Spring, my favorite time of year.

Is it just me or has this been the most spectacular spring we have had in a long while?  Yes, I’m sure that being housebound for six months (to avoid catching some horrible bug) due to a weakened immune system would make being able to get out and about a big deal for me.  But, even with taking all that into account it seems that all the colors are earlier and brighter this year.  I can’t recall when the roadsides have had so many shades of green as they do this year. And, blooms are busting out overnight in my neighborhood. Is it just me or is this spring ever so amazing?

Let me share a few of my spring photos with you: just click on one of the photos to enlarge it. All the others will be on the bottom of the page for you to click on.    

The crocuses beside my front door were blooming 

on Presidents day 02-20-2012.  

 Tulips and Pansies outside the cancer center the first week in March 

View from my kitchen window most of this month.  It is just now leafing out.   

 redbuds and bradford pear trees in front of the middle school

 More Bradford Pear trees 

 This plox is beside my front door and it was not there one
afternoon and ablaze the next morning.  

This Wisteria is covering the entire fence on a corner near me. In fact,it is even growing up into the trees and hanging from the branches. While I was taking the photos the owner came out to chat.  He told me that he planted it when he moved into the house more then ten years ago and this is the first time it has bloomed like this. It usually only gets about half way down the fence before it fades away.    

 I have several dozen more photos I could share, but,  I will stop with just one more.  This lilic bush is in my neighbor's yard.  Lilac's are my favorite spring bloom and I have been photographing this one since I moved to town many years ago.  Normally, due to its size, only the top one third of the bush will bloom.  This is the first spring were the entire bush bloomed.  

Has spring in your neighborhood been as amazing as mine? 

 Spring my favorite time of year, you can't help but love it.  

Linking this post to Seasonal Sunday. 

Before, During and After

A few days ago I was hunting through a resale shop and bumped into a lady who had the same hairdresser I do.  That hairdresser being chemotherphy.  Lil and I hugged each other, commiserated a bit and then began comparing notes on our individual health situations.  

Turns out Lil was much braver than I was when it came to being seen in public without any hair.  Lil said she never resorted to scarves and caps to cover her bald head, even in the dead of winter.  

So, I decided it was time to share a few photos of me taken 

Two Months before my Cancer treatments began

One of the many scarves used during my treatments 

Me, finally hatless, a few days ago at a birthday party 

Sorry, but I would not let anyone photograph me with my bald head.  Don't ask me why, whatever vanity I use to have wore off decades ago, I just didn't want pictures that would be a permanent record of my baldness.  

While we are on the subject of bald heads, I learned a good bit about my accident prone life from mine.  Once I was hairless, I discovered my old pate was covered with scars, most going back to my school days.  In fact, my doctor looked at  my bald skull and said "Has someone been trying to kill you?"  Apparently, I have a half dozen or more scars of various sizes and one that ran across an impressive crater which had old fracture lines radiating out from it.  I new instantly where it came from.  When I was in third grade one of my brothers pushed me off a cliff and I landed on a railroad track.  My parents took me to a country doctor who stitched me up and failed to notice I had a pretty severe skull fracture.  I was lucky I healed without complications.  Next time I'm told that I need something "like a whole in my head" I can honestly said "Been there, done that."  

I have heard horror stories about cancer patients whose hair came back a different color, different texture, much thinner or worst yet did not come back at all.  I fall somewhere in the middle I guess.  My hair is coming back pretty much the same as it use to be with one exception.  I have a palm size place at the back of my head where the radiation killed all the follicles and it is unlikely that patch will ever grow more hair.  Folks have suggested I get hair transplants, start using Rogaine or just resort to a wig.  For now I am doing nothing and ignoring the looks and comments it causes. 

It has been a rough, bumpy winter but if a little bald patch is all I am left with, I will count myself one lucky girl.