Dear Ones,
Glad you could join me for the inaugural post for The Blended Blog’s “Spring Time Fun” series. The theme for today’s post is “April showers”. If you have hopped over from Lana’s blog at My New Happy and Deena’s blog at Shoes to Shiraz, welcome! Hope everyone will follow our blog hop from here to Katie’s blog at the Mishaps and Mayhem of a Solitary Life and on to Sarah’s blog at Foxy’s Domestic Side before returning to The Blended Blog.
To be honest, I found today’s subject a big of a challenge. Let me explain.
April Showers
Hmm. My immediate thought was I could post some great pictures of my rain gear and floral clothing. Isn’t that kinda what you envisioned? Maybe a shiny yellow slicker, bright colored umbrella, some rain boots protecting a cute flowered dress underneath from getting wet in the rain. Can’t you just see me splashing about in a gentle spring shower for a quick photo op?
Yeah, well, maybe not so much because I live in El Paso.
Master Bathroom
Then I thought of doing a post about spring cleaning my master bathroom and shower. See what I did there? April shower. But I just got a mani and didn’t feel like using a whole bunch of cleansers and muscle to scrub my bathroom. That post is coming soon, though. And had penciled in a post about cleaning my closet for this past Thursday but that didn’t happen. In fact, I got my mani that day instead. That post is coming soon, too.
Finally, I remembered a little post I wrote a few years ago for a similar theme. And decided to recycle it for today’s prompt. With a few changes.
Desert Dweller
I live in the Chihuahua Desert on the foothills of the Franklin Mountains, about a mile and a half from the New Mexico border and less than twenty miles from Mexico. Not a lot of rain happenin’ round here. In fact, we haven’t had more than a few drops of rain so far this year.
Parasols and Paraguas
A large majority of El Pasoans are Spanish-speaking. The Spanish word for umbrella is paraguas, literally ‘for water‘. But here in El Paso, people have no need for para-aguas. We need para-sols.
Here I am on the Chihuahua Desert with my parasol.
Most of the native El Pasoans carry umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. When they don’t have an umbrella handy, a folded newspaper, notebook or purse will work just as well. My parasol just happens to fold up very nicely and will fit into my bag or even my pocket, for that matter.
You can tell that I am not a native El Pasoan. I don’t quite have the parasol business down pat yet.
But practice makes perfect.
And I’ll keep practicing. For now, I do better with umbrellas in fruity drinks than I do with parasols in the desert sun.
Prickly Pears and Cowboys’ Eggs
Even without much rain, the desert is in full-bloom. Maybe not with well-groomed roses, or orchids or irises. But wildflowers.
Everywhere.
Look, even the prickly pear cactus have blooms!
These little beauties above are called cowboy’s eggs. Probably not the “official” name but very apropos.
Pretty pretty, huh? Recycling these pictures, I am reminded that there is beauty even in the Chihuahua Desert.
Especially in the Chihuahua Desert.
Our Own Backyard
Is still mid-construction for our in-ground pool. Even so, PC and I worked in the yard much of today. We have plans for flowers and rock gardens around the pool once all construction is finished. And are getting antsy to get everything back in order. Our poor grass was lovely last year but has taken quite a beating with the pool construction. Our sprinkler system sprung a leak and we haven’t been able to water like we normally would either. But as of today, the sprinklers are back on and we are hopeful that this time next month our yard will be lush and lovely again.
Here’s a look at our work in progress.
The pool will be plastered this week and the pool equipment delivered. We are having a pergola built in the back corner of the yard around the hot tub. That will be one of the last projects. Then we will add river rock and plants around the pool and re-sod the grass. All of that is on my spring bucket list so stay tuned for updates.
Your Turn
How would you interpret our April showers theme for today’s post? Do you have favorite rainy day activities? Do you enjoy gardening? Please let me know in a comment below. And then be sure to hope over to Katie’s blog to check out her April showers post.
I am going to be subbing again for a few weeks so will have some 50+ work wear fashion posts to put together. Spring cleaning updates coming soon as well as “Currently” on Wednesday and “Sentence a Day” on Thursday this week. We have just begun reading the books on the April reading list for our virtual book club. If you haven’t joined us yet, please do! Click here to register and get started. Hope you will stop back by real soon.
Hugs and kisses,
Lana
You and I live in such completely different climates. Love seeing all your desert pictures. So fun that you’re getting a pool – can’t wait to see the finished yard!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
We do! You all get 38″ of rain and we get 8″ of the wet stuff. Hope you will come back for the inaugural pool party!
Lisa
I can’t imagine not having rain – it rains all the time where I live (and it isn’t even Seattle). Can’t wait to see your finished pool.
Lisa
Daily Style Finds
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I miss hearing rain on the roof at night. I grew up in Memphis where we had some fierce thunderstorms and lots of tornado warnings and watches. Our progress on the pool is being slowed by the winds we are having but tomorrow promises to be a wind-free day. Yay!!
curlycraftymom
I didn’t realize you were in such a desert climate! Those photos of you with the ‘drink’ umbrella cracked me up! Lol! Your backyard pool is looking so, so nice! Ok, now I need to move! Our yard is too small for a pool. The sellers of our house actually moved across the street, because the wife’s family owns a pool business and they wanted more room for their new built in pool!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Leslie Roberts Clingan
We were surprised at how much pool they could fit into our yard. It really isn’t a big space but that lagoon shape allowed the builder more freedom to meander all over the place. We even talked about getting one of those lap pools or a big hot tub that has the jets that you can swim against for exercise. But when we saw they could get a real pool in our backyard, we were sold.
Deena
I can’t wait to see that pool come together!!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Me, too! We are kind of in a holding pattern right now…the March-April winds are slowing progress.
danimpark
Haha. When you first mentioned the rain gear and then the shower my first thought was she is gonna put her gear on and take pictures in the shower. Haha. That is probably what I would have done. Lol.
It’s so crazy to think how different our climates are. I can’t even imagine. My aunt and uncle are snowbirds and have a place in Arizona and always come home early April when it starts to get too hot by our Saskatchewan standards. Haha.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, I wish I had thought of that!! You are such fun. That would have been adorable. Ha! Too hot in Arizona in April!! And it gets sooo sooo sooo much hotter by July. I love Arizona. We make at least one trip there every year for some kind of baseball festivities.