Last year we had a snowstorm on May Day.

This year it was a bit later on Mother’s Day.

The day started out grey and then some big fat flakes began to fall. As the day wore on everything was covered in a wet blanket of snow. Sort of throwing a “wet blanket” on many people’s Mother’s Day plans.

Mother Nature‘s way of telling us something is changing and we might want to pay attention.

And this spell of cold weather after a 60 degree Saturday isn’t helping my funky mood get lifted. But my knew is feeling better. Using hot and cold therapy a bit. I have an older knee support that I am putting cold packs under to hold them in place. Though the first one gave me a shocking vision when I took it off. The ink had come of onto my leg. Luckily using a bit of Young Living Lemon Essential Oil and a dry paper towel, I was able to clean it off. Didn’t need any more toxins in my system!

A few days ago I had a “happy ending” to a scary incident. I had gone of to a meeting and taken photos on the way there and back of flowers and other interesting things. (Some were in the recent posts.) When I returned home, my keys were not attached to my purse. I had my home, shop and PO box keys on a carabiner and it wasn’t there. Panic set in for a moment. I called upon St. Anthony with my favorite prayer.

St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around.
Something is Lost that needs to be found.

And repeated it a few times.

I decided even though it was cold and getting dark, I would retrace my steps to a few places I had leaned down to take photos in case I had some how unfastened it when getting up and down.

As I walked out onto the bridge, seen above, I saw my keys in a very obvious and well lit place. Sort of like when someone found a ring I lost last year. I profusely expressed my gratitude by thanking all of my guardian angels, St. Anthony in particular, for helping me find these very important keys. I really didn’t need another stressful situation in my life right now.

And it seems this carabiner that has served me so well is getting a bit finicky about closing properly, so I need to be very aware and careful when snapping it on and off the purse strap until I can replace it.

Now back to the snowy days.

On Mother’s Day I decided that I needed to clean up some spaces in my home. I have not had time off like normal in the winter and after the Art Festival closes, so my house is a bit chaotic in many areas. I started in my bedroom and that felt really good. Moved things around, put things away, got some items that will travel with me in June into the travel bags and off the dresser. A few days ago I had cleared up my dresser with my jewelry and many other things that had landed on it. I cam open the jewelry cabinet without moving things every time I want to get into it. And I found the other foot exorcize balls I want to have for stretching my toes in the morning.

Next I tackled the heap of newspapers on a chair in the living room. I sorted the articles into six categories to be dealt with later. Health & Hemp, Cooking & Recipes, Environment, Trails & Travel, Manitou & Art, and business (ebooks & more). This way the chair will soon be usable again and I can do a second sorting and cutting out of articles one section at a time instead of it seeming so overwhelming a task to get them all into exact files.

I want to use articles that are not all on the web to inspire writing on some of my blogs and have ideas of what information to search and gather to write books about in the near future. And any article I want to save MUST get cut out and go into its proper file space in the file boxes I have set up just for that purpose.

After Dinner I pulled out the coffee pot that I had used when my parents visited and cleaned it up for the Festival jury later this month. Looking at the stove top, I just couldn’t let it go one more day without cleaning it. Then the counters around it and above the fan all needed attention also. So there I was scrubbing away. My third cleaning task in one day. All in all, made some progress in getting my house looking more like a home and less chaotic and dirty. But it did make me want to take a few more days and work on some other areas . . .

Yes, I really will get back into writing! This I pledge to you, myself and my Coach will happen in the very near future. And I will get back into my feather studio to make earrings and hair clips sometime this week. This funky attitude and my getting easily distracted, as I did again today MUST end soon. Say upon my awakening in the morning . . .

First I got distracted by writing a letter to the editor about the comics that were deleted and the replacement ones. I really wonder about the intelligence of people some days. “Hagar the Horrible”, “Beetle Bailey”, “B.C.” and  reruns of “Peanuts” beat out “Stone Soup“, “Lio” and “Get Fuzzy”. And when the public didn’t like any fourth replacement, instead of keeping “Stone Soup” that was really close to being chosen to stay, they are putting in “Rhymes With Orange” which along with the other replacement comics is basically a pun or inane visual joke. I can’t help to wonder how many times can a Viking get stuck on an island, then suddenly be back in his normal routine of being a fat, lazy, stay out late at home husband or pillaging and plundering until the public cries “Foul”?

Luckily I take 2 newspapers and the Denver Post also carries “Stone Soup” and “Get Fuzzy”, so will just be missing “Lio” for my daily comic relief. And yes, I know I could find him on the web, but that would just be one more distraction and I read the papers while eating my meals, so would have to make a special effort and time to check him out. Although when I tried to get a link to the strip for this post, it wasn’t as easy as some of the other comics to find a place to read it online. When I did find him, it was one I would have cut out. “Dealing With Invasive Plants” struck a cord as I have Bouncing-Bet all around my garden and back yard that needs to be removed. A very invasive plant indeed.

Next I got distracted with writing blog posts for the Commonwheel Facebook when I saw that it was Small Business week. I actually used some of the photos I took on Monday, and took a few more today to complete them. I am using some Guerrilla Marketing ideas about getting people’s interest by images and not just sales pitches. Have done that somewhat before, but trying to stretch myself even more. Will see what the members who actually check our FaceBook page have to say about this as they pop up the next few days.

Above is an image that cheered me up on my way back from a meeting today and I used in one of the Commonwheel posts.

Now how often do you see a snowman on green grass? Since the Commonwheel Artists Co-op gallery show that is opening on Friday is called “Demented” I used the idea of a demented artist creating this on a snowy Mother’s Day. And he must go on my personal FaceBook page also. Just too fun to not post. And the creator was outside and asked me how I liked him. I said I loved him, way fun, thanks!

Along my short town “hike” to City Hall, the bank and a meeting at MAC, then back to Commonwheel and the Post Office, I saw many flower survivors. Some doing better than others.

The snow-capped Jonquil was one I took a picture of just the other sunny day. And the other lying on the ground seems to be asking for help, or maybe he is just resting.

There was some absolutely gorgeous lilacs that were covered in snow and others that were totally clear.

I would have taken more pictures, but the batteries were dieing and if I had spent more time on the Lilacs, I wouldn’t have had enough power for the snowman . . . not that I knew he was awaiting me. But some instinct told me to save the batteries for later. Just as when I was getting ready to leave I grabbed this secondary camera that I keep hanging on a nail by the door to remind me to never leave home without some camera.

More Commonwheel business awaited me when I opened my emails. Got very frustrated with the Festival email account. I kept saying it couldn’t send emails, even if I had just sent or received one. If I closed the account and re-opened it, off the went. Then it totally refused to send one as a reply to our Board members with a message saying that too many unwanted emails were sent from some long address. I emailed our tech person, but not sure if she won’t just say it is all my problem

And then there is the Landlord challenge. The young man I had chosen as a cottage tenant wants to have a roommate. One of the reasons he was high on my list was that he was single and only had one vehicle. His roommate of choice is a female with a boyfriend and a very large vehicle and was thinking of getting a dog with her boyfriend. She and the boyfriend seem very nice. She hadn’t seen the lease. I am wondering how this will work with only one room with a door for bedroom privacy in the cottage and another vehicle in the driveway . . . so I told her I needed a night to think it over. At City Hall I got two resident guest parking passes and I am going to tell both tenants they need to get them also, so in case there is no place to park in the driveway, they can park on the street without fear of getting ticketed.

Just before it got too dark, I took a walk back out to my garden to take photos of the poppies covered in snow. And to clear my head from all the funky and distracting energies going on to try and gain a bit of perspective.

Just two days ago they were looking so healthy and about to bloom, now covered in snow. But I know they will survive and bloom in profusion to the delight of passersby and myself. They have been putting on an awesome colorful show for many years. The one highlight of my garden that has never failed to please since they took over this raised bed.