I was listening to some music this week. Music that I doubt if any of my readers will know or care about, but when I grew up it was the music loved by my mother and father. Musicals such as "Desert Song", "Rose Marie", "May Time", the Gilbert & Sullivan Operas, "Aida" were what I grew up with. They had two musical societies in Llandudno - the Musical Players and the Operatic Society. My father sang with the Operatic Society in a show called "Rigaletto" (just in the chorus), but some of my very earliest memories are of sitting on my father's knee at the productions of these two societies. Theater in any of its forms was loved by my parents, and I was taken to every show, play, and any current movie with them. The war (World War Two) was over when I was eight and my father arranged for the three of us to go to Liverpool with a 'pub trip' to see the traveling London production of "Annie Get Your Gun". No wonder I still love any type of theater. When I lived in London (my late teen years), I earned next to nothing, but every spare penny I had was spent on going to the London shows. I would sit up in the cheapest seats which at times was so far up that the people on the stage were hardly recognizable, but I saw all the big 'stars' of the time - Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray, Nat King Cole, Guy Mitchell, Sarah Vaughan, just to name a few. It's amazing when one looks back to see just how one's early life shapes your tastes, and passions.

It's almost a year since we moved to Arizona and who would have thought that our State would have been the center of attention that it is today. Right now we're proud to call ourselves Arizonans and hope you all support what we are trying to do here. All that nonsense about the illegality and the racial bias of the law is simple poppycock and only a fool who hasn't read it would say it. Our law is far more stringent in human rights than the Federal law that has been on the books for years - and simply not enforced. As we are drowning under the costs of the illegals, and being invaded at the border by hoodlums and murders, we are simply doing what the Federal Government is bound under our constitution to do and has failed to do. So fell citizens - stand by us and send out the message that we Americans want the Federal Government to guard our borders. When I was admitted to this country in the Fall of 1964, it had taken me over six months of paperwork, interviews, documentations, research into my background and health checks for me to get the right to come in and call myself a legal alien. As I came over the boarder, I had to show proof of enough financial funds to carry myself for enough time to find a job. Until I became a citizen some five years later, I had to register each January with the local post office, show my papers and reregister as an alien. I was required to carry my proof of legal entry with me at all times and show it if asked. So don't give me the garbage that is being spouted now!!! That's my point of view for the week. Love to all...............

This was a quiet week - some in the garden, cleaned out some cupboards, some housework and I could see myself heading for a deadly boring blog. But I did do quite a lot of genealogy work this week, which I have been ignoring for some time - and thought you might like to hear a bit about some great grand-parents.

John and Mary Davies were my mother's parents. They were married for over 50 years and were only separated once for five days - during which my grandfather wrote a love letter to my grandmother each day. She was a very strong woman and taught me that "if you can walk down the street with one penny in your pocket and owe no man, then no one is better than you". My grandfather was a gardener.
My father's family was very poor - there were 11 children in all and the only person in the family who had meat was my grandfather who needed his strength to provide for the family. My grandmother (Nain Thomas) was a constantly cheerful woman - always singing and laughing even though she led an incredibly poverished and hard life. This photo shows my father with his parents and his sisters up to that point. Taid (grandfather) Thomas was quite a character. He had been widowed many years and on the day he died was living with a woman. He was 75 and came home from work saying he was tired because after working the whole day as a bricklayer, he had also climbed a tree at lunchtime to show the young-uns that he could. He laid down to rest before dinner and never woke up.

Grandma and Grandpa Topper met in Missouri and moved with the family to Oklahoma a short time before the official opening of the State. This made them one of the Sooners (they went there sooner than they should have). In this photo they are loaded up to move to California. Their next to youngest son Charles is at the wheel and Dick's father Lee sits next to him.

Grandma and Grandpa Craig were Lowney's parents (Dicks Mom). They had moved to Oklahoma from Nebraska and before that from Missouri. There home in Oklahoma is still open farm land heavily scattered with a short cedar tree that Grandpa is reputed to have brought with him from Nebraska. They are a pain for farmers as they spread and spread and can take over pasture land. His son (Dick's Uncle Ben)would laugh and tell us how all the farmers around were mad at him.

How does your garden grow

This past week, most of our efforts have been in improving our back yard. We have the west wall done to our satisfaction now - with oleander, hibiscus and bouganvillea. The back wall is roses, jasmine and pyracantha (that's not spelled right is it?). The grass is a work in progress, but definitely improving. Everything is in its infant stage right now - but aren't we going to have a wonderful display of color when it is all grown up?

Saying goodbye to Mair and Kitty wasn't easy. We enjoyed their visit so much, and the parting was harder this time and we all know that Mair will not be able to make this trip again - it was too hard on her this time. And with Dick's health, we have no idea on when I will go over there again.
But I'm the eternal optimist and refuse to think that this was our last parting. Miracles to happen and sometimes in this life, things just work out in our favor.

So we put the sadness behind us and got back to focusing on the house and garden. It has been a joy to see our labors slowly but surely pay off as we are transforming our backyard desert into a splash of color.