The Hunt for One More Yellow Flower

Yellow Flower #30

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. (Luther Burbank)

If you follow the conversation on my Facebook page, you know I've been posting yellow flowers. I started around the first of May when I spotted a pretty little mystery yellow flower. A mystery because I didn't know the flower's name. So I posted its picture and several chimed in to name it. Trouble is, some named it one thing and some another. But it was fun anyway. 

So when the next day I spotted another little unnamed yellow flower on my walk, I posted it. And I asked if anybody wanted to guess how many days straight I could find a different yellow flower. I thought if I made it a dozen days, that would be good. But the 12th day came and I stumbled across a new flower. And again on the 13th, 14th and on until I got to 30. Most were wild flowers, but some were in my flower beds and one in my sister's. A couple were at greenhouses. One was spotted at church. A few showed up in North and South Carolina when I traveled down that way. But most were spotted in our hay fields and pastures. Some I found in my flower books or on the internet and named. Some I didn't. Some my Facebook friends named for me. Some remained a mystery. 



And then came today and I went in search of elusive yellow flower #31. I went across fields of daisies and grass up past my knees. No new yellow flowers.

I went into the woods and braved the poison ivy and blackberry vines and spider webs. Tried not to think about snakes. Everything lush and green, but no yellow flowers. 

I walked past the thistles but spotted no yellow on their pesky blooms. Not even a Goldfinch that might have posed for a touch of yellow on the thistle blooms that make the seed the little birds love so well. 

Oscar waited patiently while I searched. But although I saw hundreds, perhaps thousands of yellow blooms in the hop clover and daisies and various other yellow flowers that I had already counted and posted in my 30 flower days, I found no new yellow flower. But that's okay. All good things must come to an end and the Black-eyed Susan up top made a great #30 to end the string of yellow flowers. 

Tune in next week to see how I'm going to try to somehow make a giveaway contest out of my collection of yellow flower pictures. Meanwhile, thanks for going on my yellow flower hunt with me. Hope it made you smile. 

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. (Joseph Addison)

Birthday Stories and Flowers

Birthdays can be like flowers, lovely and bright, different even as they come on the same day year after year. The birthday stories some of you have been sending me are the same. Some of you have birthdays where not much fuss is made, maybe cake and ice cream. Others of you have had parties and special vacations and surprises. All fun as you celebrate the gift of another year here on Planet Earth. Some of the stories are touching. Some funny. Some loving. Some sad. A few have been a combination of all those emotions. 

That's the way the story is tonight. Chris shares about her mother who is in a nursing home suffering symptoms of dementia. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have a birthday to celebrate or reason to smile. If you can find those smiles on that hard Alzheimer's road, then life gets easier if only for a little while. Here's some of the story Chris shared with us.

"First, thank you for sharing your journey with your mom with us. My mom's 90th is this month and ...I am getting her a small tiara to wear for that day! (& balloons for the wheelchair...maybe a wrist corsage?) Last year, my sister and I took her out to lunch but the nurse forgot to let the cafeteria know that she wasn't coming...so Mom found out and felt bad since they had gone to the trouble of fixing her fried shrimp. (I think she forgot we were coming.) Anyway, we pick her up and she insists that I take her lunch from the Center with us because she wants to eat it too! ... So off we went to our little favorite restaurant...,a 1950's cafe with the best food in the world... So Mom insists on bringing the food from the Center in...I am like Mom!...please...it is rude to bring food into a restaurant and not eat their food...this is the best food ever. My sister...trying to please Mom pushes for the Center food to come in with us. Of course, the owner & the chef notice we brought our own take out food in. :/. She is so gracious, wishing Mom a happy birthday...and she asks about the food. Mom explains she couldn't hurt the Center's staff's feelings by not taking the food with us. Then she refuses to eat food at the restaurant...only soup and just a bit because she doesn't want to get full. And she eats the Center food! Crazy time!"

With someone with memory problems you might as well just go with the flow, Chris. Hope this birthday was less crazy for you but fun for your mother. But here's a preview from Chris on how things might go this year in another story she shared about her mom. 

"My mom has Alzheimer's/dementia, and the other day I got a call from her. She spoke to my husband first...asking him how it was going (like she was perfectly in control). Then I got on the line...she said she was working all day at the college and needed to go home but apparently she was home...her roommate got to go home with her husband! I said, "You're confused, aren't you, Mom?" She said she was very confused and we talked about the college she worked at, what she did...then I said she had a birthday coming up and did she know how old she was? She didn't, but then when I asked 50? No. 60? No. 70? YES! I said, "Well, there you have it! When you were 70, you did work for the college, and if you are confused and think you are 70, of course you'd be going home on the weekend! I said she was going to be 90 and she denied it over and over! Ha! What a hoot. So I said, "Well, we could pretend to lose 20 years, but then we won't have my youngest daughter (who's 19) yet!" I asked if we could pretend we don't have 20 extra pounds instead and we laughed and agreed."

Thanks for sharing, Chris. That last story made me think about my mother who drifted in time to different ages. Sometimes she was only 16 and sometimes in her thirties. She looked at me like I was  nuts if I told her she was in her nineties. She knew that wasn't right. But it definitely might be good to forget those 20 extra pounds, Chris, especially after birthday cake and pie.

Since I last talked to you here, I got another year older, but I'm still celebrating all month and you can celebrate with me by entering my birthday giveaway contest. Check out details here. Deadline to enter is September 30.

Also, today and maybe for a couple more days, The Blessed, one of my Shaker books has a special e-book price of 99 cents or less. Check it out at Amazon; Barnes & Noble (Nook); or Christianbook.com. Maybe other internet e-book sites too. Be sure to check the price to see if it's still on special before you download.

Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing your birthday stories with me.

Spotted on My Walks through Nature's Garden

There are always flowers for those who want to see them. (Henri Matisse)

I usually take a walk every day if at all possible. My dog, Oscar, would be disappointed if we didn't, although on some of the hotter days in summer, he sometimes looks at me as if he thinks I might have lost my mind wanting to walk when it's 90 degrees in the shade. Actually I try not to walk when it's that hot unless I can keep to the shade. Not for me, but for him. His black fur coat is hot.

But I love spotting gifts of nature when I walk. A couple of days ago, I found this beautiful pink flower. One stalk with all these blooms. No others anywhere around. I've never seen one like it before. It looks like a flower that belongs in a cultivated flower bed, but there it was on the edge of the hayfield in nature's big, wild garden. I haven't tried to look it up. Maybe one of you will recognize it and give it a name. 

I enjoy walking in Nature's garden. There are weeds too and sticktights or what some of you call beggar lice. You hear the whine of a mosquito now and again and flies can be worrisome when you get around the cows. But always there are sights to see and things to spot when I take a walk. 

I like sharing some of the things I spot on my Facebook page. It's like taking my friends for a walk with me. So tonight I'm asking you to walk along and see what we can spot. 

 

I always keep an eye out for flowers. The daisies are a favorite. They bloom with such determination and so cheerfully. It doesn't matter if I pick a few to pluck the petals. Another will pop up in its place. Tiny, more delicate looking flowers scatter color through the grasses.

 

 

 

Sometimes the blooms are small but so plentiful they carpet the whole field 

 

 

Then Kentucky's state flower, the goldenrod lights up the summer with color.

And among all the flowers are the butterflies. Beauty on wing.


Hope you enjoyed walking with me and spotting a few of the things along the way.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. (Dale Carnegie)

Time for Front Porch Visits

True luxury is being able to own your time - to be able to take a walk, sit on your porch, read the paper, not take the call, not be compelled by obligation. ~Ashton Kutcher

Do you have a front porch? I grew up in a house with a front porch. We didn't have chairs on it. That would have gotten in the way of our rollerskating fun. It was the only slab of concrete around and my sister and I rollerskated for miles and miles on it while dreaming of sidewalks and blacktopped lanes that we could skate on to who knows where. But while we didn't have anything on our porch for sitting, my grandfather's house had a porch made for sitting and visiting awhile. 

There was a swing on one end. I can still here the sound of the chains groaning a little as we eased the swing back and forth with our feet. On the other end, itchy vines grew up strings to shade a two-seater wooden porch rocker. My grandfather's chair was a green metal one that had a spring to it when you sat down. Then another of those two-seater wooden rockers. Plenty of places for you to sit and for the neighbors to come rest a while in the shade and catch up on the news. 

I remember sitting on that porch breaking beans and hulling limas. My grandfather always kept a flyswatter in his hand to chase kill flies in between his nodding off dozes. He was already well into his eighties when I remember him best. I wish I had known what to ask him so he'd tell me stories, but he wasn't much for talking. There were a few neighbors who stopped by from time to time and were much for talking. I remember swinging and listening.

That porch is where I had my first case of extreme dog yearning love at around age eight or nine. My aunt, who lived with my grandfather, took in a black Cockerspaniel that had been dropped on our road, and all summer I walked to her house every day to see that dog. He would get up beside me in that two-seater rocker and lay his head in my lap. I loved that dog. I'll have to tell you his whole story another day. But I spent a lot of time on my grandfather's front porch that year rubbing Inky's ears.

A few years after my husband and I got married, we were able to build a new all modern conveniences house. It was ten times warmer in the winter than the old farmhouse where we had been living. We didn't have to draw water. Just turn a faucet. We had wall to wall carpeting. There was something almost amazing about getting up in the morning without your feet hitting cold floors, but carpet. It was good. But there was no porch - front or back. 

My husband, who moved around a lot as a kid, lived in some old farmhouses that had great porches. He's always believed a house needs a porch. Or maybe that a man needs a porch to sit on to take a rest and watch the end of the day happening. 

We still don't have a porch, buteventually we did add on a front and back deck. The next best thing to a porch, I suppose. Not so good in the rain or extra hot sunshine, but still a place for a rocker and a glider. A place for a hummingbird feeder and a tinkling wind chime. A place for flowers. A place to see and dream about the leisure of sitting on a porch. Sometimes a place to sit and enjoy the last little bits of the day.

I see front porches all the time when I'm driving through some of the older neighborhoods and some of the newer ones too. The furniture looks comfy. The shade looks deep. The only thing missing are the people. Maybe they're all sitting on their back porches. But I often think that we make our porches and our decks to match a dream of leisurely afternoons and then we never capture those precious hours for sitting and maybe reading a book or doing nothing but wait for a neighbor to come calling. 

What do you think? Do you love porches? Do you have a porch? If you do or ever had a porch, what are some of your front porch memories?

No Mystery about Spring, Tortoises and Winners

Spring is Springing! 

You may still be seeing snow out your window, but if so, just turn your eyes to the calendar instead. It says right on there that March 20 is spring!! And I'm ready to believe it even if winter isn't. As Doug Larson says in this quote, "Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush."

So to celebrate, we've got spring pictures even if they are from springs of the past. Soon the wildflowers will be blooming and the tortoises will be strolling through the hayfields.

A Not So Mysterious Photo

As some of you pointed out, my last mystery photo wasn't so mysterious. I shouldn't have let the shell show. :) Almost all of you guessed it and those of you who didn't were just sure I wouldn't be that obvious. Of course, some of you were like me and called it a turtle even though it isn't. 

Tortoise, Turtle, Terrapin
 
We always called them terrapins, but I didn't go out and check my science on that one. And I have heard people call them land turtles. Tortoise is no doubt the correct name as Annette says. Turtles are in the ponds and the rivers and the oceans. Occasionally in the spring, a turtle will crawl out of the mud in our pond and take a slow stroll through the field and yard to the pond over the way to look for new vistas. I have no idea how they know where the other ponds are. But when that happens, it can really excite the dogs if they see it. The dogs do a lot of barking, but are careful to keep their distance since those pond turtles are snappers. 

But this kind of little tortoise is harmless. You can pick it up and it will slip back in his shell and stay there until you put him down and then awhile. I used to have a cockerspaniel that loved to catch the tortoises. That was the only "wild" game he could catch. Then he'd carry them home to the yard. I always wondered if the poor things ever made it back to their home territory or just had to settle in the new place. Also it's not good to have them settle in your garden. They love to nibble on tomatoes and always pick the biggest and prettiest tomatoes to bite. 

Now for the Winners

I do appreciate all the great guesses. I always have so much fun with these mystery photo contests, although next time I'm not going to give you an easy turtle, oops tortoise, leg to guess. LOL. But it was such a neat picture. Anyway, I'm glad you had fun with the pictures too. And now for the winners. Drum roll please. Amy Bateman and Lisa Bragg, you are my winners. I'll send you an e-mail to get the info on which books you'd like to have. And thanks to the rest of you who played the game too. We'll do it again in June or July after Love Comes Home is released. 

Back to Spring

I haven't spotted any flowers yet, but I think the grass is getting a bit greener here and there. I see wild onions growing - well, at least they're green. The frogs are so loud that I'm hearing them here in my office as I type this and the birds are singing every morning. What signs of spring are you seeing?

Love, Trust, Tolerance and Tenacity - Threads in the Fabric of Life

"The heart of marriage is memories; and if the two of you happen to have the same ones and can savor your reruns, then your marriage is a gift from the gods." (Bill Cosby)

The picture is fuzzy, but it is the first moment of my married life. We got married in the little country church my husband's family attended. We still go to that church these many years later. That's where a lot of those shared memories that we can rerun happened as we got up every Sunday and went to church, first as a couple and then as a family when the children came along. 

But of course, we have many other memories too. Working on the farm together. Figuring out how we were going to make ends meet when the refrigerator died or the car quit running. Nursing our kids through all the childhood fevers and illnesses. Sitting in countless church pews while Darrell sang with various Southern Gospel quartets through the years. Building a house and then building on more rooms. Watching ballgames. Freezing at track meets and band competitions. Being proud when our kids graduated high school and college. Sharing the ups and downs of a writer's life. Seeing our kids find good partners to begin their own married lives. Caring for our parents as they grew older. Grieving for loved ones who went on ahead of us. Feeling blessed each time a grandchild was born. Sharing family reunions and holidays. Celebrating anniversaries. 

“A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year.” (Paul Sweeney)

We just celebrated one of those anniversaries yesterday. My romantic husband sent me flowers, but I had to laugh when I opened up the little card to read the note. All it said was "Dear." I guess when you've been married as long as we have, the words run out. What I really thought perhaps had happened is that the flower shop people got distracted and forgot to finish the note. But no, that wasn't it. My first comment about the words running out is closer to the truth. Darrell says he told them to put "Happy anniversary, dear." But the card already had Happy Anniversary printed on it, so all they needed to add was the dear. Made for a few smiles and who knows? Maybe another one of those memories that will get rerun at times. 

Do you have some of those rerun memories? Stories that have been told a zillion times but one more telling is still fine. You know, like the day we went out to get a cow trying to have a calf to the barn and Darrell goes to the barn to call the cow from there and leaves me to head the cow that way. The cow was having none of it and decided to charge me instead. A bit bruised and battered later, I inform Darrell if he wants the cow in the barn he'll have to herd her there himself. So many stories. So many years. So many threads that make the fabric of our life together. 

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years." (Simone Sigornet)

Thanks for reading and thank those of you who wished us Happy Anniversary yesterday. We even got a card in the mail from my 97 year old church friend, Loretta. She is an amazing woman who has five children of her own and heaven knows how many grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, but she remembers our anniversary and my grandchildren. And on top of that she's one of those prayer warriors that unless you really want it to happen, you'd best not ask her to pray about it. 

Remember, you still have time to leave a comment here to have a chance to win Jan Watson's books. New comments on a new post gets you a new entry. I'll draw for the winner on November 27. Also you can throw your name in the hat over on Thoughts of a Sojourner to win a copy of Christmas at Harmony Hill. Check out the rules Mark posts after his review of my book. Heather, Gideon and Sophrena are making the rounds on a blog tour now with Christmas at Harmony Hill. So the reviews will start showing up and I'll hope for good ones. 

 

Right Now - Spring!

"There are always flowers for those who want to see them." ~~Henri Matisse

Spring - what a beautiful time of the year when hope takes wing and we simply know that something good is going to happen. Actually, official spring is about a week away, but the sun has decided on pushing spring toward us a little earlier this year here in KY. It was nearly 80 degrees here today. Flowers are popping up out of the ground, ready to burst into bloom. Trees are budding out.

And those of us familiar with KY weather are enjoying the sunshine and flowers even as we worry about the frosts to come that may steal our blooms and our fruit. But as the saying goes, worry is like a rocking chair. It keeps you busy but it doesn't get you anywhere. It is definitely true that there is not one thing I can do about the weather and there's no need at all worrying over what might come. All we really have is right now.

Right now, today was a beautiful day. Right now today, flowers are bursting forth. Right now today, I pulled out a few more words to add to my work in progress. Right now today, I got a sweet message from a reader who had just finished The Outsider. Said she read it while she walked on her treadmill and thanks to me she had gotten in a few extra miles when she didn't want to stop reading.

Right now today - well, actually yesterday - I walked to the Rock to check out the flowers and the hillsides were dotted with white blooms. The creek was full and running. My dog, Oscar, and the neighbor dog, Roxie, kept me company. A wild turkey escaped their notice and made it into the woods without being chased. The day was good.

Right now today - well, actually tomorrow - I am going to be sharing the microphone with writing friend, Ginny Smith at one of the nicest bookstores in the area, Joseph Beth Booksellers. She's even got a few friends who have promised to show up in spite of the fact that Kentucky plays WKU in the NCAA tournament at exactly the same time plus the Boys Sweet Sixteen Basketball tourny is goin on in the same town. Right now, I'm glad I have a recorder so I can record the game to watch later!! If Kentucky wins. I won't want to see it if they don't.

Right now, I'm hoping my story is waiting to burst forth like the flowers ready to bloom. Right now, I still have two pages to write to meet my daily writing goal. Right now, I think I won't have to sit up half the night to meet my goal. Right now.

What's happening in your life right now? Good things, I hope. Blessings abounding. Hope sprouting in your heart like flowers pushing through the deep layer of last fall's leaves to shout spring is here. Good things happening. Right now! Even if the calendar does say it's still winter.

Thanks for reading. Right now, I'm glad you're one of my reading friends.

By the way, I did finally get in touch with Anna S. of Iowa, the 2nd place winner in my Words Spoken True Louisville Celebration giveaway. She won the Louisville stoneware cup and the Starbucks coffee and flavored tea. Also, on Jeopardy tonight one of the questions/answers was Derby Pie and none of the contestants got it even though I was shouting it at them. :) But my first prize winner would have, since she got a piece of that pie in her Kentucky breakfast basket. She told me she ate the pie as soon as she got the basket. She knew how to enjoy the moment right now!

Heritage Iris and Other Flowers

These iris are in my front yard. The old timey name for them when I was growing up was "flags." There couldn't be a much better plant for sharing. Dig up a few rhizomes and give them to a friend and soon they'll have a patch like these. I got the start of these from my sister who got them from the yard where our grandfather and aunt lived when we were growing up. I also have some darker purple ones that came from the house where I grew up. Then I have some more from our old country church and even some from the remains of an old house I discovered way back in the woods. Those probably trace their beginnings back over a hundred and fifty years.  Maybe longer. I just discovered this year an iris blade by another house site on our farm. I'm going to dig up one of the bulbs and add them to my collection.

The thing about iris is that you can't really throw them away. Pitch them down the hill and the next thing you know spring comes around again and the hillside is blooming. Joyfully. Cheerfully. Like an old friend.

There are 200-300 different varieties and colors of iris and that's where the flower gets its name - from a Greek word for rainbow. Blessed with the colors of the rainbow and the purest white, the iris has been recognized as the dancing spirit of early summer. The Chinese think its soft, fluttering petals look like butterfly wings, flapping gently in the breeze and so the flower there is known as Tze Hu-tieh or "The Purple Butterfly."   In other countries, the flower symbolism associated with the iris is faith, wisdom, cherished friendship, hope, valor, promise in love, wisdom. Irises were used in Mary Gardens. The blade-shaped foliage denotes the sorrows which 'pierced her heart.'

I just found out all that info. I don't have symbolic reasons for liking them. I just do. I like their many colors, the fact that even major neglect rarely damages them. They bloom with abandon year after year. They stand tall in a vase and the buds keep blooming out. And some of them have the most delicious fragrance. Some of these purple ones in the photo are fragrant and others are not even though the blooms look identical.

But one of the best reasons I like them is because they bloomed for my parents and grandparents and great grandparents. They connect me with my heritage. I like putting those kinds of flowers in my yard. Besides the iris, I have a japonica bush and peonies from my dad's homeplace and more peonies from my mother-in-law's last house. I have lilac bushes from my brother-in-law's house. I have maples and poplars moved to the yard from the field. I have a cherry tree from my uncle. I have daylilies from my daughter. And when I look at these flowers and plants, I remember those people and I smile thinking of the heritage of beauty that has been entrusted to me.

Do you have flowers that make you remember past places or people?

The Sweet Scents of a Summer Walk

I got my flowers planted. That's for my daughter in case she checks in on the blog this week. She was here last weekend and we went to the greenhouse so I could pick out a belated mom's day present from her. She's quite the gardener and loves planting and making things beautiful. So we picked out this big patio pot and plants to put in it for my deck that's not built yet but soon will be. Then last Monday when she had to go home she was regretting that we hadn't gotten the pot planted. I know why. She thought I'd let those beautiful flowers die in their seedling pots. But I got it done. It was on my list of gotta do's yesterday, but then I had to go get some potting dirt and so the gotta do got pushed back until today. The flowers look great. I'd tell you what they are, but I'd have to go hunt up the little pot stickers to know the names. I just know they are very pretty and are supposed to thrive in the sun.

It was a busy day. My granddaughter, Jillian turns big three tomorrow and she had her party at the park today. It was a fantastic blue sky and lots of sunshine and fun day. She got clothes she was actually excited about, a fishing pole, and a bike. There were plenty of cousins there to help her celebrate and a dad to go down the slide with her. Her little sister slept through the festivities. She's almost seven weeks old and growing. All the way up to nine pounds now. And Jillian is still enjoying being the big sister.

When I came home I had to pick the strawberries, so it was after sundown before I got to take my walk. That's a good time to walk on the farm. Peaceful and fragrant. When I wrote my first Hollyhill book, The Scent of Lilacs, the sweet fragrance of lilacs and of locust blooms played a part in the story. But tonight the sweet fragrance wafting on the early evening air was honeysuckle. And fresh mown hay. It was great. Thank goodness I'm not allergic to pollen. Of course on my farm sometimes a not so pleasant fragrance can break through in the cow pasture. My sweet big old Saint Bernard neighbor dog, Roxie, loves to roll in the cow piles. Then of course she wants to come be petted after she's put on her perfume. She's a mess.

But scents can bring alive memories faster than almost anything. The smell of Wrigleys' Spearmint gum takes me right back to my dating days at the drive-in movies because Darrell used to love to chew gum when we were going out. Maybe to make sure his breath was fresh, you think? Jergens lotion makes me think of Mom because she always liked that kind of lotion best. Still does. Isn't it funny how such little things can trigger a memory? Sounds can do it too. And of course a song can take you back to a memory time in an instant. Writers use that kind of thing to make their characters come to life too.

I'm chugging away on my book. I'm hoping and praying I'll write the end next week. But it's going to be crazy around here. They're laying my new floor tomorrow. They painted Saturday. The guy put in the lights on Friday. It's coming along. Faster than my book, actually. But I'm hoping to be fast next week. A fast writer, that is. Good would be nice, but that's optional. Fast is necessary.

Hope you have a lot of things trigger all your best memories this week. I'm going to draw the winner for my book giveaway tomorrow. You've still got a little time to get in on the drawing if you send me an e-mail - fast. By sundown Monday. Sounds like a line out of an old Western - only that might be high noon. I'm giving away one of my last four books (winner's choice) and Virginia Smith's Age Before Beauty. Then starting next month I'll start a two a month give-away for my new book, The Believer. Stay tuned for details.

Thanks for reading.