I have to say I am not unhappy to see Summer going away even though I do love some warm sun and all the flowers and swimming occasionally in the pool, but Autumn is really my favorite time of year. It has always meant new beginnings to me as the children went off to school and we got back on a regular schedule. Now with no children at home I am hardly ever on a schedule anymore and that is fine, too. But Autumn days meant new clothes, warm sweaters, fires in the fire pit, and it use to mean going out in the woods an cutting wood for our wood stove we use to have. Oh, how I loved doing that.

When we first moved down to our present home almost fifty years ago, David aquired an old red truck from some guy he worked with. It was a beat up old truck, but it was nice to use to go gather wood in. We would pack up the kids and go up to Camp Atterbury where they would let you cut up the down trees for firewood and we would spend an afternoon watching David saw up the wood and then helping him to load it in the bed of the truck. We would have all five of us in the front seat of the truck which would be frowned upon today, but there were no child seats requirement then and we were more free back then than we are now. When we got the wood home we would have to stack it or rather, David would stack it. They say you get warm three times when you cut your own wood. Once when you cut it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it and that is certainly true because stacking that wood is a real chore and makes you sweat even on the coolest of days. But I loved being out in the fresh air with David and the children and I cherish those memories. And I love a good wood fire. It is so warm and cozy on a cold day. David and I still burn wood in our fire pit. I hope we do that this weekend.

I have told you about the Country Neighbors Tour we have gone on in southern Indiana where several ladies and a couple of men have things for sale in their little stores or in their homes three times a year. They had their Autumn tour this past weekend. This is the tour where I had won coupons at each store so I had to go to most of them and I did buy some neat things.

I found this wonderful clock that looks like an old scale. It looks really neat on my mantle with my Halloween decorations. I got those up early this year. Usually I don’t decorate for Halloween til closer to Halloween, but I wanted to enjoy them for longer so I put them up a couple of weeks ago and I am enjoying them immensely. I also bought that little wire lady by the old witch. It looks like an old mannequin and I just love her. She didn’t cost much either so I snatched her up as soon as I saw her. This sale is so popular that if you don’t buy what you like right away, you just might lose the chance so if I saw something I really liked, I bought it. No regrets later. I did have a budget and I kept well within it. Things are not too expensive in this sale so you can get some really lovely and fun things.

I got these three bird pictures for a song. Tra la la! When we got home David looked up the painter’s name, Arthur Singer, who painted a lot of birds and wildlife in his day. He painted all the birds in the Northern Wild birds book which we have had since the seventies. He was very prolific and very popular in his day. I just liked the pictures and again, they didn’t cost very much, so I got all three.

There is a man on the tour who specializes in light fixtures and other things. He puts Edison bulbs in some of his creations and they are so wonderful, but I zeroed in on this scary looking guy made from an old bucket. His shop is where I got the bird pictures, also.

I will hang this on the wall in my workshop where I make quilts and other things. I haven’t sewn much this year after sewing continuously last year for my Christmas sale I had, I was burnt out on sewing, but I am getting the itch again and Christmas is coming up so I have a few things in mind to make for others. David and I spent yesterday cleaning up my shop and rearranging things and it looks so much better although there is still a lot of organizing to do. And it needs a good cleaning. When you have three dogs keeping you company while you are sewing you get dog hair all over, but I love having them with me and they love being inside with me so I will deal with it. I want to go through all my tubs of fabric and I have a lot of them and see what I have and get it all organized, but that will have to wait as I am working on another project right now that is almost completed and I cannot show anybody until after Christmas.

On our tour last weekend we, of course, took back roads. There are hundreds of back roads in southern Indiana we have not been on, but we were on some new ones this time and discovered a covered bridge we did not know about.

Out in the middle of nowhere we found this beautiful, old bridge. It was a long one, too.

It was here.

You couldn’t drive a car over it, but you could walk over it. There are a lot of these old bridges scattered all around Indiana.

Right by the bridge nestled in some weeds was this grave marker. Mr. Cash lived to be 74, the same age as I am now! I hope he had a wonderful life. I just wonder why he is buried all alone in this hidden grave site and if anyone comes to visit him. I paid my respects. Speaking of dying, I had my pacemaker checked today and the nurse said if I didn’t have it in my heart rate would be 20 beats a minute which is just about the walking dead, so I am thankful for pacemakers. She said they are working on new pacemakers all the time trying to find one they can recharge without the patient having to have surgery. I hope they discover how before I will need a new battery in seven years. Or maybe I will have a new heart in Heaven. Who knows?

We went through the little town of Story, Indiana where there is an old inn where you can eat and stay if you so wish. We have never eaten there, but every time we go through Story there are a lot of tourists and that weekend there were two artists with their easels set up painting the old inn. I wish I had taken a picture of them and their paintings.

Something else you see a lot of on the back roads.

Horses. It seems like every other house there is a horse in the field. I love horses so much. I had an appaloosa horse then I was a girl. My older brother, Fred, helped me buy him. In fact, we bought two horses, my horse, Tornado, and an old Clydesdale we called Charlie who came as a package deal. We finally sold Charlie, but I rode Tornado for several years. He was pretty wild and unbroken when we got him. Daddy had him gelded so he would not be so wild and I learned to ride him and he and I went all over the country roads and up to the little town a mile from my house to see David at his Grandparents’ house. Tornado did not like David and one time he bit him in the stomach so David stayed clear of him most of the time. One time I was riding and some neighbor boys, the brats, came screaming out at Tornado and he swerved and I fell off him and hurt my wrist pretty badly. I walked him, crying all the way back home where Mom called a nurse friend of hers who came and checked me out and it wasn’t broken, but I had a scar on that wrist for years afterward. When I started dating David, I didn’t have as much time for Tornado and then I went to college and got married and Daddy had to sell him because he was biting the cows. I feel really badly that I neglected him those later years. He was a good horse and I loved him.

I’ve rambled on enough for today. David is going to get us some tenderloins tonight for supper. I am so thankful for David. He has been my rock all these years. I had to have another shot in my eye this week and he waited with me for three hours in the doctor’s office before I got it and didn’t complain. Too much! There was a nice group of people in the waiting room and I told David next time I am going to take treats to give out because everyone has a long wait in this particular doctor’s office. He is a very busy man and there seems to be a lot of people with eye problems. I am thankful he is trying to save my eyesight, so I will never complain too much about the wait.

Here’s to Autumn and cool days and glorious skies. Bye.

I’ve been catching up on reading some of my favorite blogs and it seems the theme has been how fast this Summer has gone. They have catchy blog titles having to do with the speed of Summer, but all I could come up with is this one you see above. Yes, Summer has passed so quickly. Here in the states we are heading into our Labor Day weekend which has nothing to do with labor, but picnics and family outings and last swims in the pools across the country. David will be at work. He’s worked every Labor Day that I can remember. He always tells me it’s time and a half, money wise. So we aren’t doing anything special again, but next week we have some fun things planned.

We worked all morning on the little flower garden right in front of our back porch. I love Hibiscus. Years and years ago a neighbor gave me a start of one and I was so glad to get it. Over the years it has sent out its seeds all over the yard and other gardens and now I have too many Hibiscuses and they were taking over this particular little garden bed so I decided we needed to remove them all. Now this is not a very large flower bed, but we filled a wheel barrow to overflowing with Hibiscuses of every size. I could have sold them. I just saw a bunch for sale at a local store recently They had taken over and you could not see the other flowers like primroses, salvia, Rudbeckia and hostas. Now you can see them again and I am sure they were glad to get some sunlight. I never knew Hibiscus was such an invasive plant. Another plant that was gifted to us by one of our contractor’s workers was a Passion flower. I was sooo happy to get it and planted it by our front porch and for a couple of years I didn’t think it would grow and then one year it grew and grew and had beautiful flowers on it and we loved it, but then,,,,all of a sudden we noticed Passion flowers all over our front yard and in all the flowers, up trees and strangling bushes so we have had to eradicate it, or so we thought. Just a day or so ago we noticed another huge one climbing up our porch post. Where did that come from?? So it will be pulled. If there was a place I could plant one that I would not care if it took over, I would, but I have too many other flowers fighting for space and sunlight so the Passion plant has to go.

I do enjoy working outdoors in the flower beds. Our meadow is growing and I look forward to planting a lot of new meadow flowers. I’ve been saving seeds from Milkweeds, zinnias, cosmos, poppies and other flowers. David finally had to cut some of the grass we were letting grow. I was playing ball with Lucy the other day and the grass was so tall she had trouble finding it. It’s seeded itself well and we have nice thick grass now where once it was just a muddy mess where the dogs played. Try letting your lawn grow sometime and let it reseed itself instead of buying seed and let your lawn rest from constant mowing. I do think it made our lawn much nicer although we will let it grow again. It’s been easier on David not having to mow the back yard all the time. Nobody sees it but us and even if anyone sees it, I don’t think it looks that bad not mowed with all the flowers blooming. I actually think the flowers stand out more with the taller grass. We now have grass where once there were bare patches, so I’m happy with it.

I’ve been knitting for Christmas, but I have another project that I am so excited about, but I can’t show it here because it will be a gift, but I have become obsessed with it and have already ordered another to do for Christmas. I really wish I could show you because it is really coming together nicely, but alas, Christmas will be here before we know it, and then I can show it here on my blog with the, I hope, happy recipients.

I will leave you with another silly story about David’s and my escapades. Remember the soap piece I thought was a loose tile from our bathroom and David carefully kept it until he got the adhesive to replace it only finding out it was soap when he tried to fit it on the floor? Well, I got a better one for you.

I was watering and feeding the chickens the other day. We only have four chickens left and when they are gone we are going out of the chicken business which I will miss so much. Anyway,I hadn’t checked inside the house for a while and noticed they needed some fresh bedding so I took a shovel to stir up the old bedding and I noticed this big, black thing in the corner. My first thought was that an animal had crawled into the henhouse and died or, I thought, it was a big bird the chickens had murdered. They have murdered other birds that got into their house. I tried picking it up with the shovel, but it was too heavy for me. It was big and wobbly and I didn’t want to get too close to it. So I went into the house and made a note for David for when he got home from work that there was a dead bird or animal in the henhouse. So he gets home and after Supper he goes out to the henhouse to remove the dead thing and he comes back later and his exact words were, “Do you remember the piece of soap you had me believing was a tile in the bathroom?” I said, “Yes, so?” “Well, that animal was a big pile of chicken poop,” he told me. I just knew that was an animal out there. After all, the dogs killed a skunk just a few weeks ago. That’s another story that left a bad smell with us for a time. So I was once again wrong about what I saw. I know I don’t need glasses. I practically live at the eye doctor right now as I am getting shots in my right eye for Histoplasmosis and they check every time how well I can see, so I am beginning to think I have an overactive imagination. Seeing things that aren’t there. It was good for a laugh, anyway.

Hope you all have had a great Summer. I am looking forward to cooler weather and all the glorious Fall foliage that is coming. Happy Labor Day to all who celebrate it. Bye.

Well, I had the surgery at the hospital with anesthesia and all went well and I am pretty much back to normal. No pain and really glad of that. I feel like this whole month has past me by in a fog, but now I am making up for it.

During all this, David and I managed to freeze twenty-eight quarts of sweet corn. Between trips to the doctor and the hospital. It’s been so long since we have had sweet corn we have binged on it for the last couple of weeks and we finally have some frozen ready for dinners this Winter.

David has been such a good nurse, cleaning my wound and bandaging me. The nurse at the doctor’s said he did a better job than the nurses at the hospital and I told her I could hire him out to come in and bandage people for them!

Before this all happened David and I were working on some more projects or as I have to say, my ideas, his sweat equity.

Here is David, up on a ladder, working on one of them.

I saw this message written on painted boards on Facebook. I don’t know who thought of it so I cannot give them the credit they deserve, but I copied their idea for my meadow garden and David added the birdhouse on top.

I think this is a good message for everyone. What we think about is what we are. Are we growing flowers or weeds in our minds? I’d like to think my mind is a huge meadow of flowers. With a few little weeds!

I’ve wanted on of these for years and we finally got one. A cotton candy machine. I’m in heaven!

Here I am, just like the lady at the fair, twirling cotton candy on a stick. It’s really easy to do and fun.

Then you get to eat it. We have only made cotton candy one time. Trying to pace ourselves. But it tastes just like what you get at the county fair. The grandkids are going to have to come over and test it out.

We have several birdhouses that we have bought over the years that have not gotten put up. I have asked David several times and he finally got them all up, except for one, this month.

He hung this bird town earlier this Spring. I love all our birdhouses and the birds have been checking out the newer ones. I hope by next year every one of them will be full of little baby birds sticking their heads out and begging for food. Someone had a video of some birds feeding their babies in the nest. Mama bird was trying to cram a whole tomato worm in their mouths. If you have ever seen a tomato worm they are the giants of the garden worm variety and the little birds’ mouths are so small.

We were supposed to go to a family reunion this month, but my surgery was the day before so we missed it. Family members I hardly ever see were there and I was disappointed, but nothing we could do.

Glad the weather is breaking from the super hot days. I look forward to Autumn and the beautiful colors and the cooler weather. We are going on another Country Friends tour where ladies and a few men, sell antiques and homemade things in their homes or little shops all out in the country in southern Indiana. They always have a contest where when you buy something you get so many tickets and you put your name and phone number in their boxes and they draw out the winner’s name on the final day and guess whose name they drew this year??? Mine!! I was so surprised. I get a fifteen dollar gift certificate to every shop which means I will be spending more money! They know what they are doing, but it was a really nice surprise especially since when the lady called I thought I was only getting one gift certificate to one store, but no, it was for all of them. What will I buy? Christmas is coming.

Hope your Summer has been better than mine although I really can’t complain knowing there are people worse off than I will ever be. Glad to be back in blogland. Bye.

So my ear pain came back with a vengeance, so bad I could not sleep and that brought tears to my eyes. Today I went to the ear doctor who cleaned out my ear and then proceeded to lance the lump behind my ear without anesthesia. Talk about painful! I said it was worse than childbirth. There was a pregnant nurse in the room with us and I apologized to her for saying that, but then I told her it was true! Never have I ever felt such excruciating pain and hope to never again. This afternoon I feel no pain for the first time in almost two weeks, but I have to go back tomorrow to see if further surgery is needed. This time with anesthesia, my doctor promised.

I will let you know how things went on the other side. Once again. Please pray for me if you are a praying person. Bye.

So I finally am here again. I’ve been away on a pain filled journey that I wish never to return to. This past week I had the most excruciatingly painful earache of my life. Well, really the only earache I have ever had. It started a week ago when my ear had been bothering me. Itching and tingling. So I asked David to put some peroxide in it to maybe stop it. I have used peroxide in my children’s ears to help with the pain. Not long after he did that, I got a huge, painful swelling behind my ear. David said it looked red and painful. I tried for a couple of days to medicate myself, but it was not getting better, but worse and I was in tears with the pain so I went to my GP who gave me some antibiotics and drops for the ears. They were actually drops for the eyes, but he told me to use them in my ears. So, I did. And two days later, my ear was even more swollen and painful so David called an ear doctor, but they could not get me in until the next week, so he said, “I’m taking you to the ER.” I have a real fear of hospitals and dread going. I have not had good experiences in most cases when I have been in one so I really did not want to go, but I had no choice. I was pleasantly surprised that day. Our hospital has upped its game with the ER. It is large and bright and the people working there were very nice. Soon I was having my vitals taken and before too long I was in a room waiting for a doctor. The doctor who saw me was very kind and told me I should have never been put on antibiotics because I had a fungus in my ear, due partially from wearing hearing aids. He said the drops I had been using had citric acid in them and were burning my ear instead of helping it. Boy, does my doctor have some explaining to do! Anyway, with a prescription for the pain and different drops I went home and here I am a few days later feeling much better. There is still some swelling, but the doctor told me it would take about eleven days for it to go down with the drops. The only thing about the drops is I have to lay down and stay still for an hour every time I get them so it’s been a real disruption in my activities.

So onward to more pleasant things. The garden is bursting with bloom this year. It’s been a very good year for zinnias, geraniums, hibiscus and hydrangeas. Here is a show of some of the blooms in my garden.

Because we are not mowing our back yard, these hollyhocks came up in a place I know I didn’t plant them. They have been so beautiful.

These hollyhocks I did plant in my little kitchen garden. They have been lovely. I hope they reseed themselves.

These lilies are all over our garden.

We got these at New Creation lily farm a few years back. They never disappoint.

Rudbeckia or Black Eyed Susans. I can never have too many of these.

The hydrangea beside our front door has exploded into bloom. So full of flowers. I hope to dry a few for Fall decorations.

I did not plant one sunflower seed this year and yet, there are sunflowers coming up everywhere. The birds did the seeding this year I suppose.

This is the same garden as is in my header, but it has also exploded. My flamingo has almost disappeared. I water this every day or it would not look like this, I’m sure.

This is the geranium I got at an antique store’s garage sale! The best geraniums I have ever had.

The story behind these flowers is a mystery. A few years back, I planted some of these seeds in my little kitchen garden, no where near where these are growing. This year flowers began coming up all over our driveway that is gravel. We have had coreopsis, these flowers I call Queen Anne’s Lace, but are called Daria in the seed catalog, and Chinese forget me nots. And not just a few flowers have come up, but like someone threw hands full of seeds in our driveway and they all have come up. I truly love these flowers so much and hope they return next year. Years ago our son and his then wife gave us several figures of children for our garden. I have painted them all verdigris this year and placed them around. Each has a name. This is Jason, after our oldest son.

Those big, tall, ferny plants are coreopsis. No, I did not plant those that are growing in the gravel and they are huge. And more sunflowers. It’s been so wonderful to watch all these flowers come up that I had nothing to do with. Not to say I didn’t plant a lot of seeds, but the ones growing outside pots and planters are not of my planting. I also have tomato plants that I have already made fried green tomatoes from and had one red tomato so far.

David repainted this six foot tall flaming I bought years ago. He has been hidden in the garden for too long so he has been brought out where everyone can see him who comes into our drive. He has a place where I could put a pot of flowers if I so choose.

It’s not only flowers that have taken my time, but this year we are trying to freeze some sweet corn for the Winter. We had not had any sweet corn since before Covid. If fact, a lot of the little vegetable stands where we use to get corn closed up shop and never reopened sad to say. We could not find any sweet corn last year, but this year we found a family owned market south of town that has the best sweet corn I have ever tasted. Before I got sick, we got several dozen ears of corn and I froze eleven quarts. Tomorrow, I think I feel like trying to freeze some more.

I love having frozen sweet corn to serve at Thanksgiving and Christmas and I will have plenty this year.

This is what a good Summer supper looks like here in Indiana on a hot Summer’s day. Yum.

We aren’t the only ones with beautiful flowers. Our daughter and son-in-law brought me these gladiolas from their garden. They stayed beautiful for days.

I bought two of these cement head ladies at the antique sale I told you about a few blogs back. They can hold flowers in their heads. I just think they are beautiful. David hung that birdhouse beside her today on another project we did together. I will show you that my next post, hopefully.

David made a new cupboard on our back porch to hold things, but also to insulate that wall where the plumbing for my washer goes. The past couple of Winters, my washer pipes froze up and I had to thaw them out with my hair dryer. David is hoping this extra insulation and this cupboard will do better protecting the pipes so they won’t freeze again. The doors to the cupboard were my idea using old fence boards we have laying around. David did such a good job on this and I really love it. We can keep our back porch less cluttered now.

I’ve come to the conclusion David can do just about anything he sets his mind to. I just have to suggest a project and he’s off to the races and gets it done for me. Glad he can see my vision of things.

We are trying to make a meadow in our back yard for bees, birds and butterflies. I planted some milkweed last year and it came up again and spread and now I have lots and lots of seed that I will spread around in hopes of having more. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs in these plants. When I was growing up, milkweed grew wild along the fence rows and we had lots of butterflies, but they spray the fence rows now and kill a lot of the insects that flourished in them including the butterflies so many people are trying to plant milkweed again to help the butterflies out. These will definitely not get sprayed. On our drives through the country we sometimes see this plant growing wild. We tried getting some to bring home, but their roots were far too deep to pull any.

This is just the start of our meadow. David is having a hard time not mowing the back yard, but I keep telling him there will be more and more flowers and beautiful wild grasses growing as time passes and we will see more and more butterflies. We have already noticed an increase of the lightning bugs. They seem to like the tall grasses very well, indeed.

Not to everyone’s liking, but I have a vision and one day people will want to have my back yard. With all the flowers growing around it now, it’s really quite pretty and makes me feel so calm to sit and look at it.

We have already had some wild flowers bloom in it and I plan to sow many more seeds next Spring. That light green patch is a zinnia garden that hasn’t bloomed yet, but now it is and is so pretty.

The purple candytuft has already reseeded itself. I look forward to an abundance of it next year.

I have rattled along long enough for now, but this is what is happening at our house. We try to stay out of trouble and try to stay healthy, but sometimes things happen we don’t expect. I hope you all are doing well and enjoying your Summer or Winter wherever you are in this big, wonderful world we all live in. I still find it amazing that people read this blog all over the world and I wish I could meet every one of you in person. Just know I am happy you come to my little corner and see my not so exciting life that David and i have managed to create on our little patch of soil. Until next time. Bye.

I almost forgot! August is going to have two Super Moons. One this Tuesday and the other the last of the month. Having two full moons in one month is what the phrase, once in a blue moon comes from. So get outside and look up. The moon is especially beautiful this year.

It’s July and this month is going by rapidly like all the rest. But July is special to us because it is the month in which we got married. Not sure why we picked one of the hottest months to get married in, but it’s worked for us this many years. So fifty-five years ago in 1968 David and I marched down the aisle at my little Methodist church and got married with two ministers, not one. One of the ministers had been at our church the year I was saved and he taught me about the Methodist church and the other minister was our fairly new minister I didn’t know very well. They must have done a pretty good job between them of marrying us, because it’s lasted all these years.

I always tell people I first met David when I was about twelve years old at a basketball game where I was sitting with my best friend, who happened to be David’s cousin. David and his brother, Bill, started following Mary Ruth and I all over the school and when we went into the bathroom, they started throwing empty Coke cups at us through the door. Every time we tried to leave, they would chuck some more empty Coke cups into the door until Mary Ruth and I had filled up all the trash cans in the bathroom with cups. We were laughing and having so much fun and Mary told me later that I said to her, “I’m going to marry that boy.” I don’t remember telling her that, but she swore it was true, but I didn’t know which boy I meant at that time.

Fast forward to my junior year in high school and David’s parents were moving to the Virgin Islands where his dad was going to fly planes, but David did not want to go so he went to live his senior year at his cousin’s house, my best friend. The first football game of the year he sat behind me and my girlfriends and teased us. I thought he was going after another best friend, Carol, at the time so I didn’t think much about it until Saturday when his cousin called me to ask if I would like to go to a movie with her and David. Hmmm. Sneaky way to make a date, but I bit. So that Sunday we went to see the movie, Joy in the Morning with Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimeu(whose name I know I misspelled horribly.) It was a romantic movie and I loved it and I found myself holding hands with David through the whole movie and we kissed in the car going home and when I got out of the car my mother looked at me and I am not kidding, she said this to me. “You are in love, aren’t you?” It must have been written all over my face because, yes, I was in love. And that love has never weakened all these years later. I’m not sure why this kind of love happens with some of us and some of us have a hard time finding anyone to love. I cannot explain it. But I feel so blessed that it happened to me.

So we celebrated our anniversary by taking a short, two day road trip through southern Indiana. I have grown to love our state more and more. I’ve been to just about all fifty states and each one has its own appeal and its beautiful places, but I am always glad to return to Indiana with its green field and forests and farms dotting the landscape. I have read blogs about England and I see the beauty that is there, but it really cannot compare to Indiana. I really did not know how hilly southern Indiana was until this last trip. And there were valleys spread far below us with fields like patchwork quilts and little farms and cabins.

Down leafy back roads.

Past fields of corn and soybeans. Thank the farmer. It’s because of farmers we all eat so well in this country.

Past old, derelict buildings. David is always saying he wish he could buy these old building and make apartments into them. This would be a great apartment building. I want the room in the tallest part of the building!

Through small towns with murals painted on the buildings.

Past creations people have made on the back roads. We have a lot of creative people in our state. Seems the more you get into the country, the more creative people get. And we have famous people from Indiana, too. Red Skelton, Hoagy Carmichael, and David Letterman to name three. I liked Dave when he use to be funny. He got kind of cranky in his old age, but don’t we all!

this little owl was hand carved by someone and placed on his creation in his front yard. Most people will never see it, but creative people are all over the back roads of Indiana.

Up hills and down valleys. This picture does not do the view justice. It was awe inspiring. Like I said, I didn’t know Indiana had such wonderful valleys and vistas. Except in Brown County and we were not in Brown County.

Past Indiana’s own Grand Canyon. At least that is what this looked like through the trees.

What it really was was a huge gravel pit right in the middle of nowhere.

At one time you could see this from this overlook, but the trees have grown up so tall, you cannot see anything.

We passed giant rocks jutting toward the road. This place has some history behind it.

This happened at this very spot.

At some points we were following the Ohio River.

Barges carrying coal and other things down the river.

We took a ride up to Buzzard’s Roost where there were several houses and an Inn or Bed and Breakfast, I’m not sure. This house had the most beautiful garden in front of it. My photography is horrible so it doesn’t do the garden justice, but it was gorgeous. My kind of garden.

This cabin was for sale. David and I dreamed about buying it and living in it part of the year and renting it out the rest, but when we saw how much it cost, we decided, maybe not! But it is beautiful and comes with three acres and a beautiful valley view so if you are interested…… I am not a realtor.

This house was up there, too. Can’t you imagine the view from the top? And it looks like its handicap accessible, too. Not sure whether this was someone’s home or a place for a Summer rental.

You see a lot of historic homes on the back roads of Indiana.

This once was a school.

This was once the town hall. We saw lots of one room school houses, many converted into family homes. Back long ago there must have been a schoolhouse every few miles as the children either had to walk to school or ride and horse drawn bus. There is an old school house not far from my family home where I grew up.

We drove over a couple of one lane bridges. I sure hope they keep these bridges up. They have so few people going over them they may not think they are important enough to check on, but they’d better before someone ends up in the river! I was glad when we got across.

We see a lot of wildlife while driving the back roads. We saw lots of these birds.

These are such beautiful birds. There didn’t use to be so many back when more pesticides and poisons were used along the fence lines, but they have made a come back and I hope there is enough food for them in the wild. I caught one one time sitting in a tree above my chickens and I scared him or her off.

We pass log cabins. Some restored like this one is and some that aren’t.

We had tornadoes rip through southern Indiana recently and we came upon a forest that had been completely ripped down by the winds.

And then, we saw this……

Someone’s beautiful home, completely destroyed by a tornado. I bet that family got up that morning, never thinking that by evening their home would be gone. I hope and pray no one was hurt and they got out in time. This was out in the middle of nowhere and it was the only building we saw that was hit by the tornado.

Then we continued on and saw this…..

A beautiful, majestic home, untouched by the winds.

And its barn was beautiful, too. I wondered who lived there and if they knew how close they had come to being hit by a tornado. That is just how fickly tornado winds are. They can hit one house and jump over all the rest. I hope I never see one in my lifetime.

We drove and drove and looked and looked and then we came upon this……

Hmmmm. A very tiny tunnel underneath a railroad track. And I was wondering if our Jeep would fit through it!!! But David is like a bulldozer with his cars and pushes right on through.

Oh, please, God, don’t let us scrape the sides!!!!

Here we are in the center of the tunnel. Graffiti artists sure had a heyday with this little tunnel. A bunch of teen-agers, I bet, having the timesof their lives, making their mark on the world in this simple way. I rather liked it.

I wonder how many cans of spray paint it took to cover the walls of this tunnel? And we liked driving through it so much, David turned around and we went through two more times making the farmers who were watching us in a field right next to the tunnel wonder what kind of crazy people want to drive through that tunnel so many times??? We do!!! That’s who!

David has taken a whole week and a half off for our anniversary and we have had a good time, got some things done and just enjoyed being together. I could write lots more because we saw lots more, but I will end this right now. I have more to tell you about what David built this week and about the meadow we are creating in our back yard and all the flowers that are blooming around our house, but I will have to wait until later. Tomorrow I get another shot in my right eye. The doctor said the histoplasmosis had flared up again my last visit so here I go, again. Send up a little prayer for me, if you will because I really want to keep my eyesight. I don’t know how many more shots I have to get, but if it saves my eyesight, I really don’t mind. And getting a shot in the eye is really not as bad as it sounds if you have the right doctor doing it and my doctor is an ace. So bye, for now.

Oh where do I start. June is flying by just like all the months of this crazy year have. David and I always seem to be busy, but we did take a little jaunt to the country again, but this time we were looking for home based shops selling antiques, birdhouses, lights made from unique things, and much, much more. It was Country Neighbor’s Springtime tour where you drive from house to house or shop to shop to find things you cannot possibly live without.

This was my favorite shop. We have come here several times and she always has something I would love to have. This time it was a framed piece of an old quilt in a very nice frame that I thought it would look good in my workshop.

This lady has lots of unique birdhouses and she makes jewelry out of found things and wind chimes from old colanders and metal utensils. We found a birdhouse we liked there.

This was a new shop on the tour the man who runs this makes the neatest flag wallhangers for different branches of the military. We got one for D avid to put in his office. I bought a rolling pin that makes designs on the crust of a pie when you roll it out.

We visited four or five shops, but the real reason we were out was to drive through the country once again. By now you know David and I love to drive down country roads we have never been before.

Where we find things Like this building. I had no idea this was a place.

An airport built to memoralize Virgil “Gus” Grissom, an astronaut who flew in space. Sadly, he lost his life in a fiery fire onboard one of the ships being readied to launch. We were proud of him here in Indiana. I’ve seen the space capsule he landed in at a state park. He was a hero who died too soon, but made space travel something Indiana youth could dream about.

Of course there are always the winding, wooded roads we drive along. We are always kind of sad when we get back into civilization.

David is getting ready to repair the door on a shed we have in the back yard. We bought that shed at the Home Show in Indianapolis the year we stopped running our store. The man we bought it from came to our house and built it and he told me he has been building them for years, but people don’t take care of theirs so they fall in disrepair. He told me people didn’t paint their new sheds and that is why. I told him he didn’t have to worry about our shed not getting painted because I love to paint. It’s been painted two or three times since we bought it. Anyway, back to the door. David needed some green pieces of lumber and I volunteered to paint them because, “I love to paint.” So Sunday after church and brunch at our IHOP, which, by the way has the best french toast, we came home and I started to paint. I could see right away that these boards were going to need more than one coat of paint so I set them in the sunshine to dry faster and gave them all two coats. Down through the years David has made fun of me when I paint. I do a great job, if I do say so myself, but I tend to wear the paint. I have several sets of painting clothes I wear that I don’t mind getting paint on. So just let these pictures tell the story.

Not attractive pictures at all. Accccckkkk! It’s not easy being green, but it shows you just how into my work I can get. So glad for those gloves, too. And we did end up with some fine painted boards. David could nail me up and no one would ever know! I’d fade right in.

So, I was sitting in a chair that evening, watching Escape to the Chateau, when I noticed a spider on my leg and jumped and yelped, but on a closer look I realized I had scared myself with a splotch of paint on my leg that looked like a spider! We had a good laugh about that, but there is another, even better st

A few weeks ago I noticed a tile had come loose in the bathroom. These tiles are only about an inch or less in size so they are pretty tiny. I carefully put the tile where I could show it to David in hopes he could replace it. Then a few days ago David told me he had put the tile in a drawer in our bathroom so we wouldn’t lose it. We went to the store this week and David bought special adhesive to fasten the tile back where it came from. Well, today David got the adhesive and the tile out and proceeded to replace the tile where I had shown it was missing. He tried and tried to fit that tile in the hole until it broke apart. That is when he noticed we had been saving a piece of soap! And he could not fit it into the hole because there actually wasn’t a hole there and the tile we in it. I am still laughing about this. I could hardly write this without bursting into laughter. This proved two things to me. The power of suggestion is very strong. When I suggested a tile was gone, David saw that it was gone and he saw a tile when I told him a piece of soap was one. And sometimes I wonder if David and I should be left alone to our own devices.

Not to say we have good imaginations, but on one our drives we saw this up ahead….

We were sure this was a giant Emu that was living wild on the backroads of Indiana.

As we got closer we saw that what we were looking at with awe, was a piece of driftwood shaped like a giant Emu. You won’t see this on the well traveled roads! And David and my motto should be “what happens on a country road, stays on a country road!”

As fast as June is going, I probably won’t see you here until July so Happy June, Happy Summer and may God bless all who read this. Bye.

I love the Spring months, March, April and May and they all seem to go so fast every year. This year has been no exception. This May has been so cool and downright cold at times. I waited and waited to plant my flower seeds. We are making our back yard into a sanctuary of sorts by letting the grasses grow wild and planting other grasses and wildflowers. It takes a few years to establish a meadow, but we are well on our way. It just takes patience. I keep telling David, every time he wants to mow the back yard to just wait. He will be so glad he did. It’s wonderful seeing the grasses actually reseeding themselves and I love watching the dogs play in what looks like a field instead of the bare ground that was once where they played and lay down. To many people, this would not be their cup of tea. Our children haven’t seen it yet and will probably think Mom and Dad are getting senile in their old age and forgetting to mow, but that is not the case!

See how the grasses are reseeding themselves. Use to be they would be mowed down long before they reached this stage. I think they look so pretty. And the flowers among them really stand out.

The peonies have been so beautiful and they really show up in the grasses. David and I were talking one day and I was wondering just how many peonies I had and I thought there were probably about twenty in the back yard, but David disagreed and went out and counted them all and I have thirty peonies. I have them in all colors. White, pink, dark pink, reddish, pink and white and they are all lovely. My favorite flower, really. David picked me a big bouquet of them.

Reminds me of the paint by number painting I did a year ago.

I just think they make the perfect cut flower. If I were getting married again, and I’m not, I would have the church filled with peonies and my colors would be pink and white.

The Irises have been beautiful, too. You really cannot kill irises. We mow them down every Autumn and they keep coming back, bigger and more beautiful every year.

The old fashion Roses that we brought from David’s mother’s house when she sold it have had more blooms on them this year than ever. They smell like roses should. We have two of them in the side garden and they are just this year beginning to grow up the fence. We will fertilize them and dust them to keep off the bugs and that is all they really need besides water.

The front of my workshop has needed a good cleaning and set back to order for years and this week I finally got it done. I took everything off the table on the porch and cleaned the table and everything that was on it. David powerwashed everything else and took some of his junk back to his shed. I rearranged the table and it all looks so much better. I don’t know why it took me so long! Guess I had other things that seemed more important.

Ignore the boots I have drying on the watering can, but this is the table that has been organized. I still have one more thing to put on it that I will have to show you another time. You see, I went to this amazing garage sale of an antique business that is going out of business and I got these beautiful ladies that hold flowers, plus a couple more things. I just love that everything is clean, at least for a short time. It’s so dusty outside things don’t stay clean.

I bought some artificial flowers to brighten up the place.

The sunflower sign I got at the nursery we go to that is going out of business this year. She always has such cute things to put in the garden and such beautiful flowers. I sure am going to miss them next year. And yes, beware of dog. Ha. Well, I’m not so sure about Molly. She can either be fierce or act like she is in love with you if you are a stranger. We never know so we always warn people.

I painted this mailbox a few years ago. No, I am not an artist, but I still like to try.

This is my flower garden in front of my work shop. I’ve planted zinnias, cosmos, geraniums, cyprus, coreopsis and other flowers I can’t name at the moment. See that pink flamingo? Many years ago we drove up the west side of Florida clear to the panhandle and we found this wonderful antique store. They had two flamingos, but I could only afford one of them and brought him home and have taken care of him all these years, but I always wished we had gotten the other one. Years later, we passed that very same antique store, but it was closed so no more flamingos..

We have Coreopsis growing wild all over our driveway and I have been pulling it up and replanting it into pots to put in our meadow at some time. I haven’t planted Coreopsis in years and yet this year it is all over. I’m not complaining. I love it.

Once again I planted geraniums in an old grill I painted green. They haven’t filled in, yet, but they will and this will be so pretty.

Another view of my container garden. You may ask why don’t I plant more flowers in my back yard. Their names are Lucy and Sugar and I believe it’s mostly Sugar who loves to dig and she doesn’t always care where she digs. We were gone for a couple of days and just before we went away, I had bought some more flowers to fill in a little garden I have right beside our back porch. David put fencing and wire around all the flowers to protect them. Ha. When we got home I discovered one of the flowers had been completely dug up and some of the others didn’t looks so good. I scolded Sugar, but she didn’t have a clue why I was angry with her so today we made up and I loved on her a lot so we’re friends again. Until she digs us something else! I’m hoping the flowers will recover.

We took a road trip this past weekend. On backroads, of course. We hardly ever use interstate unless we need to get somewhere fast, but his was not that kind of journey. Originally, we planned to get up to Lake Erie. It’s really not that far from us. A day trip. So off we went.

The curvier and more secluded roads, the better. You would be surprised how many roads are like this all over the country. And you see things that nobody sees on the freeway or heavily traveled roads.

Things like this windmill and little millhouse some farmer had made.

Or beautiful little streams meandering through a woods. We didn’t think there were any houses around, but after I took this picture, we noticed a couple sitting in front of their house watching us. We waved and went on leaving them to wonder why anyone would want a picture of this stream. It was the only house on this road, by the way!

You go through towns where patriotic citizens have the flag on every post and in some of the towns they had pictures of their vets who have lost their lives on the posts, also.

You go through towns where painted, cement roosters are on every corner. In one town, they had painted pigs. To each, his own.

We drove through Geneva, where the author, Gene Stratton Porter has built this absolutely wonderful house. We toured it a few years ago. Miss Porter wrote books about the Limberlost which was the swamps of northern Indiana a long time ago. Girl of the Limberlost was one of my mother’s favorite books. She always talked about it, but for some reason I never read it. I must put that on my list.

Miss Porter had this one room built so that she and her guests could sit and watch animals and birds come and go in it without them getting into the house, but it was in the house. I think that sounds wonderful.

We drove past where the very best catsup is made and shipped. Right here in Indiana. Red Gold, never Heinz. Red Gold had a field of tomatoes planted just outside our city one year and I would ride my bicycle by it and look at all the tomatoes growing. Red Gold is really the best catsup in the world. It’s all I will use.

On back roads you drive through lots of towns with buildings this old and still in use. So much has been lost by tearing down these old buildings.

I love old barns. I took this picture just because it was nice to see one that is cared for. We passed so many old barns in disrepair, many already caving in and becoming a thing of the past. That is what happened to my family farm barn. It was not cared for and it is falling down. At one time it was a tomato factory in our little town, but all I remember is playing in the haymow and taking care of kittens and calves and playing with the baby pigs. Baby pigs are so darn cute. And they don’t smell. Do you know that pigs really are the cleanest of animals? The only reason they get in the mud is to cool themselves off.

We stopped to eat here in this park. We were the only people there until a man and woman met each other from two separate trucks and sat in one of them. David and I were wondering if it was a clandestine meeting! Ha. He told me not to stare! Anyway, it was windy and cold sitting here to eat so this is where I sat….

Here on this swing set where the sun was shining and I was warm. But it was still nice to eat outside. Our first real picnic of the season. We plan to have more.

This looks like a picture of David’s ducks on the dash. Ducks that people leave on our Jeep and say we’ve been ducked. I really love the army one given to David by our daughter-in-law. But that is not what I was taking a picture of. I was taking a picture of the Amish lady and her little girl. They won’t pose for a picture and I would never take their faces, but I did get them walking across the street. I have so many questions I would love to aske Amish ladies, but I will probably never get them answered. They live a very different life than most women do. We passed many Amish farms and the laundry was hung out at almost every one of them. Clothes in black, and blue and beige. No bright colors. We say Amish children outside playing. Do they ask questions about us? We passed so many Amish farms in northern Indiana.

You won’t see this on the interstate.

I would have loved to have learned more about Camp Woodsmoke, but isn’t that a great name for a camp?

I believe we Hoosiers are some of the most imaginative and talented people in the country. Lot’s of famous people have come from Indiana. David Letterman and Red Skelton to name just two. We have a sense of humor you don’t find in a lot of places. But this was just in someone’s front yard. I’m thinking a tree came down and someone didn’t have anything else to do that day so they carved them an Indian. How neat is that!!!

We stopped to have ice cream. Here’s my cone. It was very good and David had a large cherry sundae that was almost more than he could eat. I think he’s pretending he is licking my ice cream cone, but he knows better!!

We were heading for Lake Erie and we did end up beside water, but it was Grand Lake in Celina, Ohio. It took us all day to get here. A ride that would take normal people three hours at the most, but we take the long way because we like it like that. So we stopped here for the night. Found a very nice Best Western and then took a drive clear around the lake. It’s a big lake. We saw pelicans and seagulls, two birds I did not know lived in Indiana, but I’m glad to know it. The pelicans were different from the ones we see in Florida. There were four of them flying above us. They had black tipped wings.

We saw several of these birds. Some type of heron I believe.

We stopped to sit beside the lake, but it was very cold and all I had was a sweater.

This is a picture of my “sexy man.” Yes, that is what I call him. My kids would be so embarrassed knowing I am admitting this, but I have been calling him this for years. He is MY sexy man. Nobody elses’. Hey, if you get to our age and still like each other a lot, you should thank God and your lucky stars because that doesn’t happen for everyone. I just got blessed to meet my one true love when I was young and we have got to grow old together and it’s really a blessing. I pray for all marriages to be as happy.

I’m going to have to finish this another day. I’ve been writing and putting up pictures for almost an hour and a half. Hope you enjoy them. We had a lot of fun and we are planning on doing another trip sometime this Summer. It seems two days is all we both can handle right now with all the pets we have to leave and also because we cannot sit in a car for hours like we use to and go thousands of miles away, but we can still have fun. I’ll be back with more of our trip later. Bye.

Every Spring our front garden is amass with pink blooms. One year I almost forgot to look out my front door and see it and it surprised me so much so that now I make sure I look at my front garden every year. Because we spend so much time outside in our back yard, our front garden gets forgotten at times.

But, not this year. I watched for the blooms.

This is the azalea that was full of blooms this year.

This is the crabapple that never disappoints. It just doesn’t last long enough. You can see this tree from about a mile away as we drive toward our house.

The redbuds in Indiana are always so pretty. They grow in the wild as well as in gardens, but this one is right by our front walk. I planted it from a tiny sprout that came up in our back yard one year.

We have two magnolias. These kinds bloom more than once a year, but they are at their prettiest in the Spring. When we were having our front porch built a few years ago, I made sure the contractor knew this tree was not to be harmed in any way, so they were very careful around it even though it stands right by the porch now.

The Weeping Cherry that looks like its blossoms are white in this picture, but they were really a very pretty pink.

We made a trip to our favorite nursery and bought these pansies. I seem to always drift toward plants with pink flowers. I do love the color pink. By the way, this nursery that has supplied us with so many beautiful flowers through the years will be closing for good after this season which makes me very sad. But the lady who runs it is going to be taking care of her father-in-law because of his health issues. I understand and believe she is doing the right thing, but I sure will miss her nursery. So we will have to look for a new nursery next year. Lowes did have a wonderful selection of flowers this year.

This is the view from our back door. I am trying to get our back yard filled with flowering trees and bushes We have a little cherry tree in the back that was planted there by the birds from a cherry tree in our neighbor’s yard. It has cherries on it every year that I feed to our chickens.

We have lilac bushes, but this is our neighbor’s bush just loaded with flowers from top to bottom. We could smell these while sitting on our back porch.

This was our two year old Amarylis(not sure I spelled that right) that had huge blossoms on it. We have another one that is starting to grow blooms. I didn’t know they bloom every year. I did nothing special to them. In fact, they weren’t watered for a few months before I noticed they were growing flowers again. Sometimes I think the more you don’t do to a plant the better it performs. We overwater our plants many times and don’t have them in the correct sunlight or shade that they need.

We did have a few lilac bouquets in our house. This is the first year our white lilac had so many flowers on it. Our neighbor cut down a tree by our property line last year which gave the lilac more sunlight, so I’m sure that’s why it did so well this year.

I’ve been preparing my annual beds for zinnias, cosmos, dame’s rocket and other flowers. I’m doing raised beds and pots again this year and a good friend made me a wonderful planter that I will use for the first time this year. I’ve already got the flowers I am going to plant in it. Our Spring has been so wet, windy and cold most days it looks like a late planting time this year. Our frost time supposedly ends May 10, but I’m going to be careful not to plant too early.

But it hasn’t been all flowers, flowers, flowers. I’ve been knitting a very long scarf and when I get it done I will knit a hat to match it. They will probably be Christmas gifts. I am loving knitting things other than socks although I will still knit socks on occasion. I sewed some new kitchen curtains I’ll try to show you next time. And…. I baked bread.

Forty some years ago when our sons were in grade school, the parents got together and made a recipe book. Everyone contributed a recipe or recipes. I found the book this week and made some delicious cinnamon bread and rolls from a recipe I used a lot in years past.

I went a little overboard on the icing although I got no complaints from David.

I’m not saying these were delicious, but they weren’t out of the oven long before two were eaten. And, yes, they are as good as they look. Wish you could smell them.

Here’s to pink flowers and warm, baked bread. May we all have a little of each. Bye.

As a Christian, I love celebrating Easter as the day Jesus rose from the dead. He was like some of us with our government. He didn’t think much of it and He was treated very badly by the church people of the day, also. He was born of a virgin, yet the son of God and lived thirty-three years on this earth teaching about God and Heaven and hell and making plans to one day come back for all those who trust in Him. He was treated cruelly by the people who were in charge which was the Roman government. People didn’t have a whole lot of freedom with this bunch in control, but Jesus was not scared to speak up for all the people and he spoke of the love God has for everyone. He even said God wanted the little children to come to Him.

So Jesus was crucified on the cross and put into a borrowed tomb where the Roman soldiers put a huge stone in front so that no one could take his body out. They even had guards at the tomb and for three days all was normal as it could be with a man in a tomb until the third day. And that day made all the difference to the world and to every one of us. Jesus rose from the dead. Angels greeted Him at the tomb’s entrance. The women who came to put ointment on his body were astonished that his body was gone. Roman soldiers hunted everywhere for Jesus, but He was not there. He had risen and spent the next days He was on earth talking to His disciples and preparing them for what was to come. We all should be prepared for what is to come. Each of us is appointed one day to die. Do you know where you will be spending your eternity? If you put your trust in Jesus, you will have nothing to fear. I know I don’t.

So that is why Easter is such an important day for we Christians. You aren’t a Christian if you go to a church. You aren’t a Christian just because you are good. The only way to be a Christian is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I talk to Him every single day and He always there for me.

So, David and I went to church where the choir sang a beautiful cantata and then the disciple, Peter, came and talked to us. Well, our pastor was dressed as Peter and told how Peter denied Jesus three times on the day he was crucified. The very man who was closest to Jesus, the man who vowed he would never deny Him, did so three times that day. It would be like your very best friend not sticking up for you when you are in trouble, but Peter feared the Roman soldiers and the crowds that surrounded him that day. Would I be like Peter and deny Jesus when the time comes? I’d like to say I wouldn’t, but I will never know unless it happens.

After church we went home and prepared a dinner of ham, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, potato salad, strawberry salad, rolls, cake and cupcakes. Every plate had a chocolate bunny on it. We had a guest, a friend of one of our grandsons who could not get home for Easter. We were delighted to have him. We had such a good time talking together and then we had an egg hunt. Every year David hides eggs and the grandchildren hunt them. All our grandchildren are getting so big so they don’t get candy. They get a dollar for every egg they find and one hundred and fifty were hidden. After the teens were done it was the adults’ time. We had hidden a few eggs with coupons in them for different restaurants. You should have seen all the adults having fun hunting for eggs! We all had a great time and a nice visit. A perfect Easter day.

The newlyweds, our granddaughter and her husband. They are so cute.

Two of our grandsons. They are so handsome.

Our daughter and her husband.

Every year someone tries to be the first person in our pool. The water was only fifty-nine degrees, but our youngest grandson stripped down and jumped in so he’s the winner this year!

His brother was too busy playing Dolly Parton. Years ago, I played Dolly Parton at a skit at our church and I bought this wig. I gave it to my grandson. Who knows what plans he has for it! Ha!

Our three dogs were absolutely basking in all the attention they were given. Here is Sugar getting the best belly rub of her life. She was in heaven.

Speaking of dogs, here is the paint by number picture I completed this week. I am very happy with it and it reminds me so much of all our Labs.

I’ve been doing lots of other things. I bought this book on Amazon a while back because I wanted to learn to knit something besides socks. There are several different styles of knitted hats in this book and I’ve knitted a couple already.

I really love this style and it will be so warm when Winter comes again.

This is what the top of it looks like. I really love it. It’s especially nice knitted in self striping yarn.

I forgot to show a card I gave to David this past Valentine’s Day. You have to special order it and they put a special date on it. This is our anniversary date when we will be married fifty-five years this year and our names “carved” into the tree. David liked it.

I hope your days are filled with love, joy and peace. Keep your eyes on the One who loves you so because He will never leave you. Happy Spring, Happy Easter, Happy Day. Bye.