Views From an Autumn Day

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Didn’t it just seem like Summer and now it’s almost Winter? I know I talk about how time is flying all the time, but now it’s on jet wings flying through space at the speed of sound.

Before it is Winter, I want to show you some of the scenes we have well, seen, in the past couple of weeks.

On a wonderful sunny Autumn Day, David and I took off on a little journey. The skies as blue as a fresh Robin’s egg.

Past lush fields and valleys.

With beautiful Autumn foliage on all sides.

Past cornfields ready for harvest. I always wish the farmers a bumper crop and it looks like they might get it this year.

By trees changing from green to golds, reds and yellows.

One absolutely gorgeous tree standing alone.

Through patriotic little towns.

Towns that have remembered their vets on their lamp posts. I thought that was wonderful.

We must never forget them.

Such a wonderful memorial.

Over bridges.

Past Lake Monroe.

We have been on a pontoon boat on this lake. It is so beautiful. My daughter and her family have camped by this lake also. I would love to have a pontoon boat and take it out in the middle of the lake and stay there all night looking at the stars. It could happen.

To little privately owned shops all around south central Indiana. I didn’t get many outside pictures this time as it began to rain, but we got to several shops and I did buy some things which I cannot show because it’s “tis the season.” This shop in particular had several things I purchased. It’s the second time this Fall we have visited this shop. Last time I bought those cute fence toppers that were on my blog header.

Back home again and I have been working on several projects. One I can show you.

I made this quilt.

From this book.

This is my version. Autumn and Halloween prints throughout. I love it. It’s a rather large quilt, but I hope to get it done this next year.

Almost one hundred pieces in each fifteen inch block. Once I figured it out, it went together rather quickly.

Looks so pretty with the golden light shining in the window. You can just barely see the chick quilt I made from Lori Holt’s book Farmgirl Sampler.

I’ve been working on some things from this book. Mary Etherington and her friend, Connie Tesene published this book a while back. Mary writes on her blog about the quilts she makes and the animals she cares for.

I would love to make this, but not this year.

I’ve chosen to make these instead. Pillows. I’ve made a few of them already. They are like potato chips. Can’t stop at one.

Here’s one I was preparing to pin.

The big quilt I showed you. This is a smaller version I made a while back.

I really think this pattern would be pretty in Christmas colors.

Outside our back door sits three dogs waiting. The three amigos.

” When are you coming out to play?” asks Molly.

The athlete in the family. Lucy loves to play fetch so much that she never wants to stop. We play with them every day and every day when we stop and are just sitting in our lawn chairs, Luch keeps bringing different toys to us for us to throw. Over and over and over again. She would never stop fetching, I don’t believe. We have never had a dog that loved to fetch as much as Lucy does. She’s not the dog you can sit there and pet. Oh, no. There must always be some action. Her sister, Sugar, however, loves to be petted and have her tummy rubbed. And Molly does too.

The next couple of days I will be in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving. There will be eight or ten around our table depending on who shows up. I’ve tried a new frozen cranberry salad that is so good because I tasted it when I was scraping the bowl. I hope others will like it because it’s so easy and a pretty dish. We don’t eat turkey in our family. Not because we want to save the turkeys, but because none of us like it. It’s chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes at this house. And I will make scalloped oysters even though just me and my son-in-law likes it.

Hope your Thanksgiving is blessed if you are celebrating it at your house or others. Remember to thank the One who created it all and blesses us every day with His goodness. Bye.

Yikes, Time Flies!

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Here is it deep into November and I cannot get into my blogging mojo because I’ve been sooo busy making Christmas gifts which I can’t talk about. Tis the season not to be nosy, I tell my family when they ask what I’m making. I always do this. Just before Christmas I get in the “must make gifts” mode and start sewing up a storm.

I’ve been going through all my boxes of fabric and I tell you, it’s like Christmas. I am finding fabric I had completely forgotten about and have gotten so many ideas for Christmas gifts.

I have found several quilt tops that need to be quilted. That is on my list for 2022. Finish some of those quilts. And I’ve found some things my mother had started and not finished that I would like to complete, also. I go to bed all excited about the next day when I can get out into my shop and sew! And I won’t be able to show you anything I’ve made until after Christmas!

David has been off this week getting some work done around the house. He also has built some things I can’t show you because of, well, Christmas. It’s Santa’s workshop here for sure. I really love what he has made and after I add my touches I think there will be gifts well received.

We went on another Country Friends tour where all these ladies open their homes and shops and sell things they have made or had in stock. We made it to about five of the places until it started pouring down rain. I was happy, though, because I got what I was looking for. Can’t show that stuff, either. Sorry I cannot show pictures this time. The real reason is that I have a new camera and have not learned how to get my pictures up to my blog, but I will learn soon and get it done. I have tons of pictures I have been taking. Just hope I remember what they are pictures of when I get them ready to show you. Anyway the tour was fun and we got to drive the back roads of rural Indiana and see all the beautiful Autumn colors. The colors were so vivid this morning like a light had been turned on the trees and bushes. I love Indiana in the Autumn. We have talked about living in a warmer climate, but I know I would really miss the seasons so we are where we are supposed to be. I am even looking forward to snow. We haven’t had a really good snow for a few years.

A few weeks ago we were at Rural King and at the counter I saw Sugar Daddies for sale. If you don’t know what Sugar Daddies are they are caramel on a stick essentially and I loved them as a kid. I remember when my baby brother was born. He’s now in his sixties. When Mom and Daddy brought him home they placed him in the baby bed and all us other children surrounded the crib to look at him. Daddy had brought us all Sugar Daddies and we were all eating them as we stared at the new baby. I was a little jealous because that had been my bed just a few days ago! Fast forward to me at Rural King seeing Sugar Daddies for sell again and I had to have one. I hadn’t eaten one since I was a kid. A few days later I decided to eat it and it was so good, but halfway through I felt a crunch in the caramel and I looked and saw what I thought was a broken tooth. I cleaned the piece up and called the dentist. It turned out I had pulled off a crown and thankfully I had saved it so the dentist just had to reapply it so it wasn’t anything major, but I’ve had to give up Sugar Daddies. And I had two more cavities. Can you be too old to have cavities? I thought that, but I was wrong.

I’ve rattled on long enough. Next time I promise pictures. Really. Bye.

October is Going, Going…..

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I can’t get over how quickly the months have passed this year. I don’t know if it’s because the stores rush us from season to season with things to buy that they want to sell, or if it’s just my age and the time passes much faster. Remember when you were a child and it was the last couple of weeks before Christmas how long it seemed? The time seemed to stand still then although it really didn’t and went no faster or slower than it goes today. Still, I really wish the days were longer sometimes. Especially now that David is getting off work in the early afternoon and I still have things I want to do besides prepare dinner.

I have really grown to hate cooking the last few years. After all, I’ve cooked for various people every meal almost in the last fifty years and it’s getting old. I never liked to cook in the first place and it gets worse for me the older I get. Those pre-packaged, ready to cook meals I see on tv look more and more appealing to me, but I know David, with his finicky eating would not like most of them because there are VEGETABLES in most of them. Not the kind of vegetables he likes such as corn and green beans. Well, those are the only vegetables he likes. I eat just about every kind of vegetable there is because I was brought up on a farm and we raised all our vegetables and we ate what was put before us.

I don’t know how I got off on that tangent. Oh, yes, the shorter days and having to stop to cook, Ugh. The days David doesn’t work he will sometimes prepare a meal and I love it. His meals tastes better than mine. Are you that way? The food you cook doesn’t taste good, but someone else could make the very same meal and it’s yummy. I made roast pork loin, green bean bake and mashed potatoes with apple crunch for dessert today. None of it tasted good to me, but David ate two helpings so it must not have been too bad.

Well, to change the subject. I have been working on an Autumn quilt for the past month. It has twenty fifteen inch square blocks. Each block has about one hundred pieces in it. It’s been a fun one to make.

David came into my shop the other day and said, “I know you know what each pile of pieces are for, but to me it looks like a jumbled mess!” I laughed and pointed out each pile and told him the size of the pieces in each one. There is a method to my madness. I can work in chaos and come out with something in order.

This is just one of the blocks. I now have the quilt top completed and will show you when I get a good picture of it. As you can see, there are many different fabrics in this quilt. I love the Fall colors so much.

Here is a stack of the blocks I had done that particular day. There was a LOT of cutting of pieces for this quilt. I made a smaller version of it a couple of years ago. It’s on a chair in my living room so I can look at it all season. I will really try to remember to get pictures to show you my next blog. I notice I have promised to show things in the past and completely forgotten about showing them when I write new posts. I will try not to do that this time.

Now that I am done with that quilt it is on to making Christmas gifts. I was going through my fabric boxes getting ideas for what to make and found material I had completely forgotten about but that would go very well into the projects I have planned. They say the store shelves may be emptier this year for Christmas shopping so I am preparing to make a lot of my gifts.

We had a beautiful rainbow the other day. We could see it from our front porch. We have been having some rainy days recently. Yesterday and today have been rather dreary and cold. But then there comes a rainbow.

We took a drive up to some property we have in the hills of Brown County. We still don’t know what we will do with that property. We would love to build a log cabin and I have designed exactly what I want, two buildings, one for the living area and kitchen, bath and laundry and the other for the master bedroom and bathroom with an enclosed dog trot between them. And I want another building just for storage and my quilting. One can dream. Always.

This is part of our property. It runs down a hill to a little stream at the bottom. David wants to go over there sometime and bush hog some of the land to make a path to walk.

One of our grandsons played in the championship game of his soccer travel league.

We took our lawn chairs and blankets and watched behind the fence. It was a pretty good spot as his team spent most of their time at this end and we saw a lot of action.

Here he is with his medal.

It is a very nice medal and we are so proud of him.

As we were leaving the game we saw the Hunter’s Moon above us.

It was so beautiful with the clouds all around it.

I managed to get some pretty good pictures of it with my little camera. Looks like Halloween. Do you see the witch flying across its face? When I was a child and there was a full moon, my mother would scare all us kids by saying she saw the witch flying across the moon. I was so sure she was right that I saw her, too!

Hope your October has been happy and you have enjoyed the Autumn Days. Hopefully our trees will be changing their colors in the next week. Happy Halloween! Bye.

Making an Old Pool Look Like New

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After almost twenty years, the liner on our pool needed to be replaced. The puppies helped its demise along when they fell in and clawed their ways out of the pool. David gave the pool to himself when he retired. He never golfed, fished, hunted, drove fancy cars or did much but work and come home so it was a well deserved gift to himself and he has used it a lot over the years and we have shared it with others and had pool parties. But now the pool needed some much needed up keep.

It didn’t help the pool liner that when we got Lucy and Sugar, they both at one time or other fell in and in their efforts to get out, scratched holes in the side of the liner. David patched it and it has held up well all Summer, but we really could not wait to get the new liner installed. The pool company has been so busy and has had to wait for our liner to come in, but finally they received it and said they would come and get the job done.

It was an exciting day.

Here is the old pool. It still looks pretty good, but you don’t see all the tears in it. It was really getting rather worn in several places.

A whole pool liner in one little box.

A pump was put in to pump the water out. It was attached to just a regular garden hose so it was going to take a while for all the water to be removed.

Put in the bottom of the deep end, it began to pump. It took three days to pump most of the water out!

The pool looked so sad.

The liner had become brittle and came out in pieces. It’s a wonder we could swim this Summer, but we did. And the liner held up well until the water was taken out.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Two very tanned men put in the liner. They work outdoors all the time. Thus the tans. See the young man in the hat?

Well, Miss Molly, when she was let loose, ran right up to him, her little backside wagging so hard and she went up to him and laid on her back and just looked at him. I told David I think she was in love. I have never seen her be so friendly with anyone, including us. David told me she followed that guy everywhere. I’m sure he liked that!

The liner in. Those guys knew what they were doing.

Time to fill the pool. The men attached a big hose to a fire hydrant that is in the back street back of our house. It didn’t take nearly as long to fill, Just a few hours.

Finally looking like our pool again.

This is now what the bottom of our pool looks like. It goes so well with our house and surroundings. Much better than the tropical look the old pool had.

I love how the water looks now. It’s so beautiful in the sunlight.

The water was cold. Way too cold for me to get in, but……

David couldn’t wait. I told him I’d join him next Summer when the water is about 85 degrees,

He is very happy with his “new” pool.

And this is his Albert Einstein look after being in the pool! We both had a good laugh.

In other news, David has been working on a project. We have a lot of old fencing that he took down and now he’s making new fencing, but of the decorative kind.

Picket fencing to be exact. We are going to put these around some of the flower beds. He made six of them for me and is making more. I painted them a pine forest green.

My new favorite meal. An Arby’s roast beef sandwich and a Jamocha shake. Yum. We have two Arby’s in town and one of them makes the shake a little stronger than the other so I always want to get it from that one.

It’s really a meal in itself.

Just wanted to show you the old gate I bought on that country tour we took a few weeks ago. There is an antique store in town that had one similar to this one for sale and they wanted over a hundred dollars for it!!!! Just saying, I got this much, much cheaper. It pays to shop around. Aren’t the zinnias lovely? They are beginning to fade now, but I am already planning my garden for next year.

Here’s to an almost new pool and the fun that will go with it. Bye.

A Trip to the Country

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Once again David and I got into our Jeep and headed out to the country. This time we had a purpose. A bunch of ladies who call themselves the Country Friends, who do live out in the country have a sale every Autumn, Winter and Spring at their various homes or little stores on their properties. It’s in the middle southern part of our state which means we drive hills , past lots of farms and through woods to get to every store. One of the ladies even has a whole pioneer village built in her back yard!

Much of the items for sale are made by these ladies and there is even an artist who has her paintings for sale. The last time we did this I purchased a mustard seed necklace one of them had made and I wear it all the time. I also found an old wooden table with red legs that we have out on our back porch now.

I got a few treasures along the way this time, also.

I collect egg scales and I found this simply wonderful one that lights up so you can see inside the egg. I weighed one of my eggs on this and it flew past the extra large. I know my hens lay really nice eggs so I was glad to see just how big and good their eggs are.

I found this cute little lighted tree. When I brought it up to purchase another lady cried, “I wish I had seen that! I would have bought it!” It pays to be quick and decisive at these sales because once something is gone, it’s gone.

The tree has tiny baskets on it that I will put tiny pumpkins in for Fall and birds on the limbs.

It’s just magical lit up. I have a bunny tree kind of like this one I put out at Easter time.

I’m not even going to tell you what I paid for this lamp, but it was so cheap, I grabbed it immediately. I think the lady thought maybe she priced it a little low. Let’s just say, I would have probably paid her twice what she was asking. But don’t anyone tell her! One thing David and I learned when we had a business. Don’t under price your merchandise or people will think it’s not worth it. Sometimes we’d price something so high, especially if we didn’t want to sell it, and by George, there was always that one customer who just had to have it and we’d sell it. David sold an old treadle sewing machine right out from under me once and I told him he would have to find me another one, and he did and it now sits proudly in our front hallway.

The lamp has these wonderful deer at its base.

And once again I think this looks magical, too. It’s just perfect for this time of year. And right on to Christmas.

One of the ladies’ husband made this barn. He wanted to make it a birdhouse, but she told David she wouldn’t allow him to cut a hole in it. Well, guess what? David is going to cut a hole in it to make it a birdhouse. It will make a wonderful birdhouse. Speaking of birdhouses. We have a little blue wren house in my kitchen garden and yesterday David and I watched several fat sparrows trying to get into it, but they couldn’t. They just wouldn’t give up! Several years ago we had a wren house and a sparrow tried getting into it, got its head stuck and David and I had to work to get that sparrow out of that tiny hole in the birdhouse. Finally we managed it and it flew away, probably to tell its family of the adventure he had had.

These darling little jack-o-lanterns on a spring were for sale at one shop. I bought two and put them on a picket fence David had made. He’s been making picket fences out of some old dog ear fencing we’ve had laying around for a while. I told him he could sell them they are so nice. I will have to show you what these look like on one of them.

These are so cute and a nifty idea.

We got a new liner in our pool the other day and David had to swim even though the water was only 72 degrees. Brrrr, Not me. My next post will show how it all was done from emptying the pool to filling it back up again.

Here’s to country friends and shops and may they live forever! Bye.

Color, Texture and Pattern

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From as long as I can remember, I have been interested in fabric and sewing and in recent years, knitting socks, also. My earliest remembrance of trying to design something was when I was three years old. My mother was outside hanging up clothes to dry and I was outside with her, when suddenly she noticed I was missing. She began a frantic search all around the outside of our house and barnyard and up to our neighbor’s looking for me. I can imagine how terrified she was that she could not find me. She went into the house to call the town sheriff and there I was, sitting in my little chair behind the stove carefully drawing on the face of my favorite rag doll with lipstick. She had no idea I could reach the handle on the door to get into the house. I don’t remember if she was angry or just happy to find me, but I remember that doll, how it was dressed in a pink dress with brown braided yarn hair and to my mind, now looked even better with lipstick. My mother gave me an old sock and told me to make a sock doll and I did, painstakingly sewing its arms and legs and drawing a face on it. I still have that doll and if I can find it in the bowels of this house, I will show you. I have so many things tucked away that I have no idea where they are. My love of sewing and fabric had begun.

I remember clothes and textures from long ago. I always noticed what people wore. Years later when my mother and I would go to the JC Penney store in the city and we would go to the fabric department, I remember loving walking through the rows of fabric, feeling each one and thinking about things to sew. I couldn’t sew then, but my mother could and she made my clothes for years. I remember in particular a white dotted swiss dress with red polka dots and with a full skirt and a red velvet sash. I felt so pretty in that dress. I wore it to the Ruth Lyons’ 50-50 club, a tv show out of Cincinnati. It was one of the first colorized tv shows in the area and my mother wanted my dress to show up well on camera. The audience would be filmed waving and I’m sure I was on tv that day.

When I took Home Ec. in junior high, I made a suit from kelly green cotton. A short jacket and a straight skirt with a matching green and white print blouse. I modeled it in the Home Ec. style show that was held every year. I was a good seamstress by that time.

In the sixties and seventies, polyester knits were in vogue. I was married at the time and I made David a polyester suit, jacket, pants and all. When we look at pictures of him in that suit now, we laugh because I had placed the belt loops on the jacket too high and the jacket was belted almost up around David’s chest. But he wore that suit proudly. I have a picture of him in it that is precious to me.

Many clothes passed through my sewing machine while my children were young. I made all three clothes. One of my sons told me his teacher didn’t believe I had made a shirt and pants he wore to school, but I had. We went to a wedding in Detroit, Michigan when our boys were young and I made theirs and my outfits we wore to the wedding. I use to sew clothes for display at JoAnn’s fabrics when a friend of mine worked there.

Fast forward years later and we had a quilt fabric store and my love of making quilts took hold and I’ve been making quilts ever since. I still love fabrics, but now I look at them online in most cases and order them sent to my home which I think is pretty wonderful.

This past Spring I backordered some Autumn and Halloween fabrics and I just got them in the last couple of weeks. It was like Christmas. Let me show you some of the fabrics.

These cat eyes look like they glow, but they really don’t. Just how they turned out in the picture. Kind of spooky.

All the things of Autumn I love on one quilt panel.

I love harlequin fabric. A little of it in a quilt really looks nice.

Makes me want to make Halloween sugar cookies.

I am going to make a skirt out of this fabric. It looks like just about any top would go with it.

I finished a quilt I started years ago. That is what I do. Start one quilt, put it aside, start another and then years later finish the first one. This one had been in a box for a long time until I found it again and finally finished it.

Not sure what this pattern is called. I do remember it was fun to make and I found the perfect backing for it.

An old quilt I either bought at an auction or at an antique store. The colors on this old quilt went perfectly with the quilt on the front.

And I loved the fabrics the quilt maker used in her quilt top. I hope she would be glad her quilt is finished, even if it is the backing of another one.

She had a wonderful eye for fabric placement.

I love the old fabrics. Many look like they could have been aprons at one time.

She wasn’t afraid to use plaids.

Or indigos.

She must have had a large stash of fabric because there are so many different ones in this quilt. Not sure what year she may have made this, but I would say some of the fabrics are from the forties and fifties. This quilt could be reversible as I think the back is just a as pretty as the front.

I’m in love with the textures and colors of yarn too. Almost as much as I love fabric.

One company had yarn named after national parks. This one is called Zion National Park. I have already knit the socks from this and they are beautiful.

This is Grand Canyon. Having been to the Grand Canyon twice, I can see the colors of the cliffs and the river below.

Just loved all these colors.

I don’t think I will ever tire of fabrics and yarn. I’m hoping textures, colors and patterns will be a part of my life until I die. I found my love very early in life and am so glad I did.

Here’s to the joy of doing something you love. Bye.

Another Drive Across Hoosier Land

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Since we haven’t been able to take an extended vacation this year, David and I have settled for day drives within close proximity to our home. We are getting to know our state, at least our part of the state and the more I see, the more I realize what a beautiful state we live in.

Sunday after church I was feeling like eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel so we drove the short drive from our house to the nearest restaurant. When David went to sign us in, they said it would be over an hour’s wait to seat us. We both looked at each other and said we could do a lot in that hour. So, after taking care of the chickens, we set out to find another Cracker Barrel. The next closest one was just out of Bloomington so we drove there and got right in.

After my wonderful breakfast of French toast, eggs and sausage of which David ate the eggs because I don’t think any eggs are as good as our own, we set out on a drive on roads we’ve never been on before.

Back roads in the hills and valleys of south central Indiana. We live in a very pretty part of the state where tourists like to come.

Beautiful vistas all around us. I love my state.

I especially love the country. I’m a country girl at heart. I grew up north of these places where it is more flat.

We never use to see vineyards in Indiana. They were more in California, but in the last decade or so, vineyards have been popping up all over our state. This was the largest one I had ever seen.

Grapevines for as far as one could see.

Past these pillars, in the year I was born, this farm was established. There is no house here anymore, but the two pillars that mark the entrance are still there. I wonder what happened to the people here. Where did they go? Do their children and grandchildren still own the land? It’s sad when a family farm leaves the family.

There are many trails to take around this area.

This one takes you past this lake and over a dam. I wish I could still walk the distances I was walking just a few years ago, but since my heart trouble, I cannot walk very far without getting winded. I don’t like it, but there’s no fix, I don’t think. I see the doctor next week. Maybe he can find out what the problem is.

This business planted trees here. They look like walnut trees. We passed this bakery at one time during our drive. Never would have known about this area or the bakery if we didn’t take back roads. How much people miss driving highways and interstates all the time.

Of course we had to take pictures of old barns. Many are becoming a thing of the past. When I see one that is well cared for, it makes me happy.

This was a tiny little barn or shed. I just liked the color.

This barn was almost hidden by the large Weeping Willow in front of it.

David spied this cute little house as we sped by. So he had to back up so I could take pictures. I always wonder if the people in the houses see me taking pictures of their homes. This one was so cute and interesting. I would have loved to have seen inside. It looked like it could only have one or two rooms so I wondered if it was a getaway home in the country for someone.

I loved everything about this little house. The color, all the things on its porch and on the sides of the house. It was very interesting.

It even had an old wringer washer on its porch and deer antlers on its front. I love country people. They are so imaginative and do such wonderful things to their properties that many city people can’t. So many people live in HOA’s that tell that what they can and cannot have on their property. I couldn’t live that way. My house would be banned from these places. But some people like it. What I don’t like is city people moving to the country and trying to change the country into a city. I hear about people who move to the country and start complaining about the farm smells or the chickens or roosters making too much noise. If they didn’t like that kind of thing, they should have stayed in the city. I love the country and I see way too much of it being taken over by “developers” who build so many houses so close together and take away the country feel of an area. David and I see that happening all around us and we keep talking about moving and building on our hill where the developers could never interfer. But I love our home and would hate to leave it, so we wait and see.

We saw this gorgeous bird wading in the river. I’m not sure what it’s called. I will have to search my bird book. We see blue herons around all the time, but it’s the first time we’ve seen a white one.

When the city moves in, birds like this move out. So sad.

We saw several of these trees, but I don’t know what they are called. They are much prettier than my picture shows.

It was a fun day and a fun drive. We had intended to be out for only a couple of hours, but it ended up all afternoon and we got home just in time to feed our pups.

Here’s to country roads and the magic found on them. Bye.

Every Day is a Gift From God

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I don’t often talk about my faith, but I guess I should do it more often. I have a deep faith in a living God whose Son is my Master and Savior. I wasn’t always a Christian, even though I went to church every Sunday with my family. I suppose a lot of people think they are Christians just because they go to church, but that is not how it works. I didn’t know what being a Christian really meant. But then one Friday night an evangelist explained what being a Christian is. It’s having a faith in Jesus Christ, who died for all of us, taking our sins upon Himself so that we might enter Heaven one day. We all are sinners. No one is completely good even if you just stole a cookie when a child. That is stealing and God cannot allow any sin to enter Heaven so He sent His Son. All we have to do is accept Jesus’ gift of eternal life for us and it is a gift from One who loves you so much he would allow His Son to die a painful, horrible death on a cross.

Being crucified back in the past was a cruel way to die. You were nailed or hung on a cross until you suffocated or died of other causes. Jesus did that for us. I don’t know why it was on a cross, but I’m sure there was a reason. Anyway, I believe Jesus died for me and one day I will enter Heaven, not because I am so good, but because He took my sins upon Himself so that my sins would not enter Heaven. I can’t explain it all. I’ve been studying the Bible almost all my life and I still don’t understand the mystery of receiving eternal life, but I know our spirits never die and have to go somewhere and I prefer mine goes to Heaven.

I believe every day is a gift from God and it is how we choose to live our life shows whether it glorifies God or it doesn’t. I am not perfect. I still do bad things all the time like lose my temper or think badly of someone, but I know if I ask forgiveness, Jesus will take those sins upon Himself.

The days of Summer are certainly a gift from God. I love these beautiful Summer days

Here are several reasons why I love Summer.

I love these sweet little flowers that I grew from seed. Each is perfect in its own way.

Rudbeckia. A wonderful Summer flower.

The flowers in my front yard.

Stella De Oro day lilies.

My backyard full of Hibiscus plants.

This one is by our back porch.

The flowers are huge.

My little kitchen garden is full of Hibiscus and Cone flowers and Irises. Seen through the screen of our back porch.

The Hydrangea by our front porch is especially beautiful this year.

A few years ago when we had our front porch built, one of the men on the crew who knew I loved flowers brought me this plant. He told me I couldn’t kill it. And he was right. It comes back every year and spreads all over.

The Passion Flower. Doesn’t it look like a doily? I think it does.

Someone wrote that God loves us so much He sends us flowers. He has given me some beautiful ones this Summer and I thank Him for them. How loved I feel.

He gives us the moon and we had a very bright moon a few days ago that shown in the skylight in our bedroom and lit the whole room. My picture isn’t that great and it doesn’t show how yellow the moon was. But it was a glorious sight.

This Mourning Dove and all its family visit our bird feeder every day. They say people can hunt these in my state, but I don’t know why anyone would. There is not much meat on them and they are such a beautiful bird. I love to hear their mournful call. It reminds me of the Doves I heard at my grandpa’s many years ago.

Who could shoot one of these birds?

Mr. Bunny came visiting me at the bird feeder. He or she likes to nibble the seeds the birds drop on the ground. It doesn’t act afraid of me when it comes.

Something caught its eye, however.

And it leapt away.

I’ve spent some time in here this Summer. It has to be really hot for me to get in and it was hot a few days last month. Hope I can get in at least a few more times before we close it. We are getting a new liner put in this Summer or Fall when they get to us. This liner is over twenty years old and has a few holes where puppies fell in and clawed their way out. Sugar and Lucy won’t go in the water now.

They are such happy dogs. I tell them every day that they are spoiled rotten.

Molly agrees!

Just a few pictures of a drive we took the other day. We had had some heavy rain and the fields showed it.

The rivers were up.

We took a drive through a state forest.

We saw this enormous burl on a tree. People sell these things.

One last thing. I planted some old potatoes this Spring and what do you know, I grew more potatoes.

Probably almost a five pound bag full. We boiled them and ate them and I fried the ones left over and they were good.

Hope God is giving you flowers and all the love you need. Bye.

Being Alone, Solace, and Loneliness

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Ever been alone? Ever sought solace? Ever experience loneliness? I’m sure most reading this have done all three at one time or another. When I was growing up on the farm I spent a lot of my time alone. Once in a while I got to have a girlfriend over and we had relations visit quite often so I wasn’t alone all the time. I would go outside in the morning and not come in until dinner at noon and then, unless I had chores to do, back outside again until Supper. I didn’t want to be inside. In fact, one time I came in the house in the afternoon and felt kind of strange because I had never been inside at that time of day. My daddy never came inside except to eat as his work was outside on the farm. A lot of the time I was with him or in the barn shooting baskets or playing with some young animal. My older brothers were out doing their own thing and my sister was married. I had a younger brother and I must have played with him sometimes, but I really don’t remember. We did shell peas together on the front porch and one time we were shelling the peas and throwing the pea pods all over the porch floor, thinking it was funny at the time, when our pastor came to visit. Mother came to the door and saw what we had done and she was not one bit happy about it. She kept silent until the pastor left and then we got it! And we had to clean up all those pea pods.

I have sought solace at times when I was sad or upset about something. Going off alone and praying always has helped me. I go outside even now and sit on a swing and pray and talk to God. Jesus often went off alone from the disciples to speak to His Father. If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for me. Try it sometime when you need to have some peace.

Loneliness is a whole other thing. Ever felt alone in a crowd? I have when I didn’t know anyone. It’s tough to feel alone in those circumstances. Some people just cannot stand being alone. I know a few of them. They need people around them all the time. I think my alone time growing up prepared me for my alone times now that I’m adult. Ever hear someone say they are their own best company? Sometimes that is how I feel. I feel very comfortable by myself and I’m never bored. I usually agree with myself and we have really intelligent conversations! I love to read, sew and knit and all those things are pretty much done alone. It’s not that I don’t like to be around people because I do. When My children were growing up, there were times I would wish I had some alone time to read. I did most of my reading right before bed and it’s become a habit for me. Unfortunately, I usually fall asleep before I read very far. So I’m trying to read more during the day. I’ve been trying to catch up reading all my Reader’s Digests I have received in the mail.

My mother got the Reader’s Digest years ago and I would read them cover to cover. I kept taking it through the years after I was married. They have so many interesting stories and articles and I try to read all of one before I throw it away. But I got a backlog of them and am playing catch up. Do you take the Reader’s Digest? It’s one of my favorite magazines. Farmhouse Style and Yankee Magazine are two others I enjoy. But why do I take magazines when I have thousands of books waiting to be read?

Back to being alone. I really don’t mind being alone. I have so many things running around in my mind that I want to do and I already have so many projects I am working on. And even if I didn’t, I have a good imagination that keeps me occupied. When I was a girl, I dreamed of being an author. I would walk around and tell the story of my life in my mind describing my movements and what I was thinking. I also had a horse story with the same characters I would think about. It was an ongoing story for years and I don’t know when I stopped thinking about it. Probably when I got my own horse. I’m thinking this blog will come as close to writing a book I will get.

What do you do when you are alone or suffer loneliness? Where do you seek solace? Everyone handles being alone differently and there really isn’t a right answer. I do not like to shop alone or go to the doctor alone even though I do. There are some things I don’t like doing alone. I find myself wishing I still had my mother to take me to the doctor or dentist because I really don’t like to go to either one by myself. Funny, because it was my daddy who always took me to the doctor and he took me to my one and only dentist’s visit when I needed a tooth pulled and the dentist was so mean, my daddy gave him a dressing down and told him he would never bring any of his children to him. I didn’t go to a dentist again until I started taking my children and then I had my teeth checked. One time I stepped on a rusty nail and my daddy took me to our old country doctor and all he and my father talked about was people getting lockjaw(tetanus) and dying from it because they had not had a tetanus shot. Scared me to death!! So I was glad to get a tetanus shot and I still ask for them now every ten years or so since I work so much outside. I have heard of people getting tetanus from digging in the ground.

As usual I have strayed far from my original essay. Alone, loneliness and solace. People suffer every one of these in their lives. It’s how you handle them that matters. Hope no one feels alone tonight or suffers loneliness. Bye.

An Anniversary and a Wedding

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David has been on vacation the last week and it’s been a busy one. We celebrated our fifty-third wedding anniversary on the 7th with eating out and that is about all. I was not feeling well for three days, nausea and just the blahs so I didn’t feel like eating much. I’ve pretty much given up fried food because it always upsets my stomach so we went to Olive Garden for their soup and salad lunch with breadsticks. It was so good. I felt like I kind of missed our anniversary in some way, but the week got better.

My granddaughter’s wedding was three days after our anniversary and as they were not having a wedding cake she asked me to make a few cakes, so I did. I made an orange chiffon cake, a chocolate cake and a magic pumpkin pie cake and I also baked seven dozen sugar cookies and iced them. I was in the kitchen for two days making all this. Other people brought desserts also so there was a table laden with them all. There were so many desserts at the reception they were begging people to take pies home.

The wedding was in a church in Anderson about an hour away so we packed up Saturday morning and drove up.

Pictures were taken. This David and I with the bride and groom and our daughter’s family. I look a little grim here. Don’t know why. I so hate my picture taken. Always have.

First time all three of our children have been together in years.

The bride with her red headed brothers and the groom with his brother. His brother caught the garter at the reception and his girlfriend caught the corsage so maybe there’s another wedding in their future.

These ladies provided the music for the wedding. I can’t remember the song the bride came in on, but the music the bride and groom left the church was from Star Wars!

The reception was held in a museum in Anderson. It had beautiful architecture and there were interesting paintings on the walls.

This beautiful fireplace graced one room.

These were a couple of the paintings for sale. I really like the one with the chickens and for three hundred dollars I could have it.

After the meal there was dancing. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun.

Mother of the bride.

My son and his new wife.

He danced with his daughter to the song, “Daddy’s Little Girl,” which brought some tears to my eyes.

Back to real life the day after and our pups had found a treasure while we were gone.

Both Lucy and Sugar were anxious to show us their treasure.

While we were gone they had dug up a huge mole in our yard.

Lucy was running around with the mole in her mouth with its feet out one side of her mouth and its head out of the other. Ugh. Thank you, Lucy, but you can keep it for yourself. Every time I went into the yard today she ran up to me trying to give it to me.