My Mother's Garden

Even though my Mother is gone, her garden continues to grow and bloom.  Everything has been early here this year, timed perfectly for me to be able to enjoy the lilacs, apple blossoms and now the roses at the peak of bloom!  The roses were especially gorgeous after a day of rain showers.


I love the way the rain drops and fresh sunlight peeking through the clouds add a magical quality to the new leaves and buds.


Everything all fresh and lovely!


Some of the roses had to come into the house with me!  While orange roses have never been my favorite, they certainly are stunning and beautiful!


Other parts of the garden are gorgeous too.  This plant (a type of salvia I think or maybe hyssop) is just covered in bees!


My Mom loved Sweet William so much that she named one of her kitties after it!  He is long gone, but these lovelies bloom on!


Columbine like these always make me think of girls in fancy party dresses!  What a joy it has been to have this couple of months living here and enjoying so many of the beautiful flowers that my Mom planted.


We've also been loving her kitty, aka Kitzy Cat.  She is a quiet sweetheart of a cat.  Sadly, she's pretty stressed by the presence of my two kitties and has some health issues of her own.   We are all adjusting gradually.

With the sale of the house, my daughter and I are on the hunt for an apartment as there is a busy week coming up in mid-June!  Within the span of about 5 days we have a wedding to celebrate, need to move out of the house and close on the sale of the house!


My foster son Gary is marrying this lovely young woman, Marcy!  Her Bridal Shower was yesterday!  What a delight it is to have the family growing in such a wonderful way!

One Year and Dreaming

This week marks one year since my Dad passed away.  Months ago, my Mom had signed up at church to provide flowers in his memory at church for Mother's day.  We decided instead to provide flowers in both their memories.

While it was a bittersweet day, I was blessed with the presence of all my kids throughout the day!  And, I was able to get the new lens for my camera that I've been wanting!


One of the things I love about my Mom's house is that it has a lovely view from the kitchen window and lots of bird (squirrel!) feeders.  I will really miss this lovely peaceful view.


Yesterday, my oldest son turned 32!  How can I possibly be the mother of a 32 year old when that's how old I am?!  It does seem that age is more a state of mind at times!

Things have been busy here.  We listed the house for sale and now have an offer from the first people who looked at it.  What a blessing and answer to prayer!  Now if a perfect job would come my way and I could find my "forever" house in a timely manner!    I am so ready to be settled into my own place and have been clipping photos from magazines, pinning things on Pinterest, and making lists of what I would love to have in my dream home.  I thought I'd share my list with you.

• A little house with character in a peaceful, quiet setting
• Sunny and Light with south facing windows
• Warm in winter ~ a gas fireplace perhaps?
• Cool in summer ~ air conditioning? and lovely trees?
• A bedroom for me ~ not too big
• A guest room (or room for my daughter for now)
• A study and place for all my books
• A studio  ~ with room to paint and sew
• A kitchen with a good pantry (white cabinets are a plus!)
• A dining room big enough to gather all my kids around the table at once
• A living room with space for my piano, but not so huge that it's no longer cozy
• A little laundry room and an outdoor clothesline
• A garage to park the car out of the weather
• Room for gardens, both flowers and vegetables 
• A small greenhouse or conservatory or sunroom (I do so love a sunny space and place for plants, especially in the winter!)
• A garden shed
• Apple trees, Cherry trees and Lilacs (though I can plant these myself if I need to!)
• Small acreage with room for a couple goats, a few sheep and some chickens and a meadow/pasture
• A small pond
• Somewhat rural or in a small town

That's a pretty tall order for the very urban front range of Colorado on my budget ~ but it can't hurt to dream a little bit!

A Busy Week!

The past week has been hugely busy.  I finished my last few days at work in Flagstaff and then two of my boys, Zach (the youngest) and Jonathan (the oldest) came out to help me finish packing.  Here they are enjoying a break!


We got everything done and had a day to spare, so we took a day trip to revisit some of our favorite places.  Here I am at the Lomaki Ruins at Wupatki National Monument.


In 2009, they found two enormous intact pots in a gully where someone had placed them hundreds of years ago.  I found them fascinating.  I love that this one bears evidence of repair!


After our visit to Wupatki, we stopped at Cameron Trading post for Navaho Tacos.  Always yummy and very filling!  This is the "mini"size, which is more than enough for one person.  We ordered two for the three of us and still weren't quite able to finish them! The regular is about 12" in diameter!


The steep walled gorge of the Little Colorado River is fascinating and in some ways, more impressive due to the sheer walls that are 1000 feet high than the more grandiose Grand Canyon.


We spotted this fellow enjoying the shade of some rocks.  He posed for us quite nicely!


Our day ended with a drive along the south rim of the Grand Canyon.


Now I'm in Colorado and temporarily set up in my Mom's house until it sells.


I love the early morning view from her bedroom windows!  So peaceful!