Simple happiness in a small town

As I have written many times before, I LOVE my little bungalow! And I have been really happy in this small town for nearly 40 years. I have been blessed with the gift of good neighbors, unlike some of my poor neibhborhood acquaintances. Ever since I moved in I have been trying to put in a fern garden in the front yard. I always seemed to me to be the perfect conditions, shady and party sunny in mild patches, but it is true that the soil isn't terribly healthy and the trees take up a lot of the nutrients, still, ferns grown in the forext and my yard is like a micro-forest. Eventually, after many failures, both of the seed and plant type I resorted to hanging ferns on the perfect little porch. Last spring, I tried yet again. I bought three ferns advertised at PLATT'S Farm as shade loving and hardy and my nephew and Godson Archie planted them for me.

They grew and I had hope they were going to flourish. I watered, but still we hait a time in late summer when the extreme heat dried the ground faster than I could keep it hydrated with my watering can. They got dry and brown and my nephew accidentally weed whacked them. He said, "It's Okay, Aunt Jo Ann, they were dead anyway." But being optimistic, I had hopes that they weuld somehow come back.

Just today, I went out to get something from the car and I was thinking, as I walked down the three steps to the yard how I wished I had a fern garden, and there, like some fairytale wish fulfillment, were three thriving ferns joyfully lifting their fern arms to the sky! I was so thrilled, I had to call my brother on the phone and tell him. And that's not all. The Lily of the Valley are all in bloom now too!

Walking the dog today, I met an old man I have seen many times before but usually I see him walking along the railroad. I said Hi and congratulated hi on expanding his walking distance. He said he had been over to Rob's auto shop. Then he told me he was about to have, this week, his 90th birthday. He said he has survived two open heart surgeries, cataract removals, blindiness in one eye and diabetes but he can still enjoy a walk around town in the Spring. I told him he was a great role model and that I wished to live to see 90 as well.

It is really the simple, humble little things that can really make your day! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com