Summer Break – Hello to Old Readers and New

A life savored is better than a life rushed through. 

Happy Mid- July-

I lost a mentor and dear friend to heaven and didn't know. RIP Don Skraba. Your habit of sending cheerful notes by real mail brought smiles to everyone lucky enough to see your handwriting on the envelope. I think you would be pleased to know that I've learned to slow down. 

Alex, son of Manny and Krista Chavez came over to help pick fruit.
The chair cover  is made from 1-1/2 towels and 3 straight seems.

 Southern California is having a nice-spring-day- in-Florida summer. A little bit hot and a whole lot of moisture in the air.  One personal piece this week was titled “Either it rained last night or I need to adjust the sprinklers.”  

Mint  pops through the ground cover roses 

It was measurable rain- not by the gauge on the garden arch. The evidence - it calculated just enough moisture to splatter the dust which the breeze normally blows away into Rorschach blotches across the windshield of my faithful old car.

As the scent of jasmine fades away, stephanotis  fills the air 

I stay in shape by keeping busy with projects like little building stairways and retaining walls. 

Hallelujah and amen. God’s shade-cloth dropped the temperature below triple digits just in time for me to finish the back wall on the retaining wall I built behind where bunnies and squirrels have so enjoyed the produce we've tried to grow.  

The mini quadcopter has joined the fleet of dragonflies in our backyard airspace.

A Very Good Life- this blog is what old school would have called a journal.  A recording of one specific woman’s journey.  Some of pictures which follow are historic to our family. My McGuyver, Gerry, invented a way to restore the disintegrated slides which involves aiming the old carousel projector, a cardboard box to aim my camera through and is linked to his computer.

Before I learned to cook I was really thin. The Frye boots I wore surely out-weighed me. 

  I am blessed to be in good health, my business is growing.   For close to 38 years my husband grows ever more in his role of my miracle man.

My husband with his first girlfriend. It must have been a fling. he doesn't remember her name):-. 

 Our sons have grown to be amazing men. The youngest married well. He and his wife gave us the most gorgeous grandchild, the lovely Charley. Not yet 4 months old, she has me rethinking my garden as one where children will play in. Learn about butterflies, birds, bees and blooms.

Papa Kenny wearing Bass Knuckles t-shirt, I'm holding my granddaughter and mom Shannon 

If our good fortune holds out, she and her cousins will learn to love nature in the garden which I am head over heals in love with.  This place is not important for what I have done to it.  Of higher importance is how the act of gardening shaped me from a city slicker to a country girl.

I thank you for your patience between blog posts. I LOVE visiting with you here. When I disappear be certain it is commercial interests that pull me away like a sailor to sea. How I make my living, as a journalist focused on garden-centered living, is not the easiest. It is simply the best. What God always meant me to do while I was busy arguing the point with him.

The journey we take in life.... the wisest among us know to enjoy wherever and however we travel it. My father in law was stationed in the UK when Queen Elizabeth was coronated. These two photos are from her coronation.  May God protect her; the land and the people she serves.  

 

In the queue are more gardens and gardeners for you to meet. 

Until we meet again, thank you for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful.

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