but I just can't help it. This place is beautiful!
I wish I could count just the number of different flowers/flowering shrubs we have in bloom right now. If I were to count the actual flowers, it would be in the thousands (( well, ever take a close look at an azalea or rhododendren?) I look out at our backyard, and right now it is a fairyland!
I've always loved flowers -- who doesn't? -- and I always was especially envious of those people lucky enough to have flowering shrubs and trees around their houses. From hanging around the elementary school on Memorial Day waiting for the parade to start to driving through the suburbs around Washington DC on my way to work, the houses with flowers always seemed a little more attractive, a little more special to me than houses where only green grew.
And now we are at Blackwater, with flowers on steroids, totally unplanned, totally by surprise -- honestly, I don't think I'll ever get over it. So, I'll just post a few pictures and try not to bore you with more raves.
and these are only the SMALL azaleas! We have at least 6 colors:
white, pink, raspberry, red, variegated pink, and salmon
across all kinds of flowers out, we have those colors listed above, plus yellow, purple, crimson, and blue. and many of them are very fragrant, too.
pictures courtesy dkminnick
We've met some very nice people here. I hadn't realized how snobbish I'd become about Nashville. The people there are very special, and of course, some of them we've known for years now. But I hadn't meant to reach the point where I couldn't imagine people somewhere else not being AS nice as Nashvillians. Especially when I had my husband and my daughters telling me how nice people were in Boston or Hawaii or Oregon. I think it comes from being afraid of change -- and I'm as afraid of change as the next person. Of course, if it's change I control, well, that's a different story.
As for those nice people -- there's the lady in church who encouraged us to sing along with the choir's Hallelujah chorus, by singing along herself! When I thanked her for it, she said that if you couldn't sing the Hallelujah chorus in church, what could you sing? and then she gave me a big hug.
There's the mom of our daughters' classmate who also stays at home (and also has a large family) while her husband serves overseas. We shared stories of teenagers and projects and new schools in the school parking lot at night.
There's the people in the local Lowe's and WalMart who are getting to know me WAY too well as I pick up stuff to work on our house and yard. They seem to love to help me load my car -- or even my cart (and I really hope it's not because of how old I look). But they are so sweet about it!
And our neighbors who talk to the kids, wave across the way, and even offer to help keep an eye on things when we're not around.
I am tentatively putting down roots. I'm not ready to be like the army families, some of whom have moved about so much they don't feel like they have a home state. I'm trying to get into the frame of mind that I need to BE HERE for as long as we are here, be it short or long. Home is wherever our family is. And just as my heart expanded to include each of our children as they came along, my personal world must expand to encompass all the places our family members live. I have to try to copy my mother who, when talking about how far-flung her own children had become, would smile broadly and say, "Isn't it wonderful!"
rjm
I wish I could count just the number of different flowers/flowering shrubs we have in bloom right now. If I were to count the actual flowers, it would be in the thousands (( well, ever take a close look at an azalea or rhododendren?) I look out at our backyard, and right now it is a fairyland!
I've always loved flowers -- who doesn't? -- and I always was especially envious of those people lucky enough to have flowering shrubs and trees around their houses. From hanging around the elementary school on Memorial Day waiting for the parade to start to driving through the suburbs around Washington DC on my way to work, the houses with flowers always seemed a little more attractive, a little more special to me than houses where only green grew.
And now we are at Blackwater, with flowers on steroids, totally unplanned, totally by surprise -- honestly, I don't think I'll ever get over it. So, I'll just post a few pictures and try not to bore you with more raves.
and these are only the SMALL azaleas! We have at least 6 colors:white, pink, raspberry, red, variegated pink, and salmon
across all kinds of flowers out, we have those colors listed above, plus yellow, purple, crimson, and blue. and many of them are very fragrant, too.
pictures courtesy dkminnick
We've met some very nice people here. I hadn't realized how snobbish I'd become about Nashville. The people there are very special, and of course, some of them we've known for years now. But I hadn't meant to reach the point where I couldn't imagine people somewhere else not being AS nice as Nashvillians. Especially when I had my husband and my daughters telling me how nice people were in Boston or Hawaii or Oregon. I think it comes from being afraid of change -- and I'm as afraid of change as the next person. Of course, if it's change I control, well, that's a different story.
As for those nice people -- there's the lady in church who encouraged us to sing along with the choir's Hallelujah chorus, by singing along herself! When I thanked her for it, she said that if you couldn't sing the Hallelujah chorus in church, what could you sing? and then she gave me a big hug.
There's the mom of our daughters' classmate who also stays at home (and also has a large family) while her husband serves overseas. We shared stories of teenagers and projects and new schools in the school parking lot at night.
There's the people in the local Lowe's and WalMart who are getting to know me WAY too well as I pick up stuff to work on our house and yard. They seem to love to help me load my car -- or even my cart (and I really hope it's not because of how old I look). But they are so sweet about it!
And our neighbors who talk to the kids, wave across the way, and even offer to help keep an eye on things when we're not around.
I am tentatively putting down roots. I'm not ready to be like the army families, some of whom have moved about so much they don't feel like they have a home state. I'm trying to get into the frame of mind that I need to BE HERE for as long as we are here, be it short or long. Home is wherever our family is. And just as my heart expanded to include each of our children as they came along, my personal world must expand to encompass all the places our family members live. I have to try to copy my mother who, when talking about how far-flung her own children had become, would smile broadly and say, "Isn't it wonderful!"
rjm
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