January Showers Bring May Flowers!

My garden offerings. Red "Lasting Love" roses and the most vibrant pink petunias.

What a month! I'm doing my best to keep up with the thriving blooms and plants that adorn our property, and it's A LOT! But I love it. My current passion. Even the greenhouse has gotten overloaded with burgeoning tomato plants, several succulents, and ROSES! I've always wanted to grow roses (just like my grandfather's award-winning garden), so we'll see how it pans out.

May has been chock-full of activity. Greg adventured out on his annual road trip for several weeks. He met up with his son in Utah, and they camped, mountain biked, ran trails, swam in rivers, had awesome father/son conversations, and played backgammon. No phones the entire time. I admire that. He also celebrated his birthday whilst on the road, and thankfully, his son was there to share the moment. Once Evan peeled off to join his new girlfriend and continue camping, Greg went solo and found the coolest spots in Utah and Idaho to contemplate life and have massive amounts of peace. He loves it, and I love it for him.

During his epic adventure, I drove up to Carmel for a few days to visit with our dear friends. Beach walks, the insanely fun word game--'bananagrams' (I seem to lose to my friend Christine every single time!), homemade dinners, laughter, reminiscing, and plenty of play with Wizard. He enjoys their company, as do I. All in all, a short getaway was just what I needed. The drive there, though, I've done at least a dozen times; however, I trusted Google Maps for some of the weirder sections of the drive, and this app took me all over the place! What was supposed to be a 2.5-hour drive turned out to be almost four, yikes! I wound through small, back-road scenic towns, and it didn't disappoint.

Even though I was 'technically' late, my friends were happy to see me, as I was happy to see them. Wizard is the best road-tripper. He doesn't flinch on long drives, so I couldn't be more stoked about how he's maturing into the coolest little dog. He found some equally cool playmates at Carmel Beach and Asilomar Beach, ones who were more than ready to run and play. We had a great time.

Back home, and it's back to gardening like a banshee. Changes taking place in our neighborhood mean Greg and me evolve with the changes. One of our lunch-meetup friends passed away from a heart attack, and it pretty much shocked the entire community. He wasn't exactly the healthiest man, but he did have a presence in Los Osos. We'll miss him dearly, as will others who were grateful enough to know and interact with him.

Lessee, May (for our happy household) translates to blue skies, lots of Springtime winds, flowers popping galore, and my thoughts on Mom and how she's doing. I wasn't able to visit her in Arizona for this year's Mother's Day, but I did have a chat with her on the phone, and it's a bit trying. She's now 96 years old and not entirely with it in her head. This makes me sad. Mom and I used to have lengthy phone calls about everything under the sun. Now, I'm reduced to calling her at the assisted living center and able to only talk for about 10 minutes before she gets too tired, or completely goes off the rails with conversation topics. I hope to visit her for Thanksgiving in November, a time of year she cherishes.

I guess this is all I got for May. I started creating my 9th book, but it's a slow start. No worries at all. One thing I've learned about writing and authoring books (or pieces of interesting commentary on anything worth mentioning) is that inspiration happens when you least expect it. Since I'm not writing as a 'job' anymore, all of my work is for fun and to begin a conversation with others, whether like-minded or not. I don't have a publishing date as of yet, but if the powers-that-be have their way, I'll have a new book out by 2027.

Did I mention that Greg brought back some of the most gorgeous crystals and rocks from his road trip? A huge chunk of rose quartz from Nevada, a very large slab of blue calcite from Utah, and all sorts of raw rocks from Idaho. These beautiful pieces have found their way into my garden, writing space, and bedside. Safe to say, with all the goodness of crystal energy, I'm sleeping very soundly.

Here's to the onset of summer! May ushers in not only amazing flora and fresh critter babies everywhere, but it's also a long month with Memorial Day capping off the end of a school year for some, and the beginning of vacations for others. We stay put. We love where we live and what we do daily, thus our simple life flourishes with colors, textures, and smiles.

Thank you for taking the time to catch up here on this jam-packed month. If you're anywhere near the Central California coast and want to stop in to say hello, have a wonderful cup of matcha tea that Greg makes, or ogle at my garden delights, we welcome you with open arms. Our hearts want to connect with good hearts. ALWAYS.

Have a fantastic rest of May, with all the bells and warm whistles you and your loved ones can muster. My heart is full and appreciative.

All my love.

Gerry Ellen xoxo