For Who?

 
Forsythia!  My forsythia bush is blooming.  My friend MW gave it a severe trimming last fall so I wasn't sure that it'd have flowers this spring or not, but it does.  Hooray!

I spent an hour out in the garden this afternoon, even though it was a good 25 degrees colder today than yesterday.  My aim was to clear out the leaves and dead stalks around the chives.  I did that, but I also took a good look at the bales and think I can squeak another year out of them.  I found a video online from a woman who reused her bales so I'll follow her lead and shore up the ones that are slumping over with a 1x6 and a few stakes.  I'll do potatoes again (because growing them makes me happy) and Roma tomatoes, and carrots.  Oh, onions too.  Maybe I'll plant beans or sugar snap peas or cucumbers.  We'll see.  I want to plant things that I know I'll eat.



I got a text from my cousin who lives in Yellowstone National Park the other day with this photo of one of the bear statues in front of the post office in Mammoth Hot Springs.  Someone took the scarf from around its neck and retied it as a face mask.



Then the next day he sent this one of bison with a calf in his front yard.  I'm happy to see bunnies, cardinals, and hummingbirds (not yet) in my yard, he has elk and bison.  *sigh*  I'm jealous.





04 May--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession. 

Jack rented a villa in the Belnem neighborhood south of the airport right on the ocean with a million-dollar view of Klein Bonaire, the little offshore island, and the sunset. There was a cement block wall around the property mostly hidden by plants and topped by broken bottles cemented on the top to discourage acrobatic thieves.

Mona liked to get up early each morning, slip into her swimming suit, not a bikini, a real live swimming suit, dive off the dock and go for a swim up the shore. She would swim for a half hour and then put on the mask, snorkel and fins she had left on the end of the dock and paddle around the dock pilings to see what kind of fish and critters were there that day.

Jack did not like to go into the ocean. He said, “Fish crap in there. Why would anybody want to swim in fish crap?”  He preferred the pool.

Mona was just as happy that she had the ocean to herself. The longer she and Jack were together the more of her life he controlled. She had known when she agreed to quit her job and travel with Jack as his companion five years ago that she was risking him bullying her into the sort of woman he wanted but his money and the lure of travel led her to take the risk.

I spent a few minutes with DS this morning which made me feel better and then this afternoon SIL1 called to Facebook chat because IM wanted to see Meemaw.  That made me feel great.  He told me that I'm a person.  When a 2-year-old that's only seen you a couple times remembers you and wants to see you, you feel like a million bucks.  My mood is on the upswing.
--Barbara