Golfito

Golfito

Today David and got done early and decided to break away from our stressful routine.  “How aboutminiature golf.  “ What about miniature

golf?”  Was my response trying to postpone an answer.  The truth was that as much as needed a break and some relaxation, I was tired, brain-dead and had a dirty kitchen to clean!

“I thought that we could go play and get away for a while, how about it?”  “Ok, after I do the dishes.” An hour later I ran upstairs, lathered my faced with sun block grabbed a hat and off we were.

I had not played miniature golf in over twenty years.  It was fun to be out here in this course with David.  I love his sense of humor.  I started to feel carefree.  The memories started to flood my mind and soon I was on the take off mode of my time machine.  I was speeding fast to Miami 40 years ago, to a time of very little responsibility and a lot of fun things to do. I couldn’t wait to arrive there if only in this state of time travel.  It was summer Miami was hot, humid and irresistible.  Our routine was simple, sleep in, eat lots of great Cuban food, hit the beach daily, cruise Miami Beach at night, Pool Hop the fancy Hotels on the strip, go to the skating rink, and of course to play golfito ( little golf) or what Cuban in exile called miniature golf.

We went out together my cousins (Mirita ,Vivian, Charlie ( Now Carlos and Mirita’s husband of  39 years)  My brother, my sister and I.  We were a close-knit group.  We were each other’s best friends.  We had a curfew of midnight. We were never ready to go home at that time so what do 5 Cuban kids in Miami do to solve the problem?  Drive home and pick up abuela (our 73-year-old grandmother) who was a 4’ 11” fireball full of life.  She would get dressed and drive off with us to some restaurant that stayed open all night and have a late night or early morning snack.   In the morning she would always be up and have breakfast ready before we would even crack an eye open.   Many a time, she would join us on our trek to Miami Beach where she would find some shade and watch as we baked in the sun.  There were the nights that we would skip the golfito and

pile the six of us plus 3 or 4 friends in a car and go to the drive in.  One of those nights we had kids in the trunk, one under a blanket in the back seat and the rest pile in between.  It is a wonder that someone did not suffocate and die!  I am not sure if that was the night that we got caught and “asked to leave”.  I have to add that this did not deter us.  We regrouped and somehow went back in undetected!

But golfito, to me is the symbol of our summers in Miami.  Golfito is Mirita, Vivian, Charlie, Marilu and Pepe and the symbol of carefree times of love and friendship and innocence.  Golfito is the symbol of the emotional freedom that was our youth.

My time machine landed by a Tropical Snow Stand ( snow cones stand).   David and I sat and ate our coconut shaved ice as I gently left my youth behind with faint feel of the tropical breezes of years past.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

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Where  I come from there really isn’t a time that you await the arrival of the first hummingbird.  They are just there.  There is the time of year in which you have additional “winter visitors” but I never had to hold my breath for that first visit of the year.

Here in Idaho, that is just not the case and this year after much hope and many much preparation and expectation May 6th was the day.

I don’t have to say what an event it was.  This little jewel on wings gladdened my heart and sprung me forward with more resolve to make my yard his summer hang out.  Hummers have a way of making the world a better place, they are just a marvel.

This propelled me to pull out my pots that I have had in storage, the ones that I have collected and kept and added to for years.  I can’t ever have enough pots. Each pot has a story, each has a past, some have scar that have only added character and charm.  Some are quirky and while others are elegant.  They all have a style of their own, beauty and even a personality.

With this excitement and my pots in tow I set out to plant  a garden.  I ran down to my favorite nursery and selected mostly annuals to compliment the plants that had over wintered in my garage and house.  This year this will have to do.  We are in a rental so my garden will be a mobile one.

It is quite simple really, a small table and two chairs, a fire pit, a small fountain that I had, a couple of bird baths, a few finch and hummingbird feeders, begonias, petunias,lobelia,impatient and two baskets of fuchsia dripping with bell-like blooms. They remind me of a gypsy’s earrings with magnetic attraction to the hummers and butterflies.

If you find your self with and empty nest, or with a desire for tranquility bloom where you are planted.  Plant a garden.  There is something cleansing , healing, strengthening and peaceful about a garden.  The Creations setting was a garden.  Maybe your garden will be a couple of indoor plants, or a couple of pretty pots outside, maybe chimes and a small fountains. A garden is  just your own creation and definition of it planted by  you.

Meanwhile, I am headed outside as the day cools to water my flowers and listen to the tinkling of my chimes, and gives thanks for the moment and the gift of a garden.