Hearts and Blossoms

IN BLOOM:  Daffodils and crocus blossoms abound, and cherry trees are blushing. Is it really possible that spring is still six weeks away?   

Even inside our house, plants are putting on a show. Look at this Christmas cactus turning out in a big way for Valentine's Day.

And our lime tree has a fruit the size of a walnut on it right now. Can you spot it?

MEGA MAGNA:  Over the past two days we have powered through all of week 5's lectures for our History of the Magna Carta class through the University of London. This week's lectures were about memorials dedicated to the historic document: the Broughton memorial (named after the property owner who donated the historic grounds at Runnymede for a memorial), the American Bar Association monument, the Air Force memorial, and the JFK memorial. 

Here's part of the Broughton memorial.

                           photo:  WyrdLight-McCallum www.wyrdlight.com via Wikimedia
We also watched a promotional film of sorts from 1946. Produced by Gaumont-British Animation, Gaumont-British Instructional and called "Magna Carta: The Story of Man's Fight for Liberty," it was ... odd.


HEART ART:  I saw an artist's blog today that showed how to make some fun confetti hearts with nothing more than a hot glue gun and a a bit of tissue paper. Easy!

First, we had to make some confetti. ...

We had a pile in no time.

Meanwhile, we built up two layers of glue hearts on parchment paper.

Then, on the third layer of glue, the confetti gets sprinkled on.

We had to wait a few minutes for them to dry - well, cool off, really.  Here's what the finished product looked like.