Old Man Winter...

We Texans typically don’t mind winter. In fact, right about now, as we face day after day of 100-degree weather, we dream of winter! September is usually not much better than July or August. October? It begins to get “Fall-ish.” I don’t personally know One Texas Soul who doesn’t love Fall in Texas!

Last November and December in North Central Texas? BRUTAL. I think I told y’all about being marooned on the top of our hill for seven (that is 7!) nights. Unable to go down our road due to a major, bitter, unbelievably harsh ice storm. My Sweet Hubby (MSH) and I survived. Well, obviously. We didn’t run out of bread or milk until Day 5. We had plenty of food in our pantry and freezer to last us another month.

TLC worried about us. A lot. Being two hours north and east of us, their roads were not ever quite as bad as our private, country road from our gate to the top of our hill.

Long about Day 3, she asked me: What will I do if something happens to one of you? Who will I call? How will they rescue you? We’d joke about a helicopter landing on our driveway. MSH did, in fact, fall a few times on his way to our Barn to see about our cat, Mortimer. I fell on Day 7. Because I got downright cocky. I was actually laughing at our Chocolate Lab, Buddy Bear, who was doing unintentional donuts down the steepest part of our hill. He’d gotten a teensy cocky himself. Karma got my tailbone—I hurt for days.

Twice a year, we have a delightful young Landscape Man (LM) come to our home—with a small crew. They do cleanup, fertilizing, trimming, etc. Spring and Fall. (Have faith—this does relate to what I’ve been talking about!) He was a tidbit late this year and came towards the end of May. MSH and I were certain we’d lost two garden sections of jasmine groundcover. LM and his company had actually been The Peeps who had planted it fourteen years ago when we moved into our home. This is what one section of jasmine looked like when he was here:

LM assured MSH and me it would be fine. It’d come back—no worries. Here is what it looks like as of today—August 14, 2014:

MSH and I are, in fact, worried. Sigh. As we long for the crisp, cool days and nights of October, November and December, we gaze at our garden every day and are reminded how happy we'd be to do without a repeat of the heartless ice and snow we witnessed last winter.

These pictures also make me think of what Little Leighton (LL) has been through in the past six weeks. Her tiny body was so sick. She’s slowly healing…every hour of every day. For this blessing, I shout:

THANK YOU, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY…

Friday is almost here, Friends…Have a Wonderful Weekend!!!