52 Weeks of Happy - 19/52

Joining in with Jen at little birdie, here are my four photos of happiness for the week.

Our Spanish broom is blooming. This was not necessarily expected. When we bought our house, there was a hedge running along the eastern property line, comprised of three of these bushes. About two years ago, we started noticing that large sections of the bushes were looking brown and dead and only a few parts would flower. We learned that there was a type of moth whose larvae would attack Spanish broom; they were slowly killing our bushes. Last fall, we cut it all down because it was becoming an eyesore. We left very shallow stumps because we'd heard it might grow back. And it did! All three stumps sprouted shoots this spring and now two of them have flowers. The flowers are always bright yellow and they smell, to me, like grape lollipops. It's a very cheerful plant. Now we're just hoping the new growth doesn't attract those moths again.

It was a terribly lavish indulgence, but I felt I deserved it. Ha. I bought myself a new nail file and tweezers this week. I have been using the same tweezers for about twenty years, since I was in high school, and they were just no good anymore. The paint which made them "stainless steel" was flaking off and they were getting rusty. I bought them in a kit with other nail and beauty implements at the dollar store. I certainly got my money's worth. The new file is meant for "gel" nails, which I am assuming are like acrylic nails. I have natural nails but the files they had for natural nails were labeled "heavy-duty grit" and looked better-suited to horse hooves. I'm very happy with my new implements. I bought the file none too soon; the dryness lately has caused my nails to be very fragile. I had one break this weekend kind of far down. It hurt a little. But my new file came to the rescue.

The GB is in the process of "potty-training" her baby. I find this so funny. She sits the baby on the floor like this and then sits down next to her while she waits for the baby to "go." The baby doesn't "go," of course, she's not even the kind that gets water and then "pees." No, it's all imaginary. But the funny part is that the GB is doing a perfect imitation of ME when I potty-trained her and I'm amazed because it's been almost two years since we did that and I didn't think she remembered it very well. She sits on the floor, like I did, and sings a little song I made up, which I sang to both small Bears when they were learning. This brilliant song, should you ever wish to use it, is made up of the following lyrics, repeated ad nauseum until the desired result is achieved: "Pee-pee come out/Pee-pee come out/Won't you let your pee-pee come out?" See? Brilliant. Dr. Sears wants to buy the rights.

Finally, there is nothing like a quiet morning spent with rejuvenating tea, a fattening pastry and a good book. Well, the tea was my usual Irish Breakfast brewed as to wake the dead, the pastry was a bit soggy, and the book...oy, what a book. If you've followed this case at all, I will definitely say this is the most comprehensive book I've read on the subject. But it's also very graphic and contains a lot of intimate detail. It's not for the faint of heart and I still don't quite know what to think about the case. But the book is well-written and definitely informative. I always treasure my quiet reading time, even when the reading material is troubling.

******************

Hello and welcome to my new readers and followers! I'm so glad you're here. 

If you have not already entered my giveaway, please go here to enter. The entry period will close this Wednesday evening (I'm on Mountain Standard Time, GMT -7).