Doris June

I can see you sitting at the kitchen table, looking out the picture window enjoying our backyard jungle, getting up quickly from your chair to go chase the lousy squirrels who were after our sunflowers we had taped to keep alive under the big ol' pine surrounded by Touch-Me-Nots of every pastel color (and you said you never heard of such a thing - taping sunflower stalks that had been broken - but they survived and we enjoyed their brilliant flowers), clapping your hands to scare the squirrels who stared at you unafraid like you had something for them, and the canary yellow finches with the tiny black wings eating sunflowers seeds upside down, chirping cute sounds, and you would make your rounds like the queen on a walk-about, followed by the little girl next door who heard the gate open and creak and came running over and who never stopped talking, to check out what new tomatoes you could find and how they were coming along, picking the ripe ones, and then resting on the patio, looking out from under the canopy of beautiful morning glory vines that were blue and others purple, and green vines going up the garage like something in a magazine and all along the fence next to the glads and impatiens and even up to the sun deck...

Doris Gwinn