21st Anniversary Review

 Today, June 28th, is our 21st wedding anniversary. This last year has been packed with so many great memories and a few sad ones.  First, was the death of Poppy, the world’s best hen. Then the death of our longtime beautiful friend, B Bailey followed by the death of the woman who absolutely made us part of her family here in Hammond, Lee Collins. And just in the last few days, I learned of the passing of Sue Zajac, a dear friend from Glennallen Alaska days. 

Now on to happier moments  

A trip to the Mississippi Delta, research for my presentation at book club, Dispatches from Pluto  

A long awaited visit from Phillicia and Layne. So much fun!We even got a smile out of Stanley!

Stanley’s 82 Happy Birthday! A perfect night for star gazing and dinner on the porch.

A new visitor to garden

‘Helping’ Chelsea pass out Halloween candy  

Orchids in October and November

Off to the theater to see The Way We Say Goodbye, written by a new friend here in Hammond, Donna Gay Anderson. So much talent  

A great grandson  A first for me  Colter is the son of my granddaughter Emery and her husband Sam Bundy  

And my son Trey and Raechel presented a new granddaughter Noelle  The handsome young man is her big brother IV  

And then it was Christmas at home and a special meeting of Hammond Garden Club

In January Jesse and Sean came to visit. We had a blast A couple of highlights were the swamp tour and messing around with Heidi, the Christmas elf. 

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After Jesse left, Sean stayed a while longer to finish remodeling the chicken coop he and Jesse had started. And of course there was King Cake  When he left, Stanley had a brand new potting shed  Thanks Sean!

J had an opportunity to Play the Staircase at the Regional Art Center  I had never heard her sing with such passion!

Valentine was a total winner this year  We went to New Orleans for dancing at Mulates and Andrea Bocelli in concert and  then a FABULOUS dinner here in Hammond with friends at Jacmel  

A couple of weeks later we were off to Biloxi to see Johnny Mathis  He can still belt out those songs that make your heart melt  

Sarah, David, Grayson and Cicely came for a visit over spring break  We had a swamp tour, some cooking lessons, a lot of visiting and Grayson put our new slider together  Look at these beautiful pictures David made of our house

  

Back to our local theater for Jazz Fest

April is usually lovely here with Louisiana Iris blooms coming out our ears but the Equinox Freeze killed so much  We had very few blooms and a lot of damage  Here is my favorite of the few blooms we had  

My birthday dinner at Jacmel 

And then we were off to Europe for a fabulous trip All well documented on earlier blogs  We spent two weeks on Crete 

And another week in Milan Italy. Some highlights

The Duomo

Leonardo di Vinci

Beautiful food in beautiful settings. Garden restaurants and street markets. 

Our shopping trip

Lake Como and the gardens at Bellagio

An evening at Teatro alla Scala

That was pretty much the end of the trip. Next day we said goodbye to Kiki, our Milan Vrbo host.   

We spent the last two nights at the Hotel Villa Malpensa. Beautiful, peaceful place.

Back at home, nothing much has happened. It's been very hot except for a thunderstorm that came through with enough wind and water to put poor Adele on the ground. We were grateful for the rain, but I think we are going to leave Adele right where she is and landscape around her. 

Today, the gardens are looking as good as they can look given the record breaking heat. The Texas Star hibiscus is really putting on a show.

So now you know how we spent the last 12 months!

Life is good!

Love is good!

So very good!