Put to Rest and At Rest

On Saturday, Mom, Linda and I went to Aunt Helen's graveside service at Blakeley Cemetery near Madison. Her daughter-in-law, Pat, along with her three grandchildren were there from Texas. There were also a few people from the Madison area who had some connection with Pat from the past.




It was a beautiful day to be out in the country, and a lovely place to be put to rest, I think.

These are the people we are related to. I've never met any except Pat, the one in red. It was uncanny how much the grandson, Mark, looked like his grandfather, Buddy.

After dropping Linda at home, Mom and I went on to visit those previously "at rest." This is the 7th year that I've taken Mom on this round. At first I derided her foolish sentimentality. But......I find that each year it becomes a more meaningful ritual to me. I stand at the headstones for Alvin Rickets Byerly who was born in 1842, and Grandma Denny who died in 1929, and Daddy who has been gone for 20 years, and Judy who died 50 years ago, and look at the place where I will someday be.........And I feel the continuity of all those lives with mine and with my daughters' lives and their children's lives.

Moving back here was such a good decision.

A Symbiotic Relationship

So, there I was whacking back shrubs, peonies and assorted green stuff in the garden and feeling VERY guilty. Real garderners don't clog the landfill with yard refuse! But composting takes up a good deal of space and is really unattractive
But then I remembered a conversation with Earl Dill who was in my gardening class last fall. He said he couldn't get enough material to compost. So I called him and he was most eager to come pick up my bags of stuff. I left them in front of the garage, went to WalMart, and they were gone when I came home. I feel so much better with this arrangement. Hope he'll take more and more.

As of tomorrow, I'm commuting to Salina daily for the Annual Conference -- Methodist, etc.

Speaking of commutes.....Ask Linda what's happening with hers.

More Special Than Ever

BIG change in Carrie's life with her new diagnosis. I told her it just means that she's more "special" than ever. I don't think she was buying what I was selling.

So, to help her with the transition to a new lifestyle, I tried to subscribe to this cool magazine for her that I saw at the doctor's office last week.

However, the "give a gift" part of the online subscription seems not to have worked. I think I just subscribed to a magazine for her that she will receive with a bill. Oops! But my heart was in the right place.

I do hope that all who know her are giving Carrie lots of support right now. It can't be easy. Actually, between the two of us, we could eat as ONE regular person. I can't eat hardly any vegetables or fruits and have to rely on pale carb stuff. Carrie is supposed to eat LOTS of veggies, fruit, and very few carb things. Hmmm. Doesn't seem fair somehow.

T., you managed to incorporate a whole new approach to food into your life a few years ago. Maybe you could do a tutorial for Carrie -- and for ALL of us who need to eat better/differently. etc.

Bloomin' Stuff

Wind, heat and humidity drove me out of the garden by noon-ish. I think it must now be summertime in Kansas. But the garden is coming along beautifully. Time to share some of the achievements to date....

Red climbing rose with lavender clematis entwined and against the ivy wall.


Beautiful rose


Spiderwort


Poppies



GIANT hosta -- not blooming, but rather impressive. Note the yardstick in the foreground for reference.


Mmmm....I do love this time of year.

Dormitory Progress

The first of the dormitory bed re-do's is now in place.

There's more to come. Yesterday I picked up the other two quilts and throw pillows from the quilter. Now I have to sew the binding on by machine and then by hand. At long last this 3 year project will be finished.

The rainy weather is cooperating with my need to do indoor things today. I've just finished doing the minutes from a church committee meeting, revised the personnel manual and sent both off to the pastor and committee chair. I've also made a bread pudding, put a roast in the slow cooker, and had the car serviced. Now to the sewing machine for a couple of hours and then off for a B-12 shot. My, I'm certainly a busy bee today!

Graduation Day

Logan graduated from Madison High School yesterday. Grandma and I, along with lots of other relatives and friends, were there to witness the occasion and celebrate his accomplishments.

Afterward we wemt to the Barker house to continue the celebration with goodies galore as well as a special graduation cake. Troy smoked meat which included wild boar and tame ribs. I had sampled the wild boar and declared it "yummy" before I knew what I was eating. Hmmm. Wonder if I would have thought the same thing had I known before I tasted.

Josh was home for the event and brought his semi-new girlfriend. At least she was new to me. Hadn't seen Josh in a while!

Linda and Logan were on the patio as we said "good-bye" after a great day.

Ready for Visitors

The plumber was here yesterday -- again. I realized last night that I had to failed to document the experience with a photo.

So, this is to let you know that the guest bathroom is once again ready for visitors. I have had the water turned off to the toilet for several weeks because it was running all the time. While he was here, I had him replace the innards in my toilet as well.

Now, I KNOW that I could have figured out how to do this simple repair myself. But it was a whole lot less stressful to call the plumber.



Today I'm off to work at the Garden Tour. Before I check in at my work location, I'm going to visit the other gardens on the tour that are on the west side. Tomorrow is the east side.

Big Deal Weather?

The weather man has been warning us for 4 days that we're going to have the big blow -- tornadoes, thunderstorms, high winds, etc -- this afternoon and tonight. So, here we are waiting. This must be what it's like for you Forida folks who live with the impending hurricane warnings. We're not used to big lead times here in Kansas. The only good thing about tornados is that you usually only have 30 minutes or so to be frightened before it's all over with -- one way or another. So this morning I started re-stocking the storm closet, checking out the battery radio, etc.
Went to Mom's and suggested that she should have some extra batteries for her flashlight and radio. She was unconvinced, but I went out and got them for her anyway. I also suggested that she should come over here if the warnings get intense. She was unconvinced, as I knew she would be. But if she ever does get blown away sitting there in her chair, I will at least know that I tried to get her over here and into a basement.

Speaking of Mom and her chair......
She liked her flowers a lot. Thanks to all of you for making her feel special. And thanks for doing the same for me. It took a while for me to figure out that the Crabtree and Evelyn gift pack of Gardners Therapy skin goodies was from all of you. But I love that stuff. Garderner's Therapy is my very favorite lotion stuff, and we don't have Crabtree & Evelyn here in Wichita. Thanks to all.

Slow Learner

I always swear that I will never order live prints from a catalog again. But this is what they looked like in the catalog.

Georgeous, huh? So I ordered three at $12.00 each including shipping costs. But when they arrived, they were shrimpy little things that looked like this. Now this ALWAYS happens when ordering from catalogs. Most of the time, the little shrimpy things die almost as soon as they are in the ground.

Now this is a $12.98 investment at a local garden center.

Clearly the latter investment makes much more sense. So again I say, I will NEVER order live plants from a catalog again.

Catching Up

Toby was as glad as I was that the wind finally quit blowing. He could go out on the porch again. He wouldn't go out when the wind was howling. Just sat at the door and looked out. He does love his porch time. Most evenings I have to haul him in at bedtime.

Calm winds make for great gardening, and I've made the most of it the last few days. I'm almost finished planting, both here and at Mom's. Have a few more things to find spots for. Today I finally got the mulch down in the corner on the north side of Mom's porch. I hauled, opened and spread 19 bags of mulch. You can just imagine how my body is complaining right now.

Grandma finally admitted that she needed to get something done about her hip. Quite a concession on her part. A few days ago she said she thought she needed to get a cane, so I took her mine today. We've got to get someone to saw the end off of it because if's too tall. She said she wouldn't have anything done about her hip until after gardening season. I assured her that her health would come first. We'll talk to the Dr. about it this week when we go in for a blood pressure check.

My cold hasn't gone away completely, but it only slowed me down for a day or two, thank goodness. Keeping up is difficult enough without being wimpy. But I love being busy.

Hope everyone reading this is well.