One of those days

You all know how it goes, work all day, tired as hell ! I have no reason for my being so tired though, and I keep wondering if it has to do with my medication for my thyroid. The Doctor just upped the dose again and I am not too sure it is correct for me. But that is still not it, I did a lot of flower bed cleaning today, (not in my own yard) and it seemed like it took me forever to get it done. Like I said it is just one of those days.

I'm guessing that is why I'm not much into writing today, that and I don't really have much to say... so we will just go right to the prompt tease today....

MIRROR CINQUAIN

Hope to see you joining in too
 http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

Can you say ... DAMN !!!

Man, I really worked my butt off yesterday...  I woke up around 5am, had my coffee, breakfast, did the morning routine.  I had a few thing to do in the trailer before I started my 'outside' chores and got them all done in record time.

My chores for the day were to use up a pile of bark chips (that were free for the taking here in the park,) Finish off the step project, (that so far has taken two days to complete)  and at noon I had a weed whacking job for an elderly lady in the village.

I started with the bark chips. I love the look of fresh bark mulch, so I try to revamp all of our 15 garden beds at least once a year. This entails cleaning out the old before bringing in the new. So,  I cleaned out last years mulch from the beds in Iris Alley and the lower patio, (That took me three hours), While I was taking out the old, I was replacing it with the new, so I actually got three jobs done at once. 
For the step project all I really had to do was fill in a bit of dirt and replace one more of the seven steps, ( it wouldn't have taken as long if I didn't have tree roots to deal with), and blow it all off to finish it. WAY BETTER !!!  It really looks great.

I got all of this done in plenty of time to have lunch before going to the weed whacking  job, which was done in three hours. My day was going so well !

EXCEPT when I went back to my truck to put the blower away, my 440 dollar  STHIL  weed whacker was missing !! Someone came along when I was finishing up and took it out of the back of my truck !!! Who does that???  DO DO DO... OH LOOK SOMEONES LIVELIHOOD... UMMM I THINK I'LL TAKE IT....  SEE YA!!! THANKS FOR THE STHIL !!!  You know the first thing I thought was I left it in the yard somewhere, so after looking for it for ten minutes or so, I remember that I took it apart and cleaned it, as I normally do, so WTF ??? Where did it go???  THEN it hit me... CRAP !! I have to tell Wayne !! OMG is he ever going to be pissed at me, we do not have the money to replace it, but we have to have it in order to do our work... SO now I'm in tears, wishing I didn't have to tell him.

All is well though, he just gave me a hug, told me things like this happen even when you are as careful as can be, asked me to be more aware of the tools, TOLD ME NOT TO CRY ANYMORE, and he is picking up another for us after he gets off working today. What a great man I have... I love him so much !

So I made eighty dollars for the day, minus the 440 for the Sthil, UMMM, in the hole 360 dollars.... dang that sucks !!! I hope the rest of the month goes better !

Time for the Prompt tease...REVERSE CINQUAIN
Hope to see you joining in too !
ENJOY
JL&B

TRUE BEAUTY

I am not like most girls, I really like to play in the dirt, so manicures are out ! I rarely see anyone when I HAVE make up on, so I don't have much use for it. My going out clothes are one of  the two nicer pair of light jean-like pants I own, I always wear hiking-type shoes, tank top, tee-shirt and if its cold I wear a Craftsman jacket. I usually have my shoulder length hair up in a pony tail, like Pebbles Flintstone, and when I giggle at times I sound like Betty Rubble.  Am I making you cringe or do you see the beauty ?

I don't dream of having wealth, fame or fortune. I feel I am fortunate to have a wealth of love and that my husband and a few of my friends think I should be famous. I won't lie and say that it isn't a great dream, but just to be paid for a write... Now that is a dream... Any beauty there ?

When we first moved here, I was given the nick-name Mother Nature because I love the earth, Wayne calls me Moonbeam, he is my Sunshine man, close friends call me Lynne, most of these people have known me since my twenties (this year I turn 48), my family calls me Judy and because they are my family I allow it, I like to be called JLynne, Lynne or JL, my pen name is JL&B...  If you are paying attention, what does the B stand for? There is the beauty !! LOL

So by no means do I think I am a beauty, but I have beauty all around me, and I absorb it as if it were water to thirst.  I take very close up pictures, keepsakes of the wondrous beauty that moves me. I have a beautiful life, it is all I have ever wanted. How's that for beauty?



Today's Prompt tease is RONDEL poem
See the rules and play along on our poetry blog
http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

VOLUNTEER WORK

Today is one of those day's where I let my mind wander where it will go... so hang in here with me.

I've been doing a lot of volunteering for the park, you know, cleaning the out-skirts, trimming bushes, keeping up the empties. It keeps me busy while Wayne is away working. However today  I was doing something I like to do, making steps and re-structuring a few rock walls. The major problem with this peticular job was the massive tree roots preventing me from digging down deep enough to place the up-side-down scallops.

Yes I said scallops, they make great facing for steps. The hight is perfect for elderly people, half the block buried and they don't move either.  For a bit of extra, strenght two re-bar per scallop does the trick.

The wall was falling apart, you could just touch the rock beds there and they fell, so I moved it out a bit to give the tree roots some dirt to cover them. It worked out really well if I say so myself. Much to Waynes dismay, I didn't photograph the before...but I have found the pictures don't do it justice. Especially when rocks are involved. When I finish it tomorrow I will put up some after pictures. I think the afters will speak for themselves.

Well I think I wandered enough for today... Time for your Prompt tease... ROUNDEL Poetry
Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

When I met Wayne/our garden ties us

I enjoy that I can see the growth in the love my husband and I share. It's the tender moments we share that mean so much. It may not seem all that romantic to some, but our garden is a place that I see it a lot.

Wayne didn't know much about plants when we first got together, but through the years he has learned more than just what I know. He has that guy knowledge too, I swear guys were born with tools for bones. So not only does he do his part by keeping all of our tools up and running, he also is learning more about the plants than I can teach him.

It is so fun each day to go out to our garden and see him looking to find what has bloomed or is just about to. Wayne now has the knowledge of what plants are coming up as they break ground, not so much three years ago. Today we noticed two types of tupils, hiacinths and crocus just starting to break the ground, we also noticed that the daffodills are ready to open, a wonderful early surprise. We had a hard frost a few weeks ago and it burnt some of our reblooming Iris', the few buds that made it are now open and showing their beauty. We also have prime rose in blue, red and orange blossoming, along with the white with pink center cyclamen giving us a show. The anemone bed has been giving us an array of color for the past few weeks, way earlier than the past two years.
We tried to plant the yard so we would have something blooming all year long and so far this past year has shown that we did pretty-not-bad at it. We are just wondering why everything is two months early this year.Maybe it all has to do with the new astrology sign...LOL... NAH ! That wouldn't make any sense !

Todays Prompt tease is USE THESE WORDS
Hope to see you joining in too
http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

Orange you glad

Someone following my poetry blog asked me the other day why I chose a line that ended with window, 'how do I rhyme window?' my reply of course was not every kind of poem rhymes. I have learned a lot researching and trying different forms of poetry, now weather I am doing them correctly... well lets just say I still have a lot to learn.

Many forms find it to be poor form, in fact if you rhyme they consider it incorrect.  I however have lived with rhyme in my brain, everything for me is a rhyme, in fact it is really hard NOT to rhyme in my poems. So I do my best to go out of my comfort zone and learn.

Now the next time we do a free verse I challenge you all to write it without a rhyme and give it a good feel on your lips, bite it hard, give it a long taste, It's pretty-not-bad !

Just a ponder !
But... aren't ya glad it wasn't orange??
TeeHeeHee
Today's prompt is a TERZA RIMA
Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

Bravery

There is a huge difference to me between honesty and bravery. Although it might be said that being honest takes a braver person, I feel bravery is a strong word for being honest.

I used to live in a make believe world, one where I was loved and mommies don't hurt their kids, daddies stay with the family, the children go to college, have the Cleaver life. That is not how it was and the truth might be hard to swallow, but it is still the truth and that is what has set me free ...

Free from the hurt so deep that I fell without a hope to return
Free from the harm that still lingers like a deep scar on my face
Free to say I am important and have EVERY reason to live
Free to do what I do best, write it out of me
Free to share who I am, every part that makes the whole
Free to know my honesty will set me FREE

I'm not saying writing the past isn't hard... but it is healing. Things I had no way of understanding then are easier to see, allowing me to finally lay to rest some of the things that haunt my soul... There are many and I mask a lot of it now for the love of my man... his heart shows through his eyes when I cry for no reason known to him, affecting me, making me live in the now and remember less of the bad. Its a great lesson for although the occasional dream wakes me, he brings me back to where I am today, a place I have longed to be all my life.

So think of it as you wish, my life was not perfect, and I write about it to get the healing. I thought of continuing on with writings from last year, but now I think I will share a story I wrote .. Hold onto your hats, this might be a bit harsh... in sight to where I've been...

This is not a poem, its a story, of when I was young, if you are offended by abuse issues please stop reading now. This is a  chapter in a series of dark stories about a child and her life, all of these stories are true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, and the guilty.

EASTER SUNDAY

She looked so pretty today. She had on a fancy pink summer dress, a little bit of white lace around the bottom of the dress and the shoulder straps. It was a full dress and when she twirled, it billowed out and made her look like a little pink flower. She had pretty little pink sandals to finish the look, they had a white daisy at the toe. She had picked them out herself.

It was a perfect day, the sun was bright, no clouds in the sky. It was around 78 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. She was playing in the yard with the bunny rabbit she had gotten for Easter Sunday, today.

Her mother and sister were there too, each of them looking just as happy as she was. They were eating a chocolate from the basket of goodies they got at the Easter egg hunt the church put on today. This was by all counts one of the happiest days she could remember in a very long time.

Then he pulls into the drive. Her mom, Susan, goes out to greet him with a hug and a french kiss. This is her newlywed husband, Hank. They have been married a little over 9 months now, and by all rights they look like a happy new family.
Hank is a big fan of Johnny Cash, he plays his records over and over, so everyone in this family knows the words by heart. The two young girls Sasha, about to have her 10th birthday, and Sarah, her older sister 13 next month, were dancing and singing to RING OF FIRE when the phone rang. The girls were laughing and dancing and singing quite loud, so it took several rings for the phone to be heard.
It was Susan's mother on the other end, wanting to speak to her family, wish them a Happy Easter and see if they were still going to join her for the traditional family dinner. They agreed on a time and hung up the phone.
This new family got into the car and started out for the long drive to Susan's Mother's house. It would take them about an hour and a half to drive it and Susan, who was feeling a bit tired from all of today's activities, was nodding off in the front seat. Sarah was already asleep next to her younger sister, who was blissfully singing to the music on the radio. She was quite the reader too, so every overpass they went under she said the words on the big sign aloud, excitement building in her, because she knew these signs almost by heart and knew they were leading them to her Grandma's house.
Sasha loved to go to her Grandmothers house, a place full of wonder for the child. Grandma had a beautiful garden full of pretty flowers that she let Sasha pick and put in vases. She had lots of fruit too, strawberries, black berries, boysenberries ( Sasha 's very favorite), peaches, apricots, and a few citrus trees. It was always a treat to go to her Granny's, the best place in the world.

All of Susan's family were there, her sister and her family, her cousins, which Sasha always called UNCLE and AUNT, and all of their families, in all there were 16 adults and 18 children. Granddad even showed up with his new wife and her kids.The dinner lasted for hours, and more food was added to the feast with each new visitor.
Full from the meal, Sasha went out to the garden to play, she was alone there, talking to her make believe friend, picking strawberries that aren't all the way ripe yet. Red and pink berries fill the basket she is holding, and she doesn't notice Hank watching her. No one does, as they are not aware of his bad intents.

They have no idea of the kind of man he is, the sick things he has already done to this child, but he does, and now he wants more. He doesn't even hide really, he is so good at this he doesn't really need to. He has already instilled fear into this child, so much so that all it takes is a look from him, a glance really, so little that you would miss it if you weren't knowing. No one knew but Sasha, and it scared her so bad that she wet her panties. She knew that she was about to lose the only place left that she felt safe. He wanted her again, and it didn't matter who was there, he WOULD have her.
When Hank finished his torture, he noticed her wet panties and the smell of urine, stronger now that his desires were satisfied, and found an opening to use for the child's tear streaked face... making light of the situation he took the girl up to the house, and in front of every one said...

"Look who I found in the garden, and look everyone, she ruined her new dress, pissing all over herself. Susan don't you have any control over these kids of yours?"
Then he laughs it off, turning to the young girl saying, "I would be crying too if I wet my panties like a BABY, hey anyone have a diaper for the BABY?"

Grandmother's house was never the same in Sasha's heart. She didn't like to pick the strawberries anymore either, no one ever asked her why.

Well , that is it ... let me know what you thought of it ...

Today's Prompt is Villanelle

Hope to see you joining in too at http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

Our Garden Freebies two)

I have the thumb of green, passed down from the love of generations. With that I've come to understand the truest gift of the garden is sharing. I have been very blessed to have the sharing bug deep within my being. I love to give babies from my garden to someone that either has just started a garden, or doesn't yet have the newest color of flowers.
Thanks to my family and friends I have many beautiful colors in the garden. I greatly appreciate all the freebies I have gotten through the years from just sharing. I still remember every plant and where we got them.
Our biggest garden is the Iris bed, it runs along a dirt road that circles the very back part of the RV Park we live in. The bed itself is three tiered. Two of the tiers are filled to the brim with our Iris'. These beds are forty feet long and two feet deep. The third tier is the retaining wall that makes up the lower garden.
With the exception of a few new colors over the years, this garden was all free.  The great thing about Iris' is that they have babies constantly. All the books I have read about plants throughout the years has said every three years Iris' need to be thinned. Not so in our garden, we have to thin them every year or they push themselves out of the beds.

We keep two of each to replant and give the rest away. That is still way too many to try to find homes for, so sometimes I sell them to the nurseries in the area. Last year I gave away somewhere in the area of five hundred Iris', and still ended up selling another two hundred and that is after replanting the two from each plant.  They have always been a great return on the money we put out on them. Every few years I see a color I just have to have and Wayne makes sure we get it ! One year for my birthday he bought one that was twenty dollars for one rhizone, a lot to pay for just one. This year the RED AT NIGHT Iris, gave us so many babies, I was able to give six of them away and still planted several in other beds. 

When we give special ones like that away it brings, not only us but the people that receive them , a joy like no other.  Iris Alley, again this year, will be filled with so many colors, some from the very first Iris we were given so many years ago.  We await each one like it's the first flower ever to bloom, anticipating the sweetness and beauty, marvel in the perfection of the standards and falls.
So, come in the spring,  see the beauty of the poor mans orchid, take some photos, leave some memories, we welcome visitors.
I will leave you with some photos of last years Iris blooms...ENJOY

Time for the Prompt tease....FIRST AND LAST
Hope to see you joining in too
http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

American Idol

The first American Idol aired when I was in prison, Kelly Clarkson won that year and all of us girls were cheering her on like we were at the finale ourselves. It was the start of something I truly enjoy each time it comes back on. Wayne on the other hand, doesn't.

I have to admit that it is over rated, way too commercial, and they sing way too many rifts for my taste, but then a Carrie Underwood comes along and I watch like it was the first one. I'm hoping this year will bring some great singers out of the wood works, We need another hot act out there, right?

So what to expect for the tenth year... all of the same stuff, only not the same stuff....now we once more are drawn in, find a favorite, watch them grow and hope they win.

Well it's time to watch..
TODAY'S PROMPT TEASE is VERS BEAUCOUP
ENJOY
JL&B

MINE

It's funny that a few days ago I ran a thought by my friend Richie. He liked it so much that he did a rendition of it on his blog too, today is my turn.

Being married is so different than just dating some one when it comes to the word mine. In a boy friend/girl friend relationship, you both know what belongs to each individual, in marriage though it is different.

There are the obvious ones, my/his underwear, clothes, shoes, toothbrush... My/his wallet, makeup, hair supplies. ( No he doesn't wear make up) Then the blurry line ones, keys, car, tools, pen for heavens sake.  These are the ones, for some unknown reason, that bother me.

Just because it's a dish, doesn't mean it's mine, just because it's a tool doesn't mean it's his, yet even after five years we still have that MINE thing in our brains. I do my best not to say it, but it still slips out now and then. He slips up a lot too, but why does it bother me so much when it doesn't seem to affect him at all. ( Go figure)


Just a shorty for today, a ponder, if you will.
Time for today's Prompt tease.. RICTAMETER
Hope to see you joining us at
 http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/ our poetry blog
ENJOY
JL&B

Waynes dad, Bud

When Wayne and I started dating, I was taken into the family fold immediately. His parents and sisters are the sweetest people I have ever met. I love them all as if I have known them all my life.

Bud is somewhere in his eighties, Florance is in her upper seventies. They raised Wayne and three girls, Leslie, Debbie and Janet, here in San Diego. Bud worked as a heavy machine operator all his life and helped Flo make a great home . Now in his later years, he is tired and talks of 'going home to heaven'.  Recently things have been tougher for him to do, all the things a younger body can do easily, his older body tells him 'not so fast'.
He has taken care of their home and yard everyday he can remember and now it is very hard for him to do. He has fallen a few times and hurt himself pretty badly, but he always has gotten back up and shook it off. Now his knees and hip are making it hard for him to move around much.

His desire is to sell the family home and live somewhere relaxing. I think he should get what he wants, but not everyone is ready for that, especially Flo.  So , doing the best they can, the family is trying to make the house more comfortable for Bud.  This is hard though because Flo is becomming very stressed over it all.  It then becomes a tug of war for the rest of us, so I stay away. I really feel for the whole family, this is a difficult time and I feel that I'm in the way.

Wayne is a great son, he takes the time to go to his dad's side, tries to get him out of the house, relieve some of the stress. This is father son time and it is so great for Bud. You can see him light up when Wayne shows up, it's a beautiful thing. Today Wayne is making one of those trips. I hope they have a good day together, Buds needs it and I'm afraid there wont be many more.

So, if you see an older man out with someone who appears to be his son, think of  Bud and Wayne, give them a smile, wish them a pleasent day. It will be remembered, trust me.


Yesterday I was too busy to do the blog, prompt or much of anything else, so today I will make up for it by doing a doulbe dose...
This morining's PROMPT tease is a TANKA

Hope to see you join in too
http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

OUR GARDEN (freebies)

I do so love to garden. Some of the best things for our yard we got with little or no cost at all. If you have been reading my blog you know that the rocks from the last place we lived we used in the wall we call the cutting garden.

Now if you have been looking at my blog, you see the photos to the right (I try to add them with the stories) but for those of you who don't...There are two very large granite rocks in our yard that separate the upper and lower patios, between them is our mock waterfall.
Looking at it straight on you see a stacked rock wall between the two rocks filled with smooth tan colored river rocks. It's a three tiered fall and in the lower level a pine tree is planted, the next levels have a few of the nick-knacks I thought were cute in there  (and Wayne agreed).{Again pictures, to the right}
The rock on the left is six-foot tall (or so){REALLY cool rock} and two of the rocks we used in the step area were fallen underneath it (picture). That created a curve in the rock that made it look like the wind carved it. We placed another little garden there, it grows three editable mints. I often chew on a fresh leaf of chocolate, peppermint or spearmint, or just lightly brush against it. (UMMM I can just smell it thinking of it !)
Turning to the left you are facing the steps, and to your left from there is a very small
path of grass.
Going back to the fall; the rock to the right is much smaller, but still really big. The side that faces the lower patio slopes down into our strawberry beds,(another three tiered rock bed) {we had great strawberries last year}.
If you turn to the right from there and walk forward a few steps you are in the lower patio. There isn't much room in this area, two people and a cat, fills it up! But what a great view !
This area has a garden bed that starts around another retaining wall (Iris Alley) It is the top tier of that wall. Where the top wall rocks are placed is a fencing made of a recycled metal gazebo, all along that fencing is a garden filled with flowers. Today snapdragons, blackeyed susans, paper whites, haicinth and a few other things that I have forgotten about are all green, or coming up. Terra Cotta colored scallops seperate the tiles from the garden (or grass) that wraps itself back around to the steps.
Now from the rocks we brought in, the tiles, plants, we spent less than forty bucks.
In fact, except for gas to go and get it, all of the things I just described to you were free, including the plants.

Now be honest with me please, your jealous right ?
Tee Hee Hee

Todays Prompt tease is INSPIRATIONAL
Join us @ http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
ENJOY
JL&B

Getting Published

It's a dream of anyone who is proud of what they write, getting published. There are many ways to go about it, heck if you have the money you can publish yourself. I am not one of those fortunate ones. I rely on our local monthly newspaper, The Back Country Messenger.

Meeting Tony and Lynn Neff, the owners of the paper, was purely out of the blue. My husband and I were in town one day, at a quaint little shop, known as the Enchanted Village. I was speaking with the shop owner Shelly, as my husband Wayne, conversed with a gentleman who was exchanging the BC Messenger. We came to find out this man was none other than Tony Neff, the owner.

After a moment or two, I had asked who wrote for the paper, to which he asked if I am a writer... I laughingly said "Yes, Poetry." He gave me an assignment for the paper, TOLERANCE. I balked at first, with my non-political, non-religious ways, I wasn't wanting my first published work to be so radical. I write about gardens and rainbows for heaven's sake, I feared this assignment wasn't in me, but gave it a try none the less.

Tony and I set up a date for him to come over to our place to see if what I wrote was what he was looking for. When Tony arrived, I do as I do with any one that comes to our place, I took him on a tour of our garden !! He was very impressed, and as he took MANY photo's, he asked questions. That month, much to my delight, Tony wrote about us in the paper. It was extremely awesome !!! The month after that, I had sent Lynn a poem I wrote called AUTUMN IS GENTLY FADING, which was my very first published work !!!

I was so happy !!  (OK here is the picture... imagine a lady {47yrs old mind you} getting her first publishing.. JUMPING up and down, squealing like a child of ten, grinning from ear to ear, all at the same time, almost peeing, YEP that was me!!) Tee Hee Hee !! Well believe it or not, I'm am about to be published again. Lynn sent the automated reminder of when the submissions were due, and I really thought that she would like to read the most recent poem, {I liked most}, that I had written. HOW TO TRIM A ROSE... she said, and I quote, "That's very cute! I may use it on the Gardening page. I couldn't have said it better!"

So again, I'm jumping, dancing, squealing, grinning... well you get the picture !  Thank you Tony and Lynn for making my dream come true !! YOU ROCK !!! I'm a published poet... and I didn't have to spend a dime ! Maybe the next step will be that one of my poems get bought !!! My next dream... LOL...  for now, I'm that over the top happy girl, sending everyone I know a copy of the paper! It feels so great !

Time for today's Prompt Tease...Write an English Sonnet

Come join in  @ http://dodgewrites.blogspot.com/
or just stop by to see ours...
Hope to see you there!
ENJOY
JL&B

A MOTHER'S NATURE

Many of my writings are about things I lived, am living now, or feel within my heart and mind.  I often think of the beauty in my life and use that as a bases or a starting point. One of the things I find most beautiful is Mother Nature.  I have a genuine wonder in the ways of Nature and how she always takes care of her own. Just like a human mothers' nature to nurture and give tough love, so it is with Mother Nature.

Sometimes things in my garden seem like they are coming up the wrong time of year. This year is a very good example of what I mean. I have a habit of photographing all the flowers (or plants) that are in our yard. This not only gives me a great photo album, but also gives me a record of when all of our plants grow and bloom.  The things I planted most in our garden is bulbs, they reproduce each year and they have always come up.  Don't get me wrong here, I have a ton of other plants as well, but bulbs have never let me down. 

I should also mention that I live in the sunny San Diego mountains, where the weather has a way of going from 79 degrees (day time temps today) to 39 degrees (over night low tonight) . Sometimes we have winds that (like today) come in gusts ranging from nothing to 60mph in the same minute, other days (like yesterday) not a hint of wind.

OOPS... sorry i have ot finish this later, we just got company ! I love company !!!
May be tomorrow, but I'll  be back, until then
Today's prompt tease is WRITE YOUR OUW WORDS to the song Welcome to my world.
Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

In the garden with Grandma

I learned so much from my Grandmother. My love of words, numbers, color and flowers were nurtured by her in ways that still effect me today. I miss the garden she loved so much, it was a wonder filled place for me. 

Yesterday, in a garden not my own, I was asked many questions about fruit on a tree. My answers were so influenced by my Grandmothers teachings that it felt like she was right there with me.  The questions that stood out most were how to pick fruit... How do you get the best, how do you prune etc. 

It brought me back to the time I was around nine years old or so, peaches were in season, and Grandma gave permission to pick some.  Much to her dismay that year, I got up in the tree and shook off all the peaches, thinking I was helping. She was so heart broken it took her years to allow me near the tree again. At that time, she took me out to the tree and showed me how to properly pick a peach ( with examples of other fruit as well) .  Her patience that day was above and beyond any prior, and it all stuck with me throughout the years. Now with her teachings and a few years experience of my own I get to tell others what I know about picking fruit.

Yesterday's tree was a limon, (no, I didn't mis-spell it) a hybrid mix of lemon and lime. The tree was loaded with fruit and I was told that I could have the limons that were ready. ALL of the fruit on that tree was ready !  The owner asked how to tell how fruit was ready, so I passed on the lessons I learned.

A citrus tree needs a bit of a tug to get the ripe fruit. I told him to think of it as hair on your head and the hardest you would want it pulled.  He understood that without  even thinking, and a few fruits later, he learned it for life. (I thought I could hear my Grandma tell me very good )

Each fruit has its own signal, if you cup a peach for instance, it is ready when it falls off in your hand.  Vine fruits like blackberries, are much the same.( Although grapes are in a category all their own)  Strawberries on the other hand should be easier to know, the color gives them away. Learning these differences saved me from getting cramps from eating green fruit, a lesson well learned. (Thank you Grandma !)


Well for those of you who have made it through this ramble of mine, it's time for the prompt tease.. Today' Prompt is USE THESE WORDS ( A favorite of ours) , you can see today's words and my effort on Dodge Writes, my poetry blog.

Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

Valentine

When Wayne and I lived at MaTarAwa RV Park, we loved it. It is in, what many people in San Diego, consider the mountains. I grew up in the area of Harbinson Canyon and Alpine (where the RV Park is)  So living there was just natural for me.

After the Cedar fire in 2003, my Mom and I got a 25 ft travel trailer to live in until the house was rebuilt. When the work was done, Mom lovingly gave me the trailer and the boot ! So off to MaTarAwa I went.

Fast forward two years or so and you find me living with Wayne in that same trailer. Right after we got married a new couple moved into the park, becoming our next door neighbors. They became very good friends of ours and to this day it's what I miss most about that place.

April and Jason already had a little girl named Jessica, but within a year April was pregnant with twins. Jason had to deploy by the time she was showing and she needed her family, so she made plans to go back to Texas to have the twins.  April had a cat, that much to her dismay was also pregnant and due at any moment. She asked if we would take Kit-Cat so she would be with a family she knew, otherwise April was afraid that Kit-Cat would have the kittens on the trip.

We agreed to take her in and within a few weeks we had seven of the cutest kittens ever ! As they grew I became more and more attached to them, but as I promised Wayne, I found great homes for all of them. ( I still know where they live and all of their names) I agreed to this because I had Kit-Cat and we lived in a pretty cramped space.

One night while Wayne was at work, I was making some quilts  and letting Kit-Cat out until her regular time to come in. She never did though and when Wayne came home I was in tears at the door. Even though he was tired from working, he still got a flashlight and searched the park with me for two hours. We reluctantly went  to bed, hoping we would find her at the door in the morning, but she never showed. ( Here I am in tears again, like it was yesterday) Every morning I'd rush to the door just hoping upon hope that this would be the day she came home and every night I cried because I was a bad Mommy and didn't keep my baby safe. (This went on for weeks )

Poor Wayne just couldn't take my heartbreak any longer I guess, because the day before Valentine's day, out of the blue he took me to the pet store in Alpine.  She was all alone in the cage, rubbing up against the door just asking to be loved. A tortoise shell calico, (AKA  a tortie) dark as the night, with highlights of burnt orange and blotches of tans and whites all over. She has one very large white spot on her underside, that is hard to see unless she rolls over.  She also has a blaze of burnt orange and tan smack down the middle of her face to the tip of her nose. She is beautiful !!!  I didn't let us leave without her and on the way home we were thinking of her name.

I came up with Rascle, it just seemed to fit her, but I also thought of Valentine, because we got her on the day before the holiday. Liking both the names equally, we combined the two to give her a first , middle and last name.... just like that Valentine Rascle Dodge fit into our lives. We are so happy !!!

Well for those of you who have made it through this ramble of mine , it's time for the prompt tease... Today's Prompt is LEMONS

Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

Our Garden

In our garden there are many delights, we almost always have something blooming, about to bloom, or needs dead heading. (Tee Hee Hee) Yesterday I trimmed and cleaned the rose bed, which got them ready for the winter. Today I took a photographic journey through my yard to document it. Each picture I took has a story (or a few ).  From the rock beds to the flowers to the Nick-knacks.  We know where they come from and how they came to live with us.

All of the rocks that make up the retaining wall ( approx. 30ft long X  3ft tall) behind the work shed , to the stairs, came from the place we lived before here. ( MaTarAwa RV PARK ). At the time, as I've said before, I didn't know what a blessing it was to have to bring all of that here.  We worked for three weeks to build that wall, and it had one problem after another , but in the end, it does it's J.O.B. LOL !

Not only is it a retaining wall, but it also serves as a two tiered flower bed. The beds contain a variety of bulbs that grow at different times of the year. We call it the cutting garden. ( although I have a problem cutting flowers just to have a bouquet in the house) When the flowers need trimming I clean them up, other than that I leave them in the garden.

This time of year, things are going to sleep for the Winter, the gardens look bare to me, yet lovely all the same. I do a lot of winter cleaning, taking out the spring and summer mulch, replacing it with fresh mulch. At the same time I remove any greenery that has died back, remove any weeds and see what is about to peek through the ground. It is my time with Mother Nature, which I very much enjoy.

It 's pleasant this time of year. We have had a few hard frosts, which have caused the pre-spring flowers to think it is time to wake up. Today I noticed the Daffodil's, Hyacinths, Freesia and Snow Crocus have decided to start. I talk to them, asking them why they are so early this year. "Do you know something I don't, my lovely ones?" (No, they never give up their secrets) Still I worry that they won't make it through what is still our winter season. ( I put a bit of extra mulch on the tender shoots, in hopes that it will save them.z)

A walk through my garden provides more that just flowers, if one takes the time to look. Our winter gives every one a chance to see the nick-knacks we placed, ( in the growing season a lot of them are hidden) Each of them were gifts from the people in our lives. They all have a special place in our garden. Most of them have a nick or two, (wings break off the fairies, dragons lose their tails), still I keep them.  Even when the have a mishap and shatter,  I try to keep them.

We have given an ID to each of the beds, with eleven beds to speak of, it's important to know which one we are talking about.  (and that is just the back yard!) We also have three patio areas in the back yard (two of them are kind of together) a BBQ area, a place for the bird seed we feed the critters and a mock waterfall. If you look through the pictures I post on Facebook, you will get it. (Also on my blog) It sounds pretty big, but it really isn't.

 Well now for those of you who have made it through this ramble of mine, it is time for  the Prompt tease... Which is Haiku..

Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

Our Garden

As a child, I was treated to the wonders of my Grandmothers love of gardening. In her front yard, there was ( and still is ) a  twenty-foot long hedge that was trimmed perfectly at six foot high. It separated her front grass area from what little traffic came through the neighborhood. The grass area swung around the east side of the house towards her back yard.  Along the way were a variety of fruit trees, ( apricot, peach, lemon, lime) forming the property line. Where the grass ends you come upon her rose garden, raised strawberry beds, and the back patio. There is a walk way that was poured in concrete by my Grandfather, many years before I was born, between the roses and the strawberries. Walking to the end of that led you to another level in her yard. Every year form Spring to late Summer the best boysenberries and blackberries I ever tasted were there for the picking.

Each year Grandma  also had a bed of sweet peas, the fragrance swept through me like a summer breeze, the colors so soft I could feel them on my skin. I would always ask permission to go play in the garden when we went to visit. I would first go to the berries(if they were in season)  and eat my fill. With my fingers red or purple, Grandma always knew where I had been. She would then hand me a few baskets and I would fill them up for her. (payment for the treat,  LOL)

I remember her doing things that, at the time I thought were strange, but now do myself in our garden. Like putting egg shells and coffee grounds in the flower beds. Grandma did it,  that is good enough for me. Only recently did I even question why she did these things, now it makes much more sense.(deters snails and adds nutrients to the soil) But , alas, she is no longer alive to answer, so I dive into books or sites that give me the answers.

Well that is where it all began for me, the fruits of my Grandma's labors seeded deep within my soul. I love to be in a garden, our own or the ones we tend, makes no difference to me.  I enjoy cleaning the weeds, trimming the plants , blowing leaves, all of it. I really think it is cool that I get to do it for a living, I get paid to do what I would do anyway, the money is (for me) an added bonus.

Wayne and I may be very bias about our yard, but we can't help it, it is pretty-not-bad !!! When we were in the process of looking for another place to rent, we ventured up to a mountain area in the East county of San Diego.  We agreed to rent a space in the Lake Morena RV Park, where we now reside.  When we first looked at our spot, it looked a bit different than it does now. The photos I took really don't tell the whole story, in fact people who have seen them have said (although they are amazed) they don't really do justice to seeing it in person.

The spot we rented had plywood and metal fence posts as a retaining wall.  ( for a three-foot high slope)The back yard was so over grown that I could only see a two-foot clearing in it. Wayne and I asked if we could make a yard back there by clearing some of the brush and build a rock retaining wall and flower beds. The people who ran the park agreed to that and three weeks before we moved our fifth-wheeler to the spot, the work began.

The place where we were living at the time is on the Veijas Indian Reservation, in Alpine. We lived there for four years, and deceided it was time to move when we started to not agree with the management. There we had a nice yard too, bringing in rocks (with their permission) to build a fire pit and garden beds. When we told them we were moving they requested that we take all those rock beds and paver walkways with us.  At first it really broke my heart that I had to rip out four years of work, but in the long run it worked out for the best. It took us three weeks of removing the rocks and pavers, driving them up to the new place, working on the retaining wall and clearing the back yard, before we could move the fifth-wheel into place.

Soon the new yard started taking shape. The retaining wall was a challenge , to say the least, but now it looks like it had been there for years.  All our hard work to prepare for the move paid off.

 For those of you who have actually made it through this ramble, it is time for the Prompt tease... FREE FORM on Roses

Hope to see you join in too
ENJOY
JL&B

When I met Wayne

In the first few months, knowing Wayne as my Supervisor, was about as far as it went. Fresh out of prison all I wanted was to get through each day without getting fired and get off parole ASAP. I did well on both, but never expected the love I found a long the way.
After doing my time in the half way house, I only had one option for a living space... my mom's.   She was very loving, as a mom should be, very supportive and giving. I really appreciated her help, probably more than I expressed at the time. 

That was  Jan - June 2003, life was great, things were going very well. Wayne and I started checking out each other, more than in just a work related way... and by July we officially had our first date. Movie and dinner, it was really nice! When he brought me back home we sat on the patio and looked at the moon rise. Something I have loved to do since I was very young. Sounds like a song in the making, but that is how it was. I th9ink that is why Wayne calls me his Princess Moon Beam, we had a few nice months of that there.

Then in October, the 26th to be exact, our county was hit by a wild fire. The cedar fire, as it had come to be known, was devastating. Fourteen people died,  several of them as they were trying to escape. The firefighters were spread so thin, it seemed like all  we could do is watch our houses go up in flames. Living in the Canyon was awesome as a child, but the last big fire we had through there was in the seventies, you do the math. The Cedar fire was set by someone who was lost, he tried to set a signal fire and it got away from him. By Thursday Oct 30th, the fire had destroyed 2,232 homes. It burnt 273,246 acres of land . Several thousand people were without... well everything.

That was when I knew Wayne really started to care about me. He was so supportive, allowed me time off work when I requested it, ( I wanted to be at work, its the only thing left I had that was normal) called me after work to make sure I had dinner. Thought of things like toothbrushes, hair brush, soap, shampoo, the whole nine yards! Made my heart go pop !

It was hard to separate us after that, we were like peas in a pod.  We went into work early, so we could have a cup of coffee together before anyone else arrived. (A few smooches too, Tee Hee Hee.) We started becoming closer, and everyone could see what we thought was so well hidden. During a company pick-nick, in Sept. 2004, we let it be known that we were in fact a couple.  Not long after that I was fired for using the company computer, during my break, for a non work related task. 

Wayne and I were starting to see a lot more of each other by this time, and in the way that things progress, he started spending more time at my place than his. We decided that we should make it official and jumped into the living together status in May 2005.  It has been really great having this man in my life. I never knew a lover that I had no fear of, the guy's I had in my life before Wayne, I wouldn't ever consider now. He has taught me that much.  Yeah I'm getting a bit mushy now , but I honestly feel that way.

Now for those of you who actually got through this ramble, its Prompt time...
Today's tease is BLANK VERSE

Hope to see you join in too
ENJOY
JL&B

New Project

In the process today of picking the flowers I want and how I want them arranged !!! I would like this one to be full of things we don't yet have, so I'm going through the books and catalog's so far I really like the egret flowers, master wort and the Lupine for the center, and maybe some asters and and scabiosa for the middle and some mixed Victorian primrose for the front, for an added bonus I think I will put a few Yellow jack in the pulpit and a striped or Griffith's cobra lilies in the mix.
What do you think, so far???

New Project

When I have an idea for the yard, I usually have to get Wayne to look at what I'm thinking about, to see what he thinks. If he thinks it will fly, I go get the lady who runs the park. Then I explain best I can what I would like to do and why, today's project though was different.
I guess from living with Wayne I have learned to ask for what I would like more specifiably. So , yesterday, rather than going to her, I called her and asked her to come to the yard to see what I had in mind... MUCH EASIER!!  She came up, okayed the project and we went to sign the official paper work.  ( So happy she said yes Tee Hee Hee ).
Of course the next thing I needed was supplies, in this case rocks ( LOTS of them... LOL). So after the laundry was done, Wayne and I went rock harvesting. When we competed that task, I started my project. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, I was done within a two hour period. The photo's are in the order of the project, so if you want to view them scroll down a bit .

I may be bias, but I think it turned out pretty-not-bad ! It got dark on me, so I will have to take the finished photos tomorrow. Now all I need is some mulch and plants...

"Oh Hunny... will you help me buy some flowers for my new bed????"
" Okay...."
Kisses
"Thank you !"

Hope you enjoy the pict's..

For those of you who follow the Prompt of the day , your tease is...A Butterfly cinquain..

Hope to see you join in ENJOY JL&B

Topics

I guess it's the writer in me, waiting to blossom out like the flowers in my garden. I find my self constantly thinking of topics I would like to write about. Of course they all stem around my everyday life. It may just be that desire I have had since I can remember, musical, lyrical things pop into my head all day long. I can really crack myself up with the stuff I think about. Lately I have taken to writing the topics down when I think of them, mostly because I have a tendency to forget more than I remember. 

Now I have a few notebooks of things written down, and still I lose the train of thought. So many ideas, so little time to act upon them. However I do believe for now I will have a few topics to fall back on while writing this blog. Here are a few ...

Our Garden...
        I may be bias, but we really have a great garden.

Valentine...
       A gift of love from my husband Wayne

When I met Wayne...
      Stepping into a life of love

My life....
      Hum-drum every day things I am doing Tee Hee Hee

I get frustrated...
      How about you ?

Reading my blog/ blogging...
      Trying to make my blogs really work for me.

New Projects....
       Our creative sides.

From the child who lived it ...
       This might be a bit dark for some people, however it is my story and I feel the need to write about it now and then. This will start with things I wrote in 2010 and blossom from there.


 Well that is the start of it... If you follow my blog, could you please let me know if you find these topics something you might like? Thank you !!

Now for the Prompt tease, Todays prompt is... Write your own lyrics to the song I STARTED A JOKE by THE BEE GEES... you can read mine on my poetry blog Dodge Writes
Hope to see you join in too
ENJOY
JL&B

When I met Wayne

It's kind of funny how things work out in my life,  I really never thought I would ever marry again, in fact I had always been dead set against it.  There were  two reasons for this, one that stems back to when I was a child, and the other from my first marriage.

My first marriage was a train wreck from the start,  He first started hitting me on the day we got married and it went on for several years. I wanted so badly to be everything I thought a good wife should be, but much to my dismay, it just wasn't good enough. He ended up getting a 16 year old girl pregnant, he was 27 at the time.  As I look back on those times I have to wonder what the hell I was thinking! I didn't want to have a failed marriage, so I told him we could raise the child together, but he wanted the 16 year old instead of me and my world shattered.

I fell into a whirl wind of self destructive madness. I drank all the time and did a few lines here and there. Drinking however was not my downfall, as one night with too much to drink, I fell out of the bar stool into an alley and woke up in my puke... YUCK ! Cured my drinking habit right then !!  The lines though, yep that was the one that stuck. I felt very free from troubles and sank deep into the clutches.

Flash forward 20 some odd years.... I am what is considered a functioning addict.  I work everyday, eat, sleep, pay the bills, the whole nine yards, but everyday I smoked meth... MY thinking was, I have no children, no family, no reason not to and I'm not hurting anyone, so why not !!  Isn't that just how addiction works?  Well it came to pass someone did get hurt... I'll save that for another day, but I will say I ended up leaving the scene of an accident, because I was high and didn't want to go to jail for being high,(yeah , bad move). In my heart I still hurt for what happened, I never thought I would be the one to hurt anyone, let alone be the reason someone died. But it happened... I turned to my best friends, knowing that I would have to "clean up" before I turned myself in, and they stood by me  through it all. I spent 18 months in prison, probably the best thing that ever happened to me up to that time, since I was headed nowhere fast.

When I went into the halfway house prior to being released, I had to be normal, which for the most part meant I had to get a job. Again my best friend, Lynn, helped me out. She was working for a window shade manufacturer and got me an interview the day before Christmas 2002.  That was the first time I met Wayne, he was the factory Supervisor, and much to my surprise he hired me on the spot.  That is when my dream of a normal life began.

After months of working together, we dated secretly for over a year, and married December 2005. We just celebrated our 5th anniversary... I am truly blessed! He is the greatest influence in my life. Every good thing that can be said about a man, a husband or a friend, he is. He is artistic, crazy funny, works hard and best of all he loves me, even when I don't really love myself. 

Thank you Sunshine Man, Your Princess Moonbeam loves you to the end of life.

For those of you who have made it through this ramble of mine, it is time for today's Prompt, which you can write with me on my poetry blog Dodge Writes... here is your tease... Today's Prompt is write a write a love poem in 15 words or less

Hope to see you joining in too
ENJOY
JL&B

Pretty-not-bad

Today went pretty-not-bad, as a dear friend of mine used to say. For the most part, I enjoyed the sunny day spraying round-up at the Bass household, while my husband(lucky him ) pulled weeds and trimmed the plants of their untamed parts. As we do this for a living, in a semi-retired state,we have the leisure of working at the jobs we want, when we want.  This allows me way too much time to think of lyrical ways to write.

So here is your picture...a 47 year old child of nature, gets to be in a garden she loves to tend with her loving husband. (Dang, that's just like at home... tee hee hee) But wait, I get to be on a mountain top, overlooking my home town, (which is a pretty-not-bad feeling in its self,) oh and I'm getting paid for it.  (Okay so it's not all that glorious, but for me, REALLY pretty-not-bad.)

As I do on most days of the week, I played on my computer this morning while having my morning two cups of coffee, before going to our "job". I always check in first to FairyLand on facebook. This is for the fairy muse I have, Bandit. She is a very big part of  everyday life, and keeps the child part of me enthused in the wonders of words, music, nature , life, love and a slew of other things. I check on her first, also for the friends I have made there, and the way they make me feel.  I started wirting a Prompt  there, more to see if I could get others to write with me than anything else, but it showed me many things.

First it showed me that I really can write stuff other people liked to read, (nice) second it showed me that I really like to read what others do with my prompts, (really cool)  and third, most important, I like to do it ! Yeh you guessed it, pretty-not-bad.

So I have committed my self to prompt on the site everyday I have service ( our service goes down a lot) and it has gotten to be quite the fun place to be, for Bandit and I. Eachday, whether in the garden I have or the ones we tend, it birngs me such serenity, that I think on the days prompt and the song I share .  (How is that for coming back around to the subject?) It  really is a great life of pretty-not-bad, (thanks for putting that in my head Kenny)

So for those of you who actually got through this ramble, Todays prompt can be found on my poem blog Dodge Writes, but I will give you a hint... FINISH THIS LINE.

Hope to see you join in too...
Until next ime
ENJOY
JL and Bandit

Ok I think I can at least find my way back here, so that is my first step !!
Today I ventured out of the trailor into the yard, only to spot not one, but two very cool fairy rings!! The mushrooms are so big ! I  will look into putting the pictures up, still really new to this LOL.



Enjoy
JL&B

Man I think I am lost

I really have no idea how this works, how you get others to view my blog, how to view someone's blog... so if there is any one reading this, if you can help me out here I really would appreciate it.