Author Archives: Snickelfritz

About Snickelfritz

I am a wife, mother, grandmother, quilter, walker, reader, gardener, painter, knitter and Jill of many trades. I have two of the sweetest Labs and a wonderful husband who aides me in my addiction to fabric.

Requiem for a Maple Tree Part 2

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It finally happened. They came and cut the big maple down this week. When I got the phone call they were coming, I almost felt like I had heard of someone’s death and that night all I could think about was that the next day the big maple would be gone.

We have lived under the shade of the big maple for decades. In the Summer when it would be hot outside, the big maple would shade the north side of the house and make the house a little cooler. In the Autumn, the big maple would drop its leaves and allow the sun to shine on our house to give a little warmth.

I took a final picture of the tree. It looked so beautiful against the blue sky.

My last view of the tree through our kitchen window.

Then it began. The saw began its cutting of the smaller branches first.

Each branch was carefully lowered down with a rope.

One by one the branches came down.

The smaller branches were put into this industrial strength chipper shredder. Wow, I wish I had one one these. David does not think it would be a good idea for me to have this for a playtoy.

Then the big branches were cut.

The big maple was a mere skeleton of itself.

Finally it was down to the large logs.

Logs too big to lift. These will have to be split.

I’m not sure what this tool is called, but it was used to move the large logs. These logs are still beside our house. David has his work cut out for him. The men asked me if we had a log splitter and I said, “Yes, my husband.”

We ended up with a lot of fire wood.

Now the yard is bare on the north side of our house. Next Spring I plan to plant a whole new perennial garden with lots of fall color. Sumac, Japanese maples that come in all shades of reds, oranges and yellows, hydrangeas, maybe a fir or two. Color will return to the yard by next Autumn. And I won’t have to mow there any longer.

I will leave you with a poem I found online about cutting down a tree. It’s kind of how I feel.

Tree I was

That shed its leaves

In winter to let

Sunshine enter

Your home

To brighten life.

Tree I was

That grew leaves

To provide shade

In hot Summer

To cool your home

Providing comfort.

Tree I was

Where birds made

Nests and lived

And you said

How lovely it is

This lovely tree.

Yet you forgot all

And didn’t hesitate

To cut me and slice

For the timber needed

To build your

Vacation home.

Tree I was

That lived a while

Tree I was

Tree no more.

Tirupathi Chandrupatia (2014)

Except for cutting down the tree for a vacation home, that’s my sentiments exactly. Here’s to beautiful trees. May there be more of them. Bye.

Eating is Elementary

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Today David and I drove over to Bloomington to our grandsons’ school to eat lunch with them. One is a kindergartner and the other is a first grader.

We stopped at McDonald’s and bought the first Happy Meal with Gogurt and chocolate milk and headed to the school. After signing in and finding the cafeteria, we sat down and waited for the first grandson to come in. Suddenly here came little children talking and laughing with some carrying their lunch boxes. One little boy noticed the Happy Meal and proceeded to tell us he had the toy that was on the outside of the box. Evidently he thought we really ought to know it because he came back and told us again that he had that toy.

Finally our grandson came in and sat with us. His friends sat all around. His little friends were very friendly and talkative and so cute. Foster talked about going to Book Fair today where the children could buy their own books. We spent thirty minutes with him and then they all had to pack up and follow their teacher out. So with a big hug and kiss we said good-bye. Then David had to make a dash to McDonald’s again to get our second grandson his Happy Meal with Gogurt and chocolate milk while I sat waiting for Tristan. Suddenly, a little boy came up to me and said, “You have my seat.” I looked at him and our empty table and he said again, “I have to sit where you are sitting.” The woman who was working came over and said she forgot that I was sitting in this boy’s assigned seat. I guess he had gotten in trouble some time and had been told exactly where to sit. Well, I just moved then. I found out later his name was Mao-Mao. Another little boy quietly walked over until he was across from me, coughed on me and then quietly went back to his seat. I don’t know what that was all about, but I do seem to attract children with colds who like to sneeze and cough on me. In Sunday school I have had children sneeze directly into my face. I tell David that day don’t be surprised if I get sick.

I watched the cafeteria workers while I waited. There was one woman and one man who were in charge of cleaning the tables and floor before the next groups came in. I was fascinated how quickly and efficiently they worked. The woman washed down all the tables and seats with the man coming behind with a sweeper cleaning up under the tables. The tables could be raised in the middle to be easily cleaned under. I told them I was impressed. By the time the next groups came in, the cafeteria looked like no one had eaten there.

David got back with the Happy Meal with Gogurt and chocolate milk just as Tristan’s class was coming in from the playground. The children all smelled like the outdoors. Like sunshine and fresh air. They all had worked up appetites. David had gotten an extra Happy Meal because I wanted a plain hamburger so I gave my Gogurt and toy to Tristan. He gobbled everything up lickety split. His friends were very friendly. One little boy came up to me and pointed to my grandson and said, “He doesn’t like me.” I turned to Tristan and said, “You like him, don’t you?’ and he said, “yes.” I then looked at the little boy and told him we liked everybody. That seemed to satisfy him and he kept coming up to me to talk.

It was a fun time watching the children interact and being with our grandsons.

After we left, we went to the daycare where our daughter teaches. She has a nice little class of four year olds and they were eating their lunches. Afterward, they all had their very own cots on which they were to nap or lay quietly and look at books. We left so they could take their naps.

We headed to the orchard and got some apples, some frozen rhubarb for pies and apple cider.

When we got home we started moving the wood from the old maple tree that was cut down yesterday. I will write about it my next blog. Our big, beautiful maple tree is no more. We have several ricks of wood. Much of it has to be split before we can even move it. I love being outdoors loading firewood. We built a campfire, after we were finished stacking wood for the time being, and we sat beside it and rested after a very busy day.

Eat at an elementary school one day. It’s a fun experience. Bye.

Impossible

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Once upon a time a little baby girl was born. She was simply the most beautiful baby girl in all the world with dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was the apple of her mother and daddy’s eyes and her grandparents thought the world of her.

Then one day, or at least it seemed like a day, the little baby grew up. She became a beautiful teen-ager. Every time her grandparents would see her it seemed she had grown taller. It seemed impossible that the little baby was now this young woman.

Now the girl sings, dances, write books and gets good grades in school. This week she performed in Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

David and I attended the musical Friday night. It was amazing.

Our granddaughter was one of the townspeople in the musical. Isn’t she lovely?

One of her friends did her hair for the show.

There were lots of curls in the back. So pretty.

She sang.

She stared at the handsome prince.

She danced with him.

The clock struck twelve and the ball was over for Cinderella.

But we all know how it ended. Cinderella ended up with her handsome prince.

Then it was time to take a bow. I was so proud of our granddaughter.

The cast was amazing. I can seriously say I have seen professional musicals that weren’t as good as this one was. The only glitch that night was that the king’s microphone batteries died, but it was taken care of and became part of the act.

Afterward I had to get a picture with the “star” of the show. When did she become taller than me?

Her brothers were there. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day they are in a play or musical.

It was a grand night. It’s possible that a tiny baby can grow up to be a beautiful young lady. Impossible things are happening every day! Bye.

Weight

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I have never been what you would call skinny, although when I look at younger pictures of myself, I look pretty slim for me. I have even had friends tell me I was tiny, although I think that is an exaggeration. Funny, though, even then I always felt fat. We women do that to ourselves, don’t we?

I have done so many diets through the years. I tried the Adkins diet until I almost destroyed my kidneys and my doctor ordered me to get off it. I did lose inches on that diet, but the thing about it is, you gain the weight back and sometimes even more. It is not a healthy diet.

When I lived in Richmond years ago, a friend and I took a weight loss class at the YMCA once a week for a time. We got recipes that included cauliflower pudding?! That was awful. There were some tuna recipes that weren’t too bad. Neither of us lost any weight.

When we moved down here I took an exercise class and learned to run. I did not like running and still don’t. I did finally run a mile, but that is as far as I have ever run. I don’t run anymore.

I gained weight with each baby and it became harder and harder to take it off. Besides that, I love to eat and have a hearty appetite. My mother was such a good cook that I always had good food to eat while growing up. I was very active and spent most of my time outdoors playing so I stayed pretty slim.

Then I married and had to cook for a family and was always in the kitchen with food. I cooked like my mother. Foods that were high calorie and high in fat. Not good for someone who puts on weight easily. But I stayed relatively slim until I hit the big “M.”

I joined an exercise club that David had given to me as a gift for Christmas because I had asked for it. David has never said anything about my weight. He loves me thick or thin as I love him. He’s had his issues with weight also. I will have to tell you some time about the time when he was in the National Guard and he went away on his two week training sort of chunky and came back looking very thin and I thought something was the matter with him. He had just decided to lose weight and cut down on eating while in the woods and the weight dropped off. That’s what happens when men diet. It’s so easy for them, it seems.

Anyway, I went to that exercise place for weeks and exercised like mad and guess what? I lost not one pound and only three quarters of an inch on my waist. I quit. From that day I decided I was not going to be a slave of the scale any longer. I have not weighed myself since that day and when I get weighed at the doctor’s office, I don’t look and tell the nurse not to tell me my weight because I don’t really care. You don’t know how freeing it is when you aren’t thinking about food all the time and you aren’t fretting over that pound or two you gained. I never worry about my weight any more. It’s been decades and I still don’t have a clue how much I weigh. Honest. Cross my heart.

Weight came on and didn’t go off. Then, something happened to my metabolism a couple of years ago and I started to lose weight for no reason at all. I wasn’t sick, I just didn’t feel like eating much and I lost pant sizes it seemed overnight. When I went to my regular doctor’s visit, he told me I had lost eighty pounds. Eighty pounds!!!!!!!! That’s a whole kid. He asked me how I did it and I really couldn’t tell him. I still didn’t ask him how much I weighed. I had begun the 10,000 steps a day walk routine and I believe that is how it happened. That is all I could think of.

I began to have people ask me how I lost weight and I couldn’t tell them. It was really weird. I had people commenting to me about how little I was. For some strange reason that made me a little disturbed. I didn’t like the attention. I was still the same person. I didn’t even care that much that I had lost weight other than I got to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe.

I walked daily and kept the weight off. Then I pulled a muscle in my leg and could barely walk a mile. I got lazy then and didn’t walk as much as I had been. I had been walking five miles a day several times a week. Now I have had to work up to three miles a day again because I am getting ready to walk a 5K on Thanksgiving Day. I have walked two 5Ks this year.

I gained some of the weight back although not as much as I was and now I eat only two meals a day. Breakfast and one when David gets home. I hope when I go back to the doctor in March that he will say I have lost weight again. I won’t weigh myself every day though. I will never do that.

My downfall is that I like sweets. David and I are both sweetaholics. I could just eat sweets every day and be happy, but that wouldn’t be healthy, would it? So I try to eat a salad every single day and lots of vegetable.

Do you struggle with weight? Don’t allow it to become your whole world. There is so much to enjoy in this world besides worrying about how other people think of us. I have learned that the people who like me like me for myself not because I weigh a certain weight. I can honestly say, I never look at a person and thought, wow, they are overweight. In fact, I generally don’t even see if someone is overweight if they are a friend of mine. Life is way too short to judge people by their weight. A good heart can be enveloped in some fat and that’s okay with me.

My daddy was thin all his life and he still died of heart disease. I think it’s hereditary, but so far, I have a really healthy heart. I took a stress test years ago and passed it with flying colors.

What I am trying to say in this long commentary is that weight is not all that important in the scheme of things. If you are grossly overweight, it might be good for you to lose some pounds for your health, but I see too many women worrying about a pound or two they have gained. There are whole industries playing on women’s insecurities. I refuse to play their game.

If you disagree with me, that’s okay too. That’s what makes us all different.

Now I think I will go eat a piece of that pineapple upside down biscuit I made the other day. Bye.

Bees and Honey

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I am going to include another Hoosier Girl story from my past, but before I do I would like to show a few pictures of the goings on at our house.

I still commune with my chooks although they haven’t been getting as much attention lately as I have had many things to do. See Penninah and Jemima at my feet? They stand there and chatter to me looking to see if I have brought any treats. All I had in my pocket this day was a dog biscuit so I gave it to them.

Of course when one hen gets something, they all gather to get their own treats.

I am Queen over all I survey and these are my subjects! Ha. You should be here to hear the clucking and talking they do when I am around. I don’t know if they are happy to see me or wish I would get out of there so they can go about their business.

This is Ada, the Australorp. Isn’t she beautiful? You can’t see in the picture, but she has the most beautiful teal feathers among the black ones. She has started to squat, as chickens who are getting ready to lay will do. I think she may have already begun to lay as I am finding some very small eggs in the nests.

Beautiful Abigail, the Silver Laced Wyndotte. She is gorgeous and I think she knows it. She is the biggest hen now. David says she looks like a nice roaster and I just say, “Not going to happen.” I don’t think she is laying yet.

Here is a normal size egg next to a new layer egg. In time the hen will lay bigger eggs, but she’s just a beginner. Their eggs still taste good. I have noticed the yolks are almost orange now. I have fed them the last of the marigolds and I think that is why.

Molly Marshmallow continues to grow. She is a very active little puppy. She drags up all kinds of things onto our back deck. She brought a huge board with a nail in it the other day and I was afraid she was deconstructing one of our buildings, but David said it was just a piece of wood she had found behind the shed. Nothing would surprise me with this dog.

She is so sweet and wants attention all the time. Still working on that nipping. See those teeth? They are like little razors and have drawn blood. Belle, in the background, has felt those teeth a few times and Molly gets a good nip back sending her whining.

When the weather starts to get cooler, I have the urge to bake. This is pineapple upside down biscuit. It is delicious. If you were here, I would give you a piece.

I cannot keep these in the house and it is not because I eat them. David is hooked on these and eats them all. I don’t really like them because I think they taste like paraffin. He has gone through three bags, but I’m not saying anything.

Now for my story. Remember, these are stories from my childhood and it is how I remember them. My brothers and sister may remember things differently, but this is my story and I’m sticking to it.

Bees and Honey

By Kate Pentecost Craig

Katie woke up to a long, warm Summer day ahead of her. She stretched in bed and lay quietly for a few minutes listening to the noises of the awakening house. Mommy had been up for hours. She always got up at 5 o’clock to read her Bible and drink her morning cup of coffee in peace before all the children came running down the stairs. Katie always wanted to be able to get up that early too, but Mommy discouraged her from doing so.

Now Katie got out of bed and pulled on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. She took the stair steps two at a time and jumped off the last two steps. “Good morning,” Mommy said to her, “What do you want for breakfast?” Katie had been fixing her own breakfast since she started school. It was almost always the same, tea and toast spread with peanut butter or tea and cinnamon toast. Sometimes she would have a glass of chocolate milk. While she was eating, Daddy came in from the barn. After washing his hands and sitting down at his place at the head of the table, Mommy poured him a cup of coffee and placed half a grapefruit in front of him and two slices of toast. Daddy almost always had the same breakfast too!

“What are you going to do today, Snicklefritz?”(Daddy’s pet name for Katie) Daddy asked.

“Play!” said Katie as she jumped off her chair and ran out the kitchen door. Once outside the whole big world waited to be explored. Katie began to run out to the the side yard when she saw a strange sight on the clothesline. A big black mass of moving objects hung suspended on Mommy’s clothesline. Bees were flying around this mass. Katie ran laughing right into the swarming bees. Back and forth she ran flailing her arms and hitting the flying insects. Not one stung her. She then ran into the house yelling, “Come look and see what is on the clothesline.”

Mommy and Daddy came out the back door while Katie made a dash toward the roiling mass again, but Daddy called her to get back to him. “Those are swarming bees,” said Daddy. “There must be a queen bee in there. They were too busy swarming to bother stinging you, but you are a very lucky little girl.” Katie wanted so much to run among the bees again, but she was not allowed. Her brothers came out to look at the swarm. It was a very strange sight to see so many bees piled on top of each other. In the center of the mass somewhere was the queen bee.

Daddy went back inside to call a man he knew who kept beehives and sold honey. soon the man arrived to collect the bees. He put on a big hat with a mesh face protector. He wore long sleeves and gloves. He had one of his wooden hives with him. Carefully he put the mass of been into the hive and closed the lid. “Your little girl was very lucky the bees were swarming,” said the man. “She could have been very badly stung.” Katie hung her head, but inside her mind she was thinking about how much fun it had been to run through all those bees!

Several weeks later the man came back to their house bringing a gift. He had jars of fresh honey, some of them with the comb in them. Katie stuck her fingers into one of the jars and pulled out a piece of the honeycomb. The sweet golden honey dripped from it. She stuck it in her mouth and chewed the delicious sweet comb. When she had sucked all the honey from it, she threw the comb away. She was glad the bees had chosen their yard in which to swarm and she was glad to have some of their sweet honey to eat all summer long on her toast and ice cream.

Hope you have a wonderful day. And don’t get stung by any bees! Bye.

The Wind Blows

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It’s been a windy day. The leaves are falling rapidly from the trees. I sit on our porch swing listening to the leaves and seeds clattering on the metal roof. A tiny piece of plastic floats on the air like a kite and settles on the road. The wind blows the tablecloth on the table on our porch.

My flowers are giving their last hurrah as frost will be coming very soon. Jack Frost is late this year as he has usually arrived by now. I gathered flower seeds today to plant next Spring.

It’s time to clean up the yard for winter. David blew leaves the other day and you can’t even tell it now. I keep looking at the big maple tree in our side yard wondering what day the tree men will come and cut it down.

I tried to capture a picture of the falling leaves. Gusts of wind would come and the leaves would whirl and twirl through the air.

Coming to rest on the ground. It’s a magical time of beauty and endings. But a time of beginnings also. So much to look forward to. Someone told me once that Autumn made them sad. I didn’t know why she felt that way unless she missed her children going off to school. I love that I live where the seasons change. Where one season you wear heavy coats and gloves and hats and drink hot chocolate and bundle in blankets. Where another season you feel a new birth as the earth wakes up and planting time is here and everything smells of earth and rain and flowers blooming. Another season where your skin gets hot in the afternoon sun and your skin tans to a warm glow. The garden is lush and you pick that first tomato out of the garden and eat it right there where you are standing and let the juice run down your chin. Then my favorite season, Autumn. Smells of apples and wood burning and good spicy things cooking on the stove. I find joy in every season. Each one is a blessing.

I love the way the light comes in the windows at this time of year.

By the way, this is the butler’s table I was painting the other day. I am so happy with how it turned out and it looks great in my girly room.

I get out all my Fall magazines and read them. I save a lot magazines from year to year if I especially like them.

Everywhere I look I see a picture.

A foggy morning. I love foggy mornings now that I don’t have to get out in them.

I made my own leaf garland. Very simple with fabric and Heat and Bond and string.

This is what greets you at our front door. I painted the old witch picture several years ago. I go through stages where I like to paint pictures or anything else.

Right now I am painting a paint by numbers picture I bought years ago. I thought I had better get it finished before all the paints dry up. I have already found one that did. If I have a couple of minutes I will sit down and paint a couple of numbers. This is not like the pictures I use to do when I was younger. Every Christmas I would get a color by number set that had colored pencils instead of paints. They were very simple pictures of just a few colors. This one I am doing now calls for mixing colors and doing different things with the paint that I have never done before. Plus some of the things to paint are so tiny I need a magnifying glass. But I am determined to finish it.

This is what it is suppose to look like when it’s finished. See the two labs in the water? I can barely see the numbers to paint them.

On a road trip the other day there were beautiful sights to see everywhere. Little towns with old houses decorated for the season. This day we were going up to visit my sister. She fell and shattered a bone in her arm and will have to stay at a rehabilitation center for a couple of months until her arm is healed. Please say a prayer for her and for a quick recovery. We neither one are getting any younger and it takes longer to heal so I would appreciate your sending a word to God.

I kept asking David to slow down so that I could take pictures. The route we took had such pretty scenery and old houses.

On our way home we saw some antique stores, but didn’t stop at many.

This one looked so interesting, but it was closed that day. We will have to go back.

What do you see out your windows this beautiful season? Bye.

What I am Reading

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A couple of years back, someone asked me if I read books. I immediately knew exactly how Sarah Palin felt when she was asked that inane question by a silly so-called journalist who evidently hadn’t done her homework. Of course she reads. How else could she have ever become a governor of a state? It was a question posed to make her look stupid, but she is still around and the so-called journalist isn’t. I am sure Sarah Palin felt that was an insulting question because men politicians are never asked a question like that. Okay, that’s all the politics for the day. Anyway, when I was asked that question I felt slightly insulted and amazed that there was someone who knew me and didn’t know I loved to read. But I nicely told this person, “yes, I do read.”

I may look like a dumb blonde, and some may think so, but I read incessantly. I have to have a book to read at all times. I read magazines, books, and Bible studies. I read several blogs that are very interesting. There are many talented writers out there who have their little blogs and should be writing novels, I’m telling you.

Anyway, yes, I do read books and here is what is on my bedside table right now.

A wonderful daily devotional that makes one feel that Jesus is actually writing to them. It seems each day, the subject covered fits what I am going through at that particular moment.

Ahh, Pride and Prejudice. I have had this little paperback book for ages. I think I got it at a garage sale once. I kept telling myself I should read it. I have seen many adaptions of the book in movies. The one with Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett was kind of silly, I thought. But Lawrence Olivier was wonderful as he always was and so handsome as Mr. Darcy. Then there was the nightmare that was Keira Knightly as Elizabeth that was made in the last few years. I don’t even remember the Mr. Darcy in that version. I am sorry, but I didn’t like that version at all. Maybe it was because I was spoiled by the best version ever. My very favorite Elizabeth was Jennifer Ehle in A and E’s adaptation. And who could forget Colin Firth? Sigh. He is the only Mr. Darcy as far as I am concerned. I have that version on tape and think I will watch it soon again. I finally read the book and just loved it. I could see Elizabeth(Jennifer Ehle) and Mr. Darcy(Colin Firth) so vividly in my mind’s eye.

The Reader’s Digest. My mother use to take it for years and I took it for years also. I think I got this particular book at an antique store where I buy a lot of my books now. I am reading Fannie Flagg’s “Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.” I read Norah Robert’s “River’s End” years ago. Both very good.

Our church has a Christian book library and I get a book out of there once in a while and this is the one I am reading now.

Gladys Tabor’s book, “Stillmeadow Calendar.” Ms. Tabor use to write for Woman’s Day, I think, and I would read her articles in my mother’s magazine. She wrote homey things about keeping house and a farm and doing all the things that come with that. I found this book at an antique store and read a little bit from it once in a while.

Jan Karon has a new book out about Mitford, hurrah, hurray. If you have not read any of her books about the little southern town of Mitford and Father Tim, you have missed something wonderful. I have read the whole series three times through and will probably one day read them again as they are so good. It’s been a while since Ms. Karon has written about Mitford and I cannot wait to get into this one. We visited the town of Blowing Rock, North Carolina last fall, which I wrote about in my blog. The books were based on a town just like Blowing Rock where Ms. Karon lived for a time.

There is always a book on my Kindle. I love my Kindle because I can read in the middle of the night without turning any lights on and waking David.

We did some antiquing Saturday and among the things I bought were some more books.

Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought this book would be nice to read. I saw the made for tv movie from it and it was so sad, but good.

Some James Patterson’s books I like and some, not so much. I hope this will be a good one.

Since I am training yet another dog, I thought I could use a refresher course in dog training and bought this book cheap.

I have read many of Anne Rivers Siddons’ books, but I had not seen this one before. It’s one of her earlier books so I am glad I found it. It’s about the south and how it changed over time. I love books about the south. I would have made a great southern belle. Yet, I would love to live in Alaska. Call me crazy.

Yes, I love to read. I hope you do too. Bye.

Requiem for a Maple Tree

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When we first moved to this house, there were several large, leafy trees in our yard. A huge old elm tree was in the front yard where our younger son built a tree house. There was another medium size maple that our daughter liked to climb. In the back yard was a big maple tree and a tall tulip poplar. In our side yard was a medium size maple tree. There were also several red bud trees. So many that every year I pull up dozens of new red buds. Through the thirty-seven years we have lived here, the maple has tripled in height and has taken over the whole side yard. When I wash dishes, I like to look at that tree where birds nest. In the Autumn it is especially beautiful with is bright orange-red leaves.

Through the years we have had to cut down most of the large trees because of safety or because we wanted a garden and the lawn was too shady. This Autumn the old maple in the side yard is going to be cut down. I hate to see trees cut down. It takes so many years for a tree to get so big and I know with any tree we plant now, I won’t see it grow into its full majesty. But this particular tree has become a hazard to our house. We have cut it back several times from the house, but now it poses a danger because it is losing branches and David is afraid one good storm and we would have the tree on our house. I talked to a tree man this week. In two or three weeks they will come with their saws and they will cut down the beautiful maple and I will feel sadness in my heart.

We have always planted two or three trees to replace any tree we have cut down. We try to plant trees that won’t get so big and become a danger to the house. I will plant two or three trees in our side yard next Spring. I want trees that will be bright and colorful in the Fall. I am thinking Japanese Maples because they don’t get too tall and come in many colors. I want trees that I don’t have to rake bushels of leaves every Autumn.

Maples are so beautiful, but cause a lot of work.

I am taking lots of pictures because the Maple is especially beautiful this year. Maybe it knows this is its last grand showing.

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair.

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer(1914)

Here is what meets me every time I go outside.

Oh, the excitement when anyone comes out to feed them, play with them or walk them. I don’t walk Bonnie anymore as she can’t go very far and besides, I can’t get her past the cars because she loves car rides.

If they aren’t peeking in the back door they are doing this…

Total relaxation. Molly is getting big. She gained ten pounds in the last month. She will weigh eighty to one hundred pounds when she is grown. She is learning to walk well with me although we are still working on the nipping at the heels.

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Autumn weather and all the beautiful trees. Bye.

Lipstick

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Lipstick is one of the first cosmetics girls are allowed to use when they are growing up. At least it was that way when I was growing up. I couldn’t wait to get my first lipstick. I was in about the seventh grade when my mother allowed me to wear some to a dance. I felt so grown up.

I have had a love affair with lipstick ever since. I don’t wear much other makeup, just a little powder on my nose, but that’s it. Ever since seventh grade, I have used Covergirl makeup. It doesn’t have oils in it to clog your pores and washes off easily. Sometimes I will use their liquid foundation if I am not in a hurry, which I usually am. I love the smell of new powder makeup. Even if I don’t use it very much, I like to keep some in my purse.

Remember the first Parent Trap movie with Hayley Mills? If you are under fifty, you may not unless you have seen it on television. I loved the part where the one twin got to go to the camp dance and the other one didn’t and what she did to her twin who was at the dance. Anyway, Hayley Mill’s character was talking to a boy and said, ” I feel naked without my lipstick.” That is kind of how I feel when I am out in public and don’t have lipstick on. In case you wondered what the one twin did to her sister, she and her friends cut the back of her sister’s dress off while she was leaning against a railing and there she was with her underpants showing for all to see. A huge fight insued with all the food for the dance being knocked to the floor and the twins being banished from the camp to a cabin away from everyone else. If you haven’t seen this movie, I hope you can see it some time. Lindsey Lohan did a remake of the movie years later and I liked it just as well.

So I decided to gather all my lipsticks from around the house and in drawers and in my purses and see what I had. I was amazed at how many tubes I had.

This is what I had left after I threw a few away those that didn’t have much lipstick left in them.

My Covergirl lipsticks.

This has lipstick on one end and gloss on the other. Both applied with a wand. At least that’s what I think you call it.

One of these things.

I seem to tend toward the same colors. I have never worn bright red lipstick although I think it really looks good on some women.

My lipstick comes in all types of tubes.

I don’t really like the long, skinny tubes very well.

This tube fooled me at the store. I thought I was buying a stick of lipstick. Not so.

It was lip gloss. I use it, but I don’t prefer it.

These are my newest lipsticks. That bright pink one, I’m not so sure about. Sometimes I put two or three shades on my lips at a time and try to come up with a new shade. I just love lipstick. I even wear it sometimes when I take the dogs a walk. David will ask, “Why are you putting on lipstick just to walk the dog?” I don’t know why. My mother instilled in me when I was growing up that when you went out in public you tried to put your best foot forward. She was aghast when she would see young women with curlers in their hair when we were out shopping. You know the ones I am talking about? Back in the sixties girls rolled their hair on these huge rollers about the size of a can of vegetables. She told me to never wear curlers in my hair in public. That has stayed with me. I always change my clothes and put on lipstick before I go anywhere. If you see me out and about and I don’t have my lipstick on, something is wrong.

Now I see people in their pajamas in a store. Their pajamas!! I know I have written about this before, but really. Can’t you take the time to put on some clothes before you go out in public? I know pajamas are comfortable. Some days I don’t get out of mine until almost noon, but I don’t go out in them.

Anyway, I will continue my love affair with lipstick. When or if one day I am put in a nursing home there are two things I have told my daughter to be sure to take care of if I can’t do it. Tweeze the hairs off my face and apply lipstick for me. I hope the funeral director will put an especially pretty shade on me for my funeral. Seriously! Then when people stand around and say, “Doesn’t she look natural?” I will. Bye.

Antiquing and Grandparents’ Days

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My three grandchildren’s schools had grandparents’s days this week. I really love to go to them. This year we had a grandchild in elementary, middle school and high school. Grandparent’s day was held on three separate days which meant we had to get up at the crack of dawn and drive an hour to get to their school. We made it to the elementary school and the middle school, but we had substitutes go for our granddaughter’s day. We are sincerely thankful they did because after the two days we were completely exhausted. The first day was at our grandson’s school in the elementary building. He is in the third grade and we so enjoyed spending some time in his classroom, meeting his teacher and seeing what they do every day. As they go to a Christian school, they memorize Bible verses. My grandchildren memorize complete books of the Bible which puts me to shame. Anyway, I forgot my camera the first day so didn’t get any pictures. We took our third grader out to eat at Steak and Shake and had a nice visit with him. Wish I had gotten some pictures of him. He’s a sweetheart. The next day we went to the middle school.

This is our middle school grandson. He is the sweetest, kindest, funniest, person. I love being with him. He is taller than me now and getting taller every time I see him.

The kids in this school are so talented. This is the jazz band playing old songs we grandparents love.

The school and its students were so welcoming every day.

David was there for the donuts! How did we get in with all these “old’ people? Huh???

This is our grandson’s locker. Not too messy. We saw one girl’s locker that was totally organized, color coordinated and had a mini chandelier in it. Now that’s organization. I don’t think my locker looked this good when I was in school.

This boy is totally into sports. Of any kind. I especially like lacrosse. He’s playing basketball right now.

All the grandparents wrote something to their grandchild on a wall. We do that every year. We took our middle schooler out to eat and spent some time visiting with him. It was a nice two days. Two of our granddaughter’s relatives went to her grandparents’ day, but I told David I don’t care if it kills us, we are going to all of the three days next year. I really missed seeing my granddaughter. She’s the one who has had a book published and is writing another one. I am so proud of her. I’m proud of all my grandchildren. We have been blessed with the best.

Coming home yesterday we took the back roads. It certainly looks like Autumn now and the trees are changing rapidly. It was such a beautiful day even though it was raining. We ended up in Franklin, where we found five antique stores right together on one block. Of course we had to go through them all, although I must say my feet were killing me because I wore these cute boots that hadn’t been broken in and every step was painful, but I wasn’t going to miss an antique shop. We walked out on a porch of one of them and saw a raccoon in a cage. We asked the owners if they knew it was there and they didn’t, but they were trying to trap it because it had been causing some trouble. So they called animal control.

Of course, I found a few things I couldn’t do without. It’s becoming harder to do as my house is an antique store itself.

I found this wool rooster rug which I am using in front of my sink in the kitchen.

I am always looking for books. I love Mary Higgins Clark books and this is one by her daughter. Hope it’s as good as her mother’s books are.

My find of the day was this laundry tub and rack and a cute sign.

The sign isn’t old, but I liked it. Not sure how I will display the tub and rack, but I am sure I will find a place to put it. Hang a couple of towels on both ends. Instant nostalgia.

Our porch is all decorated for the season. I can’t wait to decorate it for Christmas.. We are going to have a Christmas tree on the porch this year.

Since I didn’t have enough pillows on our sofa, I made a new one.

I started it last year and I have been moving it around in my shop getting it out of the way and one day I decided to get it done and get it out of there. It goes well with my other Autumn pillows.

That pillow in the corner that you can hardly see was made by my mother years ago.

My new favorite candle scent right now. I could eat this candle it smells so good.

Some new little people have joined us.

This is Minnie.

This is Grandma Moses.

This is Scar the Pirate. I will be using them in my Sunday school class in the weeks ahead. How does a pirate fit into a Sunday school lesson? I will have to think about that, but I am sure I can come up with a good story. Bye.

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