Peonies

Renee, our talented daughter with flowers, offered me a choice of two bouquets as we left their house Tuesday. How does one choose between roses and peonies? I chose the bright rose colored peonies and as they grace our table, memory takes over. How clearly I can see those peony bushes and their bright flowers at the south side of the garden at the farm. How well I remember the years when they were in bloom by Memorial Day. They were beautiful and would look so impressive when we filled jars or vases with water and the peonies to take over to put on our grandparent graves.
In the late 70's, I was teaching a class of sophomores in Bakersfield. who had chosen to have a semester of different novels. As they were reading "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck describing the trip from Oklahoma during the depression. one of the male students said "What is a peony?" and I suddenly realized they were not growing in Bakersfield. How do you describe a peony adequately to someone who has never seen one when your own images have years of emotional experiences associated with their beauty? May peonies grow forever!
This has been a very full and good week. The campground during the week has been only partially filled so the first Friday they only had one park aide scheduled for the 3-10 pm shift. He had a non-stop line at his check-in window registering campers from 3-7:30 and was unable to handle the drive-in window so the other host woman and I split the time to keep the line moving.
Then Monday we had a great time at Brittany's birthday pool party enjoying watching the 10 high school girls in the water which was 85 degrees but because the air was about 55, H&I did not go in (chicken!). Tuesday we enjoyed going to her high school sports dinner award night and seeing her receive awards for varsity softball and being a scholar athlete.
Yesterday the third hosts came in so we had all three of us couples plus the new host in maintenance come over to share the beef stew H& I had been cooking in the crockpot all day--fortunately it stretched to feed eight as others had breads and a salad to contribute and we had just bought another watermelon. (All 3 have been especially good this spring). We had a good time finding out about each other and I'm sure will have good times together. That is important for the golf cart at the other (Refugio) campground had its charger die so they took the one off our cart and when they plugged it in, it died also so we now have one charger for three hosts and since our cart tires were bald, maintenance chief decided we should go park it for they don't have more money and no replacement tires, but she did say we should try electric car which has been used by her or others in maintenance so we at least have 2 vehicles for the 3 of us to share, but no vehicles will be repaired or replaced so let's hope we can keep these 2 working for this park is too big to walk or bike and gas is too expensive for any of us to drive our own cars around the camp like we had to do our first years here. The electric car requires more charging time than the golf cart, but it can go up the hills at almost the 15 mph speed limit and has to be slowed down on flat or down hill runs.--by Anita