As Our Life Goes On

It seems like such a short time ago that our oldest granddaughter helped her grandpa plant a maple tree in our yard. The tree is now very tall and produces beautifully colored leaves in the Fall. Our granddaughter has graduated from Georgia State and will start her first year as a teacher this month. How did that time go away so quickly?  Both of our granddaughters have helped plant trees in our yard and both trees are very large now. We think of the trees as being special trees and refer to them as the trees that they planted rather than the type of tree that they are. 

Wrens are nesting in a house at the other end of the garden near the iron bench. They won't tolerate my presence so there is no sitting there. They scold me even as I travel down the brick path to go through the gate in the fence.  There are many kinds of beautiful daisies blooming at this time including a very tall flower.  I usually don't like to hear people say "mom had one" but my mom had the beautiful tall yellow flowers in her garden as long as I could remember. She had a large flower garden with a circle of double flowered daffodils that appeared every Spring. She called this her "magic circle".  The tall yellow flowers grew near one edge her colorful garden. I am happy to have these flowers as a reminder of my childhood. They make me happy. See bloom below. 

I had considered bringing a couple of my house plants in from the breezeway. Then I noticed a white area with tiny iridescent bead-like reddish round things clustered next to the patch of white. The picture above greatly magnifies the size of the tiny lady beetles that had just hatched out of the egg mass. These could be the Asian lady bugs which can infest homes as they overwinter. I like the traditional red lady bugs with the black spots. Actually I'm not sure what these are. Without magnification they were very tiny. 

It was a cooler bright morning and we needed to go to Summit Racing to pick up a gas tank for the Suburban. Lovely weather, not much traffic and good company made it an easy trip. There were only a few people in the store as it was still early. Things went well until we got to the pick up counter.  An older man was standing there waiting and not only was about 8" of his butt crack showing. His underwear was visible and his stomach hung over the pants in the front. If the pants would have been much lower much more would have been visible. He seemed oblivious to this exposure so it has to be assumed that he runs around like this most of the time.  Though it was pretty gross we could not wipe the smiles off of our faces as we stood in line behind him. We had to look the other way to keep from laughing so what kind of people does that make us? 

I don't like hot weather. When the temperatures hover above 80 degrees my brain shuts down. It is very difficult to muddle through the most basic of household chores. The single large capacity window air conditioner that we have seemed to keep it somewhat tolerable in the house but it quit working a couple of days ago. Our brick house holds the heat and as the temperatures outside started to rise above 90 degrees it got more and more uncomfortable inside of our house. The upstairs temperature got extremely hot.  Fortunately a friend had given us an air conditioner a number of years ago that he no longer needed. The upright slider size units are a bit more unusual than the traditional window air conditioners. We were happy to accept this gift and now it was time to use it.  With a little help from our son and his wife we had the house cooling off again. 

This big toad was in our garage but we opted to put it out near to the garden. It would be too easy to roll over this large animal. My husband's high school class is planning a reunion which may take place later in the Summer or early Fall. His class has a reunion every 5 years. My own high school class has not had a reunion in many years. I can only remember the 20th reunion of my class having taken place.  The talk of his reunion brought up a sad memory. About 5 years ago I got a phone call from a classmate that I had not seen in many years. He talked about the possibility of having a small get together of local classmates rather than a huge reunion. I liked the thought but we did not act on that. We talked as if we were close neighbors who see each other every day rather than long lost friends who had not seen each other for a long time. He talked about the classmates that he had seen or knew about and I did the same. An hour or so went by quickly.  We grew up o

Our Little Flower Garden Rumbling in the Swamp A low rumbling was coming from the swamp at the bottom of the big hill on the West side of the yard. I descended the steep hill to investigate. It was the deepest frog voice that I had ever heard from this area. I imagine a "super frog" with a sound that causes vibrations in the water around it as it makes the deep roaring sound. The voices of the other frogs chime in but they sound pale and wispy compared to the sound of the bull frog. I am unable to see the frog.  The vegetation around this wetlands area is so thick and tall that it is impossible to see beyond the very edges of the area. The button bushes have rallied from being frozen at the tips in the spring and are starting to form blooms. Tall weeds with little violet color clusters are blooming further from the shore. Little yellow flowers hug the ground around the edges.  I am thankful for the gifts of sight and sound and the ability to enjoy t

Japanese Beetles Iridescent colorful They eat my flowers -Caroline

Thinking that taking a pill before being around the animals  at our friends farm to help alleviate my allergies seemed like a good idea. I wonder though if it would have been worse if I had not taken the pill. The violent sneezing started halfway through the visit and the dripping nose did not stop for a day or so. My eyes were stuck shut with a  sticky crusted goo on the day after the party at the farm. The good times had with friends always overshadows the allergic problems that the large assortment of cats, dogs and farm animals might cause. I'm back to normal and ready for more parties. 

Yesterday was a great day for the annual covered dish garden party at our friends farm. The temperature was perfect and the insects did not seem to be evident in any great numbers. An abundance of food filled the kitchen table.The buffet in the great room of her over 200 year old farmhouse was overflowing with home made pies, cakes,  cookies and other yummy deserts. The miniature donkeys seemed uninterested in the large gathering of people. Some friends that we had not seen for a while were there and a great time was had by all. 

This is the first mullein plant that we have observed in the vicinity of the Pennsylvania camp. It is growing next to the cornfield that is just in back of the trailer. The yellow flowers have not yet opened on the spike-like stalk of this biennial plant. We don't plan on using the plant as a treatment for any illness but it is said to have many uses as a cure or remedy for many ailments. 

There are no perfect flowers in my garden. It would not be as interesting to me if they were all perfectly formed. I find that the variations and imperfections are quite beautiful. Insects are welcome to dine here as you might guess from the flower petals. Differences in people is what makes them more interesting. If a person would claim to be perfect I probably would not want to be their friend. 

It did not matter that the insect may have crawled over the succulent black raspberry that is missing from the one stem in the picture. I wanted to nab it before some other animal or bird did. We cut down a larger berry patch not too long ago because it became unruly but there are scattered bushes around the edges of the property. I actually found a half dozen ripe black raspberries and perhaps just as many of the tiny wild blueberries on the way around the yard. They were yummy and there really were not enough to bring back to the house. The reddish berry in the picture may be ripe by tomorrow. A walk around the perimeter will certainly be in order.