Mothers

This is a difficult Mother's Day for me.

It is the first time I don't have a mother to shop for. A special greeting card, flowers, a fragrant lotion, or other such special treasure would be hers if only she were here to receive it.

I have been avoiding the card aisle at the stores recently. They all shout Mother's Day, as they do with all holidays and special occasions, so that you can't claim ignorance if you've frequented Target, Wal-Mart, a grocery or drug store in recent weeks.

I have received beautiful cards from those who mean the most to me, and it gladdens my heart to know I am honored by them.  But I can only honor my own mother's memory this year. 

Some time ago, I came across a poem she wrote in an old scrapbook and I scanned it for safe keeping. She wrote it for her own mother in 1938 at the age of fifteen.

Mother's Day is a day of pride,

For mothers round the countryside.

The time to be happy, the time to be gay,

The time to cast all your cares away.

When children show their love for Mother,

You tell her that you love no other.

Then mother's heart is happy and gay,

On this, the nicest day in May.

And when I am sad, I remember that my mother lost her own mother much earlier than I did. I had my mother with me for 66 years.

She, however, lost her mother at 21 when she was a new wife and mother. She did not have the benefit of her mother's wisdom as she was starting a home and raising children, as I did. Or just sharing everyday joys and sorrows.


I have been so blessed. And I am so grateful to the wonderful and gracious woman I had the privilege of calling mother.

I believe all women should celebrate Mother's Day. I believe women are born nurturers and all should share the honor.

Have a very blessed and Happy Mother's Day.

Bucket lists

I think everyone has a "Bucket List."

If not consciously, then unconsciously. Things you want to do, places you want to see, in your lifetime. You know, before time runs out. Before you "kick the bucket."

I used to have a mental list of things to do when I retired. On this list were practical and very attainable things like learning new crafts, taking some bus tours, particularly to New England in autumn, and so on.

The list has now been expanded, enhanced, and moved to what I am now calling my bucket list.

High on my list is a visit to England. But not just a visit. No, I want to spend at least a month, perhaps three months, living in a cottage in Cornwall. Maybe a quaint little place like this, for instance.

Can you picture me in a room here? Taking morning
strolls down the quiet country road?

Two things inspired me to put this on my list: The wonderful film, Ladies in Lavender (set in Cornwall), and another film, probably my all-time favorite (right up there with Out of Africa): Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.

Mrs. Palfrey, a gracious, elegant widow, moves from Scotland to London where she resides at the Claremont Hotel. I watch it over and over again. Pretending I'm Mrs. Palfrey. A book of William Blake poems on my nightstand.

A friend of mine, a beautiful and talented watercolor artist, toured Cornwall some years ago with a group of fellow artists. And as she showed me her photo album of the trip, I fell more and more in love with Cornwall as she turned the pages.

Of course, there are other things on my bucket list as well. Bucket lists are important.

Bucket lists are dreams. Dreams, not fairy-tales. Dreams that really can come true.

And without dreams of the future, of future endeavors and happenings, of goals to stretch beyond yourself, life would be a mundane series of days passing by, putting one foot in front of another.

So I'll keep my bucket list, and I'll keep dreaming of how I might achieve the things I put on it. And discovering new things to add to it.

And who knows?

Someday I may be sitting on a bench, gazing at the beautiful, salty, Celtic Sea, writing to you.

From Cornwall.

Hot, hot, hot

We are getting a taste of what it's like to live in Arizona year-round with hot temps in the summertime.

But it's only mid-April! And already the temps have been in the 90s (mid- to high 90s) and this weekend and through early next week - 100 and 102 degrees.

Whew!

We will return to Minnesota the end of April and might think about leaving early except they just had snow in Minnesota. Snow!  Schools were closed in Chisholm, north of where we live, due to blowing snow and ice.

It's a crazy weather year, for sure.

Our little tabletop cactus is blooming, proving nothing stops a cactus from forging ahead on schedule.

Most of the ground cacti have finished blossoming now. But the trees have flowered and are full of pink and red blooms. So beautiful lining the roads as you drive down the street.

Snowbirds have returned to their summer homes now, and it appears we are among the last holdouts to leave. It's awfully quiet on our street.

So another week or so and we'll pack the Jeep, load Catrina, the cat, into the back seat and start our 2,000-mile journey home, saying goodbye to Arizona and its heat, and eagerly await the sight of our children and grandchildren's smiling faces.

That's the thought that keeps us going mile after mile to our home destination.

When life gives you lemons

Yesterday my friend Anita brought me a bag of lemons from her tree here in Mesa. I have never seen such monstrous lemons in all my life.

You can't imagine, even from this picture, how huge they are. The one on the left is more the size of a grapefruit.

I have seen oversized grapefruit in Mesa this year also. They look like bowling balls.

So what is going on?

Native Arizonians say it's because it has been such a terribly dry year. The skins of the citrus fruits are all very thick, but once you peel the skins away, the meat of the fruit is more normal.

We were going to plant some citrus trees along the side of our house but we learned they need year-round maintenance with watering, or installing watering systems to operate during our six-month absence. We changed our minds after learning how willing people are to share their oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes.

Okay, so what do you do with a big bag of lemons? Of course, you make lemonade. Or you squeeze the lemons and pour into ice cube trays for adding to drinks, or making an individual glass of lemonade. You can make a lemon cake, lemon poppy seed bread, lemon meringue pie, and so on. There are many possibilities.

They all involve too much work for me.

I simply cut them into eighths, or even in chunks, and plop them into a Ziploc bag, then freeze. We brought a bagful of whole lemons back to Minnesota last year and I did this after we arrived back. I used them right up until we left for Mesa again in the fall. I add a frozen chunk of lemon to ice water or lemon-lime soda.

So refreshing. A taste of Arizona all summer long.

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I thought you might want to see the progress of our yellow Prickly Pear blooms before signing off and wishing you a good week ahead.

 Luscious yellow lemons. Lovely yellow blossoms.

First blooms

It is spring in Mesa and the cactus are in bloom. Nothing out of the ordinary. It happens every year.

But this year our very own Prickly Pear cactus burst open with blooms and I felt like I had given birth.

When we moved in last year, our little yard was bereft of any landscaping at all. No plants, flowers, bushes or trees of any kind.

So we got busy and planted an agave plant, a Prickly Pear cactus, a barrel cactus, and a fourth plant whose species escapes me.  Prickly Pears bare beautiful flower blossoms of varying colors, but you usually see shades of pink or rose.

These are the first blossoms from my neighbor's Prickly Pear.

When we arrived back to our winter home this year, we noticed our baby Prickly Pear had doubled in size. We were excited to see our new plantings had survived and looked healthy, despite being totally ignored by our six-month absence.

What a remarkable plant these cacti are. If they can flourish in the desert with blistering sun and no rain, I guess we shouldn't have been so surprised that they made it through the summer in our front yard.

Then recently we started to notice buds. Closed up tight, but definitely buds. We wondered if this year our little Prickly Pear would actually blossom. And, if so, what color? We assumed pink but we didn't see the pinkish tinge at the tip of the bud, as in our neighbor's plant.

Then one day, I peeked out the window in the early morning and had to go running outside in my pajamas to double check.

Two blossoms!

I could hardly contain myself. And they were YELLOW! 

Though certainly not rare, we have not seen another Prickly Pear with yellow flowers anywhere in our park.

Passers-by have stopped to look so we think they agree that our little Prickly Pear is beautiful. And we're like proud new parents watching people admire our little baby plant.

Aren't life's little treasures just the best?

Dust if you must

I don't know Mrs. Rose Milligan. I don't know where she's from and I don't know how old she is. But she wrote the following poem. I wish I had read it, and memorized it, years ago.

Dust if you must.
But wouldn’t it be better,
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed?
Ponder the difference between want and need.

Dust if you must.
But there is not much time
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb!
Music to hear, and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must.
But the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes,the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come round again.

Dust if you must.
But bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go, and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust!

Okay, I'm not sure it would have actually changed anything.

But I would have blown it up to poster size and mounted it with permanent glue somewhere prominent in my house. Maybe even if a tiny bit rubbed off on me, it would be a good thing.

I was (am?) a compulsive house cleaner. I drove my little family of four c-r-a-z-y, wiping little finger smudges off every surface, re-making the beds when we were teaching our two little ones responsibility. You get the picture.

My house was spotless; perfect, actually. But I was always exhausted. I wish I had taken more time with my children, with my neighbors, family. I sometimes thought they were an interruption. They were anything but; they were treasures.

And did I permanently damage my children? I guess you would have to ask them.

Life is so short. I've been espeically aware of that recently.

I hope this inspires you today to do something wild, creative, contemplative, or even foolish. You won't be sorry.

Me? I need to go empty the dishwasher...

Just kidding!  I'm going out for a brisk walk. The dishwasher will still be there, and if I don't empty it, nobody will notice. Sure wish someone had told me that long ago. Or maybe they did, and I wasn't listening.

So here's to you, Mrs. Milligan.

Napkin tutorial

Our women's craft group had a luncheon tea today as many snowbirds begin planning their journeys home from Arizona for the season. Other groups in our park are having banquets, potlucks, and parties.

The luncheon table was so beautifully set for us.  At each place was the prettiest cloth napkin with a small paper box (also homemade)  filled with M&Ms and peanuts. It was so cleverly done and I'm going to attempt to describe how to make the napkins.

Start with two 14x14 pieces of cotton fabric in contrasting patterns and stitch them together. In this example, red gingham contrasted a teapot design.

Fold each corner into the middle, as illustrated.




Then gently flip it over so the folded corners are on the underside and you're looking at the smooth side.

Then repeat the process of folding toward the center as you did before. You'll now have a smaller piece.

Reach under and pull up one corner at a time to form a "petal." Pull each corner up only partway.

In this illustration, three petals have been pulled up
from underneath and one is still flat.

And then...VOILE!

You now have a fancy napkin that you can place on each plate,
or in our case, at each place.

Ours had a homemade little box in the middle filled with candy. You could use any kind of decoration, a fancy piece of chocolate, or even a teacup in the middle.  I bet you could imagine many different things to decorate the middle.

We were each given our napkin and candy box to keep as a gift.

I thought these napkins would be nice for a bridal or baby shower, or any kind of luncheon. There are so many bright and beautiful ginghams and cotton fabrics available, it would be fun to match them to the occasion.    ~~~