Saturday Morning Rising

Today we are resting up from some house cleaning and organizing. The tasks needed to be done since company is coming! One of the restful sights under the deep shade of the back yard maple are these pots of caladiums. The one above always makes me think of Christmas, with its red and green coloring.
Remember when we used to have Christmas in July celebrations? Well, next Saturday is July 25. What can we come up with? Hmmmm...

This white caladium with its green veins makes me think of Easter. Actually Easter is appropriate for these plants, since they are all resurrected. I've had them for several years. Each fall when the foliage dies back from frost, I take the pots inside and put them on a window sill in the basement. I may water them a couple of times during the winter. I don't bother to take the bulbs out and lay them on their sides, as the garden books say to do. Then in the spring, when frost is over, I start watering them in earnest and take them outside in a shady spot. After about a week, tiny points begin to break through the soil and new leaves unfurl for another season. Plants just amaze me.

This year we went 4 for 4, including this mostly pink one. This one reminds me of the color of Surprise Lilies, or as they are known in the South, Resurrection Lilies. No sign of them yet but any day now, they should be coming up.

We are glad to report that baby Lily and mom Michelle are doing well. So is baby Korey and his parents Heather and Corey in Chicago. We are looking forward to seeing them in August here in St. Louis. Mike and Sandy had a good trip to Chicago. Our neighbor Barb finally got home from Atlanta. Bless her heart, she mowed our lawn yesterday just for the exercise. Norm's cousin Joe's wife, Elaine, is still undergoing treatment in Tulsa for cancer, but reports that her results are encouraging. Doug and Matt are back in Ft. Myers, working hard. Doug is hoping for an advance contract for a book project, and thinking about his classes that begin in late August. We are looking at dates this fall that we might be able to go to Florida and pester them. Norm will be preaching on August 2 while our pastor is at the Disciples of Christ General Assembly. We thought about going, but are saving our gas money for that fall trip to the Southeast. Both of us are back at exercise-- both low impact aerobics and water exercise. I've been tracing 1/4 of my own family tree, the McElyea/Tanner branch, with the wonderful help of our friend Lola, who works in the genealogy special collection division at St. Louis County Library. The Current, the student newspaper I advised before I retired, is getting a new adviser and I have actually been asked if I'd like to meet with her for a brief orientation. Oh yes! Here's hoping the coming year will be much better for them than last year.

My cousin Mike and his wife Debi have been on a 10-day driving trip from Tulsa to North Carolina, and their plan is to come by here, just a tad out of the way, on their return home. With luck, they'll be here by supper time but even if they aren't, we will leave the light on for them. That's pretty much our news, for those in Irving, Mineral Wells, Colby, Garden City, Denver, St. Louis and elsewhere who are faithful readers of this blog. And so, in honor of the memory of the late, great Walter Cronkite, here in St. Louis on this cool, cloudy mid July morning, that's the way it is.