Everythings Coming Up . . .

As others have noted, our spring, too seems to be coming about three weeks earlier.  I've taken some pictures over the past ten days that I thought I'd share with you as I let you know about my incremental improvements.

Aren't the red tulips pretty? I like the basic red and basic yellow tulips.  These are quite large and look almost like poppies when they're fully open.  I'm falling behind in keeping up with my garden tasks.

 I've been ratcheting up my exercise.  I've done six 5+ mile  "rawks" (run/walks) over the past couple of weeks.  I listen to a book on tape and have my iPod tick off the 5 minute intervals during a 90 minute period.  I run for an increasingly long distance at each interval.  It's fun to see my total distance for 90 minutes increasing and my pace per mile decreasing.  Still very slow, but getting better.  I love being out and seeing things.  This big tree is just coming into leaf. That's the new Woodrow Wilson bridge over the Potomac River in the background.


A different section of the same path (the Mount Vernon bike path, along the George Washington Parkway) has a long wooden boardwalk over an inlet.  It's one of my favorite sections. One time I saw a beaver swimming from that exact spot. He swam toward me and then under the bridge.  I'm also on the lookout for the prothonatory warblers that live in the wooded section you see to the left across the bridge.

 The yellow tulips wanted equal time.  Such a lush display.  My enemy the squirrels (or maybe a deer) ate off about a third of the blooms last night, but there are still a lot left to brighten that corner of the garden.

These little babies are Individual Chocolate Souffles.  The recipe was featured in the WW weekly handout a few weeks ago.  I made them for dessert a couple of days ago.  OMG (that's Oh My Gosh)!  They are wonderful.  I'll put the recipe on the recipe page in the right side bar.  Only 3 WW points plus, and very tastey.

My last two WIs have been good!  My losing streak is intact; I've lost at every WI since Dec 8th (there were a few weeks that I missed weighing in December and January).   I'm continuing my regimen of doing WW simply filling with flex points from W thru F and then doing 4 days of 17DD Cycle I.  That's working for me.  I stick pretty much to what is laid out in Cycle I, but occasionally have one fruit in the late afternoon (either my allowed 2nd fruit or a "bonus" fruit).   I am getting better about keeping the three "splurge" days from getting out of hand.  The chocolate souffles were dessert one night.  Another night I made a Cooking Light recipe for Double Plum Baked Chicken--yum!  I keep my breakfasts and lunches fairly simple and plan and splurge for family meals.

We took a lovely sunlit bike ride today.  My odometer (on my road bike) read 17.6, but DH's read 14.  Sadly, I think mine is not calibrated correctly!  In any case, with my increased runs and a couple  of long bike rides, I am adding 86 miles for the past two weeks for a grand total of 308 miles.

I'll leave you with a picture of my iris.  I almost pulled these out because they didn't bloom for several years in a row.  Look at them, now!

Have a great week!  One of my goals for April is to blog every week, rather than every other week.  We'll see.