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.

NEW WALL QUILT

I have added a new project to my Quilt Gallery. {;-)giggle, QG is a wishful thinking sort of reality.} This gallery is a short wall outside the guest bathroom where I rotate my small quilt projects. I have many UFO's in my Quilt Studio {another giggle, read sewing room} that I need to finish. UFO's are 'unfinished objects', ask any avid quilter and I bet she has a few. I have promised myself that this is the year I will get caught up and finish what I have started before I get into any new big quilting projects. I'm not doing all that well. I had to make a big boy quilt for Jackson and there have been some wonderful classes in my quilt guild that I wanted to do and of course I just had to do the church fair booth soft windows that I recently featured. So I am just futzing along with realizing my hope for this year. Learning to use my home sewing machine to quilt my work is also a big hope for this year. Machine quilting is really in vogue and I have seen the most wonderful quilting at guild and at shows. I just know I can learn to do this, but it takes practice, practice, practice. And so I have decided to use my UFO's to practice, practice, practice. This little quilt top has been around for ages. The center was a practice block to make sure my measurements were accurate. Believe me you don't want to try to put together a quilt with poorly measured pieces. It quickly becomes a distorted mess. Anyway I added the border and layered it and it was perfect for my purposes. I wanted to practice small scale quilting.

All in all I feel comfortable with my effort and know now that I can manage small area stitches. And now I also have another cute piece to hang in my 'gallery'.

WORD PICTURES

LITTLE THINGS

Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,

Humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages

Of eternity.

Julia A. Fletcher

This is the first poem that I memorized. I knew nursery rhymes and a few Bible verses, but this was my first poem from mother's book 'THE BEST LOVED POEMS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 1936. I have since learned a few more that I will probably share here from time to time.

LOVE'S UNFINISHED SONG

Love

I love you,

not only for what you are,

but for what I am

when I am with you.

I love you,

not only for what

you have made of yourself,

but for what

you are making of me.

I love you

for the part of me

that you bring out;

I love you

for putting your hand

into my heart

and passing over

all the foolish, weak things

that you can't help

dimly seeing there,

and for drawing out

into the light

all the beautiful belongings

that no one else had looked

quite far enough

to find.

I love you because you

are helping me to make

of the lumber of my life

not a tavern

but a temple;

out of the works

of my every day

not a reproach

but a song.

I love you

because you have done

more than any creed

could have done

to make me good,

and more than any fate

could have done

to make me happy.

You have done it

without a touch,

without a word,

without a sign.

You have done it

by being yourself.

Perhaps that is what

being a friend means,

after all.

Roy Croft

Happy 49th Wedding Anniversary

my friend, my love, my husband.

LATEST QUILTS

Our church set up our first County Fair booth this year. We wanted to present a cheerful face to the community. As my contribution to the effort I have created some decorative wall quilts to brighten up this first Fair Booth. I choose to create these soft windows which echo the large quilt hangings I made a few years ago to cover sound baffles along the walls of the sanctuary. Our building didn't start out as a church and so needed help in the acoustic character of the room.

There are three more quilts on the other wall and we have framed them so they look more like windows.

We have folded our tents and returned home and these quilts are now for sale. I sold three on Sunday to a friend who was visiting from Arizona. That means three will hang in the entry to the church until they sell or I take them home and give as gifts.

Here is a close up of the machine quilting I did for a little decorative touch. the rest of the quilting is straight lines 'in the ditch' which are the seams between the pieces.

I expect if these sell quickly I will put together a few more. I certainly enjoy the process.

SUNDAY STROLL

Come walk with me around our front porch. No long stroll today. It's just too hot! For some deep rooted reason we are crazy for rocks and always have landscaped with rocks of various sizes. Here it is becoming obvious to me after several years the ground cover is beginning to overrun our rock features. I think it's time to raise them up on patio stones or maybe even thicker cement slabs.

Here is the smooth and nicely rounded rock from Lake Michigan. I expect it was tumbled and smoothed during some of the different movements of the ice ages.

The lovely and crystal filled geode is from Kentucky and we found it at a rock yard in Indiana.

I'm not sure how this charming heart shaped rock received it's shape, but it is a nice addition to our decor.

I would love to keep this narrow long rock upright because I like the hook that is in the base. I need to find stakes or supports so that I can put the hook at the top and not have it tumble over as the earth moves. I keep setting it up and next time I look it is laying on it's side. The cats are going to help me here I'm sure.

The porch is on the north side of the house and so is mostly in the shade which makes it nice for sitting, rocking and having a cold glass of tea.

It is time to pinch back my Coleus, they are getting kind of leggy and I want them to look good well into fall.

The Hummingbirds love to visit the Fuchsia when they come to their feeders. The front porch is over 80' and that probably means that the back deck is in the 90's The south facing deck is not comfortable until late afternoon.

The large leafed Hostas are starting to bloom now and I really enjoy their pretty fluted flowers.

Here is a better look at how overgrown our shrubs are getting. I meant to move the Hosta out this spring and let the Nandina fill in, but, oops I neglected that little chore.

Come again anytime and we may even venture out away from the porch if it isn't quite so hot.

Be sure to visit the other strollers over at Aisling's place.

AIN'T IT FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY

I actually started out as a brunette. Here is little me at around 2 years old.

LET ME GROW LOVELY *

Let me grow lovely, growing old-

so many fine thing do;

laces, and ivory, and gold,

and silks need not be new;

and, there is healing in old trees,

old streets a glamour hold;

why may not I, as well as these,

grow lovely, growing old?

Karle Wilson Baker

I seem to go against the grain of women who stay 29. I have loved growing older. I have always had deep respect for older people and the wonderful strengths they often display. There are so many who have survived to tell of wisdom received as they journeyed along their pathway of life. I choose to learn hard lessons the easy way and accept life advise readily from those who have gone before. I have stumbled over enough of my own worries to hopefully pass on a little wisdom to any who are willing to listen. So here I sit on my 68th birthday, counting my blessings.

* The poem is from 'The Best Loved Poems of the American People'. 1936

ENDLESS YARD SALE

It is August and the most astounding phenomenon happens on Highway 127 in Tennessee. Well actually the quiet rural interstate road all the way from northern Ohio, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and into Alabama becomes one long continuous Yard Sale. It is 654 miles of commerce.

Most often the roadside is lined with farms and fields with small neighborhoods of homes. But this all changes the first week in August every years for 22 years now. It didn't start with over 600 miles but has slowly expanded over the years to now be a bargain shoppers dream. I went to visit friends who rent out space on their land to venders who sell fabulous junk to antiques. By tommorrow the field will be filled with vendors and shoppers.


Setting up started a couple of days ago and early shoppers started prowling.

By Thursday (first offical day of the sale) you won't be able to see the grass.

As you shop you can't help but chitchat with other shoppers and I met a couple of ladies from Mississippi a few years ago who plan a vacation every year to follow the route from north to south for several days. They book motels every 50 miles and move down the road with an empty van that is usually full by the time they reach Alabama and head home. They didn't say but I suspect they are buyers for a second hand or antique shop. Parks, businesses with a acre or so of land, farmers with large yards and fallow fields use yellow tape or spray paint to partition their property for vendor spaces.

Many of the sellers come from bordering states or nearby towns, some folks are hardy garage sellers who buy all year and then come to their favorite spot along Hwy. 127 to haggle and sell their bounty, Many business folk move some of their business along the route and find new and loyal customers.

I am not immune to the lure of a good deal and bought two Butterfly Bushes for $5 each.

They are happily now part of our lives.

If you have the HGTV channel on your TV you may have seen the program they did as they followed two shopper down this magic highway. It usually gets repeated at least once a year. It is a festive route, massive but mostly polite traffic. Always careless accidents are reported along the way. If you are a patient and hardy shopper this is the Highway for you.