Monthly Archives: May 2017

The Color Purple

My garden changes almost weekly, it seems.  In the Spring the first flowers to bloom are the daffodils in bright yellows and pinks.   Now we are in the purple faze of the garden.

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I think these are flowers that came back from wild seeds I planted last year.  Dame’s rocket or phlox, I’m not sure.

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Clematis on our back deck.  It was floundering on the back of my shop so we moved it last year and is thanking us with all these blooms this year.

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Salvia and Irises.  Two of my favorite flowers for needing very little care.

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Not all my irises are purple.  This picture does not do this beauty justice.

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Irises come back every year prettier than ever and they seem to double in size.  I have to divided these clumps this year.

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Dogs grow in my garden too.  Molly Marshmallow is free to roam all through my flowers.  I call the back garden the dogs’ garden.  Surprisingly, my flowers are none the worse for wear with the dogs rooting through them for moles.

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Yes, Molly, that’s why you always have a bone to chew so you won’t chew my flowers!

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Last week my upstairs bathroom looked like this.

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Now it’s beginning to take shape.  The quartz cabinet top and new faucet still need to be installed.  But, I get to take my tub baths again. Oh, how I missed them.

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Love these new lights. They are so bright I told the contractor I could get a tan while in my bathroom.

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Just wanted to share a wonderful book I just finished, The Practice House by Laura McNeal.  I hated for it to end.  It tells about the dust bowl in the 1930’s and one family’s troubles and triumphs during that time.  It’s also about an immigrant from Scotland who becomes an important part of this family in more ways than one.   I got it free on Kindle Unlimited.  I love Kindle Unlimited.  I have read books by authors I might not have ever read if I had to buy every book and I have found some pretty good authors.   I don’t know how they make money on their books by being on Kindle Unlimited, but I am glad they are.

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This weekend is Mother’s Day.  My children and I are not getting together this weekend, but are planning a trip to Cincinnati.  I have noticed on Mother’s Day, the restaurants are all so busy and you have to wait for seats and I thought we could celebrate another day.  After all, every day should be mother’s day.  We should show respect and love our mothers every day.  I miss my mother even though she has been gone many years.  We never stop needing our mothers.  Some days I wish I could talk to her and get her opinion on something.   I know I will see her one day and look forward to that.  I hope she knows I am sorry for all the problems I caused her when I was a teen-ager.  I was sort of a rebellious child and gave her a few grey hairs while I was growing up, but I always knew she loved me.   God bless you, Mom.  I miss you.  Happy Mother’s Day.

If you have a mother, have lost your mother, been a mother or had someone who mothered you, Happy Mother’s Day.  Bye.

 

 

To Curse or Not to Curse, That is the Question

I just came from reading a blog about Stephen Colbert and his vile tirade against President Trump and the affect of cursing on society.

I grew up in a family where my father cursed quite often, especially when he was working on a tractor and something would go wrong. His cursing stopped the day He became a Christian and was saved by Jesus Christ. I never heard him say another curse word.  My mother very occasionally said the S word when she was exceedingly distraught.  But cursing was not the norm in my family and still is not. But now, in our society, cursing has become the norm.  Words one would never have heard in polite society are regularly used by women as well as men.  Some people think it’s hip and quite cool to spew out vile words with gusto no matter who is around, children or women or men who don’t curse.

I find that cursing becoming the norm is a very sad thing about today’s society.  Many young people can barely carry on a conversation as it is and then to add curse words into a sentence pretty much makes them uncommunicable.   There are thousands of words in the English language that can be used to carry on a conversation.  Beautiful words that can express someone’s meaning without being crass or vile.

When I go to a movie, I want to hear conversations that are uplifting or intelligent. I don’t want to be a captive to having to listen to curse words spewing out of people’s mouths every other sentence.  Imagine Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn speaking like some of the actors and actresses do today.  I don’t think people would think as much of them if they had.   The actresses I hear today can be as vile as the men and I think that makes them look worse than the men.   They call it “edgy,” but I call it unnecessary.

I find it abhorrent that women think cursing is proper.  But I also find it abhorrent that men and teen-agers do also.   When I see a pretty girl and then I hear curse words coming from her mouth, she doesn’t look nearly as pretty to me any longer.  Girls that curse usually end up with men who do also and I wonder how men who curse regularly treat their women.   It’s just a thought.

So back to Stephen Colbert.  He hates President Trump.  So many think what he said on his show was funny and cool and mainstream and how everyone feels. They are wrong.  Millions of us out here believe he was vile and sounded unintelligent and was very disrespectful of our president.   If a so-called comedian like Stephen Colbert had said the same vile things about President Obama, the same people who are laughing now would think it was wrong.  I would think it was wrong then, too.    I hope we can get back to civil discourse and intelligent conversation once again.   Notice where the vileness is coming from and steer clear of it.  We don’t need that in our society.   We all need to be uplifted and we all need to speak to one another with civil tongues.

And that is my preaching for today.  Bye.

A Trip With My Fairy Godmother

A week ago last Sunday my fairy godmother, also known as Shannon, asked me if I would like to go to the Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Although I had several things I had planned for that weekend, everything went out the window when I got the chance to see my president.

So, a week ago Friday we set out to drive the nine hours to Harrisburg. Through Ohio, a tip of West Virginian and through the beautiful state of Pennsylvania, which is dotted all over with charming little towns and farms.   We talked the whole way.

The first night it was dark when we got to our motel and drove up the hill to it, but we could not find the entrance. We found a restaurant.  We drove around and around in what seemed like a maze, and finally found the entrance to the motel.  We got our room and got ready for bed. I think we were asleep almost before our heads hit the pillows.  We saw the sign the next morning that directed us to the motel entrance.  We had missed it last night in the dark.

Next morning we were up bright and early, ate breakfast and continued on our drive.  We arrived at our motel, checked in and went to find the coliseum in which the rally was to be held.  We were parked a way in the Netherlands, despite the fact there were parking spaces much closer to the front door of the coliseum.  We got into a line that wove around the parking lot and out into the street.  It looked like about a mile long or longer.

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At one time the sky looked ominous, but it never rained.

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We talked to the people around us and everyone seemed very happy to be there.

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Of course there were Trump signs everywhere.

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And Trump vans.

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This is my fairy godmother, Shannon. Thank you for making one of my dreams come true.  See the parking lot?  We are walking from the Netherlands.  Probably about a half mile just to get to the line.

There was a band playing and all kinds of things for sale.  I bought a red hat. Shannon bought a pink one.

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There was a Trump impersonator who was really rather good.

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This lady was in front of us and wanted a picture with the impersonator.  He was being interviewed by a news show and she got to be on the interview.  Lucky lady!

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From the back he looks exactly like Trump.

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I don’t know what this guy was selling, but his whole spiel was about the nice cardboard he was using.  He made us laugh.

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Finally, after an hour and a half, we got to the door. Secret servicemen and women were checking everyone’s bags. I panicked for a second when I remembered I had eyebrow tweezers in my purse.  One time while in a line to go up the Washington monument in D.C.,  my purse was checked and the lady who was checking found my eyebrow tweezers and told me they were not allowed up in the monument and she took them.   I told the man who was checking my purse I had tweezers inside and he said, “Well, take them out.”  I was so nervous, but I found them and he said I could keep them, but my friend had a tiny knife that was on her keychain taken away.  She had forgotten all about it.  We walked through a metal detector and we were finally inside!

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When we first sat down this is what we saw.  People gathering around the stage.

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Every seat was getting filled. Don’t ever allow the media to say few people show up for these rallies.  I have been there.  They are packed.

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Even up in the peanut gallery or the nosebleed seats as some like to call them

All Americans were represented.  Men, women, children, teen-agers, all races and happy to be there.  Little girls dressed in red, white and blue with sequined red shoes.  Red, white and blue everywhere.  Americana at its best.

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The media was all set up. To report the truth, I hope.

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Everyone who wanted one was given a sign.

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Signs were everywhere.

Then the dignitaries began to arrive.  Excitement rose.

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Kellyann Conway, President Trump’s spokeswoman was autographing signs.

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Flags abounded everywhere.

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We were not supposed to bring our own signs, but some people got them in anyway.

A prayer was said, the pledge of allegiance recited and the national anthem was sung.

Then there were several speeches.

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Men in blue subdued an over zealous man.  Ha.

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Vice President, Mike Pence gave a speech and introduced the president.

Then the man himself appeared and pandemonium broke out.  You would have thought a rock star had appeared.

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People crowded toward the dais.

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Then President Trump began to speak. Without notes. Without a teleprompter.  Everyone listened carefully.  Then at the end he read a poem called, “The Snake.”  It’s about a kind woman who took in a poor, sickly snake and nursed it to health and then to thank her, it turned around and bit her. It’s kind of an analogy of people who we allow into our country and then proceed to bomb us and  terrorize us.  It’s happening all over the world where people don’t appreciate the country that allows them in,  Sad, but true.  President Trump wants to protect us from those people.

I know some of you do not like President Trump.  There have been several presidents I was not happy with, the last one being the worst one we have ever had, in my opinion, but he is our president and should be respected at least for the office he holds.   We are blessed to live in a country where we can vote in our leaders, unlike those countries with dictators who never get a say.  I have voted in every election since I was able to vote and will continue until the day I die. It’s a great privilege we have.  It’s actually not a right put in the Constitution.   So never take it for granted.  Someone may come along one day and want to take that right away.

Then all too soon it was over.

President Trump left.

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It was one of the best times I have ever had.

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Then we all filed back out into the night.  It was a long day, but worth every second of it.  I would do it again.   I have seen two presidents now. The other one was president Reagan who I saw in a motorcade in New Orleans one Summer day when we were vacationing there.

I hope you get to see a president some day. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Am Tired

Had a perfectly wonderful weekend and I will tell you about it as soon as I get the pictures uploaded.   And I do have a ton of pictures.

I haven’t stopped for a breath since last Friday.  Usually when I go away for a few days, I have a day to unwind before going on, but not this week. The contractors come VERY early in the morning which means I have to be up to let them in.   There has been pounding and banging going on continuously and now a fan is running all day and all night to dry the new dry wall they put up.

Add to that I am painting all the woodwork for the bathroom so I have been working on that the past couple of days.  Sometimes when I hire someone to work on our house, I feel like I end up working almost as hard as they do!  I also have a barn door I am staining to replace a closet door.  It’s a big door and needs several coats of pre-stain, stain and polyurethane.

We also decided to move the chicks back with the hens this week which involved cleaning my shop because the dander and dust from the chicks was horrible.  Now they are still in their cage, but in the big coop to get the other chickens use to them.   I found my little lame chick, Miss Mary Foster, sitting on the roost the other day. I was so happy for her because with her bad leg, I never thought she would be able to roost with the other birds.  Go, Miss Mary Foster!

I still have not planted my flower pots even though I have had the flowers for two weeks.  Plus I have tomatoes and pumpkins to plant. I have rhubarb to cut to make rhubarb crunch.  It’s going to rain the next few days, so I won’t be doing much work outside.  So much to do and so little time.

We had a Bible conference this week at church and I got to hear a couple of the speakers.  Tonight, my neck, that I hurt a few weeks back, was really hurting so I laid down with a heating pad and fell asleep and David fell asleep in his Lazyboy and we missed church.   I felt bad about it, but I guess we both really needed the rest.

Next post there will be pictures, I promise and I will tell you about the fun weekend I had. Just a warning. It’s sort of political, so if you steer clear of politics, you may not want to read my next post.  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.   But I had a great time.  My fairy godmother made the weekend possible.  I have her picture, too.

I hope it’s sunny where you are and have a wonderful day.  Bye.