i spent the end of last week visiting friends before going up to the cabin. 

it was an unplanned trip- to celebrate the life of bruce kelly- one of 

the best guys we've ever had the honor to call our friend.

they held the service for bruce at the carlos creek winery in alexandria~

a place his band had played at many a time.

there was a huge crowd - (needing parking attendants even).

while a slide show of his life was playing, i stood watching and

catching up with some people i knew from our old life in that great town.

terry kennedy- a doctor who played music with bruce made a 

statement that will stay with me forever, and it pretty much summed

up the spirit that was bruce.

he said:

" by the time this day is over, i have a feeling there

will be a fist fight over who was bruce's best friend. 

so many people i've talked to said, bruce was my BEST friend..." 

then terry laughed with tears filling his eyes and said~

"he was my best friend!"

***********

that evening i had the pleasure of visiting my dear friend Don. 

Don turned 90 on Sunday and he is an inspiration to all 

who know him as well.

he is the father of one of my best friends. :  )

here don and leslie discuss something important before a road trip

they were leaving on, to his hometown to commemorate this big birthday

wish you could've seen this old sweethearts eyes light up when

i gave him a bottle of port!

he introduced my big sweetie to port on the eve of his beloved

wife's funeral and since then it has always been a special tradition of ours

to raise a toast and bless an occasion.

*isn't he just the cutest  dad/grampa/friend  ever?

please don't tell my neighbor - who is young and single

and couldn't care less about the garden he inherited when he

bought his house-  that i snuck over and picked a few grape hyacinth

to bring to leslie.

these pelicans are always gliding by on the lake behind leslie's house.

after one last fun stop at my aunt and uncle's, i was off to the lodge.

aunt dar sent me up north with the back end of my jeep full of 

perennials, a bag full of groceries, directions on how to get

to the cabin around a major road construction detour and a smile on my face.

saturday.

finally a beautiful day was shaping up!

lots of dog shenanigans to watch. they cannot and i mean

cannot miss an opportunity to get wet. 

you can imagine what the floors look like up there right?

lars thought the bird feeding was over for the year but i got there first

and filled the feeders and put out grape jelly and nectar and it was 

bird watching heaven. here's a list of what all we had out front.

dozens of yellow finches

purple finches

oriels

red breasted gross beaks

a blue bird (at the feeder- a first for me)

woodpeckers

chickadees

and hummingbirds that came in like

torpedoes at our heads.

these fun glider chairs were a mother's day gift from lars and behind it

i planted some of the plants from my auntie.

i save a lot of flowers for the seeds and sunday i got busy and harvested them.

aren't they pretty?

well, that's enough time here at the computer, i have a whole lot of

pretty bedding plants from my girl just waiting to be potted up.

xo, b