's Motd Saturday March 15, 2008 - Potting Soil

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POTTING SOIL

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Today, after I teach class at Slimmons, I'm going to come home, clean up a little and head to an Armstrong Garden Center. I've always loved looking through their advertisements in the Los Angeles Times but I had never visited one of them. Well, today...I will!The closet one to me is in Marina Del Rey, about 30 minutes from my home. They say it's the biggest one in the city and I can't wait to, uh, plant my feet in there!

Oh, I've always loved flowers. There was a little flower store back in New Orleans called French Quarter Florists. I used to love to go there and buy flowers for my mother. I still remember the lady's name who worked there, dear sweet Miss Alice. She would always show me their latest arrivals."Come over here, and see these lovely pink roses, they're from Mexico. And look at these, they're called Irises. Aren't they beautiful? And these big white flowers over here are called mums."Oh, that Alice, she was always so helpful. I would make a few selections and Alice would wrap them up and tie them with a big bow for me. I'd take my bounty of blossoms and head over to Maison Blanche department store and present them to my mother as she worked behind the store's Coty counter.

She'd be so delighted as I handed them to her announcing, "Here, Mom, these are for you!"Shirley would come out from behind the counter and give me big-old hugs and kisses. I'd take the flowers home for her, place them in a pretty vase and put them right next to her bed. I would feel so good doing this for my mother and maybe that's why flowers still mean so much to me.

So when I get to Armstrong's today, I plan to walk up every row of flowers and plants. I'll be thinking of Shirley the whole time. She just loved camellias, gardenias, night-blooming jasmine and hibiscus. In fact, I have all of these flowers surrounding my home.I'm also going to get one of those little fountains that come with the big glass balls in the middle. Of course, along with my floral purchases, I'll load a big bag of potting soil into my truck. Then I'll head back home and get ready to plant away!And while I'm kneeling there in the soil, I'll be listening to the fluttering wings of all the humming birds that live in my backyard. I feed them every morning and they'll be watching over me as I get to be Mr. Green Jeans for a day.What will you do on this Saturday? I just hope you'll do something nice for you. While I'm planting flowers and thinking oy my sweet Shirley, I hope you'll do something that will bring many happy memories to your minds, too.Do you have memories of buying flowers for your Mom? What were her favorites?Love,