Friday (Fun?) Facts.

Welcome to Friday afternoon! I'm beginning to enjoy these little show and tell sessions. This week, I've been dreaming of spring and venturing outdoors. Here in the city where I live, we are currently hosting our coldest winter in ten years. Quite a party. Seems like it will never end. so, I've been thinking of warmer days ahead, and this is what I have in my bag to tell you and show you today.

• I have been thinking about spirituality a bit lately and have even had the opportunity to discuss the subject with two of my friends. While we all have our own ideas on the subject, and I don't want to be too deep or complicated here, I want to share that I feel most spiritual when I am outdoors, listening to the wind in the trees, hearing the birds sing, feeling the sun on my face, hands in the dirt just pondering what a beautiful earth God has given us. Quite a miracle.
• I have the opportunity to start a new garden this summer. We recently moved, as many of you know, and I had to leave my beautiful garden behind. (It was beautiful at times...) I've been busy drawing circles around my favorite plants and flowers in seed catalogs for a couple of weeks. I favor a less formal garden, so many of my favorites are wild and free looking.
• I do not grow vegetables. I cannot eat most of them due to my dumb health issue and my husband will not eat them. If I could eat them, I believe I would give being a vegetarian a try. I love them that much.
• I grow flowers, pretty ones that are easy to grow. I don't believe in complicated.
• Since moving to this area, I've been making a list of places I'd like to visit. Near the top of the list is the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio and Ginkgo Tree Bookshop. See this link for info: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/illinois_frank_lloyd_wright.htm
• Speaking of the Ginkgo. Did you know this tree does not exist in the wild anywhere in the world? Only the cultivated form survives. This tree is also known as a living fossil. Fascinating specimen, it was Frank Lloyd Wright's favorite tree. When his popularity took off, so did the popularity of the Ginkgo, prompting many cities to plant this tree in rows down city streets. The problem with the Ginkgo is that the female (yes this species is dioecious, which means there are male and female plants) tree produces a very stinky fruit, whose odor has been compared to rancid butter or excuse me... vomit. Ew. So, the tree that is often called the Maidenhair Tree, also has the distinct moniker of being the stinky tree. Lesson. Buy the male version. These trees are lovely.
• This concludes our botany lesson for today.
• Back on the topic of spirituality. I would like to be cremated when I die.
• I would like to be scattered someplace magnificent.
• My relatives are welcome to keep a small piece of me.
• I do not feel this is a desecration of the body, in the biblical sense. I feel that God created this big lovely world. He will find me when he needs me.
• If there were such a thing as reincarnation.. I sort of hope there is.. I would like to be a bird. Not that I would get to choose, but I would like to be a bird.

I will see you back here next week! Everyone have a lovely weekend!