Trip to nursery was a surprise, as elderly lady wife neighbor hunted down 2 very specific trees, and several Annuals. Much to her delight, she found everything....one pink and white candy striped annual she hadn't seen before, and the last pink dogwood. I lucked out and found the last three black creeping potato vines as we walked in.
This meant I could share her excited hunt and selections in the huge nursery.
I could see the person she was 40 years ago..... particularly, later, as I held the ladder, and she mounted her kitchen counter to hand down a very large porcelain nativity. I kept my yap shut....and performed the dh's part.
She has little decorative hangers for everything. No regular ornament hangers evident. Storage boxes marked in exquisite detail.
"King with solid gold crown facing down," that sort of helpful practiced instruction.
Her ribs/back twinged, at a point, and I was up the ladder taking down greenery with over the tall hall stairwell, where she half stood atop a wall. I was so nervous, but she was......so happy. In her element. Feeling normal again.
She tired after a super productive half and I pointed to the leftovers and locked myself out.
There's maybe 4 hours of wrapping, matching boxes, carefully filling, and walking them down narrow split level stairs to the basement.
So.
Many.
Well made nutcrackers.
Heavier than you'd think. German, maybe?
Little bakers, drummers, cobblers, santas, clockmakers and those I'll discover on each packing trip, a fraction of what they didn't unpack.
I, knowing this likely is the last Christmas in that house, might have left it all up, then pulled out the rest, in November, just to see it all the way it was when healthy....one last time.
The dh was delightful, as he always is with me. I'm glad he seemed fine to have her out and about, without him.
I soaked some tiny Peony roots in rainwater yesterday. I'm hoping to find a sunny enough place out front for eventual cutting garden. I drive by 2 full pink Peony plants, one street over as inspiration, but see 2 unhappy specimens on either side of my yard, meaning not enough sun. I'm considering taking down the tree at the curb, to get more light, but it won't ever be sunny. I guess I'll pot them and look for sunny places at the lake.
The hydrangea are popping up, and I see new growth I can pull up and start more plants with. I all 4 with cuttings from retired nurse's single spectacular bush. I can't imagine a happier cutting garden than these pink, white and green pairings...would have been so nice.
The Linton Roses are coming up. Some either green flowers....some purple and green.
I mysteriously have one purple flowering Trillium in the center back yard, and an almost fist sized morel mushroom, by the Hemlocks, farthest from the house.
Thing's are beginning to feel normal again, if one looks past the downed tree areas and occasional smashed house.
DD's functional doc's office is in the middle of the bombed out looking tourist retail shops.....that's still a disaster zone, but we see a couple workers. Hardly any rebuilding going on there.
Lighter
