A new season...

....is trying very hard to arrive here in paradise and it has been fun watching it. I do love all four seasons and living in a place where they all happen and I can watch Mother Nature bring each one on. This one has been difficult. The snow just keeps wanting to show it's face and butt in on spring but I think we are finally into the new season......however, snow is predicted for Wednesday so I haven't really planted anything but the daffodils and tulips have bloomed and the leaves are sprouting on the trees as I type this. The birds are out in all their varieties, some more photogenic than others

 

and the turkeys are once again roosting in our tree every evening at 8:23. We love watching them haul their huge bodies in the air and then cling to a branch where they spend the night. Such a fun nightly activity for us.  I've just completed my 4th winter in Pine Valley and I enjoy the solitude of that season very much. We had Jeff Gardner install a mini-split system for us that has helped to heat the house and make it so I only need one fire a day. It's been a wonderful addition to our home.

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SPEAKING OF NEW BEGINNINGS.......

It's been three months since Mom passed away and I think about her every day and miss her so very much. Thoughts of life and death and my own mortality fill my thoughts each day and I have reflected on her life and the things I learned from her and there are many lessons that I try to incorporate into my life each day. She left a wonderful legacy. Here are a few pictures from her funeral that I would like to remember.

I think she would have approved of the program we put together in her honor. She loved her family more than anything and we tried to involved every one as we shared our love and memories of her. She especially loved her grandchildren and she would have loved the choir. They were all there.

I'm so grateful for my siblings and the help and support we were to each other at this time.

I love the casket spray that we were able to honor her with. She taught me to love gardenias and we were able to intersperse them into a lovely red rose and white lilly arrangement. Dad always loved her in red and he always gave her red roses. It was February so the month of "love" and red.

The great grandchildren were invited to come up and help tuck her in for her final journey. So touching. They were all so precious to her.

The most touching end to a wonderful tribute was Ernie Doose, a good friend of mine and hers singing "Just For Now".....written for Dixie College by Roene DiFiore........"and that's why we hate saying adieu, to our friends who are so tried and true.....but we must, thought it's just, for now."

She was most proud of her grand sons and I know she loved this tender moment, their last tribute to a grandmother they all loved and respected.

The Barber cousins that were at the funeral. Always fun times when we get together. Lots of good memories. Too bad that funerals are the only reunions we have. Love my cousins....every one.  I wonder every day what she is doing....knowing full well that she is about doing good which she always did here and I really feel like she is still very much a part of my life. I know she is at peace as she was in such turmoil in her earthly life and I know she is happily reunited with her loved ones there. 

Mom loved her family......Easter a few years back, about the last time we were all together for her birthday celebration.

...and I love my mom. She gave me a wonderful childhood and a sister. What more could a little girl want.(I love my brothers but not like my sister). I held her as she died and I hope she heard me whisper the "thank yous" and "I love yous".  To my mom.....Leila Barber Sullivan, best mom ever.