random thoughts – Day 1,152 – (Saturday) – Mom's day

Mother’s Day weekend kicked off with some beautiful weather. My sister and I had plans to spend the day with Mom. I met Mom in the late morning to browse our favorite consignment shops and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Leominster. I got placemats and an office organizer thingy at one consignment place, and Mom got a skirt at another.

After my sister got out of work, we went to her house and picked her up for lunch. It was a gorgeous day for a relaxing lunch on the patio at Slattery’s in Fitchburg. We chatted and enjoyed the warm temperature and spending time together without having to monitor the time to dash off to other obligations. We noticed that the much smaller, revamped menu no longer had any of our favorite items from years ago.  

Inside at the garden center.

After lunch, as a follow-up to Mom’s comment about needing bark mulch (we talk about the most exciting things), we went to a garden center. There were stacks of bagged mulch and loam and a sea of pricey plants and intermittent displays of lawn ornaments. 

I must be living in the dark ages, or maybe I’m just super frugal, but $549 for a 12" tall cement lantern with no real function beyond sitting in the yard felt a bit pricey. The lowest priced "ornament" was a $40 rock that was smaller than a softball and had owl eyes painted on it. Inside the garden center, there were even more pricey decorative items. 

One of my (too many) regrets from leaving Tennessee is having left my yard decor behind -- a resin heart that looked like stone, a Buddha head, and a cherub with a bird. I stupidly thought, "I can get that stuff anywhere." Ha! Not exactly, and not in the past six years. 

After the garden center, we headed to an antiques shop, but there were a couple traffic situations along the way. The first involved a vehicle that had been loaded onto a flatbed near a damaged utility pole. Once beyond that, we ended up in a second tie-up and after a few minutes we took a side street to get out of it. Then we drove around, past the former residences of family friends where we commented “oh, Diane used to live there” and “that was Cindy’s old house.” We ended up driving through downtown Fitchburg because they wanted me to experience Main Street, which was recently converted from a one-way street to a two-way street. I knew about the conversion, but hadn't a reason to drive it.

The empty spot over the gas line - filled.

It was an all-day event and a fun time. On the way home, there was a quick stop at Market Basket for Winston’s weekly chicken and a bright yellow potted flower for the front yard. The $6.99 plant was repotted in the terra cotta pot. Then it was set in the empty spot along the street edge of the fence where the gas line comes to the house. Boom. The empty spot is filled for way less than $549. No need to worry about overpriced ornaments. I just need to remember to water the thing.