Mystery Seeds

"With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see." ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Are you tired of seed mysteries yet? When I walked this afternoon, I kept seeing more and more seeds. I could keep this up for another month of two, but I won't. The giveaway contest ends on October 31. Then I'll draw a couple of winners who will get one of my books and a grab bag book as well. All you have to do to enter is take a guess on these seed pictures. Or just leave a comment saying you don't know if you're stumped and can't think up a guess. Either one will get you an entry and you get a new entry on each guess of a new seed picture. Deadline is October 31, so only a couple more seed pictures after this one. Remember to leave a way to contact you. If you've left your e-mail on a previous guess, you're okay.

Feel free to check back the last few entries to guess on the previous seed pictures if you didn't get a chance to see those posts until now. While I've fessed up to what seed was in the photo and there won't be much suspense, it's still fun. 

Last week, most of you were spot on with the photo. They were grapes, but not the tame type that grow in your yard or gardens. They were wild grapes. Those that climb up on and around trees out in the woods and make vines for country kids to play on. Like me when I was a girl. I felt like Tarzan back then. 





And now my grandkids go out in the woods here on the farm and play on grapevines too. Some ways to have fun never change. 

When I was a kid, I didn't pay much attention to the wild grape fruit. I was all about the vines. People used to tell me the grapevines wouldn't break. They are flexible and pretty strong, but if you try to do some of those Tarzan tricks and swing through the "jungle" or woods, you might just get a close up view of the "jungle floor." Even so, you got to give it a try and swing. Right?

One of you guessing called them "possum grapes." A good name since little animals do feast on them. I never ate them, but my mother made wild grape jelly once just to see if she could. The wild grapes are very small, nothing like those grapes you buy at the store, so she had to gather a lot of them. But that was Mom. She liked trying things like that. I have no doubt that when she was a girl she played on grapevines too. Did you?

Now you've got a new picture to guess. I think this one might be harder than the wild grapes, but you all surprise me sometimes. So what is it? 

No Batteries, Just Fun

Did you ever play with a June bug? That's the bug in the photo. On a walk several weeks ago, the June bugs were swarming along the path I took. Just in one area. I'm on first name basis with this bug and have never really been afraid of it even though it has a hard outer shell and can make a loud buzz sound when it flies. June bugs love berries, so if you've ever picked blackberries out in the field, I'm sure you've encountered a few of these iridescent green bugs. Japanese beetles resemble them, but they're not as large and not nearly as nice a bug since those beetles love eating my roses and June bugs just like over-ripe berries.

Plus you can play with June bugs. Now some of you will probably think this is cruel, but when I was a kid, we'd sometimes tie a string around the June bug and have a bug on a leash. Why we wanted to, I can't say. Well, maybe I can say. We didn't have all those electronic toys to keep us out of trouble. The only thing my dad would buy batteries for were flashlights (not counting vehicle batteries) and you had to have a real need to dispel the darkness to be allowed to use the flashlight. LOL. Then I don't think batteries lasted so good back when I was a kid. Else why would the flashlight go dim every time I got down into the cellar to fetch my mothers a canned jar of tomatoes or beans. Every time!! As you may be guessing, I was terrified that a snake or mouse or perhaps a Twilight Zone monster would be waiting to jump out at me down in that dark and dank cellar. I used my memory of that fear in my Hollyhill books and let Jocie feel the same heebie-jeebies going down into her cellar.

So with no iPhones to ask Siri the meaning of life, only a couple of hours of lame kids' programs every day, and no games on computers of any type - well, no computers of any type - we had to come up with our own entertainment. Guess that's why we tied strings to June bugs and let them buzz. We also used string to make crows' feet and Jacob's ladder by wrapping the string around our hands and put this bit of the string over this finger and that bit over that finger. Sometimes this involved the teeth to slip the string in the right place. Eventually you gave your hands a twist or a flip and there was whatever string marvel you were making. Then there was the trick of making a spinner out of a big button and string. We must have had a lot of string. 

We did have actual games too. We played solitaire with real cards. We drew circles in the dirt and knocked marbles around. Jacks were more my game. I could sit and play Jacks for hours. Now it's almost impossible to find the metal jacks necessary to properly play Jacks. Too big a chance somebody might step on them or something.

Of course, there was always fun waiting outside. Mud pies to make. Grapevines to swing on. Trees to climb. Puddles to stir up with a stick. Lightning bugs and frogs to catch. Creeks to wade in. Woods to explore. Deserted houses with the idea of ghosts lingering to send shivers up our backs. 

And always books and more books.

I don't think I'd exchange any of that for battery powered fun. How about you? Do you remember any of those things? What was fun for you when you were a kid?

Thanks for reading. And if you're in the Frankfort area, you can come see me at the Gathering of Authors this Saturday, August 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Paul Sawyier Library. Lots of authors there to talk to about reading and books.