Book Published

My book was published in time for the Boulder Heritage Festival this year.
I didn't attend. Tom lost his leg just the week before and events piled up.
My son Jason came from Texas and built a ramp for the wheelchair and fixed
the bathroom to be used more easily. Peole wander in and out giving rehab, checking wound, and prepare for prothesis. This is my youngest grandson and Grandpa sitting outside.
But the book is finished. It is a good one for the area as it gives information for those interested in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument...but I put in what was interesting to me. I hope others write and do the the same. That country is a country for stories...none like the others. I hope others will add to my stories. Now I need to sell for awhile. $20.00 for book. $25.00 mailed.
I'll have to provide for all the curious tourists!

Flags

I tried to post yesterday, but was having trouble, but the new picture posted.
I'll try again today. We are enjoying seeing our plants bloom in this cool
spring and summer.
We had an emergency on Monday. Tom's leg tubes blocked off.
We spent half the day at hospital in Panguitch and the other other half in St.
George. Dr. Khoury found a very small pulse and although the tube is blocked,
thought there was a possibility for the blood to get through the foot by smaller arteries and capillaries. He knew that trying to open up the blocked tube was almost an impossibility as he had operated and done all he knew to do (five times).
So he sent us home to see what happened. What has happened is severe pain in leg and foot. Tom is calling to see what can be done...taking the leg off is the next option, I think. So we shall see. I don't know how long he can stand this.
But in the meantime, we will enjoy flowers blooming and water. He is out watering now.

Strange Plant

Does anyone know this plant?
We don't know where it came from or
its name.
Tom has been creeping around this
Spring with a bad back that keeps
him from standing up straight...
spasms in his shoulder that goes down
his arm and if left without help
on down his left bad leg.
He has had five surgeries on his leg
trying to save it and it always hurts.
The last bout he wore a wound-vac for
a month trying to get the wound closed
the wound healed.
He has been trying to get the pain in
his back killed with radio waves.
He fights off skin cancers.
He just doesn't feel well.
We all struggle with old age, but
some seem to be hit harder than others.
His 90 year old brother jumps on his
ATV and heads for the desert.
He smokes and all those hidden problems
will crop up. They have in his leg
with circulation. Groan. Moan.
So when an odd flower appears.
And we have new ones in our window box.
The flags bloom for the first time.
We enjoy them all every day.

Unbelievable Quilt

This quilt of the Last Supper is made with 1/4 of inch size blocks...51,000 of the tinest quilt blocks you can imagine to make this picture. The quilter first made pictures on the computer, pixal picture where he matched all the colors as he went along. To practice, he made inch size blocks of his wife and himself just to learn how to make the picture making a picture quilt and then he did this Last Supper Picture quilt. He had the quilt sewn by machine. That is another amazing job, sewing so exact and so neat with every line of the hands. The machine quilter had to change colors on her machine many times to exactly match the picture. It's so amazing..the picture and the sewing which was done by Don Locke of Woxahachie, Texas. He and his wife came to show off this quilt at the Panguitch Quilt-Walk Festival. Here are two others, but believe me..there is no comparison.
I do love the so many other well-made beautiful quilts. I had just never seen such a quilt with such little blocks made. It measures 183" X 67" so it is large.
I am soooo impressed!

Time marches on

I drove over to view the new Escalante Reservoir and was surprised at the size
of the dam as well as the lake. Fishers will enjoy this new lake. Boaters will
speed around. Escalante can boast of their water supply once more.
I took a picture of this old bridge, one of the first on Upper Valley Road and
this old wagon at the new Heritage Center area where Lynn Griffin's pictures of the Hole-in-the-Rock are on display. I was told that a touring car can get all the way
to it now, except one man said, "You'd be a damn fool to drive it in a car." I guess the road is not all that great, graveled sandy roads.
Towns improve as time marches on, yet history is valued and stories told and
retold. We love the old. We love the new. We want our lives easier at the same time we extoll our history when times were hard and our fore-fathers struggled to
get by.
I am captured by the old, yet don't want to turn back the clock. I would
hate to no longer have electricity, for example. In one fell swoop we would lose technology, telephones, many household items that make our lives so much easier,
and light at night. No, I wouldn't want to lose the energy that runs our daily life. I am reminded of that when the system goes down. Already thousands of us
depend on nuclear energy. As I plant a little garden and grow a few items, I know I depend on others to supply most of what I eat. I depend on others for what I wear.
I depend on others for electricity and so many of my needs. I admit it...I am not self-sufficient.

Extended Family

I wrote this poem for the two young extended family members that died
this month. The picture is family members at the funeral.

Joy
is in the crazy twitter
of thousands of birds
greeting the sun
each new day
Dawn – a portrait

Daylight finds work…
the struggle to face
what is needed.
The sun gives energy and light.

Sunset brings calm
And beauty incomparable.

Dusk
covers and outlines
stark contrasts of
light and dark
moments for solitude
and reflection

Night – moon and stars
Heaven closes around
us once more.

Tom's mother and Carrie's mom were sisters and spent
many hours of their lives together, quilting, cooking
in conversation. They went back and forth on a daily basis.
The girls of Aunt Nellie's and the boys of Aunt Maude...
dragged along.
Extended family touches all our lives.
Cousins become good friends.

Memorial Day

The old headstone has Great-grandpa James King
on one side, Great-grandma Isabella Neil King
on the other, and James (twin brother of John)
King on a third side...all buried at Fillmore, UT.
I remember grandma Isabella coming to Boulder once.
My great-grandma Wilson kissed us all when she left
saying she wouldn't see us again..but she did, several times.
My Grandpa and Grandma King lived to see their son
Max and Glen's and Grandson Stewart go first.
They are in Escalante with Aunt Nethella and Richard,
Aunt Neta and Aunt Mary Ena (who I never knew).
The Kings were hard working, straight talking folk
who loved a joke and a good poem.
My Wilson grandparents are in Salt Lake
Crae went missing in World War II.
His tombstone is in Boulder with Mother and Dad.
And my sister LaRae, gone 20 plus years.
Uncle Reed and his kids are in Boulder.
Aunt Thirza and Ted..later on...and this year
Marge left us and joined the family beyond.
She leaves a hole behind.
Her tombstone is not yet placed.
Tom has been down with pancreatitis...
and I hope he can recover and go on awhile.
We all look to the edge...two younger ones
in their forties joined the other world
on Tom's side. No one is exempt.
Shelly and Leann. Too young it seems.
The spirits lean toward us today
and we lean toward them
wishing them close
wishing them well
wishing them tender care
with concern.
Memorial day...so many have gone
that touched our lives
and leave us here to wait
today.