Late April beauties!

I returned home today, after spending the weekend away as part of the culmination of our department's Honors Program, to find the garden filling out with beautiful blooms. What a feast to my tired eyes!

The violas are always my favorites, as are the Bleeding Hearts, and the crab apple tree is festooned with lovely white and blush-pink flowers that make it look like a bride ready to commit to an eternal spring. The flowers don't actually last long and that's why I love photographing these trees each year, especially on a year like this one, when winter has refused to make a gracious exit.

On the work front, I'm done with directing Honors, after doing it for two years in a row. I've enjoyed the planning and organizational challenges, and have loved watching the students come into their own when talking to the outside examiners, practicing for (maybe) what might come to them later in life (like possibly defending a dissertation). I was anxious that my heart issues would get in the way, and prevent this weekend from coming to fruition. But, thankfully, all went well and everything came together nicely. Now, I'm relieved and pleased and ready to put this last season of Honors behind so I can focus on finishing the semester, which still remains to be accomplished.

I have great hopes that next week, when classes end, everything will continue to run smoothly (while I've had several bad episodes, the new emergency meds have helped to keep me out of the ER) and I will be able to finish teaching and to travel to Chattanooga, TN, this coming weekend to be at my oldest nephew's college graduation. Incredible to think he was just a tiny baby what feels like only a few years ago!

In the meantime, the best thing about going away is coming back home, to my beloved husband and furry children. There is, really, no place like home, and I am blessed to have the one I have.