Lovely quote, Elia. I just have a small patch of Blackstemmed Bamboo and another of Arundo donax variegata now grown in large containers but I have enough that if I stand nearby I can hear the rustle. I miss my old garden where the Cardinals especially loved to nestle down at dusk in the Bamboo right outside my bedroom window...you could hear them chattering softly as they settled in for the night. Nice memory. josh

Moving isn't in the top ten list of life's biggest stressors for nuttin! Sometimes, just acknowledging that I'm in overload and stressed out gives me just enough umph to get through it. And when I have a gazillion tasks and things swimming in my head due to such stressors in life, reminding myself that it all going smoothly is an absolute insane thought, helps me get through it too. It's like a roller coaster ride isn't it? Fast, slow, scary and exciting all at once. The cars will eventually stop on those tracks. Allow yourself a lot of plan B's, so to speak. When packing, for instance, sure you had a box set aside for extra sheets and blankets and now you have wasted ten minutes searching for that box. Throw them in a hefty bag and deal with them after you move. And remember, bring down your (prior to moving in) remodeling goals down a notch or two. You can always continue and complete them after you move in. I know, it's easy for me to say. Just in my work I see the panic in their eyes when I ask: "And do you want us to paint that walk in closet too?" You should see some of the faces of panic we see! I've never met a person yet to doesn't get freaked out over picking up EVERYTHING they own, sorting it, packing it and moving it. I'm so excited for you! Keep on updating us. The fast, slow, scary and exciting parts of your ride. Pics, pics, more pics please! ~di

That quote personifies my Mama, and I like it.......a lot. She was always too humble, and I believe it wasn't an affect. She had interests of which I was not even aware for many years. Shortly before her death, I found little pieces of yo yo quilt she had started. Tucked in her books are poems she had written. She denied being a 'gardener' but left a legacy of gardens behind her around the world. She came across as a constant. She knew how to do everything the old way, because her grandmother taught her, but following my father to a new home, often in a totally strange place and culture, she just accepted it instead of trying to change it, because that's just the way it was. She drove a huge fire engine red station wagon through the busy streets of Tokyo, packed picnic lunches to eat under the cork trees in Spain. Ventured forth into farm markets in France with little more than a basket and good intentions. I can't remember one morning of my life I ever saw her awake with anything but a smile, and after her coffee a vengeance to greet the day. Her life was filled with unbelievable tragedy. She lost a brother when he walked into the path of a locomotive engine, an uncle the very same way, a grandmother who fell over an eighty foot cliff and lived for three days, a brother who saved another child but was swept five miles downstream for his effort. But, she carried them in her heart for safekeeping, and brought their memories out with love and not sorrow. She delighted in the simplest of things, like a perfect pie, a bird at the feeder, or a cat in her lap. She looked at her modest house until practically the day she died, and said "isn't it beautiful?" Ecclectic wasn't the word for it . In it she had pieces of a life well lived tucked into ever nook and cranny, most of which bore no relation to the other, save it was a piece of her life. As I sort through her estate, the memories couldn't be held in an encyclopaedia. We called her mother confessor, because no matter what was wrong, she told us to hang in there, it would be "alright", and said it with such conviction we believed her. And because of that faith in her word, it came to pass. I think most of all, she found happiness in small things, and god knows we all have plenty of small things in our life. Finding happiness in those makes us rich.

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