Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, June 22, 2019

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 22, 2019 


WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side by Deanne Davis

“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months 
of June and August.” 

Jenny Han

“Of course, fresh flowers are the answer to any June gloom you 
may be feeling. Flowers really do solve all problems.” Mia Moretti

Fresh flowers really are the answer when you’re feeling gloomy. 
Currently, I’ve got a big vase of white and yellow Alstroemeria 
sitting on my kitchen counter. I love these almost as much as 
sunflowers. But Alstroemeria is coming home with me because 
they last almost two weeks without falling apart and looking like 
they need to go into the compost pile and I’m all in favor of a 
flower that tries to stay alive. Those sunflowers, though, they hold 
a special place in my flower-heart. I may have mentioned I always 
think they look like hope.

We’ve survived May Gray and now we’re heavily into June Gloom. 
That’s OK, the roses are looking fabulous and various cactus, 
succulents, Hawthorne and mock orange are blooming around 
town. Bees love these blooms and it’s a joy to see so many sipping 
at the flowers. The Jacarandas are blooming, too, and purple 
clouds grace every street in town.

I planted a varicolored lantana this morning and stretched out 
a new 100’ hose to be sure it’s long enough to reach my new 
tree. Yes, friends and neighbors, I have a new tree coming next 
week to replace the dead oleander tree – pictured here - which 
is now looking really really pathetic in the corner of my yard. 
This oleander, by the way, was a gorgeous thing, covered with 
white blossoms and flourishing like crazy when it lived up 
the street at our daughter, Crissy’s house. It made the mistake, 
though, of throwing lots of these flowers into their swimming 
pool and Crissy’s husband, Chris, grew to really hate it when he 
was scooping dozens of flowers out of the pool every day. I, no 
longer having a pool, really loved that tree and offered to take it 
off his hands and plant it in my yard. We were all delighted. The 
landscape guys came, took it out, replanted it in the wrong place in my yard, had to dig it up again and replant it and then, for 
some reason unknown to anyone involved, the water got shut off in my yard and the tree, which should have been getting gallons 
of water every day was getting none. By the time I figured this out, yes, I have moments when I’m a little slow... the tree was gone 
and every day it gets drier and more pathetic.

So! A Sunday or two ago, we visited a local tree nursery where a delightful and extremely knowledgeable young woman, Lucy, 
escorted us up and down row after row of gorgeous trees which were just waiting for the right checkbook to appear. Needless to 
say, making a decision was difficult and I was terribly torn between another oleander, or various ash and acacias but then I walked 
down one more row, past some gorgeous crepe myrtles which I was able to resist, even though they were in full bloom, as I know 
they are deciduous and will spend all winter looking bleak. And there it was, the beauty I had been imagining. Next Tuesday a 
gorgeous Tipu (Tipuana Tipu) tree will replace the oleander. The Tipu is, reportedly, a fast growing shade tree, thrives in intense 
desert heat and cold, will produce a coat of golden blooms in late Spring and is perfect where a high shade canopy is desired. Who 
could possibly ask for more! My job is to fill up the basin they will leave at the base of the tree with water morning and evening for 
at least the first two weeks of the tree’s moving into my yard...hence, the new hose.

“Fall in love with someone who feels like the warmth of the sun on a cold January morning, but soothes your heart like the cool 
waters of the sea on the hottest day of June.” Nikita Gill

I love this quote, don’t you. If only we could think thoughts like this when we are sizing up a possible someone to love. I managed 
to fall in love with exactly that kind of someone. You know, one of the nicest things to do is stand at the edge of the sea, letting the 
water wash up over your feet. Especially if you forgot your beach shoes and had to make that trek across the hot sand in bare feet. 

Enjoy those Jacaranda blossoms, even as you track them inside. They are glorious and don’t last long.

As you can see below here, my new book is available and there’s a copy at Amazon.com just waiting for you to order it for yourself 
or for that special someone who deserves a special gift.

“Sunrises & Sunflowers Speak Hope” is here! 

Look for it on my book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 

Star of Wonder the CD is now on TuneCore! Take a look!

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd 


KATIE Tse....This and That

DATING

 

Another inspired title. I’m not dating, but I have a friend 
who is. Actually, she’s not actively dating anyone at the 
moment, but she’d like to be. I went to lunch with her 
the other day. Our conversation always comes around 
to her finding someone. She works in education, so 
finding a guy in that field is like looking for a golden 
needle in a haystack, blindfolded, with mittens on.

 I told her, again, that maybe she should try online 
dating. It’s just too hard meeting people these days, even though everyone’s 
so interconnected on social media. (They are, I’m not. Email is the extent of 
my online socialization.)

 “No! I’m sick and tired of wasting my time on those stupid dating sites!” 
Nearly a direct quote. I know, ‘cause she’s said it a thousand times before.

 I don’t know what it was about my delivery, but for some reason she was in 
a more receptive mood this time. I pounced on the opportunity.

 We agreed she shouldn’t do the regular sites she’s burned out on. There’s 
a dating site for everyone these days. My friend’s a big animal lover, so I told 
her to go ahead and try an animal lovers dating site she had mentioned.

 Then I got to thinking, the rotten thing about dating, especially in these days of Instagram et. al. is that you’re constantly trying to 
sell yourself. If there’s one thing I hate it’s trying to sell myself. I changed campuses a few years ago. Not even a change of jobs, just 
locations, and I felt like I was selling myself all over again. What a hassle.

 I’m so glad I’m not trying to navigate the dating pool now because it seems just impossible these days. My friend was bemoaning 
the prospect of having professional photographs taken to post on the animal lovers site because that’s how cut throat it is now. Sad.

 The more we talked the more I felt that she should approach this whole social media dating thing from a different angle. Everyone 
tries to be beautiful and exciting. Not everyone tries to be funny. 

 She casually mentioned that a guy posted pictures of 
his dog wearing a bow tie, and it got a lot of attention on 
one of those sites.

 “There you go!” I exclaimed, to her surprise. “Go with 
that! Do one of your cat. The gimpy one.”

 I told her she should post as her cat. He can describe 
his daily cat activities and drum up sympathy for himself, 
what with his digestive problems and all (he’s a manx, 
supposedly they’re predisposed to that). 

 Every so often the cat would talk about my friend. So 
she’d be describing herself in the third person. And the 
pictures would be of her cat, with my friend obscured in 
the background. People would be straining to tell what 
she looked like --what a tease! I was really getting hopped 
up about this.

 As we talked this thing grew bigger and bigger until I 
made her promise she’d give it a try.

 “But the money--” she started.

 “How much do you spend on Starbucks every month?” 
I asked.

 That was a compelling argument, and she agreed to give 
it a try for a few months.

 Before she left I reminded her that I was going to check 
up with her in a week to make sure she’d started this 
“project.” 

 Because you know, do you really want a guy who just 
thinks you’re pretty and is awed by all the exciting places 
you visit, or do you want someone who cares deeply 
about what your cat is thinking any given morning, not to 
mention his digestive problems? Something to consider.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com