Fall Day at Home

My son has some Fall beauty in his cottage yard.

Rose partially protected from frost.

Oh my, looking at herself in grandma's mirror.

A beautiful fall day at home. I cleaned a lot out of my garden. Yesterday morning in the low 30's and went to almost 70 degrees. Now this early morning a high prediction of 70 degrees for the next week. I could have left the tomato and green pepper plants in the ground. Oh well. My garlic plants are about 2 inches high and I am enjoying my turnip greens.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Mahatma Gandhi

Some sharing from One Woman on her Journey Through This Life

Country Pictures

Sharing my adventure in the country yesterday.

A spot picked out and I surrounded it with orange stakes to show shape of cottage and location of front porch and back screen porch (or deck). Gives me some kind of idea of what my view will be.

We had our first frost yesterday morning and the wind was blowing. I had on a heavy jacket, scarf and gloves but still the chill was penetrating. So I did not take the chair out of the trunk of my car to place in the imagined rooms. Something I always do.

During some of my building projects I have had people ask what are you doing sitting out in the field or this city lot. I would reply "this is where my kitchen table will be" or what ever room I imagined I was sitting in, kitchen, desk, or propped up in bed reading. This would give me an idea of what I would see as I looked out windows.

I could not grab my camera fast enough to take a picture of 3 deer that were near by. Did take a picture of a creekbed.

Also no one was home at Mr. B.B's old homeplace. This home is close to 200 years old.

I stopped and went into the yard to take this photo. Hoping the whole time that a large unfriendly dog did not come around the corner of the house and possibly bite me.

There are not many of these old large homes still standing.

As I continue to be obsessive about this new creative energy that is raging I came upon something among my papers that I had copied.

Obsession - If you want to be good at something you have to be obsessive. When you are not doing it, you have to be thinking about it. Not saying I am good at anything. But whenever I have created a home it became an obsession with me. It is on my mind 24 hours. All through the day I am thinking about it. In the night I am planning views, rooms and placing furniture. With all of this going on I want so to be a balanced person. I do not think this is truly balanced. I do know that I feel a lot better this morning and more sure of what I am going to do.

A roller coaster night was experienced. So many thoughts. They are becoming clearer and I am more at peace this morning. I am planning on going forward with my plans of building on my country property unless some unseen problem arises. If a problem arises I will stop in my tracks.

I thank all of the special people who read my sharing, thoughts from my heart, images and whatever else comes to mind. You are dear to me and your names come to mind often and I have not even met you in person. But whatever way is out there to send affection - you are sent a hug. Your encouraging words and comments are so very meaningful to me.

This early morning as I read Judy's comment "If you do not follow your dream I think a part of you stops living. I do not choose to die in that manner!!

On a lighter note. My day will be filled with my youngest granddaughter. I am going to pick her up in a couple of hours. A sun filled day planned in the garden and watching my girl paint with the new set grandma bought her.

When a dream takes hold of you, what can you do? You can run with it, let it run your life, or let it go and think for the rest of your life about what might have been.

Patch Adams

Just some more thoughts from this One Woman on Her Journey Through Life.

Another Special Daughter

With November soon arriving, another birthday in my family will be celebrated. Beth Ann is my middle daughter. She is an RN and is presently doing administrative work at a local hospital. She recently moved near me and two of my other children. So nice to have my local children living about 5 to 10 minutes away.

My family celebrate birthdays in about 8 of the months of the year. In the past I always had a family dinner. We also would celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at my home. Recently I started taking each of my children to lunch for their birthday. This gives me some one on one time with them and is less tiring on their mom.

After Beth's birthday it always seems like Thanksgiving, Christmas and the end of the year rapidly approaches.

Beth is the mother of one of my older granddaughter's. Sarah is a music major at Northwestern in Illinois. The French Horn is her passion and she dreams of playing in a symphony.

I am posting this a few days early since Beth will be traveling to Illinois to see Sarah in a special recital. She will be in Illinois when her birthday arrives.

So - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SPECIAL DAUGHTER - BETH

Just some more sharing from this One Woman on Her Journey Through Life.

Mothers and Daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers

Author unknown

Halloween

Dressing up can be a Scream
and Playing Tricks is Dandy
But When it Comes to Halloween
It's all About the Candy

All through the years Halloween was a big deal for my children. But my Jamie, the youngest, somehow got left out.

Memories surface how she would stand at the window watching to see if a car turned off the main highway and was heading down our country road. The outside lights were on and a big bowl of treats awaited any visitor. The visitors never came. Once in a great while she would become excited and say "I see car lights I think someone is coming." No they just were on our road and drove past our country home. So this is one of the disadvantages of living in the country.
I can still picture her standing by the window. I think one time a friend from church brought her little girl by our home.

So my youngest daughter's Halloween was usually spent at a party at school or church.
Usually not trick or treating like I remember from my childhood and her older sisters and brother. Also not like her little girls who are all dressed up and everyone visits the homes in their neighborhood.

Just a memory from this One Woman's Journey

Amazing Mr. Toad

Mr. Toad made a visit. I captured this shot of him. Click on for close up. His colors are unreal. That is not the right word. His colors are magnificient. Just looking at him he looked like a plain brown toad. A close up shot caught all of his glory. Just think of what our naked eye is missing

Things I Didn't Do

When I lived in the country I always wanted to have bee hives. My elderly neighbor had them. His name was Mr. BB.

He realized how interested I was in them so he put 3 hives on my land. I never felt brave enough to care for them (especially since hundreds covered me one time when he was checking the hives) or learn more but did have honey from my area.

My oldest daughter in upper Michigan has bee hives. Her husband Dan built the boxes from a plan on the internet. It looks like they are going to have honey. Hopefully the bees make it through their cold winter season. I love hearing her share about her bees. The main reason for this new adventure with bees is the fact that Mary has allergies. Some articles are stating that eating honey from your area is helpful with allergies. As time goes by we will see.

I use to love to go down to his huge old farm home and view all Mr. BB was doing. Many plant sharings came from him. My first strawberries, asparagus and some of his small game.

He had an incubator and that fascinated me. He ordered me one and installed it in one of my outbuildings. I raised quail, ducks, geese, chickens, and a number of small game from the eggs.

It could hold 500 eggs. I loved watching the process of the eggs hatch. I would keep a light bulb on in the box where the eggs were, spray them with water occasionally and turn the eggs. Childish thought I would have when they hatched and I was the first thing they would see "I bet they think I am their mother." It gave me pleasure to see them emerge and I had to hold myself back to keep from helping them out of the egg. Some took longer then others.

I had the thought at that time of raising pheasants and quail for restarants and even went so far as to contact several. I was told they would take all I could supply.

I liked having our own eggs. Jamie even named most of the chickens. I still have that piece of paper with each chicken listed. She described them and gave them a special name.

I can remember the time that there were not as many eggs in one particular bucket. I shared this with someone and they told me I might have a chicken snake. I was instructed to put a lightbulb in the nest. If the lightbulb was gone the next morning that indicated I had a snake.

Well the lightbulb was gone. I almost had a stomach ache for that poor snake. I think I enjoyed my peacocks and guinees more then anything. I had never seen a guinee before. Their head the size of a walnut and the strange noise they made. The peacocks are the best watchdog you can have. I also raised 4 baby calves and bottle fed them. When the farmhouse was sold I had about 16. I remember so well the evening the cattle sale people came to get them. How they cried and I cried all night. The mothers were separated from the young calves and to this day I can hear them crying. Everything Jamie and I raised were pets. Even the chickens and I dreamed of how tasty they would be. But we could not eat them. Many stories regarding our life on that farm.

I also always wanted a greenhouse. But the more I investigated about them I realized how very time consuming they were. Heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. Had many business ideas. Thought of an orchard. Did plant 10 fruit trees for our use. Also had the idea of planting many evergreens and also fields of flowers for people to pick. None of this materialized.

Bottom line, I could not do it without help. I truly worked very hard physically at this time. Over the last 30 years I have continued this. Guess I still do but on a smaller scale. Difficult for One Woman to continue to carry this through and none of my children were interested in this lifestyle. The older ones had been raised in private schools and a were drawn to a different lifestyle. They did love to spend time with me and later my older grandchildren loved to visit grandma in the country.

Now grandma is on a small lot in the middle of the city. But may have a small cottage in the country sometime in the future. Would be a treat to be surrounded by nature once again.

As time goes on I will be posting many pictures of that time in the country.

Just some more thoughts and memories from this One Woman on her Journey Through This Life.

Surprise Visit

Fall break has ended. Guess who was at my door. My grandson Gavin. His grandfather had picked him up from the airport.

He is back in Nashville from his home in Massachusetts to continue his first year at Vanderbilt.

A visit that I did not expect.

Hard for me to believe that this 6ft2 grandson was the little boy that use to visit me. Of course with my being 5ft2 and in my sock feet when he hugged me - he really seemed tall.

An unexpected evening visit that put a smile on this One Womans face.