The Garden

Well, I need to run out tomorrow & take pictures of a number of things. The lilacs are blooming beautifully. Dennis really wanted lilacs and planted 5 - 6 starts. His pine trees are not doing as well, but some of them survived the winter. Dennis was a Colorado master gardener, getting his certificate in 2005. So I'm attempting to restart his garden. He has 5 raised beds. So far I've planted things in 3 of them. The other two still need to be weeded or perhaps I should say the grass removed from them. I totally need to rework the walk area around them to try and get rid of all the grass. In the meantime the flower beds are going strong with everything growing including weeds. It never ends.

The alpacas need shearing & hopefully we will get a start on that tomorrow. Way behind on that. I'm going to miss the Pagosa Fiber Festival as I truly need to start the shearing. Hopefully next year will go better.

Summer

Busy times. The water is on for the ditches. The heat outside has finally been turned on (thank you Lord) so perhaps summer is here. I'm trying to get gardening & flower beds worked on plus the grass...................seems like there is always something to do.

We dyed fiber in our guild meeting Saturday & everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. Another learning experience for many.

I look around at all that needs to be done & look at how much Dennis has done each year. He had a tremendous amount of energy and got a lot accomplished during the time he lived here. I miss him.............more than words can tell.

Not much other news here, just keeping very busy.

Time Flies

Lots going on. Willie & I are taking two classes. One is hoop gardening through the extension office. It starts Sunday evening. The other is Internet selling through Adams State college community outreach. So this next week is going to be busy, as that's when most of the classes are. At least they are short & hopefully sweet. I'm working on the flower beds & hoping to get a better start on them than last year. Plus I'm working on Dennis' garden. A friend found a rototiller for me at an exceptional price & so far it works really well---except when it finds a rock & that rock gets stuck in the rototiller blade. Most interesting the first time around. Plus you must understand we live on the edge of Rock Creek!! Willie made me a turquoise necklace for Mother's Day. He couldn't wait to show it to me. He did a very good job on it. Sunday we'll take my Mom out for lunch & spend most of the day with her.

Spring

The trip to Kansas was very good. We had a great visit with relatives and even Malen & Jamie enjoyed themselves. We were able to stop in Trinidad on the way home & spend an hour or so with alpaca friends (he also graduated from Center High, just a few years before I did).

Now we are back to the "usual", which has become Spring workings. I'm working on the flower beds, getting weeds cleaned out & everything done as best I can. I'm truly missing Dennis more each day...........he worked so hard on his garden. I still need to start on that. That will be next. Anyway between Willie & I we have gotten a good start on the flower beds and on the garden. I actually mowed two days ago and finally started watering the yard.

It is so wonderful that Spring has finally arrived.

Rings

I took Dennis & my wedding rings to a local jeweler to be worked on, so to speak. We have been working on these for about 4 weeks with ideas, etc. This is what I came up with ---- with a lot of help from the jeweler. The vertical part is Dennis' ring. With diamond chips on the top & the bottom. The horzonital part is my ring with the diamonds in the middle.



This is the back view & you can kind of see how Dennis' rings overlap on the back.

This is the side view & you can see how the ends on my ring are curled under (between the two pictures).

Once again, the final product. I absolutely love it. The jeweler did a wonderful job & I'm extremely pleased by the necklace that I can wear forever. It is beautiful.

Urns 2

Well, the one on the right is Johns. It shows a man in a boat fishing. That was one thing we both really enjoyed. The one of the left is Dennis, in front of the flag I received since he was in the Navy. I'll have to post a close up of his to really show it better. It shows a cabin on a lake. Something we had planned on having built this year. The middle is Elizabeth's. It is 3 blocks on a wood base. The 3 blocks have a letter on each block, EGC for her name. The two are done in natural wood without any staining. They are really beautiful. They are also memory urns in that the top opens & there is a small area to put items in. The name is engraved on the top with the dates.

Urns

After much indecision---- thought & prayer I decided to get an urn for Dennis. As I thought more and more about it, I decided I should also get one for my daugher, Elizabeth & my first husband John. I know, it all sounds strange, carrying ashes around for 20+ years, but that is what I have been doing. For now though, they all finally have a "home". Sooner or later Dennis' ashes will go to Washington. I'm not sure about the others. I found some beautiful urns that I felt were very appropriate for each one of them. I hope they can be seen when I download the picture.