Day 196: Backyard Paradise

We had a glorious day in our backyard paradise.  I reached my goal of swimming six miles this week, so that's 11.5 miles in two weeks and I'm a month ahead of last year's schedule.  We browsed the excursions for our cruise to Alaska and found lots of great options.  Brilliant flowers and sweet potato vines spilling over the containers' rims and flowing along the steps create a serene and beautiful refuge, at least till the neighbor's lawn mower starts.

Today would have been my mother's 84th birthday, but she passed away twelve years ago.  She spent her last birthday in Kentucky with my sister because I was studying in Uzbekistan.  When I came home on August 1, she didn't feel well and she died just three weeks later.  I think about her often on hot July days because she would join us on the deck or sit on the edge of the pool to dangle her feet in the water.  That was both the best and worst summer of my life; the most exciting adventure I ever experienced and the worst loss.  Life is funny like that.

Wintermint Candy

Danette Louise

Decatur Cherry Smash

Our backyard paradise