Bluebird of Happiness

"Mimi, you have a rose on your bush!" my little granddaughter announced excitedly the other day.  And I was just as excited as she was!   This belated spring has had all of us guessing!  But today I saw a second rose, and many buds ready to pop open, so maybe we'll have roses after all. 

Another welcome sight that met my eyes today was a bluebird!  I had seen what I thought were bluebirds last week, but the birds were darkly silhouetted against the sky, and I couldn't be certain.  The first robin is a sure sign of spring, but a bluebird is especially cheering!  I guess that's where the phrase "bluebird of happiness" comes from.

"I want you to come and see something," my husband announced when I got into the car the other day.  He had been strolling the shops while he waited for me at the hair dresser.  "It's a rattan table and chairs!" he exclaimed.  He knew I'd been wanting one, having passed up an exorbitantly priced wicker set at an antiques store last fall.

He led me into a used furniture place next door, and I spotted it immediately.  Surprisingly, I liked it!  It was a small, oval, wicker-topped rattan table that would be perfect for our screened front porch, and at a fraction of the cost of the earlier table!  It was a little dull, but nothing a coat of paint wouldn't fix.  I found the perfect shade of paint, the yellow-green of new leaves, and the set looks amazing!

It has been too cold to enjoy our porch lately, but this morning when I awoke I could see by the light coming in the window that it was going to be a nice day.  I made breakfast and said wistfully, "I wish we could eat on the porch," then, on impulse, I opened the front door and found that, though cool, the temperature was bearable.  We had a wonderful breakfast watching the sun climb in the morning sky with a view of the dew-sparkled lawn out front and the green curtain of vines sheltering one end of our arbor.

We enjoyed our breakfast so much that, while Howard lingered over his Bible study out there most of the morning, I made a chicken salad to be eaten for lunch on the porch.  We were ravenous after some errands, and al fresco dining was the perfect setting for rest and relaxation, with our rosebush just outside the screen and the bluebird of happiness overhead!