Traveling is difficult, and it about broke my heart to leave Three Rivers while it was still green and full of flowers. The logistics of a trip can cause one to wonder if it is worth the effort.

It was.

I first spent time in a suburb north of Fort Worth with a dear friend who has young children and a new-to-them fixer-upper on a huge piece of property down a long driveway. They had three pallets of sod coming for a front lawn, and I was right on time to help with the project, because her husband had fallen and broken both of his arms above the elbows. (Don’t land hard on your wrists if you fall, okay?)

The greenery and scenery just blew my mind (figuratively speaking—not literally). I had no idea that Texas is so green this time of year, figuring I’d missed the best part of spring by waiting until the end of April.

Enough ogling. There was work to be done, and we were shocked by how hard it was. The plan was to rent Mantis type tillers, but neither one of us could get them started (nor could the Home Depot employee), so we rented bigger machines. They ’bout dang near vibrated our arms off, but there was no time for wimpiness.

There was time for a few walks, and we had to stop each time the sky let loose with a mess of rain. We also stopped when we heard thunder, because too many people have recently been struck by lightning for our comfort.

The husband keep the logistics moving ahead, coordinating, keeping the Littles busy, looking up instructions, doing what he could like bringing tools, and encouraging us. I had to drive his pickup with him to get a load of fill dirt in a pouring rainstorm because he couldn’t put his arms in driving position. Yikes, such terrible timing for him, but it was a great project and a privilege to be able to help.

Let’s take a break from the sod project and admire the property a bit more.

We were enormously grateful when the grown son arrived with a friend to finish the tilling and help lay the sod, since our arms were like limp spaghetti. We had planted many flowers, dug and lugged many rocks, and of course stayed up late catching up because we couldn’t talk when the machines were going.

It was hard to say goodbye when my other set of friends, N & J, came to get me for the rest of my stay at their place south of Fort Worth. So interesting to have all of us together, both sets of friends formerly of Three Rivers, all now Texans, and just meeting for the first time.

There were so many things that would make beautiful paintings, but my audience (“collectors” in Artspeak) isn’t really interested in generic scenes. They want to buy paintings of places they know. Maybe I’ll paint some Texas green scenes when I retire (fall down laughing — why would I retire when I love what I do??)

To be continued. . .