Small Reflections: happiness

Make Time for Small Reflections
Scroll down for T-13, Haiku Friday, Sky Watch
Camera Critters, and Pet Pride

Beauty found this week
in my garden, changing skies
and the Blogosphere ...

1. Janie in Utah bestowed this lovely Happiness Award on my blog (in the good company of 9 other bloggers) last week writing the following ...

"Small Reflections Visit here for lovely mosaics and other interesting presentations of photos on a variety of subjects, a visual feast."

... and I want to say THANK YOU Janie! I appreciate her 'no strings' policy because I have trouble with 'rulez' these days, but I will share

13 things I love:
the companionship of family, fur-kids, & friends
my happily retired life ... health & energy
the unexpected coincidence (God's way of remaining anonymous)
opportunities to learn and to share with others
the healing effects of laughter (and tears) in the moment
sunrises & sunsets
music, books & stories to enjoy
authors & people who inspire others
collecting & sharing quotes
taking & publishing photographs
creating mosaics & collages
writing 'conversational' haiku
visitors to & comments on my blogs

I offer this Happy 101 award to any visitors who would like to share what they love on their blogs and pass it along to their bloggy friends. I would appreciate a 'link' back here so I can visit your blog (and your friend's blogs too) if you do decide to share.

Click for others participating in
Thursday Thirteen

2. These iris shoots popped up last October (one photo at left but more shared previously) after a brief rain followed by sunshine and now my yard looks like the photo on the right ... so I'm thinking I'll have irises in bloom sooner rather than later this year.

Click to embiggen for better viewing
Below you can see what they looked like last year ...

3. I already have Johnny Jump Ups spread by the birds each Spring, Nastursiums ready to bloom, and this lovely (but as yet unidentified) white bulb blossom (might it be Lily of the Valley as some suggested previously?) bursting forth in my very wet yard ... with new growth on my rose bushes and more iris shoots on the parkway near some purple 'volunteers' (also of an unknown variety).

Some folks suggested it might be Lily of the Valley and my neighbor thinks it could be Narcissus, but when I looked those flowers up in Google, I discovered they don't look like this ... so I'm still hoping someone might know what it is and let ME know too.

4. This Amaryllis bulb is showing signs of life too (on the left) and here's a view of what it looked like last Spring (on the right) ...

5. In between rainstorms we had some variable skies (always beautiful) with opprtunities to get outside for a while!

Looking out my front
window my view changes with
storms just passing through

In between rain storms
blue patches appeared for brief
moments ... happily

As for the fur-kids ...

Molly played and Ms Kitty
watched the world go by

Click for others participating in
Finding Beauty, Friday Fave Five,
Haiku Friday, Sky Watch,
Camera Critters & Pet Pride too
Feel free to snag & share the Valentine
at the top of my sidebar too ;-)

Small Reflections ... Smile Back

Thought for Today
"Living on purpose requires us to find what we love fiercely, give it all we've got, and then pass it on, as if it were a torch, to those who follow." Dawna Markova