Midschooler and Locks of Love

This is the child who went to see Cassie at Lord & Lynn Salon, (10900 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, 292-1872) on Friday afternoon.

It's taken five years to grow her hair this long, since her last donation to Locks of Love.

She said she wanted, no, needed, a new look. We talked about some of the differences and the need for more effort to maintain a short haircut. She really wanted to do it. She said she thought just above her shoulder would be what she wanted.

Ready for the scissors.......

The salon will send this and similar donation to Locks of Love to create wigs for children who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments.

This is the young woman who left the salon with me. Can you tell how excited she was both with her twelve-inch donation and her new look?

Alas, her mama fears we will now have to fight the guys off with a broom...or something.

After Cassie had cut off the donation, my mid-schooler decided she wanted her hair a little longer than shoulder length.

I was concerned about returning to bangs after spending years growing them out. I think they look great. Cassie showed me how to trim them to keep them looking great.

She showed Alex how to change the part on her hair a little and how to use a flat iron to flip her hair up or under and to get a little height at the crown.

Here's the pansy that survived the winter, and my mid-schooler's transplant, once again deciding to grow. I do hope it will bloom! Pansies are one of my favorite flowers!

And then there are the tulips and daffodils, poking their little tips through the soil.

These are some older survivors returning to life.

And this is the young woman, who planted some more bulbs for us to enjoy.

I love flowering bulbs...and I'm hoping it's really spring. In ABQ there are many, many flowering trees in bloom. The juniper pollen count is quite high, and other trees are budding or blooming. Out here where we live, there are spots where little bits of grass are turning green. And, of course, we too have the high juniper pollen count. But mostly we just have lots of tumbling tumbleweeds.

Here in the Southwest many people wait for the mesquite to bloom as a sign that spring has arrived. The time the mesquite blooms varies quite a bit from year to year, but its bloom is a good marker of when it's safe to plant or transplant delicate young plants. I think we're quite a few weeks from that point.

We hope you're able to rejoice in some signs of spring wherever you are.

Dora, the Quilter, who has had no time to quilt, although I have dreamed of a few!