Downtown House - 1st Spring

We're getting comfortable here, having survived one winter - that makes it sound so dreary doesn't it?  Like as if we had to work hard to survive.  It's not Laura Ingalls Wilder's world, sorry to be so dramatic.  It's just that a new house brings surprises that are not always easy to work through - there were the surprise mice that moved in late fall, the vast number of windows in our bedroom that should have gotten some sort of plastic film to keep the winter at bay, the shockingly high electric bill for lack of any other heat source, and the stupid bugs who just won't take a hint and stop inhabiting our dishwasher (I swear they scoff at our attempts to poison them).  Oh, and the unfinished stairs that continually caused kids to get splinters until we finally finished covering them in carpet.  And the cat, who is 19 years old and no longer wants to use her litter box.

New homes, they bring so many surprises and make old pets a little loopy.  Is it any wonder that it's spring and I already feel like house hunting again - that and the shockingly horrific increase in Maryland taxes.  I know I just need to work harder at making this home more comfortable.  Right now there are no spring flowers in the yard, I guess we didn't get to them in the fall.  We were so caught up with mom's move right after ours, then a trip to Asia that was 17 days long that nothing got done around here for several months.  I complained about lack of curtains for so long that a friend just recently asked if I'd finally managed to cover all seven windows in our master bedroom and closet area.  We did, I had to go to 3 Walmarts and shop online to find enough.  I guess they consistently didn't stock more than 1 or 2 of the same curtain at each store.  So weird.

On a positive note, my amaryllises are blooming and gorgeous as always.  So here are my lovely indoor spring flowers: