Spring

DANDELIONS – THE HARBINGERS OF SPRING

Thoroughly Poetic Thursday

Today’s inspiration photo is a beauty—full of the colors of spring.

 

Tulips in spring.

 

Spring showed up here a couple of weeks ago when the daffodils began to open. It took off almost as quickly as it arrived, leaving us once again very cloudy and cold. We thought the sun had abandoned us for good. To add even more misery, the winter snows finally arrived. It kept covering up those daffodils, but once the snow melted, those hardy little flowers perked right back up again.

Here is our poem, inspired by the last winter weather and this photograph.

 

Dandelions – The Harbingers of Spring

We’ve been doggedly waiting for spring
Hanging out on the catio in inclement
Weather, watching snow falling in March
And burying the daffodils that bloomed early.
After a frigid winter, the late snows; though, pretty,
Were unwelcome. Some think robins
Are the first sign spring has arrived, but they
Never really leave here…just winter in the
Trees unseen. Whatever you think marks the
Beginning of spring is probably different
Than what others think: Is it major league
Baseball’s spring training? Maybe it is prom
Season or even flea season. Whatever
It may be for you, Mom knew for certain
Yesterday that spring had finally made
An appearance. It wasn’t the 75
Degree temperature or the light rain.
It was the bright yellow dandelions dotting
A nearby lawn that announced spring’s arrival.

© Janet Buickerood Blue 03/28/2018

So seeing a robin around here does not mean spring is imminent. Regardless, I am sharing a photo I originally posted in May, 2015.

 

Robins in Spring

 

The photo was taken in our carport. Each year new nests are built or old ones refurbished and a robin or sparrow will move in. This robin has three hungry babies to feed. It will be several weeks before we see any nest activity or hatchlings.

Each week Two Spoiled Cats, challenge us to write a poem inspired by the photo Mom Pam posts the previous Thursday. And each week Angel Sammy writes an exceptional poem, which he transmits to Teddy from the Rainbow Bridge. Even if you don’t write a poem, it is always worth a trip to the Two Spoiled Cats’ blog to read his poem. While there you will find other poems or links to poems in the comment section.

To pop over and see what Sammy wrote, click on his badge.

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday is a blog hop hosted by our pal, Brian. To participate, you only need to tell for what you are thankful, visit Brian’s blog and let him and his fursibs know and then enter your link for the hop. You can do that by clicking on his badge.

We have two thankfuls this week. The first is for dandelions if they really do mean spring is here. The second is for the badge we earned at Two Spoiled Cats. We had the right answer to this week’s Tuesday Teaser. We weren’t the first to guess correctly, but we were right so we got this cool badge.

 

That’s it for today. We hope, wherever you live, spring has arrived and you are enjoying some fragrant window whiffies.

 

MISS FLOOFY GIULIETTA’S SUNDAY SELFIES

Well, the first day of Spring has come and gone. So many of our furiends are still dealing with cold and snow, which doesn’t make us very happy. It was warm enough here today for our humans to take a 26-mile bike ride, They saw two groundhogs. So it seems as if those wily marmots have decided Spring is officially here.

Anyway, today is our Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, and we can all take those selfies whether it’s cold and snowy or warm and sunny. I took my selfies on the ess scratcher/lounger Fiona and I received for our shared birthday. I have pretty much claimed it as all mine, but I have allowed Fiona to join me a few times. Mom will share those photos later in the week.

So here I am, Miss Floofy with the green eyes. I hope Clooney likes these photos. I wanted to show you my amazing toesies and so asked Mom to help me with the second photo. You don’t mind, do you?

 

floofy

floofy

 

I chose a nice spring green border for the frames on my selfies. (I might have selected it as it enhanced my eyes.)

We had 56 entries in the blog hop last week. Thanks so much to every furry who pawticipated. Purrlease join us again this week. It only takes a minute or two to snap your photos and then return to your easy. If you can stay awake a wee bit longer, ask your furiends to join us and try to visit the blogs of the other pawticipants. We’ve been meeting and making some very nice, new furiends.

As always, we’d like to request that if you take the code below so the submissions will appear on you blog, purrlease link back to The Cat on My Head and/or display our badge.

If you’d like to join but have trouble linking up, leave us a note in the comments. My mom will enter the link for you.

Purrs and paw-pats, Miss Floofy Giulietta (with a kiss for Clooney)

p.s. On behalf of the entire furmily, I would like to apologize for not visiting today. With the bike ride and a Sadie Hawkins Dance at Cat Scouts, attended by Mau, Lisbeth and Astrid, we ran out of time. I promise we will visit all those who enter the blog hop.



WELCOMING SPRING WITH CATURDAY ART

Spring arrived last night at 6:45 p.m. EDT. We didn’t recognize it. We had a grey and rainy day and the temp was in the low 40s. A few blooming crocuses do not scream, “spring.”

springWith all of that in mind, Mom decided to recycle an old photo of Mauricio that was taken for Cat Scouts. If it screams anything, it is “embarrassment.” But it also makes us think of springtime.

As we are entering Athena and Marie’s Caturday Art Blog Hop, this photo needed some enhancement.

Mom thought the hat had a vintage look and so wanted to give the photo the same look. Using PicMonkey, she used four different effects to create our submission for this week. First she added a paper effect at 94 percent saturation, followed by an edifice effect at 90 percent saturation. The next step was to add a smudge effect at 102 percent saturation and a Plumbe Daguerreotype. Finally she put it on a black background with photo corners as it might have been displayed in an old photo album.

When adding the photo to the post, however, she decided it was too dark and added some fill light in Picasa.

 

spring

 

Did you notice Mauricio’s doppelgänger over his left shoulder? It’s one on Mom’s panda stuffies. If Mau wants to hide, he just has to dive into a pile of them. He probably wishes he could do that right now seeing himself in this hat again.

If you would like to join the blog hop or view the other submissions, click on Athena and Marie’s badge. This really is one of our favorite blog hops as it gives us the opportunity to try new things and show our creativity. Consider letting your imagination take over and create something different and interesting to share on the blog hop.

Speaking of blog hops…tomorrow is Sunday. We sure hope y’all have been practicing your selfies and are ready to show yourselves off tomorrow. Giulietta will be representing for us. We were just short of 60 entries again last week. Let’s see if we can get there tomorrow. Until then…Happy Spring with

Purrs and paw-pats , Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo