Thursday, July 28, 2011

Summer Daze

 It has just been so warm and lovely with those long, delicious summer nights...  I haven't been blogging, but I really have no excuse for being absent...  just enjoying the vacation while it lasts!
Had my son and a friend of his tonight for supper...  and a snappy little game of Spinner...  just the best kind of evening...  Looking forward to a long-distance game of Scrabble in a few hours...  @@@

Friday, July 22, 2011

One giant step... with prayer, please!

Tonight two of my friends and I decided to go to a country restaurant in Ethel...  That is a sleepy little town over many a beautiful hill and through rich farmlands...  We took Patty's car, and we duly noted her inside car temperature was 118 degrees when we started...  Throughout the drive there it gradually cooled to 112 degrees in the car...  But for some reason I wasn't really all that hot...  It was such fun to be out and to be having one of the Thelma and Louise and Thelma days like we used to have so many times..  
 I was a bit worried about a step that had posed a problem getting in the restaurant last time...  My knees aren't the best, and I worried about that step.  I actually had prayed about it from my house to Patty's...  and I told them after I went in the restaurant...  that was an easy step..  I was surprised that I had been concerned in the least...
 The restaurant owner is retiring next weekend, so they feasted us with delicious meals so large we all brought home quite a bit..  I had a nice little piece of strawberry pie for my mom, as well...  The evening sun was simply spectacular on the fields...  Car temperature was down to a nippy 101 degrees on the way  home....
 Cattle were busy finding farm ponds... like this one...
 And we stopped just a minute so I could take a picture of the water lilies in this pond..  They reminded me of my grandmother's little fishpond...

 I couldn't get close at all, so imagine huge white water lilies everywhere...
 You'd think three ladies would have had enough of the open road, but we decided it was too good of a time to end...  so we drove up and down the back roads behind Bevier...  Everybody knew where so and so lived, where they used to live....  and where they had gone to buy sweet potatoes when they were kids...  It was fabulous...  We saw open fields of sunflowers planted by the Department of Conservation...  The flowers had millions of little heads facing the dipping western sunset....  I missed that photo shot because I was enthralled by the huge birds that swooped down and flew low to the ground in front of the car, leading us down remote back roads... farther, farther....
 The land was staked out with no trespassing signs everywhere, but we were on the road...  and we knew where we were...  almost...  Suddenly, Patty said the magic words, "Uh, oh...  low coolant...  Check engine."
 So we turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows to the twilight air...  Temperature hovered in the car then about 109....
 We drove on...  My thoughts turned to the strawberry jello pie (later renamed cobbler for obvious reasons)  and my little shrimps in the back seat....
 Then...  "Uh oh ....  there's no more road!"  We had come to the end of the traveled road, and Doralee insisted the rest of the pathway would end us up in the riverbed...  Naturally we decided to U-turn...  And that's when we smelled the motor....
 Not good...  Not good at all for a hot summer's night on the road to nowhere from nowhere...  but we coasted to a stop in the most wonderful of all spaces...  shady and next to a herd of curious cattle....
 Patty gave her husband a call..  He was, as you might imagine, a bit curious as to WHY we were out in the middle of nowhere...  but manly-as-they-all-are, he brought out jumper cables and did the obligatory tinkering under the hood before he called the wrecker!!!  Meanwhile, we had a little picnic with a few more shrimp!!!
 The cows came closer and if we got too loud or shouted at each other to "give it some gas," or "turn the motor over again.."  they got in the fracas with an impatient moo or two....


 Stone cold...  Not even the little clicking sounds....   We sat there until the wrecker came to hoist the car and drive her back to civilization...
 See the white pickup?  Yeah... THAT's the step I think I prayed for earlier...  My gosh!  Trucks are built  for long-legged cowboys, aren't they?


 With the last breath of daylight, we pulled out and headed into town.  Patty and Doralee rode with Rick, the Wrecker Man...  I rode with Patty's husband who promptly laughed and offered me a "chaw" of tobacco...  I told him no thank you, but when I saw the sack, I did a strange and unusual thing...  I asked to smell it...
 Beechnut chewing tobacco...  I took a whiff, and I was gone...  transported through time and lifetime to my grandfather's barn...  He chewed Beechnut, and the aroma is still sweetly cloying...  a pure cord to the little girl who sat with him in the doorway of the barn, learning just how to spit... (before Gramma caught us and brought those lessons to a screeching ---emphasis on the screeching-- halt)....  I finally came to my senses and took my face out of his sack, apologized for sticking my schnoz in there and oohing and aahing like a crazy woman...  He has known me for a long time, so he didn't seem to notice anything at all!!!!
All in all, I can't count the number of blessings, beautiful moments, and simply wonderful gifts present in this evening's jaunt....  And I certainly didn't waste a prayer on steps.... but then is any prayer ever wasted?  I think not...  Stay cool....

Monday, July 18, 2011

Moving! Shady Peanut Lane is on the Prowl...

 I have had a shop in Bevier for several years...  six or seven, actually.  I haven't been in the shop in 18 months, and then only once in the past 30...  I just don't have time to go over.  Mom was sick one summer...  These photos were taken in the heyday of the shop, about 2007... obviously at Christmas in Bevier...
 This year the city has installed new sidewalks and ramps and it has been rather mixed up..  I don't feel comfortable opening up with the ramps as tall as they are and the banisters not installed yet...
 I have been thinking a lot about moving some of the items here and maybe opening a little shop in Dad's barn or somewhere here...  Anyway, the rent per month, although not very high, is wasted on that shop.  What should have been a no-brainer has taken me a long time to give up...
Today, I made the calls, made the decision, and I'm to be out by the time school starts..  I feel really okay with this.  My usual method of dealing with change is to stall it (as is obvious) as long as possible.  One of my decisions this summer has been to move on through some of the debilitating mind sets that are tangling the new ideas that might come..  This shop was so much fun.  I loved the whole thing...  Friends came and sat to visit, drank tea...  just a lot of fun...  but it hasn't been like that in years, so it's time to have fun in another direction...  I plan to donate some of the items to a church rummage sale...  and then pack some for another shop or resale here.  My boys from school are going to move some of the heavier items...

Shady Peanut Lane, actually named for a long stretch of land with brush along either side, is a term coined by my grandfather...  We enjoyed our summers on a little gray tractor humming through the brush counting the angus cattle and dreaming about the cool, dark, shady glen where we'd set out the double cola and cheese n' crackers packed so sweetly in a red, white, and blue celluloid pocketbook....  by my gramma.

Now that is real shade...  That kind of shade cools us for the rest of our lives...  That is the kind of shade that walks me through the past unbelievable 40 years since I saw my grandfather on this earth..  That's the kind of shade I fully expect to enjoy on Heaven's lawn...

Aw...  who am I kidding?  Change is tough for me...  But it's time.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sunset Sashay

 Last night Mom and I were finishing our little bite of supper when my phone rang.  My cousin/sis was on the line, and she had the majorly wonderful idea to come snag me for a drive.
 We breezed by the drive - through at Mickey D's, and took our iced teas and iced coffees on a little drive by...  Macon Long Branch Lake....

 Little roadside lazy susans...  Pretty Queen Anne's Lace...
And finally a whole batch of sunshine yellow.....  Home by twilight...  Lots of fun and laughter and cool breezes in the midst of a very hot weekend here in Missouri.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Tagging along....

 So, Karla from Karla's Cottage is having a tag swap.  The theme is birdsong, and I absolutely loved participating in the last one, which was Wizard of Oz.  This year I almost didn't get prepared, but the deadline to mail is tomorrow, and I'm ready..  with hours to spare, and I can't wait to see all the goodness she is going to wrap up for all of us who participate.
 This time I did all mine alike...  a little girl with a sweet bird in her hands...
 Of course, I had to add a little of my stash of Martha Stewart glitter.  This color is Rose Quartz...
So, while Mom cut the tops off beets and made mac and cheese for our company tonight, I tended to the more ahem!  sprightly side of life...  I hear the pan lids clatter, so I might just need to step out of birdsong fairyland long enough to help a bit...  ya think?

Friday, July 8, 2011

Porch Views

 Sitting on the porch in mid-day can be one of those summer pleasures a person just has to have...  Today was a misty, semi-warm day with a stiff breeze:  almost perfection!  I called out to Mom that we needed to do some expert porch sitting, so that we did.
 Right after our lovely holiday on Mom's front porch we washed the last two shelves in her china hutch.  That was a job well done, and I still have the fun of puttering around with the treasures to try to fit them back.  As I unpacked, I began to get a bit edgy.  I don't think it will all go back.  It reminded me of the auction we had for my dad's mother.  After she passed away and the children and grandchildren decided to have an auction, we spent several weeks taking turns and going through the house.  Night after night, the kids would fill the tables with items and choose keepsakes.  Even after that, my dad heard a man mutter, "No way did all this stuff come from just one house."  The buyer had wrongly assumed we had hauled items from another house to pad the estate sale.  No way.  My dad quickly set him straight...  People can edge in a lot of goodies over time....  a little here and an extra saucer there...
 If you spy something coming out of this iron kettle besides phlox, it isn't a snake or a lizard as it looks.  Although my heart skipped a beat this morning when I first saw it, the curvy tail is actually the collapsible handle to the iron cauldron...  That's a good one!
We ended our day with a drive, a little automobile-picnic at the lake with Taco Bell, and a night of American Pickers and Pawn Stars...  Relax, Sit Back...  and wonder why I didn't retire, huh?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

A "Never Worked and Never Will" Day

 I have mentioned many times that I read a book in first grade that was about a man who loved his work so much (he made Duck Decoys) that he had a sign above the door that read, "Never Worked and Never Will"...  I believe in that story with my whole heart.  Teaching, while a lot of effort, isn't really WORK most days...  ( a few, but that's another story).

 This morning I decided to start washing all the dishes in My Mom's dining room.  She felt like helping wash, so that meant only one thing...  Stories!  I love washing dishes anyway, but when I get to hear all the tales about the acquisition of each one...  That's really special.
 We tackled three shelves in the cabinet with dishes from my dad's mother...  That was it for the day...

 I toted them to the kitchen in a huge market basket.....
 Washed the shelves and the glass....  Mom dunked each one in hot, soapy water, and we dried them and then let them air dry a few minutes.
 These little bulldogs make me smile.  My dad tells stories about the one and only "Mostest special-est" dog in the world to him.  He had a little bulldog named Queen when he was a boy, and Queen would sit up at the table and never touch a thing and beg...  and she would sometimes sit with a hat on and a little pipe in her mouth...  Although that little dog went to her happy hunting ground a full 30 years or so before I became a part of this family, I believe I can see that little dog do just that...  I know my grandmother kept little bulldogs all around in honor of little Queen... Here are two... ( I don't like that little girl behind them...  She's not going to be able to handle such big dogs!  --- especially not with that baby in her buggy....haha...)
 Finally I got it all back in  minus a few dishes...  They absolutely would not go!  Gulp..  I knew that would happen if I mixed up the shelves, but I wanted to do that.  They are good and mixed!!!!
Two more shelves to go, and the top.  We had to stop before it seemed like "Always work and always will."

My dear friend is coming out tonight.  How do you know if it's a dear friend?  You call them up and say, "I want you to come out, but I don't want to cook, so stop and bring us Taco Bell...."  Yum-o!..  We're going to watch the season finales of The Mentalist and The Good Wife.  I taped them both in the spring...  and we haven't made time to watch...  I sneaked a peek.  They were  both cliff-hangers, of course...  but nothing like Castle...  Oh, my!!!!  I do like my winter tv....  especially with TIVO...

Have a fun day...  Don't work play  too hard...