Let the Sun Shine!

Let the sun shine! It's been a lovely week here, warmish (not hot, which is perfect) and sunny. It's awfully nice to see the rain take a little break! Rick's flowering bush is out, so I know spring is really here!

 

By now, the Ditch is more "filled in" but when I took these photos a few days ago, it looked just as I love it -- that symphony of chartreuse and yellow-green, hanging like a soft scrim over branches and bushes. 

 

This beautiful state of affairs only lasts a few days and I was grateful that those days were lovely ones, good for a walk!

 

The periwinkle and wild violets are out in full force! I love them all!

 

I've had some good news I wanted to share. Some of you know I had an ultrasound that looked like I may need a couple of biopsies on my thyroid. Yesterday I saw my ENT and said that because I had one last year and because they hadn't changed all that much, those biopsies weren't needed. We'll keep watching it but right now, that's one thing I can let go!

 

I was able to see a number of friends over the past week or so, including both my WKAR lunch bunch and others from the station who came to a memorial for my former colleague, Beany, whose service to the station in creating our education program for young children was monumental. Many former employees who worked with Beany attended and it was wonderful to see them as we remembered our friend.

A couple of days later, my favorite laughter-sharing buddy Carol and I attended an alumni award ceremony for our friend and former boss, Susi Elkins, who is now a senior VP at PBS (for my foreign readers, Public Broadcasting Service). Susi had risen through the ranks -- I still remember her student days! And she was a wonderful boss as well. Her award was well deserved.

 

Speaking of Carol, she made it on the TV show "Antiques Roadshow" with her magnificent silver teapot -- Victorian and elaborate! 

 

She was thrilled with the appraisal!

 

Rick and I also enjoyed a presentation about opera by Giovanna Lammers, a woman originally from Italy who studied voice with Pavarotti and who was instrumental in setting up Michigan State's opera program. I am no lover of opera (there are a few pieces I do like, to be fair), but her presentation was so lively and interesting on the history of this art that I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  

 

We also had our final "Behind the Scenes" theatre class, this time for the production of Jane Austen's "Persuasion." Director Dan Smith, an actor, and the set/lighting director came to this one (the playwright had been at the first.) So, those will take a break till next year. 

 

I also had a unique and sad opportunity to witness the circle of life when I looked out the kitchen window and noticed this hawk devouring a duck. (This we determined by the decapitated head it left behind but I won't post that photo, though it is profoundly, sadly fascinating.) 

 

He was a handsome bird to be sure, but I would rather he leave the ducks (and bunnies) alone. I know. It's life. But not the part I like to think about.

 

Rick and his buddy Nino will be off on a bike ride for a week, beginning on Sunday. NIno's wife Marie is riding too, and another cyclist, will captain Marie's tandem. They're headed from Detroit into southern Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Last year's tandem ride with Nino and Rick.

 Safe travels to them. Things are looking up!