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.

Insomnia

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Do you ever suffer with insomnia? I have in the past. When I use to clean our church, I would go in at 2:00 in the morning and work until 8:00 or 9:00. Then I would come home and take a one or two hour nap and get up and go about my day. I did that for about ten years. I really messed up , my sleep schedule.

I have always liked the middle of the night when it is quiet and I can read or watch tv or knit or quilt without interruption. But right now, I want to sleep a full night and usually I have, but for the past couple of nights I have awakened a couple of hours after I have gone to sleep and I toss and turn. So I come downstairs and check Facebook, mail and the news on my computer and have the tv on in the background. I like the ID channel where they solve murders.

The reason I have been waking up is because the muscles in my feet and legs are screaming with pain. I could hardly get my knees to unbend without terrible pain. The reason for this is that I have taken up walking with a vengeance now. I am trying to walk at least three miles a day and am working for five or six. When I am up and walking around, my legs don’t hurt at all. If I could sleep standing up, maybe things would be better.

So, here I am at 12:49 a.m. typing on my computer whining about my aches and pains. I am sure that’s why you come here to read about my complaints. But I am determined to walk as much every day as I have time for. It takes me about an hour to walk four miles. Belle or Molly walk with me. On Thanksgiving day I am walking a 5K with family members before our big meal of the day. It sounds like fun. It’s for a food bank in our city and price of entering is five cans of food and ten dollars for a shirt. I love walking in 5Ks. There is a feeling of being in something together with others and having people walking with you that gives you the incentive to continue.

I could never run a 5K. Sometimes Molly wants to run when I am walking her and she drags me running behind her, but it jars my bones. I ran a little in my youth, but never liked it much. I also use to jump hurdles, but I’m not getting this behind over any hurdles ever again! Both my sons have run in marathons and I admire them for doing so, but I could never do that. We just had a big marathon in our city that involved a train across the tracks when runners were going over the railroad crossing There was a big brouhaha and people are angry with the train officials who had said the train would not run during the marathon. Marathon runners are serious about it and anything that ruins their time makes them a little upset and I don’t blame them after putting in all that training.

I am hoping I am not starting a marathon of sleepless nights. I am reading the book Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskill. It was shown on PBS with Judi Dench as a main character a couple of years ago. Maybe I’ll go back to bed and read myself to sleep. Hope you are not reading this at 1:00 in the morning unless you are on the other side of the world and it is daytime there right now.

Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite. Bye.

Finishing Up and Starting Again

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I have pledged to myself that I am going to finish some quilts I have begun. I have a box full of them. It’s fun to pick out new fabrics and piece a brand new quilt and I could do that every month, but there comes a time when one needs to finish what one has started. So….

This week I completed a Christmas quilt I started last year. These sheep were as crazy to make as they are to herd. Every single one of these sheep is sewn together wrong except for one. Every one. And it’s not the sheep that is facing a different direction than the rest as that is suppose to be the wayward sheep. It’s the only one sewn correctly. I am sure if you look closely you will notice one big mistake I made on one. I didn’t notice it until I had it half quilted. Anyway, as a friend of mine use to tell me, “you won’t see it on a galloping horse.” Now I have to find the horse. I didn’t follow the pattern maker’s design completely. There was suppose to be a shepherd in this quilt, but I didn’t like how it looked so I made an extra sheep and this block.

I like the way it turned out. One project completed. Check.

I finished two other quilts that I cannot show because of the season coming up. Two more projects completed. Check.

I made a skirt from some fabric I have had for quite some time. You can wear it this way.

Or this way. Almost like having two different skirts. We went over to Nashville with some friends the other day and I got a couple of tops that go with this skirt. We have been to Nashville twice in two weeks and not one time did I remember to take pictures with my camera. There was so much to photograph there but I was too busy looking.

I put together this outfit and like it a lot. Another project completed. Check.

David and I took one morning and sealed the siding on our porch wall. We make a good team and finished it within a couple of hours. Now the wall should not turn grey.

Project completed. Check.

I made a couple of brooches. I have ideas for several more.

Years ago, we needed a coffee table and there was a company where you could order furniture unfinished and not put together. You built the furniture yourself and put your own finish on it. So, I ordered this butler’s table and David put it together and I stained it a rich, deep brown. It has served its purpose for many years. The leaves on the table go up and down and most little boys and girls liked to lift the leaves up and down over and over. Toy cars have been run on this table. It’s been hammered, pounded and naturally distressed over the years. David says you pay big money to get distressed furniture and we got ours for free!

I decided it was time to redo the table so I am painting it a cream color and will distress it a little or will have some children over to do it for me.

I’m putting several coats of paint on it. When I am finished with it, it’s going in my girly room.

A friend brought me this pile of luscious fabric. I am so blessed. I will use this for sure.

Miss Molly Marshmallow is growing so fast. She runs with the big dogs and doesn’t want to be separated from them. She cries when I take Belle her walk even after I have already taken her on a walk. She is doing really well on the leash. Sometimes I let her walk herself and she will carry the leash in her mouth and walk along beside me.

The chickens are molting right now and I won’t show you a picture of them because it would embarrass them. One of them is completely bare on her backside, poor girl. She stays in the chicken house and acts ashamed of her looks, but David said he noticed today that her feathers are finally coming back in. The egg laying has been pretty sparse right now as the hens conserve their energy to grow their new feathers for the winter. I still get two or three dozen eggs a week. The younger hens should start laying soon.

Fall is moving right along. Soon it will be Thanksgiving,(when I am walking a 5K that morning before dinner) then Christmas and then we will be right back to Spring again. The seasons are running together now. I love each one and especially love the cooler weather we are having right now. Hope you are having a wonderful Autumn. Bye.

The Art of Porch Sitting

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We had a porch when I was growing up. A big porch that wrapped all around the front of the house. We roller skated on that porch with skates you needed a key in order to fasten them onto your shoes.

I would swing on the porch swing while reading library books. All the lazy Summer afternoon. Back and forth. Turn a page. Back and forth. Turn a page.

I would sit on the porch swing with my girlfriend eating suckers and kicking the swing higher and higher. Sometimes my brothers would swing me so high I could touch the porch ceiling with my feet. We lived dangerously!

Back when I was growing up right after Christopher Columbus discovered America, most of the houses in our small town had front porches. David’s grandfather would sit out on his front porch at night and if my mother and I would drive by their house, all we could see was the light from his cigar as he sat in his rocking chair smoking and rocking. “There’s Mr. Henley,” my mother would say and all I could see was the ember from his cigar. Somehow that was comforting to me. To know Mr. Henley was sitting on his porch on a warm Summer’s evening enjoying his last cigar of the day. All was well with the world. One day Mr. Henley would become my grandfather-in-law.

On long Summer evenings, my mother, aunt and I and sometimes my sister, who lived down the road would sit out on our porch and I would swing while they sat in the glider and talked. The dogs would lay at our feet seeming to enjoy the company. Sometimes we children would be playing hide and seek or kick the can while the adults talked. Back then there was talk of flying saucers and every once in a while my mother would say she saw one and we would look at what was probably an air plane flying across the sky. It would send shivers down my spine anyway. Once a bat flew above our heads as we sat on the porch and we all would scream each time it would pass overhead.

David’s grandma sat on her front porch and watched the world go by. She knew everything that was happening on her street. People would walk by and say hello and sometimes stop in to talk.

Porch sitting is becoming a lost art. Too many of the newer homes don’t even have a porch. Just a little stoop or entryway, but nowhere to sit and wile away the hours. People are too busy to porch sit, it seems. I want porch sitting to come back. You see your neighbors out in their yards, mowing the lawn and you smell the new mown grass. You see the cars going by, the train chugging down the track, the mailman bringing your mail, and the occasional fire truck or ambulance going to help someone. Perhaps you would see a mother walking her baby, or a runner practicing for a marathon, a child learning to ride his bicycle for the very first time or flowers being delivered to you. I have seen all these from my front porch.

Sometimes you even see something you would hope you never see. An accident. One day years ago, a man ran into a tree in the front yard of our neighbor’s yard and I ran to call an ambulance. Before we knew it there were twenty-three police cars(we counted them) and three ambulances in front of our house. My children watched it all as they got the man out of the car and into the ambulance. I watched from our front porch. I never found out what happened to the man. I hope he was all right.

One hot summer day as I sat on our porch I saw a raccoon on the road in front of our house acting like it was drunk. Cars swerved to miss it and then they began to stop. I think the raccoon was rabid. I kept the children inside. Someone came from animal control and took it away. Oh, yes, porch sitting can become intense at times.

David and I have been doing a lot of porch sitting this Summer. Our new front porch is made for sitting and watching. We watch the hummingbirds feed, a bird building her nest, the trucks going over the railroad tracks. We watch friends and family pull into the drive for a visit. We watch when they leave and sit and talk about our visit. You don’t have to do anything special to learn to porch sit. Just sit on a chair, a swing, a rocker or whatever you have to sit on and start to pay attention to the world around you. It’s pretty amazing what you will see. The people you might meet. The friendships you might cement. Give it a try. Bye.

Oh, Frabjous Days!

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The halcyon, golden days of Autumn are upon us. Summer ends tonight. It seems like a dream that happened long ago. So much happened and yet, I felt we should have done more. Picnics, walks, auctions(not one) were in our plans. I did the walking. Two 5ks under my belt. Now that the weather is cooler, I know I will walk more. Especially since I have another dog to walk.

Speaking of dogs….

Molly Marshmallow is growing by leaps and bounds. She doesn’t nip at our heels as much anymore and has learned to sit for her treats and has been on a one mile walk with me. She is learning to behave on the leash. That said, she has managed to do some damage.

Let’s just say Molly tripped me up a bit and I fell on the steps and got bruised. It looks worse than it is. I was just glad I didn’t land on her when I fell.

Miss Belle has been doing a good job training Molly not to bite. Let’s just say Molly has yipped a few times after nipping Belle on the nose. Belle would have been a good mother.

Getting several of these butternut squashes from the garden. Since I don’t eat them very often, I will store them and cut them up for the chickens this winter.

We’ve picked nine of these from the garden and there are another nine or ten still ripening.

It was nice to be able to decorate our porch with our own pumpkins this year. The best year I have ever had for them. Usually, if I am lucky, I will get one good one to grow. It’s all that chicken poop, I’m telling you.

Tis’ the season to burn candles. Our house smells like this right now. Delicious. Makes you think I’ve been baking all day.

I’ve made twelve of these mini loaves in the past two weeks. It’s pumpkin bread and it’s addictive. I will not be making it again for a while. I cannot walk that much.

Into each life some rain must fall and we had to bite the bullet and buy a new furnace this week. Our old one was eighteen years old and would have cost half the cost of a new furnace to repair. Funny, when we replaced our first old furnace eighteen years ago, it had been in our basement since the 1950’s. Now we are told a furnace’s lifespan is about fourteen years. They sure don’t make them like they use to.

I managed to fit in a porch party before it got too cold. Our Sunday school class came for a candlelight dinner of lasagna, homemade garlic rolls, salad and angel food cake with Cool Whip and strawberries. A good time was had by all I think.

This gal brought some of the best salad dressing I have ever eaten. She gets it in Georgia. Her husband, the fellow on the right, plays softball in Florida every year and they go down there often and she found the dressing in a store on the way. I am going to ask her to buy me a case of it the next time she goes!

I love fixing food for people. Everyone cleaned their plates.

These are friends and he is our Sunday school teacher. Last time I had everyone over, I fixed fried chicken. He went in the hospital the next day with a heart attack. I felt so bad, but I think it was going to happen anyway. I haven’t heard anything bad yet since this meal, so I think he survived my cooking once again.

I have been going through some old National Geographics that we have had for years dating back to the seventies. I quit taking it years ago, but after looking through them, I think I want to subscribe again. Anyway, I had been looking for one particular one for years that had an article about Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland. So funny, but when I brought a few in from our shed where they were stored, the very first one I picked up was the one I had been looking for. Eureka!

I so enjoyed reading about Lewis Carroll or Charles Dodgson which is who he preferred to be called.

He remained a bachelor all his life finding himself more comfortable around children than adults. He made up whimsical stories and nonsense poetry for them I have always loved his poem Jabberwocky. The tongue twisting lines were fun for me to read as a child. He made up words, frabjous being one of them meaning wonderful, elegant, superb or delicious.

Alice in Alice in Wonderland was based on this little girl who was Dodgson’s neighbor, Alice Pleasance Liddell.

I will leave you with Autumn garden scenes.

Hope you are having a frabjous day. Bye.

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