Woman in the Middle

The garden tour this past weekend was lovely. I enjoyed all three that we visited, even though they were not the style of garden that I would choose, if I had unlimited time and money. I actually have a pretty decent yard. It just needs more attention, like so many aspects of my life. So I was jealous of the way the yards looked, all neat and spiffy. I also decided I need more yard art and immediately asked for that for Mother’s Day. We shall see if that happens…. Here are some photos of pretty things I saw.

The owners of one of the gardens we toured liked using unusual containers for their plants. Here is a cactus in an old metal flour sifter.

Here is a plant in an old metal bread box.

At the next house we visited I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the orange butterfly on the purple statice.

I am not an expert photographer so this shot taken at the third garden we visited doesn’t do what I saw justice. Maybe you can get a bit of an idea what I was trying to show you. There is a planter in front of a view fence filled with an interesting variety of plants. There were roses, succulents, and even vegetables!

I am afraid I can’t just let myself relax and do nothing. I enjoy relaxing and doing nothing, don’t get me wrong. But when there is money to raise, scholarship recipients to select, books to research, columns to write, money to earn, etc…. I just get a wee bit too busy. That is me right now, this very second, as I try try try to finish a local history book that was supposed to be done already.

I love to write the books but I hate to deal with the picky details at the end. Drives me crazy. So, instead of doing what I should be doing I am writing this blog post. Oh, that is right, I am supposed to do blogging, too. Just add it to my list!

I am looking forward to this weekend because, come hell or high water or both, the book will be finished and one of my favorite things all year is happening: the local flower show and garden tour. I missed it last year when that weekend got over booked. I am determined to not let that happen this year. I will take photos and share them with you next week. I will probably also share with you my jealously about the lovely gardens I will see.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

My older brother (and only brother) had surgery two years ago for cancer. Unfortunately he just recently got the news that the cancer is back so he is having to start on a chemotherapy regime. His first round was this week. I just called him last night to see how it went. It took him five hours in the treatment center on Wednesday, then they sent him home with some sort of pump which sent the chemicals into his body for the next 48 hours. On Friday he went back in and they removed the pump until the next time.

I asked how he felt after that noxious brew went coursing through his veins. Oh, he felt very tired but otherwise he thinks he actually felt better than before the chemo! I had to chuckle to myself. Only MY brother would feel better AFTER chemo! Here is hoping that continues for him!

My crazy brother celebrating after he won a Rolling Stones trivia game on Christmas Day, 2012.

So if you have a moment, I would appreciate it if you could please send prayers, good thoughts, chants, or whatever you particularly like to do, his way. He would appreciate it too!

My daughter drives a 1993 Corolla which we got for a great price when she began driving to college. It had very low mileage and it has been a good car. Until this week. She was edging into the driveway so she could back up and turn around and pull her car in front of this house. She has probably done this same move 1000 times before. But today, the car died just as she nosed it to the edge of the driveway. Hubby, an amazing fix it man of all sorts. could probably have fixed the problem (alternator or battery connection he thought) but then he would have had to leave work early and he really couldn’t do that today. Then we had the little problem with the fact that the car was sticking out in the street. Eldest and I pushed and pushed with all of our might and we couldn’t get her little car to move.

Our neighbor wasn’t home so that was out. I called AAA but they don’t move cars from the street to the driveway or visa versa. I was told they would only tow the car to a repair shop. Sigh! I called a tow business and they wanted $55 to move the car out of the street. Double sigh!

Hubby and I decided to have AAA tow the car to a local car repair place and by noon the next day the alternator was replaced and the battery charged.  Eldest was once again on the road! Best of all, our road was no longer blocked by a dead car.

One of my cute babies!

If you want to have children, you need to hire me. I think I am some kind of workplace fertility goddess. A few years back I was hired by someone to cover her maternity leave. Three years later I covered another maternity leave for the same boss. I was laid off while that second maternity leave was happening and a few months later I was hired in another department. My new boss got pregnant and I covered for her. I was laid off once again a couple of months after she returned. I found out later that she announced one week after I was laid off that she was pregnant again. Now, after a year and a half out of the work force I am back and, yes, my new boss is pregnant As a matter of fact one of my other coworker’s wives is about to have a baby as well. Like I said, I just seem to walk into a workplace and babies start popping up all over!

Have you ever had the experience of walking into a store you have shopped at for years, even decades, and realizing that store just isn’t for you anymore? I just did that a few weeks ago at my old friend Target. We used to be pals. I still admire many things my old friend has on display. But the prices seem just a smidge high and, well, at 51 it takes more than just a pretty face to make me want  to be your friend.

Breaking up is hard to do so I wandered in to Target again last week. Again, it is a magical place full of lots of wonderful things…none of which I want to buy. I think Target is trying to appeal to a demographic that I do not belong to, namely young families. I sort of feel like a girl who had been jilted by a boyfriend who said he wants a blond, not a brunette.

I will still go in to Target on occasion. I might even buy a bottle of shampoo there once in a while. But I don’t think it will ever be the same. Breaking up is hard to do….

Some website that had “Style” in its name had a list entitled   ”These Names are Headed for Extinction: 15 Female Names We’ll Never See Again.” How could I resist giving that list a look? You will note that there are only 14 names on the list….I have no idea why the list had fourteen names even though it said there were 15.

I am going to tell you what I think about the names on the list. Feel free to tell me your thoughts as well!

Myrtle – OK, I agree that this one has a big whiff of 1919. But who knows. One of my daughters had a friend named Hazel, and I would have never expected that either.

Ethel – Watching too many episodes of I Love Lucy as a child would keep me from ever using this name.

Barbara – Really? Barbara is a nice name, it is classic, and one of my good friends is named Barbara. I don’t think this one will ever go extinct!

Mildred – Mildred…mildew….I think this name may not be seen very much in the near and far future.

Agatha – I think the hard “ag” sound at the beginning of this name, the same “ag” sound we hear in “gag,” is this name’s downfall.

Phyllis - Once people who remember Phillis Diller are no longer naming children I think this name will become more popular again. Not that I have anything against Ms. Diller. She was a real kick, but the character she played in her shows was not the kind you want to name your child after.

Beatrice – This is a much more British name, I think and what is popular in Britain in names isn’t necessarily popular here.

Marge – Once again I think the hard sound in the middle of the name makes it a less popular choice now.

Ruth – I think this name will come back in style one of these days.

Gretchen – I was surprised to see this name on this list. While I don’t know many people with this name I don’t think it is going extinct!

Gertrude – Well, I have to agree that this name will not be returning to popularity anytime soon, if ever.

Martha – I live in an area with lots of people of Hispanic decent and that culture is good with the name Martha so I don’t anticipate this name becoming extinct.

Opal – I think this is an old-fashioned name, in a good way. It would just take one Hollywood star naming their daughter Opal for it to become popular.

Rose – I have a friend who named her daughter Rose, which was a family name. I think it is a very pretty name. Once again, it just takes one Hollywood kid with the name to send it right to the top of the list! After all, a Kardashian named her son Mason and it is now a top ten name. Who would have thought?

My mother had five sisters. She loved them all but one of the sisters she was closest with was my Aunt Lena. They grew up near a small east Arkansas town and while my mother moved all the way out to California to live Aunt Lena moved just 50 or so miles away where she and my Uncle Carl bought a house in a little town called Bartlett, which is a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. We visited her house many times over the years and I have so many fond memories of her and her home.

It was at Aunt Lena’s house that I was introduced to such exotic (to me) southern foods as redeye gravy which was served with fried ham for breakfast. It would come to the table with homemade biscuits and homemade preserves. My favorite preserves came from little wild plums she or one of my other aunts picked themselves. The plums were so small Aunt Lena didn’t even take out the pits when she made the preserves. From an early age I found the preserves with the “beads” in it so so yummy and exciting.

Aunt Lena had a pecan tree in the back yard. That massive tree was one of her pride and joys. Imagine how impressed I was with the idea of having a tree in the back yard that produced nuts of all things! I didn’t explore her back yard much because for most of my childhood we would visit Tennessee in the summer. Believe me, this girl from California did not want to go out side too much in a Tennessee summer. I stayed inside near the air conditioner, thank you! If I did go outside I usually picked up something not so fun but equally exotic (to me) like chiggers, a little bug that bit you and made you itch. Aunt Lena was ready with the appropriate things for just such an occasion, like calamine lotion.

My mother did not come from a huggy family. She admitted that herself. But somehow I still basked in the love of my southern family when I was there. And no one made me feel more loved than Aunt Lena. That was just her way. My cousin Linda pointed out to me recently that Aunt Lena wasn’t a TV watcher. I would call her a “bustler” instead. She bustled around taking care of whoever was in her house. Since she just had her husband and her son she had lots of bustle left to shower upon family visiting from California.

Aunt Lena was the last of my mother’s eight siblings.   At eighty-eight she had recently had to suffer the loss of her only son. That and a move to an assisted living facility was enough to convince her that she had lived long enough. She had often wondered why she had lived so long. Well, in the end Aunt Lena took the bull by the horns in her freckled, capable, loving southern hands and left this world quietly, in bed, asleep, because she was ready to be done. Most everyone she wanted to be with was already waiting for her.  I am guessing she passed into a really good family reunion with lots of good food and laughter. I can just see her face now, lit up with the joy of seeing everyone again.

Bye, Aunt Lena, and next time I see you can I have some of the preserves with the beads in it ?

Last week I came home from working my part-time job, thinking I would get a few things done that afternoon, when Eldest Daughter asked me to look in her eye, she thought she had some in it. I took her in the bathroom, pointed her face towards the light, and took off my glasses.That last part was required because I can’t see up close worth beans anymore unless I take off my glasses. I looked in her right eye and sure enough, there was a small skinny black thing…imbeded in her eye! Oh my!

All my plans went out the window and we high tailed it off to the doctor. The doctor confirmed something was in her eye but had no luck getting it out. He sent us off to the ophthalmologist. There the nurse explained that, since Eldest was there, they would be doing a full exam. They dilated her eyes and took a look around and then the doctor came in and confirmed once again that she had something in her eye.

I really liked the ophthalmologist we saw. He had a great sense of humor. But even Eldest and I were surprised when he brought two of the women from his office in to take a look at the thing in her eye. I guess he thought it was a teaching moment. One woman couldn’t tell what it was but the other got it right – bug wing!

If you look at a little beetle it has a hard shell which is split down the middle. That hard shell lifts up to allow its wings to come out so it can fly on its merry way. Well, it was one of those little hard shells that was in Eldest’s eye! The doctor said it was pretty common, actually, and he sees that little bit of beetle shell in eyes quite a bit, especially in people who like to garden, jog, or otherwise spend lots of time out doors. I had to laugh at that because Eldest hasn’t exactly been jogging or gardening lately!

Happily, Eldest’s eye is back to normal and she will have no future problems from this little drama. Next time you feel something in your eye, who knows what it might be!

A couple that lives not to far from me has a wholesale nursery that sells plants of the succulent type. Once a year, in the spring, they hold a garden tour at their home. I always try to attend because their garden is very pretty and I love succulents so it gives me a chance to pick up a few new plants (much to Hubby’s chagrin.).

For some reason they held the garden tour event this past weekend, which was, of course, Easter weekend.   We showed up about 4 p.m. on Saturday for a quick stroll, a little chat, and some serious plant selection. What the couple holding the open house told me was quite interesting. Apparently Saturday morning they had absolutely hordes of people come through their garden and the plants were flying off the shelves. 2007 was the last year that they had that kind of traffic and that kind of sales at their open house.

So, if you want to use the “succulent scale” for judging the economy, apparently inland So Cal is beginning to do better!