GOD'S HANDYWORK MAKES ME SMILE

Nothing makes me smile quite like flowers, baby animals and all things natural.  Spring especially makes me smile, and I just have to get outside with camera in hand and wander around looking for those simple things that we see everyday but are so beautiful when captured in just the right light.  I know those ecology folks call these types of plants "noxious weeds,"  but I've always heard God don't make no junk!

So, look closely at all the wildflowers you encounter just in case the "plant police" do manage to wipe them out some day.

A white clover bloom is very common, yet has interesting, great detail, when viewed closely.

I don't even know the name of this wildflower, but the ones growing in the front of our old shack are snow white, and notice the ones in the picture below, which grow in the back yard of the shack, are lavender and seem to be a bit more lacy/loose than the white ones.

Look how similar these little yellow wildflowers are, and yet they are very different.

 

The tall blue/lavender wildflowers below are all over our place this spring.  They've never been here before, maybe it is from all the rain we had, or maybe because we usually mow the grass earlier than this, again due to the very wet ground.  All I know, I am enjoying them this year.

The wild blackberry vines look like I might have enough berries to make a batch of jelly in July.  Aren't the blooms pretty?  You can't really see them, but there are a million little thorns all up and down the stems, and they are just murder when the berries get ripe.  Wearing long sleeves in the 95 degree weather is a necessity (because of the thorns and the mosquitoes which are the size of a jumbo jet and LOVE to bite me), and still I will end up with scratches and pricks up and down my arms.  But, my oh my that jelly is certainly worth it!

Here is a look at the noisy little wren who is raising her little ones on our back porch in a gourd just about a foot from the porch swing we swing in every chance we get.  She gets all nervous and squawks and screeche at us.  She is a busy little thing,  and the daddy bird works just about as hard as she does feeding the babies.

 

MAY IN MISSISSIPPI

Seems the month of May is a little like a teenage girl this year, beautiful and lovely one moment and cold and nasty the next.  Thankfully, all the rain we have received the last few weeks will prove very beneficial for all of us during the hot dry summer months.  Thanks be to God for every drop he has given us here in Mississippi.  I can't help but think of all the areas of the US west of the Mississippi we have traveled through the last couple of years which are in a state of drought. 

I'll share just a few pics from the beautiful Mothers Day weekend.  No pictures of Johnny's mom this time.  She wasn't feeling her best and not really up to the moment.  Nothing serious; just a painful visit from "Arthur Ritis."  One of those bad Ritis boys.  We took Mamaw out for lunch and enjoyed visiting with old acquaintances we had not seen for many many years.  I think she enjoyed it too, but maybe she enjoyed the yard work we did for her after lunch a whole lot more.  When Mamaw's yard is groomed and full of flowers she is one happy lady.  She has green thumbs and can almost grow a pencil.

 Coreopsis and daisies

Bluebird feeding her babies in the old house Johnny and I made and put up in Mamaw's yard many years ago.

This is Mamaw's back yard with the t-post from her old clothes line still visible.  I wish I had a clothes line in my backyard to dry sheets in the warm sun.  I'll have to work on that. 

We were watching the neighborhood cat as she crept up on our four-month-old puppy, Lulu.  Notice the Mockingbird easing up behind the cat.  Eventually the bird got close enough to pull the hair on her tail.  The cat leapt straight up and around and mama bird barely got away unscathed.

After a few minutes the cat got close enough to take a hair raising stand against Lulu.  Johnny was using brute strength to keep Lulu in check.  Eventually a bit of fur did fly and the cat made a hasty retreat.  Fun to watch the interaction.

 "That cat caused it.  I was just visiting Mamaw.  Now, don't I look innocent?"


Below is the baby Mockingbird the mama bird was trying to protect.  We didn't even know the nest was in the shrub until we trimmed the shrubs around the house and nearly destroyed the nest.  Mama Mockingbird was having a tizzy!

 A close look at Anthony Waterer Spirea.

Vetch blooms look like purple and blue knee socks hanging on a clothes line.  Granddaughter Sidney would love to have this many purple knee socks to wear with her rolled up pants legs.  Better still, if they had bling on them.

We had such a nice time visiting with Mamaw on Mother's Day.  I'm so blessed to have a wonderful mother-in-law to enjoy.  My mom went to be with Jesus so many years ago.  It's been so long, I don't so much miss her anymore.  It is more like I remember her and the things that remind me of her.  Sweet memories! 

FUN WEEKEND AT THE BEACH

We spent the weekend at Orange Beach, Alabama, with some very special friends, Joyce and Glenn. Though I really tend to prefer the mountains to the beach, I have seldom been any place that I didn't really enjoy, and I really enjoyed this place.  The weather was perfect and the fellowship was even better.  We walked miles and miles up and down beach combing and brought home a nice assortment of shells and small driftwood.  I can just see a sea shell project in my near future.  

 Sting rays we spotted in just a few inches of water right in the edge of the surf. 

Night fisherman posing for me.  

At the Sweet Home Cheese Farm I fell in love with this cute chicken coop.  So German looking to me.

This old delivery truck on the Cheese Farm was just as cute as the chicken coop.

Another hungry bird waiting for a dropped picnic potato chip or fishing minnow on the Wolf Bay boardwalk.  I think he loved having his picture taken.

Beautiful moss covered trees on the Backcountry Trail.  There were alligator warning signs all along the trail and we certainly kept our eyes open and our feet on the trail.  Luckily, we saw nothing.

A couple of dolphins we saw as we took a dolphin tour in the inter-coastal waters.  They were very hard to get a good picture of, especially the young ones swimming with their mothers.

Sunset from the dolphin cruise boat.  Just enough clouds to make it absolutely beautiful.

Good night all.

GOODBYE RAINY MAY; HELLO JUNE

Seems like just a couple days ago we were stoking the fire in the wood stove to fend off a very chilly night.  June 1 and it is 90 degrees and HUMID!  I just don't know if I am ready for the scorching heat, but I do know there will not be buckets of veggies for me to harvest from the garden early each morning.  Because of the seemingly endless rain, we have not even broken up the garden plot, let alone planted anything more than a few onions, potatoes and a new fig tree.  The little spring patch of Swiss chard was harvested today and cooked for supper. 

It just looked so pretty and I just knew it would be yummy wilted in a cheese sauce over pasta.  NO, NO, NO!!!!  Johnny tried it.  I tried it.  We both agreed to throw it out and we would not waste our time planting this stuff again.  We are usually all about most any type veggie, but not this time.  Now I know why I could not find a single recipe for it in all my 46 years worth of collected southern cook books.  Southerners just don't eat Swiss Chard evidently! 

My Asiatic lilies are just blooming like crazy.  

I fear something has caused the brown thrasher to abandon her nest with six eggs in one of the bluebird houses in my garden.  When I checked the house, look what I found woven into her nest. 

Hopefully she found that snake skin somewhere else and put it into the nest herself rather than the snake crawling into the nest to shed.  At any rate, the eggs are still in there, but the mama and daddy bird did not show up all afternoon while I was out there working in the flowers and garden. 

Lulu's brother, Max, has been spending the weekend with us while Ginger and family are in Starkville watching the MSU Bulldogs play in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.  These five month old puppies have given me a merry chase!  When they are not tussling and whining to get back into the house, they are stretched out on the floor regaining the energy for another bout with each other.  

"Oh no, she has that newspaper in her hand again.  We better take a nap before she gets really, really mad,"

Lulu should have been named Houdini.  She can unlock her kennel and get out when she really wants to.  Today they had been banished to the back porch and yard where the new electric dog fence was just installed.  Lulu and Max both hate it and are scared to death to venture vary far out into the yard.  They just whine at the back door until I am not looking and then Lulu opens the door so they can come on in.    I can't wait til bedtime for these two. 

I better get busy and iron a shirt for church tomorrow while I count the minutes until bedtime for the little monsters.

GIFTS OF A WET SPRING

We received yet another quick shower this afternoon.  Temps were around the 95 degree mark, dropped to the mid 80's during the rain and then soared back to the mid 90's with humidity that almost scorched my face when I opened the door.  As soon as the door was fanned a couple of times as I came inside from the porch, all the windows were frosted with condensation. You just gotta love Mississippi weather.  Thank you Lord for the invention of air conditioning!

The best part about a summer shower every few days is the beauty that it brings forth from the ground.  The lowly yucca plant is displaying massive spires of wedding bell shaped flowers that are rarely seen in such abundance on dry, scorching hot summer days.

My agapanthus have not bloomed like this and lasted so long in many years.

 The blackberries are plump and lush.  

Various fungus and mushrooms are popping up all over the forest floor.  They are so fragile, mysterious and interesting.  This one looks like sheer white lace.

This strange mush is as black as can be and looks like a chunk of lava.

This one actually was a chocolate color with the underside looking more like a porous sponge than a mushroom. 

This one appears to be a tiny, shiny, opalescent umbrella with sequins and pearls attached at random.    

This chubby little beauty had the look of being painted by deep pink watercolors.  The underside was just about the same texture as the crown.  It is definitely not the average mushroom.

The annual show of color in the back woods by the butterfly milk weeds has dwindled somewhat.  They have been blooming their little heads off for over a month, thanks to the abundant moisture.

Thank you, Lord, for the beauty you bless us with daily. 

SUMMER PHOTOGRAPHY

This summer has turned into a summer like no other for me.  The best laid plans.........

Usually my summer is taken up with yard work, gardening and putting up vegetables.  All the rain put a stop to those plans.  I do finally have a few rows of peas planted and up.  The green beans are being eaten down to the ground by deer, rabbits and the like.  The peas probably will go the same way as soon as they are a few inches taller.  Anyway, the creative/art/writing/photography bug has gotten hold of me and that definitely does not lead to wanting to do house cleaning.  Writing and drawing is a bit like playing, I mean working, on the computer.  A few minutes quickly turn into a couple hours.

Speaking of photography, while I am out at night walking Lulu, who is nearly as large as I am, I often notice some unusual photo opportunities.  This weeping mushroom appeared almost fluorescent white and was oozing amber and clear droplets from the snow white underside and deep red drops were running down the top.  Very unusual!

The rudbeckia just off our front porch was so pretty after a late afternoon shower.

These pretty pink blooms were smaller than a dime and grew right out the top of one of those little cactus plants that looks as though it is enveloped in a spider web.  Trying to grow cactus and succulents this summer has really been fun.  They are very forgiving when it comes to ample watering in this hot Mississippi weather. 

Happy summer, y'all.

SPRING 2023, HOW CAN IT BE?

March 12, 2023 / You know spring is upon us when the schools shut their doors for Spring Break. We are officially there and Ginger, Baker, and Sidney are so excited to have the week away from school and work. Before I retired in 2010, it was an important event for me, too. Now it just means there will be lots more kiddos in WalMart when I'm trying to shop and less traffic delays around the school campuses for a few days. It seems to me that only a couple days ago Baker and Sidney were out of school for Christmas break. Nine more weeks after this week and they will be out for the summer. Say it isn't so; Baker will be a senior! 

I may have jumped the gun and planted a few potted flowers too soon, but here's hoping not. I spent a young fortune at River's Greenhouse and Garden buying bedding plants, and I even settled for fewer plants than usual. Everything costs so much more this year. Inflation is out the roof, so I'm trying to cut a few corners where I  can. I'm sure they'll grow and fill in to be beautiful anyway. Hopefully a bad cold spell doesn't come along and nip them back too much. 

The two big ferns that always sit on the front steps are still so pretty, this being their fourth year. We just store them in the garage before it gets too cold and drag them back out about the first week in March. The yellow pollen has coated our porches, swings, and plants. I'm ready to power wash and enjoy the porch swings before the muggies arrive.

Happy Spring Break, y'all!