02-14 Flowers, dinner, gifts

 

Good morning everyone ~ First of all, I want to thank everyone for your love, thoughts, prayers and support for Valentine’s day. Thank you!

It is the 16th, Saturday morning, 6:55 est. it is gray, drippy, 63 degrees, supposed to get down into the low 40’s tonight. We had rain, sometimes very heavy the past two days. On the way home from work Thursday I drove through some of the heaviest rains I’ve ever had to drive through, and heard a weather bulletin saying there was a threat of a tornado, but fortunately for me, it was south of us. Tornadoes in FL are NOT like the ones you see elsewhere in the country. But, I still wouldn’t want to be in the path of one as they do do damage.

The rain, miraculously, let up just before I got home so that I didn’t get soaked unlocking gates. When I pulled into the driveway I spied a plastic bag with something in it, tied and hanging on the gate. I took it, checked the mail and there were two pink envelopes in it, then I proceeded to open driveway gate, drive through, unload stuff from it into screened porch, then drove and parked the van in it’s spot.

After getting inside our cozy, colorful little cottage, I changed clothes, checked dinner in the crockpot, then proceeded to see what my goodies were.

Two sweet cards from dear friends really touched my heart and the book is a wonderful devotional from my friend Julie, who lives pretty close. She wanted me to have it on Valentine’s day. I had held up pretty well and was surprised by that considering the day, God was my strengthening glue,  but getting these three things brought the tears on. I love the little yarn heart. My friend made and sent it because she knows I love hearts.  In my other friends sweet card were all these sweet little red hearts that I just love, they just spread love when you see them.

I got this sweet card and magnet from another friend a day or two before Valentine’s day. The magnet is on the fridge now with a photo of my DH from 1968. He IS/WAS the reason I know about love. She said the saying on the magnet reminded her of us and our love.

My friend Nanci, who owns shop next door to where I work (with her husband) made me a decadent bread pudding. Oh my goodness, you will have to make it yourself to see what I mean. She found the recipe here. Go down to the end of the post for  ~ Friday, February 8, 2013 ~ Gonna take a sentimental journey. In this post Rela mentions cones of pommes frites with mayonnaise, and we had these in Copenhagen,  in 1973 and they were fantastic. What great memories she brought back in this post. Here is the pudding wrapped up.

Here is my first slice. Mmmmmm.

Here is a photo of my ‘special’ dinner. DH loved these stuffed beef rolls. The crockpot cooked them while I was at work. They turned out great, and since there were three of them, I have two more meals worth. Hurray. One thing I learned early on was how I could follow a recipe and make wonderful meals, costing a fraction of what it would cost to go out to eat, it gave me much satisfaction, and we had left-overs.  I served dinner on these plates made in France, that we found three of ‘curbside’ many years ago. They are solid black through and through.

No, below are blooms from the gardens on Valentine’s day. I told my DH way back in the beginning that I would much rather have live flowers/plants than a dying bouquet, the gardens are the result of that. Even though he didn’t personally buy me every thing we have growing here, I feel they are from him, because he put up and encouraged me with this love/hobby. (Some plants are from friends, swaps, cuttings, and family too.) DH wasn’t interested in gardening per se, but he was happy for me because it makes me happy. He named me ‘FlowerLady’, because he knew he could always find me out in them.  He enjoyed doing the hardscaping projects. Oh how I miss him, constantly. I see and feel his presence and love everywhere around here, which is comforting.

So, here we go.

Azaleas

Begonias ~ These have huge leaves and these long stems of flowers that smell sweetly, I don’t know what kind they are. They are the only type of begonia I have.

Orchids from my friend Nanci.

Philippine violet.

Spicy jatropha ~ from a cutting from my late in-laws home.  The butterflies love this.

This is thunbergia erecta. I have the white and a purple.

New Guinea impatiens.

Old blush rose bud.

I think this is Bon Silene.

Louis Philippe or the Florida Cracker rose.

I love the lichen on the crepe myrtle trunk.

Well, that’s it once again from Plum Cottage gardens.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

FlowerLady

***

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil,

getting dirty without feeling guilty,

and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity. 

Lindley Karstens, noproblemgarden.com

Happy Valentine’s Day to all

May love and peace surround and fill you today.

My first blog post to read this morning was one by dear Heather. Her writings have touched my heart before, but today’s especially did. You can read it here, Love Forever. This had tears streaming down my cheeks.

The second blog post I read was this one by a wonderful photographer and friend, Georgianna, Romantic Vignettes of Paris. My husband and I were in Paris in the spring of 1973, as part of our 60 day backpacking tour after he got out of the US Navy and before we came home here to the US. Paris was beautiful.  We were there 6 days.

Below is a little painting that sits on my nightstand, the little heart pin is from my friend Nanci, given to me after Mark went to his heavenly home.

Love is an image of God,
and not a lifeless image,
but the living essence of the divine nature
which beams full of all goodness.
Luther

Valentine’s Day ~ Part 2

 

This is my first Valentine’s Day in 46 years without my dear husband. I am still going to make a special dinner, like I always did in the 43 years of our marriage. I will raise my glass of wine in a toast to Mark and our love, and to God for bringing us together and keeping us together through richer or poorer, in good times and bad.

I am thankful for what we had. As several have mentioned, we were blessed, as a lot of people don’t have what we had. We did not have a perfect marriage, but our love grew deeper and stronger through the years we were blessed with together.

My parents were divorced when I was around 12. It impacted me then, and has affected my whole life. I wanted my marriage to work. I wanted it to be filled with love and laughter. When DH and I were dating we talked about growing old together. We did age together, we just didn’t get to live as old as we would have liked. But, we can’t second guess God’s plans for our lives, and God took my husband home when it was the perfect time for him to go. I miss him terribly, and will the rest of my life.

We read lots of wonderful things about making a marriage work. Our marriage was a continual work of art. Love is like a seed that needs to be nurtured, daily. Showing love isn’t just to be done on holidays, but each and every day, in words and actions, more than gifts. Gifts are nice, yes, but not that important in the overall scheme of things.

We once read this ** Renew and renew your vow - it will do you good - and thereby your souls will grow together - contented in the love which is stronger than death - and you will become truly one.  Anonymous **

We did just that, renewed our vows, more than once. A few years back was the last time and we went all out with this little ceremony. The memories are priceless. There is joy in renewing your vows. You have deeper love for one another because of living together, growing together, learning to understand one another more with each new day.

******

We found and bought the rose below for this ceremony. A rose with a reverse color on underside.

Red roses ~ love, beauty, courage, respect

White roses ~ reverence, humility, heavenly

The name of this rose is ‘Love’.

Let your love grow and blossom.

Nurture it every single day.

Cherish and treasure it.

******

Two songs below for us and our love.

Because you loved me ~ Celine Dion

 

Love of my Life ~ Carlos Santana

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you dear friends, followers and family.

FlowerLady

******

As dew to the blossom,

and bud to the bee, 

as the scent to the rose,

are those memories to me.

Amelia B Welby

Valentine’s Day ~ part 1

 

In 1972 DH and I took a little trip from the little town that we lived in in Spain, Rota, while he was in the US Navy. This little trip was to Lisbon, Portugal. It was in February and we were there on Valentine’s day.  I came across a box of slides from then a week or so ago, not all of them because there were more, I just don’t know where they are.

The top two are famous monuments from Portugal.

We loved the architecture all over Europe. We were thankful we were blessed with his being stationed in Spain for a little over three years and that we saw and were inspired by so much.

This is looking out over a part of Lisbon.

While walking down one of the many cobbled streets, we stopped in a shop and ended up walking out with this lovely vase, on Valentine’s day.  We didn’t have enough Portuguese money, so also paid with Spanish and American money. We paid $9.  I love it.

Wonderful memories from a long ago Valentine’s day.

Memories ~ treasured.

Happy Valentine’s Day ~ FlowerLady