Spring has arrived here on the west coast of Canada, I put out the wreath I made a few years ago to celebrate the season.Yesterday I went over to my mom's for a second Easter dinner, we had a lovely windy day with blue skies to celebrate. This is a magnolia tree just around the corner from her condo already in full bloom!

On Good Friday I made this quilt from a special little girl named Livvi, the back of the quilt is covered with yellow ducks on a green flannel background.

Saturday morning I went for a walk to see what Spring flowers and trees were in bloom. The pink rhododendrons were a nice Easter surprise. They look so pretty against the blue sky. These pink star flowers were almost like a carpet in one corner of a planter.

My favourite Witch Hazel is starting to show some buds, the spider-like leaves have almost all disappeared.

I spotted these little narcissus flowers that almost look like dandelions, I've never noticed them before.

This weeping Cherry tree is in the courtyard of my condo, the blossoms are just starting to open. We have several of these and they look amazing when they are all open.

This Amaryllis was a Christmas gift from my friend Ethel two years ago, in February I decided to give it some water and see what would happen. What a beautiful plant it is in full bloom.

I wish you all a Happy Easter weekend, may you share it with the ones you love and share happy memories.

Happy First Day of Spring, officially it arrived late last night but I always think of today being the first day. My dad was born on this day and it is a special one for me. I came across this year last weekend. The whole lawn is covered with crocus blossoms, I thought it looked so pretty. What a lovely way to start your spring gardening. I wonder how long it took for the bulbs to spread?

Every now and then you can see a daffodil amongs the white and purple crocuses. I may go back this weekend to see if I can get some more photos if the sun comes out.

Have a Happy Easter this weekend!

Every year our Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild has a preemie workshop, today was that day... Beckie did a wonderful job machine quilting this preemie quilt she made at home before arriving to the workshop.

At the February meeting these scottie dogs were donated to the program. We make quilts for the nursery at B.C. Children's Hospital for premature newborns.

This is my friend Ethel working on a quilt.

Nancy, Carmie and I worked as a team to put this 4 patch quilt together. Notice the scottie dogs and puss in the corner quilts behind their heads.

Susan, Carmie and I worked on this 4 patch quilt together.

Carmie is being watched closely by Susan and Linda as she puts the pedal to the metal on her Juki sewing machine.

Susan, Sandi [that's me] and Carmie with quilt number three from our team that included Nancy.

The fourth quilt we made is this Sweet Dreams, no picture as we didn't get the final border on it before time was called for the day. Nancy cut it out of the same fabric from the 4 patch quilt at the top of this entry. She used an interesting second fabric for a two colour quilt.

Elke is getting a lesson from Tricia on cutting a split 9 patch block. It was a very busy and constructive day once again. Thank you everyone for participating!

Tonight there was a complete lunar eclipse. You can see just a hint of the moon peeking out from the earth's shadow. I went for a walk to watch it playing hide and seek with the clouds. Unfortunately the photograph doesn't show what I saw. There was an interesting coral orange glow to the moon in the earth's shadow. It was fun to watch and wait to see it happen. The next lunar eclipse to be seen in this area will not be until 2010 when the Olympics come to Vancouver. Click on the picture to see it larger.

Earlier this week we had a couple of lovely sunny days. After work on Monday I came home, grabbed my camera and went to take some pictures of the snowdrops and crocuses in the gardens. The crocuses look like they are reaching up to be sheltered by the snowdrops in this picture.

These snowdrops look like they are picking up their petticoats to bow before you.

I'm not sure what the name of this flowering shrub is, but the buds almost look like pink raspberries ready to be eaten. In the late afternoon sun they glowed against the blue of the Fraser River.

These crocuses were enjoying the warm rays of the sun.

Today is that special birthday that you are the age the year you are born! Yesterday I celebrated by driving down to Smokey Point in Washington state with two other Aquarian friends and a friend who was born on April Fool's Day.

We had a wonderful day shopping and having lunch despite the rainy weather. I hope all who share this day with me had a happy day with family and friends!

Spring is just around the corner...the mountains had a fresh dusting of snow yesterday morning and I went out for a lovely walk after having brunch with a friend. You can see the Skytrain, Patullo and train bridges over the Fraser River with the mountains behind. The paddlewheeler "The Native" can be seen on the left with the Samson V sternwheeler is just behind. http://samsonmuseum.org/index.htm I spotted these snowdrops blooming in my friend Rita's garden. I'll have to go back and see when more of them come out. A sure sign that Spring is near.

No walk is complete without a brief stop at the witch hazel plant. It is covered with buds right now. The yellow one is harder to get pictures of and I do love the orange/yellow of this one better. It looked so lovely in the bright sunshine on Groundhog day.