Sometimes the light in Africa just goes all golden and everything looks extra, amped-up beautiful.
It was like that this evening. Or afternoon. We go from afternoon, through a brief evening and directly to night here, living so close to the equator. Anyway, it was like that.
I picked up my camera and took a few photos of our yard and Mount Meru. It's a spectacular mountain and I would have built this house with big picture-window views of it but, alas, I didn't build this house and I have to stand in the driveway and look over the carport to see it. Still, it's worth walking into the driveway for :-)
Never mind the mountain, I posted the garden photo above on my facebook wall a little while later and lots of people "liked" it. The photo shows the entry area to our front porch. Mostly, it shows a lot of wonderful potted plants.
People often ask me if I do the flowers. Ha! So funny! I don't have even a tinge of green to my thumbs. My flowers come from Byron. As you can see, he's pretty good with them. I am exceedingly blessed that he takes so much pleasure in creating a beautiful space.
Tonight I'm remembering that when we were very young, twenty-one and twenty-four, Byron and I took a summer course in Arizona's desert that trained us in all sorts of appropriate technology, simple solutions and Biblical mandates for caring for the poor. There was a lovely older couple that managed the base named Bill and Helen Nye. I don't remember hardly any of our conversations, lectures or studies from that summer. It was 27 years ago, after all. But I remember this... Bill told Byron that, wherever we went, he should always plant flowers for me.
I guess Byron took that directive very, very seriously. Tonight I'm remembering flowers in Nakuru, flowers in Loita, flowers in Lisbon and, now, flowers here.
Thank you, Bill!
(And, thank you, Byron. xo)
5 comments:
Very lovely post. :)
We can see just how tall that bamboo has gotten since last we were last there. Sweet memories on that wonderful porch. Bravo, Byron!
:) lovely
Gorgeous. Wish I, or my husband could make our porch look like that.
But your Gramma Thamer had a green thumb and apparently made the mission stations where they lived in West Africa look amazing. She even planted oranges and lemons and grapefruit as well as hibiscus and bougainvillea. People stopped on the roads going by to look at the beauty.
Love, Mummsie
Well, Grandma Thamer had ALL the good genes--the green thumb and the music! Shame they all jumped right over me but nice that some of them landed on my kids :-)
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