melair

Dear Papaw,

Another year and so many things to catch you up on.  We all miss you, but when I called Granny today she sounded better than last year which was also better than the year before that.  Jim and I are doing good, still seeing so many beautiful things in California.  You wouldn’t believe all the crazy flowers there are out here, things you’ve never heard of…or at least I hadn’t.   Birds of paradise…have you ever seen those?  They look just like they sound.  And beaugainvillea.  You ever heard of that?  It kind of looks like azaleas, but in more colors.  We planted some a few months ago, one orange bush/vine and one that is a deep pink with a rusty orange around the edges.  It hasn’t really taken off yet, but when it does, I hear it will be hard to keep up with. Good thing we’re friends with our neighbors, because I’ll probably end up on their side of the wall trimming it one day.

And did you hear about our garden?  You’d be so proud!  Well, maybe.  I can’t seem to grow a tomato to save my life and I sure could use your help with those.  I know California is a long way for a tomato, but I’m guessing you can fly or magically transport now so maybe you can swing by one day and tell me what I’m doing wrong.  You wouldn’t believe how many hot peppers I’ve grown!  I always wish I’d learned to like those sooner so we could have shared peppers from your garden during Sunday dinners.  Now every time I pick one from my garden, I think of you.  We’ve had plenty of herbs and squash galore.  I’m just now waiting for the butternut squash vines to wither so I can roast some for soup.  I never realized how hard gardening was until I tried it myself.  All those years I watched you and just thought you were just outside because you didn’t like having company over.  Now I know that you made all those things grow because you were watering or pruning or killing bugs.

Jim got me a mandolin in February, but just like my guitar, I still don’t know how to play it.  What can I say?  I got your love for music, but not your know-how.  Me and Jim went and met up with some bluegrass musicians a couple of weeks ago.  There were a lot of mandolin players there and guitars.  There was also a fiddle and a couple of banjos.  Since I didn’t really know how to play anything I mostly sang, and they played all the songs you taught me: Amazing Grace, Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, I’ll Fly Away and Rocky Top.  They played a lot I didn’t know too, but now I want to learn them.  I sure wish you could have been there to tell everyone what key I sing in, because I have no idea.  Which was very obvious when I started singing.  I can’t hit the high notes in Amazing Grace anymore, but I guess those high notes have always been pretty hit or miss, huh?

Did you know Kyle got married this year?  Ha!  Isn’t that funny?  I guess it’s hard for me to believe because I still think of him as being a little kid and always getting Granny all riled up and getting in trouble.  You’d love his wife.  She’s really sweet and Southern.  She’s a teacher and she makes sure Kyle takes good care of Granny.  I didn’t get to go to the wedding so I haven’t seen them or Staci and Darrin in a while.  But I’ll get to see everybody in a few weeks when we are home for Christmas.

In other big news, Jennifer is pregnant again!  I wish you were around to get to know Justice.  I think you two would get along pretty well.  He likes to laugh a lot and you sure liked to get a laugh.  But it looks like Granny will be a great grandmother again in the spring.  Not sure if she’ll get a great grand daughter or another great grandson yet, but we’ll all know soon enough and I’m sure she’ll keep you posted.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about you all day and just wanted to drop you a line.  We all really miss you and if you get a chance I’d love for you to stop by and see what I’m doing wrong with my tomato plants.

Love,

Melissa