Late March and April showers have brought spring blossoms and         flowers, as well as the passing of dear friends....

Regina Kanevsky, born and raised in Ukraine, our wonderful colleague in our (zoom) writing group, passed away since my last blog. Her family immigrated to Israel, Italy, New York, then California. 

And we are very sad to have lost our friend Mike Peterson at age 41 on March 28, of a brain tumor. He was an inspiration of faith, fun, wisdom, friendliness, good humor, kindness to our entire congregation, the Edgemont 1st Ward. Until we meet again.

After a wonderful Easter, we enjoyed a weekend of inspired talks by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, broadcast from Salt Lake City. I watched one session with family and 2 of the dogs. They love each other and Emily, who receives her PhD in Psychology this week from BYU. She will be developing a center for conflict resolution at UVU.

In the news, it is heartbreaking to watch the continuing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere. On the bright side (or the dark side) the total (North American) solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 was visible on a path across central Mexico, parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, ... Here in Utah about 1/3 of the sun was covered  by the moon....

The snow is slowly melting on our mountains. We hope there are no avalanches or flooding like last year.

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I chaperoned a field trip to the butterfly exhibit at Thanksgiving Point for Cordelia (left) and her third grade classmates. Digging for bugs.

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 I stayed a couple days with Carlston grandkids who had just returned from a fabulous week in France. All five kids have been in or are now in French immersion school. Phoebe will need to remove her purple teeth to acquire a good accent!

Spring has come. Utah is bursting with pear, cherry, apple and other blossoms, and the bulbs are glorious!

There is a walking/bike path behind my house. As you might guess we live in the Provo River Bottoms, which means that our yards are more rock than soil, which is challenging for gardening!

I had a few pears last year and I hope it won't be too long before my apple and cherry(above) trees that a planted 3 years ago will produce.

        Ken and Emily Taylors' front yard/street in Provo

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I did a short presentation on my humanitarian trip to Ethiopia in 2009, to a group of friends, and was amazed to see this very poor but interesting country presented on the news the following day.

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After a big family dinner I took Emily, Fernanda, Julie, Marc and Peter to see East Lawn cemetery in Provo, a beautiful spot with views of both the Wasatch Mountains and Utah Valley

We missed Dada (Swahili for Sister) Kelly Taylor at our family dinner. I'm not sure why she and her companion are also in a cemetery in Iowa

 We also missed Elder Nick de Schweinitz (right, standing) at our family dinner, but are glad to see him enjoying preparation day with his fellow missionaries in Lancaster, PA.

So fun to run into Evelyn (doing study abroad this summer in Italy and serving a mission in Romania starting in September) and her mom Jennifer Gaskin visiting from Palo Alto, CA, on the BYU campus.

Long time friend Marilyn Johnson came to Utah for a wedding and graduations of grand kids this week. We took a nice walk at South Fork in Provo Canyon earlier this afternoon.

Congratulations to all this spring's graduates from colleges and schools! I look forward to watching Emily's receive her PhD on Friday

And Happy Earth Day! We need to appreciate and take better care of our beautiful earth, created by a loving God for our sustenance and enjoyment.