B is Beautiful Baby African Violets!

My Oma Stella had African violets blooming about her house. I miss them. I miss her! I see her blue eyes in my children's eyes, also her big kissable cheeks.

For a few years I have looked in stores and asked my neighbor and floral wizard about African violets, more unusual than the two deep solid purple ones I have blooming. Finally I found a site that sells exquisite flowers. For a birthday hint I sent C the link and voila! a big box of very tiny plants arrived on the 29th. On the 30th C & I walked to Home Depot , bought some special AV dirt and new pots and on the 31st I planted them! By the 2nd I was having a happy birthday (ignoring any news on that day). They are in our kitchen, thriving. They are happy to be here and I am so happy to have them. I have no idea what they will look like when they bloom.

Thank you C! You are sweet and generous! You are fun to grow old with... the best is yet to be.
(Thanks also to Mr. Browning.)

My Mum's tomatoes? Not so great. I'll take pictures... there are a few tomatoes, no 5 pounders though. I didn't stake the plant correctly, or prune it as it grew. Also, I think our soil needs some "amending."

S is for Show & Tell.

Look what I did on Tuesday! Just a touch of silliness and lovely fun.

The pins spell PAX.
A gal at the Beehive Bazaar made something like this and I liked them -- she didn't want to trade and I didn't want to spend $20. for one, especially since I knew there was a Styrofoam cone waiting for me at home and plenty of cool scraps left over from my Mom's birthday quilt. I threw in some of M's Hello Kitty ribbon, et voila! These will be fun to pull out for Christmas for the next many years.

S & Co. like them as well. Noelle's term "driftwooding" is perfect here. I culled do-dads from long forgotten boxes of Christmas stocking materials. Lately a lot has been going on that is goal directed. Creative projects with a purpose. This was lovely to work on, just because.

In the beginning of The Wind in the Willows (a book that taught me that children's lit. often puts me to sleep...hard for me to finish) one critter is pleased to be not working while everyone else is. The moment a vacation starts... It is also nice when you are to meet someone, the schedule changes and then you have a hour of uninterrupted time to yourself. The house was quiet. The children were working hard at school. Classical music played in the far distant laundry room that was churning out clean clothes.