Our lilies and our Lily

Our lillies

and

Our Lily

The art of mowing a lawn (or cutting the grass)

A freshly mowed lawn is one of the nicest things about summer. My dad owned a lawn mowing business and I have smelled a lot of freshly cut grass and there is no smell quite like it. It is such a summer smell and just totally takes me back to lying in the grass as a child, looking up at the clouds, running through the sprinkler, playing kickball and all the great summer things that children do in the yard and on the grass. It smells fresh and clean and wholesome. It is a smell of nature.

Another thing I like about a freshly mowed yard are the lines that the lawn mower makes. It just sets off the freshly manicured look of it. If you are really creative, you can actually do a design on the lawn or just alter the direction of the lines. Extremely manicured landscaping is not really my thing, but a newly mown lawn is a whole different matter.

And how cool looking is the sun shining on a newly mowed lawn? It just looks like a carpet.

The "art" in these pictures was created by my Leon.

Saying goodbye

Leon and I attended the funeral of 'our' cousin, Carlene yesterday. I say "our cousin", because the cousins in this family do not designate between yours and mine, or his spouse or her spouse. It is a very accepting family and I am blessed to have them. The family originally consisted of six siblings, from which the cousins all came, as baby boomers, born in the forties and fifties.

Anyhow, Carlene has been fighting cancer for the past 2 or 3 years and the past two to three months, she had opted to forgo any additional medical intervention, other than routine medical care. As we all prayed for her, she journeyed into this process of death with a spirit that I have never seen before. All of the family went to see her in her home as she approached the end of her life here on earth. She was so happy to see everyone and just laughed and enjoyed the company of those that she loved and that loved her. Her husband said at the funeral, " she died like she lived, with grace, love and class". Her daughters were with her when she passed and will carry on that grace, I have no doubt. I see her, in them.

I haven't been to an awful lot of funerals, but I have taken something away from every single one. This one gave me a desire to be there for others. Carlene was always there for all of us. She was just quietly there, no pomp or circumstance, just there. I remember that she was there for my own father's funeral, and she barely even knew him. But she was there for me and Leon. I can't possibly live up to that, but I sure will do better, for having known her.

On the way home from the funeral, Leon and I saw a beautiful bit of nature and a promise; and I couldn't help but think of Carlene.
Taken by Leon with his cell phone

More garden gatherings

Mescalin Lettuce
Tabasco Chili Peppers
Green beans
Bell peppers
Hungarian peppers


When I was out picking beans, I noticed some of the other vegetables that were maturing and will be soon ready to pick. It is amazing to me that nature can produce some of the most beautiful "still life's" that can be found.

I always have thought that the produce departments in grocery stores are beautiful. Every imaginable color. Although everything I photographed was green, they are still beautiful and just wait til the tomatoes ripen (they are almost there).

Mother Nature is still the best artist!!

Vegetables are grown and nurtured by master gardener, Leon

Easy Sunday

Well, it is Monday and I have a couple of days off. No particular plans, which is the beauty of it, because I can just do as I want when I want. Having worked for many years, it is nice to just enjoy a day without the pressures or stress. Sometimes even then, I struggle to slow down and ignore the clock. But more on that later.

I wanted to share a couple of dishes that I made yesterday. I had a spinach salad in a restaurant recently, that was absolutely wonderful, so I decided to attempt to replicate it yesterday for a light meal and I paired it with homemade 'naan', the traditional indian bread. UMMM Ummm Good!!!!

It turned out so well that I thought I would share the recipe (made up by me, after having had one). So I don't have measurements, but just made it to our taste.

Combine in salad bowl and then toss.
Fresh Spinach
Feta Cheese, crumbled
Fresh Mushrooms, sliced
Bacon, crumbled
Balsamic Vinegrette, drizzled over the top




Could it be much easier than that? (and healthy, too)!!

Then I made Naan, which I absolutely love. Recipe can be found here.



After we ate, I went out to the garden to pick green beans. Leon's garden is beginning to bear "fruit" due to his hard work! He really does enjoy his garden and I am sure that when we retire, gardening will keep him busy all summer. So the vines were bursting with green beans and the harvest was very satisfying. I snapped them all before I went to bed, but won't be be cooking them until tonight.

Dancing girls - four years old

When Katie and I went to the quilt show a couple of weeks ago, one of the fun things that we do is to shop at the vendors booths. We always seem to come away with something really cool to do or really cool fabric. Last year we got tools to attach "bling" to fabric. Katie has gotten into needlepunch from the kit that she got at the quilt show. Of course, we are women and love to shop, so there have been many temptations at the quilt show, some of which we give into and some not.

Well, this year, I was walking down one of the aisles and spied a fabric panel with a row of little ballerinas on a stage in the five ballet positions. Having just been to Abby's dance recital, I knew I had to get it. It was so cute and all I needed to do was simply quilt it. It was two weekends before we were going to Indianapolis for Abby's birthday, so I decided I would give it to her for her birthday.

I purchased it, took it home, picked out a backing fabric, got out mh batting and started in. Now I don't have the patience to hand quilt and I am not very good at it anyhow, so I machine quilted it. Having taken a class in machine quilting, I was hopeful that I could do it, without much practice. Machine quilting is not difficult, but requires a lot of practice and I hadn't been practicing. The end of the story is that I did quilt it on the machine and there are a lot of little errors, but I was still pleased as punch. So I picked out some border fabric and finished it up.

When you're four, toys are the most important thing at your birthday, but she sat right on that quilt to play with her toys. As Martha would say "It was a good thing".





Her bicycle basket, streamers and bell

And something for Lily, too!

A gummy situation

The privileges of turning four are not without responsibility. The precedent is clearly set. When we turn 16 and are able to drive, it is a privilege that we wait for expectantly, but with it comes responsibility. Responsibility for the safety of self, others and the care of an automobile. Keeping gas in the tank and our drivers license valid, among other things become very important responsibilities. When we wait for college at age 18ish, the privilege of living on our own is not without responsibility. Responsibility for getting up and getting to class without parental guidelines. Making decisions on our own and getting projects done becomes our own responsibility, along with eating right and doing our own laundry.

This privilege/responsibility relationship was brought to mind, by a very important milestone in my granddaughters life. But to be sure, there was responsibility attached.

Abby turned four this week, and one of the things promised to her was that she could chew gum when she turned four. She was so excited, that it was one of the first things that she wanted to do. Her mother has told her over the past couple of years, that she couldn’t chew gum until she was four. It was a hard rule, especially when I asked her if she wanted a piece of gum, with me not knowing the rule.

With the ceremony of going to the store and picking out which gum she would try first, Abby embarked upon her gum chewing adventure. Turns out that she chose strawberry, a personal favorite of my own. The actual experience was as good as she thought as she took the gum out of the package and removed the paper and then into her mouth it went. Mmmmm Good!! Horns sounded, drums were beating – She liked it!!!!!

But oh my, the responsibility and rules that went with it. She couldn’t stick it under her chair when she got tired of it. Of course, she was not allowed to swallow it. She could not stick it in her sister’s ear or leave it laying on the couch. She had to put it on her plate at dinner so that it did not get wasted while she ate (and it was very hard after that). Any gum found on the driveway, was immediately traced to her, whether she did it or not. And of course, there were places and times that she could not chew gum, like preschool or church.

Was it worth it? Worth all the rules and the responsibility for handling it like a big girl?

YOU BET IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!