Garden Colors....

This time of year, the blooms are showy, and full.

For a brief, shining moment, the peak color enhances everything, and we're lovely.


Like Queen Anne's lace? It's a weed, and was dug up along a roadside.




The butterfly weed came home with us from a trip to Williamsburg.


Jim wants to get out the machete to hack a path for the corgis, through the jungle. I'm thinkin'....what jungle?


The hollyhocks are seven foot tall!



These bushy sunflowers, bloom all summer long, and thicken up, making a hedge.

Lots of color, lots of birds, lots of work...but man, I love the colors!

Thinking Caps on please...

First of all, I just can't figure out why I'm unable to comment on my fav blogs, like Penniwig's, but can on others? It's darn frustratin'.

Been thinking about the past...a lot. Thinking about childhood, teenhood and adulthood.
Decades. Think about that. Decades....as in tens of years....this summer is my fortieth, as in 4-0, ouch that hurts to admit...40th class reunion. High school was so long ago....obviously, huh?
Anyway....today there is a quiz. Today, I'm asking you all to put on your thinking caps and rather than write your answers in the old college exam 'blue book', I want you to comment, in a sentence or two, your answer to the following questions, if you are willing to play along.

1. What is one childhood memory of your grandmother?

Mine is sleeping in her feather bed, with feather pillows, mattress, and coverlet.
And...getting lost in all that fluff.

2. What is one outstanding memory of your teen years?

Mine is riding on the back of blue scooter on a summer night for the very first time feeling the soft air, and freedom of it all, being scared to death and hanging on to a nice boy named Joe.

3. What is a mental flashback you have of your motherhood experience?

Mine is the feeling of elation/pride/awe at the birth, and at the high school graduation of my two offspring. There have been other moments, but those two things jump out as biggies.

Free Paint!

My contribution today is tell you all of a good thing. Hurry and visit the Glidden Paint site as they are having a free paint giveaway. This will enable you to do even MORE Git-R-done projects.
Hurry, this only lasts a few more days, and supplies are limited. Hey now, don't shoot the messenger!
I ordered the color celery sticks by the way. If all goes well, it will be documented for a future Git-R-done entry!
Onward and Upward now, visit Monica, one of the hosts of Git-R-Done, and peruse what projects women are doing across America.

Which would you rather ?

With temps across America higher than the norm, and air conditioners humming nonstop; I thought we should look at the alternative to these early on dog days of summer.

Option A: We accept what we currently have with a smile and a large iced tea.



Or...Option B: As viewed in these photographs.

Birthday Boy!

How can Josh be 35 today? His mama is only 39.....ok, like for the 18th time, but still....where did those 35 years go?




He's at his special camp all this week, in a cabin on the lake, North of here about forty miles. He's attended the past eighteen years.
It's his favorite week of the year, and he gleans as much happiness out of it as he can.His Jenny goes there as well, so believe me, that boy is smiling, and will be all week!

Funny ol' kid...

Now..you know that I adore being a Grammy.
April says that lil' Emmy loves her bling.
Loves her skirts.
Loves her Dora underwears.
She wants piggy tails and more bling bling.
But when she plays...she's all business, and all tomboy.
She's chipped three teeth already playing so hard.
She's two years and four months old.
Check out those knees...
It could be a bumpy ride for Mama and Daddoo.

Bring it on...

Now...who doesn't like an icy cold popsicle on a hot day, sitting barefoot on a porch swing?
Go outside as much as you can and enjoy the night air...summer nights are magic! Listen to the croakies, and the sounds of evening little league games.

Start looking for fireflies, I saw some during the daytime the other day sitting on a hollyhock leaf, soaking up rays I guess, for the night show.

Who cares what you look like in a suit...go swimming!
Girls...leave those ovens off, plug in the crockpot, or fire up the grill. Put on a short skirt and dance barefoot in the kitchen!
Emmy ate her way through the strawberry patch! Nothing better than a berry warmed by the sun!
Summer's here, go live it!

Junk Party ....

When we went to Berea, Kentucky, this past week, on a gal-pal jaunt, we hit several antique/junque shops. I was so happy to find some items that would be fun to own, and take home. I spent less than ten dollars for all of these items.

This little basket was in perfect condition, and I know that it's old because of the rim. I've seen this type at plenty of auctions.

Daughter April collects cookie cutters, and lil' Emmy loves to work side by side in the kitchen with her mommy. Emmy loves cats and this old cat cutter with a little wooden knob will make it easier for her to make her cut-outs!


This jar is a gem. It has a non perfect shape, which endears itself to me. (Sorta like my shape!)
Go visit Me and My House to see more Junk Party entries!

Git R Done Friday!

Hey, I'm jumping on the bandwagon joining Classy Chassy in her new Friday meme. Check out her site to view all the Git R Done Friday posts to see what people are doing, just for fun.

For some strange reason I headed to Walmart...looking for cans of spray paint. Am I a huffer on the sly? No....just trying to cipher up a project...and one was whirling around in the back of my brain, but hadn't come to surface yet. Colors....so many colors....feeling like Alice in Wonderland, first picking up lavender, nope...then moss green....not quite right...oh look! Cherry red!

Back home, I started looking for things in the yard to spray cherry red. First the old bench that my dad made decades ago. Then a red star stake, then the red star hanging on the front porch. Finally, the big kahuna idea hit...spray the garden gate cherry red so that it would "pop" at our house entry, in the arbor.


Jim helped hang the gate saying that red may be a little too bright, and that we should go with green. "Phooey" said his sassy wife. "I want it to PoP!" And it does.

We went to the Shipshewana flea market yesterday and I found plants that would help the new look. Blue salvia, a pink mum,and my fav...black eyed susan.

Vintage Thursday!

I'm finally rejoining the group via Coloradolady's Vintage Thursday meme. I used to be a regular but life got busy for awhile.
This picture hung in my mother's home, our old homeplace on the Tippecanoe River, for more than forty years. She always said that the picture depicted her three children, and the spacing in age looked close to what it is between my brothers and I. My two brothers are five and three years older than me.



I was thrilled that she gave it to me recently. She's been living with my oldest brother for over a year and a half, and has been dispersing her possessions between kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. At 92, it's time to do that. The colors are perfect for our household; and the memories that this framed print holds are priceless!

Can I say this on the Internet?

I don't want to offend anyone, but sheesh, June is a great time in NE Indiana.



Things just pop...here's our veggie garden this year, on the deck. I didn't have enough oomph to dig up the flower beds, so took the easy way out. The pot of herbs is so handy. I just come out with scissors in hand, and clip what's needed.

Somebody asked me what a corn lily was...here they are. I dug these up decades ago along the roadside.



There are signs of a corgi kingdom throughout the yard. Corgis rule, plain and simple.





Dolly, Jim's mom dog will be going back to Colorado on Saturday. Traveling in the motorhome made it easier for Mom to bring her dog, and to see more of America with her son.



A chaotic, cottage garden...shabby for sure! Hmmm...what does that say about us?
I plant weeds too...by digging up Queen Anne's Lace from the roadside years ago. It tends to take over, so it got thinned out last Fall. They're so pretty when they blow gracefully in the wind.



This is what the other side of 720 square feet looks like in bloom. By July things should really be full and blooming.
Sigh...the weeds should kick in by then as well!

Nice!

I've met many a darn nice sista while blogging. It floors me how many talented, industrious people are out there, living lives either so similar or totally diverse from my own...linking up via a comment. The world comes to your computer screen, literally!
Sarah, from Vintage Figments, sent me this wonderful piece of art that she created. I had admired it in a comment, and darn if she didn't send it to me as a gift. I love it. Sarah, thanks so much for your thoughtfulness.

So....we went to Kentucky

My friend Melody's husband died a little over a year ago, and she needed to take a memory roadtrip to feel better, so that's what we did.

We were so far east in KY, we were nearly in West Virginia. The state parks there; we visited Greenbo and Natural Bridge, are lush, green, rocky cliffed and beautiful.


There have been cut backs, evident everywhere these days, but the beauty of it all can't be downsized. We saw a red fox with a black tipped tail, a fawn who had lost its spots, and a big dead snake. We hit the antique shops in Grayson and Berea.
The evening play viewed from the outdoor ampitheatre at Greenbo was very good. Local civic players do plays every season, and compete with the bullfrogs as evening turns into night. Moths fly around under the stage lights, and the whole experience is so casual, and relaxing. Great fun.


Melody wanted to check out missionary work in one of the poorest areas of the nation, back in the hills in Kentucky.
So, we explored online, then went "hunting" for Nada, where a tiny, wood board, whitewashed church hosts a week long mission for the 5 or 6 children still living in the area. Everyone else has moved out. There are no other children in the speck of a community. They need so much...crayons, books, toys, clothes.

We ended up speaking to the elderly lady who began it all. Which we took as a message from above....freaky things happen, and it was strange that on a whim, we found...the founder.





We stopped at Natural Bridge, two miles down the road from the almost non-existent Nada community. I couldn't hike down all the steps to Natural Bridge, and neither one of us wanted to take the sky lift, so we didn't see the bridge afterall. But, did eat our Subway six-inch at a shady picnic table before heading to Berea.

Berea is really an interesting place to stop...and shop...and watch professional artisans weave, blow glass, make jewelry, paint, and do woodworking. Berea College is there, and that's what they do...teach crafts, make log homes, etc. Remember the old Foxfire books? I'm going to the library to try to find them again, and reread the lessons found inside them. Trust me people, stop at Berea! The antiques were very affordable, and the folks were friendly. Mel and I got our Cracker Barrel fix taken care of there too!
We drove home in a horrible rainstorm, but once we hit Indiana the sky turned blue again. We got home in the early evening to lush, watered gardens that seemed to have grown a foot in just four days. The dogs were well and are looking forward to our country "sheep/cow/pinto pony sightings" ride. Maybe tomorrow.

Girls Roadtrip!

The last time I took off with a girlfriend on a short roadtrip, I was probably twenty years old!
That will be rectified tomorrow, as my pal Melody and I take off for the far eastern corner of Kentucky. We're going to Greenbo State Park which has a large lake, trails, and an outside ampitheatre that has outside plays. We hope to arrive in time Sunday evening for the last performance of "The Odd Couple". Melody used to go there with her parents, and it's been thirty years since her last visit. So...we're going to relive some memories for her, and make some new ones! Tiny towns near by have antique shops so I hope they'll be open for business come Monday.

We'll only be gone 3-4 days. Jim will be home to babysit the three dogs as his Mom takes the South Shore out of South Bend to visit her brother in Chicago.


Here are some photos of where we'll be. Girls rule! The GPS (Helga) is going along, and Jim made us a map. Neither one of us has any sense of direction, so wish us luck!

Dog Day!

Jim's Mom from Colorado is visiting and her golden retriever Dolly came along. She's a blonde and so, so sweet. All three dogs are getting along amazingly well. Today they had a field trip. Three dogs in the back of a Chevy Tracker! They had a good run on the wide open prairie behind our local high school. Their smiles were wide, and their tongues were hanging by the time we left.



We went to see the recently sheared sheep.


All the dogs took a turn sticking their head out for a peep. The sheep were snoozing in the sunshine.



The dogs waited patiently while we hit the quilt shop, and stopped at a garage sale.

They had a fun day, and came home exhausted. We've been stepping over logs of dogs in the middle of the floor.
>We have three people and three dogs in our (720 square foot) cottage on the hill. Hope the walls don't bulge!
The weather is perfect,

and the roses are blooming. The hollyhocks are budded, and the corn lilies should bloom any day. I love June, don't you?

Corgi Trivia...from our house

God love 'em...I do love living with corgis. They are a real hoot. Shedders, oh my yes, but really a fun, cuckoo breed that makes me smile from sunrise to sunset...most days!

Corgis don't use napkins--but they do wipe the sides of their mouth on the carpet.

Corgis can chirp, howl like a hound, woof-woof, do heavy breathing and sigh, but what I love the most is the "chirping" sound they do, and cock their head.

They are horrible beggers, and their tummies are never full. They should be able to oink, because truly, they are little piggies.

And, when a corgi shakes...the shake goes down their spines and ends up as a big wiggle on their round rumps. The "pems" have the round rumps exaggerated because of the bobbed tails. Lots of junk in the trunk, if ya' know what I mean!

Now that we've had corgi kids for nine years, I can't go back to cats.
I can't go to another breed. Like Tasha Tudor, I'm hooked on the short legged, foxy faced little dears from Wales. Call me crazy, but I will always, from now on be a Corgidogmama! (Lord willing and the creek don't rise!)