a nice weekend

Deb pulled out all the stops with a very nice birthday celebration for me yesterday- though just me and her, which in some ways make it nicer, of course! Along with that we planted a tree, as it was Arbor Day. I do love trees, so that's appropriate. This Red Point Maple, budding, as you can see here along with a needy lawn. This is how it looked when I walked in the door yesterday, greeted by my lovely wife, Deb.

I surprised Deb today with a visit to one of our favorite places around here, Meijer Gardens. I've shared pics from a past visit on this blog, before. We had high winds and heavy rain off and on, but still managed to have a very nice time there, seeing some butterflies indoors, red-winged black birds (a favorite of Deb's), daffodils (another of Deb's favorites), the horse sculpted in the tradition of Leonardo Da Vinci, a farm house and barn built as in the 1930's, and more. Some pics of our time there today:

After getting to our car and having our evidently too cheap umbrellas broken by the wind, we had a good time reading from Scot McKnight's 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, and a prayer and Scripture from The First English Prayer Book. And later, as we were walking around the park, and as we were leaving, I couldn't help but sing, For the Beauty of the Earth (the tune). Words so meaningful for celebrating life and our Father's wonderful world.

Last but not least the latest pics of our sweet granddaughter, Morgan!