Virtual Coffee Tuesday - Ups and downs...

Tuesday again??? Oh my....

And it's Easter on Sunday... eeek!

How did we get here so quickly??? Only seems a couple of weeks since Christmas!!

Still, hopefully we can find a few minutes to catch our breath, and catch up...

And today, I can offer you some scrummy coffee and walnut birthday cake :)

It's my Dad's super birthday cake from Friday...

Now, does this lovely man look 70??? I think not...

My brother got the cake made depicting Dad's favourite aeroplane - a Vulcan (click on the image to see all the hand-iced detail) and coffee and walnut is his favourite variety of cake :)

We had a lovely family dinner at a local pub, which was my Dad's watering hole when he was stationed here at Spitalgate camp many moons ago... needless to say, it's been spruced up since then :)

I just love this picture... my daddy sharing a joke with my gorgeous boy while my beautiful daughter poses serenely...

Then on Saturday, Dad and E left - she's spending her first week of the Easter hols at Grandpa's - and I went to a follow-up appointment at the hospital... They found an anomaly during the diabetic screening in February, and the specialist confirmed it's a bleed in the left eye - again!! So I now await an appointment (at Boston hospital - an hour's drive away!!) to cauterize it by laser, as they did 3 years ago *sigh*

Sometimes, it's just a struggle...

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But, as the new month dawned on Sunday, I decided to try and stay positive, and painted this for the week's IA Challenge 'Stormy Weather'...

You can see the post here...

I find it interesting that several people saw it as a galleon on the ocean... It's actually 'meant' to be a lone tree, with houses in the distance, as the stormclouds roll in...

Isn't art interesting?? Who's to say what the artist intended is more 'right' than what the viewer sees?? I'm a great believer in there being no 'right' or 'wrong' in art...

And to keep up the positive vibe, I painted this yesterday...

It's based on the quote that arrived in my email box yesterday from The Happiness Project... I get such upbeat quotes every day...

And while I cannot say I felt the slightest exuberance while I painted it (I'm still struggling with the hayfever...), clearly there's some part of me which connected with the quote...

Art therapy in action, I guess :)

And it got me thinking... when was the last time I felt exuberant? It's not a word I use, let alone feel... How about you??

I think children are naturally exuberant - as this pic of my babies from 14 years ago shows...

This photo's on the bookcase in the hallway, and always makes me smile... the sheer delight on E's face... Sam could always make her giggle.... :)

So how, why, do we lose this exuberance as we get older???

I guess 'LIFE' just gets in the way...

But, I hope, we can manage to keep our eyes open for glimmers of it... in our children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, our pets, in spring blossoms...

And, I guess, this is what the age-old Easter message is about...

I hope you have a lovely, blessed Easter weekend, and we'll catch up again next Tuesday...

Much love xxxx

image copyright of www.allsouls.net.au

Joining up with Amy at...

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