Thank You

Thank you Annette!

Annette at A Wisp of Creativity gifted me with this lovely meaningful Bella Sinclair Award. Annette is the one that introduced me to blogging, for which I will be forever grateful; she also is a joy to have as a daughter!

This award was created by Ces in honor of her dear friend Bella to "celebrate art, inspiration, friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring". I would like to pass this award on to fellow blogger friends to honor the friendly gestures they have shown me.

~

Barb at Live and Learn has a similar love for

the outdoors and the pleasures it can bring.

~

Delwyn at Hazy Moon takes you on beautiful

walks in the exotic nature of her country.

~

Jackie at Teacher's Pet can teach us all

a thing or to about appreciation.

~

Claudia at Journey of an Italian Cook

has delicious recipes and stories to share.

~

Jientje at Heaven is in Belgium takes and

shares the most wonderful photos of her country.

~

The Scribe at Riverdaze makes everyone

want to stop and observe life and nature.
He can just ignore the sisterhood part

of this award!

Thanks to all who visit my blog!!!

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!

Green Things

Happy St.Patrick's Day...

I know it's not a Leprechaun...but it is...Green!

.

A green dragon...
.

that my daughter Annette made for

a summer reading program at the local library where she works.

There's a lamp shade...

a large trash can with wheels...for mobility

and other strange objects I can't remember...
.

under all that paper mache!
.

.

She's very talented in many different artistic ways!
She also keeps me supplied with library books!

This is us "Several" years ago flying a kite in the field!
.

Four leaf clovers are associated with March 17th...right?

Plus...they're green!
...or at least most are...


This little plastic box contains a few...
found over 25 years ago...they are not green!



For my birthday back in 1999...

Annette gave me a nature journal...



I jotted down notes about the different birds or
animals I saw and the timing of their return each year. .


I kept track of the greening of the field and
flowering of the trees and plants!

Little by little... it became the keeper of
4 leaf clovers the grandchildren...I...and others found.






Remember.....if we hadn't found...picked...and

and saved them...


this bunny would have eaten them!


Click to enlarge...there may be some there yet to find....


...in all that green....


...but I doubt it...




because my journal has 58 pages of 4 leaf clovers!






These are...




just...




a few...





Eventually...I had to start another journal...

As soon as it greens up and Spring fully arrives...

I'm sure more will be found...picked...and saved.

As you can easily see...Katie finds the most!

~

I'll end with another look at the...jolly green dragon...

"Leprechaun Substitute"

Like Sunshine

This morning started off as a bitterly cold, dreary day,

but gradually brightened with sunshine, as the day progressed.

Sometime after 12:00 noon, my day got even brighter,

when my granddaughter Amanda stopped for a visit.

Amanda is in her second year of college, copy editor of her

college newspaper, and very good at creative writing.

Her creativity started at a young age.

This is the innocent young child.....

that wrote poems making fun of her gramma's cake!

Later in her young life she graduated to pulling

very creative pranks.

Late one night without my knowing it, she stole an

old stone squirrel from my flower garden.

I started receiving ransom notes through the mail,

along with pictures

of the threatened

and tortured squirrel!

Even though knowing,

that I thought it very funny,

she never let on,

so I was convinced it had been done by

my older grandson Dustin.

This went on for about a week and then Amanda slipped up...

she sent a photo with her baby sister at the bat!

Then the squirrel mysteriously reappeared one day-

^

.....covered in band-aids!

Amanda

Before leaving, Amanda mentioned she had finished reading

"Prodigal Summer"- so I gave her my copy

of "The Shack" to take home.

Amanda's visits are like sunshine.

and then.....

It wasn't an hour later and I had another visitor

to brighten my day. My granddaughter Katie came by.

Remember she is our expert confetti maker.

Katie is a sophomore in high school and has a babysitting

job right after school, but today it was canceled, so I benefited.

Katie is a sweet, bubbly, happy, young teenage girl.....

.

.......just don't get in her way when she's mad or driving!

.

Sunday is her birthday!

Katie

Katie is like sunshine to me too!

~

Then-

Later my daughter Annette stopped by

to give me a book, so now I'm reading "Paper Daughter"

by M.Elaine Mar.

Annette is sunshine in my life too!

~

Valentine Gifts

It's Valentine's Day

So, Happy Valentine's Day to all nine

of our grandchildren..... here in this collage of photos-

and here's a collage of just a few Valentine cards saved over the years.

This next photo is of the unusually bright planet Venus.

It was taken during that very brief thunderstorm we just had.

Because of my "shaky camera syndrome"-

the blurred image came out like this -

-HONEST-

"a heart shape I will be keeping "

Another heart shape I've had for a while is this

"enormous"

pink heart shaped box, which was full of chocolates back in 1962.

.
.

.

But our favorite St. Valentine's Day Gift is from February14,1965.

.

.

.

Our daughter--- Annette Marie!!!

Happy Birthday Annette!
&
Happy St.Valentine's Day!