SUNDAY STROLL under the Chestnut Tree

We are so glad to be helping foresters bring back the American Chestnut trees. I know I have mentioned the story of the almost total elimination of the trees from the American scene by a terrible blight. To refresh your memory, a few hardy trees have remained and for about one hundred years concerned people have been working to create a new blight resistant tree to repopulate the American Chestnut and restock the beautiful sturdy lumber that was used for building early America.

We have had these trees about 10 or 11 years, they started producing nuts at around 7 years and now we have a tree loaded and dropping fruit like nobody's business. My Dad warned me about the spiny hulls and told stories of barefoot boys walking across them without a second thought. As a child my Dad started walking the hills of Tennessee barefoot as early in spring as possible because new shoes were only bought for children once a year in the fall and little feet grew mighty fast.

Thus little feet were pretty tough by fall when gravels and burrs and all manner of rough surfaces were tramped across with no wincing or pain.

I look forward to finding a good recipe for roasted chestnuts. My Dad claimed they made a wonderful supper with cornbread and milk.

Other strollers are to be found at The Quiet Country House.

IS IT FALL YET?

Yes, the signs of fall are all around. The Dogwoods trees are taking on a bronzed leaf color and the berries are ripe and ready for the birds and squirrels to fatten up for winter. The Crepe Myrtle have been in bloom for some time and are actually starting to diminish.

Another sure sign we are fast approaching autumn are all the fall flowers. Here are the dried Hydrangea, some Black eyed Susans and the Autumn Clematis. I would love to hear from someone who knows the name of the plants that sport white or silver top leaves and flowers at this time of the year. I have been calling them Rabbit Tobacco but, I haven't confirmed that with my search of the Internet. Help?

The Queen Anne Lace is doing it's 'bird nesting' and I am feeling the cool changes in the air.

And of course I am now quilting seasonal things such as the Reverse Applique Harvest Grapes.

So all in all I am seeing, sensing and desiring the full pleasure of the crisp, ripe season of autumn.

Do you not say, "There are yet four more months, then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest." John 4- 35

BEING CRAFTY

It's that time of year for me to bring out my autumn decorating touches. This tin of flowers has been here since spring and I really should have changed it as summer came on but here it is still at the front door. So I grabbed my grapevine wreath that I made a few years ago and did my embellishment's with bittersweet, silk flowers and a little scarecrow to call attention to the harvest season. You may want to double click on the wreath picture to actually see that the base is a grapevine.
Just for fun let me take you back to how I made the wreath.

There are plenty of wild grapevines in the woods and hedgerows. So I just stepped into the brush and cut a vine near the base of the plant and started pulling. Out it came from its entanglement of the other plants and trees.

Here is the start of a wreath.

As I was looking down at the vine I caught a glimpse of my pant leg.

Egads! As I stepped into the brush I was attacked by the insidious Beggerweed (Stick tight) plant. So I bent over and de-burred my socks and pant legs. It was just a minor diversion. The next step in wreath making was to break off the leaf brackets and then ---

starting at the tender and supple small end of the vine I began curling it into the wreath shape and size I wanted. I will need to gather more vine and keep looping it until it is as thick as I want and then you just sit it aside until it is dry. The next vine gets twisted and woven into the first and as it dries it will tighten and firm up quite nicely.

TRIBUTE

In loving memory

Shelly Avo Maynard York

July 9, 1921

August 29, 2009

This is my own Rosie the Riveter, my Aunt Shellie. She grew up here on the mountain and always called her family farm 'home' and today she is being buried in the mountain cemetery where most of her brothers and sister have already been laid to rest. In every sense of the word she has come home.

Like many young people of her time when World War ll happened she answered the call to duty by working at Briggs Aircraft in Detroit as a Riveter building planes. She was out of work when the men came home from war. The world hasn't been the same since these hardy women realized what they were capable in the world of industry.

Out of work Shellie headed to the southland and found work in Atlanta. She stayed in Georgia the rest of her life living, loving, raising a family and working at various jobs and ending her work career at the IRS.

She was a joy and delight to be around and will be missed by all who knew her.

Here Aunt Shellie sits at a reunion of the Hawkins family. (Her mother's family) She sits with Uncle James her brother and the last of the seven brothers. Shellie had three sisters, one of which was my mother. This picture was taken a couple of years ago.

SUNDAY STROLL - WILD AND BEAUTIFUL

I am going to start with the purple flowers and wander until I reach the fields of gold. I have no idea what this tiny charmer is, but the smaller the flower the lovelier they seem to be. At least that is what I have found to be true so far.

Here is the wonderful autumn returning Asters.

This Thistle is being explored by a lightening bug.

I think this is a purple Lobelia.

Joe Pye weed. Each of these purple flowers were a darker shade than my camera captures.

Here showing up for the late summer is another Lobelia. This time it's the lovely and talented Cardinal Flower.

Also sporting red is the Heart's a Bursting. The seed pod is a wonder to behold in deep pink and orange.

The Big Leaf Magnolia sports a curious seed pod similar the Evergreen Magnolia
seen all over the southland. This big leaf variety is only found at higher elevations and is a primitive species but still thrives in this day and age.

Good old Staghorn Sumac. The seed heads make a refreshing lemonade type drink that the pioneers were fond of drinking.

I leave you with a collection of golden flowers that range from goldenrod through the sunflowers and everything in between. I am never sure whose family I am admiring. I did add all the varieties whose pictures I have taken.

Drive along any road and I'm sure you will find plenty of gold to take home for bouquets.


Go to Aisling's house and see who else is strolling.

CLOUDY QUESTION

I have often watched clouds form, dissipate and fill the sky and it has always filled me with wonder. The who, what, why and how of these fluffy, heavy looking products of air and moisture are such a curiosity to me. I wonder why I haven't studied them in more depth than the simple understanding of my childhood education. I think I just enjoy the wonder of it all and keeping it a mystery keeps it in the realm of magic for me and I can continue to ponder my own fanciful ideas. BUT, I do have a question to ask you. What possible atmospheric conditions make these clouds look flat on the bottom? I'm thinking they probably are not really solid and flattened out, perhaps there are still lumps and bumps, but to my eyes the look is of something placed down on a glass cover so that we can see it from underneath. But what creates the glass effect?

Do you think I'm am over analyzing this simple natural occurrence? I have wondered about this before and have never figured out a good explanation. It goes without saying, I could look it up here on the Internet, but first I wanted to see if someone out there who casually wanders by might not take pity on me and explain it all. Or---------------

even better, give me a fanciful story to tickle my imagination.

SUNDAY STROLL - FAMILY REUNION

A favorite landmark we always look for as we head for Interstate Highway 65 is the castle in Triune, Tennessee. Some twenty years or more ago a fellow began to build his dream home, his very own castle. To help pay his way to the 1400s, he began to hold Renaissance Fairs on his property. It has become an annual event. We always enjoy the sight of this splendorous place.
Soon we are making the choice to head south into Alabama and toward Flutemakers family home.


Entering the great state of Alabama on route 65 means we were greeted by the product of the aerospace industry around Huntsville, Ala. We always stop at the Welcome Center for a break and a quick walk about to stretch our legs.

Up and over the bridge we go as we cross the beautiful Tennessee River as it flows through 'the cotton fields of home'. I hoped to take some pictures of cotton in bloom, but it is still to early in the growing season for that to happen.

The patriarchs of the family are now Uncle Clarence and his sweet wife Clarice. They are the glue holding us all together.

Here we all are doing the family reunion traditional dinner. The food table was loaded and revisited and then the dessert table received several more visits and still there was

food overflowing the plates and bowls still on the table. Here you can see a couple of almost empty bowls that must have been especially tasty. I think every family fared equally well with what ended up going home for that late night snack.

After we ate, a bunch of us ended up around the piano singing and entertaining the rest of the family. We sang out of old hymnals and without any direct apology to my camera's video capability or the out of tune community center piano here we are with our version of I'll Fly Away.