I Bid Adieu . . .

. . . or should I say auf wiedersehen. Isn't it sad when a moving truck pulls up to your neighbor's house? Yes, my neighbor and new buddy have left. For good. The house is sold and everything is empty over there. So sad. Even though our friendship really began after Dianne moved, I will still miss her, even more so now that we have connected. I will miss seeing her red hair as she waved to me as she talked on the phone on her porch. For some reason, we're the only fools in the neighborhood who used our porches--go figure. I will miss her shooing her dog Diz into the house if she let out as much as a little bark. I'll miss seeing her driving down the street in her little Mercedes coupe, or her completely restored vintage 40s (?) pickup truck, or her screaming yellow Harley. The kid will miss her just because he adored her, he adored her grandchildren who would visit periodically (and let me add, if you saw her walking down the street with either a daughter or granddaughter, you couldn't tell which was which--she is WAY too young looking!). Needless to say, we all will miss her.


Before she left, she came over and gave me this gorgeous old dough bowl. I absolutely love it. I told her the story of a family rift that happened about 20 years ago. My mom's sister, Nita, passed away and she had several of the "family" pieces. Not that there were many. My mom grew up dirt poor in Georgia with no mother and a father who did just about everything he could to bring money in to keep the family together. Her mother died when my mom was born and Nita pretty much took mom under her wing. Mom says she was like a mother to her. Anyway, there was a dough bowl that belonged to their mother that Aunt Nita had. When Aunt Nita passed, my mom asked Charles (Aunt Nita's son) if she could have her mother's dough bowl. Charles said no, that he wanted it. (Can you imagine?) The bowl sat in that house for umpteen years until the house burned down with all its contents. So sad. And so when I showed my mom the bowl that Dianne had given me, she said it did look like the one that belonged to her mother. So you see, it is a beautiful gift that we will treasure in our household. I have it sitting on my table now and I'd share a picture with you; but for some unknown reason, my camera is MIA. I tell you--that teenager and that My Space! There are new girls in the neighborhood from California (Nisan headquarters have just moved here!) that have contacted him via My Space, so he must be updating his pictures. hehe. Aw, to be a teenager again! (No thank you!) As soon as the camera appears, I'll add a shot of the bowl. (Camera returned!) It is gorgeous! The patina on it is just scrumptious.

And so, I have a little box going off to Dianne this week. She is always in need of some Southern delicacies up there in Minnesota! Do go by and see her bird's blog. Sammie who is an African Grey that talks up a mean streak! You never know just what is going to come out of that bird's mouth! She even goes for walks with Dianne and Diz (yep a custom-made carrier). Too cute! I keep telling Dianne she needs to get a pram to put the carrier in so when people look to see the cute baby, Sammie could say "Back Off!" hehe. Wouldn't that be hilarious.

Oh, by the way, in the ever-shrinking world in which we live, Dianne's sister is no other than Linda--as in Frenchless in France. Small world, eh!