Flowers, words, and lots of friends

Flower for the Day

My friend Sharon sent me azalea photos this morning along with the poem "Azalea Forest," which I later found online.  I wrote back:  "Is this your house?  The azaleas are beautiful."  She replied, "A friend of mine has published this for a number years.  If you want to be added to his daily posts, lmk and I'll have him add you to it!"

Azalea Forest

Beautiful pink azaleas are growing here and there,

A touch of surreal pink fills the forest air,

Tall, tall trees beautifully grow;

Oh I love this forest so!

Patches of light-green grass,

Grow here and there on the forest path,

Sunlight illuminates the air;

Birds are chirping without a care.

God created each azalea with love,

Just as He made the beautiful dove,

Evening sunlight dances in the west;

Shining in the Azalea Forest.

Marian, August 2013

When we built our house in 1965 on Signal Mountain near Chattanooga, we planted rhododendrons along the front.  I looked up the difference between the two kinds of flowers and found this explanation:

• All azaleas are rhododendrons, but not all rhododendrons are azaleas.
• Most azaleas are deciduous, but true rhododendrons are usually evergreen.
• Azaleas have funnel shaped flowers; rhodendron flowers tend to be bell-shaped.

There were also wild rhodendrons growing on the other side of the mountain stream that ran through our little acre.  I love the flowers.  Mine were more pinkish (like this photo I found online), and I don't remember them ever being as lush and full of flowers as his.

Wednesday Words

• lush / ˈləsh / adjective = growing vigorously, especially with luxuriant foliage.  Example:  My azaleas weren't quite as lush as those pictured above.
• lmk = an acronym meaning "Let Me Know."  This one I could figure out, in the context, but not every reader of my blog may know this.  Example:  If you want to be added to his daily posts, lmk and I'll have him add you to it.
• deciduous / diˈsijo͞oəs / adjective = a tree or shrub that sheds its leaves annually.  Example:  My rhododendrons kept their leaves year round, so they were not deciduous.

Decades of difference

Our meals for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday include glazed salmon, chicken paprikash, and a tuna salad sandwich.  We also get three soups this week:  potato soup, split pea soup, and vegetable soup.  Donna emailed, "Do you want my split pea soup?"  I responded, "Sure, but hang onto it for a day or two, since I've just been down to meet the Instacart guy delivering my groceries, talked to Floyd on the link desk while waiting for the delivery, ran into Emily as she arrived home, spoke to Marie about discussing our new book on the Book Buddies blog, and told Sharon (in passing) that she has a box on the delivery table.  I'm in for today, I think, though Clawdia has been doing mad-cat dashes around the apartment, jealous that I got out of the apartment and won't let HER go for a walk in the hall."

I spoke to a lot of people today, as we were carefully keeping our "social distance" in the hallways and all wearing masks.  It's funny how a mere five people — FIVE — seem like "a lot" after days of staying home and not socializing, not shopping, not attending events, not eating in the dining room or Café together.  It seems like decades since we freely did those things every day!

Speaking of "decades" — I just realized today how very much Donna and I differ in ages, at least during these few days between our birthdays.  As of last week, I'm 80 and can say "I'm in my 80's," while she's only in her 60's.  Good grief!  Oh, well, she'll be 70 on Friday.