Spring fever.

While my cousins in NY have been digging out from this past week's snow-storm, and waiting for the next snow to arrive on Tuesday, it looks like we have turned the proverbial Texas corner here in the Hill Country.  The days have been sunny and warm, the birds are singing, new grass is growing, and the hawks are once again flying over the fields looking for mice to run out from under the brush piles. All is right in our little corner of this planet.  Or, as my cousins tell me--- our "little bubble" of the world.

Sometimes it does seem like we're living in a very small bubble, protected from the madness going on around the rest of the planet.  Lost in the 1950s... that's how I've always described this town, even years ago when we used to drive here for weekend trips.

We took a ride into Navasota today, to have lunch at Martha's Bloomers... another perfect example of bubble-living.  Martha's is a combination nursery, gift shop, and café, all tucked into a far corner of that town, visible from the highway, but if you didn't know Martha's was there, you'd keep on driving.  The indoor gift shop and the outdoor nursery has everything you might need for your garden and kitchen (flowers, plants, vegetables, country décor, and lawn ornaments).  Back at the far corner of the outdoor garden sits their small café... the interior is yellow and white, tablecloths and pretty napkins and tiny teacups are waiting at the tables for you, and the food is homemade and delicious.

Martha's is also home to two cats.... an orange and white one with a cute orange freckle on his nose, and a fluffy gray cat with dark ears and blue eyes who's clearly the king of Martha's kingdom.  Today after lunch, we looked around the gift shop and found the orange cat high up on top of a wooden hutch, sitting in the middle of a display of porcelain roosters and ceramic bowls. The fluffy gray cat was sound asleep in a wire basket filled with the tissue paper that is used to wrap delicate items... and I just knew that his nap wouldn't be interrupted if the clerk had to wrap up a glass vase.

Life goes on at Martha's.... cats jumping up on a ceiling-high hutch, or sleeping near the cash register... and you can hear the white doves making their sweet coo-ing noises in their garden cages.  As with the rest of the Hill Country, life at Martha's is easy and slow and usually uncomplicated.

There are days when I wish I could bottle all of this up and send it to my cousins in New York. Today was such a day.