[jdviole2]

Just a short note for today. Two months ago today we were getting very near the end and I'm finding it hard to write much. To write I need to remember and remembering, today especially, is getting to me. Anyway. Just a few facts about Helena and then on to the photos. Helena loved collecting things. She didn't try to create complete collections but rather collected things she liked. I told her the word eclectic and she fell in love with it. She always worried that the way she decorated our house was messy. There was a bit of everything on the walls and in her curio cabinets. But then she learned the word and from then on would tell people that our home decor showed our eclectic tastes. She collected stuffed animals. She collected hand painted Russian Laquer boxes. She collected Netsuke, Japanese decorative carvings made of ivory (only legal forms) or wood, or bone. She collected Pewter figurines. Usually she liked anything tiny and intricately carved or painted. She loved coffee (I hate it). Though she like so much cream and sugar that I used to tell people to give her a cup of hot cream and add a tiny splash of coffee. She loved pastries, as long as chocolate was involved in their making. She loved beautiful exotic flowers, despite both of our inabilities to grow any ourselves. We both had the original "black" thumbs. We could kill plastic plants. She didn't like birds much. She got attacked by some birds at our house when she took our new kitten outside. The birds dove on her trying to kill the cat. She loved cats. She learned to love dogs after I came along. She loved the sun and hated it when it was cloudy. (I hate sun and love the clouds). She learned to love Roller Coasters, again thanks to me. As I mentioned in another post she hated snakes. She handpainted porcelain figurines. Her work was very precise and beautiful. She had a good sense of color and fabric. She did not like to drive. She had a drivers license and I bought her a car for her 40th birthday but she never really liked to drive. She was a good driver and on our trips I let her do a lot of the interstate driving. She didn't like driving in towns or cities. She loved to swim. Pools, lakes, ponds it didn't matter to her. I bought us masks and swimfins and she really learned to love skindiving. She wasn't a drinker but would occasionally have a sweet drink, like a Grasshopper, or some other kind of frozen drink. She didn't like wine but an occasional drink of Asti Spumanti would go down good. She loved to snack on chips and dips. She tried knitting and quilting but it was never a passion with her. She like to visit museums. She could appreciate many different types of art. She was a member of the "I don't know what is good but know what I like" school of art appreciation. She like a lot of the old masters and many impressionists. For some reason she loved Grandma Moses work. She loved hiking, as many of the photos I have posted show. She liked roller skating and ice skating. She loved sledding. She loved helping me with home improvement projects. She loved being married. Enough. Today pictures start with Helena striking a "captain morgan" pose on a Colorado mountain trail in the mid 80's. The second photo is a resting shot again from a mountain trail (wearing that beautiful blue outfit). The third shot is Helena at Knotts Berry Farm in California in the late 70's. (The temptation is to say "making an ass of herself" but I won't). The next three pictures were all taken in the late 70's also. The first shows Helena at the Farmers Market in LA. Examining all the fresh fruits. The next is also the Farmers Market but at a more favored type of stall for her, the sweets. Note the pleased expression. The last shot is from Sea World and is Helena enjoying one of our favorite pursuits, eating.