Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day saying "I'll try again tomorrow.”

Mary Anne Radmacher

 



 I lost a best friend in December, her name was Schuster and she was a few weeks shy of twenty years old.  She saw me through good times and unfortunately, some really bad times. She loved Bruce so much.  We will both miss her.

 

 Just an image from online that I love and want to recreate in my own garden, maybe in a barrel of garlic.

 I bought this lovely necklace from an amazing artist.  It is my favorite scripture, our minister even included it in our wedding ceremony.



I believe this was from 1968.  Our old blue Dodge van, my older sister Cathy, whom we lost last August 9th, and one of my younger sisters, Maria.  We were at Little Rock AFB in Arkansas. The tree casting it's shadow was a Mimosa, otherwise known as a sensitive plant. If you ran your finger down the leaves, they would curl up.  I was 10 years old.

 

 

 



Homemade Soup

It doesn't take much--it can be just giving a smile. The world would be a much better place if everyone smiled more.

  Saint Mother Teresa

 

My husband makes the best soup when I have a cold.  I am blessed.

Family

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.  

Thomas Merton

A wedding in the family had a wedding. My two sister and brother.



A death in the family, my sister Cathy.  I didn't know the last

time we spoke would be the last time.

More Changes

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Jesus Christ

 

We are planning an addition on the house...right over the top of my beautiful rosemary bush.  I took cuttings before we try to dig it up to move it, you know...just in case.

 

I have been anxious although the problem is not mine alone and I am not at liberty to share.  This passage comforts me. May I ask you for an unspoken pray, please?  It is life and death.

I have shared my dill with a tribe of these greedy bastards.  It is okay, it will grow back and we will be delighted with the black swallowtails that will follow.

Birthdays

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

  Noam Chomsky

 

 

I share my birthday with the United States Coast Special.



Beauty

People often say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.

 

  Salma Hayek

 

Gardening from a wheelchair is a challenge. First two ghost peppers.

Schuster's catnip, she is 19 and we were told she has a lung mass. A large one.

We have the best looking basil, headed for frozen pesto for a taste of summer this winter.

We have baby figs!

Watercolor Gerbera daisy.

Look on his shoulder.

It is a Tiger Bee Fly.  She is after our Carpenter Bee nests.

Schuster

I will always be beside you until the very end, wiping all your tears away, being your best friend, I will smile when you smile feel all the pain you do, if you cry a single tear, I promise I will cry too.

-Unknown

 

Little Miss Schuster and I have been friends for 19 years.  I didn't think she was feeling well and I was concerned she might be losing weight.  I was told over and over she was fine. 



 

I finally took her to the vet to ease my mind.  She had lost 3 of her 9 pounds.  She has a large mass in her left lung.  She is on anti-nausea meds and steroids.  They told me they could do a biopsy and more testing but I said no, I do not want to cause her pain.

 

I want her to have quality of life.  She has been my constant source of comfort.  She has seen me through pain and happiness.  She was there through divorce, surgery, the lost of my dearest friend.  She loved my Bruce the first time she met him.  She was happy to move here so we could marry and start a new life together.  He loves her, too.

 

Summer is coming.  I love this time of year.  I love the green and freshness. My friend, Vicki, gave me the Passion Flower in the black pot.  Bruce is going to make me a trellis for it. 

 

Every year I grow a yellow Gerbera for my friend, Penny.  I miss her everyday,  Yellow was her favorite color. These flowers comfort me.

 

Last year, on our trip out west to Jenny's wedding, we stopped to see my cousin, Linda.  She shared her Mother's irises with me.  They are beautiful this year.  I am looking for their permanent home,

 

The love if my life and I take care of a feral colony of cats.  A momma cat started bringing her three babies around.  This little Miss has adopted Bruce.  She runs to meet him and loves being rubbed and scratched.  She will be coming in the house very soon. A door begins to close, a window begins to open.  There will be pain and loss.  There will be comfort.  Life marches on.