Valentine’s Day Eve

Hello Friends ~ I hope you all had nice weekends and that this week will be a good one.

Saturday I had a nice lunch out and visiting with my BIL, Todd, while my SIL, Sue, was a judge at a musical competition from 8:30-3:30. We had Greek, oh so yummy. We had gyros with that oh so delicious and garlicky tzatziki sauce. They came with french fries and I also had a Mythos Greek beer.  I ended up bringing most of my gyro home and had it for lunch yesterday. If you’ve never had that tzatziki sauce, you don’t know what you are missing. You can’t stop eating it if you love it, and then you can’t stop breathing it out later.

My dear friends Nanci & John stopped by late yesterday afternoon on their way home from an antique auction they had been to earlier. We had a nice little visit sitting on the back stoop of the back shed. John handed me a card from them and said, “This is from the Valentine’s Bunny”. That cracked me up. He’s such a character and I love them both. I used to see them every day I worked, for 17 years, but that all changed when I lost my job now almost three years ago. It was really good to see them again.  Please keep Nanci in your prayers. She’s having health issues and should get some more info this week I think.

This morning I woke up not knowing what I was going to do today.  At first I was just going to stay home but I wanted to get out for a bit. I needed to get a few groceries also, and tonight and tomorrow rain is expected. My friends had given me a love $ gift in their card, and I thought of seeing if two nurseries near me might have roses since it is Valentine’s day tomorrow. Well, the thought came to me and I feel it was God’s doing, to stop at HD first, so that’s what I did. Oh my goodness, I left there with a huge smile on my face and joy and thankfulness in my heart.

Several years ago, DH and I had a private, renewing of our wedding vows and I wanted to get a rose bush to commemorate the event. He had wanted white and I wanted red, and what I found was the Grandiflora rose, ‘Love’. It has red on the tops of petals and white on the reverse/back side. That rose was beautiful, it lasted me about 12 years, dying a couple of years after my dear husband had gone to be with Jesus, Dec. 2012. I was ‘bummed’ to say the least. I had not only lost my best friend, I had now lost the rose that commemorated a happy event.

Well, at HD I didn’t even stop to look at other flowers with the intention of buying any, just headed straight to where they had the section with roses. I went around sticking my nose into the roses to see if they had a good scent or not, then, oh my goodness, if I didn’t think I saw ‘Love’ staring me right in the face. I had to read the tag and sure enough that’s what it was. I was GLEEFUL! I think there was only one more in the mixture of red roses. That jumped right into my cart. I had seen a climbing ‘Don Juan’, and had another look and put nose into the blooms and it also jumped into my cart. Then I headed to the cashier, smiling all the way. Isn’t it a beauty? It has a very faint scent, but it’s beauty, the name, ‘Love’, and the reason why I bought it in the first place, makes it worth having.

Below is ‘Don Juan’. The description below is from Jackson and Perkin’s website.

“This is the Rose most often given to spouses or significant others on Valentine's Day or anniversaries! The aptly named 'Don Juan' with its rich red flowers and deep sweet fragrance is the quintessential Rose representing romance.”

Sometime last year I had a dream about a climbing red rose and didn’t find one at the time, now I have one. Big velvety looking, red, very fragrant, old-rose, scented roses.

With those two roses tucked into the back of my van, I headed to the two nurseries.

At the first one there were not roses to bring home, but I did bring home two 2 gal. pots of red pentas, $5 each. This morning as I was sitting here in my chair, some movement caught my eye from the window. I looked closer and what did I see, but a hummingbird. He was gone before I could get my camera. I have a huge pot of red pentas and another red flowering plant that they love, sitting in view from where I sit. The pentas always attract butterflies.  I also bought 5, 7 gal. black plastic pots, at $3.50 each. They might not be pretty, but they do the trick.

Back into my van, and on to the next nursery. I buy my potting soil here at a good price, so wanted 5 bags. I spied a section of roses, so went over to see what they had, once again, sticking my nose into rose blooms. I picked out a ‘Fragrant Cloud’. Oh my, this scent is heavenly.

I only had these two buds this far open to show the colors. More buds on the bush. More photos to come later as they open.

Next, I headed back home, stopping at the grocery on the way. I felt like celebrating and after Todd and I had talked about filet mignon steaks on Sat. I looked to see what they had, and they had one pkg. of a single steak, which hopped right into my cart. I fixed these a couple of times in our marriage in later years, for special occasions as they are pricey. Friends had taken us out to eat a few times and we had these and were hooked on them. They are very easy to fix, I watched a few You Tube videos, and they melt in your mouth.

For desert, a small New York style cheese cake topped with strawberries caught my eye. I already had a piece after lunch today. Delicious!!!

Even though my dear husband is no longer with me physically, he is in my heart, and my love for him just keeps on growing.

I always loved preparing us special meals and did so our whole 43 years together. Today I bought these items to help celebrate that love we shared, and to celebrate and thank the Great Creator, God, who is LOVE, for the many ways He shows love to us all.

Happy Valentine’s Day

FlowerLady