Happy Birthday to my darling Will, I miss you

My husband Will would have been 72 on this his birthday, on August 27. My words are not able to convey how much I miss him, so I include here the profound words to Death Is Nothing At All

Henry Scott Holland

Original version read as a sermon upon the death of King Edward VII

Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.

Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.

All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Bounce sitting on Will's memorial bench that we donated to the park near our house, where we can sit and watch the skateboard park and children's swings. Can you see the rose made of straw left there by an unknown person? The bench says "Bike Adventures" and has a bike carved into the back. That was my man!

Feeling Blue, Give P.G. Wodehouse novels a try

I think that if you read Plum, as P.G. Wodehouse's friends and readers call him, his words will give you many cheerful heart moments. I find that his world of silliness is a good one to enter. If you are feeling down, or even already cheerful, read a Plum novel for laughter. Good news is that he wrote about 90 novels.
"It is impossible to be unhappy while reading the adventures of Jeeves and Wooster. And I've tried." -- Christopher Buckley.
Wodehouse is known for his Jeeves and Wooster books, and Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie did a brilliant job acting in the TV series "Jeeves and Wooster". So funny to me and to many.
Here are covers of some representative titles. My favorite Plum novel might be "The Code of the Woosters." I gave a copy to our minister when he left on a sabbatical; I have seen that being a minister is a very tough job and laughter can be applied as needed.

I find I can turn to any page in a Wodehouse book and find humor. Here is one random snippet from page 2 of My Man Jeeves. "After this," I (Wooster speaking to Jeeves) said, "not another step for me without your advice. From now on consider yourself the brains of the establishment."
"Very good, sir, I shall endeavor to give satisfaction."
And he has, by Jove! I'm a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would have appeared to have been constructed more for ornament than for use, don't you know; but give me five minutes to talk the thing over with Jeeves and I'm game to advise anyone about anything."
Another fabulously funny series is the Blandings Castle books featuring Lord Emsworth, not the brightest guy around, and his devotion to his prize winning pig, The Empress. See above photo, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, on the cover is the Empress taking a bath. Just the character names alone bring me smiles, uncle Fred is the Fifth Earl of Ickenham and he dependably drags his nephew Pongo Twistleton into trouble and somehow they survive.
Proverbs 17:22 reminds us that "A cheerful heart is good medicine".
Here is our esteemed author himself, living in the USA.

Visit With My Niece Who Drove From Seattle

My niece moved to Seattle from Connecticut this year and drove to hang out with her two cousins (my sons) and me. She brought KittyDog with her and great fun was had by all.

That first night she came to my house at five p.m., we chatted and got a reservation for dinner. We got the best spot in the restaurant, on the second story roof, with a view of our downtown and the tourist trolley.

My Bounce, Elizabeth's Kittydog,Elizabeth and my sons walking along the ocean near my house.

If you walk to your right from my house there is a beach at the end of the walk. The beach looked pretty with lots of colors from the sun tents, umbrellas and beach toys and swim suits and towels, and kites flying overhead.

Above is Elizabeth and her Kittydog relaxing on my new flagstone seating area.

Kittydog at my house waiting for his mommy to come out and play. I think he weighs 7 pounds, more or less. He has soft silky fur and is a quiet guy and I think Elizabeth said he is a Havanese.

Another view of the rooftop restaurant, E and my younger son. Bye Elizabeth and come back soon!

Catnip High and Fluffy

See the little bits of green catnip? My sister grows the catnip and so it is fresh and organic. Fluffy looks a bit insane in the top photo.

Fluffy is sure enjoying herself. Some cats don't care for it, and my dog sure doesn't.
Have a great day friends.

Bounce, his outfits, seniors adopting dogs and some shadows

Above photo is of my dog, Bounce, preparing for a July barbeque party.
Yes, I am a senior citizen and in November 2016 I adopted a dog from an animal shelter. I chose to adopt an adult dog, looking at dogs 2, 3 and 4 years old. The dog who won my heart had an unknown age which they guestimated to be 5. So today Bounce is almost eight, according to their guess.
Bounce in his new security outfit, keeping the party crowd in line.

Part of the reason I chose to adopt an adult dog is that I am no expert on raising or training puppies. They had no info on Bounce beyond that he was found on the street, was very thin, and not fixed. Before I took him home per their rules they fixed him and pulled two problem teeth.
Bounce turned out to be very house trained already and is a fabulous companion. He likes all people.
The reason I am writing about this is that I recently read criticisms online about a person who is 80 and who adopted a puppy. My goodness, critics were worried the person would die before the dog. The critics insisted the person should not have adopted a puppy, but rather an older dog.
Personally I am happy that puppy has a loving home. When it comes to dogs, let people follow their heart.
I know that people of all ages sometimes turn in their dogs to shelters because of new life situations for them, so dogs can lose their home no matter the age of the owner. At the animal shelter when I filled out forms one question was who would care for Bounce if I couldn't and my younger son who was with me, signed up to say he would. My adult sons LOVE Bounce.
These shadows on my bedroom curtain caught my eye. The one on the right looks like a cute alien peering in with little antennas sprouting from his head. Well, it does to me!

Fourth of July and Betsy Ross Flag

Happy Birthday to my beloved country, the USA.
The above flag is the design with 13 stars and stripes in honor of the original 13 colonies, made by Betsy Ross during the Revolutionary War.
Following are some lines from the poem and song "America" by Samuel Francis Smith.
"My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain-side,
Let freedom ring."
 and the final verse:
"Our father's God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our king."

My front yard changing, a baby brontosaurus and books

Here is a cute baby brontosaurus, or that is what I imagine him to be. He is in the playground at the community center where my once a month book discussion group meets. We meet in the building, not in the playground. I have attended three times, the group is open to anyone (they let me in, ha ha), and it has been led by the same lady for about 15 years.

This view shows the mural behind him.

The book we are reading in June in our discussion group is Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, which was written in 2004. I see he wrote a book Daughter of Moloka'i in 2014. A seven year old has a red sore on her face and is sent away from her family to the leper colony on Moloka'i in Hawaii. I have started reading it, the subject of a child taken from her home and enduring leprosy is a rough thing to read about. I don't know if I will finish it, I am trying to.

The book we read in May was Atonement by Ian McEwan. I loved this book and in the group discussion I said that the ending raised it to genius level, where the author through a character talks about the power of a novelist to give his readers a happy ending or a bitter ending, plus of course create an entire story and cast of people. Read the book to find out about the man unjustly imprisoned, the love of his life, and a troubled 13 year old who lied to convict him. How could she ever atone? Quite a few people in the discussion group liked the book but did NOT like the ending. It was not a simple or straight forward ending and was disturbing to me, but still, I thought it was genius for originality and writing skill.

My front yard has been a mess this past week as it is transformed into a thing of beauty, sort of like us sometimes, and like the Velveteen Rabbit. Everything is coming together.

This above photo is from June 6 2019. See all (some) of my new plants? About 50 actually.
The flagstone is Arizona Flagstone.

Above is me on June 5 2019 before the wood chips were added around the plants.
Below is photo I took on June 7 showing the trellis taking shape.

P.S. Work was completed on the trellis, flagstone patio and plantings on June 11, so I will post soon with photos of the completed work. Shall I leave the redwood trellis as is, or paint it or stain it? I am thinking of staining it a "faded barn red" to match the front of the house. What is best?