Radically Retired

Tag: Spring

  • Happiness Is … Spring at Last

    Happiness Is … Spring at Last

    Happiness landed firmly this past week, as more and more signs of spring appeared on my walking trails.

    The showy flowers on the Dwarf Russian Almond shrub in my feature photo made me smile.

    Caraganas are also finally kicking out their masses of yellow blossoms now. These blossoms always bring back happy memories of my childhood home.

    Caragana

    Everything is showing signs of life and rejuvenation after a cooler, dryer, and windier than usual May.

    Striped Squill

    The grass alongside our many trails is greening up, and the trees will soon be completely leafed out.

    Even the dandelions are a welcome sight!

  • Spring Has Sprung

    Spring Has Sprung

    On my most recent morning walk, signs of spring were finally evident.

    Greening grass
    and Canada Geese everywhere
    Red Winged Blackbirds are back
    (Robins too but I couldn’t catch one)
    Buds are opening

    This time of year brings the promise of summer, especially along the hiking/walking/biking trails and it always brings to mind the little verse I learned in my childhood:

    Spring has sprung

    The grass is riz

    I wonder where the birdies is

    The birdy’s on the wing

    Now isn’t that absurd

    ‘Cause everybody knows

    That the wing is on the bird

  • Happiest Places

    Happiest Places

    After walking the same six streets over and over again in our south Texas park for the past six months, I’m loving being back to our walking/biking/hiking trails here at home in Sask, Canada.

    There’s just something about the trees getting ready to leaf out, the fresh air, the river, the variety of trails, and the familiarity of home that makes my morning walks here at home so peaceful, meaningful, enjoyable, and special.

    The winding trails are always inviting
    Bridges over the Souris River are plentiful and varied in design
    Our city does a great job of path management and maintenance
    The river views from the many bridges are always peaceful and grounding
    One of the many bridges on this trail – one day I’ll make a post about all of them
    You always wonder what’s around the next bend

    Do you have a place that’s your happiest?

  • Spring Weekend 2026 – Day 3: The Best Laid Plans …

    Spring Weekend 2026 – Day 3: The Best Laid Plans …

    Neither hubs nor I have ever been involved in a spring break celebration, so we thought that a Sunday visit to South Padre Island during spring break might be a good way to wrap up our weekend of welcoming spring 2026.

    Out of curiosity, the morning that we planned on leaving, I decided to consult professor Google as to what we might expect in terms of crowds. I’m so happy I did that.

    Sunday, March 24 this year just happened to be the apex of the Texas Spring Break and this is what we should expect: possibly fifty thousand high school and college students in full and noisy party mode, heavy traffic (including complete jams) for both South Padre Island and the causeway going to and from the island, two hours or more waits for food, and zero parking at the main venues.

    We decided to nix the trip and spend our last day of celebrating spring by watching nature programs on TV in the comfort our A/C’d living room, with snacks available immediately, and silence on demand as soon as we decided to mute the TV and have a nap.

    The header photo for this post came up in Google Images when I looked for Claytons Spring Break Celebrations 2026. Claytons is one of our favourite stops for food and entertainment.

    This photo was all that either of us needed for a “hard no!”

    I guess we’ll complete life with never experiencing spring break.

    I’m perfectly OK with that.

  • Celebrating 2026 Spring Day 2

    Celebrating 2026 Spring Day 2

    On the second day of our celebration of spring weekend 2026, we attended the 35th annual RGV Big Bloom Home and Garden Show at the McAllen Convention Centre.

    Even though this was the 35th year of the show, it was the first time we’d heard of it.

    With over 200 vendors, this event featured literally everything from bedknobs to broomsticks and everything in between.

    It was a wonderfully apt way to welcome spring.

    This section had plants native to the RGV
    Creative use of Burl
    Every cactus and succulent one could imagine
    Flower pot decorations
    Glass flowers
    Hand carved military memorabilia
    Funky clothing
    Many food vendors, most with tasting samples
    Lawn furniture galore
    BBQ’s and Smokers of every type and size
    Apparently the leaves are used in India to make a med that lowers blood sugar
    This large outdoor courtyard was filled with plants and pots
    Talavera pottery – my favourite
    These ceramic plant pots caught my eye
    Hubs bought two for me 😊

    Now that we know about this event, we’ll definitely attend again next year. It was a couple of well spent hours that truly brought home the feeling of spring.

  • Welcoming Spring 2026

    Welcoming Spring 2026

    Because the official first day of spring fell on a Friday, hubs and I decided to spend the weekend welcoming the new season by doing new things.

    On Friday, we visited the Veterans War Memorial of Texas in McAllen, TX.

    Hubs and I have passed this park many times over the years, but have never stopped to take it in.

    The 3.5 acre site was opened in 1990 and pays tribute to the 1.4 million Americans who were killed or missing in action in every conflict the nation has been involved in.

    There are 160 tall granite panels, each engraved with a plethora of historical information. To read it all, one would have to spend several hours there. Because it was a hot day, we browsed and read a bit from each plaza and I took photos of every block, so we could read them later.

    Each plaza is made up of several granite panels arranged in a circle and has its own theme.

    At the centre of the site is a 104 ft tall granite monolith. It’s named the American Spire of Honour.

    There is a statue of a female officer at each entrance
    A Sobering experience
    Memorial to WAC and WAVE members
    General Bernardo de Galvez
    Patrick Henry
    George Washington
    Martha Washington
    This shows the amount of engraving on each panel

    This was well worth the stop and we’ll definitely visit again on a cooler day.

  • Sneaking Up …

    Sneaking Up …

    Spring weather in deep south Texas basically happens all winter long.

    One hint that spring is sneaking up on us here is the flush of white blossoms on our back yard orange tree.

    Soon, we’ll be heading back to our home in Canada, where spring will become glaringly apparent by about mid April to early May.

    There will likely still be snow when we arrive home in a couple of weeks. The nice thing about driving home vs flying is that we have time to acclimatize on the way north.

    Jumping (via a flight) from the current mid 30° C (mid 90° F) temperatures in South Texas to our near or below freezing temps at home in Saskatchewan, Canada, would be too much of a shock to our systems.

  • Lilac Memories

    Lilac Memories

    The sight and scent of these purple blossom clusters always take me back to our early marriage and our first home. The property was bordered by a lilac hedge.

  • Springtime on the Prairies

    Springtime on the Prairies