I woke up early this morning to bake bread. The clouds cast a gray pall over the dark earth. I had an appointment for PT at 9 o'clock but the minute I saw the clouds and the chair in front of the fire in the living room I new I had to call my physical therapists office and make the appointment for later in the day. This cold quiet winter morning was calling me to sit and stay.

Yesterday I had to get a shot. I hate shots. I used to run out of the health department in Covington and try to reach home. I escaped once and got caught making a mad dash down Main Street. My mother caught me and dragged me back to the awaiting nurses.

My husband Billy always gets his flu shots and his doctors recommend that I get them, too. I hate shots.

I was all excited because the swine flu shot wasn't a shot at all but something you can inhale. But Billy called our pharmacist and she told him that only people 49 and younger can get the inhaler. BOO! HOO!!

I could pass for 49 in some foreign country where all the people who are 30 look 60. But that didn't count.

Billy and I went together to Kroger to get my shot. I told him that I was definitely going to need a present for this. "Of course, of course you need a present when you have to get a shot. You, Melinda, shouldn't have to do anything you don't want to do,"
he said.

I think he's very well trained.

I bought a dozen yellow roses. They're in the picture there. They brighten my dining room and every time I come into the house they greet me. They're sensual and romantic. I'm enjoying every minute of them. They were almost worth getting a shot.

Here's another shot of the roses in the dining room. It's like they pull the room in toward them. I don't know. I needed them. Maybe it's the darkness and long nights.










There is something about blossoms, blooms, flowers that just captivates the soul. I took this Christmas Cactus outside for the summer. During a thunderstorm back in June, a limb fell on the pot and knocked off half the plant. Even so it's still luscious in its half self. Odd that the color of the flower almost matches Mamie's painting behind it.




And in about a month there will be amaryllis blooms. My son Sam will be coming home for Christmas in January. He's coming with his girlfriend Amanda. I'm hoping the amaryllis will be blooming then. Get to growing little fat bulbs!