Random Beauty

This is some of the beauty that I find uplifting on a summer morning. There are so many things that will fill your heart with joy if you just open your eyes really look at the beauty around you.

I'm Back!

It's been a long time since I last blogged. A really long time. I thought I would share some photos from this morning's wandering around the yard.
Summer has finally loosened it's unbearably hot grip for the first time in months. The sky is a beautiful blue. The air is actually a comfortable temperature and the humidity is not smacking me in the face when I step outside. In the months of June, July and August, I dream of Washington State, Montana, even Alaska (anywhere where the temperature is below 80). I watched Miss T drive off to the high school. (Yes, Miss T drives. I said I hadn't blogged in a long time.) Minnie Mouse the Dachshund wandered around sniffing under bushes looking for lizards or bunnies or the neighbor's cat.

 I checked on the garden. The okra is finally starting to produce really well. We ate our first pan of fried okra a couple of days ago. I could eat it until it is coming out of my ears! My husband will pickle some of it and we will chop and freeze some for future batches of gumbo. Yum! Shrimp Gumbo!
 Okay enough wandering for now, it's time to get busy before the heat returns.

A Rainy Day

It is raining this morning. If you live in the Northwest, you would say "Again?". But here in in the South, a rainy day after 2 weeks of temps in the mid 90s is sheer relief. It was such a simple pleasure to sip my coffee and watch the rain. I'm not the only one enjoying the rain, my plants,lawn and the birds are delighted! Later the sun will come out and the humidity will rise, but for now I will savor this time. Today would be a good day to bake or cross stitch, but unfortunately there is grocery shopping and a doctor's appointment on the agenda. (Heavy sigh.) So for now, I'll have one more cup of coffee and savor the rain.

The View From My Bench

I've been busy lately creating a haven in my backyard. I live in a subdivision with houses all around. I began this particular project a year ago. It's taken quite a while, but it is near completion. I originally just wanted to hide the view of my neighbor's trailer, which has since been relocated. It has now become a private place to sit away from the noise of the air conditioner and hum of the pool filter system. A place to just be alone. I began by digging up the yard and helping my husband put up a lattice trellis. Then I edged it with leftover bricks (from a previous project), put in plants which consisted mostly of daylilies, roses from my mother in law or various things from other parts of our yard. To anchor the bed, I moved an old climbing rose to the center of the bed. This rose has history! It started as a piece of a rose in my mother in laws garden 14 years ago. I planted the piece in the yard of a home we rented. When we moved into our current home (10 years ago) I planted some of it on the east & west sides of the house. I have found that no matter where you plant this rose it puts down some pretty "deep" roots. As it turns out, it is growing well not just in the new bed, but also in its former location.

Last winter a neighbor, put the bench out for trash pickup. My husband brought it home, put a fresh coat of paint on the wrought iron and attached the wood with new screws and bolts. Now, I have a nice bench for my retreat. The roses have started to cover the lattice quite nicely. I've added plants I've discovered at Lowe's & Home Depot, but my favorite plants and the knockout roses have come from the feed store (one of my favorite places). I found the bird bath at the Tractor Supply Store. It's amazing the places you can plunder through when you live in an agricultural community!
In the afternoon, the area is shady (thanks to my husband's boat shed). Now, I'm adding little things that suit my fancy and make me happy. I hope to enjoy many warm days enjoying the flowers, the shade, and the calm while reading or stitching.

I hope you can find a retreat like mine. It is well worth the effort. As things grow and change, I'll give you an occasional glimpse of the view from my bench

Spring in My Front Yard

It's a beautiful spring day here. I love spring! I know, I know in the fall you hear me say I love fall! I guess what I love about spring is its beauty and comfortable warm air and sunshine. I love fall because the sun seems to move further south, casting a golden glow on everything. There are also the beautiful fall colors and most of all the sweet relief of the summer heat and humidity. Summer on the other hand is not my favorite time of year in our part of the country. It is hard to enjoy days, (No, make that months!) of temps in the 90s and humidity in the 90s also! I scurry from air conditioned place to air conditioned place or to a body of water!

Okay, back to spring, this is the time of year when our Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow bush has a profusion of various shades of purple flowers. It is named this because the flowers are a different color the first three days after opening. It is an evergreen here and blooms most of the year, but it is prettiest in the spring. It also puts out lots of baby bushes, which I'm relocating to various parts of the yard. The pink roses are Knockout roses. I've come to love Knockout roses. They produce a profusion of blooms mostly in spring & summer and don't require much watering or care. That's quite a feat for plants here! I've been thinking about putting in a brick walkway that will meander around the day lily bed. Ah well, enough daydreaming and planning. It's time for Maddie the Labs' morning walk and to enjoy another beautiful spring day.

Lists

I am a "list" person. I have a habit of making a list of everything I do or need. It helps me to focus and get things done before my household and life turn into complete chaos. I get satisfaction from crossing things off when I finish. It's a sense of "Take that! You're conquered!" When you look at my fridge you will see grocery lists, my oldest grandaughter's school schedule & karate schedule, notices of upcoming events, recipes of things I want to cook and important business cards. The only 2 things on my fridge that don't apply to time are a Zits comic about teenagers, which gives my 13 year old granddaughter and me a laugh, and my 16 month old granddaughter's note (dictated to her mom) and a drawing made with the crayons I sent to her. (Thank you Naomi! It's beautiful!)
Yesterday, I started out early in the morning with just a few things on my list. By midmorning, I had composed a "full" page of chores! Of course, I realized it would take me days to get through this list, but when I finish there will hopefully be more of a sense of order around here. I find a lot of chaos can wear you down. I did accomplish a lot yesterday, but as you can see, I still have a long way to go. The biggest things I did yesterday were laundry, defrosting the freezer in the garage, bathing 3 dogs, skimming & cleaning our pool for the warm weather coming up, taking apart the pipe under the bathroom sink & unclogging the drain of Miss T's lovely long locks, and doing a general house cleaning. Of course Maddie the Lab needs to be walked twice a day to get rid of some of her "Lab" energy!
Today, I don't feel as ambitious, so I will tackle the things on my list that are either small things that don't require much time or things that I enjoy. Cleaning out and organizing my closet & dresser (my least favorite chore) can wait until tomorrow!
So, after spending some time this morning piddling around in my pajamas, doing things I enjoy, it's time to get busy.
I hope your day is good & your lists are short!

Eating Local

I've always had the urge to do what I can to "save the planet", or live green, or leave a very small carbon foot print. I must admit that I don't always recycle that shampoo bottle or aluminum can as I should. In our little town there is no recycling pickup, but you can haul plastics, newspapers, aluminum cans, & cardboard boxes to the recycling bins at the high school. I've also been thinking about eating "local" since I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In the past week I've noticed 2 new produce stands popping up on vacant lots in the middle of town with one advertising fresh, local produce. I'm going to stop by them very soon. Today, however, I went to The Windmill Market in Fairhope after seeing their facebook post announcing local strawberries just picked this morning. Pints were $2 and flats were $15. I bought 3 pints and a bunch of locally grown spinach. I wanted to see just what I could buy and prepare that was organic and/or locally grown. For lunch today I made scrambled eggs (from local yard chickens) with garlic, onions and chopped local spinach and a salad which included today's spinach, carrots from my garden and the strawberries. My granddaughter Miss T declared it delicious.! Dessert was yogurt topped with Magnolia Granola which was made a few miles from here using organic ingredients. For dinner we enjoyed shrimp cooked in garlic & butter sauce. (The shrimp was purchased last fall from a local shrimp boat & stored in the freezer.) We also had Pappardelle's spinach lemon, herb fettucini ( not locally made, but also purchased at The Windmill) Tomorrow we're having hamburgers made from the beef of grass fed cows raised 30 miles away. It wasn't cheap $6 a pound.

Though it was hard, I walked away from all the homemade bread and pastries, deciding instead to bake bread myself with the help of Miss T. She learned how to knead bread today. We made one white loaf and one cinnamon loaf that we're having toasted for breakfast in the morning with those delicious strawberries or with strawberry jam I made last week.

I still have quite a way to go in my effort to eat local, but it will get easier in the next few months with the community farmer's markets starting up and our garden's tomatoes,peppers and cucumbers producing as fast as we can eat them. I'm going to try canning tomatoes this year if all goes well.