Thanks for all the tea and sympathy Friday. Dan is a sad specimen. I've put up with him for the last four years, and know his type from all these years of just knowing people. He was nicer back when he had Joe to push around, and we were happier encouraging Joe to find a new position. And life goes on.
Laura came yesterday to help me button up for winter, and to tell her good news. She came in all smiles for telling me about it. First we said good bye to the mandevilla.
Much as I wish I had a way to keep them, I don't. They made me happy this summer. That was the very best red mandevilla ever. May next year's be as lovely.
Miss Thumb's Up. I nearly added "little", and for shame. She will be twenty this year. She is a registered voter with her absentee ballot signed and sealed. She remains undecided about mailing, delivering or voting.
Her happy news, she found a studio apartment to move into. It's in the immediate neighborhood she lives in and she will feel quite comfortable living there. She showed me pictures she'd taken, and I do like it. It's an enormous room with a wall of windows facing the yard and garden of the home.
I made a mental note to find a box to put "things" into. I sent her away with some towels and a round butter dish, and I wonder which pleased her more.
Today I've divided between weaving and watching the British Bake Off. Laura and I used to watch cooking challenge shows. Laura loved them, and all I guess I can say is I believe I'm over them. I'll be surfing Netflix for something else next time.
Laura still loves cooking. She's working at Chipotle, and has a job one day a week at a Mediterranean food truck. Hard work for a good worker. I'm off for left over mac and cheese, with a side of peas, and am quite pleased.
Glad that you're feeling better. Sometimes we just have to vent a bit through our writing. I'm still into the cooking shows and am trying to make a few (very few) things from them. It gives me some goals to reach for besides getting up in the morning. I put my ballot in a drop box this morning. It felt very good.
ReplyDeleteLife does indeed go on.
ReplyDeleteA big hooray for Laura's new home. And for your mutual support.
Oh! I do so hope that I live long enough to know some of my grandchildren as adults. To be able to see who they become and to be proud of them because I know I will be. I am sure that Laura will be so happy in her new place and she has learned so much from you that she will be able to handle day-to-day life quite well.
ReplyDeleteAs to the British Bake-Off- Glen and I are watching the new season and we both think that Paul Hollywood is completely OVER IT! He should be replaced. I still love the new bakers and their stories and watching them as they use their skills to create lovely baked goods but honestly- get the hell out, Paul! Even if I will miss his pretty blue eyes and white hair.
You're ten or more years younger than I am; you may know great grandchildren! My oldest granddaughter is 28, and is a welder of US Navy projects. Then Hamilton, 25, still in college, and a Chipotle manager. Then Blake (nee Emily, for my long time readers), just out of college. Then Laura, almost 20 and just out of high school. And Francis, currently bicycling the Great Continental Divide trail. Also just out of high school. And last, Caroline, in 11th grade and heading toward architecture. The end of my grands. Yours to come.
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DeleteKathy, I accidently deleted your comment. Hamilton works in Cleveland and Laura works in Kent.
DeleteYour red mandevillas were really pretty. I had two mandevillas in one big pot and they got pretty tall and were full of red blooms all summer. One morning I watched a slightly chubby hummingbird go into almost each bloom to get nectar. I have never seen a hummingbird at my mandevillas and I have grown mandevillas for several years. The hummingbird was so plump I was afraid he was going to tear my mandevilla blooms. I wonder if there was nectar in them, or the hummingbird thought he would find some nectar if he just kept searching, because the mandevilla flowers look just like the fake flowers they put on hummingbird feeders. Next year I am going to buy 2 red mandevillas and one pink one. I am going to put the pink one at the base of one of my roses that never has many roses on it when summer gets hot. The pink mandevilla can twine around in the rose bush and pretend to be roses when seen at a distance. Mandevillas can overwinter in a sunny window and keep blooming, but the leaves and blooms cause stomach upset in my dog, so I don't overwinter them anymore.
ReplyDeleteI seems such a shame, but I thank them and tell them I simply cannot overwinter. They haven't reached out and slapped me yet.
DeleteI've seen a hummer in my mandevilla, too, but only once.
I'm glad to see Laura becoming the adult you worked so hard for her to become. and that the unpleasant parting is past. seems to be. is she still going to college?
ReplyDeleteShe's gapping, as so many are this year. She's accepted to cosmetology, but says "you can't cut virtual hair".
DeleteSay hello to Laura for me and thank her for the much-missed thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteI should make a collage of Laura and the thumbs up.
DeleteI am glad that today was a better one for you. Your quiet afternoon with your granddaughter was a nice counterbalance to the grumpy man. It was nice that you were able to send a bit of yourae!f to Laura's new home.
ReplyDeleteYou will miss your flowers on your porch but you did get a lot of joy out of them (and so did we!). How nice of you to send your granddaughter with some items for her new home. Hope she enjoys her new place!
ReplyDeleteThe gerbera is still out there, orange and defiantly holding down the step below Pig.
DeleteThey do grow up so quickly, don't they? Yay for Laura finding a place she likes and feels she'll be comfortable in.
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteCrikey, I had to back track a post to find out what had troubled you. Quite the drama! It is so good that Laura is truly striking out on her own - and how could she not be thrilled with gifts from from gramma?!! YAM xx
And so it goes.
ReplyDeleteYou taught her well.....now she is able to teach others.
Her visits are pleasing us as much as you!
Yay for Laura. Where did the time go?
ReplyDeleteSame city, block and a half away.
DeleteSweet post Ms. Joanne! Lovely to see your grand daughter again, thumbs up!! Here we go...into winter!NOT ready.But I have my towels to keep me warm.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on Laura. Does she know that she’s thought of every now and then in Blogland? How exciting to have a new place.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for Laura that she found an apartment she likes. It's too bad to see the Mandeville go but I know there will be more beautiful ones next year. Isn't it wonderful to see our grandchildren grow up! I only have two and the second one just moved out on his own this past week. They sure grow up fast.
ReplyDeleteWonderful news for Laura to get the studio apartment! Good for her for her work ethic too!! Can't believe she is 20 and voting! Time flies!
ReplyDeletebetty
It seems such a waste to have to throw away the mandevillas :(
ReplyDeleteA studio apartment sounds wonderful, I've seen them in movies and TV shows.
I love Laura's work ethic :)
I'm glad you had help to clear up the garden for the winter but it is sad to have to get rid of such beautiful, flowers plants. That's the reason I've let my garden go on though I do have to try and put it all to bed by the end of October. I see it's going to be raining for most of this month but I'm too busy all week to make it a priority. I'm glad Laura found a nice apartment and that she is enjoying work.
ReplyDeleteWe have never watched cooking shows, including these popular bakeoff shows.
ReplyDeleteWe recently watch Criminal on Netflix. You may like it. All 6 episodes take place in an interview/grilling situation.
Good luck to Laura and her newly found independence.
ReplyDeleteThe red Mandevilla still looks good with many blooms. One year I saved mine in the basement and it did beautifully the next year. However, we decided that saving it was more trouble than it was worth especially when a new one bought at a discount nursery was not that much.
ReplyDeleteIt was wonderful to see Laura’s smiling face. I know that all the good things that you taught her will stay with her throughout her life. The fact that she is 20 and got herself an apartment is proof of that. You did well, Grandma Joanne.
We have watched episode and episode the the Great British Baking show. I always come away feeling as if I'm on a sugar high. I don't see how Paul and his various sidekicks can taste all those cloyingly sweet concoctions and judge them fairly.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great day!
ReplyDeleteAlways sad to give up plants. Done some of that myself - given them a kiss and dumped into the compost pile. So glad Laura is doing well and is happy.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Laura. She looks happy.
ReplyDeleteI love that your granddaughter is doing so well and such a help to you. I remember your time with her.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Laura looks happy and that is good. Sounds like she's on her way to becoming an independent person. I guess 'little' doesn't apply to her anymore, eh?
ReplyDeleteAn aside: I do hope she pops her ballot into a ballot box before the 3rd. :)
I still like that show. And Laura does look like a grown up. So sorry you can't keep that lovely plant.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Laura. Great news about her new place. She did way better than I did when it comes to first places. They do grow up way too fast. Take care, Joanne.
ReplyDeleteLaura looks so happy.
ReplyDeleteGood for Laura for finding her own place. Will you do any inspections of her place?
ReplyDeleteMakes such a difference to have a place of your own! Very good news.
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