Super Bowl Sunday

I am not really a football fan.  I just love all the commercials on the Super Bowl.  So today I will watch the game with my DH. I cooked a huge pot of Gumbo yesterday.  Chicken, sausage, and lots of  shrimp.  Yummy. Dessert is a deep dish cherry pie in honor of George Washington's Birthday this month. George was born on Pope's Creek. Pope was my maiden name.  So I'm thinking we might be long lost kin. Hope your teamwork s.

A Calmer Time

This last weekend of August 2011, has seen hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, drouth, and severe heat temperatures. It is all on the television, radio, newspapers and internet. The following is a postcard sent to my grandmother in 1908. It is signed MJ. I do not know who this person is. I thought you might enjoy seeing this postcard and the message it contained.

"Write as soon as you can and tell me the news. Am very anxious to hear if Maggie is here. will write to you soon. Please send me a line as soon as you can. My boy is sick. With best wishes, MJ

Hummingbirds

I love hummingbirds. I always put out several feeders each spring. This picture is a treasure to me. A hummingbird made her nest under the porch just eight feet from my daughter in law's back door. The nest was on top of a wind chime that is made of old spoons. Mama Hummer was very hospitable in allowing us to occassionally drag up a ladder and peak in. We watch from the time of the eggs to when the babies finally flew off. I guess the accommadations were so comfy that Mama came back the next year also.  We pretty much left her alone that year. She raised her second brood and never returned to that spot. Now when a hummingbird whizzes by I wonder if it is related to the 'Spoon' family.

It Is A Mystery

This is a rose in my garden that I call the Mystery Rose. It is has been about seven years since I planted it. I purchased it from a local nursery with the tag of Tropicana. It was supposed to be an orange, pinkish, yellow rose with a very strong fragrance. It never bloomed. It sent out a few stray stems. It tried to die. I coaxed it along but no avail. It would come up from the ground every spring. Finally, I began to cut it down. But it would come back up. Then one spring nothing happened. so I planted another rose bush about a foot away from it to balance out the bed. Well it came back up last year and bloomed. It was a beautiful red rose. This year it was outstanding. It grew to about 3 feet and was covered in roses. The white blooming rose bush next to it even made this red beauty even more noticeable. There are several lessons I guess I could take from this episode from my garden. Sometimes the results of mistakes and failures or disappointments could bring us more happiness than we had anticipated. Or as a friend of mine would say, "Just roll with the flow" what ever that means. May the unexpected in mine or your life bring us joy.

Treasures

   Any of us that had children probably know what the word 'Treasure' means. The 'Treasure Box' was usually an old cardboard shoe box or cigar box hid under the bed. If the child, usually a boy, was lucky, he would have an old cast off fishing box that an older male member of the family gave to him. This was the best to have. The box had a large compartment in the bottom and lots of little slots in the top.

   Well, while Spring cleaning this week I found my 'treasures'. Oh, they weren't in a box. They were in a housewife's best container, a large ziplock bag.

   I have been collecting these items through the years. I would put them in a dresser drawer. Next Spring they would go into the office closet where things have disappeared for years only to be found in an unlikly space. I even put them out in the barn in a rubbermaid container. This is where I found them this year.

   The picture of the medals are some I received in High School for Citizenship, Activities, and Scholarship. Yes, I was the one that held up her hand first when the teacher would ask a question. Jumping up and down and saying,, "I know the answer!" There is a basketball from the

time I was in the 8th grade and we won the county championship. There is a football that I received in the tenth grade at high school when I was selected as football sweetheaart.  There are charms with my son's picture, pins for working at school every five years, and passes for rodeos and such. There are a few momentos from various vacations.

   Then there is the beltbuckle shaped like a double heart. It is rose gold. I wore it with my jeans when I had a 22 inch waist. Now I wonder if my leg would fit that belt. lol.

The biggest selection of treasures is jewelry that I have worn in the past. Big chunky dangley necklaces, small petite earrings with missing jewels, and the articles of fashions that family and friends gave to me. Some of them were not my style. You know what I mean. All are either tarnished or out of style. Somehow, I just can't seem to throw them away,

   When I gaze upon my fifty or so treasures,  I began to realize that these objects are not my true treasures. The memory of all this stuff is really the treasures. I remember when my son had this pictures made in the first grade. I remember how we saved to go on that long vacation. Oh, how sexy I felt in those tight jeans wearing that belt buckle while my husband smiled and said "Looking good."

Memories will be with us until we can not longer remember. We will truly be blessed if we concentrate on the good ones and let the bad ones slip away like the sun slips over the western sky.

Oh, My Aching Green Thumb

It is March 2. Way too early to get really serious about planting most plants or seeds in the garden. Our last freeze of the season could be as late as May 1.  I have looked at all my garden catalogs until they are just about to come loose from the staples that bind them. I have purchased seeds. I plan to start some of them tomorrow in my mini green house in the garage. I have pruned my peach tree, Rose of Sharon shrub, and lower branches of my live oak trees. I have dug up and completed three of my nine raised gardens. There are two large pots on the patio that have newly planted gardenias in them. Also six pots of herbs are on the porch. I planted brussel sprouts, broccali, and onions in a rose garden. Oh yes, I have pruned nine rose bushes. I moved a huge rose from one garden to another. It doesn't know it is a different garden spot. It has even put on new leaves. I bought a flowering quince and planted it too. But it is still to early to plant my flowering plants and seeds. So what do I do now? Let me see....where did I put that new garden catalog?

My Bluebirds

   Yesterday I saw a Bluebird flitting around the yard. So I went and inspected my seven bluebird boxes. Two have a few swirls of dead grass in the bottom of the nest. So I know they will return this year to make their nests. This is a picture I took last year. Those little fellows were so indignant that a peeping tom was intruding on their privacy.  They are quite ugly now but soon will be beautiful.