop ever since I found her blog. Every week she assigns several prompts and we are to choose one or all of them to respond to. There was something about this week's prompt about the coming of Spring that really spoke to me.

The prompt: Share some photos and stories about why you love Spring.

I had always been a Fall kind of girl. For me, I rejoiced in a small window of time beginning at the start of a new school year and ending at Halloween. I adored the way the sun glowed in the late September afternoon. Attending the annual Fall festival at the local Catholic church. And the vintage Halloween decor I had begun to collect as an adult. I had even dreamt of having a Fall baby so that I could plan a ghoulish-themed birthday party like the one I had seen in the movie "Hanging Up."

My love affair with the Fall ended in October 2008 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

I had to forgo planning my daughter's first Halloween (she had been born earlier that Winter crushing my Fall baby dream) and instead get ready for eight rounds of dense dose chemotherapy.

That Fall and the Winter that followed are a little hazy. I was sick. I was bald. I was miserable. In January I was working with one of the nurses planning out my new few appointments for treatment. The end was in sight - my last chemo would be April 2, 2009.

I sat at my desk filling in the dates on my calendar. I noticed the bare branches of our neighbor's birch tree that hang outside our office window. I'll never forget that day because I knew that once that tree had started to sprout new leaves that I would finally be done with treatment.

April 2nd arrived - and sure enough - so did the tiny, green leaves of the birch tree.

For me, Spring is the new Fall.