Monday, April 1, 2013

We're Home!

:o)
Hello, dear friends.
Carrie and I are home safe and sound and exhausted from our trip to England. We arrived home Saturday evening and Doug was waiting for us in the International terminal at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. We loaded our bags into the car and headed straight to Macayo's for some Arizona Mexican food that Carrie and I had been craving. We were both so tired, running on pure adrenaline, sad that our trip was over, happy to be home, and very glad to see Doug.


Perhaps you were expecting to see a post containing photos from our trip, and you can bet there will be plenty of those in the future of this little blog, but these photos that I snapped yesterday afternoon of our yard in full spring-time-bloom are going up today instead.


Carrie and I both took a ton of photos last week, on four different sources. We each had a point-and-shoot camera, and our cell phones. I took just under 1,000 shots, and I'm not sure what Carrie's final count was. Once I get my hands on the photos she took, and we can combine them and sort through them, I will be posting a whole bunch for you to see.


Oh, friends, we had so much fun! The weather was super cold {we saw falling snow every day but one} so that was a bit of a shock to our systems. {And I will admit to whining about the cold temps way more than Carrie did.} But no amount of cold weather and snow and gray skies could put a damper on our spirits! We were so thrilled to be in England {and one day in France}, so excited to see the sights we'd been dreaming of, so honored to meet up with dear blog friends we've known online for years, and so happy to be spending the time together - we hardly even noticed the weather. ;o)


And after 10 days of being bundled up, wearing a heavy black coat that hadn't been out of our closet in years, gloves, scarves, and ear-muffs, I woke up yesterday morning and looked out our kitchen window to see all these lovely poppies in bloom. I hadn't picked up my big-girl-camera in a week and a half {I packed it but never took it out of my suitcase. Yes, Carrie, you were right.} so I went out and soaked up a little sunshine and took stock of how my garden grew in my absence.


Our Lucky Dog taught Carrie's dog, Marcus, the fine art of digging {no photos of the holes...} but these little flimsy fences still did the trick in keeping them out of my little garden area.


Tomato plants are looking good, and our blood orange trees are covered in luscious smelling blossoms. And bees.


I love this time of year, and so do snapdragons.


And here's a little peek at this year's crop of sunflowers...


And there you have my random "We're home!" post and my way of jumping back into blogging. As I move through the process of recovering from our trip {jet lag is an interesting thing to process} you can expect more random posts along the way. But, what else would you expect from PaperTurtle anyway - right?

PS: Tune in tomorrow for the first installment of The Strawberry Project.


21 comments:

Fiona@staring at the sea said...

So glad to hear that you had such a wonderful time, despite the truly bitter winds that have been blowing here. I love snap dragons, they (and the pansies) remind me of the garden we had growing up. Funny to think you have the same flowers right across the world.

Susan said...

Welcome Home! I missed you, my friend!

scrappyjacky said...

So glad you got home safely....and that you enjoyed your trip so much.It was so good to actually meet you and Carrie.
I feel the need to apologise for the weather....it is truly not normally so cold here in March!!
How lovely to see your plants growing....it will be months before they get to that stage over here....in fact if Spring doesn't arrive soon....they may never get to that stage!!!

Irene said...

What a warm welcome to come home to with all those flowers and sunshine. I'm Happy you are back home safe and sound. Can't wait to see all those wonderful photos.

Karen said...

Welcome home! I'm so glad you had a super trip, and can't wait to see your photos and hear all about it. Your flowers are just gorgeous!

Rhona said...

Glad you got home safely, I bet Doug couldn't wait for you both to get back :) Looking at the photos of your garden I can just about feel that warm sunshine! We have sunshine today but not much warmth I'm afraid. Looking forward to seeing more of your photos and I just want to say once again, it was wonderful getting to meet you both and the memories will stay with us forever :) xx

Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...

It looks like spring has hit your neck of the woods! welcome home! can't wait to see more photos! (though I have to say, if I were to go to the UK, Lola would be by my side the whole time!!! lol!

debs14 said...

Great to see you are home safely and that the husband/dogs/cats/turtles/ garden survived your absence! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures in future blogposts!

Becky said...

Glad you got home safely. Lovely to see such sunny warm looking photos! It is still so cold over here!

Abi said...

Welcome home. Your garden looks beautiful! Can't wait to hear all that you got up to!

Cheri said...

Glad to hear you had a great trip despite the weather and got home safely. Your garden looks lovely - Spring hasn't quite happened here yet, but I'm SO READY for it!!

Anonymous said...

So glad you are both home safe and sound and we need some of your Arizona sunshine - it is -1 at the moment and not even 7pm yet.

Jo.C said...

I don't blame you I keep whining about the cold too but at least we have blue skies here now. Glad you had such a great time and can't wait to hear about it xx

Alison said...

Glad you're home safely and feeling some heat in your weary bones!!..so glad you had such a wonderful trip...thanks for letting me be part off it
Hugs
Alison xx

Cate Brickell said...

Welcome home!

I have to admit, it was so amazing to see your photos spring up on Facebook and Instagram, to share that little peek into your adventure, thank you for sharing!

Maria Ontiveros said...

Welcome home! I love this post. I know the feeling of coming home from a long trip abroad. My only advice is to try to hold on to the wonderful feelings and memories for as long as you can. Paul also put up some little fences to keep Aria out of the vegetable garden boxes.
Rinda

heather said...

Hi deb! Loved keeping track of your trip on Facebook. In fact you have been the spur to get me back to reading my fave blogs again as I am excited to hear more about what you & Carrie got up to while you were here in the UK ;-)

Margaret said...

Welcome home. I can't wait to hear about your adventures.

♥ Liz ♥ said...

Glad you're home safe and sound. Looking forward to seeing all your photos :0)

helena said...

such cheery sights after the grey over here - always a lovely feeling to be home with wonderful memories

Anonymous said...

Welcome home. So glad you and Carrie had this special trip together. Your spring pictures are just what I need today (we've got a windchill of -11C).

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