The pain of root canal and the joy of the garden

Hi friends, I had a root canal done last Thursday, July 26 and brother, for 3 days I was in pain. The pain med that I could take every 8 hours worked for 3 hours and then for 5 hours I was hurting. Round the clock. Anyway, poor poor me, I am feeling much better today. In mid-August I go in for part two, which consists of the specialist dentist (endodontist) checking her work and sealing it up if all is well. So think good thoughts for me.

I decided to balance this pity party with some favorite garden quotes. There are so many, thousands really. Above photo is Canterbury Bells from my garden a few years ago. I like all bell flowers, and well, all flowers.
Here is a garden quote by a man after my own heart, William Coles, who wrote in 1657 "A house though otherwise beautiful, yet if it hath no garden belonging to it is more like a prison than a house."
I enjoy my twice daily walks with Bounce and love the variety of gardens we see, but once in a while I see a sad front yard with no plants or trees or flowers and think it could do with some sprucing up.
Sir Robert Lorimer wrote in On Scottish Gardens, in 1898 "A garden is a sort of sanctuary, a chamber roofed by heaven ... to wander in, to cherish, to dream through undisturbed ... a little pleasaunce of the soul, by whose wicket the world can be shut out."
Don't you love that word "pleasaunce"?

Above is a bonus photo of Bounce, also called Wonder Dog, Prince, Mr. Bounce, Bouncey and Bouncer. You can see by his shirt he likes flowers too.
Usually when I am in my garden I find it so soothing, peaceful and pretty that I live in the now at those moments, and find plenty of things to do. At this summer time of the year I cut off spent flowers and do some watering and soak in the beauty. Oh that new yellow rose I planted, what a lovely color.
 "A chamber roofed by heaven", I like that.

I am inspired by Miss Norma, age 90 who had a year of adventure

I bought this book about a 90 year old lady who sets out on a grand adventure. I had lots of smiles and some tears while reading "Driving Miss Norma: One Family's Journey Saying YES to Life", many of the tears being happy tears. Does anyone else cry when they hear about a beautiful moment?
Now that I am a senior citizen, and have had close family members die in the past few years, I find myself thinking about mortality and this book hit the spot for me. Norma's last year was beautiful and full of good things and experiences.

Miss Norma is 90 and when her doctor gives her a terminal diagnosis she tells him “I am 90, I'm hitting the road”, whereupon she sets out to travel for a year to places she chooses with her son and his wife in their thirty six foot mobile home. 

They have five star adventures everywhere and her final year was filled with fun and things new to them all, including a balloon ride, eating oysters in New Orleans, a zip line ride in North Carolina and riding a horse for the first time at age 90. Instead of a few months of harrowing treatments followed by death Norma had adventures with her loved ones and gained a bit of fame with TV interviews and official welcomes. They visited places she chose including Bar Harbor, Mackinaw City, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone. It turns out her family had ties to President Ford and they got a personal tour of the USS Gerald R. Ford in the shipyard as it prepared to be launched. Tim and Ramie live in their RV year round and consider Baja California, Mexico, the closest thing to a home, and Norma visited there too.

For a shy lady she truly blossomed and Tim and Ramie were glad they chose to take Norma with them in her year of being 90. And don’t forget their standard poodle Ringo who cherished Norma too. Tim contrasted his mom’s happy final year to the tough final months of his dad who a year earlier chose painful treatment and stayed home.

I bought the hard cover book and enjoyed the many color photographs.The cover is a photo of the real Norma and Ringo.

Hats off to Norma and to Tim and Ramie as they spent a year making many dreams come true. Tim wrote that he got to know his mom in ways he never had before. This journey was a gift for each of them, and I enjoyed it too.
This book reminded me to think about how I spend my day. Am I kind, thoughtful, prayerful, with some fun or adventure sprinkled in? Am I trying new things? That is my aim. Now that I am retired and a widow it is easy to me to get stuck in my comfortable rut, so this book offers a good inspiration for me. How about you? Are you trying new things?

Kitchen improvements, new counter, sink, dishwasher

The new kitchen counter is installed, hurray. I have the use of my kitchen again. The counter is quartz Silestone, Kona Beige. I decided to have the back splash of the same stone. I had the counter extended to include my built in dishwasher so the counter is longer. Soon I will paint the white strip at the end of the counter.

I kept the solid wood cabinets which my husband painted. The roses are from my Bonica Floribunda rose bush, which is about six feet wide and six feet tall and I planted it in 1998. The sink is an undermount, something I had not heard of before designing the area. It means the stone overhangs the sink edges so it is easy to clean the counter. The sink is extra deep and my dog can swim laps in it, almost. Not really, 3 inches deep water is plenty deep; he likes baths.

This is a closeup of the Kona Beige counter which shows the pattern. I am taking a needed rest from kitchen and home improvements. Next up is a new wall oven, but not yet. Time to chillax, as they say.

Happy Birthday Beloved USA

God Bless America and let's stand strong.

Books I needed to buy, well I wanted to buy

Sometimes I find I simply must buy a certain book, which many of you dear blog friends can relate to.

Here are the tomes I recently acquired.
Laughing in the Dark by Chonda Pierce. I recently discovered her stand up comedy and watched her "Laughing in the Dark" show. She is so cute, that is how I describe her. Irrepressible humor, yet in that special comedy show there were sad undercurrents. Her marriage became difficult, her husband died and she is completely estranged from her daughter. Whew. Yet Chonda gets up on stage and entertains in a charming way. This book was published in 2007, before all the above mentioned heart break, and is about Chonda coping with depression while being hard at work as a Christian comedienne.

The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith.
I enjoyed the third book in the series so much that I bought this one, the fourth in the series. Bertie is 6 years old. Angus Lordie's dog Cyril has been taken away by the authorities, and is accused of being a serial biter. I have not read this book but must insist, Cyril is innocent. The first book in the series is 44 Scotland Street. These books bring me happiness when reading them. I found stashed away in my to be read shelves book two in the series "Espresso Tales" which I am reading now. Bertie's mom is quite horrid, in my opinion. His first day in a new school she insists the embarrassed Bertie wear strawberry colored overalls; she runs every aspect of his life, and pries into his thoughts as she quizzes the psychiatrist she makes Bertie see. I am cheering for Bertie, he is a smart little boy.

Finding God's Blessings in Brokenness: How Pain Reveals His Deepest Love by Charles F. Stanley.
I read about this book on a blog. One thing that attracted me is that this book has stunning photographs of nature illustrating it. I bought the hard cover so I can enjoy the photographs and I think the price was a bargain. The hardcover was one penny less than the ebook.

Southern Fried Divorce: A Woman Unleashes Her Hound and His Dog in the Big Easy by Judy Conner.
A blogger wrote that this is the funniest book she has read in her life and who could resist buying that? It is a "true story" and I look forward to reading it. She calls her ex-husband "That X" and he is definitely a bad boy. One day in June he surprised her with two Christmas gifts; a pistol and a puppy.
These four more books are on my to read shelves.

Poem for Anthony Bourdain and others who died by suicide

I felt sad when I read that Kate Spade died of suicide and then that Anthony Bourdain also died of suicide.
In Bourdain's last blog post, in 2016, in remembrance of the poet Jim Harrison, Bourdain posted this poem written by Harrison.
BARKING
The moon comes up.
The moon goes down.
This is to inform you that I didn't die young.
Age swept past me but I caught up.
Spring has begun here and each day
brings new birds up from Mexico.
Yesterday I got a call from the outside
world but I said no in thunder.
I was a dog on a short chain
and now there's no chain.

That last sentence really speaks to me and breaks my heart.
Please if you are in trouble, call 911 or a similar number in other countries, for help.
Someone I know did call 911 and the police came to her door, took her to treatment for 72 hours, and she is alive and well, several years later. Someone else I know and loved did not call for help and is gone, so this idea of loss by suicide is close to my heart. I will always wonder and be sad that they did not seek professional help or ask for my help.
This is the photo of the sky near my house that I came up with for this post:

Arboretum plants and sculpture

June 11 I took a walk in the arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Here are some highlights of a sculpture made from eucalyptus branches and photos of plants from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and of succulents.

It looks like a lion's mane to me. What do you think?

The above shows the back and side. The first three photos below are of orange and of yellow Leucospermums from South Africa.

The above photos are of plants native to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and the last two are of succulents. I plan to go back and write down the artist's name and plant names and add them to this post. I accidentally published this post today when I meant to save it and post at a later date after I found more plant names. Still, the plants are very pretty and speak for themselves.