J and K Adventures: The scent of Roses

I usually don't think it's all that great to read about the boring details of someone's day to day existence. Like how you had a cold and the cough lasted for weeks or you had to spend a little more than expected on those car repairs or how that new roughage regimen is starting to work.......etc. But there are some regular day to day's that rise above the usual. Plus I took a whole bunch of pictures and need a place to put them. So bear with me.

I am sitting writing this post on the "lanai" from the bouncy chair overlooking the garden in full display. Our favorite radio station (KRVM...catch in online!) is on the "Magical Mystery Tour" and Janice Joplin is singing "Bobby McGee".....the first song I ever learned to play on the guitar. The scent of roses, fresh from a rain and warmed in the sun, along with the freshness of new mown grass wafts over me, pushed by the wind. My partner in crime has just served me a delicious lunch of PBand J washed down with milk and fig newtons for desert. I solved the entire crossword. And the swallows are darting around caching bugs and making nests. All the work and effort and difficulty of the winter seem to have vanished. All would be perfect except for my left knee. I'm sorry to break the lovely reverie with a medical departure, but I did say there would be some boring details....I'll make it short.

I hurt my left knee somehow. It may have been the clutch on the riding mower, it could have been the extra gardening, powerwashing, shop vacuuming, cleaning etc that I did getting ready for the open house or it could be just an aging knee with an overweight owner in her 60's. It was hurting for awhile when I went to the local N.P. got an x-ray and started physical therapy.

It got worse. Maybe it was running after and tracking down kids at school and playground duty, maybe it was my gardening jones or maybe that outlet mall and rose garden visit with Ann and Carol. Or maybe it was learning the East Coast Swing at dance class. Anyway, at Jeff's urging I made an appointment at a sports medicine/orthopedic clinic. It's famous for fixing UO football players so how bad could it be? Well, long story short, they found inflamation, fluid and swelling. Jeff was there to hold my hand and boy did I need him. I got a big needle stuck in my knee and they drew off fluid and injected two kinds of corticosteroids.

Then we went to a wedding!

Due to a series of unavoidable events (not pregnancy), Emily and Fred decided to get married on Friday, May 31. So after work I prepared a bouquet and two bouteniers, changed clothes and Jeff and I (he of the all day running around, hand holding, and mowing duty) headed up the freeway to an obscure address in Salem for the ceremony. It turned out to be a small house set up as a private chapel and it was perfect.

What a lovely and heart-warming celebration. There wasn't a dry eye was they exchanged vows, hugged as a family and we all danced to "At Last". Wow! We took Ruben home with us for the night and Emily told us this morning that she was a little shocked to wake up this morning hungover with a ring on her finger!

Anyway, back to the lanai. I am on light duty. Jeff is running my errands and I have only been in the garden for four or five rounds of weed pulling, watering, deadheading and rearranging. I really want to do more.......but Jeff will give me dirty looks and I do want to heal and now the radio is playing a song from my personal top 10.......Won't be Fooled Again by "The Who". I guess I'll just sit here with ice on my knee and post pictures.

First the wedding:

Pinning the boutineier

The happy couple

Don't pin me, Grandma

What a lovely family

Mom and daughter

Jeff holds Fred up

Color coordinated

Ruben already knew how to be a ring-bearer

It's official

And now a whole bunch of flower pictures. Hope you enjoy (if not, feel free to skip) I'll leave them small for the sake of bandwidth, but you can click them to make them larger