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)

Cows, Pigs and Dogs and a Captive Audience

The Mystery Revealed 

 The guesses were fun. All of you were ready to be out on the farm. And I finally fooled some of you. That made me smile. But a few of you were right. It wasn't a cow. Or a pig. My daughter-in-law knew who it was on first glance, but she privately messaged me her guess so as not to mess up the fun. Above is the "rest of the picture." Meet my neighbor dog, Roxie. She's a sweet dog but she does have a drooling problem and when she shakes her head you have to dodge those "slingers."

A Cow Picture for the Cow Guesses

For those of you who guessed cow, here are the color cows we have. But I could almost see what you were seeing in the mystery photo. Almost. I was really expecting somebody to say panda bear. Maybe I need to go look at a panda bear picture myself. And the pig guesses, well, there are black and white pigs, but I don't have any pictures of those.

On to the Winners

I did draw for the two winners of Orchard of Hope. Susan from CA and Mary Preston. So far I haven't exactly been able to contact them. I'm having trouble with that lately. But I have sent Susan a Facebook message and I'm hoping Mary will send me a message on Facebook or leave a way to contact her in a comment here. If I don't hear from them, I'll draw more winners next week. 

Meanwhile - You Might Win Christmas at Harmony Hill

You can hop over to WFBC Media Center Blog to read my Christmas themed interview there and leave a comment on that that blog for a chance to win Christmas at Harmony Hill. I shared a couple of recipes too. One for the Christmas punch my aunt made when I was a kid and I've carried on the tradition and another for Hummingbird Cake. Don't ask me why they call it hummingbird cake. I have no idea!

A Captive Audience 

Tomorrow morning I'm going to one of my granddaughter's school and talk to some school kids. That's why they're a captive audience. Their teacher will insist they listen to me or at least I hope they will. Two first grades, two second grades and two fifth grades - in three different sessions. I love talking to kids but I'm a little worried I won't be able to keep their attention for the time the librarian has scheduled for me. And three sessions is a lot of talking. I'm hoping I won't let my second grader granddaughter down. Pressure's on! Prayers appreciated!  

 

Cows and City Girls

"All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow."  Grant Wood.

No, I'm not that much of a country girl. Never learned how to milk cows. I did try once, but being the youngest girl, I guess nobody thought it important enough to teach me the proper method of tugging on the cow's udder to get milk to come out. I remember thinking there must be a trick to it I didn't know. I was never too excited about the task anyway. Feeding the chickens was more my speed. I did a lot of carrying in wood too, and I do remember coming up with some story ideas while I was doing that.
 
But cows are one of the attractions down here on the farm when my city grandkids come to visit. No cows in their neighborhood. So the only time they see a cow close up is when they come to the farm to visit. This granddaughter is trying to get the cow to eat an apple from her hand. The cow looks interested, but not quite interested enough. Just as well. She would have freaked if it slobbered on her. The older granddaughter was a little freaked out just looking at the cows and very nervous that a horse fly was going to come her way. Bugs are not her thing. And when the cows cut loose as cows do, then there were plenty of eewws. 

But on the way back from seeing the cows, the older girl wanted me to treat her like a "farm girl" and have her do the kind of chores her father had to do when he was her age. A little hard to re-create since we don't burn wood anymore and we didn't have any rocks to haul off fields or hay to put in the barn. She did pick a few boysenberries and that gave her a little feel of country living.

It would be interesting to know what my grandkids will remember about their visits to our farm when they get older. I remember so many wonderful times visiting my aunt who was like a grandmother to me when I was younger. I remember the wavy medicine cabinet mirror that could stretch my face into funny shapes like a fun house mirror. I remember the smell of chewing gum in the drawer of her buffet. I remember her cats and the playhouse in the backyard. Mostly I remember feeling so very loved and accepted there. That's what I hope my grandkids will remember someday. That and feeding apples to the cows.

Do you have sweet memories of times with your grandparents? I know some of you do because you sent me stories about those memories in one of my giveaway contests. Remember, I have a little giveaway going now. I'll draw for a winner Sunday from those who guess on my mystery pictures from the Sunday post here. Any guess will get an entry. Right guesses will get a double entry and if you get all three mystery photos right, you'll get a triple entry. Some of you have guessed already. Fun guesses, but I'm not saying if you're right or wrong until Sunday.

If you're in the area, I'll be at Corinth Christian Bookstore in Frankfort this Saturday, August 17 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. signing my new book, Small Town Girl. Other area authors will also be there signing books. So come on out and support your local Christian book store and tell us authors hello.

 
  

Old Time Sunday Afternoons

 

What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.~ Ernest Gaines

 

I got to eat breakfast with writer friends Lonnie and Roberta Simpson Brown at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest on Saturday. Roberta writes ghost stories. While she looks like somebody's sweetest ever grandmother, her stories might not exactly be the kind of stories grandma would tell you - especially right before you went to bed. At least not if she didn't want the kids to be crawling in bed with her to keep the ghosts away. Roberta is  known as the "queen of cold-blooded tails" by her friends. You can check out her and Lonnie's books at Roberta's website. She'd be the perfect storyteller to have sitting around a campfire with you if you wanted to have chills crawling up your back and to keep checking over your shoulder for something going bump in the night. Her husband, Lonnie, also writes some of the stories, so when they go on the road to a book event, they go as a team.

 

Breakfast isn't much of a ghost story telling time. So we were talking about less scary things like how things used to be back when we were all quite a bit younger. Lonnie said he used to spend Sunday afternoons counting the cars that went by their house. That made me laugh because while I don't remember counting the cars, I do remember noticing every one. And we knew who was driving each of those cars too. A different car, one we didn't know, was reason to wonder what that driver was doing on our road. Sometimes we didn't even have to look at the cars to know them. We could tell by the sound of the engines. Lonnie said they'd know Uncle Willie was coming before he topped the hill.

 

Then he said another of their past times on a lazy Sunday afternoon was leaning on a fence rail and watching the cows graze. That's how come we have a cow picture tonight. I don't think I ever watched the cows graze, but the little calves running around are pretty cute. Back in the day, things were considerably slower out in the country where people like Lonnie, Roberta, and I grew up.

 

Sundays were different. After that wonderful Sunday dinner that your mother fixed and put in the oven before leaving for Sunday school, most of us took the day off. Sometimes people went for a Sunday drive. That was when gas was around a quarter a gallon. Folks would drive down all the country roads and see what the neighbors were up to. Or maybe you'd go visiting relatives.

 

That's what happened around my house. We went to our cousins' house or they came to ours. Cousins can be the best friends. We'd be outside in the woods as soon as Sunday dinner was over. The grownups would maybe play Rook or just talk away the afternoon. In the summer, the men might make ice cream in the White Mountain ice cream freezer. Neighbors would drop by to sit on the porch and pass the time of day. You kept a swatter handy to kill the pesky flies. My husband would have been off fishing when he was a boy and then back to church after getting the cows in early to milk. And even on Sunday, there were always chores to be done, animals to feed, wood to pack in during the cold months, water to carry into the house.

 

We didn't have electronic toys. We had grapevines in the trees instead of swing sets. We made mud pies and went wading in creeks. And we chewed on sweet grass and watched the cows graze. But those were good days. What about your Sunday afternoons? What did you do when you were growing up on Sundays? 

Country Living is the Life

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!!

Okay, here I am trying on my fancy smancy dress before taking off for the ACFW Conference last week. My necklace is glittering. I'm practicing my smile - squinting a bit since my husband insisted I had to look into the sun. The dress looks sharp. But what do you see right over the deck railing beside me? A cow's back. What can I say? I'm a country girl. I can't remember a time when there wasn't a cow around. My grandkids love it. The last time a couple of my WV grandkids came to visit, the four-year-old kept looking at the seven-year-old and saying with great wonder and surprise, "Our Grandma's a farmer!" I could never decide if she was impressed or amused. But having a cow around (or country living) is good for keeping a girl's feet on the ground not to mention having to watch where she steps to make sure she doesn't put her foot in something she'd rather not.

So I'm glad I live in the country with cows out in the fields and deer that sneak in at night to eat all the apples off my trees. As long as I can keep them out of my strawberries next spring. At the same time it was fun going off to the big city (Indianapolis was a big enough city for me) and getting to know so many writers last week. But of course I got to eat humble pie. When my time to sign books came around, nobody came to my table for my autograph. The writer next to me had a line. I took pictures of her. I should have taken a picture of lonely me. But being a country girl, I shrugged it off. And when I got home I had some e-mails from sweet readers who told me they enjoyed reading my books. So there are times when you can be the glittery, dressed up writer and enjoy the special events, but there are more times when I have to be the country girl at home taking care of chores and trying to come up with a new idea that readers will like enough to pick up my book - and maybe even want my autograph on the inside cover someday. Meanwhile I've got to go for a walk and you can bet I'll be watching where I step.

Birthday Book Giveaway

Don't forget - if you haven't entered my birthday giveaway, you still have time. I'll be doing the drawing on the last day of September. I mean if I have to get older, I might as well celebrate by doing something fun and I think it's fun to give away books. You can check out the details, etc. on the Events page of my website or down in the box at the bottom of the homepage. www.annhgabhart.com. Thanks for reading.

Spring Worries & Wayward Cows

Don't you just love Spring? Of course around here, we're still mostly waiting to see if Spring is ever going to spring. It has been chilly! The jonquils have bloomed and some of the trees are pushing out blooms, but we need a few warm days. We've been having plenty of water. Rain makes the flowers grow, I suppose, but it also makes the field muddy. Especially when cows are tromping around in it. Makes for some gushy walking in the pasture fields.

One of our cows found the grass greener on the other side of the fence this afternoon. My husband is up in Cincinnati getting ready to sing at a church there in the morning, so guess who got to try to put the cow back in the proper field? You got it. Me. Trouble was, I didn't know where the old girl's hole in the fence was. I kept trying to herd her back the wrong way. But she knew where it was. From the looks of the stomped up path, the whole herd has been knowing where it is over the last few days. Somebody's going to have to do some fencing come Monday morning. Until then, I may go walk in a different direction. Especially if neighbor dog Roxie, the big St. Bernard wants to walk with me. She's a really good dog, but she does like to chase the cows. So I usually take a wide berth around the herd when she's with me or hold her collar till we're past them. I didn't catch her collar fast enough today. And even when I do, I keep wondering what I think I'm going to do with a 150 pound dog if she decides to take off. The smart thing would be to let go, don't you think?

Have you ever worried about something until you were nearly sick? I know it tells us in the Bible that worrying is useless and shows lack of faith. And I also know that most all of us do some worrying at times. Our teenage son is late getting home -- we worry. Our daughter is having a baby -- we worry. We get an unexpected bill we aren't sure we'll be able to pay -- we worry. We are supposed to turn our worries into prayers, and I try to do that. But I have to admit sometimes I keep yanking those worries back, saying, "Wait a minute, Lord. I'm not quite through with that yet." As if just sitting and stewing and worrying can change a thing. Now prayer, that can change things.

At any rate, I've been doing some stewing and worrying the past few months about my just finished book that I sent off to the editor. I waited and waited and waited for news. Good news, I hoped. But then the weeks dragged on. It's been my experience over the years that good news comes relatively quickly from editors and bad news can be a little slower. So when the time passed when I thought I should have heard, I began to worry that the editor didn't like the book. I worried it wasn't a good story. That I hadn't done a good job. All that worrying messed up my head until I couldn't seem to get going on my new idea. Then I finally talk to said editor last week and she hadn't even read the book!! She'd been extra busy and had sat on it. I'd made myself sick for all the wrong reasons.

That's not to say it was good that the editor hadn't made time to read my book. But it does say that I was worrying about the wrong things. That's usually the way of it. We worry that this or that will happen and then something altogether different happens and we haven't done anything but get gray hairs and frown wrinkles from worrying. Praying is much better and I'm going to try to remember that as I start a new countdown on waiting for news. Pray. Pray. Pray. I believe in prayer. I truly do, but sometimes I don't act very much as if I do. And then I have to pray for forgiveness and start over at square one. Aren't you glad the Lord is so forgiving? That He gives us another chance and another chance and another chance if we ask for it.

Well, that's my sermon of the week. Remember -- worry is like a rocking chair. It keeps you busy, but it doesn't get you anywhere.

Hope you have a blessed week ahead. And no reason to worry.