Spring is officially here....

Today is the first full day of Spring!!! Yippeeee! Although we may still see the odd snowflake in the air, (no doubt we'll have one more snowfall but let's hope not) the days are slowly warming and I'm loving the longer stretch of daylight in the evening... You really can feel the growing warmth in the sunshine - feels so good. In fact today I just might sit out on the deck for awhile and turn my face up to the sun - feelin' the need for a little Vitamin D (wink**)... Today is my birthday as well, but I don't feel any more than a day older. My dear older brother Leigh, who loves to tease, visited yesterday to remind me that I was enjoying my last day at that age (would you believe 29? haha). So I promptly reminded him that in two weeks he would be hitting a BIG birthday and that he would always be 8 years older than I.... try as I might I will never catch up. Birthdays don't bother me... with all the troubles in the world, I'm just grateful to still be vertical and healthy!
It was quite a weekend - did you see that beautiful perigee moon? Wow! And Saturday was National Quilting Day. I hope all my quilting friends found some time to spend at their machines. I attended our Guild's workday session for the morning, and later on worked on my NYC piece. It's coming along. My goal is to have it finished by weeks' end.

With Laura's upcoming trip to Poland, we have been trying to learn a little more about WWII and the Holocaust. We've been on a bit of a movie-watching jag; this past weeks' lineup was The Pianist, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, and The Reader. Although The Reader is set in post-Nazi Germany, it does have a tie with a war crimes trial. Kate Winslett is excellent as Hanna Schmitz, on trial for murder and her work with the SS. The Pianist is the true story of brilliant Jewish pianist Wladislaw Szpilman, who worked in a Warsaw radio station during the German occupation of Poland. We see his world destroyed- his family are taken to the camps, his existence reduced to bare bones as he struggles to elude capture by the Nazis by hiding out in the ruins of Warsaw. The film won 3 Academy Awards: Best Actor (Adrien Brody as Szpilman) Best Director (Roman Polanski) and Best Writing- Adapted Screenplay. I definitely gave this one a thumbs up.
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler was a 2009 TV Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, now released on DVD. Based on the remarkable true story of WWII heroine Irena Sendler who rescued over 2500 Jewish children during the German occupation of Poland, it stars Canadian actress Anna Paquin, and Goran Visnjic (remember Dr. Luka Kovac of ER?). As a social worker, Irena had access to the Warsaw ghetto, making it possible for her to rescue the daughter of a Jewish friend and safely hide the young girl with a Catholic family. Realizing that thousands of children were still in danger Irena recruited sympathetic friends and co-workers to help her smuggle children out. At great personal risk she devised extraordinary schemes to sneak children by Nazi guards. Not a single child she rescued was ever betrayed or discovered by the Nazis. Often called "the female Schindler" Sendler not only saved thousands of lives, but also countless generations of their descendants. Sendler died in 2008, after a lifetime devoted to service to others. She received a number of humanitarian awards, and was a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. You can read more about her life here. I would highly recommend this movie.
I leave you today with this photo, taken this morning in one of my garden beds... yes spring is on it's way...

Peace,
Linda

There would be fewer wars if we tried to determine what's right instead of who's right.