It's May...

...and John's flowers are popping up to say "hello!"

John hadn't had experience with gardening before we moved into our home. But within a few years of living there, he became obsessed with the flowers in the front and side yards. He loved color, and chose mostly the warm tones along with the grape hyacinths and the purple and pink hues of the crocus flowers. But I don't ever remember him planting or purchasing white flowers...yet--as you can see in the photo--I have a couple of white tulips this spring. What's with that? I have my theories.

I made a trip over to the Battle Creek area once more to see my niece play soccer--she is wonderful, I tell you, and didn't get one ounce of my non-athletic abilities (well, I can swim...but she can, too). Afterward, I stopped at Horrock's to get some roses and paid a quick visit to the cemetery to see if the stone had been replaced. When I got there, I decided to stop at Mom & Dad's stone to put half of my roses there. By then, it had gotten dark enough that I had to point my headlights toward the graves, click on the brights, and walk to the stone. Worked quite well, so I tried the same method to put flowers on John's stone.

Section P1 at Ft Custer with the headlights pointing toward John's grave. His is the one in the upper center with the flowers.

 And here it is again, but a bit closer. Still have to be careful in that section, because there are always open graves (in this case, the size of an urn box).

Here's the three roses I put on John's grave. Two of them have been dyed at the stem (the bright pink one is natural), but I thought they looked kinda interesting so I got them. I didn't have much of a selection at Horrock's (normally, there is a huge one, but I'm guessing the shortage is due to late spring and due to prom season). John and I had flowers from their Lansing store in some of the decorations for our wedding.

As you can see, the stone has been corrected. Truthfully, I don't know if they have to take it out and replace it, or if someone corrects it on the spot. I'm guessing the former, as there was evidence of digging or something around the grave stone that was newer than January.

 This is the area as you get to the end of the entrance lane; when John (or any veteran) was buried, the flag on the tall pole was at half mast. The other poles have flags on them occasionally; I can't remember if they're more US flags or something else like state flags. I'll probably find out on Memorial Day weekend. The entrance road had the flags up there--they've been flying since Easter and will stay until after Veteran's Day, I believe. I'll try to get photos of them sometime. In the meantime, here's one of them near the entrance in the following photo.

 The stars were amazing that night. Of course, there's very little light at Ft Custer, as I don't think many people visit the graveyard after dark. But there I was, and the old me would have been frightened. I was not. I had the stars...the soft breeze...and I felt my parents and my husband near.

I'll post more later on this past weekend. As for me, I'm doing better than I was last week (the restful weekend helped!), but I can't seem to let go of the vertigo completely. It's positional again, so very manageable. For the last couple of days, the direction I have to avoid is up or down. Side to side is fine.

Well, that's about it for now. More on Grand Haven, Holland, my old Saturn, and the further adventures of Elvis and me soon. I promise.