I was supposed to be finishing up the movie today but it was canceled because my “granddaughter’s” grandmother passed away.  She had suffered for a very long time. Rest in Peace Elenita’s grandma.

I have the day off and am looking forward to listening to the Bengals football game on the radio.  We would watch it on the television but our set doesn’t get sound on the local channels and it probably isn’t on anyhow.  They are playing the Steelers and I hope they demolish them.

For those of you who don’t know the story, one of our very good friends was murdered in Pittsburgh a few years ago.  He was a stand-up comedian and magician and did a Steeler joke on stage in Pittsburgh, and two guys beat him to death in the bathroom after his set.

I am making beef stew for dinner in the crock pot.  I love beef stew.  And fresh bread to go with it.  I may make a loaf of beer bread to go with it.  I am using fresh potatoes, onion, carrots, tomatoes and green pepper from our garden.  I have this thing about making something using my own garden grown veggies.  It brings so much more flavor to the stew.  Too bad I didn’t grow the beef but I couldn’t bring myself to slaughter anything I had raised anyhow.

I started this blog last Sunday (one week ago).  My photo of the beef stew didn’t come out.  The Bengals won in a nail biter of a game.

This week I had a pleasant surprise in the mail.  I had donated to the Arbor Day Foundation recently and they sent me a package of little trees.  Ten blue spruce and two redbud trees.  I decided to keep the redbuds and planted them in my front yard with a big stick to mark it so the mower won’t cut it down.

The ten blue spruce went to the campground.  Yes, I did a little gorilla gardening.  A couple of years ago I had planted a white pine in the campground in honor of my friend, Terry, who had recently died of cancer.  The campground supervisors had found it and kept it watered that summer, they informed me in the fall.  It is still doing well.  I surround it with twigs and leaves every fall to protect it for winter.

I took a bucket of beautiful compost and my planting tool.  I had water in the coffee can that held the trees on-hold for me until I could plant them.  As I planted the trees I thought of those friends and family that had recently died and so I guess I was planting the trees in their memories.  I thought of my parents and how I sometimes missed them so much my heart ached.  My brother had died shortly after my father and I thought of him and how he had grown from a bulling big brother to a gentleman.  He died too young but he certainly enjoyed his life.

Our best friend, Dave, had died young right after my father and brother died.  It was an awful winter for us in 2006.

My friend Kim had died at age 39 several years ago.  We had planted a tree in her memory at the lake where we live.  Then our friend, Terry, had outlived what the doctors told her she would live, but we lost her too.

I thought of the recent passing of two of my favorite aunts, Imogene and Reva.  They were such souls.

I also thought of my friend, Barb, who I worked for at the dentist’s office while she underwent chemo and radiation therapy.  She died of lung cancer never having smoked a cigarette nor been around smokers.  She was such a dear.

My little trees were in the ground and fertilized.  I had made the surrounds for them and given them a drink of water.  I left them to the Great Spirit in hopes that they would grow and be reminders of what wonders the Earth has to offer.  “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

The photo isn't of blue spruce but a photo of one of the trees growing in the middle of the street.  At the lake where we live there are several trees that were saved during paving and i think that is so very cool.  I love my trees in the middle of the street.  Thank you Lake Summerset.