Is it Spring yet?

Well, I thought it might be with the lovely warm weather last week (I think it got up to 17 degrees Sunday!). Today set us right back into winter though! Not only was it cold again, but windy, making it feel even colder. The teacher I was working with today said "Ah yes, it is always very cold around graduation week" when she heard me shriek at the sight of SNOW [briefly] falling outside this afternoon!

Some recent photos:
I planted some flowers back when I thought it was spring:


The newest addition to my kitchen gadget family:
I thought these were just flowers, but no, my students told me they were definitely sakura (cherry blossoms).




And a recipe: I wanted to use up this can of pumpkin I've had for ages that I never used at Thanksgiving and I found this recipe that turned out really nicely. Tastes kind of like a fruit crumble, but with pumpkin pie filling insde. :)

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I didn't put these in though)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
3/4 cup butter, room temperature (used less butter than this and it still turned out fine because the pumkin keeps things moist enough)
.
Filling:
2 cups pumpkin puree (16 ounce can)
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice


recipe courtesy About.com http://southernfood.about.com/od/pumpkins/r/bl30622v.htm

canned pumpkin courtesy Gillian ;)


Second attempt at calligraphy class: