Sheer Pleasure

As I spend precious time with my family, I have received such lovely gifts.  Packages have arrived from coast to coast, each containing unique items such as ‘hardware’ from New York (see below), tasty baked goods and farmer’s market selections from Minneapolis, artisan chocolates from San Francisco, and favorite wines from everywhere.  

The only drawback is the time spent indulging in these items has distracted me from posting to the blog.

My apologies.

“Enjoying” the gifts faster might save time, but would pose a challenge to the fine balance of alcohol consumption vs. seizure threshold.  But don’t feel sorry for me, as I am up to task of mastering this balancing act.  Plus the wine shop closest to our home is enjoying a surge in sales, and given the current economy we would hate to spoil this for them.

I am thrilled to report an amazing upswing on the symptom roller coaster.  Quite frankly, while the recent free fall was scary it provided a needed refocus: SEIZE NOT JUST EACH DAY ACTIVELY  - BUT EACH IDEA.   I was beginning to hesitate if an idea seemed a little too excessive in combination or I had more than one per day.  Hello - is there a one per customer per day limit?

And there is a silver lining in the timing of this entire process.   Everyone knows what a massive role my yard and gardens play in my life. So how lucky am I that we are currently in the full growth season of late spring rather than the winter here in Michigan?

Something new comes into bloom in my garden each week.  I indicate which current showpiece should be clipped and I then revel in creating a flower arrangement in a vase.  Now all the family here can benefit from my labor of love.

Because there are too many flowers for just my household - all gardeners are guilty of this - I would take arrangements to work. In 2011, I was pleased to be able to cover the commercial loan operation department of about twelve to fifteen gals despite the tumor madness.

Here is a sample of the latest bloom.