All Because Of A Candle

A week ago this past Friday, I stopped in Bog Lots with Mom.  I love browsing in that store! I don't always buy something, but I do more often than not. I think my original intention before we got there was to look for books (most are $2 & $3) but I'm easily distracted upon walking through those sliding glass doors!  I love Patriotic decor in our home from May through September 11th (some stays year round as it does in our northern home) and I immediately set out to get a closer look at what they had on display in the center of the store.  (Told ya, easily distracted!)


Large glass candles for $8!  Now that caught my attention.  Sniffing candles is dangerous business for me - one bad sniff and I've got a migraine!  But that bright red one... "Apple Cobbler."  Hm...  I chose to live dangerously, pulled the lid off and took a tentative sniff.

Instantly I was walking into my husband's family cabin again, in the summer, and greeted by the musty scent of warm wood with a hint of half burned apple cinnamon candles that had been in there for who knows how long.  My husband told me no matter the time of year, that apple cinnamon scent was always there.  (I had only been to the cabin 4 or 5 times, in the Autumn and Summer).

Watching hummingbirds fight over the feeder hanging on the chipped, white-gray porch. Sitting in awe as one of them hovered into the livingroom in front of me when the screen door was left open.  Watching the sunset from the wood frame window behind the 70s style, itchy couch that always had a cotton sheet draped over it.  Lying together on that couch, during our honeymoon, watching Jaws and getting the call that my mother.in.law had passed away.  From the kitchen doors, watching lights flicker out one by one as a thunderstorm approached and in the morning watching the fog lift & slide out of each valley as the sun rose higher.  Thunder that echoed & rattled forever as one clap bounced like a ping pong ball off the Endless Mountains peaks.  Reading by candle light after a storm knocked out the power.  Front porch sitting for hours, together, wood smoke in the air coming from the fire in the wood stove.  Autumn color as far as your eyes could see.  Slow dancing to country music coming from an old brown radio atop the fridge in the kitchen.

I can't believe the last time we were there was 4th of July, 2008.  I can't believe the cabin is gone now, no longer in my husband's family, sold earlier this year.

I put the lid back on that bright red Apple Cobbler candle.

And yes, I bought it.

On This Memorial Day...

@DeptVetAffairs: "Let us not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let us be glad that such heroes have lived." -General George S. Patton


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Wordless Wednesday

Let Them Eat Cake!

Them being Hubbs & I, last night. Another birthday of mine has come and gone! I wrote before falling asleep last night: Content and Blessed. Good outweighs the bad inside. I've come a long way, still have a ways to go. But I've made it through much!

Testing! 1-2-3!

Trying to get the hang of using the video camera on my BlackBerry and posting video's here since lately it seems all the rage to do garden walk video's!  The montage was actually supposed to appear at the tail end of the longer video but somehow I created a separate video instead.  I made a new video today which I'll post later or tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.  I made these last week after combining the front garden with the one throughout the back yard.  (For the down low on all of that (why it happened, how it happened etc) click here for my post entitled When Two Become One).    

Welcome to my humble and deeply loved wee back yard!  (The only yard I've ever had!!!)

When Two Become One

Click on photos for a larger view.

It's said that God always gives you what you need when you need it and unexpectedly on Tuesday, the opportunity to combine my front garden with my garden in the back yard presented itself and I threw myself into it, with help, and was so thankful for the distraction! (To see why, click here).

It's something I've been considering for a while now, but as you know I can't do the lifting & moving, but didn't want to bother Hubbs with it given how busy he's been with both jobs and his American Legion Post recently. (He's been tired, not to mention he's having problems with his left knee again and will likely need surgery so I don't want him wrestling the huge containers). When the landscapers offered to help me, I couldn't say no!

The landscapers moved All of my containers from out front to around back, as well as the front arbor, and placed the 3 Very heavy Forsythia bushes for me where I wanted them. I spent the rest of the day shifting and placing all of my smaller containers, working everything in together and I'm very pleased with the results! Our back yard now feels "complete" (if that makes sense) and our lack of privacy along the chain-link fence since Hurricane Irene last year is no longer an issue! One of my goals has also been to make my large container garden look more like an in-ground garden vs just a collection of mismatched pots and this has just about helped me reach that goal! Hubbs re-seeded the grass for me when he got home because I was Exhausted and we were going to have decent rainfall Tuesday night through this morning.

Out front isn't completely bare of course! There are still bushes, Hostas and Day Lilies plus the Raspberries on the front porch as well as a pot of pink Wax Begonia on the table.

Nice and simple, no more going back & forth to take care of everything. With my health and physical limitations, the easier I can make things for myself as I get older, the better!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: An Update

Mom's 72nd birthday was this past Friday. She's been having a rough time lately dealing with all she's been going through since her mini-stroke and she's still having speech & swallowing issues so she wasn't much in the mood for celebrating. So I got her a Boston Cream Pie cake (because it's her favorite and because it's soft enough for her to eat without a problem) and a pretty bouquet of flowers and we had cake for lunch on her birthday!

She had her speech therapy evaluation 2 days before her birthday and is right now having a MBS, modified barium swallow - in a nutshell: xrays are taken as she eats & drinks so they can see why she's having a problem swallowing. We should hear by the end of this week exactly what the plan of action will be for her therapy and she'll begin next week.

I'll tell you one thing, I am not used to Not being the patient! And I'm not used to mom not only being the patient, but acting elderly way before her time. I'm not prepared for the parent-child role reversal so soon! But, it's happening and I'm taking care of what needs to be done. This has made me realize that I don't know if she's ever been who I thought she was and it's been ages since I thought I knew and understood her. (Way before, years before the mini-stroke). The more I have come into my own over recent years, the more she's lost that. It makes me incredibly sad. I just want my mom back.

*Update: Unfortunately today's test results aren't good. She needs an endoscopy asap and then will have to have surgery.  In a nutshell, the mini-stroke paralyzed part of her esophagus.  There may not be a permanent fix however and she may need to have procedure every six months for the rest of her life.

"There's Rosemary, that's for remembrance." -William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

13 years. It's amazing one can live so long after such heartbreak. But here I am.

You're always in my heart B, Mama loves you...

When Others Are Fading...

My Dogwood has only just begun to bloom!

In My Garden Today: Wordless Wednesday