Life lived OUtside

Years ago, I took my grandfather (pictured at left below) on a trip up the east coast through DC, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The whole trip started when he received an invitation to a childhood friend's 80th birthday party. Something made him really want to go and my school schedule at the time allowed me to take a couple of weeks to drive him. I'm so glad that I did, because he passed away a few years later and it was his last trip up to the place he was born. I will always treasure the memories of the trip.

I met a lot of family members that I had never seen before and got to see where both my grandfather and grandmother were born. Because my grandfather was 80 at the time, we didn't keep a particularly busy schedule. One visit or one tour of a monument was about all he could handle in a day, so a habit that we got into was eating a leisurely breakfast at a diner in the town we were in each morning.

But there is something you have to know about my grandfather. He never could hear that well. He was a pilot in WWII and then worked in air traffic control here in Tampa for the better part of his career. Between age and planes, it was hard for him to hear even in a quiet room, let alone in a bustling restaurant. One morning, when we went to breakfast, we sat down at our table and a sweet waitress came up and started to chat with us. As I began the customary breakfast banter, my grandfather anticipated her question and shouted 'Coffee, cream and sugar' at the waitress. It sort of shocked her, because that wasn't what she had asked and I had to shrug apologetically, shake my head and say, 'I guess we'll have some coffee, for both of us'. Fortunately, she was in a good mood and thought it was pretty funny. When she left, I made him adjust his hearing aids and after that we were able to communicate more smoothly.

For some reason, this week in our household, I was telling that story and sharing pictures from my trip with Abby and Maddy, and they thought it was so funny that my grandfather had shouted 'Coffee, Cream and Sugar' that we've now taken to hollering it at each other when we want to change the conversation.

I promise we won't shout that at you if you come into the nursery, we know you aren't after coffee, but beautiful flowers. However, one reminder we will be sure to give you is to water, water, water your plants. We are in our dry season and haven't had any rain in about two weeks. That means that all of those new plants you've installed this past year are going to start telling you they are thirsty. See below for our watering tips to make sure you are keeping your plants well watered. And, by the way, my favorite way to water is with a steaming mug of Coffee, Cream and Sugar in my hand.