the mud

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite things. I don't claim to be a good gardener, but when they are in full bloom, I'm so happy. We have three huge bushes of limelight, or maybe they are Annabelle, hydrangeas that have grown so well over the last nine years here. I bought them home from church one Easter, so maybe they are blessed, too? They bloom so nicely all summer and I can see them from the living room too, so it's nice indoors and out. I'm giving them away, there are so many! And the royal blue of neighbors' hydrangeas fills me with envy! (and I've seen a lot on my everyday walks!) I don't know what it is that reminds me of my childhood - that cool color of the sky in a flower - and that freshwater smell, although they don't smell as strong as they did when I was little. So this summer I decided to move two blue hydrangeas from the backyard to the front yard. I tested the soil and dug big holes and tried to make sure I had the right mix of compost and

My husband and I have been on many adventures in life, starting when we met in college. Each date was an adventure, some more memorable than others. Then marriage, then houses, and of course, having kids. Four kids. That is its own adventure. Now three of those kids are in college and that is another whole adventure. Dropping them off and picking them up each time is an adventure. Through the years we have taken them on many other adventures. We went to Maine, where they (not me) hiked the infamous  Beehive Trail  up a steep face of a mountain. We drove to California in a mini-van before we had smartphones. That was an adventure - camping, cabining, and glamping along the way, and finally staying at a 'real house' in Santa Cruz, California. On that trip, we had an encounter with a bear in Lake Tahoe, rode horseback to a cowboy dinner in Montana, got caught in a thunderstorm hiking in the Grand Tetons, and crossed a rather dangerous stream in Yellowstone. We didn't realize a