A Day of Play

I had every intention of leaving early to pick up the note cards from Mr. Roger's house that he'd made for me to sell at the Polasek. Actually, we have been selling them, albeit slowly; this was a re-stocking. Good intentions and reality are sometimes not the same. Instead I left sort of early, picking them up on my way to play bridge with the ladies. I was so, so happy to see Debbie when I arrived. You'll have forgotten Debbie by now, but we hadn't. Nearly a year ago she mentioned to me that she had a breast lump. Heading into a bathroom stall to check it out, I knew the minute I felt it, that she was in for some rough days ahead. Fortunately she had the same inkling and had a doctor's appointment the next day. You might be able to spot her immediately in the picture below--the one with the little gray fuzz on her head.

We heard not a word of complaint from Debbie, and I swear, even after not playing for all this time, she jumped right back in as if she'd never been gone. She claims that even though it was hard, she felt no pain whatsoever. Aside from the hair loss, she said everything else was a breeze. What an attitude! 

I did make it over to the Polasek where I sat under an umbrella folding, sorting and stuffing the cards into their little boxes. Trudy is wishing I'd come back; not so much because I'm that great, but I am reliable. As I was heading to my car a lady was arriving in a MINI Cooper.

It's funny because as I've driven around in the "beast", I've thought to myself--this is a far cry from your MINI days. I should say so.

Back at the ranch, I played around taking more photographs--as if I needed to! So, here's the nest out of the palms; pretty sure there are a couple of leftover egg shells inside.

While we're on the subject of cardinals (imagine that!), I can't help but share this one on the back yard feeder:

I may have told you Bruce attached it to the top of the fence at a 45 degree angle in an effort to squirrel proof the darn thing. 

As well, Angela told me that Matt got her the most beautiful tulip bouquet for Easter. Good grief, she wasn't kidding. I brought it home to see what I could accomplish. When people buy my still life photographs, they have no idea of how many different ways I've tried to set it up before something great happens. The bouquet was no exception and to be honest, I'm not sure anything great ever did happen, although with a subject as lovely, it's almost criminal if I can't get anything! Here's how I work:

Wait a minute--this post is about playing! Anyway, using the sky light, I taped the piece of poster board to two chairs in an effort to get a backdrop. Not a very good job right? Because I like orange I hope everyone does, thus the color. To keep shadows off the back drop I had the jar in the forefront, but the trouble was I only had one poster board so it couldn't be seamless. I had fun anyway!

Putting my camera away, figuratively, not literally, I got ready for the 5K. 5K? Are you kidding me? Why no, I'm not dear reader. Darden put together a team for this. Well, I should clarify that--a friend of Bruce's at work convinced him that we should participate so we did. Along with more than 14,000 others I might add!

As noted boldly on our tags, we walked but not before gathering at the Darden tent:

Which is where Mr. Bruce is headed wearing his BRIGHT green shirt provided by Darden! There were lots and lots of tents, however, ours was easy to find because it was right along the fencing. It turned out to be a lot of fun once we got going. Because it was a new experience, we didn't know what to expect, but from what we experienced, we'd like to do it again. Because there were so many people, getting started was the hardest part with everyone clogged onto Eola Street before turning left on Central Avenue. We just followed the pack. A little more than a mile into it, Bruce was getting antsy so he took off jogging for a bit which he interspersed with walking while I hung back in the pack with Barb and Steve. Nightfall came about halfway into it. We really enjoyed all the neighbor's sitting in their yards cheering the group on. Not that we needed cheering--after all, how hard can walking 3 miles be? Afterwards Bruce and I had a little refreshment at Dexter's and headed home. A bonus was that we parked at Trish and Roger's house which is only a few blocks from the starting point. Score!

While we have Darden on our minds, there is some sad news from Bruce's department. One of his co-workers's sons has died. Actually, you might almost call it murder, but that's jumping the gun. We don't know many details except that there was a fight between two young men, (22) that was senseless. The injuries were so severe that even before he died they began harvesting his organs to donate. Such a shame....my heart goes out to them. I CANNOT imagine losing a child. When I think about how tomorrow is the birthday party for our nephew's one year old son, Spencer, and the love they have lavished on him in just this one year, it makes me all the sadder. Imagine lavishing all that love for more than 20 years and this happens? All I can say is we have been blessed to have raised four sons without serious mishaps. Thank God.

Concluding on a happier note, I need to go pack my car for Winter Garden. There is a big gardening event, Spring Fever,  scheduled on the street adjacent to the market. I'll actually have to get myself in gear to leave EARLY--no doubt, parking will be at a premium. Bonus points though--maybe I'll find some awesome gardening stuff and plants???