I met my classmate’s sister in the McDonald’s parking lot yesterday and traded my wide mouth canning lids for the coveted regular size. Three for three…even Steven. At the same time, two of our grandkids met us with their sweet little boy….our first great grandson. It was all I could do not to pull him out of his car seat and kiss him all over. I haven’t held my babies since February! But, ohhhhh…it was so good to see them. 

Honestly, that was all we planned to do, but one thing led to another and we didn’t get home till after 6:00 last night. That is the nature of a trip to town when you live out in the country. You try to squeeze all the errands you possibly might need to do into that one trip and hopefully you don’t have to make another one for a while. 

We did the usual…bank, post office, Sams, grocery store, and checking on a friend’s house while he’s away. On a whim, we decided to stop in Kohl’s. There are a couple of things I’ve been looking for and I hoped to find them there but alas…no luck. On our way home, we stopped for a sandwich. The last think I want to do after a day of running around is to cook. 

One of you wrote yesterday asking where I got our yard flag. Honestly, I can’t remember, other than it was locally. I looked online and found a website that sells the same flag. You can look in the comments on yesterday’s post and find the link if you’re interested. I loved this flag as soon as I saw it. I’m crazy about hummingbirds and even though we had our feeder out at the appropriate time with the correct feed and changed it regularly, we just didn’t have as many hummers this summer. 

I love the deep red hollyhocks. The only time I’ve ever had hollyhocks was when Hubby #2 was doing his residency. We lived in an old farmhouse surrounded by more modern mid century houses. After researching, I found out that this area had been a dairy farm at one time. The house we lived in was the main residence for the farm. There were old flowerbeds around the house and I did my best to be an urban farm girl and bring them back to life. I planted garnet colored hollyhocks along the sand-colored brick on the front porch. On hot summer evenings, as the sun began to dip low and turn the air to spun gold, the hummingbirds would bob and weave and dive their way around the yard, fighting for a sip of the sweet nectar. Daughter #1 and I would sit in the front porch swing…the sound of the chain squeaking as we swayed back and forth and the darkness closed in around us.

There was a lot of traffic on Holly Street and I would do my best to tune it out and focus on what little night sounds I could hear in the busy neighborhoods of east Denver. Crickets. The whine of mosquitoes around our ears. The distant bark of a dog. I would rock and close my eyes and pretend I was back home on the farm in West Virginia. I swear…I missed home more than anything in this world and would count the days till I could hop on a plane and come see my family.

Now, as I write this, I’m laying in a camper…the windows thrown open. The night air is cool and tonight we’ll need an extra blanket as it’s supposed to get down to 51 degrees. There are the crickets. And the katydids. The whine of a mosquito and the sound of the neighbor’s dog announcing a possible four-legged interloper. This time, it’s the occasional car that passes up the road out front that breaks the stillness instead of the other way around.

I still marvel at this scenario. There was a time that I didn’t dare dream I could live here again…let alone live on five acres where I can grow anything I want. Or care for Grandma’s house and stay there whenever I want. Or find my BFF from high school and marry him. I am living my dream. There is only one thing that would make this life better…having my Colorado family closer. That would be absolute perfection!

But…this is pretty darned close!

❤️

“You have shown me the path to life, and you make me glad by being near to me. Sitting at your right side, I will always be joyful.”

Psalms 16:11 CEV