March ramblings

The little apricot tree we planted last year has blossoms!  

And, last night, temperatures dropped low enough that I did this to keep them from freezing.

The daffodils are just going crazy in the back and the crocus are doing the same in the front.  And, my forsythia, which had a rocky start, is also blooming.  The original forsythia plant died the first year but the roots were wick and sent out new shoots the next year.  Yay!

Steve and I got to attend another St. Louis Symphony chamber concert Wednesday evening- this one strongly featured their principal percussionist. It was a lovely night out.

It was spring picture day at two of my schools this past week and almost all the girls came dressed to the NINES!. The result was that they were all pretty distracted so not much actual learning took place. Here are my Trautwein girls posing for me. Interestingly, I have only two boys that I am teaching this semester and they both attend the same school which did NOT have their picture day yet.  I am not sure if I mentioned that my strings class sizes took a significant hit with this second term. While it means less money, it does mean I am teaching kids who are motivated to learn. A happier situation, for sure. The two boys I mentioned are particularly bright and very enjoyable to teach.

Kirsti has become the family bread maker and, while I will probably never attempt gluten-free sourdough bread, she also makes a peasant bread and I was inspired by her when we visited at Christmas. I found a really great gluten-free peasant bread recipe and this is my second successful attempt. I use my two-quart crockpot which accounts for the odd shape and the top doesn't get brown and crispy but the result is extremely tasty, particularly when heated up a bit in the microwave.  

I finally finished my large t-shirt yarn crocheted rug this week.  A big sister to the yellow one I made about four years ago.

We got to watch two movies this week - a serious one on Friday - The Courier - and a light hearted one on Saturday - Clueless.  We were just little kids during the Cuban Missile Crisis but neither Steve nor I remember sensing a lot of fear and worry from our parents.  We do remember bomb drills where we crawled under our school desks with our hands covering our necks and Steve's Cub Scout troop made a visit to a home in the neighborhood that had a bomb shelter in the back yard. Interesting the connection with the two movies - bomb shelters and nuclear threats and Blast From The Past with Alicia Silverstone from Clueless.