These are a few of my favourite things....

It seems that lately I have been allowing myself to "sweat the small stuff." Normally a positive person, I have been overcome with grouchiness and have been spending far too much time allowing myself to think about things that annoy me. I have been busy making disparaging remarks about traffic, traffic noise and development. I have let myself stew about my loathing for shopping malls and have taken my abhorrence for grocery stores to a level where I am avoiding them to the point of almost no food in the house (except for what I have preserved in my freezer and cold room and the bulk grains in my pantry).

I realize that this is mostly due to a lack of serious out-door time, I have been devoting my spare time to working on our kitchen reno and we had a few weeks of sickness. I have come to know that whenever I am feeling grouchy it is a safe bet that I have not been spending enough time out in nature. Normally by this time of year we spend almost the entire day out of doors. So, in a conscious effort to get back to my usual (cheerful?) self, I have decided to take some moments outside to: enjoy what I have, to stop and smell the flowers (as the saying goes), and to count my blessings. I want to share a few pictures of some of the things that have been making me feel positive again. So here is what I wake up to every morning...

the pink bits you see are my double-flowering almond shrub and I love looking up at this mountain before I get out of bed - even though my neighbor tells me there is a cougar up there that just ate 3 sheep belonging to someone living nearby. That is where where we go for our walks all the time and it is a "favourite thing" for my dog.

This is my favourite Spring interest plant. Well, better make that my favourite Spring interest shrub...I have other favourite spring interest plants. Actually, make that my favourite Spring interest, not very scented shrub because in a few weeks I will be posting pics of my lilacs and they will be my favourite scented Spring interest shrub. How fickle I am, but I will have you know that my boys are my favourite boys all year round, no matter how they smell or how lovely they look.

These are my favourite "first up in the veg. garden" plant. Well, the first up thing that we planted this year anyway. Peas that my youngest will likely gobble up before the rest of us get any, just as he has done for almost all of his life - he does it with our strawberries too and I have taken to eating them unripe just so that I will get to sample some. ;-)

And this funny looking one is my favourite stinky Spring interest plant (Fritillaria) - it smells a bit skunk-ish , frankly and for some reason always reminds me of Dr.Suess. Am I the only one who thinks it looks like a Dr.Suess type plant - maybe you have to see the whole plant to get the idea.

Samantha - I'll have you know that I went and changed all my "favorite"s to "favourite"s just for you!!!