Showing posts with label sunflowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sunflowers. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

I Climbed Long's Peak with My Sister the Day I Got Out of the Hospital!

That should have gotten you attention!  Impossible feat.  However, my Swissie, DID climb it, with her husband and his friend who have done it before. She took me with her, though. Sixteen grueling miles, over boulders and along ledges where you can literally fall to your death.  It was a bucket list item for her.  I'm very proud of her.

It's no secret I love sunflowers, so she took one of my artificial ones from some arrangements I made and brought it with her so I could "go there" too. The irony was not lost on either of us that she was climbing one of the most difficult 14,000+ peaks (we call them 14ers) while I was leaving the hospital in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank.

Here is my amazing sister, at the top.  Love you Swissie.



~Tina, who has climbed a 14er, but not this one...I don't have a death wish, I'm afraid of heights, and well, I'm not exactly in the best shape of my life...

©2014 All Rights Reserved
Photo credit: one of her co-horts, don't know which one, but probably her husband

P.S Yes, I'm sorta back.  Posting will be random, I'll return comments as I have the energy, and I've missed you all very much.  Thanks for sticking around!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Summer's End

Just a little longer?
Summer's end
both welcome
and too soon

Carefree days, used up
become days, of
schedule keeping,
routines

The house-o-boys
will be quiet
once more
but I'll miss
the chaos

I do know it's time, since
Columbine have graciously
given way
to marigolds, already dressed
for autumn
while the sunflowers, so tall
majestic
are losing their seeds
to birds, preparing

I'm not prepared
for this transition
Not yet

Time tick-tocks
Flying by, while I,
paralyzed with
inevitable changes,
grieve

The end of childhood,
a treasured friend,
off into the world
daily friendship,
exchanged, for
electronic communication

Stop the world
Just for a little bit
Give them, give me
Just a little longer

I'm not ready, for
time's relentlessly rapid
progression
lay the hour glass,
on its side
stop the hours
keep them young

Just a little longer



Monday, May 20, 2013

5 Things That Make Me Happy!


I got tagged, which is almost as cool as an award, so I'm a happy camper. JoJo of Tahoma Beadworks and Photography tagged me in this "5 Things That Make Me Happy" thing. Yes, you recognize her name, she is one of my Tina's Terrific Team members. So here's my 5:

God, family, friends are a given, and I love them immensely. However, I'm going to share five less obvious choices, because that's the mood I'm in.

Knitting
This is my current project. 





It's a baby blanket for my cousin, GorgeousGirl who is having her first baby. She's a Patriots fan, which I tolerate, and her husband, who has very good taste in football teams, is a Bronco fan, as we are trying to convince her is her logical choice. She (wisely) choose two skeins of Bronco yarn, a skein of Patriots yarn, followed by two more Bronco ones. This yarn is really fun, as you can see, because it makes the same side look like both inside and outside - not the proper terms, but Farmor taught me knitting, and that was in Swedish and I don't know the proper words...  

I love knitting because it totally relaxes me. I can zone out (except on row three...) and watch TV (great excuse, eh?) without feeling guilty that I'm not cleaning up the clutter which constantly plagues our house. But you've heard all about that before...

Sunflowers
I've written lots of words about them, which you can read here, and see lots of pictures of all my sunflower stuff, including my ankle tattoo.


October
I'm always too hot, so I HATE summer. Autumn is my favorite season, and October is the best month of all. Here in Colorado, we get an amazing variety of colors when the leaves change. The sun slants differently, giving afternoons a special glow. Leaves crunch under your feet. The weather becomes bearable! Campers become more scarce, so we have more privacy when we head for the hills.

Flamingos
I know it's almost cliché, and that it's a polarizing “like” but THEY MAKE ME HAPPY. I have flamingos in my car, because The Engineer has slowly, over the years, convinced me to remove other flamingo decorations in the house by just plain wearing me down. 





I'm not proud of it, but some battles aren't worth it. Save your ammo for the biggies. Like he cooks on weekends. Period.

These Shoes



Yes, they are ugly. I don't care. They are the most comfortable shoes on the planet and because of them, I can walk and hike and do stairs and be a mobile person. I have severe arthritis. I was supposed to have a hip replacement. I refused. I searched for another solution. I tried Feldenkrais Therapy, which is curing me, and my practitioner recommended these shoes.  

They line up your feet as if you were barefoot, which is how our bodies were designed to walk, and in turn that lines up all the knee-bone connected to the thigh-bone stuff and your hip stops hurting. Seriously. Magic shoes.

***

I'm tagging these bloggers, who are encouraged but not forced, to mention their own 5 Things That Make Them Happy.


What things make YOU happy?