A Walk Through the Neighborhood.....

Friday has long been Mother's Beauty Shop Day! For years I would drive to Fort Worth every week and drop her off at the salon, go on errands while she had her hair done and then take her to lunch when she was finished. We did a portion of that old routine yesterday. Normally she goes in the morning, but a lot has changed now that she is with me. The stylist, Im Sun, comes in the shop at 2:30 so Mother was 'so excited' when I told her it was time to get her hair done!

She got color this time - a cut last week. 

K Hair and staff were sweet to Mother and she enjoyed herself.

I took advantage of the opportunity to shop Walmart for yarn for my knitting projects.

I find it calming to sit and knit a row or two and when Louis Dean asks me to come in and listen to some music on his Rift Station (he still can't play the guitar until his injured thumb heals) knitting helps keep me in the chair for up to 4 or 5 songs.

Mother and I have taken to eating lunch together in the kitchen and at night I take her a tray in bed.

This morning I woke up to rain. If I had known, I wouldn't have stayed up till midnight watering.

It was 10:00 and when I opened the door, I found that I was the only one up. Louis Dean had gone to bed at 8:30 last night and got up before 7:00 so I assumed he was out and about doing his projects. No, I found him sound asleep in the den. Mother was still in bed so I turned on all 3 coffee pots and started the laundry. LD and I sat in the gazebo listening to the rain while we did our devotions. Once the rain stopped, I put on my Skechers and walked the 1.7 mile snake that is our neighborhood.

If you turn left at the end of our driveway and keep walking on the sidewalk, it will bring you right back in front of our house on the other side of the street.

It's been awhile since I walked the neighborhood. I noticed quite a few changes.

Some homes boasted new solar panels or an expanded front porch with lawn furniture. One had a fancy grill under a new pergola. Some homes had personalities and you can get a glimpse as to the kind of people who live there.

Others are neat and tidy but no personal charm.

I've always loved these tall pine trees. 

I've been walking here for 50 years and have watched them grow.

One of the homes I admire. They have kept the lawn nice and always plant flowers every spring.

They recently put up a new fence, I noticed. The 'He is Risen' cross and 'We Back the Blue' are small signs of who lives here.

One of my favorites!!

The couple is from the Philippines and the lady is a gifted gardener.

You can see they have embraced being Texans now by the Lone Star on the front of the house!

Some changes were good and some are sad.......

This was one of the loveliest homes on my walk.

A wonderful older couple lived here and took such good care of their home and their yard. 

Another older couple - who still lives across the street - were good friends with them and I would see them crossing the street with a big bowl of popcorn on Sunday afternoons to watch football games on TV together. The new owners were not caretakers of their new property - which was in the best condition at the time. Now the house is vacant and apparently greatly damaged inside.

Another favorite that makes my heart sad. This place was just filled with love and charm. They had enclosed the front porch and filled it with colorful plants and a small love seat. The owners had added a huge two story addition to the back and redone the kitchen. It was a great house. Empty now and lonely looking. Most of these houses were built in the late 1950's. Mine was built in 1959. I was 11 years old then. I bought it in late 1966. It has aged a great deal as all the houses have. We have given it uplifts here and there and try to keep it up to date as best we can.

While I was taking photos, I accidentally flipped the screen and took my own pic.

I kept it as it made me realize I am thinking about growing older and aging and how sad that can be sometimes. I hope and pray I can do a good job of it and - I am being honest with you and with myself - I sincerely pray I do a better job of it than our mother has.

As I age, I want to be kinder and wiser than I was in my youth and I think I have learned from my mistakes and grown in character over the years.

A dear blogging friend just lost her husband of 57 years this week.

Mr. Sweet was what she called him and he was a sweet man.

As I read his obituary this morning, I thought, 'He did it right!'

I hope I do.

Louis Dean and I love this song by Willie Nelson.....As I walked this morning, I thought about the words and changed  'drove by' to walked by!

I fixed a breakfast/lunch meal for us as soon as I came in.

Louis Dean had gone off on an errand so we ate in the kitchen together.

I can't understand Mother and she can't hear me so we eat in silence.

We smile, though.

Okay! You can tell I've been feeling a little on the melancholy side so this afternoon I did something to cheer myself up! First, I cleaned. That always helps but here lately I've even lost interest in doing that. Glad I recovered as my kitchen needed my attention!

The other thing I did was haul out some of my sunflower stuff!!!

I put all of the patriotic things away and fluffed, cleaned and semi-decorated a little bit!

I thought I had kept all the sunflower debris close to the front of the storage area... 

but I guess it got displaced when Louis Dean piled some Christmas trees in on top of it all.

Never fear! I dug until I found some!

This is a new wreath I found at Goodwill!

Next year I am going to HAVE to clean out the ENTIRE storage building so I have room enough to organize things better.

So this is my blogging place tonight!

It's been a mixed bag of emotions the last few days but we are on the right path and doing the best we can.