Sunday Stills-the letter W

Today’s challenge is the letter W.  As my life goes, I’m stretching it a bit – so here goes.

We decided to take a drive yesterday morning and venture down some back roads near home.  This is the winding, wintry woad that we took to our destination. 

On the wintry, winding woad we stopped to snap some pictures of the wintry wapid waters on Paint Creek.  BTW, the first photo was taken through a very dirty truck windshield and this one was taken from inside the truck.  I did venture to roll down the window, but not for long.  The temperature had made it up to 18 at this time.  

This photo does not have anything to do with the letter W, except that this big eagle was sitting on Wood.  This was our WOW moment of the day.  We had driven all the way through the winding wintry woad, almost to our destination, when all of a sudden I looked up and there he was just sitting there waiting for me to snap his photo.  WOW!  This made my day!

Hope you all have a WOW day too!

Sharon~TheEggGatherer

Sunday Stills-the best of 2010

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on my blog.  My one and only resolution for the new year was to do better on posting this year.  What better way to get started than with the first Sunday Stills of 2011. 

This is one of my favorite spots to photograph – Rocky Fork Dam.  As you can see, this was taken after a beautiful snowfall.

These are a couple of my very favorite shots of the blessing that arrived in late February of 2010.  My Mom’s first great-grandson.

The summer soon arrived and so did the butterflies, birds and flowers.

I loved this shot of a train sitting in the countryside in Fayette County. 

Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I had to include a couple of shots of my Christmas trees.  The first one is a simple close-up of the candlelites on our livingroom tree and the second is a tribute to our troops and my son who is deployed.  Keep’em flyin’ son! Semper Fi!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I’m looking forward to seeing all the great photos to come in 2011.

Sharon~TheEggGatherer

Autumn Drive

It’s autumn and the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn a bit, but mostly they are just turning brown and falling to the ground.  The dogwood in the front yard is red and there are many maple leaves on the ground already.  A few orange and red leaves here and there but mostly just brown.  It’s been a long hot summer….hmmmm, sounds like a movie title.  The only parallels between our summer of 2010 and the movie is that it was extremely hot during both and we had not rain to speak of after the first of July.  Our trees are stressed, our garden didn’t produce and I finally gave up on watering my plants due to the fact the we have well water and I was concerned about if it would hold out.  The weather has cooled now and we’ve had a little rain, very little, but still it has dampened the ground a time or two in the past week.  This past weekend we actually turned on the heat pump to warm up the house a little and knock off the dampness.  We drank lots of coffee and made soup.  When autumn came to Highland County it came with a bang.  We went from the 90s to the high 50s in just a few days.  Talk about a shock to the system.  Brrrrrr! 

On Friday, last week, I took a drive to my doc’s place to pick some meds.  It was a beautiful drive.  My doctor’s office is in the country so that gave me the opportunity to stop along the way for a few photos.  Across from her house is a little red brick school that now houses bales of hay just waiting for the winter feeding. 

This is the same building but from a different angle and turned into a black and white.

Near by is a side road lined with soybean and hay fields with this little building sitting just a few feet back.  From the front it resembles a small house, but with no windows on the one side. 

As I drove to the other side there was an entry door with this porcelain doorknob.  The latches were missing, hence the baling twine holding the door shut.

At the other end were double doors, so from that I assumed this must have been a carriage house or garage at some point in time.  Old buildings fascinate me, making my mind wonder back into the past.  I would love to know about the lives of the folks that lived and inhabited the buildings.  What were their lives like, what were their dreams for their future and the future of their families? 

Across the road from the carriage house was a hand pump sitting right in the edge of a soybean field.  At some point in time I’m sure it provided cool clear drinking water that was ‘fetched’ in a granite bucket and sat on a water bench in the kitchen of their home.  A home that no longer existed.  I can imagine in my mind of the children pumping water into a large tub that would sit in the summer sun to warm for baths.  It probably provided fresh water to their animals that supplied milk, eggs and meat to sustain them.  If I close my eyes I can see a small child swinging on the handle as he or she pumped water into a tin cup for their father when he came in from the fields.      

 As I drove through the countryside I stopped to snap pictures of the fields and animals that surround us in the country.

A corn field glistening gold against a beautiful blue sky.

Hay laying in wait of the farmer to scoop it up with the hay lift and haul it to the livestock in the middle of winter.

A cow enjoying the warm hillside of an Amish farm.

The hills beginning to turn the colors of autumn.

After snapping this picture of the hillside and turning the corner onto Cynthiana Road I met one of the Amish farmers of the community heading for market.  After all, it was Friday and that is one of their big market days.  I loved the rolling roadway behind him with the shadows of the electric poles and wires waving on it.  The road signs letting everyone know that they are entering Highland County and a reminder to us to share the roads with our Amish neighbors.

I’m headed home now for a cup of coffee and to enjoy the rest of my beautiful autumn day.  Hope you enjoyed my little journey through our countryside of Highland and Pike counties in Ohio.  It’s time to go the chicken coop.  Have a great day.

Sharon~TheEggGatherer

planes, Trains and Blimps?

Going back through some of my photos that I’ve taken this summer I came up with a few modes of transportation.  We live in such a fast paced world these days that we always need to “get there fast” so we us the interstate highways.  Some days I love to get on the back roads, known as state and county highways and meander around places I haven’t been before or haven’t been in quite a while. 

I ventured to Columbus to the Heart of Ohio Tolle Painting convention a couple of months ago and on my way home I decided it was ‘one of those meandering days’, so through the country side it was.  I don’t know about you, but when I go ‘meandering’ I have my foot on the brake a lot,the window rolled down, my arm hanging out (so I can wave on the traffic that builds up behind me) and tend to come to sudden stops often.  Dean ‘meanders’ with me sometimes and he does the driving, but seems that when I say something about taking a picture we are about a half mile down the road before he says, ‘do ya wanna stop?’ – well, I did, back there about a half mile ago, but that’s OK, we’ll stop the next time.  This time I was in control – ha! 

I don’t hesitate to pull into a driveway and sit there adjusting my camera so I can take a shot or two of a train parked in the distance.  That particular day the kids that live there come wondering out of the house looking like maybe I was their long-lost relative that they hadn’t seen since they were knee-high to a grasshopper and they had this look on the little faces that just maybe I was going to pull a big bag of goodies out of the back seat of my truck.  When they saw the camera and found out I was taking pictures of the train they just gave me this “well who needs you” look and turned to go back into the house.  I think one of them gave me the raspberry as he turned the corner. These days, that’s a mild gesture compared to some.

Trains have always fascinated me.  In the old movies the cowboys would ride along side the train and jump off their horse onto the train and scramble to the top.  For the life of me, I could never figure out how they could run on top of the that train as it was rolling down the tracks so fast – I’d like to see them try that on Amtrak!!  Heck, I can’t even walk a straight line anymore.  I know I’d never pass a sobriety test if I would get stopped, and please, don’t ask me to run on top of a moving train.   Then there was the fellow that just escaped from the local prison, there was always a train track close by – how convenient!  Run, run, run, run a little faster…..jump, thank goodness the door was open on that train car and that hound dog just missed grabbing his leg by a fraction. Whew, safe at last!  Just so happens, they dropped the stock off at the last stop and there was lots of fresh hay and straw still in the train car.  Well, I don’t know how fresh the straw was, but I bet there was some other fresh “stuff” in there.  Better watch where he lays his head!  Back to the subject, I was getting a little ‘off track’ there.

I’ve only been on one train in my life and that was when I was senior in high school and we went to Washington D.C. on our senior trip.  What I remember was rocking from side to side from Chillicothe to DC allllll night long.  It wasn’t like being rocked in a rocking chair in the arms of your Momma, it was clang, rock, bump, clunkclunkclunk, clang, rock – you get the picture.  I think just maybe that’s the same train in these pictures and they just pasted pictures of windows on the side of those cars and told us it was a passenger train.  I really believe that!  I want to go back to DC, on a train, but it’s Amtrak all the way there and back this time baby!!

Here’s the blimp – I have no, NO intentions of ever riding on one of these things.  I just kept waiting for the little yellow Metlife chicken or duck or whatever he is to come flying out of it.  Oh, yea, that’s Snoopy in that blimp.

 I think I’d better go the chicken coop while the going is good.  Good day all!

Sharon-TheEggGatherer

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My………

…….. Blogging Life! Ah ha, you thought I was going to say something bad.  Shame on you. 

Here I am, A G A I N!   How many times have I restarted this blog?  1? 2? A dozen times?  I’ve thought a lot about just letting the blog go, but as I was baking a cake yesterday, I had all kind of ideas for writing. I guess I need to cook more often – seems as though I think better, or maybe crazier, when I’m in the kitchen.  I’m sure my husband would love for me to be in the kitchen more often, so maybe I just need to rearrange my life, go through some old cookbooks and get out the fixin’s for some yummy meals so I can conjure up some ideas for my readers. 

Conjure  brings up some different thoughts – doesn’t a witch ‘conjure’ up ways to inflict pain on her enemies.  Hmmmm, I need to find my witch’s hat (some believe that I wear it ALL the time), maybe that will help me come up with some words.  Not that you all are my enemies, but maybe some role-playing would help to inspire my tired brain.  OR, maybe I just need a potion of some sort.   Naaa, I’d probably better just stick to cookin’ up stuff.  Of course, that can be taken a lot of different ways too.   

I make no promises.  I apologize right now for my bad language, grammar, punctuation, miss-spelled words, misplaced words, words turned dnuora sdrawkcab, words bass ackwards, etc.  Heck, sometimes I even forget to use spell check on this thing.  Enough of all this willy-nilly, I’m back and want to share some photos from my early morning ventures to Douglas Pond – actually it’s just across the road from my house, but it sounds like a long adventurous journey doesn’t it?

I’m going to leave you with these calming early morning shots.  Please don’t give up on me, I’m trying to hang in there. 

Have  a wonderful day, I’m heading to the chicken coop.

Sharon~TheEggGatherer

PS-I remembered to use spell check and they have never heard of words like naaa, cookin’ , dnuora sdrawkcab, ackwards and hmmmmm.  Come to think of it, they didn’t even have witch.  HA!  That’s probably not in there either!!

Sunday Stills~Graffiti/Street Art…

…in my post today for Sunday Stills it will be Graffiti/Mirror Art.

I had to improvise today since we don’t have a lot of graffiti/street art around here in the country.  I couldn’t even find road signs that were spray painted.  So here is my offering for today.

Check out other graffiti/street art here:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Have a great day.  I’m happy to be back!

TheEggGather

I Pleade Allegiance….

…to the flag

of the United States of America

and to the republic, for which it stands,

one nation, under God, indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.

Sunday Stills~History

This weeks challenge was history, over 60 years old – well, I could have taken a photo of  “me”, but thought I’d spare you the shock.

I’ve been planning on posting this and several others of this old house in our community – I’m sure it’s 60+ because I can not remember anyone living in it during my 60+ years living around here.  Enjoy!

To see other “history” photos check out:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Have a great Sunday!!

Sunday Stills-Go Low, Look High

An ant’s eye view of the sky from under the purple coneflower.

The view from the ground at Douglas Pond through the morning mist.

See more Low/High photos at:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

More of the misty morning shots on my flickr page:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharonkmh/

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads!

Catchin’ Up & Beautiful Blooms

I know, it’s been awhile – sorry.  There are times when I’m just not in a talkative mood.  My brain doesn’t work, I really think it’s water-logged as is the soil in our garden, or what there is of it.  The tomatoes are lovin’ the hot sun and water and they’re growin’ to beat the band, but the beans are another story.  I don’t know if it was the rain or just that they weren’t planted in the right ‘sign’.  My Dad and the Pressman really didn’t believe in “planting in the sign” until they had to replant a whole bunch of beans onetime for my Grandma.  She tried to tell them that it wasn’t the right “time” to plant beans and their comment was #$%^%  !@$^&  ^%^&  *???? – I dare not translate that.   With a bag of beans in one hand and a bucket of fertilizer in the other they replanted “in the right sign” – and there were beans!  

 My Gardener – you didn’t know I had one, did you?  He’s 40ish, nice lookin’ and has lived on the 23rd floor of a highrise in The Windy City for several years.  He didn’t know what he was missing until he returned to the country and started pulling weeds, tilling the garden, planting veggies and raking the grass the very first week he was back here.  He decided that wasn’t the most intelligent thing to do, especially without gloves – he had to go to work with very large blisters on both hands – live and learn.  He’s toughened up in the past year.  He planted several hills of pole beans – it musta’ been the “right sign”, they ALL came up.  The next step is to get the poles cut.  We’ve got a small grove of saplings back in the field, but with all the rain we’ve had the spring is running good back there and we’ve not been able to get the tractor and bush hog that far to mow the weeds.  I have a feeling, that will be the Pressman’s job, cause the Gardener  is just like his Mom – he hates snakes and I have a feeling that there are a few of those creepy-crawlers back there.  It will also be tick heaven with butt high weeds all around. 

Actually, I didn’t plan on telling you all that – I wanted to show some my flowers that are blooming right now.  

My hydrangeas haven’t done well the past two years, but this year has been perfect.  Lots of water and sunshine and they are happy, these girls have gone wild!The daylilies are beginning to bloom.  A couple of mine have found new homes in the garden.  The were in the flower beds by the kitchen and didn’t like it there, so we moved them to the edge of the garden and they have more than doubled since their move late last summer.  This Electric and I think it lives up to it’s name.  See what you think.Margrit Rose is the other daylily that was moved and she hasn’t shown her blooms yet, but I’ll post when she does.  She’s beautiful!  I’ll bet some of you guessed why I had to have her – for those of you that don’t know, my Mom’s name is Margaret.  When I saw Margrit Rose she just reminded of my Mom~littleish, kind of quiet and beautiful in pink.   

This is Granite City Towhead.  GCT was planted late in the summer last year has done well.  Love the tall scapes and big petals.

Here’s GCT ‘up close and personal’.  Love the colors.

This is Chattahoochee Rose, one of the first ones that I bought in 2005 at Sugar Creek Daylilies in Indiana.  I keep waiting for Alan Jackson to start singing “Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee”……guess who is singing right now on the radio…it’s him, but he’s singing my all-time favorite “Remember When”.  Come to think of it, I can’t think of any of his songs that’s not a fave on mine.  I’m off subject, I know, but it’s hard to think straight when I hear him sing…I’ll be back soon….

ok, I’m back to reality.  

This is the Fairy Rose.  It’s almost finished blooming for the first time, but has hundreds of buds getting ready to put on another fairytale show in a couple of weeks.  It just goes nonstop all summer.

We’ve had so much rain lately and we keep finding bird nest that have blown or washed out of the trees in the yard.  We found this one over the weekend.  One egg survived and the other didn’t. 

The last photo that I have to show is more or less and advertisement.  The “Gardener” has started a line of soy candles and he and I took some photos for him to use in his brochure.  I thought Ishould add one of them here because it has flowers in it too.  Namely, the girls that have gone wild in front of the house.  Beechstreet Candleworks is the name and you can see more about them on Facebook.

I have many more photos on Flickr.  Just click on the ‘more pictures’ at the side of the blog and you should be able to check them out.  Hope you enjoy. 

Until the next time – I’m going to the chicken coop next door.  They have new babies and they are soooo photogenic.

If something has tickled your feathers, leave me a note below.

Sharon ~TheEggGather

Sunday Stills~Landscapes

My Sunday Stills this week is dedicated to the  people of Adams County, Ohio.  On Friday they suffered a flash flood that has devastated the area.  We drive the back roads of this county quite often and love to spend time enjoying the beautiful hills and scenery.  Many of the roads that we drove on Saturday had been under water just hours before.  The photos were all taken on Saturday evening. 

After taking in some of the more relaxing sites we then headed for what we have always called “Beech Flats”.  As you can see the roads were getting pretty bad.  In some places there were gulleys washed out as deep as 10 to 12 inches. 

A little farther down the road we ran into this:For us this was the end of the road.  It had wash out.

I just want to say this, we love this part of the country.  It’s where my Dad was born and raised and we have many roots there.  My heart and prayers go out to the people of Adams County during this time.  Within a matter of a couple of hours the lives of the majority of the people in this county had been changed.  Adams County is one of the most economically deprived counties in the state of Ohio.  Where the economy leaves off the determination and guts kick in.  I can say for a fact that the people of Adams County are some of the most determined people of any state in the USA.  I know, I was raised by one of them.  The pictures above show some of the least affected areas.  As we drove route 41 there was a home washed off its foundation with 3 people in it and Brushcreek had over-flowed its banks onto and across route 41 into the homes of the other side of the highway. The family in the home was rescued and are alright.  Late Saturday evening there were many roads that were still closed due to high water and several bridges and roads washed out.  The people of the area were out working and beginning to try to put their lives back into order.  We saw many hugs and handshakes being given to neighbors and friends, people working and pulling together to begin the next phase of their lives in a county that they love to live in.  God bless the people of Adams County. 

To see more landscapes go to: http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

sunday morning breakfast~OR~What Not To Feed Your Husband the Day Before Going to the Cardiologist

Let me first say this – I AM NOT A FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER or nor do I consider myself a photographer.  I just take pictures that I think I like, and then I go back and delete about 95% of them.  With that said, please use your imagination when viewing this post.

I love cooking blogs, Food Network TV and anything else that pertains to food or cooking.  I’m always finding ‘good’ recipes on my favorite sites here on the puter and I save them to my ‘recipe folder’.  Well, if I live to be 399 and 3/4 years old I will never cook all these recipes – maybe that’s because I really don’t cook all that much these days.  BUT, ever so often I run across something that looks sooooo good that I just have to break down and go to the kitchen.  We all love French toast here in this household.  My Marine makes very good French toast, my other One could too, but heck, he’s home now and why not eat Mom’s French toast.  The Pressman….he’d just go pour himself a big bowl of raisin-bran flakes instead of turning on the stove and making a mess of all those dishes. 

Saturday night I began preparing this luscious sounding Baked French Toast.  Sliced the French bread, beat the eggs, added the milk and half & half, added the vanilla and some cinnamon – more cinnamon because it’s good for you.  Everything else in this recipe is good, but the cinnamon makes it healthy.   I poured this beautiful yellow mixture over the bread and slid it into the frig to sit overnight. 

Isn’t that pretty?  There’s only one way to get a custard mixture that is this yellow and pretty – you have to have eggs fresh from your adopted ladies next door OR if you don’t have a coop full of chickens as neighbors you need to find you a ‘chicken farmer/farmerette’ and become close friends with him/her and beg, borrow or steal-no don’t do that, they don’t serve good eggs in jail-barter, that’s a better way, you some good fresh-from-the-coop eggs.  Ain’t nothin’ like ’em!

Now, it’s Sunday morning and time for coffee – gotta have the coffee.  While it’s brewing I’ll continue with the recipe and make the good stuff that goes on top.  Now, if your faint of heart from all those eggs and half & half then you’d better grab your heart medication or leave the room.  What I’m going to describe to you and show you in the next couple of photos is liable to put you into some kind of fit.  The pacemaker or defib may start beeping or whatever it does when you have a spell.  Are ya ready?  We are going to mix butter, sugar and corn syrup in a pan and bring it to a boil.  Just like this…..then we’re going to pour it over the bread and egg custard.  You’ll be tempted to stick your finger in this and taste it.  Don’t, it’s hot, it burns, it burns your tongue too.  Don’t ask how I know this!

This is what it looks like just before going into the oven….. and this is what it looks like when it comes out…..Just a reminder….don’t stick your finger in it, don’t try wiping the drips off the side of the dish or pinching a piece of that crusty goodness off the top – it’ HOT!  If you can, let it set for about 20 minutes or so and then call everyone to he table, pray fast and dig in.  You can have syrup if you like, but it’s pretty sweet as it is….maybe a little extra butter on top, mmmmmmm.  

Here it is plated and ready to eat….Oh, I’m sorry, the camera was out of reach and….well, I just couldn’t help myself. 

I’ll make this again, but may wait until next year to do it and probably cut it in half.  It makes gobs of gooey goodness.  You could use two 9x13s and divvy the custard and topping mixture between the two pans.  It would be great for a crowd or if you’re really hungry, go for it!

Here’s the recipe – I shorten my recipes.  Don’t like all that writing or typing, hope you can understand it.

BAKED FRENCH TOAST – or DON’T TELL DR. B YOU’VE HAD THIS THE DAY BEFORE YOUR CHECK-UP

1 loaf Fr. bread sliced in about 1 inch thick pieces – arrange it in a 9×13 baking pan

Beat together: 8 eggs,  1 1/2 cup milk, 2 cups half & half, 2 tsp. vanilla and 1/4 tsp cinnamon – then I sprinkled another 1/4-1/2 tsp on top.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In saucepan over medium/med.high heat:  3/4 cups butter(no margarine yuck), 1 1/3 cups brown sugar and 3 T. light corn syrup.  Heat until sugar is melted and it begins to bubble real good.  Pour over bread and egg custard mixture.  Keep your fingers out of this, but ya really don’t have to scrap the pan real clean – go pour another cup of coffee and enjoy.  Oh, wait, before lickin’ the pan out and washing it down with your coffee, slid that pan of rich ooooey, gooooey goodness into an oven heated to 350 and turn the timer to 35 – 40 minutes, depending on your oven.  Now, you can have the pan and if you can waddle back into the kitchen serve this to your family for breakfast or brunch and they’ll love ya for ever and ever.  With all that butter and cream it may not be too long, but what the heck, give it a try.

Hope you enjoy this recipe.  I’m goin’ next door and squeeze my adopted ladies to see if I can get some more eggs.  I’m headin’ for the coop.

Bye and have a great day.

Sharon ~ TheEggGather

Macro Monday

Lichen or trouble.  My Rose of Sharon tree has a lot of  lichen on it and some of the branches are looking bad.  It may have to go!

Sunday Stills – Flowers/Wildflowers

Welcome to Sunday Stills-Flowers/Wildflowers.  Also this one is dedicated to my Mom – it’s her birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I was excited when I read this weeks SS was flowers – my favorite subject.  Get ready, this may be a long post.  I’ll try to control myself, so here goes.

Last weekend we drove to Lexington, KY, to visit with my brother’s new trailer sales that recently opened (custom horsetrailers, stock and etc.).   While there my sis-in-law, Mom and friend Amy took a jaunt to the estate of Henry Clay.  Ashland Estate is a beautiful brick home with several acres of lawn, brick-walled formal gardens and a peony garden.  Inside the formal gardens we found this georgeous rose.  There were no name stakes, so I have no idea it’s name – I just called it “beautiful”.

Here’s a sneak peek of the peony garden and that’s my Mom.  I entitled this photo-‘Mom, praying to peony gods’.  I’m saving the rest of the peonies for a later post, so you’ll have to check back later.

My lilacs this year – the bush was loaded.  This has been a great year for flowers.

Charisma – my Mother’s day rose from my older son.

This was taken at the lavender farm near us, Meadowbrook Farms, at their Lavender Day last year.  That’s my sis-in-law, Lori there in the background and lots of honey bees enjoying that wonderful lavender nectar.

The next two photos are of a couple of my favorite daylilies – in an hour my favorites may be something else.  I’ve never met a daylily that I didn’t like love.  The first one is South Seas Moldovan,  just home from McMurray’s Daylilies and waiting to start growing in it’s new home.  Primal Scream is the second.  It was daylily of the year in 2007.  My husband calls it my “investment”.  This pic was taken last summer and this year it has triples in size.  Can’t wait to see the blooms this summer.

This was just one of those pics that you snap without thinking and ends up being one of your faves.

Sunday Gloves daylily macro shot.

Last but not least – a weed that grows everywhere around here.  It is thick in my blackberry patch and grows from a little bulb that looks like a small onion.  It’s cute so I thought I’d add it the collection.

Hope everyone has a great day.   Check out more Sunday Stills-Flowers/Wildflowers as:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

See y’all later.

Macro Monday

Locust blooms – the locust trees around here are loaded with bloom.  The honeybees love them and so do I.

Sunday Stills – the letter B

Today’s Sunday Stills challenge is the letter B.  Some of mine are from my archives but I did have one new from our trip to Lexington, KY, yesterday. 

We found this momma and baby burro while on a drive a couple weeks ago.  I wanted to put them in the truck and take them home with me.

As you know from my older posts, I love old barns and old houses.  They need someone to love them – that’s me.  This is an old barn that is near us.  There’s a house across the road from it that needs as much love as it does.

Bricks, I know this could be under any number of different headings, but I loved this photo of the window and chimneys on the back side of the Henry Clay estate, Ashland, in Lexington, Kentucky.  Neat place, must go back when we have more time.  I’ll post more photos of some of the gardens later.

Last but not least is my Marine bear.  He is a reminder of all the men and women that serve around the world.  Semper Fi!To check out more Sunday Stills go to:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL YOU GREAT MOMS!

Macro Monday

Salt flakes.  I bought these salt flakes to sprinkle on chocolate truffles that I made for Christmas.  They not only tasted good on the truffles, they made for an interesting macro shot.  Who would have thunk it?

Macro Monday

Photo through a piece of bubble glass.

Sunday Stills – Potluck

Time for Sunday Stills – Potluck.  After many, many hours of trying to get my photos loaded, my wireless keyboard working and everything else out-of-the-way, I present to you my “potluck” of photos.

This is the barn at the Nixon farm where I lived for a few years when I was a kid.  Before we lived there, my Grandparents worked the farm.  Eveything is in shambles now, but the memories are still there.  The house is inhabited by raccoons and who knows what else.  I remember sitting on the well top and waiting each day for the milk man to come and makes his pick-up.  His son started coming with him and I thought he was the most handsome fellow that I’d ever seen – besides my Dad. 

 This is the end of the barn and just thought this was a very different angle.  There was a resident buzzard perched on top watching our every move.Buzzard feathers and cow patties – you had to watch your step.This is the shelter house at Fort Hill.  We’ve had many family reunions here over the years.  It’s just a neat old stone and wood structure.The dogwood and redbuds are blooming right now and stand out against the new green just beginning to appear everywhere.This is the spring where my Grandparents got their drinking water for many years.  It’s been updated since then with new concrete  sides.As we headed home for some supper, we found this little guy getting his supper, too. 

Check out other Sunday Stills at:  http://sundaystills.wordpress.com

Have a great day!

33 Years Ago Today……

…..my, how time flies! 

This morning bright and early the Pressman and I went to the local hospital health fair.  We were in a waiting room with several of our friends talking and catching up on chit chat and they called my name to come sign my papers.  I looked at the clock and it showed 6:57 a.m. and as I wrote my name and then filled in the date it struck me as to where I was and what I was doing on this date in 1977.  It was a Saturday morning and beautiful outside, the birds were singing, the sun was shining and I awoke a little earlier than normal with this twinge in my back, then a twinge in my tummy.  It’s 5:30 a.m., everyone is asleep.  Besides, the last time pains like this occurred it took hours and hours to have that baby.  Really, it was two days.  I’m not getting in any hurry this time, no more of that lying around in the hospital waiting and waiting.  Not this time.  I’m going back to sleep and at a respectable hour we will get up and take that short jaunt to the hospital.  Anyway, those twinges will probably go away.  I already knew that this one was going to take his good old-time getting here, he was already 6 days late as it was.  Why get in a hurry now?  I mean, I’m going to have to clean up after this kid, change his diapers, feed him, wash his clothes, make sure he has washes behind his ears, brushes his teeth, wears matching socks, tucks his shirt tail in, gets to school on time, gets his lessons, gets to his games on time, says “thank you” and “yes, ma’am”, run him to the emergency room time and again, doesn’t act like a heathen when he goes to church – that’s another story for another day – doesn’t stay out too late, doesn’t skip school, doesn’t drive too fast….I think I’d better stop while I’m ahead. 

I’m going to lay here and sleep for just a little while longer…..well, maybe another hour or so.  Twinge…twinge…TWINGE!  Ok, maybe we had better head for the hospital, but it’s still only 7 a.m.  Everybody up and at’em.  We’re going to the hospital.  The twinges still weren’t that bad so we really didn’t hurry.  Mom came and picked up the #1 kid and off we went.  It’s just about 7 or 8 miles to the local hospital, no need to hurry.  About half way there we noticed smoke billowing up into the sky.  Oh, excitement, the old County Home was burning.  Come on Pressman, can we just stop to watch for a little while?  He just slowed down a little and then on we went.  He wasn’t going to stuck out in the country with a screamin’ holerin’ pregnant woman.  You know, he does that same thing when we are driving and I see a garage sale, he just slows down and then about a mile or so later he says, “did you want to stop?’  Just like my Dad, he did the same thing.   I should be use to it by now. 

Anyway, we arrive at the hospital, there’s the wheel chair, the nurse and off we go to the maternity area.  Back then they only had one delivery room, none of this suite stuff back then, just one itsy bitsy little ol’  delivery room.  Well, wouldn’t ya know – it’s busy.  “Tell that woman back there to get a move on!  My twinges have turned to pains!”  For some reason my the Pressman had to leave the room and when he came back in he said, “guess who’s in the delivery room?”  At that point I really didn’t care ‘who was in the delivery room’.  I just wanted her outta there and me in.  Guess who – what is this, 20 questions?!  I was just laying there thinking in my mind, just give a big push and get the heck out-of-the-way.  Well, come to find out, I knew who it was.  It was this primpy little thang that was a couple of years behind me in school.  Her initials are GL.  That was her first and middle name.  No one ever just called her by her first name.  It was always G…. L… – GL get out of there!!!  Do ya need some help?  Well, finally, a nurse came in and said the GL’s baby had arrived.   Good, let’s go, let’s do this – huff, huff, huff!  No, we can’t go in there yet, they have to clean the room.  Where is Mr. Clean when you need him?  In my mind’s eye this seemed to go on for hours – finally, it’s our turn.  It’s a few minutes before 9 a.m. and we are finally getting our turn in the delivery room.  Well, at a few minutes after 9 we had a plumb baby boy. 

Happy Birthday baby boy!  33 years!  It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long ago.  You’re still my baby boy, you will always be no matter how old you are or where you are in this world.  I love you! 

PS! – Happy Birthday S, I know that you will always be your Momma’s baby girl too!

PPS – BOTH of you behave tonight!!  This message is from both of your Mommas.  GL, I just know that you would want me to say that.