something blue

This evening My Darling Husband and I attended a friend's lakeside wedding. The evening temperature was a chilly 51 degrees Farenheit...unusual for Kansas in June, but perfect for keeping the mosquitoes away!
 

My Darling Husband went as a cowboy. Such attire is normal in southeast Kansas. After all, we are surrounded by farms, ranches and rodeos, and Oklahoma cowboy culture is a mere 45 minute drive. 

The itty bitty flower girl giggled whenever the fabric petals met the sidewalk.



My Darling Husband adding to his resume of decorating cars. I added the aluminum can.

The punch practically glowed like a neon sign in the dusk! A simple recipe: blue Hawaiian Punch and Sprite. 

December moon

Last night in our neighborhood.
Shortly before I took this photograph, the moon appeared to be resting on the roof of our neighbor's house, and I could reach out and grab it. Our back door faces east, so when the moon comes out, I often stand at the back door and gaze at the celestial lights. Since we live in a small town there is little light pollution, so it's easy to pick out the constellations from in town. I readily spot Orion's belt every cloudless night.

how I feel today

This is CutieDog enjoying the warmth of the compost pile (soon to become a compost bin this spring). It's such a lovely spring day today that I want to just lay on a blanket in the warm sun and read a good book or knit until sunset. Alas, I hear the local garden center calling me; they're having an open house today, so I'm headed there in just a little while. Our Small Town has a Wal-Mart with a garden center, but the town is big enough to also support a garden center and one of the town's florist's seasonal garden shop. "Yes, I know I'm a handsome fella. Mrs. H, I'll miss this pile when it's gone."

Take it inside, Buddy, this is my bathroom.

True story. This might be more information than some of you want to know, so if it is I apologize for embarrassing you. However, I won't see your cheeks turn red and it's a funny story.

Recently, My Darling Husband needed to use the restroom like any normal human does. It was occupied by yours truly at the time and our house has only one bathroom. (Yes, families still survive with only one bathroom per house.) He really had to go. So outside he went, to a secluded area of our back yard.

CutieDog likes to follow us in and out of the house, so he did his normal following or maybe he was already out there. My Darling Husband is standing there doing his thing, and up saunters our dog, stands next to him and simultaneously turns another patch of grass into a second bathroom stall.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We have snow! It finally snowed in southeast Kansas last week. What a refreshing sight to see, after envying all the other snowfall in other parts of the US. After the dry autumn we had, we've needed this snow. And yes, I need to put our Christmas tree away. My Darling Husband's birthday is in December, but prior to Christmas. This time around I waited until after his birthday to put up the tree, just as his mother used to do when he was growing up. It seems like such a waste of time to have it set up for only a week or two, so I've waited until way past the New Year to take the tree down. It's going in the box this weekend.Or I could leave it up and decorate it with hearts for Valentine's Day. Just kidding, Mr. H.Cutie Dog is quite fond of the snow. First thing on his list was to eat it.
When he was a stray, it was winter. There was still ample snow on the ground when we brought him into our home. So I had been curious how he would react to the snow this winter.

My Darling Husband forwarded this funny email to me:

Why It's Great to Be a Dog

1. No one expects you to take a bath every day.
2. If it itches, you can scratch it.
3. A rawhide bone (or a rag in Cutie Dog's case) can entertain you for hours.
4. If you grow hair in weird places, nobody notices.
5. You can lay around all day without worrying about being fired.
6. You don't get in trouble for putting your head in a stranger's lap.
7. You're always excited to see the same people.
8. Having big feet is considered an asset.
9. Puppy love can last.

lights...camera...keep moving!

New Year's Day was the last day to see the Christmas light display at Rhema Bible Church and College. So yesterday My Darling Husband and I left the warm confines of our house and drove down to Oklahoma. It was cold cold cold! Had to keep moving to stay warm, but we did snap some photos. Every year Rhema adds more lights to the display. The 2010 edition:"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."
--Job 19:25A Southwest Christmas.Gazebo by the fountain lake.Rhema's version of Noah's Ark!Bridge over peaceful waters.

sign of summer #1

Cutiedog's tongue indefinitely hanging out of his mouth. He's one hot dog, thanks to his furry tuxedo.

don't get mad, get glads

The gladiolis that I planted last year and thought had died have bloomed again this year! They are a hardy flower, which is great for neglectful gardeners such as moi. I used to dislike glads. That was until my father planted them in his garden a few years ago and I saw them return the next year after a hard winter. Another reason I like glads now is because white ones were included in mine and My Darling Husband's wedding floral arrangements. Glads are an old-fashioned flower which fit perfectly into the vintage decorating of our wedding.

The vase is an heirloom from one of my grandmothers. I think it is very suitable for gladiolus; the gaudy parrots compliment the gaudy glads.

the sister got hitched

One week ago today My Darling Husband's sister was married on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
A Beautiful Southern Belle of a Bride.Please write on the picture frame. More practical than a guest book. (When My Darling Husband and I married, the guests signed a cloth, which I am embroidering and it is destined to become a quilt...very practical indeed.)The Georgian reception hall awaiting guests.These goldfish found their purpose in life: table decoration. Salmon was on the menu.We tried so hard to be secretive, but the bride and groom caught us decorating their getaway car! Apparently they were not blinded by love.

I could've sworn I heard a sheep

This evening I heard it again...the same sound of a sheep that I heard coming from our neighbor's yard about this time last year.

This time I did not do what I did last year. I didn't scrutinize surrounding neighbors yards for the sheep I just knew they were keeping as pets in their back yard. I didn't start picturing in my mind which neighbors might have children raising sheep for a 4-H project. I didn't start wondering what restrictions on livestock within the city limits The Small Town has. I didn't ask a neighbor who was out for a walk if he had heard or seen the sheep. I didn't narrow down the location of the bleating to our back yard. I didn't follow the sound of the bleating to a certain spot near our back yard pool.

This year I did not take any of the above actions because this time last year, I did a search on the internet and read about sheep frogs.

We get a few different types of frogs and toads in our back yard every spring. There's an occasional bullfrog, and of course thousands of tadpoles in the water on top of the pool cover, but thankfully they are eliminated when we open the pool for the season. I find the sheep frog to be most curious. It is one of a group of animals that can imitate other animals. I think also of catbirds, mockingbirds and parrots. I'd rather have the pretty birds, and save just a frog or two for the garden.

sign of spring #4

Wasps.

I'm quite sure there's more wasps around here than up in The Big City. Perhaps it's due to our more southerly location. Last summer, My Darling Husband advised me that he sprays the inside of the garage every year with wasp spray to keep them from building nests in there.

Wasps everywhere.

Ok, not plague proportions, but I've spotted at least three inside our house this last week. I never see them fly in when we're going in or out the door. I don't know how they get in, but they belong with their buddies outdoors. They meet their Maker instead.

Tonight I suddenly heard one buzzing (that's always how we spot them inside...suddenly buzzing out of thin air, as if poof! wasp abra cadabra!) two feet behind me in the office where I sit, innocently minding my own blog business. I cried for help, and My Darling Husband came to the rescue with fly swatter in hand, just in time for that wasp to fly to the next room.

That room happens to be our storage room that happens to have a lot of stuff in it, so I'll probably be looking for something in there one day soon and happen upon that wasp and poof! it'll come screaming at me at top speed, stinger first. Or hopefully it'll have met it's Maker by then due to natural causes.

sign of spring #3 or, a tale of three lilacs

Lilacs. The word itself is pretty. Add the delicate yet stable physical beauty and the wonderful scent, and you've got yourself an old-fashioned charmer. They remind me of my childhood...grandparents...playing in Mr. & Mrs. Mace's (elderly neighbors I grew up next door to) yard that had no fence...and like Alicia, the scent reminds me of the Midwest--home.
One set of my grandparents always had a lilac bush or two in their yard (other grandpa would've mowed them down, so other grandma dared not plant any). When we went for a visit, I and/or grandma would cut some lilacs to decorate the house. The lilac bush in the Mace's yard served as a hiding place for frequent games of hide-n-seek with the neighborhood children. Sometimes we would just plop ourselves on the grass or cement wall next to that lilac and pass the time.

The lilac pictured above is compliments of a friend here in The Small Town. I'm currently trying to start a new lilac bush from a cutting off hers. The plan is to plant it near our bedroom window so when we have the window open during lilac season, a west breeze will send the scent into our nostrils at night.

The vase with the lilacs on it is an heirloom from my mother's ceramic-painting days.

The blue lilac in the painting on the wall was done by a friend of my other grandparents some decades ago. So even if other grandma couldn't keep plants alive thanks to other grandpa, at least she could see them on her walls!

purple inside and out or, sign of spring #1

When there is a grape hyacinth bouquet inside our house, that is the signal that My Darling Husband is about to give our lawn it's first mowing of the year. Since I can't have these lovely purple heads just mowed down, I decorate the table with them when he says "it's time to start mowing". There were already some grape hyacinths planted in My Darling Husband's yard when I married him, then I planted more last year. I can see it now: a grape hyacinth and daffodil meadow in our front yard. Grape hyacinths are popular in this neck of the woods. There are many yards in our town where you can see these growing naturalized. Cheri has a lovely landscape photo of grape hyacinths on her blog A Joyful Handmaiden.

pick me! pick me! PLEEEASE!

Yesterday and today are National Adoption Weekend. It's a pairing of the Petco store with local animal shelters to promote and sponsor pet cat and dog adoptions. Petsmart is having theirs next month.

A local animal shelter is where one of my Christmas presents came from. My Darling Husband surprised me with him. I'd been chirping on forever about adopting a dog, waiting for just the right time (the moment M.D.H. says yes) and just the right dog. "Right dog" to me = lap dog. I was thinking Sheltie, Schnauzer, terrier size. M.D.H. grew up with larger dogs, so we compromised and are now the pround "parents" of a medium dog. I planned on adopting a dog from either the local animal shelter or from someone whose dog accidentally produced offspring.

I like this accidental canine offspring. He is part Labrador Retriever and part Border Collie. Around blogland he is known as Cutie Dog. Although he isn't exactly lap size, he does like a lap to sit on occasionally. You big baby.

Christmas lingers on my blog

This is the official photographic essay of where My Darling Husband and I went for Christmas.

From the hills of Tennessee......to a place near Walhalla, SC.

Near, yet so far away.Tucked away in the woods.Is a cabin where one can peacefully and quietly enjoy visiting with family members after a long drive.And then, after a good night's sleep, awaken on Christmas morning to this view:An enclosed back deck invites one to sit in the great outdoors in warmer months.The deck beckons you down to a river. We hear that the fishing is good in this area.On the way out of town--

You know you're in the South when you spot a general store selling boiled peanuts.

Up here in Kansas and the rest of the great Midwest, we have snow-cone stands in the summer. Now that makes perfect sense to my always-lived-in-Kansas-mind: one needs a cool something to slurp in the sweltering heat and humidity. On our trip to South Carolina, I saw a snow-cone-and-boiled peanuts stand. I suppose that the snow-cone's purpose in Southern life is to wash down the peanuts.