Spring Flowers in Winter?

She'd take cuttings and root them, 

force bulbs so that she could have

spring any time of year she liked.

Born in Ice

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By https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixel_addict/ - 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixel_addict/384732136, CC BY 2.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17076396

Bring spring indoors early for winter color and fragrance

After all the Christmas decorations are packed away the house looks drab. So instead of letting the winter blues kick in, we make our rooms warm and inviting with flowers. We force the usual amaryllis, paperwhites, and tulip bulbs, but we also force branches into bloom to add even more color and fragrance to our suddenly quiet home. It is very satisfying to sit in our breakfast room early in the morning and observe the daily progress of forsythia buds as they swell and burst open. We cannot think of a more economical way to raise our spirits.

Fine Gardening

How to force Bulbs?

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“My mom goes for tulips.

She—what do you call it—

forces the bulbs in little glass jars 

every winter.”

Heaven and Earth

why Americans love the royals

She’d been to the palace before. The first time, nearly seven years earlier, she’d thought it was a fairy tale sprung into three dimensions. She was older now, though she wasn’t sure about wiser. Cordina was a country. The palace was a building, a beautiful one. 

Fairy tales were for the very young, the very naive or the very fortunate.

Command Performance

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Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=261417

Huffington Post: "We are fascinated and obsessed with fairy tales. They have been a part of our society’s fabric since childhood."

MSN

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Throwing her arms around him, she brought him to her for a kiss, a bargain sealed, a life begun. She laughed and pressed her lips to his throat. 

"Fairy tales," she said, half to herself. "I’d stopped believing in them." 

"And I.’’ His lips found hers again. 

"But no more. Tonight you’ve given me even that”

Command Performance

Health Benefits of Knitting and Crochet

By ten, when the light was gone and the house quiet, she'd moved
beyond worry to resignation. He would come back when he would
come, she thought, and settled down in her room, her knitting in
her lap and her dog at her feet.


Born in Ice

________________

By Loggie-log - Own work, Public Domain, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2072996

We have been crocheting for many years and have felt many of the benefits of doing so, especially when it comes down to reducing our stress and relaxing.

We are sure there is nothing that beats an afternoon curled up on the couch with a cup of tea, a ball of yarn and our crochet hook.

With that said, we were very surprised to find out just how much our favorite activity is benefiting not only our own health, but many others out there!

STARTING CHAIN

Tomorrow's Saint Patrick's Day!!!

He stopped in the kitchen doorway, and his grin spread from ear to ear. 

There she was, up to her
wrists in bread dough, her hair scooped up, her nose dusted with flour.



Born in Ice

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My Happy Dish: Mrs. Frings' Irish Soda Bread

from Sweet Paul Staffer, Paul Vitale

"This Irish Soda Bread is a treasured recipe from my dear friend's mother, Mrs. Frings.  

I make it every year for St. Patrick's Day!  I just know you're going to want to add it to your repertoire as well!"

SWEET PAUL MAGAZINE

-------------

Must-Try Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

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After she'd poured a cup, Shannon stood awkwardly, wondering what to do next. 
"You bake your own bread?"
"I do, yes. It's a soothing process. You'll have toast at least. There's a hunk of yesterday's still in
the drawer."
"A little later. I was thinking I might drive around a bit, see the cliffs or something."
"Oh, sure you'll want to see the sights." 
Competently Brianna patted the dough into a ball and
turned it into a large bowl.



Born in Shame

Garden Sheds

A few miles out of the village, in a kitchen warmed with the heat and scents of baking, Brianna

Concannon looked out of the window as the ice-edged rain attacked her garden.

"I'll lose the columbine, I'm thinking. And the foxglove." It broke her heart to think of it, but she'd dug up what she could and stored the plants in the crowded little cabin out back. The gale had come so quickly.

"You'll plant more in spring." Maggie studied her sister's profile. 

Brie worried about her flowers like a mother over her babes. With a sigh, Maggie rubbed her own bulging belly. It still astonished her that it was she who was married and carrying a child, and not her home-loving sister. "You'll love every minute of it."

"I suppose. What I need is a greenhouse. I've been looking at pictures. I think it could be done."

Born in Ice

_______________________

A Gallery of Garden Shed Ideas

Add storage to your garden with personalized style.

 BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN

_______________________

On a clear day in the middle of May, Brianna watched the workmen dig the foundation for her

greenhouse. A small dream, she thought, flipping the braid she wore from her shoulder to her

back, come true.

Born in Ice

What your Sleep Position Says About Your Relationship

An elbow in the ribs brought Brianna groggily out of sleep. Her first view of the morning after a

night of love was floor. If Gray took up another inch of the bed, she'd be on it.

It took her only seconds, and a shiver in the chilly morning air, to realize she hadn't even the

stingiest corner of sheet or blanket covering her.

Gray, on the other hand, was cozily wrapped beside her, like a contented moth in a cocoon.

Sprawled over the mattress, he slept like the dead. She wished she could have said his snuggled

position, and the elbow lodged near her kidney, was lover-like, but it smacked plainly of greed. Her

tentative pushes and tugs didn't budge him.

So that was the way of it, she thought. The man was obviously unaccustomed to sharing.

Born in Ice

___________________

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Because your subconscious mind controls the way you sleep with your partner, sleep body language can be an amazingly accurate way to assess what's going on in your relationship -
even if you can't or don't articulate those things while you're awake.

YAHOO!

___________________

She awoke with the winter sun slanted over her face.

She awoke warm.
Sometime in the night he’d spooned her, and now she lay snugged back up against him, wrapped close. Cozy, she thought, rested and relaxed.
He’d wanted her to sleep, so she’d slept. 

Wasn’t it funny how he managed to get his way without demanding, without pushing?

Vision in White