Finally Managed

Cloudy days have been with us all weekend...

bringing rain along with the cooler temperatures.
.

The sun tried it's best to break through Saturday morning...
.

but it remained a sunless day....

.

but that didn't keep the pear trees from knowing it's spring...

and time for them to sprout their blossom buds...

which they managed to do!

The Forsythia blooms are getting thicker too...




they could almost substitute for the sun.





Herhusband and I did manage to do some yard work.
He cut and I stacked the wood he removed from a limb
that fell a while back...
.


We're leaving the main section to serve as a bench


or something for the grandkids to play around on and...


just hope they don't manage to get hurt.






Herhusband managed to find time to split some logs...






and I found time to cook a few meals...

Sausage & Peppers & Baked Pasta...



Salmon & Kale Salad...




..and Reese's Cups Cookies for the grandkids...
their favorite!




The later it became...the cloudier it became





... the sun kept trying but never managed to break through.




The end of March last year was a little sunnier...
I remember...because March 30th is my birthday and...
in this photo of the spring flowers I received...
you can see the sun is very bright.
.
The poinsettas on each side...
I managed to keep over from Christmas!




This is a photo of the very last flowers given to me...
by my Mother...2 years ago...for my birthday.
.

and this I received yesterday from my sister Joyce...
a beautiful card and 2 book markers she crocheted.

We both love to read when we manage to find the time!
.

My daughter and I went to a Julie Zickefoose Lecture

and book signing...
... this is her book I bought for myself...
.

...and...this is a photo...

...I finally managed to post...

of myself...

...but only because...Monday's my Birthday!!!
"64"

Reminiscing Mood

Wednesday's sunrise was quickly replaced by a thick

layer of dark clouds. It had started to rain by the time

I returned from putting grandsons on the school bus..

.

.

It's still raining this Thursday morning

...and it has put me in a reminiscing mood.

.

So I will tell you some of my history!

This is my Great Grandparents and their 11 children.

My grandmother is standing between her parents with a

flower in her hair. The two smaller children on the right

were superimposed after they were born.

.

.

Their family home was in Virginia, I remember visiting

often when young. Both of their parentage history can be traced

back to John Rolfe and the Indian Princess Pocahontas.

~

.

I have the glasses my great grandparents wore...

her small change purse...and her personal folding fan.

These items would be 100 years old or so.

.

This is a butter churn by my front door...I have special

memories of her homemade butter and cornbread.

.

They raised chickens...
and this basket with dried and paper flowers...
is the one she used to gather the eggs.
.


This is my mother-in-law's old picnic basket.
It sits in my computer room.




My mother received this cookie tin...full of cookies...
as a peace offering from my dad over 50 years ago.
Don't know why he needed to apologize!





This was my mother's sewing basket...
...it had been a gift from me years ago...
.


and these are just a few of the many quilts mother made.
We know she made over a hundred...they were gifts to
friends and family. At one time she had a suspended quilting
frame in the lower level of my home.




This is a chalk drawing my daughter did of the hillside
by our home...
.


and 2 small paintings she did while in college...
.
.


College is where Annette met her husband Rick.
So...I have a son and son-in-law named Rick!

This is some of the pottery Rick has made ...

notice the lantern with the star cutouts...

I helped make that... after being shown how of course!
.


A few more pieces made by my son-in-law!




This wreath was made by me...it's in the dining room...
high above the window...making it hard to dust.




I have a wall full of pictures of my grandchildren
above my computer desk. Remember I have 9 of them.
Three girls and six boys!
.


This is an old photo of my children when they were much
younger!...
.

Steve - Annette - Rick


I will end my reminiscing...with my family in canoes...
...on a sunnier day...
paddling down Todd's Fork, a small local river.
.

So Day By Day

No! It does not look like this yet...just wish it did.

The weather goes back and forth...warm to cold.

I want to sit outside everyday and not have to be busy

to stay warm...I want to sit in the swing and read!

.

I'm being a little impatient...but I want to see the

orange of the poppies and the purple of the iris.

.

Although I admit...Saturday's sunrise was beautiful

with it's own shades of orange and purple.

At least there are the golden daffodils...but they look lonely!

Even the green of the Naked Ladies behind them will fade

before actually blooming...they flower later in the season!

All of the lillies have a lot of growing to do before they bloom...

Below are some that were a gift from my Mother.

They need to be sprayed with this 'vile concoction'

to keep from being eaten by deer.

.

That's what I have been doing very carefully...

you don't want to get any on you...not a drop!

I finally managed to pot the gift of pansy flowers also.

This is the wicked plant spray...it isn't harmful...
has garlic and eggs listed as the ingredients...smells like
rotten potatoes are in there too...no lasting odor
to the area...but deer must pick up the smell.



Before we used this vile spray...the deer would even eat
the very tough and sharp Yucca plants. The fibrous
leaves were left very ugly after their snack!




Around noon I picked up Alivia for a small visit.
Alivia is son Rick's youngest daughter.
She was going to help me cook lunch.



She has this thing for olives...just wanted a few first...



So she ate green olives...while I added black olives to
the bulgar wheat.



Then she did some taste testing before we plated the food.



She also sampled the frozen peas before they were cooked.

Lunch is the main meal of the day for us!

On Sunday...when I went outside...I noticed the sky

was already busy with heavy traffic...

and in the field...and later the front yard

was our son Steve...with his metal detector.

Within the hour...

Grant and Andrew came over to ride their dirt bikes.

Grant is daughter Annette's youngest son...

and Andrew is son Steve's oldest son.

Grant on left...Andrew on right.

We feed the birds sunflower seeds...year round.

I had 6 feeders to fill...

The Red-Bellied and the Downey Woodpeckers take

their seeds to a nearby tree to eat.

while the Chickadees and Cardinals stay put...

until the upside down Nut-hatch and Goldfinch take over.

So while the birds ate their sunflower seeds...

we ate a lunch of cheesy tuna macaroni.

So day by day...
...I check on the flowers...feed the birds ...and spray

twice a week with that vile concoction that seems to work.

The flowers are just growing too slow for me...

...but they are growing!

Forgot to mention I finally saw the movie "Twilight"

Annette gave me one to watch!