A cool house..

While Julie, Ginny, Vickie and Tammy are showing dogs this weekend, I’m with my family, celebrating my nephew’s marriage. My grandparents moved into this house in the early sixties. After grandpa died, grandma moved into ‘town’ and we moved into the farmhouse. Mom expanded her grooming business and opened a boarding kennel. There was also more room for dogs! After mom died, my sister and her husband moved in and renovated the house, keeping it authentic, yet with modern ammenities.

Debby on…navigation update.

Still trying to get the details worked out.. I’ve added a Recent Comments to the left-hand sidebar, which will make it easy for you to see what comments have been added to the different posts. In doing that, I’ve lost the links section. While I figure out how to include both, to navigate back to the main website click here: www.FleetfireTimbers.com 

Julie pointed out that when she hits the red category at the top of each post, she’s taken to a page that looks like the bloghost’s. If you hit the same category in the left-hand sidebar, you’re taken to a page that looks like the FFT What’s New blog. I don’t know if I can customize the first scenario to look like the second. I’ll work on that too.

Debby on…navigation, search, categories and photos.

Whether you’re simply reading or posting, thanks to everyone for participating in the What’s New blog! I’d like to point out a few things…The categories and search part are awesome. As the blog grows, these features will be particularly useful. If you’re only interested in one topic, you can simply hit that category and be redirected to just posts in that category. To get back to the main page of What’s New, simply hit those words in the header at the top of the page.

The search feature does just that. Plug in a word and you’ll be redirected to all posts containing that word. For example, Zeke is mentioned in posts in different categories. Do a search on Zeke and up comes an intro for each of those posts.

I invite you to post about your dog, including photos. The comment feature allows you to comment on a subject that’s already been posted. It doesn’t allow you to start a new subject or to post photos. In order to do that, you’ll have to email me – LhasaLhady@aol.com – with the post and the photo and I’ll use my administrative talents <g> to add these to the blog. Comments can then be made from there. I haven’t yet discovered if there’s a way for you to do this directly.

Another thing I haven’t figured out is how to include the navigation bar across the top that is used throughout the rest of the website. I also haven’t been able to include a link back to Put the Pen to the Paper. For the time being, navigation back to the rest of the FFT website is listed under Links in the left-hand column, right under Archives and Categories.

Debby on…The Daffodil Principle

 Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over.”

I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead “I will come next Tuesday”, I promised a little reluctantly on her third call.Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and reluctantly I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.“Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!”My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“But first we’re going to see the daffodils. It’s just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “Please turn around.”

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign with an arrow that read, “Daffodil Garden.” We got out of the car, each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight.

It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, and saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.“Who did this?” I asked Carolyn. “Just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking”, was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun, one bulb at a time, to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration.