HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!...AND A GROUNDHOG DAY CAKE?

It's Valentine's Day! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.  

Snow is sifting down outside my window.  The little snowbirds are blown around like dried leaves when the wind gusts..  A large chattering of starlings are scratching in the snow for food, gossiping as they work.  I suppose that is why the dictionary refers to a group of starlings as a "chattering". The robins never left our neighborhood this year.  They search under every leaf in their quest for something to eat, and hunker low to the ground with each gust of wind.  They look miserable.

Please, Mother Nature, enough with the snow sifting!  It's close to 2 inches deep now. That's enough decorative snow. For me, when it comes to snow, less is more.

My husband and I are staying in today.  There is chili cooking and it smells good.  It is way too cozy in here to get out today and go to a restaurant for dinner.  

OUR GRANDSON LOVES LITTLE ANIMALS

We babysat our grandson earlier this month.  It was so much fun.  He is at the age where he sometimes says such funny things.  He will be six in March. Our daughter, who is a nurse, was asking him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  "Maybe a doctor", she asked/suggested to him.  His reply was "When I grow up, I want to be a "plunger" like my daddy."  His daddy is a plumber. 

THE GROUNDHOG DAY CAKE LOOKING A BIT PRIMITIVE

I baked a cake for my grandson the day we watched him.  As the cake baked, I had a brainstorm to make it into a Groundhog Day cake, even though we were a couple of days past G. hog day.  Since it was all spur of the moment, I had to use what was in the cupboard for my Groundhog Day cake decorations.  I used some soft caramels rolled in Nestle's Quik powder for the groundhog. The Quik was supposed to look like the little creature's fur.  I crumbled up a cookie to make the dirt around the G. hog hole, sifted powdered sugar over the cake's chocolate icing for snow, and stuck a candle in it just for fun. 

The cake looks pretty primitive in the picture and doesn't look like the amazing, enchanting cake that I had pictured it to be in my mind's eye. 

I was busy being underwhelmed as I looked at the cake.....and then my Grandson came into the dining room.  He took one look and was was so tickled by it.  He was laughing, and grinning, and so excited by such a simple cake. He loved the little groundhog and couldn't wait to blow out the candle for that little groundhog.  

Suddenly, the primitive looking cake, morphed right back into that amazing, enchanting cake that I had first seen in my mind's eye.  There I was, seeing The Groundhog Day Cake, through the eyes of an almost-six-year old, and it was wonderful.

I hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day.

A QUICK POST

This is going to be a quick post.  I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year while the year is still new.

This evening I finally put a picture in my header.  I've been blogging since August 2012.  Procrastinate much?  Yes, I do.

We had a very nice holiday season around here.  My husband retired as of December 1.  We are adjusting to it pretty well, except most days both of us have to think about it to figure out the day, and date, and the weeks go by so quickly that it is amazing.  My husband worked nights for more than thirty years, so our night owl life style has remained the same, but may slip into more normal hours after a few more months.  

I usually like to show a lot of pictures on my posts, but after doing the header picture, my picture-posting brain is now slightly frazzled, so I'll let that go this evening.

Even though I haven't been posting here, I have been enjoying many others' blogs. 

2016 hasn't had any of its shiny, newness worn off yet.  So many possibilities await us!

WHAT'S WITH MY KNEES, ZINNIAS, AND BEES

Blue glass watering bulbs, zinnias, and creeping jenny.

Nine days ago I had stem cell therapy on both knees.  The procedure was something that I have been researching for quite some time, and since my knees were becoming more and more painful, I decided it was time to go ahead with it.  

The stem cells that were used came from my own bone marrow and also from my own fat. The procedure was painful, but not unbearable.  I was hurting a lot the evening after the procedure.  The pain got better as each day went by. It is normal for it to take 7 to 14 days for the knees to return to the level of pain they had before the procedure.  One of my knees was worse than the other and had a lot more pain.  After the procedure my sort of good-ish knee got worse and my bad knee has gotten better faster.   

Each day, when I wake up in the morning, my knees seem to be a bit improved. Pain wise I am almost back to where I was before the procedure.  I was surprised yesterday, as I was working around in the kitchen, I noticed that for the first time in about three months, I was walking without being flat footed on one side and limping and dragging my foot a bit.  My knee, ankle, and foot were working together pretty much like normal again.   

New-to-the-neighborhood hummingbirds always examine the flowers in the basket on the door and leave disappointed.

Even though my knees are improving, they start feeling real worn out and aching by about 3:30 in the afternoon and I have to start wrapping my activities up so I can get off of my feet.  I haven't been doing anything out in my flowers since a few weeks before the procedure, because my knees had just gotten so bad.  I am glad that I got some pictures of this summer's flowers while I still felt like standing and taking pictures.

The big pink round shiny glass bowl was from the thrift store.
It was not a great year for my zinnias.  I believe it was because of the extremes with the weather.  It was a very good year for my hummingbirds that were here most of the summer, and have now migrated. And the zinnias continue to attract new hummingbirds as they migrate through the area.  I couldn't get a picture of the little birds, only the bees.

My Christopher Marlowe rose which was beautifully leafy and full all last summer, got brown spots on the leaves during the weeks of rain we had earlier this summer.  Even with the leaves dropping, it has had a lot of blooms on it all summer.  I didn't want to use any fungicides on it, because I have seen hummingbirds going to its blooms.  I don't think roses have nectar.  I wonder if hummingbirds can smell the roses. "hummingbirds...I love to watch them because they are so busy getting the most out of life.", Nora Ephron wrote in her book "I Remember Nothing". 

David Austin Christopher Marlowe rose still blooming after the brown spots

I have spent some of this quickly passing end-of-summer time reading books that my sweet friend brought to me. Thank you Shelly!  For a few days it was uncomfortable to have the laptop on my lap.  Two of the books I read were by Nora Ephron.  The first one I read was "I Feel Bad About My Neck".  The next one I read was "I Remember Nothing".  Excellent books that have both been around for several years.  If you haven't read them, I think you would enjoy them.  Both of them are funny, and many parts are especially touching given the perspective added by the passing of years.

My grandson with his hair slicked down for the first day of school.  Made me think of all of the little boys through all of the generations on their first day of school.  Some things never change.

Summer has almost slipped away.  My grandson started kindergarten this year. He is going to the same elementary school that my Dad, me, my husband, and my son and daughter attended.  It is still hot here, but there is that certain quality of light, and rhythm in the way that the days pass that gently reminds us how fast the seasons pass, and that maybe we should get busy getting the most out of life.

My Christopher Marlowe roses at the beginning of summer. There were enough for arms full of them. 

FEELING GLAD ALL OVER

A  GLADIOLA FROM MY GARDEN

I am glad it is finally feeling like summer around here.  We have had so many days of rain in the past month.  Even though it was 98 degrees here today, it was nice to have a sunny summer day.  My beautiful David Austin Christopher Marlowe rose developed some black spot, but it is still blooming. There has been so much rain that it killed part of my big Red Knockout rose, and I believe that they are one of the most hardy roses there is.  I was outside today, for as long as I could stand the heat, moving formerly water logged plants out of the searing sun into partial shade because they were starting to shrivel from the sun and heat beating down on them.  

The gladiola in the picture above survived the super wet weather we have had. It bloomed so beautifully and so tall that it was blown over and broke off before I had a chance to stake it.  It worked out fine though, I have been enjoying seeing it in the house and "posing" it for photographs.  

A few days ago, I was changing purses.  I laughed out loud when I read the quote on this card I came across that was still in my purse from the time I was in the hospital at the end of May.  I was too sick to even notice it while in the hospital. 

This is a card given to patients when they first go into their hospital room.

Out of all of the quotes in the world, I cannot believe that a hospital would choose the quote that is on this card.  Helen Keller was a great woman, and this is a very moving quote, but I don't think it worked too well in this circumstance. 

As I read the quote line by line, I almost wondered if the hospital was trying to be funny. Or maybe that quote had become their "Mission Statement". "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet."  Well, I suppose I got my character developed,  because there wasn't  much ease and no quiet with the monitor beeping and sounding some type of alarm next to the bed for 18 hours straight, until the nurse practitioner got tired of struggling to speak to me over the din it was making,  and simply stepped over and flicked a switch and turned off the sound it was making in the room. She said the nurses had the same monitor that sounded at their station.  The sound didn't really need to be on in the room.

As for "Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ....", with all due respect to Ms Keller, I don't agree with that statement at all.  There are many beautiful, joy filled, positive experiences that can strengthen the soul, clear vision, inspire ambition, and help one achieve success.  I don't believe a hospital should put forth such negativity.  And I definitely don't think it is good that a hospital should be functioning with the idea that trial and/or suffering is good for people.  So many things make me wonder about hospitals and health care at this time.

Oh, well, all of that is water under the bridge and I have been feeling good and have been able to get back to playing in the garden, and I am thankful...and "glad".

GLADIOLAS - BEAUTIFUL!

REJUVENATING JUNE

BLUE WILDFLOWER

Robins sing the final notes of their goodnight song.  Firefly sequins pulse in the shadows.  Rose and lemon thyme perfume the garden.  I love this time of day-into-evening as the sky goes dark and everything is quiet and soft. I like to sit out on the porch and gather it all in. 

During the last few days of May I had to go to the ER.  I was feeling extremely light headed and weak at my grandson's preschool graduation. I stayed until the end of the ceremony, but then started feeling even worse.  My husband was at work, so I asked my good friend, who is my daughter's godmother, to take me to the ER.  I called my husband and he met us there.  It turned out that I was experiencing an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation).  I spent two nights in the hospital while they did tests, then shocked my heart back into rhythm, and monitored me.

I was overjoyed to come home so I could get some rest in my own comfortable bed.  My little pom, Fuzzy, was overjoyed when I came home, too. He was rubbing against me, sniffing, licking, spinning, running away and then leaping over his doggie bed to get back to me, and then start all over again.  It has been more than two weeks now and he still doesn't want to let me out of his sight. The first day I was home he insisted on staying in the bathroom with me as I took a shower.  He usually just guards outside of the door.  

I am feeling really good now, but during the past week I had to wear a portable monitor for 48 hours to record my heart rhythm.  The monitor was returned to the hospital yesterday and I should get the the results of the monitoring some time next week.  

Some of the most mundane household chores seem almost like "fun" to me now.  Funny how a few days in a hospital room hooked to monitors,  with a needle taped into the vein in the bend of my arm "just in case", etc., make such tasks as cleaning the toilet at home feel almost like a festive occasion. Perspective.

Last weekend, after I had been home from the hospital for one week, I had some of the BEST MEDICINE there is: Fun, sweet times spent with dear, long-time friends.  It was my husband's 45 year high school reunion.  Class of 1970.

We got together with a group of our close "Class of 1970"  friends on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.  I was in the Class of 1972 at the same school.  It was so good seeing everyone.  With each story of high school adventures, misadventures, mischief, and romance, we all laughed and remembered, and I believe, felt how much we have all changed, yet are still the same.  

With every story told and every round of laughter,  I felt better and better.  I could feel my strength coming back.  By the end of the weekend I felt refreshed and renewed.  It was as if I had been on a long, rejuvenating trip. And I am sure I really had been.... I had been on a nice, long visit to Memory Lane.  

DAVID AUSTIN-CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ROSES
FROM   MY  YARD

  

HAPPINESS, SADNESS, AND BEAUTY THIS SPRING

SO MUCH HARD WORK WENT INTO EARNING THIS!

On February 27 our daughter graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Nursing degree.  So winter ended on a very happy note.  We are very proud of her.

HAPPINESS!

I can hardly believe that we are already well into May.  This week has been wonderful.  Our son was here to visit for a few days. The time went by too quickly.  He was stopping by on his way out of the USA.  For the next four years or so he will be stationed overseas.  He had a busy few days here participating in a weight lifting competition, eating "authentic tacos" every time he had a chance after the competition, going to a winery with our daughter and her husband and their friends, and going to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game.


I BELIEVE THAT THIS WEIGHT WAS 225 LBS.  HE WEIGHS BETWEEN 120 AND 140 LBS.



IN THE NEXT PHOTO THE WEIGHTS WERE UP OVER HIS HEAD, BUT THE PHOTO DIDN'T TURN OUT

HE PLACED SECOND PLACE IN THE SENIOR DIVISION WEIGHT CLASS

He said that where he will be stationed he won't be able to get any authentic tacos, so he wanted to eat plenty of them before he left.  I don't know how "authentic" the Bulgogi (Korean barbecue) taco from the St. Louis Seoul Taco restaurant was, but it was delicious, and I am sure that type of taco won't be available where he will be going.



AT A MEXICAN RESTAURANT.  OUR SON HAD FISH TACOS THERE.

It felt like he had just arrived home and then it was already time for him to leave.  Once again it was time for good-byes.  Hugging--at the door, then on the front porch, and watching him drive away, and then that "Please, let him be safe" feeling.  This was the first time that my eyes didn't get chapped from crying when he left.  Those good-byes never do seem to get any easier.


THE ROSES BLOOMED MAY 7. 2015

Just two days ago, the Knock Out roses started blooming.  So many roses magically opened overnight and there are many more buds still to open.  They may not have the beautiful rose scent that some roses do, but what a delight it is when they break out into bloom each spring. 

 This year the Red Knock Out roses are absolute velvety perfection. 

The clematis blooms are huge this year and gorgeous.  It must have been more than 15 years ago that I planted it.  For about 13 of those years it would only get two or three blooms on it and then it would just be an ugly-ish leafy vine, until it would "accidently" get weed whacked.  For the last couple of years I have been putting my potted mandevilla vine in front of it.  That probably kept its roots cool enough for it to thrive.  I gave it a dose of rose fertilizer when I fed the roses in early April, so that may account for all of the huge blossoms it is getting this year.

My chives were green all winter.  During the coldest times they were frozen, but still green.  I moved their pot up close to the house for winter.  They were the first plants blooming this year.  I didn't know that chive blossoms got this large. They look so pretty and fluffy, but as pretty as they are, they smell like chives.

AMERICANA PINK GERANIUMS. WILL THEY BE A SURVIVOR IN MY GARDEN THIS SEASON?

Geraniums usually are not flowers that I have very good luck with, but I couldn't resist these luscious, lovely pink beauties.  Hopefully, they will still have leaves and flowers on them by the end of June, or maybe even all summer. They are called Americana Pink.     

I just love this time of year.  Ah, Spring!

Here's a little bouquet of roses to wish everyone a happy Mother's Day!


HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY!

IN MOM'S GARDEN

MOM'S GARDEN

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday.  She would have been 105 years old this year.  Mom was 43 years old when I was born.  She died in 1985.  Of course, I always think of my mom on her birthday, but this year I am feeling particularly wistful as I think of her.

The picture above is one that Mom took of our kitty, Frosty, in her garden. He's walking on top of the vine covered garden fence.  I think I remember her saying that the pretty flowering bush was an aster.  It was huge.  If it isn't an aster, then my memory is faulty.  Mom really knew her plants, trees, and flowers.  The picture was taken in the late 1960's.

Mom always had a great garden.  She grew all kinds of flowers, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, and squash. I wince when I remember being a smart mouth pre-teen and asking her if she had "played" in her garden all day. When her big garden became too much for her, she grew beautiful hanging baskets of flowers.  She enjoyed taking pictures, and considering that she was using what I believe was called a Brownie box camera, and then a Kodak Instamatic for the last several years of her life, I think she got some very good images.



MOM'S BIG CATFISH

And then there was fishing.  Mom loved to fish.  I like this picture of her with the huge catfish that she caught.  You can tell by the look on her face that she is having a hard time holding it up long enough to have her picture taken with it.  The picture was dated 1957.  I would have been three years old.  She caught her big catfish where the Mississippi River and Missouri River converge. 

I WISH I COULD REMEMBER WHAT THEY WERE BOTH  LAUGHING ABOUT WHEN I TOOK THIS PICTURE.

Mom only got to know her sweet little grand daughter for a couple of years.  She never met our son.

So these are some of the people, places, and things that I have been feeling nostalgic for on this soft spring evening. 

Oh Mom, it's springtime!  It's time to "play" in the garden again.