But she wasn't supposed to move until the fall!
After work today, Sara and I went for a walk in the cemetery, then I rode my bike over to Grandma's to pick tomatoes for her. (That's what I love about summer. The days are long enough to pack a lot into them.) Grandma seems to have given up on watering and/or picking from her garden since she's about to move, so I spent about five minutes just sitting on the grass picking all the cherry tomatoes in reach. The bellpepper and cucumber plants both looked so withered and sad, and as I was watering them, it occurred to me that by this time next month, Grandma will probably be completely moved out of that house. She's lived there for 47 years! It doesn't seem possible.
I've been meaning to post these photos for a while. They're not great, because I used the GE rather than the Kodak. (The Kodak has better picture quality, but the GE has way more storage space and its batteries last longer.) I took them over the last month or so. They make me think of the June words of my Emily Dickinson calendar:
A sepal, petal, and a thorn
Upon a common summer's morn -
A flask of Dew - a Bee or two -
A Breeze - a caper in the trees -
And I'm a Rose!
Kudos to my downstairs neighbor for growing all these peppers in one pot.
Blossoms on the mimosa tree down the street.
A magnolia blooming through a neighbor's fence.
The back yard gate of a house just down from Grandma's. For as long as I can remember, this house has had lots of vintage cars, and these awesome winged lion statues.
A statue of Jesus outside my Catholic high school alma mater. When I was student there, this statue was inside.
A few of the flowers in the garden area outside my old high school.
And another religious statue: This one is St. Francis of Assisi, in Grandma's next-door neighbor's front yard. I think they found him while rooting through hurricane debris a few years ago; who knows where he came from. Thanks to four years of Catholic education, I can still have the Prayer of St. Francis memorized.
A hanging basket of... impatiens, I think, outside Grandma's kitchen.
And a few photos of Grandma's garden:
Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.
My cousin Bethany drew an Easter bunny on Grandma's front porch.
Grandma where she belongs: on her front porch! The rocking chair was a Mother's Day gift from my mom several years ago.
Fresh-picked produce on Grandma's kitchen table.
I took a few good photos in the cemetery today, but I will share those later. (Update: Well, I only ever got around to posting one, but you can see it here.)