Yesterday marked my 49th wedding anniversary. Flowers from the husband greeted me as I entered the kitchen for my morning coffee.

What with my anniversary and Valentine’s Day, I get spoiled in February. I just enjoyed a box of assorted chocolates a couple of weeks ago–except for those with the cream centers, which my sweet husband volunteered to eat. (Note: I left him four or five, but he’d eaten all but one before I could take this picture.)

February hasn’t been all candy and flowers, though. Cold weather has kept me inside, so I’ve used the time to clean out my dresser drawers. One junk drawer in a bedroom should be enough, I decided, not the several I had.

See these two small wicker baskets full of coins that were in the drawer? What’s interesting to me is the number of pennies in each. I plan to hoard them since I recently wasn’t given the three cents due me in change at Dollar General.

Is this the new norm? Should I keep a record of when I don’t get my change back in pennies so that once it adds up to a nickel I can ask for that? Would the cashier have let me leave owing the Dollar General three cents?

Not a budget buster, of course, but something to ponder….

How are your daffodils looking this year? I think the January/February ice and snow storms, unusual for where I live, did a number on mine. So far, they’re not blooming nearly as well as last year, and the flowers aren’t standing at attention as they usually do.

I have a friend who says she talks to her daffodils, warning them that if they bend over, she’s going to cut them and bring them in the house. They’ll end their lives in a vase! I guess I need to get out my scissors.

“You never know where the church van will take you.” That’s a quote from my Methodist minister, who’s talking about day trips taken by a group of us retirees named the Lamplighters. This month, we visited the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to see an exhibition called “The Story of Esther.” As you may know, Queen Esther saved her people, the Jews, from annihilation in ancient Persia.

If you’ve never read the book of Esther in the Old Testament, I encourage you to do so. It’s only ten chapters and a great story, full of intrigue and plot twists. The Jewish festival of Purim is based on the story of Esther.

The drawing card of the Raleigh exhibition is a painting by Rembrandt, titled “A Jewish Heroine from the Hebrew Bible.” Though Rembrandt doesn’t explicitly say the subject of his work is Esther, it’s widely believed that here he’s portraying her as she gets ready to go before her husband, King Ahasuerus, to set in motion a plan to save the Jews.

Jan van Steen, a contemporary of Rembrandt, also painted scenes from the story of Esther. “The Wrath of Ahasuerus” depicts the undoing of the villain Haman.

We (the Lamplighters) spent almost two hours touring the exhibit. As always, when I’m in an art museum, I took lots of pictures.

A short post today for a short month.

I’ll leave you with a picture of two of the best rewards of a long marriage, grandchildren with their granddaddy, my husband of 49 years.