new life

One of our crepe myrtle plants. See below for details.

Yes, I'm playing with the blog. I started to play with the other one and that got me itchy. And, since I never really liked the black and white with the vegetables I switched things up. Or over. Or around.

I received six hands in the mail yesterday. Yay! Thank you Nancy! I love the different sizes of hands that came in the package, and the fabrics are each so different. I even have one of them in my stash! My count is up to 20 (maybe 22--I traced the hands of the friends sitting on either side of me at the PC training I went to last month, and I'm not sure I added them to the list). Still need more hands if others of you out there want to send them along. You can trace your hand on fabric or on paper, either one. Left or right.Young and old alike.

I've got some babies I want to do something for. My goddaughter gave birth to child #3 on Thursday, Elliott Michael. My friend Jules is a first-time Nana to twin boys who are just two weeks old. Our next door neighbors are adopting a girl from China and will bring her home in another month: she'll be nine months+ when she gets here. And, hmm, there's another one somewhere, another girl. There are some other young-uns in my life that I want to do things for as well. Like Luke and Cross, for starters. And the three granddaughters of my late friend, Kathy. I haven't even met the youngest, who will soon be one! It's been much too long since we've made a trip to St. Louis. We've also got a baby due in August at church, a boy. So babies abound! I wish I were closer to all of them to fuss over and hold and get to know.

One of my colleagues is pregnant. The news of her pregnancy really pierced my soul. That took me by surprise. You think you've done your grief work and then whammo, out of nowhere you double over with pain. There's a shower for her in August, so I need to do something for that baby, too.

Closer to home--at home, actually--we've got new life. When we came home from Melrose at the end of April we brought with us four crepe myrtles that were volunteer shoots off an older tree. Sadly, they were at the back of Kenneth's pickup during that trip home and the wind smote the leaves off those little beauties. I did not despair, however, in spite of the fact that I lack a green thumb (I did not inherit my mother's gift with greenery). We kept them watered, dug holes in carefully chosen locations, and set them in. I cut them back to encourage growth, but for the longest time, nada. A couple of weeks ago two them began to sprout. Yay! Yesterday when I was watering plants I noted that the other two had minuscule signs of greenery. I have now cut those two plants back farther to encourage those shoots, and we'll see what happens. As it appears at this moment, however, we'll have four Melrose crepe myrtles growing here in middle Tennessee, and I'm thrilled. There's nothing like a little success to make the heart shout with joy!

On that note, I'm off to a work day at church, where I plan to spend most of the morning indoors and out of the heat. Except when I'm out there with my camera, documenting. It's a cushy job, but somebody's got to do it.