Monthly Archives: May 2014

Walking the Color Blaze 5K

Back in January I saw on Facebook something about a 5K called Color Blaze.  I didn’t have a clue what kind of 5K it was, but I saw that some people I knew were going to walk it, so I registered to participate.

Fast forward to today and my grandson, husband and I went to our fairgrounds where it was to be held.  It started at 10:00, or so I thought, so we got there a little after 9:00.   We got our shirts and walked around and I sat down by a lady wondering to myself why people were coming in so late for a 5K that started at 10:00.  “It starts at 11:00,” she told me.  Oh, well.  So we waited almost two hours for it. I was tired before it started and it was hot.

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This is my eight year old grandson who was going to walk with me.

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This is us before the 5K.  We look all nice and clean, don’t we?  See those women in the tutus?  People dressed up in crazy outfits.

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Here we are again.  See how white our shirts look?

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Then the fun began.  Color powder was going everywhere, even up my nose!

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We got packets of colored powder and my grandson was enjoying throwing it on me.   Good times!

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The powder flew.

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People were shouting and catching color packets they threw at us.  It was a color blast.

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Suddenly, we weren’t so clean anymore.

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We were in the middle of this and it was hard to see anything when the powder was flying.  I had to hold my nose to keep the powder from choking me, it was so thick.

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We made it to the finish line.  The first mile my grandson got a stitch in his side and was not sure he could make it, but he did and we walked every mile and didn’t take a short cut once.  It was so good to see the finish line, though.

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David was our photographer and although he wasn’t walking, he got colored powder thrown on him also.

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It was a fun morning, but we were tired and hungry afterward and went to Musillami’s, a local drive-in hamburger joint very popular with the locals.  They were packed with cars, but we got our lunch pretty quickly and ate it with gusto.

Then we went home and I washed our car, we took showers and hopped into the pool.  I am pretty bushed right now and the weekend is just starting as we have a graduation party to go to tomorrow, a movie tomorrow night and King’s Island on Monday.  Not bad for two old folks.

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I will leave you with a picture of a hot air balloon that was floating lazily above our house the other day.  That’s something I would like to do one day, go up in a hot air balloon.  Have a great weekend.  Bye.

 

Here we are looking at June coming in a few days and I’m  wondering where my three favorite months went.  I love March, April and May.  They are the months that bring the first warm weather after the cold of winter.  Flowers appear again and everything turns green after a season of grays and browns.  My garden is blooming.  Here, let me show you a few of the flowers.

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A peony growing in my kitchen garden.

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A beautiful yellow iris. I love its bright orange center.  Is that the stamen?  I forget my flower parts.

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Peonies and Irises make good companion plants.

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I love salvia.  It’s a xeric plant and pretty much takes care of itself.

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This plant mysteriously appeared in the garden last summer.  I truly do not remember planting it and haven’t a clue what it is. Anyone know?

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It has this lacy, ferny foliage.

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Gorgeous.  There are thousands of different irises.  I have just a few, but each one is a work of art.

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They come in every hue and color.  I was looking at some in a catalog and some of their roots cost twenty and thirty dollars a piece.  I will stick with the less expensive ones.  They are just as pretty.  This one reminds me of a bright, beautiful sunset.

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Who’s that I see wandering in my flower beds?

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It’s my sweet Belle, here in her bed with her bear.  Such a spoiled pupper.

My grandchildren were here this past weekend and one of them still likes taking walks with me.  I told him to look down as we walk because I always am finding things.  Keys, balls, flags, tools, money.  Well, he spotted something as we walked.

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He found this little screw driver laying by the side of the road.

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He was very proud that he found something.  This grandson is walking with me this Saturday in a Color Blaze 5K.  You get splashed with colors after every mile you complete.  We have to wear white.  I am so looking forward to it.  I love walking 5Ks and  no, I don’t run.  I use to run years ago, but my joints won’t take it anymore.  DSCN7963

 

Have any of you seen this hose advertised on television?  Have any of you purchased one?  We bought one and I tried using it the other day and it squirted water all around the couplings.  It’s a piece of junk.  I might be able to use it as a jump rope.

 

 

 

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Ah, the fairies are coming into my yard.  They sit on these toadstools every night. I never can catch them, but I know they are here.

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The queen of the fairies sits here and reigns over her subjects.

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I hope your day is bright and sunny.  I have this sign outside my shop.  My cousin was visiting one day and it was raining and he said my sign was wrong.  I told him it’s always bright and sunny here.  Hope it is where you are today.  Bye.

 

 

Seasonal Snippets

It’s been a very busy month.  By busy I mean planting, cleaning, building, sewing, walking, and visiting among other things.  Summer is building up to be very busy also.    Every Summer we look at the three long months ahead and think of all the time we’ll have and then things start to be planned and before we know it, Summer is over. Right now we have a graduation party, a wedding, a trip to Chicago, visiting relatives and a Sunday school party planned.   I would like to have a candlelight dinner on our new porch, but haven’t got the plans all together for that yet.  I’d love to have a ladies’ day camp at my house where all my friends could come to spend the day, without children, and swim, sun, hot tub and eat yummy food all day.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I’d love to have all you girls come enjoy the day with me.

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I am going to talk about our new porch for a minute.  I know you are thinking, “blah, blah, blah, that’s all she talks about.  Her new porch. Boring.”  I know, but I just love my new porch so much.  David and I go out every day and look around and tell each other how much we love it.  The stone mason got the stone laid last week despite that it rained every single day.

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We had cloudbursts after cloudbursts.  The garden loved it, but it made it hard to lay stone as the cement couldn’t set in the rain.

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The stone masons made themselves a little tent to work under.  I felt so bad for them as I stood inside my nice, dry house and watched them work.  They are truly artists at their work.  The pillars came out even more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.   I am so glad we decided to do them as we were a little afraid of the cost.  Since we plan to live in this house the rest of our lives, I think we made the right decision.

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David had had his eye on these rocking chairs we saw at Sam’s Club and he finally decided to go buy them.  They were the last two they had so I think we were meant to have them.  They are so comfortable and made of teak so they will fade to a grey.  We have originally become old, I said. Two old folks sitting and rocking on their front porch.  I would love to put a bed out there also.  To sleep under a metal roof while a soft rain is falling upon it sounds like bliss to me.  I fell asleep on our swing in our back yard yesterday and when I opened my eyes, there was a carpenter bee right in front of my eyes.  So close that when I swatted at it, I hit it.   I wondered just how long it had been flying around my head and looking at my nostrils as a place to call home!  Yikes!

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I love the way the shadows fall upon the porch.  It’s just a magical place, I have to tell you.  I know it’s just a porch, but it just makes you feel good to sit out there.

I have been having a wonderful time landscaping around the porch.  I had purchased a lot of perennials that I was just itching to get into the ground.  I spent a couple of days planting.

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This little patch of flowers are on the left side of the steps.

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We dug up some more yard for another bed.  The less grass I have to mow the better I like it.  I have planted these plants and sowed zinnia and cleome around them  I also planted some hollyhock bulbs, but I am not sure they will grow.  I have decided buying prepackaged bulbs from certain stores are not the healthiest of bulbs.  I bought garlic bulbs from one particular store a couple of years ago and not one grew.

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Now you know I have to have something about chickens in my garden.  I found this cute garden stake at Rural King, one of my favorite stores.  It has a little bell that really rings.

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I’ve planted and planted. Did I really need to buy eight packets of sunflower seeds?  Really??  I managed to find places to plant them, but my garden is getting packed full.  This is an old lawn spreader that I painted pink and planted with annuals.  A movable flower pot!

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I never tire of seeing the perennials bloom every year.  The irises, poppies and peonies are beautiful right now.  Peonies are probably my very favorite flower.  The poppies were started from David’s grandmother’s garden.  She always had a beautiful garden in her backyard.  I can still see it in my mind’s eye.

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Peonies make such a beautiful bouquet.  If I were getting married again, I would want to get married when the peonies are in bloom so that I could have them in my wedding bouquet.

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Two of my favorite colors together.

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Even the white ones are gorgeous.

Meanwhile, David has been working hard to get things ready for summer.

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Want to come swim in our pool?  What’s that?  You say it’s green?  This is what it looks like every year when we(meaning David) takes the cover off.  Then the real work begins.

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David spends many hours cleaning, flushing and checking the chemicals.  It’s hard to believe that soon this green pool will be a beautiful, clear blue ready for swimming.  Our grandkids are coming over this weekend, so hope the pool will be ready.

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We needed a new walkway to our porch and David spent a day working on it.  It was his plan and I must say it turned out really well.  I will show you the ta-da moment on another post as I forgot to take pictures of the finished project.

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Doesn’t he have a nicely tanned head?  Working outside in the sunshine will do that.

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Over a year ago, when our new porch was just a figment of our imaginations, we bought this stained glass picture to hang in our front window.  We didn’t want to put it up until it would be in the shade as my stained glass pictures in my shop windows faded after years in the sun.  I love this with all the different birds on it.

Less you think I have forgotten all about the chooks, I haven’t.

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They are so happy to have ground where they can take their dust baths again.  Here they are in front of one of the dog houses.  There’s Freedom getting ready to run.  She always runs when she sees me despite the fact I spent weeks nursing her back to health last year.  Ungrateful chicken.

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Here she is thinking she has escaped me, but I cut her off at the pass.

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Dorcas, or is it Beatrice, is friendlier to me and will come right up to me and let me pick her up.  She’s such a pretty girl.

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Even though Freedom is afraid of me, she keeps her eye on me.  She will follow me all around the coop, but as soon as I go to pet her she’s off to the races again.

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Of course laying season is picking up.  Sometimes I will find as many as four eggs in one nest.  Chickens like communal laying, I guess.  We give a lot of eggs away.  They are good, organic, free range chicken eggs and taste like butter.  I have eaten more eggs this year than I think I have all my life.  Egg salad is a mainstay at the Craig house.

Well, hope you are enjoying the weather and getting outdoors and giving God the praise for His glorious creation. Bye.

 

Of Bugs, Bruises, Blossoms and Boys

Each day fades away into the next and life here at our little plot of ground is moving on.  David and I say almost every day, “Where did the day go?”   I really thought when you were retired or at least semi-retired the days would be long and lazy.   But then, I don’t think either of us would like that too much.  David says if we don’t have something to do, I’ll think of something.  Don’t want to be bored, don’t you know.

This past weekend I walked a 5K MS walk with my daughter and her family and some of her friends.  One who grew up and spent as much time at our house as she did her own at times and we took on a vacation with us to Mammoth Caves.  She now has three children, one as tall as she, and I am feeling old.

The day started out with thunder and lightening and heavy downpours of rain.  But by the time of the walk, the sun shone through and we walked all over our town for 3.1 miles.  It was nice seeing some of the gardens and the older homes that are kept up so nicely.  My grandsons made it the entire walk without one complaint.  I told them they would get ice cream if they walked the entire walk, so after a lunch of pizza, we went over to the local Dairy Queen and got them ice cream.  It was a fun day.

We see our two youngest grandsons more often because they live closer than our other grandchildren.  I would love to see the others more, but they have busy lives too.

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These boys enjoy entertaining us.  We went with them and their parents to a walking and biking trail in Nashville.  It’s about a mile round trip walk.  The boys took their bicycles and practiced riding.  One had just gotten his training wheels off.

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Their father, in the picture, took a fishing pole and caught two fish while we were walking.  Pretty big ones, but he threw them back.

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A few days ago, we saw bug webs in our crabapple tree and David took his blow torch and burned them out.  He said as many dropped from the tree as got burnt up.  And guess where they traveled?  Right to our new porch.  We were sitting out there and started to see worm after worm crawling up the pillars.  Ugly little things that would rear their little ugly heads and wiggle around.   Suddenly, I felt a tickle on my ankle and looked down and there was one of those worms crawling up my leg!  I let out a scream and swatted it off and squashed it.  David and I called them silk worms, but our daughter said she looked them up and they are tent worms.  They do make little tent like webs in the trees around here.

Speaking of legs, oh, I didn’t?  Oh, well.  I have gotten two big bruises on my shins the last couple of weeks.

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This one I haven’t a clue how I got it.  I am always bumping into things while working outside.  This one was a doozy, but didn’t hurt.

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This one on the other leg, however, hurt like the dickens and I know exactly how I got it.  I tripped on a step at our daughter’s house.  I was thinking there were just two steps, but there were three and I went down like a sack of potatoes.  The only thing I could think of when it happened was ” Get the donuts! Get the Donuts.”  I had baked muffin donuts for my grandsons and had been carrying them when I fell.  They have two big dogs that were jumping all around me and I was afraid they would grab the donuts.  All was saved and I survived until the next time I bruise myself which could be any day now.

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Mother’s Day was quiet and nice.  I got this gardenia from my older son.  A Yankee candle gardenia candle came with it.  Gardenias do not survive outside in our winters so I will have to  bring it inside when it gets cold.  I have planted it in a bigger pot and it will get bigger and hopefully bloom this summer.

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David put  new shutters on our upstairs windows this morning.   While he was doing that, the stone masons were putting the stone on our pillars.  I’m really liking how it looks.

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It’s been a month, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the porch building.  It should be done this week unless it rains every day like it is forecasted(okay, I know this is not a word) right now.  We had some thunder and rain this afternoon.

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I’m loving these hanging baskets I got at Smith’s Gardens.

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The snowball bush is loaded with snowballs.   It’s the best it’s ever bloomed since we planted it.

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This Gerbera daisy is so pretty and bright.  This is a wonderful flower that I over winter in my shop and get it out in Spring and it’s just as pretty for another year.

 

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The old fashioned Irises are blooming madly and have spread over much of the yard.

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Then there is the mulch.  The Brown mulch.

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And the black mulch.  Eighty bags in all.  I will spread most of this myself and by the time I am done I will be able to bench press a cast iron skillet.  Ha.  Really, though, I do find I can lift things much easier after hefting this many mulch bags around.

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I guess I won’t be lolling on our front porch any time soon. Won’t look like this either.  Bye.

 

Happy Mother’s Day

Today we celebrate mothers.  We all had or have mothers.  I grew up with a mother who was strict and expected the best from me.  Sometimes I think she had eyes everywhere because she always knew what I was up to.  I was the kind of child that needed that because I could easily have gotten into trouble without her watching out for me.

My mother was a farmer’s wife.  She served big, farmer’s meals fresh from the garden and our own chickens and beef and pork. She was a good helper for my dad.  She washed the eggs(hundreds of them) and took some to sell at the grocery store.  She took care of all the dogs and cats we kids came up with.  She washed clothes on a wringer washer and hung them out to dry summer or winter.  She kept a clean house(cleaner than mine.)  She had a beautiful flower garden, some of the flowers in my garden being from her garden.  She kept six children clean and neat and took us to Sunday school and church years before my daddy was saved and became active in church.   She taught Sunday school for many years and made the children felt stockings every year and filled them with candy and the gingerbread men she would bake and decorate.  Every morning of her life she got up hours before the rest of the family and read her Bible and then a library book and took her bath, because once we kids awoke, she had no time for herself.  She never complained but did what she had to do.

My mother was a great cook and baker. Every Saturday was baking day and she would bake cakes and pies enough to last the rest of the week.  She cut up the chickens Daddy would kill and pluck and cut them up on Saturday and on Sunday morning she would fry them before church so that after church we would have a big chicken dinner with all the trimmings.

My mother taught me the love of reading.  She took us kids to the library every two weeks and we would load up on books and bring them home and devour them before we went back again to get some more.  Mother always had a book she was reading.  She read her Bible every single day.  She and Daddy gave me my first Bible.  I loved reading my little Bible and I memorized many verses as I was growing up.  The one hundredth Psalm is my favorite because I have always loved “making a joyful noise.”

My mother took me to the revival where I was saved as a twelve year old.  I will always be grateful to her that she thought it was important enough for we children to be in church every Sunday.   I love going to church now and being with those who love God and worship Him.   It’s my mother’s greatest legacy to me.

My mother was a faithful wife who loved my daddy with all her heart. When he passed away, something went out of her.  She had to have surgery on her back just about a week after daddy’s funeral and went into a nursing home where she died a few years later.  She missed my daddy every day for the rest of her life.  They are together in heaven now and happy as can be, I am assured.

I never thanked my mother enough for what she did for me.  I hope she knows how much I appreciated her.  I look forward to that day when I can throw my arms around her and say, “Thank you, Mom, I love you.”  If your mother is living today, thank her for all she has done for you.  You only get one mother and she would love to hear that you love her.  That’s all we mothers really want.  God bless all mothers today.  Happy Mother’s Day.  Bye.

 

 

 

Rhubarb Pie

David’s grandmother made the best  rhubarb pie of anyone I know.  She had a large patch of rhubarb growing right behind her outhouse.  We always joked that is why it always grew so big.  Maybe so.

Anyway, a dear lady asked for my rhubarb recipe, so I thought I would share it with all of you should you be fortunate enough to come across a patch of rhubarb or some in the store.

Make your favorite pie crust.  I use lard.  I have tried other shortenings but the crusts were never as good.  Put one crust in the bottom of your pie pan.  Heap a large mound of rhubarb in the pan. (Once David and I ordered rhubarb pie at a restaurant and we could not find the rhubarb in it.  True story.)  I like to know I am eating a rhubarb pie so heap it high.  It will settle as it bakes.  Pour on the sugar.  Just when you think you haven’t put on enough sugar, add some more.  I use about one and a half cups for my pie and it still is a little tart, which we like.  If you want it sweeter, add another half cup or so of sugar.  Sprinkle a couple or three tablespoons of flour over the rhubarb for a thickener.  I actually forgot to do this with my last pie and it still was okay.  Dot it with butter and put on the top crust.  Bake in a 425 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes.  Start watching it after 40 minutes. You don’t want to burn your crust.   This pie is guaranteed to be calorie and fat free!  Well, only if you don’t eat any.  But enjoy.  You only get to live this life once.  Bye.

Not Enough Time

Where did April go?  For that matter, where is May going on such a quick clip?  Slow down a little bit, May.  I would like to enjoy you for a while.

It’s been a very busy Spring, but in a good way.  Easter came and went and was a joyous day full of life and blessing and fun.

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My older son gave me these tulips which I have already planted in the garden.

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My daughter and son-in-law gave me these flowers.  They lasted almost two weeks.

Then I looked up and the month was gone and I still hadn’t planted many of my flowers.  I’ve been collecting flowers as I see them from here, there and beyond.  I seem to have a color scheme going which makes me happy.   I went up to Smith’s Gardens in Taylorsville this morning and got my flower fix for the day.  If you have never been to this cute little shop, you should go there sometime.  So many cute garden ideas and so many beautiful flowers and they are healthy and well kept unlike the flowers you find at certain stores I will not mention, but there is flowercide going on at some stores because their flowers are dying from thirst.

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Lots of lavenders with some pink thrown in.

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More lavenders and a pink hydrangea with some bright yellow Asiatic lilies for spark.  I am waiting for the stone mason to do our pillars before I plant around the porch.

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The stone came yesterday and maybe by the weekend we will have our porch completed.   Well, except for all the staining I have to do.  I did get the railings stained this week and I love the color I finally picked.  DSCN7828

Our snowball bush which came from David’s Grandmother’s garden is full of flowers ready to pop.  I wish she could see it.  Maybe she can.

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We have had some beautiful Spring sunsets.  The days go so quickly.  This life is but a whisper and then, it is gone, so make the most of each day.

I  bought some more fabric online this week.  This is absolutely, positively the last fabric I am going to buy until Fall, or maybe not!   Really, I think the website, Fabric.com is stalking me because every time I get online on certain pages there are pictures of fabric from their website luring me back to look at more.

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I’ve had my eye on this fabric for quite some time and finally thought I had better get some before it’s all gone.  I love it and plan to make a skirt from it.

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Another view of it.

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Polka dot blouse, anyone?  I think that is what I will use this for.

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I can’t say what I am using this for, but I have plans.

Back to flowers.  I can’t not show you a few of the plants I have ready to stick in the ground.

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I found this columbine at Rural King.  When I went back to get another one, they were already all gone.  Get it when you see it or it’s gone.  At least that’s what always seems to happen to me.

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Digitalis or Foxglove.  This is a perennial and I think it seeds itself, so I am hoping for lots of these in the garden in the years to come.

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This is a picture on a box of  hollyhock roots I bought.  Mom always had hollyhocks by her bedroom window.  It’s an old fashion flower that looks good in a cottage garden which is what I am trying to plant.

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A miniature fir tree that was just too cute to leave behind.

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The lilacs came and went just like that.  Poof.  I barely had time to cut a bouquet to bring into the house.

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I feel like I just wrote about rhubarb, but it’s been a year and we have it coming up again and I made the first pie.  It didn’t last long.

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I had never made a sugar cream pie, but it sounded good so I made one of those too.  An older lady, in the church I went to when I was a girl, made the best sugar cream pies in town.  When there was a bake sale, everyone came early in hopes of getting one of her pies.  I have her recipe, but this isn’t it as she used real cream and I used evaported milk because that was all I had on hand at the time.  My pie didn’t turn out half bad.

Had to stop for a few minutes.  Sand being delivered for the pillars.  Their cart wouldn’t raise up because their battery had died, so I had to hunt up some jumper cables.  Grandkids, there’s a pile of sand in our drive right now that you would love to play in.

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I will leave you with a picture of our flowering crap tree that is always beautiful.  It’s flowers are all gone and David and I saw worm bags on it.  He’s going to take a blow torch to them.  We have silk worms everywhere.  Or at least, that is what we call them. They creep me out because they show up everywhere and rise up like little snakes.  Ugh. Bye.

 

 

 

Onomatopoeia

I always loved English and grammar in school.  I loved diagramming sentences and using words.  I loved writing essays and making up stories.  In second grade I was asked to read one of my stories at a PTA meeting.  It was about an apple and how it felt living in a tree and getting picked and made into applesauce.    I guess I had a pretty well developed imagination even then. I also loved reading and was asked to read a passage of the Bible,yes, the Bible at another PTA meeting.  My parents and brothers coached me heavily on this one because one of the sentences I had to read was “all Hail to the King.”   I kept saying all hell to the king and my parents and brothers would cringe and tell me to say it differently.  I was little and didn’t understand exactly what I was doing wrong, but I think I read it correctly at the time because I didn’t hear any more about it.  I am sure my parents were sweating in the audience waiting for me to read that sentence!

One day in English class my teacher introduced a new word.  Onomatopoeia, pronounced Onamatepeea(why wasn’t it spelled that way?)    I said it over and over to myself.  It rolled off my tongue like honey.  I loved the word.  You would never guess its meaning unless someone told you.  For years, I got it mixed up with alliteration for some reason.  What wonderful things words are.  Alliteration.  Boom, pop, boing.  Onomatopoeia.   Onomatopoeia, the formation of a word by imitation of a sound.  How many words can you think of that do that?  Honk, ding, dong, roar, shh, hiss, bang, zing, cluck, cheep.  It’s a wonderful word and a wonderful meaning.  It’s been on my mind the past few weeks as the carpenters’ tools go bang, buzz, and whir.

Here’s to wonderful words and the wisdom to want to write them.  Alliteration. Bye.