Spring

I'd like to say that we've started Spring healthy - we've been sick solidly since mid February, apart from a brief respite at Easter - but Keith woke up with a fever this morning. We'll see where this takes us... he ended the day in fine spirits, so we're hopeful that we can chalk it up to teething, along with his chapped chin and gnawed hands.

However, it definitely puts a spring in my step to gaze out the kitchen window and admire the beautiful tulips and hyacinth the previous owner planted in the back garden. My last house came with a few sad looking green things, but this is the first house of the four I've owned that had an established, well tended and much loved garden when we bought it. I have a few areas to which I'm planning to add my own touch, but otherwise, I'm pleased (and relieved!) to enjoy the garden as it is.

In the back, you can see our raspberry canes. My father, uncle and aunt performed major surgery on these last fall, thinning, pruning and retying them to their stakes. I think we might get a bumper crop this year thanks to their efforts. 

Of course, I can't have a post without a picture of my - gasp - toddlers. This was taken on Tuesday morning at our last Babytime at our local library branch. We (including Nana) go every week for an hour of rhymes, songs and stories. We've now graduated to Thursday morning's Toddlertime, given that our trio turned 19 months old yesterday. I'm looking forward to meeting some new moms and kids (which include, incidentally, another set of triplets! Hi Geeta!) but we have such a nice group at the moment... I'm particularly wistful at the thought of leaving Margaret, the wonderful Babytime facilitator who took this picture. We hang out at the library two other mornings a week, so we'll still see "Mah-ha", as Evelyn calls her. But we'll very much miss doing our favourite rhymes with her.

As you can imagine, it was a bit of a challenge to get all three of them sitting together on a bench. This picture is courtesy of Margaret and Nana, who snagged an alligator puppet that was able to capture their attention for a nanosecond!