BLOOMING, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE PLANTED UNDER A ROCK

Actually, this is a pretty good analogy. Lots of people are in situations they hate don't like. Bad marriages. Poverty. Having disabled children or needing to care for elderly parents. Needing to loose weight and not being able to--I understand that one. Depression. Allergies. Poor health with all it's accompanying horrors. Migraines. The list is endless. (I'd say baldness but I think Phil looks wonderful so I think baldness is a good thing.)

Do we complain? Wish for other situations? Envy other people who we perceive have it better? Or do we get down to work and do what has to be done? I wish I could say I do the latter. But sometimes I do the first. (I've learned not to envy others because I've learned they are dealing with "stuff" that I have no idea about.)

Here's my visual aid for dealing with "whatever":


This is the front of our house. Our flowers did well this year. Our best year yet.
On the far right I had pots of flowers but as the oak trees leaves got bigger and bigger the flowers had to be moved into the sunlight.

This little handmade planter was not even planted as I knew the chances of anything blooming were slim. But, the planter had it's own idea. It sprouted a little petunia and the petunia is growing bigger every week.

But the real miracle is the two naked lady bulbs you see growing, one right next to the planter and the other, behind. I dug every single bulb earlier this year. These two bulbs are under this planter. They found their way out and are going to bloom. If that's not a positive attitude I'll eat my hat.

May we all bloom, wherever we are, whatever we are dealing with. The bloom doesn't have to be spactular. Just a little sign that life is okay. Even though it's not.

An eight year old girl I'll call Mary--because that's her name--summed it up nicely today as she bore her testimony. She said her daddy told her, "Jesus will make everything all right in the end."

And he will. He's promised.

SORRY GILMORE GIRL

I've been working on a post on my "Starlight" blog on and off today and now it's late and I have nothing to say. (And I didn't get that post finished either.) Obviously, I NEVER have nothing to say but I'm too tired to say it and download photos, etc.

So, I will just download one photo and say to Gilmore Girl, "I'm sorry I forgot to bring the Dr. Suesses to you." (She calls them Dr. Suess flowers--says they look like something out of his imagination.) My neighbor, Genny knows that Gilmore Girl loves these flowers and she brought them for her.

Gilmore Girl had a sadness last week and they would have cheered her up a bit. But just a bit. It was a big sadness. For a woman, the biggest.

So, sorry. Here's a photo. Can you smell them? Actually, I don't think they smell, so take your nosie poker off the monitor.

That'llbeall.

WENT TO A GARDENING CLASS TONIGHT

This is a darling woman who lives in my neighborhood. She has an amazing garden, you would never know it is in the middle of a city.

She has three ponds.

And many fish.Here and there are working garden tools and implements that are beautiful little still life's.

She is a school teacher and so doesn't begin to garden until June. You could have fooled me and all the other woman that attended the class.

I learned a lot, the most important bit--because our soil has so much clay in it--is to add every bit of organic matter to the soil that you can get your hands on.

Many thanks to a generous woman, generous with her time, her talents, and her plants--she is going to let us have starts, bulbs, etc, and perhaps most important she is generous with her laughter. You just can't help but feel good when you are around her, this amazing gardener.

IF SPRING WON'T COME, BORROW SOME

Spring seems to be further away than ever today. So, thanks to our home teacher, here is a little bloom in anticipation of the real thing.

IT'S A MYSTERY

Today, Phil was sound asleep in the chair when the doorbell rang. Kramer, of course exploded with barks. The doorbell and Kramer's barking woke Phil with a start. When he got to the door there was a pretty, blond woman holding flowers. For me! She said she loved my blog. Can you imagine that? Phil thinks he knows who it was but wasn't sure because of his "barked-awakness-stupor." I've got to do some investigation so I can tell her thanks. Until then, it's a mystery.

What woman doesn't want flowers? They are so beautiful! Thanks to my anonymous flower giver. All of a sudden there is an ax in my living room. Why? It's a mystery. I asked Phil and he just looked mysterious.

Why is the potpourri on the piano? It's a mystery. Oh, yes, I remember now. Kramer scatters it all over the place. Why he does this is a mystery.

Why is my fingernail stuff all around the computer monitor? It's a mystery. I think it's my attempt to multi-task.

Why is it that it takes all day to eat one grapefruit and only a few minutes to eat a piece of cake--Costco chocolate cake? It's a mystery.

And why are my Christmas dishes still out in February? It's a mystery. The word procrastination comes to mind but I'm claiming mysteriousness instead. Who doesn't want to be mysterious?

THE KITCHEN WINDOW

The kitchen window ......with a tiny pot crafted by our son. It's holding a wishbone. I'm saving it for or our grandson who wants to have a wish.

Topiary, crafted by me. The ivy helped by growing and growing, even when it doesn't get watered promptly.

Moon hanging. Recipes, a friend gave me this holder--she made it. I added a magnet of time--but it only has one hand so time is never up.

Another friend said, "You'll love this. A pot with a smile."

Another gave this holder...

...I added a picture of Jesus.

A long time ago, too long to remember, another friend, gave me this heart candle. I tossed in some rose buds from a store that is now gone.

In this window are flowers.

A Cyclamen, with a bud that's... ...that's half hidden.

The geranium is blooming... ...and not yet. It looks like it's snowing but the window needs washing. Phil will get the ladder and soap. He's like that, doing everything I need.

I love to cook in this kitchen and he loves to eat. It's a good trade off.

I didn't realize so many friends, and one son, contributed to my window. I actually think of them often, when I'm reading a recipe, saving a wish, I think of them all, with the lovely/funny things they gave me. How I love each item in the "still life" of my window, and I love each of my friends, and my son, and my hungry husband who makes sure there are flowers in my window.

THE FIRST SNOW or WHAT SHALL I DO ABOUT MY FLOWERS?

This morning I woke up to snow. Not a lot, but enough.

At church today one of our most faithful lawn swing visiting neighbors said, "What will we do now?" I don't know. I enjoy the friendships the lawn swings facilitate and the winter months find me lonely.
This hanging basket is just coming into its glory. In the last two weeks it was breathtaking and today it is wilting. In the morning it will be a limp bunch of faded blooms. I hate to see this one go as I planted it from scratch and I have loved watching it grow.
The basil and geraniums are frosty.

And my inpatients...they will be gone by morning.
But, I brought the hanging geranium baskets in. Pika, who follows me like a guard dog, came to admire herself in the mirror.
I hoping to take the geranium baskets to the dark basement and leave them, without light or water until February. That is if I can persuade Phil that they are worth saving. And if I can persuade him that we have room in the basement--the basement that I have STUFFED with "things." I only paid 79 cents for each geranium and there are about eight plants in each basket.

Then I went downstairs to the family room, Pika, my faithful guard dog, came down, too. And Minkey, the lazy, heat-loving Burmese cat had never moved and still hasn't moved. As long as the fire is on he will stay right there. Which, as I think about it, isn't a bad idea.