The Challenge View - June

This is from the quote:

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
fills the children's hand with posies.

I no longer have roses in my garden and my lillies have already lost their bloom. I don't have posies or children to hold them either, sorry LOL! So here are some pictures I took of some of the flowers we do have blooming right now in our yard and some of our neighbors. Oh, there is one of a momma duck and her baby. Usually there are a lot of ducklings but this is the only one we have seen this year. They wouldn't let us get very close and I didn't want to scare them so it is not a great picture even though I tried to zoom in on them.

The left middle flowers are bleeding hearts. We took a cutting of this plant from my Mom's yard before she came to live with us. When we moved to where we are now, we couldn't dig up the whole plant so we took another cutting and planted it here. It dies back every winter but then comes back. I love watching it grow because it was part of my Mom's love for plants. She had such a green thumb! The top and bottom right are of roses from a neighbor's yard but we have been having so much rain lately it is beating the poor flowers to death. The rose below is much better. It came from a friend's yard. When we lived in Pennsylvania I had a yellow rose bush that was absolutely beautiful. It was called a Gina Lollobrigida after the actress. It had the most wonderful smell and the flowers were huge. Alas, when you move, you can't dig your yard up and move it with you. LOL!

Since my normal view is of Henry, here is a picture of him after he had spaghetti for dinner Friday night. You can see he thoroughly enjoyed it!

That does it for me today. I hope everyone is happy and healthy! xxxx

May Quotation Challenge

Lynne has given us this challenge for our May quotation. It is from Mahatma Gandhi.

“ The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”

I used to do quite a bit of volunteer work in my younger years. I seem to have the energy then. Now, not so much. I think one of the most rewarding efforts for me was when I would volunteer to help out with the Special Olympics. Children with Down's Syndrome are such happy, loving kids. They try so hard to please and thrive with the encouragement, high fives and hugs they would receive during and after their sports event.  It did my heart good to see the smiles on their faces and the pride they displayed for their endeavors.

I have a soft spot for the elderly (I really miss my Mom) and where we live they are in the majority. We had a neighbor who lived two houses down and I would stop and spend time with her when I would take our dog for a walk. She loved talking and I know she was very lonely at times. She would watch for Thadd to be out working in the yard and come down to talk to him (with her walker). He would also do things for her such as changing her vacuum cleaner bag (she couldn't get the hang of it). She was so sweet and I was sad when her daughter put her in a nursing home where she passed away within a few weeks of being there. I don't think she was well but she hid it from me.

I had plans to do more volunteer work when I retired but so far I haven't gotten around to it. We live in area that does not offer many services. I wanted to do Meals on Wheels but when I checked in to it, there are no offices even close on this side of town. This area is more rural and to be truthful, there just isn't much out here. Like Lynne, I don't want to be put in a position where I am tied to a specific schedule or time frame. I am sure I will find something to do sooner or later where I can help others.

I do spend a lot of my time doing whatever I can for my family. My daughter especially has her hands full with two little ones. Sometimes just being there to listen to a family member or friends problem helps me to feel like I am helping out.