Hi All! An odd week overall, and not necessarily in a bad way :) I think I will bring up three points.

I spent time on Cape Cod, as I often do. I did not make it out and about as much as I usually do and I didn’t get as much work around the house done as I wished, but it was nice.

Hi All! Happy Spring! Yes, despite all of the snow on the ground, today is the first day of spring! The snow is melting fast (well, there was a slowdown yesterday since it never got above freezing…) and I can see the shoots of the flowers coming up were there is no snow. And I do still see some snowdrops (they seemed to have popped through the deep snow right away, and now it is thawed around them). It is easy to tell that this is a mid to late March snow, not a January one!

I did a “signs of spring” post last week. I guess this week will be a “it’s the small things” post.

Despite the snow, I did get a good run in on Saturday (I ran Monday, before the storm as well). I had a few very long walks with Fiyero. He actually likes walking more when it is cooler because he overheats so easily. So some woods, a few big hills, some large fields, etc. And there was music (I wrote a new piece, I just have to find to to record), reading, writing, friends, family, etc. And that bit of spring popping out from under the snow.

Hi All! There is going to be a snow storm that starts tonight and goes into Wednesday. Yeah, not a big smile there. However, it will very much be a March storm – yes, wet and heavy, but it won’t last too long. (I hope – we still have snow on the ground). Despite the return of winter over the last two weeks, I have been seeing many signs of Spring, particularly when I was on Cape Cod.

I first noticed snow drops on Cape Cod, but yesterday I saw some in New Hampshire. I could also see shoots of flowers coming up all over Cape Cod and it looked like only a week or so out before the daffodils would be in bloom. I did see a few green shoots in New Hampshire, but blooms are still a long way out!

Another big sign were all of the red wing blackbirds staking out territory. To me the noise of the blackbirds is a sure sign of spring. Although noticed first on Cape Cod, I did hear some in New Hampshire as well.

I think I saw an osprey! It might have been a hawk, but…

I have seen more signs of life out and about. There is more green, particularly on Cape Cod. Despite the forecast of snow, spring is in the air! I hope ;)

That is my smile, seeing the first signs of spring, not only on Cape Cod, where they are more advanced, but even in New Hampshire as we head into a March snowstorm.

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).  Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.

Hi All! It’s been an odd week overall, but I can’t say a bad week (unless I am talking about work ;) ). Anyway, although there were a lot of small things to smile about – pets, family, friends, etc – nothing stands out and I don’t want to do another “It’s the Small Things” post. So, what to write?

I sat down at my musical instruments Friday to play around, which isn’t unusual. I had a bass line that I wanted to play around with, so I recorded it. Next thing I know, two hours have gone by and I have a new song recorded! (I often go into a Zen Zone when I am being creative – I dive in and emerge some unknown time later with a creative piece of work started or even finished.) I am going to post about it tomorrow, so no more. But I do want to bring up a general pattern.

Hi All! Hope you all had a good week with at least one reason to smile thrown in :) I had a pretty good week. And guess what, this week I will be good and actually give you a smile that I did not mention in my coffee share post.

My brother and sister-in-law drove up from the Philly area to New Hampshire for a wedding. Although they were pretty restricted on time (at least 8 hour drive each direction on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, a wedding that started at 2 on Saturday with Festivities going into the night), we were able to catch up with them. We drove up to Bedford for breakfast at a pretty nice place called Tuckers. We then went back to their hotel and hung out in the lobby for a while to chat. My brother and I did a short walk (I think he said 1.7 m / 2.75 km) in the neighborhood around the hotel. Anyway, I had seen my brother in January when I flew out to Ohio for my dad’s 90th birthday party, but our wives couldn’t make that trip. The four of us hadn’t all been together since Scotland last August.

It was nice to catch up. We don’t visit them as often as we once did. I think we spent a total of just under four hours together.

So that is my smile for the week, visiting with my brother and sister-in-law.

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).  Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.

Hi All! OK, I will be boring this week… How many times have I used this idea for a Weekly Smile? Dozens? Hundreds? lol, I doubt hundreds, but it feels like it..

Have you guessed it yet?

I spent a weekend on Cape Cod. Sort of – I drove down Wednesday night and left for New Hampshire Saturday night. It was just me and the cats (well, two of the cats – Alexander and Tiberius). And I did have to work during the day (7 – 3:30) and had an insurance inspection (something I had never seen until being on the Cape). It was too cold and windy (mostly windy!) to kayak. I did not drive to Chapin Beach – the road is often semi-closed this time of year. I did not even bring my camera, so no photos.

So where were the smiles?

Hi all! Busy day at work, so I will just stop in real quick to post this week’s smile. If you read my Coffee Share post you may already know.

My Ford C-Max plugin hybrid was 10 years old and things were starting to go wrong. I didn’t feel real comfortable driving it back and forth to Cape Cod, worried that I’d have another breakdown (yes, another – two years ago a house popped on my drive, making the car over heat…). Since I had already been plugging my car in, well, the next step made sense:

Last week I bought a Kia EV-6 electric car.

Hi All! If you didn’t notice, I did not put up a Smile last week. Why? Because I was traveling and off line. Where did I go? Why would I go anywhere during the messy, winter travel time? Glad you asked ;)

I went to Ohio to visit my family. My dad is turning 90 tomorrow, so we had a little early birthday party for him. For this celebration it was just family, but it was almost the entire family: my brother and two sisters made it as well as all of their grandchildren. There was also most (all?) of the great grand kids.

That is my dad reading. Yes, we are family of readers…

And my mom.

(Note – I will be out of town next week, so no smile.)

Hi All. Hmm, not sure where to begin on this snowy morning. The kitten sitting on the shelf above me, watching my every move? It isn’t Alexander who spent all weekend on my lap or sleeping on top of me at night. It isn’t the beauty, Grace, who likes to sit on my keyboard when needing attention. No, it is this one:

If you do not/cannot see the picture or don’t know, that is Tiberius in our Christmas tree. He is a funny little guy and has no problem telling you or showing you how he feels. in the past few weeks I have also posted photos of Grace and Alexander. Grace is the long haired beauty who thinks her name sake, Grace Kelly, had nothing on her. Alexander is more wild and independent, though he was all over me when it was just the two of us on Cape Cod (not the entire, Cape, mind, just our house ;) ).

Hi All! A couple of very quick smiles for this week.

First was dog walks with Fiyero over the weekend. Idina gets set in her ways and follows routine, though this weekend we did do some extended/different walks with Idina, going into new territory. However, I did four walks with Fiyero alone, and all four were much longer than usual, going off into the woods and into parts of the village we rarely see. It was nice to do these very long walks and see different places than normal. Dog and man were both happy :)

I also did a new recording that I really like. I wrote the song, but turned it into an instrumental. I think it is very catchy. I’ll place the video at the end of the page. Or read about it here.

I guess I can include playing with a lens I usually don’t touch as a smile as well.