Fresh Beauty

Each spring these huge clusters burst forth in beauty and fill their branches to overflowing.  Some of the plants rise up to completely cover the front corner of a house, clear up to the roofline.  They have braved deep cold and lots of snow through the winter months, but then spring comes and they "show off" with fresh beauty.

This gives me encouragement, realizing that the same mighty God who created these also created me and gives me the opportunity for fresh beauty each day.  No, He doesn't take away the wrinkles or give me a new "glow" of skin.  But He forgives the sins of my past, recent and long ago.  He refreshes me with His Word, promising never to leave me or turn from me.  I regret things I say or attitudes that are hurtful to others... He forgives.  I berate myself... He builds me up.  I feel "unlovely"... He loves me passionately and unswervingly, unconditionally.  He helps me see and recognize those things that need to change in my life... and He empowers me to make those changes as only He can do.

I'm so thankful for the fresh beauty that God offers each day!

Friday Fiddlin'

We finally went to the Phipps' General Store on a Friday evening for a wonderful treat!

We didn't have ice cream....

And it didn't close at 8 PM.... Matter of fact, that's when things really began to warm up.

Because on Friday evenings musicians of all ages come together there for the love of music.  Young and old alike bring their talents and blend them with others who know "Old Timey" music, some of which is 100 years old.

The man in the hat sang or recited songs that had 6 or 7 verses and more words than I could ever hope to remember.  He said some he'd learned from when he was in a crib.

This young 18 year old was fantastic on both the fiddle and the piano!  The gentleman in the background sat there & played every song with the others.

What musical ability all in one place, not to entertain those of us who came to listen, but just because they all love to play the music!

And Ms. Rita taught that young man to play!  She is multitalented on the fiddle and the banjo (and along with her husband, Dawg, owns the Phipps General Store).

While the music was going on inside, there was Bluegrass music going on outside.  Some of the musicians played both, so they went back and forth between the two "venues."

And finally Dawg joined his lovely wife to share his talents and his love for this special music.

What a delightful way to spend a Friday evening in the mountains!

Redneck Elegance

My sweet daughter posted a blog a few days ago giving a glance into the lives of their family experiencing some redneck fun. (NewEveryAM.blogspot.com)

Now it is my turn to show you some redneck elegance...
But first, a few posts back (April 26) I shared my "painting accident" which was going to require the painting of our garage floor FINALLY!  Well, I think I came up with an even better temporary solution:

 I ask you, "How many folks do you know who park their car on a white rug in their garage?!"  Doesn't it go nicely with my blue steps?!  Well, yes, there is a bit of a stain, but that's where the rear tires sit...

Yes, this is the famous stain that grew...

But you know, redneck elegance is having a really nice white wool rug upon which to park one's car...

Now if I had a red car, I suppose I'd need a red rug for parking...(nice pattern on the rug, huh?)

But since we've been a family of white vehicles for many years, this was a nice addition (& goes so nicely with my blue rails/stairs...)

Well, yes, I do have a "steppin' out rug" too!  I already had it in place...  (so I didn't track in any of that dirt from my car into the house.)

So now you know what "redneck elegance" really is.... Aren't you just slightly jealous???

Out D___ Stain!

I don't remember much from high school days of studying Shakespeare, but I do remember the famous quote from MacBeth.  I just couldn't bring myself to use the whole thing as a blog title...  But it did enter my mind a few days ago when I was battling trying to remove a persistent stain.  On my Sept. 10, '10 blog I showed how this product had finally gotten a pee doggy stain out of my white dining room rug:

 

Well, said stain keeps reappearing, so last Saturday since I was working like crazy to prepare a special anniversary dinner for 12 had nothing else to do I decided to get after it again.  Since this product had the OXY logo on it, I decided to try some OXY Clean solution on it (because on the label of the canister it says that you can use it for carpet cleaning.)  It makes the whites in the laundry whiter so it made sense that it would work well on a white rug...

 It started out about the size of a donut... but then it GREW!

The more I scrubbed, the bigger it grew (the small circle in the top middle is the groove from the table leg.)  And the more yellow it got!  I had put a large plastic bag underneath to protect the hardwood floor, but the later the time got & the larger the stain became, the more frantic I became.  Why in the world did I decide to tackle something like this the very day that I was having guests for dinner?!
 That evening it wasn't nearly so noticeable (low lighting, lots of people, focus on many other things...), so I just decided to ignore the elephant in the room it.
That is until someone walked on it & then stepped onto the hardwood floor & almost went sprawling!  Because it was still wet, it made their shoes slick... So, I had to tell everyone about it to warn them to be very careful if they walked through that way (and still had a couple more people almost go sailing!)

So now it is Wednesday, the stain is still there & I am DONE with this thing!  I've had the rug for over 15 years; it has been through three grandchildren eating at the dining table where it sat, I've had repair men walk on it with dirty shoes (it is the shorter way from the entry hall to the kitchen, so why would they want to take 20 more steps & stay on the hardwoods when they could walk on white carpet?!), it has lived in two different houses & spent time as the rug in the sunroom of our former house (where we spent a lot of time!), and it has held up beautifully.  But there comes a time...

The stain is not gone... but the rug is!

Squeamish?

This is not for the faint of heart, so be forewarned...

To keep away the rabbits I put a couple of rubber snakes in the garden (I don't think they are really working..)

They aren't very realistic, but for $1 each I thought I'd give it a try.

The yellow is a little bright (are rabbits colorblind?)

And my little kindergarten friend who went to the $1 Store with me to get them told me that this one is a "Grow Snake" (add it to water & it "grows"...)

But today when I walked past, as they lay very still in their places.....
A very small (maybe 9" long & no bigger around than my little finger) brown snake.....
MOVED!
If you are squeamish, look no further...

Since I had my shovel in my hand, I moved quickly

AND

chopped his head off!

Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow (I Wish)

I've had rabbits (okay, they are cute little bunnies... but "beauty really is in the eye of the beholder") eating everything in my garden.  I'm not talking about some lettuce or vegetables... I gave up on all of those because I couldn't keep the squirrels out of them.  These are lilies that should have lots of green leaves...

like these do....

and like these do...

and like the ones in the background here do (notice the "stubs" in the foreground...)

but instead, they have little short stubs where the leaves should be!

Because behind that lattice, there lives 1000 a family of rabbits!  I know it's a family because I've seen a youngster (I know, they're really cute... but they have voracious appetites!)

They ate ALL the leaves off one blueberry bush & they've started on another. So the netting I usually put out at this time to keep the birds from eating the blueberries before they have a chance to ripen is in place to also try to preserve the leaves of the second bush.

I've never seen them look so sickly & I'm not counting on a great crop this year.

So the deer are eating everything outside the fence, the squirrels are back, the slugs are feasting on anything green, & now the rabbits are taking over the flowers.  It's almost time for the Japanese beetles...

Why do I bother?  Because I love to see things growing and blooming. 

 I'll keep fighting!

Sweet Memory!

Sixteen years ago today we were in anticipation of a wonderful day... welcoming another son into our family.  All the planning was coming together for our beautiful daughter to marry the man of her dreams.  It was all worthwhile when the day came and we had a wonderful worship service to honor God's plans for this couple as they became husband and wife.  They were beautiful then, and they are beautiful now.  We are so blessed!

(NewEveryAM.blogspot.com thought we should have gotten some money back from the photographer... but I'm just grateful for "retouch").

"Blue"

No picture today, and you should be so glad...

I've been wearing a spring color of blue/green on my toenails for the last few weeks.  At first I did NOT like any of the blue/green/purple nail colors (still "can't like" the black...)
But now that it's sandal season I realized that I didn't have to consider the shade of my nail polish when I want to wear my orange sandals, or pink ones, or red ones, etc. if I wore a color that didn't have to compete with/match the shoes.  I tried yellow last summer and that did not look good on me at all!

Back to this blog: I now have kind of a blue/grey shade on my finger nail... Yes, that was singular, not plural.  And I did not say, "of polish"....  Noooooo.  This is natural!  At least temporarily for much longer than I'd like.  And that is why there are no pictures...

I slammed the window down on my forefinger & middle finger when I was trying to put a screen in this AM.  I have never felt that kind of pain!  I had taken two Advil about 30 minutes before it happened (sore hip from too much squatting yesterday... no, not some fancy exercise class, just cleaning the baseboards... I have such an exciting life!)  I immediately took two more Advil, but of course that takes about 15 minutes to work.  The pain was so intense I thought I might pass out (and there's not much of anything that ever makes me feel that way!)  I laid down on the sofa with my hand up in the air, thinking that keeping the blood flow going the other way might help...  After 15 minutes the good ol' Advil did its trick.  But now it has worn off and the throbbing is starting.... So I think I'll go hit the bottle (of Advil, that is.)

If your child or anyone else gets a finger slammed in anything, give them lots of loving and sympathy... They are NOT exaggerating!

Strawberry Pickin' Time

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is go to the local strawberry farm & pick those luscious red fruits.  I've missed out on it the last couple of years, so when I got an impromptu invitation to join the family on a picking expedition, I jumped at the offer.  So off we went (with a couple of extra kids...)

The fields were beautiful with huge healthy plants...

So we turned the human garbage disposals kids loose...

And they started picking.... (notice the red stains on the teeth?)

(and on the lips?)

(and probably on the shirt....)

But there were some intense workers...

And some team work...

And we finished pretty quickly... (Don't you LOVE the hair?!  I just got a haircut a couple of weeks ago, but I can tell that he was paying more attention to his conversation with another client than he was to cutting my hair...)

 Now starts the "work"... slicing, bagging, freezing, etc.

This is RED GOLD (when they rang up my purchase I was stunned!)  But the season is short here, so we'll just enjoy...