Monday, May 4, 2015

birthday week


Last Thursday was my birthday, my 65th. I usually take the day off as a personal day but since I took the day off the previous Monday to hang with my brother and sister and I was planning to take last Friday off to go to Brookwood with my sister and some other ladies, I had to be available for questioning while Marc did the sandblasting on the cabin in the mountains panel. Which we finished.


Brookwood is a residential facility for the mentally challenged. It's a beautiful place and the residents live in group homes with a house mother. They refer to their residents as citizens and strive to give them dignity and worth. Brookwood is supported by donations and by the work of the residents. Their main business is a wholesale nursery. They have large greenhouses where they propagate and raise the plants for sale, a ceramics shop and a concrete shop where they make things to sell in the gift shop and in the retail greenhouse and grounds. 



They also have a very nice restaurant and being appointed to work in the restaurant is a high honor to them. 


They also have, since I was there several years ago on a garden club field trip, a new very nice art gallery. 


It's a very classy place overall and I bought a red hibiscus, a gardenia, a bougainvillea, and my sister bought me a beautiful pot of maidenhair for my birthday which would have cost twice as much at any of the nursery's in the city.



I spent most of Saturday and Sunday working out in the yard though I didn't get anything major accomplished. I mixed up a wheelbarrow full of compost and potting soil and repotted my desert rose which was busting out of it's second pot and got the maidenhair in a bigger pot, collected the gone by poppy seed heads and pulled out the dead plants, dug out the grass and weeds out of another section of the old vegetable garden and planted some tall orange cosmos that bloom in the fall, and got an armload of ferns planted along the shady side of the house. Doesn't seem like much for two days worth of work.

Late afternoon yesterday, my daughter and son-in-law and the three grandgirls (the grandboy was at work) came out to visit. Jade had made me a birthday cake and they had candles and a princess kit with a tiara and a wand and earrings and a banner which was meant for someone much smaller and younger than me but I donned it all anyway.




 

The other thing I did connected with my birthday this year was apply for Medicare so for the first time in my life, I have health insurance and an affordable supplement.

Well, my eye appointment is in a couple of hours so I guess I'll find out if I need glasses other than the drugstore magnifiers I use to read.




15 comments:

  1. This is a glorious post! What a fine place to go and visit and shop! And you- look at you! You do not look old enough for Medicare but dammit- take it!
    That glass panel is gorgeous. So are you.

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  2. Belated Happy Birthday and you do know how to celebrate. I had a maidenhair fern (what a naught name) in Indonesia and now realize how much I miss that!

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  3. Happy belated Birthday!!! hmmmm...you're catching up, in age, with me.

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  4. Brookwood sounds like a place worthy of support of any kind. The amount of money involved boggles my mind; I hope all the do keeps them going.
    And, happy birthday. I remember 65. It was definitely OK!

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  5. Happy Birthday! You look much younger than your age, it must be all the art in your life. Your cabin in the woods is beautiful.
    I've been digging around in the yard this week, moving this and that after the rains and it's been the best therapy for my mind, but a little hard on the back :)

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  6. Happy Birthday darlin'. You made the tiara look good.

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  7. Pretty strategic placement of those candles. A special day with great gifts.

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  8. happy belated birthday to you, ellen! you look adorable in your tiara and your wand. :) brookwood sounds like a wonderful place to shop and dine, too.

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  9. Happy Birthday! Late but with well wishes of course. That sounds like the most wonderful birthday ever. A princess with tiara...I can only dream.

    Happy, happy, Birthday.

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  10. Congratulations on reaching 65. I'm almost there, two. Happy Birthday.

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  11. Happy belated birthday! Love the princess getup and the new flowers. Sounds like a great day. :)

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  12. Aw - as Reya & Amy would say, you needed a tiara :)

    Brookwood looks like a magical place! And I love the cabin panel...

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  13. Happy Birthday - pics of princess you and B'day cake are fab! So is the panel.

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  14. My eyes don't match, so I've bought two pairs before and switched out two of the lenses.

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  15. I love when you write this kind of posts: the sharing of a day (or three), which you detail like a novel. The communal living facility looks so wonderful. I love that they have a nursery and a gallery and a restaurant! Double wow!!!

    *sighs with envy at your ability to make composts... not so easy in an apartment*

    That princess gear was made completely for you. You are shining with the smile it brings to your face. Last but never least, medical insurance is a great thing to have.

    Happy Belated Birthday, dear Ellen! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.