Saturday, May 24, 2025

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2004. Mattie was two years old and that weekend we took him to the National Arboretum. This wonderful garden had a koi pond and as you can see Mattie was staring at this big fish rising to the surface to get some fish food. Mattie was cautious, he wasn't sure if he wanted to get too close or feed these fish. So naturally I did it first, to show Mattie that this was a friendly fish and was only interested in coming to the surface for the food. The many wonderful adventures with Mattie..... weekends were never boring, as we were always out exploring. 

Quote of the day: Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is admit you don’t feel strong at all. ~ Glennon Doyle

On Friday, my dad came home with these rocks that he painted in his memory care program. He then dated them and wrote our names on them. I have three on display in the kitchen and three on display on the porch. My dad is very proud of these creations!

I feel physically and emotionally exhausted this weekend. I am not sure any one thing explains how I am feeling. I spent about two hours today outside weeding and watering flowers. When we moved into this house in 2021, this area was a disaster. We created this rose garden for me. A tribute to me and my love of roses. I continue to maintain and nurture this area and the roses are responding. 

I planted these roses and irises in this location last spring. They have taken and are incredibly beautiful. This was another area of the garden with no rhythm or reason, until I took over. 

My wall of herbs! 

Can you see the very tall green rubrum lilies that are growing? I happen to love these types of flowers. We planted them in 2022 and they grow each spring and produce beautiful and fragrant lilies. What you can't see is I have a row of them along another flower bed as well. 

These two brown flower pots hold what I call "Mattie's oak trees!" When we lived in the city, we had a beautiful oak tree outside our living room window. This oak was important to Mattie's spring time activity. Mattie would bring home tent moth caterpillars from school EVERY spring. I assure you when he first presented me with a cup filled with caterpillars, I was creeped out. But then I went with it, since Mattie was intrigued and interested! We would put these caterpillars in jars, feed them oak leaves, clean their jars daily and await for them to spin their cocoons. Once they emerged as moths, we would have a moth releasing party on our deck. We studied the beauty of metamorphosis each spring, by doing an activity that Mattie gravitated to and loved! We tried feeding the caterpillars all sorts of leaves but the only ones they would eat were from the oak tree outside our window. 

When we moved out of the city in 2021, we took acorns from this oak tree and planted them in these two pots. As you can see I have two saplings that come back every spring! These trees are a tribute to Mattie's life, his love and joy for exploration, adventure, and his appreciation for all things NATURE.