Frogs, Toads, and Pool Covers

I like frogs and toads. I like the sounds they make. I like the way they look when they "talk". I like to find toads in my garden. They are fun surprises  to suddenly spy when they hop out from under a bushy flower clump or when they think they are hiding away well enough out of sight by a damp shady corner of the foundation after the rain. 

Yes, I have even been known to talk to toads who decide to join me and keep me company for a few minutes in my weed pulling tasks, before they grow quite bored of my philosophical conversation topic and hop away. I haven't seen near as many frogs in the neighborhood as there once were, at least since the creek in the woods was diverted to storm water drainage culverts (I like nature and natural, and drainage tiles installed by humans is not the same as a fun creek winding through the shade of the tree canopies and mossy paths of the shadowy woods!)

I admit I like the way frogs and toads feel when I pick them up and gently hold them for a bit and look at them as they look back at me. I guess I never grew up in a lot of aspects when it comes to nature and its creatures since I still get a little giddy and giggly when I touch and hold some of nature's population. It is a sensory thing to interact with fuzzy brown and black caterpillars, ladybugs, earthworms, fireflies, even daddy long leg spiders. Yep, even those. I was a big hit being with my 6 nephews as an aunt and a mom to 3 since I wasn't/am not squeamish!!

Once, a long time ago, there was a huge bullfrog from the woods creek who stopped by after a thunderstorm for a visit, appearing in the driveway, he just wanted to say "Hello!". He let me pick him up and and then I set him back down to leap away, off to adventures and new places to explore, better places than the driveway. He was so big he looked like a misplaced toy sitting in the driveway.

The frogs still make their harmonious songs at night in the pool covers of the neighborhood in the late springtime each year as they tend to their pool cover nursery of tadpoles. I love that sound! Tadpoles are like magic to watch the way they transform so quickly from wiggly little specks... to swift swimming morphing beings of both tails and legs... to land and water dwellers with little strong arms and legs, in short order nearly in the blink of an eye. Thus a new season's batch of nature friends leaves the pool covers before they are drained of the murky water and leaves and removed for the human swimming season to commence.

Then we hope the toads and frogs don't jump in the pools only to find they cant get back out.

I remember specific little things certain teachers in elementary school taught me that are still retained inside my memory. Things like the difference between desert and dessert. "Dessert has more of the letter 's' than desert because everyone wants more sweet treats than hot sand!" ...and "All toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads." 

I liked learning that and let it absorb into my brain for a few minutes when she said it the day we had the overhead projector shining the images of amphibians against the wall of the darkened classroom. (It was so cool to be chosen by the teacher to be the one to pull the cord to either make the long span of heavy window drapes close or open to darken and brighten the classroom. Simple pleasures! Even more of an honor than to be chosen to flip off or flip back on the ceiling lights with all the light switches located between the wall mounted pencil sharpener and the classroom doorway.) No computers in those days. We had the very high tech forerunner of an educational website --the overhead projector, the one that probably blinds you like looking at an eclipsed sun if you look into the light bulb compartment and burns your hand as fast as Grandma's hot clothes iron if you get too close!

I have been having fun listing interesting things I am decluttering to offer to other owners through the Etsy shop. I sometimes will key in a word to the search box in my shop and see what comes up as a theme since not all items of one theme are always found inside of one specific shop section category shown as a table of contents for my shop. This time, tonight, I typed in "frog" and was amazed I had this much variety in the frog theme spanning different categories. I was spurred on to recall memories and to reminisce. Frogs and toads and pool covers (and school rooms, too!)

Etsy link is in the right margin of my blog page.

(Shown: rubber stamps, quilt pattern/instructions, 3-D stickers, cellphone case/tiny wristlet purse sewing pattern, cut/sew/stuff cloth frog toy)

Full bloom

The summer time heat is in full swing. The humidity is thick. The rain has been plentiful. We have not used the hose so far this season for anything growing related. No need. 

The vegetables are thriving. Baby sized tomatoes, green peppers, and zucchini on the vine so far.  The gourds and the watermelon doing their thing and loving the rainy weather. The weeds are doing their best to show their motivation for growth also. 

The flowers are making the hummingbirds, dragonflies, bees, and butterflies very happy. So fun to see them visit daily. Marigolds, purple Cone Flower, Tickseed, and wild orange Tiger Lilies are in full bloom. The Bleeding Hearts are still blooming though they are usually done by this far into the summertime. Their plants have become as big as bushes, I have not ever seen them be so exuberant in their size. The blooms were amazing and the abundant quantity of beautiful delicate little hearts were memorable for about 8 weeks' time span.

                                                            (Simple bright cheerfulness)

 This is an item I painted for relaxation therapy and have enjoyed owning, but I need to move things out to someone else to enjoy. I am downsizing a lot of my vintage treasures and things I have painted over the years. The paint brush has returned to my hand and the art supplies have come out of hiding. Far too long without doing fun creative things for relaxing me time, that have long been ideas tumbling through my brain. If you are an artist of any sort you will know this hurdle- that ideas are only half of the urge and to make them come to life is the other half. Inspiration cannot be forced, it has to just flow. Starting out with one or two projects and following them through to completion is like oiling the far too long resting Tin Man. It feels good! It feels alive and new.

                                                         inspiring vintage botanical book pages 

I have found some really great things to let go of in the downsizing quest. So much variety. Living in a three generational home there is always more to let go of to allow it to find a new loving home!! Great vintage stationery, unused vintage greeting cards and used vintage greeting cards so very beautiful and whimsical for display or as creative supplies, unique old postage stamps, crafting and art supplies, vintage book page papers to frame, sewing and yarn work patterns, some vintage decor pretties.  I am filling the photography store also. So much fun to offer both original photos and vintage photography too to go from my home to yours and let my foundation lift a bit from decluttering the treasures.



What have I been up to?
1. Being creative every chance I can.
2. Being motivated to not just start but to finish.
3. Enjoying the air-conditioning whenever I can!

What do I want to do?
1. Go on a day trip as an escape.
2. Explore a place that is all new to me.
3. Discover wonderful places far enough away from the same old pot hole roads I encounter each day!

What do I need to do?
1. This week's knee surgery so both knees are healthier for adventures.
2. Clean the three seasons room. Where does that stuff come from that everyone sets down in there?
3. Drop off the box of donation items, and then start filling another box.

Back....finally!

[ love this photo I took of my daughter and a surprising gourd from our garden ]

My computer, it seems, is somewhat of a senior citizen in the technology world. I could no longer blog as I once did. I could not install the needed updates that Blogger required to play on my own blog. Sad, really.

I had a lot to say. I wasn't sure what to do. When in doubt, and you are of a certain middle age, what should you do?....Ask the advice of a teenage offspring, that's what!!

Now it is all fixed and well, and now I am back. With a lot to say.

[ my stack of antiques travel cases filled with special keepsakes, I have since this photo ditched the one in the middle with no handle. ]

Things I have Been Up To:

* I lost 50 lbs in 5 months, my first goal, and so far a total of 54lbs

* loving my new job of about 7 months!!

* not getting much of anything done around the house

* learning to say "no" to things and people

* severing the umbilical cords to my children so they can become more independent

* surviving somehow on less than 5 hours of sleep every 24

* enjoying my new car

* trying to enjoy every minute of every day, as life seems to be racing past

* reading an interesting book

* celebrating another birthday

* feeding a bit of shoe lust with some purchases, I was very long overdue for a turn (life of a mom)...usually the kids get all the new shoes!

Things I want To Do:

* work in my gardens

* rearrange the furniture in my bedroom

* paint in watercolors

* draw my favorite birds in colored pencils

* achieve my next weight loss goal by August

* get rid of "material things" around the house with emotional guilt attachments

Things I Need To Do:

* sort through stuff around the house

* redo my filing cabinet

* detail the inside of my cars

* clean out my closet, lots of things are WAY too big to fit anymore!

* take stuff to the Goodwill

* take donations of books and videos to school

Birthday wishes

Some images for you to use in your art. As always, please play nice and do not sell images as is.

The violets birthday postcard is dated from 1913!! Violets are one of my favorite flowers.

I have been celebrating my birthday week. I did not receive as a birthday gift a magic genie lamp like in the first image above. If I did I would have wished these 3 wishes... a bigger kitchen with more drawers and counter top space, my pre-5 pregnancies body, and a maid!!

Oh, back to reality. *sigh*

I had a good birthday... and I still don't feel any older than 30 in my mind...and that was quite a few birthdays ago!

snow in nature and paper

I love snowman comics!!

We had our first fluffy snow flakes come down out of the gray Northernmost Ohio sky yesterday. The kind that seem to be in super slooooow motion. It makes me happy. Winter is my favorite season! I do love Autumn for the colors on the trees and spring for the burst of lush green. I am not much of a summer girl- the horrible humidity and mosquitoes we have. Our last summer wasn't too bad though. Most people around here who love the hot humid summers hated it, not me! I think we only had a few days over 95 degrees instead of weeks on end of over 98 degrees with suffocating humidity added in, like usual.



Now the northern Ohio temps are hovering around 20-30 degrees after staying in the 50's until only a couple of weeks ago. We still had vegetables (peppers and celery) stubbornly holding out in the garden, and the grass is still greener than I ever remember seeing it in December!!

These are pictures of my yard from last winter and soon it will look like this again as we are to have more snow today and tomorrow with some sleet thrown in the mix.


But, enough of the weather report.

The fire place is warm and toasty and I have been sitting nearby cutting my famous paper snowflakes like mad.



This is a batch- or shovel full, as I like to call them, from last year that sold through my Etsy shop. Hundreds of my hand cut one of a kind snowflakes have been sent all over the world. They have been seen in museums, universities, store display props in New York City, and advertising photo shoots for a famous hospital! I am so proud of their flaky achievements!!

Take a peek here for fresh paper flakes!
Look for new shovels full to be listed as the wintry days tick by.

How does your garden grow??

My mom always talked about their garden during war time and how the neighbors would share their produce with one another as they came into abundance . Well today we do the same with our neighbors. We all seem to have a great deal to share and each day it is a different rotation.

It's wonderful. One day our tomatoes will all decide to need to be plucked and the next our dear next door neighbor will have cucumbers to pass around. The neighbor across the street has summer squash all at once and the one down the street has zucchini ready to go!! I do not know about your neck of the woods, but our summer has had so much rain that the vining veggies have either gone crazy like some B movie monster by creeping across the entire property or have just given up and died from just too much rain beating down and rotting the stem
(I have no NORMAL sized vined plants). Today my neighbor practically begged me to take some {quarts and more quarts is her version of "some"} of several different kinds of peppers- mostly hot ones!! These were hand me down peppers given to her. So it is hard to say just how many hands these veggies pass through just in our own neighborhood!! I passed on that offer and told her to pass them on to someone else, as I didn't think I would use them. It's so fun and helps with every one's grocery bill too! And guess what else? We all grow organic!!!

So when I come up with zucchini the size of Bam Bam Flintstone's club- whether they came from my rain fed garden or from some other neighbor's pass around...I send them on to one of the neighbors who bakes, and it becomes zucchini bread and then gets passed around the neighborhood again!!!
Ahhhhh- the circle of life in a neighborhood!!
Victory Garden indeed!!

money doesn't grow on trees...

...but it does grow in my garden! All these beautiful purple flowers are Money Plant and will transform into green discs (like coins) and finally into white tissue paper like discs. They are so abundant in my garden I should be a millionaire!

Money Plant

white wild Violets near the Holly Bush

Bleeding Hearts -about 20 years old

Creeping Flox- about 40 years old

All these flowers are in my front gardens. I am very late in taking off the winter blanket of pine needles from the perennials, but they don't seem to even mind at all.

the last 2 days...

Are you watching that dancing show with the stars?

This season I predicted-all the way back on the first night- that the hot Frenchman would win...and maybe he will! (?) What do ya think?

I never danced ballroom, but I sure do like to watch when people do it. A few times I've watched competitions they have on public television. I was a dancer from age 3 and continued on until age 29 when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. Gosh I miss it and very often think about how fun it was! Maybe someday in another lifetime I can again be a dancer. I danced tap, ballet, jazz, modern expression, chorus line, and... just silly fun dancing to classic rock and roll music and 80's pop.

Don't you love the episode of Seinfeld when Elaine dances??!! 
Too funny, no matter how many times I see it.

I had a great Mother's day. I awoke to find cards waiting by my alarm clock and then I was presented a yummy breakfast. My kids made the cards for me and proudly presented them to me. A. picked flowers from the garden and put them in one of my milk glass vases. She commented that they matched the colors on the cards. I really did TRY not to do any Motherly chores but I couldn't help it. I do them without even thinking. So....I did a load of laundry and E. put it out on the line to dry in the nice breezes. I baked some cookies-oatmeal- and sent some over to N's Godmother and then I took some down to my best friend parents who live around the corner. They are like my second parents since they have known me since age 5. For dinner we ate corned beef, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and some dinner rolls too-Yummy! I worked in the gardens a little bit and planted some morning glory and moon flower seeds to climb up the fence along the driveway.

Mother

The reason I celebrate Mother's Day...

This grouping is my mom holding my first born, E. (now 16 years old-where do the years get to?). The first photo in the top left is in the hospital the first time she held her!

I was privileged to honor my mom each year on Mother's Day until I was in my early 30's....I am so glad she was able to see me celebrate Mother's Day as a mom myself for 3 years before she died in 1995.

Time slips by much too quickly. She was so very sick for so many years though she fought hard every step of the way. She did not live to see my second baby. She would have loved my 3 children, just as she loved each and every one of her grand and great grand kids.

She was wearing her wig in these pictures- she had some hair growing back after being bald(for the second time. ..there would also be a third time) but preferred to wear the wig to leave the house (or for photos). From the time E. began to talk in sentences she was always very precocious and I will never forget the day she first said, "Bye-bye car?" (which translates to ARE WE GOING BYE BYE?)and pointed as her Grammy was putting on the wig. Even when really sick, my Mom always put on her lipstick and perfume whenever she went out- even a quick trip to the grocery store.

When my mom was bedridden in her last days and I was 5 months pregnant with my A., we were fortunate to have wonderful help at our house from Hospice because I was told to be extra cautious since my previous pregnancy was a miscarriage. They would help me to bathe Mom. I knew how much she loved her lipstick and perfume so we made sure to spritz some perfume on her after washing her. My mom's cancer was then spread to her brain and she was acting and saying things not quite on spot. She told me one day in a whisper at her bedside, "Watch that woman, I'm sure she is stealing my perfume. Can't you smell it?" She did not realize she was smelling it on herself! We skipped the lipstick at that point.

All summer long, I had a different bouquet of fresh flowers from the garden on her dresser each day for her to enjoy. I told her my heart was telling me that rather than me fussing over a grave site in the future, we should see and smell beautiful flowers -right now, while we are still together. She understood. In her more lucid moments we talked frankly about her dying and death.

Even now, on Mother's Day and on her birthday I work in the flowers gardens at home instead of fussing over a grave site. They are her flower gardens since I live in the inherited house in which I grew up. I feel closest to her among the perennial flowers that she planted. I feel great joy tending the garden for future generations and future Mother's Days and allowing happy memories of Mom to flood my mind among the bright colors and fragrances...sweet as her perfume!

Today I am able to celebrate Mother's Day with my children because my mother chose to be a mother.

Think about it.

genealogy crazy

That's my Mom- second from left with the big hairbow and white dress. Her sister Jackie is the tall one- first on the left in white dress. I love this photo of her because there are not many photo moments captured with my Mom smiling. Maybe she was just squinting from the sun in her eyes here.(?)

My Mom was a bit of a non-smiler in young photos for some reason. From what I know she had a good childhood, although her Dad was pretty grumpy a lot of the time, from what I am told. He seemed to have been that way after he had survived a bad bout with Black Small Pox back when my Mom's older sister was a baby. There was an outbreak in Lucas County and, among the inflicted, he and only a few others survived it. My Great Grandmother (his mother) came to the house to care for him and never got the sickness. Their house happened to be very near a contagious disease hospital and the story that has been passed down is that "the sick were brought in the front door and the dead were taken out the back door....and there were plenty". He did not go to the "in the front and out the back door" hospital. They had to hang a sign on their house that indicated to the various delivery men, common in those days, that it was a sick house. He was left with deep pock marks and scaring and some apparent nerve damage. Mom said he had a pretty short temper sometimes.


When my Mom was a teenager and was a secretary for the dept of surplus war assets in the 1940s, she would invite Navy sailors- just back to the states- to have lunch or dinner at her house. Mom said her Mother loved having an extra person around the table and always cheerfully added another plate. Her Dad wasn't so happy about it, and thought his daughter was silly bringing home strays! There are many photos of Mom with Navy sailors. Some have names written on the back and some don't. I do not know any of these men. Sometimes I have looked at these snapshots over the years and wondered if I should throw them away. I never have. First of all, my Mom is in them, right? Secondly, they are a part of her genealogy as a young adult and also a piece of history. She is smiling and acting silly like a young happy go lucky girl in the photos= wearing her penny loafers and bobby socks and pleated wool skirts with twin sweater sets and wavy long auburn hair.

My Mom ended up marrying a WWII Navy sailor, my Dad= a Navy Sea Bee who was stationed in Guam. He wasn't one of the strays she brought home. He was a boy who lived on her street and fixed her bicycle for her when it broke.

I knew my Grandpa in his old age and always thought he was kind of quiet. I never really felt all that close to him and being able to carry on an easy going conversation just didn't seem to click for us. He loved gardening and building things, and drawing. I still have some of his white hybrid Iris flowers in my own garden, given to me from his garden in Michigan. The huge showy flowers have been blooming for decades. Here is a weird thing-- there always seems to be a hard rain storm the week that they are in full bloom each year-- and if I do not get them staked up right away when they begin to bloom they're beat down onto the sidewalk.

This is another great old family photo. It is my Mom's sister Jackie, taken in 1928 when my Mom was only a year old. I love the pose and the clothes, don't you?

I am absolutely crazy about genealogy. I wish I had more time to devote to organizing my photos, written memorabilia and such. I will need to live to be 110 to get it all in order. Good thing my two Grandpa's lived to be in their 90's...that gives me some hope to live to 110 doesn't it?

the gardens and Momma

Sunday I spent hours working in the garden. I trimmed back the dead perennials and cleaned the many pine needles that fall from the tall, tall white pines above my house. One of the things I have been wanting to get to all summer is to dig up the edging bricks and reset them. The dirt and plants seem to take over and they disappear over time. Now the garden looks all clean and tidy and ready for some fresh beautiful colored fall mums to be tucked in the empty spots. A kind of new beginning.



Each spring I plant these two rusted red wagons, one smaller size stacked inside a bigger one, with Impatiens. Impatiens always look nice and full at this time of year.

I enjoy working in the garden whenever the mosquitoes will leave me alone long enough to accomplish something. The reason I worked in the garden Sunday is that I always work in the garden on August 31st. Or at least for the last 13 years.

13 years ago, when she was dying and couldn't go to the garden, I promised my mom that I would bring the garden to her to enjoy. I did- by bringing in fresh flowers from the garden each day. I took care of her in our home even after she was bedridden and I was 5 months pregnant and had a 3 yr old (E.) to care for too.


We had many frank discussions about death and what I would do without her. How would I go on without her? I told her that I would not mourn by hanging out at her grave. ( Ironically, part of E's mourning process was to have me drive her to the grave 3 or 4 times every week for about 2 years!! The child mourning "experts" told me to do it if that was what she asked for, since Grammy had been a daily part of E's life for her first 3 years; the years that some say are the most developmentally important. She would clean and fuss around the grave marker like a 90 year old widow.)


I told my mom I would feel her with me every day and everywhere...especially in her gardens. (I inherited her house) I promised to "be with her" every August 31st by working in the dirt of a garden. There I can think and solve things weighing heavy on my mind. And find joy in nature and God and the hope of things renewing even after death.



Pictured above are my mom and dad. Pictured below are my aunt and my mom. These were taken in 1950 at my dad's brother's wedding. My mom was 23. I love these images of her. Check out her hat as she stands at the punch bowl!!


I most often addressed my mom as, "Momma".
Pretty weird but... the only one of my three that calls me "Momma", is my E. Guess she listened to me.
For some more weirdness:
I dreamed a dream filled with strange events that had symbolism that made perfect sense just before waking on Friday. My mom was part of it. I got up and immediately started writing it. N. watched me as the cursive written dream story came off my hand and on to the paper as fast as I could scribble. 
I had the girls read it. 
A's response was quick and dry and typical of A.'s wit and wisdom:
"Ok Mom, you keep writing that Mothman stuff." *pause* 
Also weird is what happened last year (read about it here)
The best and very weirdest thing was (this!!)

A Rambling written jumble- little bit of everything- Post

We have been trying to accomplish a lot of yard work lately to be ready for a (belated -by the time we will be ready!) Sweet Sixteen party for E. in July. 

I recall my sweet sixteen party as being the best birthday of my life so far.

I had many, many friends and relatives - young and old alike- attend my party that my mom had catered, and also friends and relatives brought food too. So much yummy food!!

My cake was wonderful...it was made by my sweet sister-in-law, S. It was shaped like a grand piano and the icing was pink and very ornate. The legs and keyboard and music stand portion of the grand piano cake were plastic . I was a learning phase pianist at the time. I haven't played for years, so although I can still read music, I would be very rusty to sit on the piano bench and tap out some songs.

Anyway, back to the yard work. Today wouldn't you know it= it thunder stormed almost the entire day!! I LOVE thunderstorms but I had a list about as long as my arm of things I either needed to do or needed help to do-- OUTSIDE!! In the evening we finally were able to get out and E. helped me to spread grass seed under the pines we had trimmed. It is a vast area of nothing but dirt now with weeds wanting to take over. We had filled in holes the dogs had dug and leveled it out--that took forever- weeks. I am going to rent the dogs out for trench diggers or grave diggers.

Our dog, Socks, is going nuts lately trying to chase the chipmunks that have taken up residency under the porch. A's outside Fluffy cat, used to catch every chipmunk that made the mistake of moving into our yard. Unfortunately, Fluffy got sick and died in just a couple of days' time back at Easter time. She misses him dearly.

Fluffy used up all 10 of his 9 lives!

Fluffy lived a dangerous and wild life. He was adopted as a kitten from the barn where E. used to take English riding lessons. Once when he was about 2 yrs old he was seriously injured from being in a very terrible fight and was stapled and stitched back together. He was so badly hurt and the vet was actually not certain he would survive being mended. ( The vet got almost all our tax refund money that year! Yep, spent on the CAT.). He survived to be beat up many more times, thankfully less seriously, in his night time travels into the rough world of a country woods, curious and adventurous (neutered) male cat.

In other varying mixed topics today...

We also took care of all the large limbs that came down about a week ago off the Cottonwood trees  that seem to reach to the clouds in their grand heights. They are very fragile in high wind and the whole back section of the back yard looked like a tornado had visited, though only strong straight line winds had come through . There were many minor tornadoes nearby our town that day. Lots of trees uprooted and trees snapped off.

The honeysuckle is blooming-- right among the poison oak-- on the fence by the woods!!!

 I worked a little bit on my fern jungle situation in the front yard too, thinning them out so my perennials can be seen!!

The best part is that we finally got some vegetables planted yesterday. Six different varieties of tomatoes, some eggplant, summer squash, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and our new try at celery. Each year we try to grow something new to us in the garden.

Hopefully tomorrow it will not rain so I can get someone to help work in the yard some more!!

Down the garden path

I have to show you my very fun new vintage garden book I found while thrifting. Don't be jealous but...I only paid 25 cents!!

I love the bright cheery graphics on the cover. Inside the cover is plenty of info to pour through as I begin to redo my gardens in the front and back yards. I have big plans to relocate the back yard garden...so wish me luck...or just call me crazy-- cuz I have plenty to keep me busy in the front yard garden. Just look at this mess...I mean natural beauty!!

You know how you look at your yard with a blind eye until someone opens them for you? Well, yesterday my neighbor was showing me his garden and said very casually, "Do you like the ferns so thick in your garden or would you like some starts of my red Bee Balm flowers?" I turned to look at my garden and was aghast!! The ferns seem to sprout one day and the next they have invaded!! Yes. I do like my ferns, yet they seem to have flourished more this spring than any other -with all the unending rain. As beautiful as they are-- I have to point out that somewhere in that jungle is my perennial garden. Can you see it? I can't! My poor perennials are screaming out that they are suffocating.

So... one plan is to transplant lots of ferns!!! Oh and see that out of place baby Maple tree that is not so babyish anymore? It needs to go somewhere else too!

The grass is quite long too as we just spread lime on the lawn to sweeten the acidic results of all the tall tall pines that shed. We have to wait to mow until it is well watered in. I think it is well watered with all this rain we have had!! 

And if that were not enough work in the front yard garden; I am planing to somehow reset the grade of the dirt on each side of the sidewalk. In this photo it looks rather earthy and natural; yet with all the rain, the dirt just keeps washing out over the cement as the garden bed has raised so much higher over time.

Maybe it would be easier to raise the sidewalk!!

Trying out my camera-

I walked around today and tried different shots with my new camera.

A very close up look at my Impatiens out front.

My old rusty wheel barrow that I pulled out of someone's trash pile.
All planted and bushy, it turned out just as I'd hoped.


My old rusty wagons stacked double decker and
planted by the front door.
That's A's cat, Fluffy, the self appointed greeter!


N. (with a fresh haircut) holding one of the babies
that's all grown up now.
That's Cottonball and he looks like a clone of his Momma rabbit.
N. on the tree swing.


A corner of the 3-seasons room.
I found the really cool cigar store Indian (along
the curb!) that 
 will soon go to live at my brother's house. We trade furniture and other stuff back and forth, like shopping at each other's house. So fun!!

Two different shots of my ceiling in the 3-seasons room. I painted the ceiling with fluffy clouds and blue sky. The real name for the blue paint is

"overcast"!

I have butterflies hanging from the ceiling all over...different colors and sizes. The ribbon draped sheer curtains were really a shower curtain I bought at a local discount store for under $3. The paper stars were bought on clearance, $1.99. The designs are cut out and the sun shines through them as they twirl slowly around on their strings.

You can see some of the lights strung on the top of the porch swing (another curb find in the neighborhood. Really!), with striped round paper shades (under the purple star). It is fun to sit out there at night on the swing with just those lights on! The swing cushion is covered in a striped sheet that I bought on clearance at Target. It goes great with the ribbon curtains and bright paper stars.

1968 and Thumbelina

I have been so impressed with all the beautiful Marigolds where ever I go this summer. It made me think of these pictures my Mom took in 1968. She always had big, beautiful, vigorously blooming Marigolds. I don't do well growing them. I know they are one of the less fussy flowers to grow. Still, they elude my thumb - green or otherwise.

Speaking of thumb-- my favorite childhood doll, Thumbelina, is in one of these pictures.  She was like a sweet friend and provided plenty of hugs!!

Me in 1968 in front of my house.
Me holding Thumbelina, my friend Joan that lived next door, my friend Becky from down the street. Joan moved after 6th grade. Becky moved after high school.

Thumbelina. Well, VERY well loved and played with. She was much more pretty before I cut off her hair thinking it would grow back...that's how you learn.