Ah, the last day of April. It's been a perfectly beautiful month. We haven't seen one like this in years. One with no snow. I'm grateful for such a wonderful start to spring.

It rained off and on all day today. In between showers I ran outside to snip a few flowers to fill the ever present vases this time of the year. If you have a flower garden, I hope you do the same. I once heard a story about a gal who had beautiful flowers gardens but refused to snip any off because she thought that would ruin the "look" of the flower bed. Yikes. Please ... snip away. Flowers are to be enjoyed both in and out. Most of my bouquets are small. I have loads of small old bottles... mismatched salt & pepper shakers, glass medicine bottles from years ago, teacups, old perfume bottles - you name it. Pretty much anything that can hold water is a candidate by me. The bachelor button bloom (above right) is the first one of the season and on the other side of that photo are the loofah seedlings. Hanging out in the sun and wanting to be transplanted into their own planters soon.
I also snapped a photo of a few of the chickens in the backyard today (I know, you're thinking... doesn't she take a picture of them every day. Close but not quite. :) to remind myself how green everything was on April 30th. As I walked outside I could smell spring. Do you know that smell? It's not the neighbor's fabric softener coming from their dryer vent either. It's sweet, a bit earthy, and a tiny bit floral. And obvioiusly way too hard for me to explain. Can you smell it? Tell me I'm not the only one!
And last but not least, I'm leaving you with a recipe to try this weekend. See the photo on the right? It's called French Country Salad and it is fan-flipping-tastic! I just recently came across Cara's blog but I have no idea how I found it. It's new and a gem of a find! I added boiled eggs to the salad (compliments to the fine-feathered ladies) and the beets I had in the crisper in the frig from last fall. Can you believe that?! They were great. So there you have it. You can keep beets in your frig forever and this salad is going to knock your socks off! So expect to be eating salad ... barefoot.
{ enjoy your weekend :: happy may day too! }