Every time a military family moves, a lot gets left behind.

These are sometimes donated, sometimes gifted, often times pitched & then there’s jewels like these – the abandoned.

When my friend & her family moved back to the States in June, she left behind the lilies she had purchased & planted last year.

Stargazers & Casablanca lilies – the biggest, freakin’ lilies I’ve ever seen – and my mom was a florist. So that’s saying something.

But she left them behind & for almost a solid month I have had fragrant lilies scattered through-out the house.

Since they’ve still not rented out her old house, it allowed me to sneak into the backyard every couple of days to snip off more flowers. If the place is still empty when they begin to die back, I’ll go next door & dig them up to take home.

But then there’s the oddities that get left behind…

…like this high-performance, American muscle-car radial.

[please ignore the scattered camo-covered gear also strategically stowed in our front hall]

We’re actually babysitting it until a friend can figure out how to ship it home. It seems the packers & movers won’t ship a single spare tire.