The day after I arrived in Palm Springs we drove across the state to visit a

fabulous friend.

Look!  The famous "Kiss" statue! 

Under a Palm Tree.

 

 

 See that bridge waaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance?

 

We're going to cross that, now that we paid the toll

 

It is the biggest bridge I have ever been on in my life, it goes

on and on forever! 

AND, it only cost us $1.25!

What a deal!!

See that red truck behind us?

That just might be the big guys dream Florida truck.

Want to know why?

It's a rag top convertible truck!

Seriously, a convertible truck, with a roll bar.

THE perfect truck for Florida!

Here we are!

 Still the best beach town in my opinion!

And, of course, there are palm trees.

 

Whirlwind tour of Florida

I realize it's stating the obvious, but there are Palm Trees in Florida.

 

Everywhere. 

Palm Trees EVERYWHERE!

 

It didn't seem to be that big of a deal to anyone else on the planet.

But to this Wisconsinite...

 

THERE ARE PALM TREES EVERYWHERE IN FLORIDA!!!

 

Seriously, Palm Trees growing out of gas stations, Palm Trees on the roofs of buildings.

Palm Trees growing along the road.

Palm Trees in every yard and on every business lawn.

 

\

And if you look closely, and squint a bit, you might even be able to see that this

PALM TREE outside the hotel balcony

had a bottle in it.

 yes friends, Palm Trees grow beer. 

Who knew?

(You'd think Wisconsin would have them then wouldn't you?)

The Atlantic Ocean as seen from, ahem West Palm Beach.

(where there are Palm Trees)

Looking out over it, it seriously looks a lot like Lake Michigan because our "pond" is so big we can't see across it or up or down it.

However, stepping into the ocean I at once felt the difference..

The ocean is NOT FRIGIDLY COLD!

Lake Michigan makes your feet numb, the ocean is refreshing.

Also, our stretch of Lake Michigan does not have those high rise hotels you see behind the big guy.

Chess, Palm Beach Style...

Palm Beach is way too classy for regular old stop signs

 

Even the parking lines are paved, not painted

Now that is a big Gerbera Daisy!!

Even the grease cover in the street is pretty classy..

Look at this guy, isn't he neat, he's some sort of knight...

and he lives inside this chess piece! 

They apparently take chess seriously in Palm Beach

So pretty, I'd love this in my yarden!

 

 

and did I mention there are Palm Trees along the roads?

 

And the cows

hang out

under

Palm Trees

 

Cows and Palm Trees.

wow

Spring at last?

Spring has been so reluctant to arrive here in northeast WI.

For a while I wondered if the plants knew something we didn't and they were protecting themselves,and sure enough, last week we got a light frost.

 

The big guy has been out of state lately for business so yours truly has been in charge of the house, yard, cats, dogs and fortunately the wine cellar.

I used his big mower for the first time last week.  I am pretty sure I did a lousy job of it, but I did get most of the tall stuff whacked back down to size.  Sometimes good enough just has to be good enough.  And not for the first time have I been deeply grateful we live in the middle of no-where instead of town or city.  Our yard is made up of what used to be a field so our lawn is timothy grass, crab grass and dandelions.  Personally I prefer the dandelions.  But from what I hear from my townie friends, their neighbors do not.  I don't know why! They are so nice and soft on bare feet and of course the first flowers of spring.  I don't mind those pretty yellow buds at all.  Each of the girls brought beautiful little bouquets of them when they were small.  Nothing beats a tiny handful of dandelions given with pride.  Especially when half of them don't have stems!  I miss those bouquets, maybe I'll go pick some for myself!  ;-) 

 

 

Meanwhile, this lovely fellow doesn't mind our damaged yarden as long as his house is available and we keep the feeders full!

Where does time go

Not Why does time go so fast, but where does it go?  Where does it all end up when we run out of it?

These two wonderful gentleman finished their time.

My dad and my brother.

One had a long full life and one had so much of his life ahead of him.  So many things left undone and left unsaid.

When we were growing up my dad was not a quiet man, if he was angry everyone knew it, but he loved us and we knew that too.  Keith on the other hand, was one of the quietest men I ever knew.  Come to think of it, my other brother is a quiet man too.  I wonder if it skips a generation?  Quietly good, that's what I think when I think of Keith.  Not a mean bone in his body, not a cruel thought in his head.  A wickedly dry sense of humor, and a darn good cribbage game.

I have no regrets about the manner in which we all ever said goodbye, we all aways said "love you"

and meant it.  Yet so many regrets for the time unspent by Keith.

Time with his wife and daughters that meant the world to him.

Time with his two beautiful granddaughters.

 

 

His first granddaughter, and his first time seeing and holding her.

He was visiting his daughters in California and texted me this wonderful picture because I hadn't ever met this sweet little peanut.

 

His youngest granddaughter, loving grampa too.

This was just days before he left us.

My wonderful sister in law texted this one to me.

I'm so grateful for all the texts between us, and yet that is one of the things I miss most.

With me in WI and him in Maryland, I would always let him know when it snowed or was "snot freezing cold" because he totally understood that!

We would text through football games with our favorite team, we would text just to stay in touch.

It never failed to make me smile to see his name pop up on my phone, and he invariably started with "hi lil sis"

He never called me that growing up, so it made me smile an awful lot now. 

I already miss him more than I could have imagined.

 

I hope he is playing cribbage with dad.  There must be cribbage in heaven right?

 

January was just a blur of snow and cold weather here

Even these pictures are from two years ago because I can't seem to make my camera talk to my lap top.  Honestly though, even though the snow is the same this year, these are much prettier than any I could take now, see all these trees.

gone.

None of them exist anymore. 

Wait! the one in the middle here does exist yet. It's the only one around the house that is left.

I'm thrilled that ONE was saved.  The big guy is not so thrilled, he refers to it as "that stinkin Chestnut"  True it does make a dreadful mess both when the blossoms fall, because they are SUPER sticky, and when the zillions of chestnuts fall, then lose their prickery covers, then stay in the yard FOREVER.  But I don't care on whit! It's a TREE!

And it's a decent SIZE tree!

Anyway, this winter has been so looooong.  It seems like we either have frigid temps or tons of snow.

What can you expect in Wisconsin in January, I know.  I know.

It just feels now like spring is decades off. 

And we are supposed to get more snow today, again.

 

Time to dream about gardening, and planting flowers and shrubs and TREES all over the yard,

Oh I think I really NEED this pond and gazebo and bridge.

 

 

and perhaps this little area....

 



 

 

 Oh, yes, a flower seed bag to carry all my gardening ideas in!

Perfect!!



One of my most memorable presents was sort of re-gifted to me. I have a small collection of teapots that we have picked up over the years. I used to put them all out on display, but a clumsy cat stopped that practice years ago. One in particular was pretty adorable, it was a momma bear dressed up in a long dress, apron and moppet hat, and holding a baby bear. It looked pretty cute at Christmas time when I would put it out next to my Santa bear teapot. I don't remember now how it got broken, but it did and I put it out to be sent to the dump with the trash. I felt bad, but I learned long ago with 4 kids and several pets in the house at any given time, that things are going to break and you just have to remember what's important, so I felt bad, but not horrible. That next Christmas I opened a fairly heavy box from Becky and Vanessa. Inside was my bear teapot glued back together as best they could. Yes, I cried. It means more to me fixed than it ever did when it was whole. I still display it at Christmas and the obvious cracks and glue make it even more special. I suppose it's more like me now than ever.



Christmas tends to make me feel rather reflective, I think part of it is hanging all the ornaments on the tree from Christmases past.  They all bring back some memory and then those memories poke other memories and pretty soon a person (okay me) has spent the last hour daydreaming.

 

Thinking more about gifts and ones that are remembered years later...

 

Unfortunately our oldest daughter has a memorable Christmas for a crummy reason. With 4 daughters to buy for, I tended to pick things up throughout the year if the occasion presented itself. A good idea, right? Well it would be if I had taken some time to list who I had gotten for and what I had gotten them, or noticed how many boxes were labeled for each child. Unfortunately that one Christmas, she got the short end of the present stack, and even worse, her dad and I had planned a funny surprise for her. Tired of loaning her my fingernail clippers we had gotten her a pair and to be "hilarious" we had put them in a HUGE box with tons of tissue paper. Well, her sisters had made quite the haul that year for what ever reason and she had a few small things, then came this big box. Yes, you may guess how disappointed she was with those clippers when her sisters all had clothes and toys and such and she had a pathetically small pile in front of her and a lousy pair of fingernail clippers. We both learned some lessons that year. I learned to make a list of each gift as I bought it and she learned that mom will overcompensate in a personal shopping trip to make up for the mistake! We had a mother daughter trip to Maurice's that January.