: : the magnolia trees are blooming everywhere. fat, creamy, consummate blossoms the size of cereal bowls adorn the trees. there is a magnolia tree in the courtyard outside my front door, and i kid you not, i have 20+ photos of it on my phone from the past week or two. [as you can see in this post. and this definitely isn’t all of them.] every time i walk by, i decide that i just haaaaave to snap a few more pics because there are even more flowers than the day before or the light is hitting the tree ever so perfectly… each day it is more beautiful than the last. and i know that before long, all those gorgeous snowy white petals will begin to look like dried apple slices – light brown and a bit shriveled [some have already turned or are on their way]. but i will be thrilled that i captured the tree’s very best days.
: : my property management company has done a stupendous job with the landscaping this spring. oh, the colors! they are lovely. my HOA dues are pretty steep, but if this is how they’re using it? totally worth every penny. these flowers make my day, every day.
: : the weather is delicious right now. i loved the rains, the storms, the whistling winds that blew through last week and the week before, and now i love the sunshine which always feels like gold after gray and clouds. the days are warm but the nights are cool. people are outside in the evenings and on the weekends, walking, exercising, enjoying, filling every patio of every restaurant and bar in the area. it looks, sounds, and tastes like summertime, yet the true heat of texas summer hasn’t reared its ugly head just yet. i wish i could just freeze time for a little while.
: : the work weeks have been quieter lately as people try to use up the last of their vacation days before the end of the fiscal year. culinary school is finished for me until fall. it is bittersweet – i so loved wine class and looked forward to it every single week, but the tests sure were a doozy! i studied really hard for the second one, not having done as well as i would have liked on the first, but ended up being quite disappointed with my grade.
for our last test, the final, i started studying much earlier, but my attention span was shorter and my patience less. i have the most inspiration and the greatest ideas when i’m supposed to be studying! it all just comes to me at the most inopportune times [not just when i have an exam the next day, but also when i’m in the car, and i want to write down all my ideas before i forget them and CAN’T…]. anyway, i just wanted to journal and draw and decorate and cook and clean and put together outfits and take photos and blog in those 24 hours before taking the final… and this whole studying thing totally stifles my creativity. amiright? but i [mostly] resisted the urge and studied as much as my attention span would allow, took the test, and then celebrated a bit by cleaning my house. and writing. and pinning a LOT of stuff on pinterest.
and now that i’m finished with wine class, i have all these grapes and winemaking methods and regions bouncing around in my head – tempranillo and alsace and verdicchio and methode champenoise and macabeo and maipo valley. so i’m working on putting together a wine journal for my notes and thoughts and favorite wines.
: : mike spent the night at my house last night, and oh, it was a taste of how good summer is going to be, i just know it. now that he is 21, we can go anywhere together, and i’ve decided that this summer will be a complete F & B [food & beverage of courseeeee] tour of dallas for us and whoever wants to subject themselves to our shenanigans and all the delectable meals and libations we plan to consume. we will explore the different neighborhoods – taste of dallas style, tourist style, resident style, outdoorsy style, artsy style, hipster style [yep, i said it], dallas socialite style [okay so that one’s a stretch, ha. but you get the picture], everything. i want to enter into fall knowing dallas better than i ever knew it before! and maybe i’ll even bring my trusty camera to snap some photos, too. [dream big? maybe!] i couldn’t be more excited, really. it’s a dream come true to have mike here and to have an excuse to do dallas, and do it well. i’m ready.
{i love him so.}
cheers to brother bear moving to d-town tomorrow and all the light and love of summer! xoxo