circle of life

I made this basket of flowers for a family a couple of Sundays ago. They requested all white flowers, and I do love the effect. Turns out, it was the family's way to announce the pregnancy of a young couple in our congregation. Much celebrating was made, and rightfully so. A bright light will be joining us soon.

This morning, a good man I know, terminally ill and filled with love and determination, took his own life. He was Father to my dear friend. I grieve his loss ~ and their loss. A bright light has left us.

Rest in peace, dear Deris. Thank you for everything.

roller coasters and morning glories

Yesterday my facebook status read, "stop this rollercoaster, I want to get off". I recieved a couple of responses - from one, who thought I was upset by the economy, perhaps: "Life, like any roller coaster, has its ups and downs. I agree we're all in a 'down' period, but don't get off the ride just yet. We'll be heading up soon." Well... that's nice, but not really applicable to what I meant in my post. Another, more encouraging (and to the point) comment: "There's an end to every ride, this one, too. Hang in there."

By the time I heard from that second friend, things had already (and again) begun to change. I am on a medication rollercoaster - since last week and ending next week, perhaps on a too-high dose at the start, and the taper is finally taking effect. I am feeling more like myself, thank God.

In fact, maybe a little better than myself just now ~ which I find lovely and refreshing. I've had a bunch of ideas about things to post here, and if I can stop long enough to compose them while they still make sense you'll see them here soon.

Meanwhile, out in the garden ~

I have morning glories!
Tangled amidst the nasturtiums!

I cannot tell you how amazing this seems to me. Extraordinary. Sure, they are magenta, not the blue ones, but I don't really mind about that.

Yay me!

Georgia Ruth Biddall Quickert

... was born this day, 1906. My paternal grandmother, she was ferociously stubborn, ferociously proud and loved us all ... ferociously.
Here she is in 1979, with her first three great-grandchildren (there would be somewhere between 24-27 in all eventually - depending on how you count) at Dad's 50th birthday party. Jenny, on the left, was just 4 weeks old. Jennifer W., in the middle, was maybe 6 months old, and Aaron (standing) was 22 months old.

Yes, my cousin and I both named our daughters Jennifer. I can claim a lack of imagination, but deny vehemently any imitation.

I love, love, love the joyful, proud look on her face in this picture.
Happy birthday, Grandma!
love, Nancy.
I mean Kathie.
I mean KATHY.
xoxo

glimpse of a summer garden

geez, that title sounds way more romantic than the reality. Ah, well. My garden is a humble space, but it is also a source of some delight. Come, see:
This is the view out the back door, from my kitchen and over the desk... the leafy greenness of everything beckons on these beautiful days.
a gorgeous pelargonium (geranium), which grows right outside the sliding door. It has become HUGE, and is blooming like crazy. Alas, it also is full of whiteflies... which I won't spray because I am not interested in killing my ladybugs. A green gardening trade off.

White cosmos - growing about 3' high, and quite happy, despite the small container they are living in. They're so cheery, and make me think of Jenny (cosmos are her favorite flower).
I've planted deep red sweet william in a couple of places... here, it's a nice contrast to the yellow primrose that has stuck around since late winter!
Here, they accompany the orange zinnia "profusion"
More orange! These are "million bells", a.k.a. calibrachoa. These are kind of like petunias, but really small: each flower is about the diameter of a quarter. I've got three colors growing on one shelf. The shelves are rusty and old, so I don't want to show you that...
...but here's a nice close up of the red and purple ones. Teeny-tiny spider costs extra!
A bit of my newly-replanted hanging basket: this is the dahlberg "golden fleece" daisy, some dark blue lobelia and white sweet alyssum...
... and rising above all those billowing, spilling-over flowers, a handful of (orange! again!) pansies. In the very center - a delphinium which ... did not do well. We shall speak of this no more.
Finally, one of my favorite flowers in the world, in one of its most beautiful varieties: a white california poppy! These grew from seed - I sowed a LOT of seeds, but have just the one plant, hiding in the far corner and leaning way over the balcony. I was very happy to get a shot of the shy bloom one sunny day not too long ago!

That's it - thanks for visiting my garden! As it continues to change and grow - so long as no disasterous wind, drought or pestilence comes - I'll post again!

ok, here's something

Hey, I went to a couple of Giants games this month. The first one was July 3, fireworks night, as you can see above. The game was fun; went with a group from my church. The fireworks would have been spectacular, but, well, there was a light shining just above our heads causing some glare, and the light stands and scoreboard obscured some of the view, as you can see.

The next game was with Aaron, and that's always fun. He was a little late getting there, so I had time to take a few pictures while I waited.

I love this group. You've got some real loyal fans here. You've your old school (Clark jersey - from '89 or so). You've got your oldsters, waving their orange pom-pons. And they're all bundled up against our San Francisco summer weather. Humm baby!

This is why I hate peanuts in the shell at the ball park. People eat the nuts, throw the shells and skins on the ground, and the wind picks them up and blows all that gunk in my face. I really hate that; it's one of the few things that sullies a good game for me. (The other two things would be loud fans spouting off disinformation at the top of their voices to anyone who will - or won't - listen, and the stranger who once fell asleep on my shoulder when I was in the box seats by the home bull pen a few years ago.)

Ah, just in time to pull me out of my rant: my date arrives. He's not going to miss a play, even while walking to his seat, loyal fan that he is.

It was a cheap-seat night, and lots of folks came out to enjoy the good deal. Such a colorful crowd. But hey, take a look at those clouds over the bay. You don't see formations like that every day 'round these parts.

That's because it doesn't rain too often round these parts. Yep, it RAINED on us. Just enough to dampen the pavement, not our spirits, no sir.
Oh, yeah, that's rain out there over the bay. But then a really cool thing happened:
A rainbow came out. Usually, you know, rainbows come out for a minute or two and then they fade, right? Well, this one had been out for ten minutes before I finally decided to take a picture of it. It was HUGE.
And it stayed. Here it is, about 15 minutes later. It's getting brighter with the setting sun, and you can see a faint double 'bow off to the left.

Now it's half an hour since it first appeared ~ half an hour!


It didn't disappear until the sun was all the way down; just got brighter and more golden and beautiful.

Oh, and the Giants? They won. Of course!

blah, blah, blog

(A little bit of my garden)

Maybe it's inertia. Maybe I'm in a rut. Maybe it's that my camera has mostly been sitting by itself, inactive. Whatever the reason, there hasn't been much blog here lately.
Or, maybe I'm intimidated by all the blog-reading I've been doing in the past couple of months since updating to DSL. (It's so much easier to load up those photo-rich blogs!) I've followed some links from old favorite sites and been delighted in the great finds. I'm not selfish: here's a list of a few lovely, creative sites which I've been enjoying of late:

• Anna Maria (this one makes me especially happy)
  
• Angry Chicken
  
• Heather
  
• Posie Gets Cozy (a long-time favorite)
• Pioneer Woman (another long-time favorite)
• Soule Mama
  
• Turkey Feathers
  

Not only are these photo and color-rich, creative sites - listing them here, I note that they are also (mostly) mommy blogs. (I don't know how that happened; maybe my affinity for babies...?) I have no idea how these women raise small children, produce such lovely things from their hands, kitchens and sewing machines AND write about it; but I love reading about it! Enjoy...