As I worked on photos of mauve roses I brought a rose into my office to work on getting the color as close to what my eye saw as possible. Purples and reds (or mauve) are the hardest colors to get right.
What a beautiful day it was yesterday in Minneapolis—sunshine and almost 70 degree temperatures! We spent much of the afternoon in the backyard, cleaning out around my blueberry bushes, fertilizing them, putting mulch down around them and expanding the chicken wire fence around them to keep the deer from nibbling the tips off their branches.
Daily Stay-at-home Life
Today was going to be black raspberry cleanup day but thankfully it looks like a rainy day. Both Jon and I are finding that we get much sorer than we used to doing garden work and it takes longer to recover than it used to. I guess it’s true what my mother-in-law Marie used to say, “Getting old isn’t for sissies.” Though yesterday I told Jon that I have decided that I’m not going to call myself old until I’m at least 80. And then I’ll have to think about it for awhile.
The greening of nature continues. We had a neighborhood conversation (from a distance) with our neighbor across the street and the new neighbors next door to them yesterday afternoon. All of us were marveling at how things were greening up so quickly now. That seems to be the way of spring. You wait and wait for signs that it’s really happening. And then, BAM! it happens in a quick hurry. Before you know it, it’s fall again. Oh, how I always long to extend the warm months and shorten the barren winter months.
Limited opening of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum!
We received news yesterday that my beloved Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is re-opening today by reservation only for driving around the three-mile drive only. Visitors are not supposed to even open their car windows, park their cars or get out of the car. Sigh. I realize the reason for this but will miss my solitary rambles with camera through the Arboretum.
Despite my disappointment with being restricted to the car I’ve reserved my spot to drive through Monday morning to see what is in bloom and enjoy the sights as best I can. I plan to clean the windows of the car thoroughly before going, take my camera and long lens along and see if I can make any interesting photographs through the car window.
Magnolia last spring at the MN Landscape Arboretum
Scanner Project
I bought a new scanner to use to scan in all of our old family photos. There are so many of them and I don’t want our daughters to try to figure out who the people are or what to do with all of the old photos when we’re gone. So I am planning to scan them in and put them all on a DVD for our daughters and grandchildren.
“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.”
― The Story Girl
I also have some letters my Dad wrote to my Mom when they were first married and he was drafted into the army. She was 18 and he was 20 when they got married. And then he was drafted into the army. For part of his time in the army they were together but towards the end he was transferred to a base near New York City and she stayed in Iowa with her parents. At the time these letters were written she was pregnant with their first child. They called the baby Carol in their letters.
Mom told me that she had wanted to have a girl first so that she could help with the younger children. That was what had happened with my Mother. She was the eldest with 3 younger brothers. But my mom had 4 boys and then finally her one daughter (me). They still planned to name their daughter Carol when she was pregnant with me, but 2 months before I was born, my dear cousin was born and named Carol. Would I be the same person I am if I was named Carol? Do our names shape who we become?
Food for thought
I plan to scan the letters and give a copy of them to each of my brothers. Maybe one of the kids or grandkids might be interested in reading them some day. I know I’ve found it enlightening to think of being 19 years old with a high school education, no job, married, pregnant with your first child, and husband away in the army.
My dad planned to be a farmer but owned no land of his own as a young man. So as he was looking forward to getting out of the army, with a pregnant wife at home, he was asking his Dad, father-in-law, and brother to look for a farm place with a house that he could rent. They had no clear-cut plan on where they were going to live or whether he would be able to farm on his own or have to find some other kind of job. The uncertainty that they faced makes me feel quite blessed in my own life.
Last page of one of the letters. He always signed each letter “Your everloving husband”
My Kindergarten Photo, Look at those uneven bangs high up on my forehead (the story of my childhood – uneven bangs that got shorter and shorter in my Mom’s attempt to even them up).
How are all of you doing in your own daily stay-at-home life? What new projects have you begun? Are you feeling contented, worried, anxious, optimistic, or hopeful? Are you working on managing your thoughts for your own benefit?
“Groceries, you need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you’re gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can’t learn to master your thinking, you’re in deep trouble forever.”
― Eat, Pray, Love
Sending love and light to all who are struggling now. May you find joy and comfort in the beauty of the world.
May you walk in beauty.
From MN Landscape Arboretum last year
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