This, my outfit of the moment. Sparkles and layers of pink linen make for a happy floral design student.

All the shades of green are emerging and when mother and I spent our time Saturday inspecting all our trees and patches of lawn and landscape Chrystalee joined us. Both the two little ones love to follow us around outside and explore. They often go on their own as well but typically stay around us as we putt around outside.

Love those shades of green!

I packed Mother, pictured above at Easter (likely would wear the ears regardless of holiday/day), non-fairy Godmother and Coyote’s Mom in the Jeep along with Coyote and we headed to Brunch. I chose the Pickle Barrel, in the high hopes of latkes and the promises of a chocolate fountain, neither were to be found but nonetheless a lovely day. (After the music was turned down, the plates manhandled by little grubby children removed from the buffet stand, the wrong reservation taken under the wrong name even though I confirmed it yesterday and eventually a working debit machine was produced.)

It was the first meeting of the mom’s and they recollected several embarrassing but adorable stories of my youth and we laughed until we cried. It was so nice to be with them, the truly mean the world to me and without them I would not be the person who writes this blog today. Mothers are important. You only have one, lucky me in my case two, but even if you don’t see eye to eye they are nonetheless owed to them for your creation.

My mothers are my best friends so perhaps I am slightly biased. I adore them even at their worst and they reciprocate.

I love you moms! Thank you for EVERYTHING!

I’m grinding my teeth writing this because of certain people not valuing this bond. There are several variables that affect this particular entanglement but the bottom line is unfair treatment and arrogance. I’ve had enough of this situation, yet again, after trying for the umpteenth time to repair it. This was the first Mothers day for my own Mother to not be spending it with her Mother, Baba. Not to mention the losses of my Godfather and Father in the past six years leaving the two old birds to be feathering their nests singly. For the first time in many, many years.

Compassion is breathtakingly absent from this family in some instances.

All I can say is karma.

It’s three times the bitch Mother, Godmother and I am combined.

My veggies and herbs are coming along quite nicely. This second batch has caught on with a vengeance. This is genetic, my maternal Grandfather worked in landscaping at the old University of Toronto campus and he ‘rescued’ plants and cacti from the garbage of the experimental labratories. Hence the six foot plus cacti we have featured in our living room. Mother too is amazing with our green leafy friends.

I love plants and flowers, I love to nurture something and watch it thrive. I speak to the plants at work and apologize for their dry soil or the fact I have to trim them back. And I loathe having to throw a living thing away. I believe in resurrection.

So there. I’ve blogged it…I’m a chlorophyll hoarder.

In my defense, with a face as such, and with as little self control as I indeed have…I take a feline related picture a day. At least one shot of Chrystalee, Marten or Chili. It’s what being a furparent is all about. Plus, they are such whimsical and adoring models. Not to mention willing!

Lilac to me smells of spring and deliciousness.

Mom and I often go over one concession and cut a large bouquet of fresh lilac for the house. A few years ago her entire right leg was swallowed by some sort of animal hole near the tree. How she didn’t break her leg we will never know, it didn’t help all we could do was laugh and then spend a good ten minutes trying to gingerly extract the limb from the hole. I was terrified some angry badger, whose home we imposed on, would start to gnaw on mom’s foot.

We specialize in abstract memories in this family.

My hands down favourite. After all, this is the word of new beginnings, new friends, new adventures, the start of something beautiful of a life lesson however you want to look it at. With this one word a ton of possibilities open.

Pictured above is the Hello necklace from Piano Bench Designs I purchased in 2010. I fell in love with it immediately and recommend highly. Also, a beautiful Fox jewellery box Ashley got for me, it houses all my finger baubles and reminds me of her every time I see it.

Hello happiness!

The thing about my tried and tested butter-cream frosting recipe is that I need to test it as I go to get the perfect balance of icing sugar and butter. Often I add cream cheese, and this is what this recipe called for. I want the cream cheese to be subtle however the texture of a butter-cream for me is paramount. The downside to all this is now thanks to ingesting all of this pure butter and sugar I will be on a sugar high for the next four days. Give or take.

And tomorrow morning I will wake up with a sugar hangover. Still better than the Gin and Tonic hangover I had a couple of years back. Shivers run up and down my spine at the mere remembrance of those two days curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor.

So today, because my Uncle is visiting and we have decided to have a nice family dinner tonight I felt like making something sugary and unique for dessert. Main and starter is always mothers problem, I excel at the apres meal course. So I trolled online and found a wonderful recipe from Natalie’s Killer Cuisine for Hummingbird Cupcakes.

Now don’t be too concerned, no little buzz-y birds were harmed in the making of this yumminess. Hummingbird cake is an American variety of baked good found mainly in the southern United States, however it has been said it originated in Jamaica. Mon.

The icing, if I do say so myself, is a perfect combination of cream cheesy and sweet. The cake is incredibly moist and would be enjoyable even on it’s own without icing. I really need to pick up some coloured sugar, red was all I had leftover from Caloriemas.

How lucky am I? This has always been a dream of mine, to be surrounded by pretty things, to see the smiles on peoples faces.  What I set out to do two years ago and without that extra push I needed, that came in the form of a dismissal, I would not have experienced such joy yesterday afternoon. I love being able to make some deliveries for my current boss and after I arranged the white daisies (that mean loyal love, amongst other things) and babies breath and got in the car I set out to deliver a birthday bouquet.

Source: House of Duck

The elderly recipient was quite disoriented during most of our condo directory speaker conversation but once I rounded the corner of the second floor stairs she was waiting at the door for me, holding on to the door frame for support. Tiny and frail with the whitest plume of hair. She was so full of total joy upon seeing her birthday flowers make their way down the hallway via me she covered her mouth in surprise. She had tears in her eyes and couldn’t quite understand how I knew that white daisies were her favourite, especially as I was a complete stranger. I quickly explained that the sender knew her well and wanted to order her favourite flowers for her birthday. I helped her locate the card and read it aloud to her.

Her smile was from ear to ear.

And so was mine.

Her pure unadulterated joy and happiness truly touched me. It reminded me that this was what life was all about and how badly I want this kind of joy in my life at a constant. Something that perhaps is hard to rein in but something to strive to. Making others happy, even with just a Daisy delivery, is what puts the fire in my belly and makes my heart content.

Anyway so the next morning Coyote having to drive all the way downtown meant he was awake and dressing for the day at 6 a.m. Which is precisely when he notified me that a horse was galloping along the fence line, loose and free. This is a bad thing for several reasons. One; everyone has a paddock in which they have been assigned. They are to stay in said paddocks. Two; it’s mating season and we have one stallion and several brood mares. Three; when one party is over one thousand pounds, horny, and running around like a maniac, the other party in this situation becomes quite concerned on how to remedy this without injury to either party.

So. After about five minutes of calm speech and careful ninja-like movements I managed to Zen Mikey out enough that he would allow me to lead him to his stall in the barn for some relaxation after a surely exciting trip out of his paddock.

He was not pleased that I insisted on a victory photograph after I foiled his plans.

In other news loving the job and adoring not sitting all day and expanding at a cubicle. Love the busy pace and the fact I get to be surrounded by lovely flowers all day. Not to mention it is essentially my job to make things pretty. To use my sense of creativity to concoct a bouquet or brainstorm the best way to showcase potted plants. Isn’t that nice? And I get in shape from all of this running around and lifting and carrying and I even get little breaks throughout the day to deliver flowers to excited people.

Or today, to avoid answering the inquieries of a nosy neighbour. Oh, small towns, you are so cute.

Also, great work perks!

So excited for Mammies day on Sunday. Coyote and I are taking out his mom, Motherbomb and non-fairy Godmother to a nice brunch. Also, Jeannie Beanie has started to plan a day of psychic readings and brunch at the house here and I cannot wait to see the old crew. And also, today I discovered a cupcakery has popped up in Uxbridge. Oh hello! How lovely of you to set yourself up a mere two minute walk away from my current place of employment.

See? The universe performs miracle everyday. Lately mine have been cupcakes and not being trampled to death by a large and amorous equine!

How are things in your neck of ze woods darlink?