Southern Living Yankee

I stopped and planted flowers at the cemetery on my way to visit Brooke and Chris the week before last. The purple petunias rode all the way from Dayton with me. (I think I was feeling a little blue when I decided on them.) As I drove I decided more colors would be better for the picture and the summer ahead. I stopped at a garden center along the road I used to live on for the red salvia and the white allysum. I do some of my best thinking while driving, don't you agree? The only thing I didn't think of was water. I completely forgot about water! So I gave the flowers the melted ice from my Coke, and then I watered them with my tears.

This is Brad and his kitten on their way to Colorado. I miss him. I drove up to NE Ohio to see Brooke & Chris this weekend. Their church moved into its new building and I enjoyed celebrating with them. I don't know if they have pictures of the new building up, but here's their website: http://www.eaglevilleonline.com Read Chris's blog and encourage him to keep writing. And singing! You should have heard him and Brooke and their deep South song. You can hear it on youtube with the vocalist Brooke tried to sound like, and came really close, except, of course, Brooke was better. :) Do a search for Mindy Smith Come to Jesus, and click on the youtube link. Then imagine Brooke singing it, Chris doing backup vocal and guitar, add a bit more passion and electricity in your imagination--enjoy! Last Wednesday I came home from work for my one-hour break and went back afterwards totally mellowed. Aaron had a guy and gal over and they were making the coolest music ever. The girl h...

For Mother's Day weekend my treat was to go to my sister Anjee's to surprise my mom. Mission accomplished! Her she is, flanked by Anj and me. Anjee's brother-in-law, Bob, had the same brilliant idea, and he made his way to her place to surprise his mom, Anjee's mother-in-law. So here's Jaunita, flanked by two of her sons: Anjee's husband, Jim, on the left, and Bob. We all had a great time, and to see the surprise on their faces was "Priceless!" If we'd taken a picture it would have blown the camera out! On the way home I had a 5-hour drive. So besides some books on CD, I entertained myself a bit by writing this poem, using some random things along the road: DRIVING HOME Bent and broken stop sign snips a V into the sky Torn off wing of butterfly crumples with a sigh Rain falls on my windshield but the grass keeps growing green and the road unrolls before me stretching long and lean. When I got home Tom and Aaron had sweet gifts and cards fo...

http://www.artbynature.blogspot.com/ Visit this blog to see more of my pictures from last weekend. Don't they look great on the black background? Thanks, Cindy!! With a sweep of my hand I'd cast off the last couple days as unremarkable. Yet those unseen, hardly noticeable events often change the course of life. So maybe the fact that I found a couple poems I thought I'd lost, that I started stockpiling pieces for a widows blog, that I found my statistical sources for the number of widows/year and have a question for my congressman, or that I started a better diet will be more significant than unremarkable. What's unremarkable with you? I think I like that question better than What's New With You? Now there's a social statement. New? Why does everything remarkable in our life have to be new ? How materialistic can we get? Hmmm. I never looked at it like that before. Pardon the rant and the half-baked thought, but let's think about that this week. WRITING UP...