Dear Reader:

Being a total novice in gardening ( a member of the ” Know Nothing” ” Wanna Be” Gardening Class of 2013… ) I learned a very important lesson about plants that first initial backyard garden season …that still resonates with me.

My mentors–Doodle and Anne-both taught me that when a plant doesn’t do well in a certain spot … ( after you have tried everything possible to accommodate its needs… the strongest conclusion is… it needs to be uprooted and moved to another location.) With plants, as well as people, the adage ” location, location, location” rings true in all forms of ” real estate.”

And the wisdom of their advice has proven true repeatedly over the the last decade. To my surprise… it is sometimes something as simple as re-planting it a few feet farther down the path – where a tree casts more shade and suddenly the plant is blooming all over itself! Just needed a little more shade…

It got me thinking of all the places I have lived before moving to the Lowcountry… Fayetteville ( Ft Bragg) never felt like home to me as a child and youth. Laurens was better since my cousins and family lived there and we were bonded by the time spent earlier…while mother recuperated and re-grouped following the loss of her left hand to bone cancer.

Lots of love… but I remember feeling home -sick in the red dirt clay of the agrarian upcountry… it just wasn’t me. Intuitively I knew this would never be my ” forever” home.

Than after college… Brooke and I took the plunge and moved to the Lowcountry/we both fell in love with it and this beautiful “God’s Country” that we never left… Charleston, Summerville, and Walterboro… we both married and raised families in this piece of paradise…reuniting and forming the Ya’s years later! Our special friends -sharing memories from past and present …and dreams for the future!

So until tomorrow… We have all heard we should ” Bloom Where We Are Planted” but sometimes we can’t bloom – because we are simply in the wrong place… instead with courage we must uproot ourselves and discover where our individual, unique roots will give back the best we have to offer…for the most good!

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday was a ” Stop and Drop” Day as I went from visiting Ben at Wellmore ( Pepsi and crackers delivery time) to telling the Turners goodbye …as they squeeze in one last vacation before schools starts, to Tommy and Kaitlyn’s new law office in N Charleston, and happily home where we finally got beautiful rain!