Better Late than Never
At least that's what we tell ourselves when we show up late. I'm late with this post and you can maybe see the reason in this picture. The grandkids have been to visit and stay a few days. They can keep this grandmama hopping. They've gone home now, but they had lots of fun.
Well, this front runner had fun until yesterday when she came down with some kind of bug. Sick, sick all day long. Couldn't even hold down ginger ale. Now I'm a little worried that her little bug may have hopped around to me. But so far I'm holding my tea down. She was a very brave kid. Suffering in silence mostly and handling being sick very well. But it did put a damper on her fun. Thank goodness we already had the promised fishing trip done the day before. And all the kids caught fish. She said she caught the most at seven and the boys caught five or six. I lost count, but I have the feeling she would have counted up more than the boys no matter. After all, she's their big sister and should catch the most. LOL.
One More Blog Contest to Win a Book
So how about an easy mystery picture puzzle for the last blog contest? (Well, last right now. I'm sure I'll have more later.) Just leave a guess on what this is and you'll be entered in a drawing for your choice of one of my books.
Remember the guess doesn't have to be right to get an entry. Any kind of comment will do, but it's fun to guess. And so can you tell me what this is?
Sunday's Winner
I guess it's time for me to tell you the winner from Sunday's "Tell me about your Dad" drawing. By the way, the Dad stories were fabulous. If you didn't read the comments on my Sunday post, then you should go back and read them. Those who shared about their dads really helped us get to know some great guys. Deadline for entries is 6 p.m. EST on Sunday June 28, 2015. You must be 18 to enter.
Oh yeah, you wanted to know the winner, didn't you? Drum roll please. And the winner of her choice of one of my books is Sharon M. I'll be in touch, Sharon.
Thank you all for reading and for playing my flower (and Dad) games.
You all are always such fun whenever I have a contest here on One Writer's Journal. You jump right in and give whatever I suggest a try. Some of you knew your wildflowers and guessed right on my flower picture. It was a poppy. A celandine poppy or wood poppy, to be exact. But for those of you who called it a buttercup, I was right there with you on that for years. That was what we always called them and it's a name that fits well.
Making Up Names
I'm glad some of you who didn't know the name had fun with my suggestion to pretend you were the first person to discover the flower and thus were able to name it whatever you wanted. A couple of you came up with interesting names. Yellow or butter ruffles. Fluffypants. Not sure about that last one, but the petals do look fluffy.
Coming up with the absolute perfect name for a character in a book or story is one of the fun parts of writing for me. I get to name my main characters (the good ones and the bad ones) and dozens of minor characters in each book. I get to name where they live and the pets they have. I sometimes even name their vehicles. So why not name some wildflowers?
But the Real Name is...
A Guide to the Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky by Mary E. Whatron & Roger W. Barbour says. "The celandine poppy has yellow juice as well as yellow flowers. There are 4 petals...buds are covered with 2 hairy sepals and the fruit is bristly hairy. ...The species, which grows 10-18 inches high, is widely distributed in the state and is frequent in rich mesophytic woods, especially on slopes where leaf mold is deep."
From this new picture of the wood poppy this week, looks like it will grow in the middle of rocks too. But I do find my wildflowers on those kind of leaf covered slopes the book mentioned.
Okay, flower number two is up top. Remember, a new guess on this flower gets you another entry into my giveaway. But if you do guess, please leave a way to contact you or if you don't want to leave your e-mail here or have trouble leaving a comment (I know some of you do but I can't seem to fix that) then e-mail me your entry at annhgabhart at yahoo dot com.
Basic Giveaway Scoop
Here's the basic scoop on the contest in case you didn't see it on Sunday's post. The winners will get their choice of one of my books and a grab bag book by a different Christian author. The contest is open to USA and Canada for print books and e-books for international entries. You must be 18 to enter. Deadline for entries is April 18, 2015 at 12 midnight EST. I'll announce the winners here on April 19.
And remember, if you don't know the actual flower name, just think about what you might name it and tell me that.
