In a few more days my son and his partner and I will be driving to St. Louis, to a state I’ve possibly flown over or driven through in the dead of night.  I may have glimpsed the Mississippi River from above.  I know next to nothing about my new home, other than that my son and chosen family, and sometimes the younger Gkids, live there.

I feel honored and privileged to become a part of their life, for however long I have left.  Nevertheless, my anxiety has been working overtime!  It actual gave me some kind of scary panic attack or something, with lingering effects.   But I believe it’s one of the few right decisions I’ve made in my life, a long time coming, one I won’t regret.

Here are some last shots of the garden.  I’m pleased it did so well in the short year we’ve been back.  The bees are working overtime, getting thoroughly pollinated themselves!  Also–produce!

We had an early birthday celebration for E, since I won’t be here next month.

[“Ohio” by OTR]

The back roads…what Ohio is really all about.  I do feel a little sad leaving it behind for good, after returning to its relative sanity from TN.  There are some pretty places here, despite the post-industrial mono-crop miles.  If you fly over, you miss a lot.  I’ve been saying my goodbyes, one iconic scene at a time.

Pictured are Young’s Jersey Dairy in YS, where they still make their own ice cream and cheeses from Jersey cows (and you can feed the adorable goats), and some more flowers in our cottage garden.

I’m back with not-a-blahg-post counting down the time until liftoff to MO.  I’m no astronaut, but I feel the nervous apprehension of the unknown.  So to distract myself, here are the latest flowers in possibly my final garden of my own.  Going out with a color bang.

Still not a blahgpost, but I have to say this:  it’s official, I’m moving to St. Louis in a couple of weeks!  I will finally catch up to my son.  It’s been a long time coming.  A lifetime, almost.

To commemorate this move, here are a few of many photos I’ve saved up.  FB is being extra stupid and not letting me post photos to my story, so WP gets to archive some final Ohio scenes.

The first three are sunrise on the way to Columbus.  The cucumber et al I actually grew myself!  The rest are self-explanatory.  I finally approximated a goal of growing a cottage garden, now that I’m leaving to live in a garden-less apt.  But my son and partner’s gardens will serve the purpose nicely, and keep me off the streets.