Dear Reader:

To a gardener, who really wants it to rain, the past couple of days have been pretty frustrating. The rain percentages are high, the background scenery is black and ominous, the roll of thunder shakes the house…but then the main character fails to appear when the curtain goes up….RAIN! Where are you?

Yesterday I went over to Mt. P to see how the Turners fared at Disney World and let the children share their stories. Jake was in daycare for part of the day so Eva Cate, Mandy, and I had a girls’ day out. It was fun.

We went to Vickerys for lunch and it was actually cool, refreshing outside eating along the waterway at Shem Creek…a lovely breeze blew the whole time we were there. John was able to meet us for lunch too so we had some time to catch up…

With the Friday afternoon traffic a nightmare on the return trip back home heading to Summerville from Mount Pleasant…I stayed over and we had pizza for supper…a Friday tradition at the Turners.

As I started home and wound around the ramp putting me on I-526…I saw something that took my breath away. There were dark clouds as far as the eye could see inland…heading west. (It gave me hope that Summerville had gotten some showers…which unfortunately it didn’t).

The sun was slowly sinking and a bright fiery red was mixing with bluish gray thunder clouds to produce the most beautiful ‘purple haze.” ( Nothing to do with Jimi Hendrix or marijuana) I was thinking to myself the old color chart in my art class was right…blue and red do make purple.

The purple clouds were mushroom shaped and seemed to be sitting on top of each other. It looked just like a picture I had taken of my morning glories a couple of days ago.

 Did you know that the color purple can have an affect on people physically?

• Calms the nerves and the mind
• Uplifting
• Offers creativity
• Encourages spirituality

*The scene coming home last evening did all of the physical and spiritual affects on me as listed above.

I actually had company to and from Mt. Pleasant….my childhood colleague, Polly, the doll, went with me. While organizing old photos I came across one of Eva Cate when she was about two….five years ago almost to the day. Mandy had an idea for a Father’s Day gift from Eva Cate…holding the letters D A D in three individual photos framed together.

While they were there I took some snapshots of Eva Cate and Polly together. I thought it would be cool to do the same thing five years later.

Many of you already know the story of Polly…I got her for my fifth birthday…six months after my father died. She was a Teri Lee doll (they were popular from the late 1940’s to the middle sixties.) I feel sure some of my family went in to get me this doll because they were quite expensive and money was tight after mother’s hand amputation and daddy’s death.

Polly arrived in a suitcase with one extra outfit…she was sent off to a doll hospital in Pennsylvania for a month one time to fix her when the rubber band holding all her parts together snapped from old age. She returned a blond in a pretty white camisole dress.

Being the age I am now…let’s just say that Polly will be eligible for social security soon! On a serious note…that little doll saw me through some hard times involving temporary displacement while mother was recuperating from surgery. The one thing I could count on during those dark days was Polly.

She continues to be “there” for me while I fight my own health problems. When we talk of guardian angels I do believe some come in the form of beloved teddy bears, special blankets, stuffed animals, and dolls.

So until tomorrow…Let us continue to find beauty in the skies even when the rains don’t come. It will happen in “God’s good time.” In the meantime we need to enjoy God’s palette.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Happy Birthday Tigger! My oldest “grand dog”! (Tigger has gotten to the age where he can’t (mostly… won’t but sometimes just won’t try any more) to hop up on the bed…so when I babysit the children I also babysit Tigger…helping him on and off the bed when I hear him whimpering…hey we “old-timers” have to help each other out.)