Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Make a wish... and....

Blow!   Happy Birthday to Mom and Me!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Rock and Roll at 12 midnight...

 Most birthday traditions involve cake and ice cream, pretty flowers...  stuff like that.  My family has its share of beautiful and magical traditions for birthdays, I'm not saying we don't...  But one tradition is a bit scary.  Since I have been a little girl, since I'm born at the end of stormy June and the beginning of turbulent July, we always have some kind of a whopper storm...
 Sunday night at Midnight, the winds hit.  They rocked and rolled these trees down the sides of the house and over the metal roof.  The windows howled, and I went upstairs to find Mom.  She was out in the living room and looking out the window...  Stuff was flying everywhere.
 Last summer's storm took 13 trees from our yard.  This year's was minor comparatively.  However, some of our friends lost buildings, hay equipment, silos, corn bins, even a new barn... Many giant trees are now no more...
 The radio announcer called it a "rain-wrapped tornado" but then later they say straight wind...  The damage is rather spotty--- bad in one place and perfect the next...  Sounds tornado-ish to me...  Just sayin', Mr. Weatherman...
 We were out of power for about 16 hours...  Mom and I took a drive yesterday to see the trees and damage...  Some of it was pretty overwhelming...  Huge billboards just ripped from the ground!  Today it is beautiful...

My wonderful cousin and her hubby came down this morning and cut up these branches and worked special magic on the yard..  We are so grateful!


 All I can say is it's a good thing the fairies had their bash a few nights ago...  The tree is a mess now!
In our area, we were blessed...  No injuries.  My son and his friends were driving and said the winds picked up his 5,000 pound truck a little...  he pulled under an overpass...  Blessings all around!  I will light a candle in gratitude...  a tradition to begin...

Friday, June 24, 2011

Happy Friday... Happy Fairy Day... Happy Summer!

 For many of you, today is the final day in your work week..  It is usually that way for me during the school year, but summer brings its own pleasant haphazard way of keeping time..  Don't!  All days run into one another in a lovely jumble of "days off."  It makes the season fly, and that is sometimes a bit frightening...  Today is a special day for my mom and me.  We are meeting three or four other women for lunch in a continuation of a tradition begun by the men in the families.  After more than 30 years of working together at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, my dad and several men retired.
 They each decided  after a few years off that life was great with its lack of scheduled work hours, BUT they missed the camaraderie and the bond they once shared.  So for possibly another 25 years or so they and their wives, sometimes daughters, often a grandkid, met for lunch.  I was a happy participant at times, and my son, more often.  It was always such a joy to meet with these dear friends.  I especially loved the way the women gathered together and chatted.  But I was entranced at the men.  These 80-year old-plus retirees laughed, reminisced, and "climbed poles in the elements" to their memory's delight. It was always a treasure to hear those tales.  Nobody has memories quite like a group of people who worked together on common ground.. 
 Only one of the original employees is still left.  We had a few meetings after so many had gone, and he just decided it was just too sad. I so understand.  How could you sit there and ponder the incredible odds that you would be the sole survivor of an "era"?
 And so, today marks the first day the women go it alone..  All of us decided we still wanted to visit, so we are meeting in about two hours at that restaurant to have a little ladies only luncheon...
 Wherever you work, I hope you are surrounded by those you love.  If not, at least by those you can endure!  I have always loved my coworkers...  They become a second, different kind of family...
 These are shots of our back yard!  This old barn reigns in the back of our property...  and the hollyhocks and lilies are the stars of the show this year.
 Enjoy your summer day and your fairies...  This is their day, you know!




Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer Callers... or the party comes to us!

Summertime evokes the brightest of colors--- sunshine orange, vivid blue skies, and a hint of pink to echo the roses growing in everyone's garden.  By sunset Mom and I were thinking the party of First Day of Summer was maybe not happening.  Suddenly we heard the hum of my son's pickup, and here!  The party had come to us as a surprise.  He, his lady love, and the cutest little prince in the world were here to visit, have a bite of watermelon picked from the gods, and play a little card game called (appropriately for the evening), IMAGINE IF. 
We laughed and laughed, totally enjoying the evening with dear, dear family...  I am so thankful to God for my family, nested here so close to me.  Nothing makes me happier than to see everyone's happy faces around my kitchen table....
Long after family has gone home for the night, don't you catch yourself picking up little bits of the party and instantly recalling a laugh, a face, or a smile of the one who left it there?  One of my earliest and few memories of my dad's father is his penchant for inviting us all up to Excello, to their beautiful little cottagey home, for an impromptu watermelon party in the middle of the evening with no warning.  Usually my cousins would be there, and it was so much fun to shuffle up to Ma and Grandad's in our dear little aqua and white Bel-Air. 
Once I remember my cousin Sherry had broken her arm falling off a horse.  She was there in her daddy's arms all night....  in her jammies!  That was way before it was fashionable to wear pajamas in public, so I thought it quite the novelty for Sherry to wear those out to the watermelon party!  Now I realize just how worried her parents, my dear aunt and uncle, had to feel...  And just how brave Sherry was to come to the party at all...

After the little Prince and my other dear ones went home, it was time to creep outside and look for those fairies I had invited...  They had been busy already, painting the sky a special hue of blue...  congregating on tree branches, singing in the balmy wind.
Some of them slipped in the house when I wasn't looking and turned on my beautiful Enya music...  Fairies love Enya!

If you look closely, you can see her there tapping her toe to the melody of Celtic music...  I have seen this fairy often.  She is very "at home" in my room!
Outdoors the ruckus began when they decided to jump from one flower bed to another!
I never speak to a fairy.  Unless of course, they ask me a question.  Then it's fair game, and we can laugh and converse until morning...  (which we did!)

They assured me the party was a huge success, mostly because of the happiness and joy left scattered by earlier family gatherings!  They promised to come again on Fairy Day...Friday.  We shall see.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Awaits!

 Do you ever wait for something and then miss it?  I do.  I have often thought I would have a summer party to celebrate the first day of its arrival...  In my mind, I invite all my dearest of friends, the animals of the forest (Bambi style)...  and the dear fairies and gnomes that people our summer garden, lily bed, and flowers.  The old troll who dwells in the creekbed could come closer to the bonfire I would build...  the trees, festooned with brightly colored, flickering lanterns resonate with the aromas of a summer's night.  Fireflies twinkle, and our merriment could not be contained.


Actually, I'm taking my mom to the dentist today.  I haven't planned such a party, and I am fairly sure it won't be happening on my lawn.  That is, to the human eye...   In my own imaginary world?  The festivities can still take place.  Midsummer's Night has always been a very special solstice event in my life...  It's just a few days before my birthday.  It marks the advent of Independence Day very, very soon...  And usually my daddy took his vacation about now to work in the hayfields of summer.
Haying time was a magical event in our household.  For one, my dad loved it.  His eyes began to sparkle the minute he started sharpening the sickle for his "big" (in my eyes) red tractor.  Then, with an eye to the clouds, he cut and raked and then baled the small, tightly-twined bales of fresh timothy.  The aroma of drying clover, grasses, and hay remains one of my favorite fragrances of all times (right up there with Mom's summer garden relish simmering on the stove) 

 Mom geared up for the summer haying time with lots of cooking, not only for my dad, but also for the men we hired to come help "put up" the hay...  Large crews of laughing young men surrounded our kitchen and dining room tables for several days.  They washed up in the yard on benches laden with fresh towels, bars of pure soap, and warm water heated on top of the stove and blended with cool water from the well pump..  I loved watching them dip the water in the basins, scrub their arms and hands, fling the water through the air and pat off the dripping muscles they were building in that hayfield..  I remember my grandfather's sadness as he aged before our eyes and wasn't able to work as he had been accustomed.  One particular year the crew called him "the old man."  I remember that he came inside, told my grandmother solemnly what had happened...  and then he sat silently brooding for a long while before his usual good spirits returned and he began to wryly joke about it...  If I do the math, he was about ten years older than I am now...  but I personally thought he was an "old man"  too  (although I kept that to myself.)
What will you be having for your Fairy Midsummer Party?  I know my fairies in my garden so well that my menu is planned!  We will have little plates of chocolate eclairs, frosted with moonlight icings in palest pink.  For our wee teacups, a blend of honey-orange tea spiked with just a breath of chamomile---  that's the recipe for a happy night followed by cozy dreams.
And the dragon flies will transport fairies from farther away... from your homes to mine if you haven't planned your parties yet...  So you'd better hurry and get your magical resident invited before it's too late..  Otherwise what a mass of floating royalty will fill the night sky in mid-Missouri...  For fairies know where they are wanted and where they are not...  Friday is Fairy Day, and it will all be to do over again.  One party after another!  That's the Fairy Way...  Please leave all the magical inhabitants a comment to let them know you are thinking of them this mystical Midsummer's Day.

I'm linking with A Delightsome Life as she shares her Welcoming Summer Blog Party!  Please visit all the lovely blogs that are celebrating Summer, the Queen for the season...

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Father's Day

I snapped this photo one afternoon with a cheap camera and a blurry hand----  It is one of the few digital pictures of my dad... and it captures his heart.  He is working, which he loved...  and he's working for me...  I will always treasure that special knowledge that in this world there was a person who would walk through fire, move mountains, and build a castle for me...  his daughter.

Hug your dad in your heart today.  I always will.  (You might have read and commented on this last week!  I thought last week was Father's Day!  So this is a re-post...  I wondered why I hadn't seen one other post for the special day.  That is the only time I am ever on time...  if I think I am late!  Instead of being through with all the ads for the day, they will be more prolific... Oh, well...My heart is in the right place.  My brain is scattered.)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Cousin's Night... and some links...

 When a child grows up, there is such a bond with the "other kids" who share that same grandmother and grandfather...  We don't realize what that special bond is...  I didn't anyway...  And now that I'm all "grown up" (physically, let's not discuss mentally and emotionally today, thank you very much), it is a rare and beautiful treat for the soul to get together with cousins...  Four of us girls shared Ma and Grandad, two beautiful people who parented their moms and my dad...  Every so often we get together for "cousin's night," and it never disappoints.  Sometimes we venture to a great movie (and sometimes to a not-so-good one)---  but lately we have been enjoying a little dinner and just solid, bonded conversation.  We keep up with one another.  We laugh, and we remember Ma...  it's a little touch of Heaven on Earth...
 Sometimes we take each other a little goodie-- something small and heartfelt.  Last night we met at a new restaurant in Macon and had a lovely time.  Since it was Flag Day, and since I had bet my mom I could find homes for the nine flags we found hidden in her desk when we had a big clean-out day)---  I decorated these baking pans of Orange Blueberry Coffee Cake.   I just swapped the frozen blueberries for cranberries and barely folded or stirred them in very lightly so the batter wasn't gray... 
 If you ever want a treat for the Baker's Heart, check out King Arthur Flour online or their tempting catalog.  I purchase their bake and give "toys" often, and they really dress up and lighten the load of baking...  You can check out these baking loaf pans and other cute items at their store  HERE.  I love the star cake pans...  I plan to make something in them for the 4th of July to share with a friend who gives me so much!
 One of us brought a beautiful Americana wooden cutout that says, "America."  I'll try to get a picture of that before the holidays...  One brought a delicious dip mix for vegetables...  and another brought a cute set of watermelon salt and pepper shakers.  That was a little funny/dear nod to our Ma, who had a magnificent collection of salt and peppers that spanned her lifetime and two or three cabinets...
 We are making plans for another "date" in October...  That will be perfect because Autumn is our special remembrance time for Ma.  My one gramma loved the spring; the other one the fall...  Me?  I'm pretty much a lover of all seasons (except bitter 10 degrees below zero cold and uggy muggy over 100 degrees hot...) 
I am working on a recipe blog with recipes through the years of my blogging...  It is a slow process, and I'm only through the first 150 posts...  I have over 700!!!  But the name is "Sweet Tomato Days"

Have a great Wednesday...

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Amish Country with Friends


Today my friends and I traveled through Amish country.  We bought some baked goods and fresh produce...  A lovely day...