A "Visit" From My Mom

I have two jewelry boxes, one for my "real" jewelry and another with old/ sentimental stuff that is really more of a treasure box than a jewelry box.  Sunday night, July 31st, I decided to rifle through the treasure box.  There was a letter from my mom in there.  She passed in 2004.  I had to wonder why that particular letter ended up in there instead of with the others I got from her.  I saved all of them.  

I sat back in bed to read it.  First I looked at the post mark.  Holy shit!  (Sorry, Mom- I'm still cussin'):

Nine years ago exactly!  The letter is full of little news that'd be boring unless you knew her, and many words of love and encouragement for me.  I was going through some big changes back then.  She closes by saying she is going to "...resume bird, hummingbird, and flower watching as I've been doing off and on while writing this.  So relaxing, and also watching the breeze blowing flowers and leaves of the the trees."  Sounds like someone else I know.  Huh.  No wonder this one ended up in the treasure box.

Yesterday my brother visited.  We were sitting in the fort listening to cardinals singing behind us in the woods.  I said, "I hear them all the time but I don't see them coming down here to my feeder in summer.  I wish they would!"  Cardinals were my mom's favorite bird, so they reminded me of the letter and I told my brother about it.  Just as I finished telling him, a beautiful male cardinal landed in the honeysuckle right behind us!  Every cardinal is Mom visiting as far as we are concerned.  I didn't get a picture of it, but I do have this.  It was hers.

I made this garden with the mister after she passed, so she never got to see it or meet him.  I reckon she can "visit" whenever she wants now.  And I reckon my mister can get to know her through her letters.

Forget-Me-Not

Forget-me-nots are a self- seeding annual that bloom most of May creating blue drifts in unexpected spots in the yard and garden. My mother started with one little 4" pot of them and ended up with a huge patch. Another older lady, Molly, told me that if you want more of them, just yank the entire plant out after it's gone to seed and shake it like a salt shaker wherever you hope for them to grow. I did, and look at them all now!

They're easily weeded out if they turn up in places where you don't want them. They are not, in my opinion, "the herpes of the garden"- I really did hear them referred to that way by some killjoy. As for the mug, I use it when they're in bloom. I like my dishes to match what's happening out there.