In the morning light these lupines made me feel like I was in a fairy tale…or is that ferry tale?
Yesterday I awoke at the beach and the pups and I walked the beach while the sun was still low. One of dad’s neighbors has a wildflower (they are actually planted, lupines aren’t native to Vashon) garden.
I felt very far away from the stresses of the world.
Ceanothus also known as California Lilac has very tiny, true blue flowers that bees love.
Smoke Tree flowers for Cee’s Flower of the Day
Walking the dogs last night my attention was captured by these elegant Calla Lillies.
Ginger wasn’t impressed by the flowers, but she was glad for the rest: we’ve been doing a puppy boot camp to firm up after they spent three weeks being spoiled rotten by my father while we were in China.
Flowers have dominated this Mother’s Day. It has been beautiful: warmth, bright sunshine, and masses of gorgeous flowers in bloom. Even so, for me it has been an emotional roller-coaster
My son sent me a WeChat message during the night.
We got back from a three week long visit to him a week ago today. It has been a busy week. One of those weeks which go by very quickly, yet so much happens that you barely remember it. Maybe some of that is jet lag. But for me, at least this time, some is emotional lag.
It is always hard to say goodbye not knowing when you will see your loved ones again. The political situation, both in China and between China and the US is becoming, more tense, and the rules are always changing. Mothers do worry. Even when our offspring are no longer cute little boys but grown, responsible men. It’s not about being controlling or not letting go, it’s about caring.
As I walked the dogs, sans camera because we were supposed to be hurrying to get off for Mother’s Day lunch and tea with Grandma. As I mentioned earlier the day itself has been gorgeous and usually on such a day the dogs and I would dawdle dreadfully, maybe spending over an hour to go a couple of miles between their sniffing and my taking pictures. The dogs still sniffed but I shortened the walk and left my camera at home. However, as we got back into my yard the poppies were just catching morning sun filtering through the leaves on the maple tree.
The Mount, where Grandma lives decorated the dining room in a classy way, with dark blue table cloths and dark red roses. I almost burst into tears. On Monday we had had to put my father’s dog to sleep. I called Sam my half-sister because we had different mothers. I loved her dearly, we spent many happy hours together walking on the beach and in the woods during her not quite 13 years on Earth.
The rose against the dark blue cloth hit me hard: the veterinarian’s office had laid out a dark blue blanket with a red rose for Sam on Monday, My beautiful, lively Sam was skin and bones and unable to stand on her own anymore. Damn, I’m crying again.
Because of the warm weather we were able to take a walk outside and enjoy the May flowers:
The Mother’s Day tea featured fancy teacups of different designs and luscious, goodies, both sweet and savory, as bright as flowers as carefully arranged on the plates as a bouquet… But they also had those red roses and the dark blue table cloths.
Because of the warm weather sometime during the day the first two roses in my back yard decided to bloom. I found them as the pups and I returned from our afternoon stroll…thank goodness they aren’t red. I think it’s going to be a while until red roses don’t make me teary-eyed.
Half way there.
Photographically I took a lot of pictures of flowers, especially roses. looking through my photos for June was a blast of cheerful sunshine. Here is a sampling:
Thinking back on June it seems so long ago because so much has gone on since. At the time it seemed like it was a biggish month: my husband retired from 36 plus years at Boeing and my niece graduated from high school.
Retirement is starting into a new phase for us. I thought it would be more dramatically different than it has been. I was concerned about having someone around all the time. Somehow we seem to be rubbing along just fine. It’s been nice to have someone around to help pick up some of the slack with Grandma and Dad when I’ve been feeling tired and impatient. But we’ve also not had very long spells with both of us at home…
An impulse buy a few years ago lead to this clump I love. It looks like little bits of sky in the right light. They don’t last very long.
This was harder than I thought. I didn’t know what the word really meant and had to look it up. Going through my pictures I realized that I have some serene baggage.
My five elements of serenity:
I am not sure why I like my sky cloudy and my water smooth. But for every rule there is an exception:
Then of course there is his Serene Highness:
Aren’t dictionaries great?
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Serenity.”
Flower photos and the mind
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