Around the House

Just a few pictures from around the house.

My favorite of Mom's roses.

This is my bedroom. Mom made the quilt. 

The doily was crocheted by my great grandmother. The picture on the bottom was painted by Elana Conner and the one to the right of that was painted by her dad, Steve Conner.  The plaque on the upper right has a quote by MLK.  It says, "“Forces that threaten to negate life must be challenged by courage, which is the power of life to affirm itself in spite of life’s ambiguities. This requires the exercise of a creative will that enables us to hew out a stone of hope from a mountain of despair.”

Looking out my window

My grandmother made hundreds of ceramic pieces in her lifetime.  Below are some that I particularly love.  The Blue Jay, of course, since that is my totem.

After she got Alzheimer's, her daughters got her the two pitchers to paint, hoping that it would stimulate her mind.  Instead of the detail that she'd used before, though, she just painted them both blue. I think they are beautiful.

This vegetable basket is more representative of her work.  

Mamaw also had a sense of humor.  She painted the funny
little man, but not the pitcher.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  This magnolia blossom was one of many that she made.  My daughter made the cross stitch version above it.







                                             

This little doll is no longer in our house.
It was a gift for my grandsons new baby
sister.  But isn't it cute???

Guest room. 

Sunlight and curtains

My dad spent a lot of my childhood working overseas.  This is one of the things he brought home from Saudi Arabia.

My daughter bought colorful dishes at thrifts stores and cut them into tiny tiles.  Then Mom used them to make a mosaic in the kitchen behind the range and the sink.

Another of Dad's overseas acquisitions.

So long till next time.

Flower Garden and Other Things

I've been spending some time working doing yard work.  Several of the vegetable plants are starting to get blooms and the flowers are coming along nicely.  Here are some flowers that are blooming now.  Some we planted and some are wild.

Lemon blossoms smell heavenly

If anyone knows what this wildflower is, please let me know.  It was growing in the cemetery near the grave of my great grandfather and I brought it home and planted it in the flower bed.
This is a closeup, it's very small.

About 25 years ago I had a dream that I saw a white calla lily
and at the place where it was, there was a man who could

tell me something profound.  I've never seen a white calla lily 

until I found this one in a nursery in Grayson, La.  The man
there didn't impart any wisdom to me, though.  Here it is with
some spider-wort I transplanted.

Red Yarrow

Butterfly Weed

Mixed flowers

Golden Petunia

Another yellow Petunia, all the flowers on this plant have this interesting pattern.

Blue Pincushion 

Pelargonium Crispum - it might have a common name.
Supposed to repel mosquitoes

Mom's roses are glorious

More of Mom's roses

Primroses and DYC with crawdad hole

Primroses and DYC with bee

Wild Crossvine

Daisy Flea-bane

Bromeliad - the original plant was given to me for my birthday 12 years ago by my dear friend, Karen Heikkala.  This is the first time it's bloomed since then.

The animals aren't much help with the gardening.

Here's Pancake relaxing in the roses

In other news, last Sunday I took a drive in the country and saw a couple of interesting things.

 This  abandoned "dogtrot" house is a style of house that was common throughout the Southeastern United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.  It's open in the the middle, with the rooms on either side.
 This was a way to stay cool before fans or air conditioning.

Down at the end of a muddy road was a trailer, and in the yard was this unique dog house.
If you look closely, you can see an old hound dog's nose peeking out.

 That's the report from here in Urania.  So long until next time.

Garden

Since we have had so much rain here, the ground is much too wet to plant a veggie garden.  Here's what we've done, instead.  Thanks to Gaynell Pilcher for the great food-grade blue containers.  Mom already had some containers, too.

The containers near the house have potatoes, pepper plants and okra.

Here are the ones in the foreground:

Cucumbers with cat proofing

Tomatoes, cukes and squash

Eggplant, pepper and tomatoes

If you look closely, you can see 6 squash plants among the cat-proofing objects.
Koko decides to go elsewhere do to her dirty work.

Some Louisiana Flora and Fauna

Tiny white Viola

When I lived here as a child, I didn't notice the spring flowers, and since I lived in Texas all of my adult life, I thought the only wildflowers were over there.

But even though they are not as showy as in Texas, there are still plenty of wildflowers in Louisiana this time of year.  Here are just a few of them.  I've tried to correctly identify them, but I'm not sure.  Please correct me if I have some wrong.

Lyre leaf Sage

Blue-eyed Grass

Red Clover

Verbena  (I wish my camera could capture the true color of this flower.  I'ts actually a very deep wine color0

Indian Strawberry

Spiderwort

Coreopsis

This picture of our peach tree with wisteria in the background was taken a couple of weeks ago.
We have baby peaches now.

The king of crawdad holes

Here are pictures of a pair of wrens who had a nest with three baby birds on our back porch.

Mom and I were enjoying watching them feed their babies, but a couple of days ago, I found the mangled remains of one of them in the backyard. 

I suspect that Pancake was the murderer.  We don't know what happened to the other parent, but, sadly, the babies didn't make it.

How can cats be so cute and cuddly, and at the same time so evil?

The couple in happier times