Yup, I came THIS close...

I thought I'd give you a taste of the beautiful flowers, fruits and gardens I was privileged to enjoy at my mother-in-law's home during my recuperation.

Mom loves gardening, and Erlinda and I have been the beneficiaries.

In fact, Erlinda has a green thumb herself, and while we were there, she spent at least 75% of most days out among the plants, even creating a garden bed or two of her own.

Among the flowers Mom prized most were her roses. She especially loved this pink variety.

Then there was this stand of flowers that surrounded the bird bath.

They were lovely, and I wish I knew their names, but I don't. Help?

Mom even had a couple rose bushes that yielded pure white roses.

You haven't seen anything till you've seen a bouquet of roses, all gleaming white.

On Mom's entrance staircase, she'd planted a few morning glory plants.

They'd multiplied, and they often bloomed not only in the morning, but for the entire day.

I liked to call them "all-day glories."

If you like white, then this lily will be attractive to you.

Not exactly the same as the white roses, but with its own appeal.

This flower is a.... Here we go again. I don't know the name. I think I'm going to need a lesson on flower identifying.

In any case, I love its bright yellow color.

This fuchsia flower looked to me almost as though it was weeping.

You think maybe it was sad that we weren't going to be there too long? I dunno.

Well, how about fruit?

Mom has a small grove of orange trees whose fruits we enjoyed all the time we were there.

In this picture you're looking toward the back of her property.

These oranges weren't ripe yet, but I had my eyes on them.

Mom's oranges are usually juicy and sweet, great for eating or juicing.

Trust me, until you've tried fresh squeezed orange juice, you haven't really tasted OJ. And once you try it, you'll be hooked.

Ever enjoyed a coco? Huh, you say?

Well, it's kinda like a yam or sweet potato, and it grows underground.

These coco plants grew near the edge of Mom's property.

And I'm guessing you might love avocados.

How would you like to be able to walk out into your yard and pick as many as you want, whenever you want to?

You're salivating, aren't you?

Looking towards the rear of Mom's property, we see a variety of fruit trees, each producing its crop in its season.

This is the view looking towards the front of the property.

Not only did Mom have oranges, she had ortaniques, as well.

You're familiar with ortaniques, aren't you? They're a cross between oranges and tangerines.

In fact, their name comes from a combination of those names: ORange-TANgerine-unIQUE.

And they're tasty, too.

Mom's property also hosted both coconut trees and banana trees.

We enjoyed fruit from both while we were there.

And she had a couple mango trees as well.

By the time I took this picture, we'd pretty much denuded the mango trees, and these stragglers were the only fruit left.

One day as I was strolling through the gardens, I felt impressed to shoot Mom's tools of the trade.

She's an inveterate waterer (is that a word?) who spends some time every morning watering her babies.

Most of the time Mom uses a hose, though.

Well, Erlinda wanted to create a huge bed of lilies that partly surrounded the property.

So she got to work with Eric, Mom's right-hand man, and started creating the bed.

As you might imagine, Eric did most of the hardest work, preparing the earth and removing rocks.

Once the soil was prepared, they started planting....

...and planting...

...and planting.

And pretty soon, they had a whole bed of lilies.

It was gorgeous.

Meanwhile, Erlinda's sister Avonie, who was visiting from Toronto, helped by removing rocks.

She's stronger than you might think.

Erlinda later decided she'd put some of those rocks to good use by outlining a bed where she planted all kinds of stuff.

She had sweet peppers, bananas (which were there before she created the bed), scallion (an onion-like seasoning plant), and more.

She was as proud as punch. (Yeah, I know it's a mixed metaphor. Gimme a break.)

And what was I doing while they gardened?

Well, I'm not much of a gardener. Plus I was recuperating from surgery, right?

So I took pictures.

Including this bee that just couldn't keep away from the delicious nectar in this flower.

How do I know it was delicious? You don't think bees ingest yucky stuff, do you?

I even found some other fauna, like this beautiful butterfly.

And this gorgeous orchid provides a fitting conclusion to this feast of flora and fauna.

Think about it for a minute. If you had to pick a spot for recuperation, could you think of one more conducive to health than Mom's peaceful place?

Imagine having all the fruit you want any time you feel like it, all the sun you want, quiet leafy places for walking, no rush, no hurry, just solitude. It was great. And Mom treated us royally. Thanx, Mom.