My apologies.  I've been a busy little beaver trying to get all my decisions made, the paperwork filled out, and all the forms sent in so that I can retire in October. 

I've also been busy cataloging my flow blue.  For those of you who don't know what flow blue is, its antique china and I've been collecting it for over 30 years.  It all started when a dear friend of mine gave me a piece when we moved 1500 miles away.  Well, to be honest she didn't give it to me . . . she loaned it to me.  She said she was just loaning it to me because every time I looked at it she wanted me to think of her, because it would still be hers.  I'd never even heard of flow blue china, but it's a beautiful cobalt blue and since I've always had blue and white kitchens, my friend thought that I'd like it.  Boy did I!!  She explained to me that it's very old, that most of it came from England and why it was called "flow blue". 

Here's the piece that started the whole collection 30 years ago.

Well, I started collecting it myself shortly thereafter, and my husband has always hinted that we'd sell it all off for spending money when we retired .  That's why I'm finally cataloging all my pieces.  Only problem is, that now that I've done all that work and sat down with the pictures of all the pieces to decide which ones I'd sell and for how much, and which ones I just couldn't bear to sell . . . well, it's almost like asking me to sell off one of my kids.  I have memories attached to every piece . . where I bought it, or who gave it to me for what occasion, etc.  No matter how many times I go through the list I only come up with about half that I can agree to sell.  I just hope that the HALF I can part with will be enough for the antique dealers to feel its worth their while to bother with.

To see a larger image of the picture, click on it and then depress the F11 key.

Another picture from Alice's garden.  I just love her cosmos.  I tried a patch of cosmos this year in my garden, but in the first location they just dried up.  So I tried another patch of cosmos and this time I put them in the shade.  Guess what? They didn't like that any better.  I just don't know what the secret is. 

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Unenhanced picture of Alice's Garden                   Enhanced picture of Alice's Garden

I hope Alice doesn't mind me posting a picture of her garden on my site, but I have so very little color in my own yard right now (other than green and more green).  I spent this past week end in OKC with her and took a lot of pictures of her yard.  Big surprise, huh?  There's not a single gardener I know that works harder than Alice does in her garden.  She was up early digging beds, deadheading, watering . . . even on Sunday before church. She talked like it was so pathetic looking, when it really wasn't at all.  I understand it's been hit by the brutal Oklahoma summer heat, but it's still very pretty.  

Please DO click on the each picture and then hit the F11 key to see the images larger.

My sister Alice (on the left) and me (on the right) many years ago.

My sister retired several years ago and now I'm retiring this year.  BOY!!  I had no idea there was so much paper work to do to retire and so many many decisions to make.  It boggles the mind.  I guess I just thought you told your boss you'd had enough and you picked out a date for you to quit coming to work while your boss picked out a gold watch for you.  WRONG!   

It did make me feel good when one of the several Sales Managers that I support came into my office and in a real serious tone said that he'd taken a poll and that the results were in and that they weren't going to let me retire.  I really think they'll miss me and I know I'll miss an awful lot of them, but I've been working since I was 15 and I'm 61 now . . . that's 46 years and guess what ? . . . I'm tired. At least I'm tired of the rat race.