News Trend Coming Home Again|Actual

Thirty plus years ago, my husband and I pulled up our Midwestern tent stakes and moved across the country to Seattle. In doing so, we left our extended families several thousand miles behind and consigned ourselves to a life where visiting relatives was a both a rare luxury and an arduous journey.

So imagine how mind-blowing it has been for me to find myself here in the Buckeye State, just two hours away from my husband?S sister and her family in Cleveland, and a mere forty-five minutes from his cousin in the central Ohio cornfields.

My rental car and I had a busy weekend zooming around the state and dropping in on these relatives, just like most normal people do alll the time. The folks are glad to hear of my daughter?S new Buckeye status and are happy to help her however they can.

I feel much better about leaving my second-born here in a place where our kinfolk are just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Though we will continue to anchor our family in our beloved Pacific Northwesr, in a way, this new adventure for my daughter feels like we are all coming home again.

News Trend Arriving In Ohio|Actual

?A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.? -Laozi

^ Technically, ours is a journey of somewhere around twenty four hundred miles, and it started with a single truck: a moving van, to be exact, packed full of my second-born?S worldly belongings and headed east to Ohio.

^ And for us, a red eye flight to Columbus and an early morning sky full of pale golden light and the promise of a hot Midwestern summer day.

^ We spent the first afternoon exploring shops in the neighborhood including an on-demam isu cold press juice shop called Zest. Their product was delicious but overpriced; I preferred the cool cave of their rest room.

^ Our arrival coincided with the Fourth of July; we celebrated with a bag of Red Vines, some borrowed bug spray, and our sweatshirts spread out on the grassy lawn at New Albany High School for a small town fireworks show.

^ Morning of the second day was equally as hot and steamy as the first. Towering thunderclouds rolled through the skies, offering the cooling promise of a drenching rain but refusing to break open. Sigh.

^ Afternoon of the second day I spent poolside, or more accurately, inside the pool. I caught this photo in a rare moment of solitude; 99% of the time, this rectangle was packed with water-crazed kids and their obliging parents. So fun to watch all the younguns put their folks through all the time-honored jumping, throwing, and catching antics that families play in pools, and after putting in my fair share of such parental workouts, so relaxing to simply float and watch.

^ Evening of the second day: after my daughter wrapped up her first day at work, we wandered through the shopping district of Easton Town Center and enjoyed the sights and sounds. Honestly, this place is like a retail Disneyland complete with shiny trolleys, vintage architecture, and loads of cutesy cobblestone streets.

^ Pink hydrangeas blooming just outside our hotel door. Mhmm that?S what I like.

^ Old Glory hanging here, there, and everywhere around town. Festive and fun and so quintessentially Midwestern.

^ Dinner on the second day: two plates of Pad Thai at Northstar Cafe. Beautiful, delicious, though perhaps not entirely authentically Thai. But that?S okay because this journey was not meant to lead us to Asia. We set out for the heartland country of Ohio, and that is exactly where we have arrived.

News Trend The Woman Full Of Dreams|Actual

Once upon a time there was a young woman - barely older than a girl - who was full of dreams.

She dreamed of a house full of children and a garden like a storybook with a pink rose that climbed all the way up the house to the upstairs bedroom. And she dreamed that one day, the children in that bedroom would lean out the window and cut fresh roses right off the bush, without even going outdoors.

So she planted the rose bush and watered it well.

Years passed.

Children came and grew.

The rose bush grew too.

And now, many, many years later, the rose bush does indeed reach all the way up to that second story bedroom. And the girls who live there - definitely old enough to be young women - can indeed reach out and trim fresh pink roses from that very window.

And the woman full of dreams smiles.

News Trend Franklin Park Conservatory|Actual

Buried deep within my genetic code, there is one thing about me that I?Ve always known to be true:

I am born to farm.

Ever since I first

picked out and planted pink petunias with my mom,

nibbled fresh strawberries in my grandmother's garden, or

ran a hand cultivator under our hostas and then turned the hose on them to watch the running water seep deep into the sandy soil,

I have felt a special energy surging through my soul.

I love growing things.

I love to tend growing things

I love to surround myself with big, beautiful green growing things and drink in their majesty.

My second-born has inherited the same green-thumb DNA, to be sure, so when we found ourselves with a free afternoon in Columbus, we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

We headed to the local conservatory to visit some plants.

^ Greenery bursts through the fence, a welcome sight.

^ Visitors lounge among the plants in bright light.

^ Tender green creepers spill against the sturdy stone.

^ Topiary elephants. My mind was blown

^Huge curvy leaves as big as my hand.

^ Vines spill down and fronds rise up in this airy land.

^ Split leaves 4 dayz.

^ Purple orchid haze.

^ Me walking through, amidst the deep green.

^ Plump little jade plant, fresh and clean.

^ Green and white ribbons shoot out from the center.

^ White dots on green fingers stand up together.

^ Chunky barrel cacti, in the sunshine they doze.

^ A pot full of succulents feature my toes.

^ Prickly cacti with a single pink bloom.

^ A rusty old smokestack attached to a room.

^ The form of the old sturdy greenhouse stands clear.

^Among the white pipes trail tiny ivies dear.

^ The trees in the palm room soar to great heights.

^ And the look from the outside is plain out of sight.

^  These sculptural sails look ready to fly.

^ Pink flowered flamingos nod and wink their eyes.

^ Every green thing I saw at the conservatory park

Reminds me that I am a farmer at heart.

* * * * *

In my opinion, you can never have too many succulents, and you can never have too many stories about succulents. Here are a few to choose from:

Court And Kylee's Succulent Party

Succulent Season

Franklin Park Conservatory

Confessions Of A Crazy Plant Lady

Pallet Possibilities

Another Rainy Day

Growing Things

This Is War

All In A Day's Work

Design Dilemmas

Wait For It

Shopping Spree

Saturday Spring Satisfaction

Sprouts

Tiny Tinsel Tree

Biology 101

Little Things

News Trend Condado|Actual

If you are in Columbus, Ohio, and looking for an al fresco dining experience with some cutting edge hipster Mexican food, let me recommend Condado. I promise you will enjoy the cool aesthetic, the relaxed ambiance and the ridiculously delicious food.

But.

If you choose to order a blackberry margarita, the “Elote” queso and chips, and two “The Mantis” tacos, I guarantee that  you will be so full of south of the border goodness that you will nearly burst.

So by all means, come to Columbus and try some Condado tacos. But just don?T say I didn?T warn you.

News Trend Fine|Actual

Today is Day 10 of my adventure in Ohio and you better believe I?M missing my dog.

I?M not exactly worried about her - I know the rest of the family is perfectly capable of keeping Gracie happy and she?S been two weeks without me before. Still, I?Ve been dreaming about her most nights and just feeling a tad bit lost without my mischievous red shadow at my side.

So it was with a bit of melancholy that I radioed  in to my fourth born tonight and asked her for a report. “How is my dog?” I asked.

Instead of a verbal response, I received this:

A picture is often worth a thousand words but sometimes it needs to speak only one.

Fine.

My dog is doing just fine without me. All the same, I can?T wait to get home and see her soon.

News Trend Learning To Swim|Actual

I was swimming along toward the shallow end of the pool when suddenly, he crashed into me. He was six or seven years old, given his missing front teeth, and the youngest of four siblings. His teen brothers were handsomely built, tall and athletic with remarkably long arms and legs, highly capable swimmers.The third-born sister was not far behind them, effortlessly employing snorkel, mask, and fins as she confidently plied the waters.

In a flurry of thrashing limbs and spluttering splashes, the youngest disentangled himself from me and settled himself back on his feet, all the while gasping for air. Recognizing the fact that he had thoroughly body slammed me, he cheerfully explained, ?I can?T steer yet!?

I tried to hide my smile because I know for a fact that fourth-borns appreciate being taken seriously.

?You?Ll get it figured out,? I said. ?You?Re almost there.?

?I know,? He replied with a sunny confidence.

I stifled another smile.

Then with a flip of his wet blonde head and a flash of red Hawaiian flowered swim trunks, he splashed back under the water and swam off.

And I headed back out to the deep end, grinning from ear to ear.