Sliding in Sideways

 

I feel like sometimes when the weekends get here, I just slide in sideways to greet them. Do you feel that way? Summer is back, after a couple of 97 degree days we are back into the 100s. It is funny how just a couple of degrees changes things. Not to mention there are fires and the smoke makes every feel hotter and breathing hurts.

I didn't want to talk about air quality. I wanted to share a few of the trees that Ron has been working on. I really liked these. My favorite tree he is still working on, I will show that one when he is finished.

 

This one reminds me of a dancing girl. I don't know why. He makes the little pots too. I like nothing better when it is so hot outside to sit side by side, me sewing and him sketching or getting his wires ready or watching him make pots.

 

This next copper tree was a test for himself to see how fast he could make a tree. He wanted to be able to show people how to make them and he did a few wires and he finished this tree in a couple of hours. Making the pots though take a bit longer. I think it takes about three days to make a pot.

Now this next tree, is my favorite. I think it is so pretty.

This one is a bit bigger than the others. It reminds me of the White Tree of Gondor. In Return of the King. By J.R.R. Tolkien. Notice I didn't say Peter Jackson. The one in the book.
I loved the way he did the roots.

He isn't quite finished with this one, but I thought it was nice to see it before it is completely finished so you can see his work.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I hope where ever you are your days are filled with sunshine, and joy. That if the rains come, they will be soon replaced with rainbows.

~Kim~

"Youth has nothing to do with birthdays, only with alivedness of spirit, so even if your hair is grey, Daddy,
you can still be a boy."
---Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster, 1912
( Jean Webster is one of my many favorite authors, and Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy, two of my dear favorite books.) 

Good Fences #20

Today I am linking with The Run Around The Ranch and Good Fences. When TexWiz first started this linky party, I wanted to go up into the mountains to this old grave yard. Which I have never done. My son and his friends were going to stay at a cabin over the weekend and I asked if when they were driving by he would take pictures of these fences for me. So he did.

 

The big gate it tied shut with hay string. That made me chuckle. There is that man gate next to the rock pillar.
My son kept talking about how quiet it was and all you could hear was the wind in the trees. When I was a little girl, we always stopped here on our way camping. My Mom was still alive then and she always came and visited like she was meeting old friends.

 

The grave markers are very old. At least you can still read some of them. It looks the same as it did when I was a child.

I was amazed at how huge this grave marker was. The boy standing next to it is over six feet.  It is still very ornate and  well kept.

Here is another shot of the gate, with the post over it that looks new. It wasn't there when I was a kid. I love it here in this area because of the oak trees and the rolling hills and the lovely people that live in the community. The kids that live up here still go to school in a one room school house. Kindergarten through eighth. In high school they would come down the mountain to go to high school at our local high school. The kids were always the smartest kids in the school and since I was different because of being raised in the country, I made great friends from this mountain community.

 

 Can you see down the hill the kids and the grave marker? That is a mass grave all the way down the hill from everyone else.
Down at the bottom of that marker is says " And others." I wanted to know why all of these people we put in a mass grave. During my research looking through these  old records what I found is that about 1877 there was a Diphtheria epidemic. There were communities up here that lost so many families other communities had to come in and bury them and this is what I think this is. One of the old documents said that the people were pulled very slowly down the mountain in a wagon pulled by horses. That was all I could figure out was that they were from someplace else. Maybe they were planning for more deaths. I don't know it didn't say.
 

It is one of the most heartbreaking things I have seen and how even today I was overcome the the sadness of it. But someone cared enough to list as many as they could.

 

In the spring it is all green and so pretty. You can tell how our lack of rain has even made it look so dry and brown. It really is a lovely place.
I want to thank my son for stopping and taking pictures and all of the young adults who were with him who were so happy to explore and to find that lonely grave.  I hope you enjoyed this little tour. Somewhere when I was doing my research are two gold miners who were murdered in the 1860s and the murderers were hanged at our courthouse in our town. There are lots of things in the records I was reading about this graveyard.

~Kim~

All his thinking could not make him understand,
but his singing heart could.
---Waterless Mountain, Laura Adams Armer, 1931

Rest and Be Thankful

 

When we first moved here, I wanted to name this place " The Rest and Be Thankful." I have an old book and that is the title of it and I thought that living here was like that. We would walk out back and we would talk about our " Field of Dreams." I do think though, after very stressful days, as soon as I turn in the driveway, it is my rest and be thankful house.

 

One of the dreams I still have, is having people come here to share the peace and to be able to rest. There is just something about it, maybe it is the light. I don't know but in August, I am reminded of how the light begins to change, the colors though tired become warm and fall becomes more than a memory. The smell of school starting is on the air. I see tell-tale signs of the leaves starting to change and the leaves falling. It has been such a long, hot summer, that the trees are beginning to show the stress. My old tree in the front yard, is beginning to rain down its leaves. As my daughter once said, " That tree always knows school is going to start."

 

I think being aware of the changing of the seasons becomes more noticeable from my seat in the garden. To sit and watch and observe and to take the time to listen to the rhythm of nature is something that I know I need to do more. To be away from cell phones, and computers and all that calls me away from devotion to the One who made me and holds all I hold dear in His hands.

 

  This morning my very quiet, sneaky visitor was eating his sunflower in the tree. He is the same color as the leaves so I almost missed him. He was very quiet watching me. It was the sound of his breaking off the sunflower that I heard.

 

Then I found this guy in the flower. I loved his little boots on his feet. I also loved that his feelers were black and white striped. His little hands have tiny little hooks. I have noticed we have bugs and other things  because of the drought that we haven't had before. My sons  took a picture the other night of a scorpion on the porch. I have always wondered if we had them but have never seen one until the other night. Guess who won't be cleaning the flowerbed where he went?

 

 One of the things I do when I grow pumpkins is leave long stems on. I love how these pumpkins have the nicest stems. They will look so nice when fall comes.

 

I hope you have a lovely day. I am so glad the light is changing. I love the golden light that infuses everything with warmth. Last year, because of my eyes, I couldn't see the change. I could remember it but not see it. Today walking around and seeing it again, I really did feel like I was finally home at The Rest and Be

 Thankful.

~Kim~

 

" Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
---Frances De Sales.

August Is Here

 

We made it to August. So fast don't you think? In August, I try and enjoy it but with September just over on the next page it is hard to keep my mind on August. In July, I get out every thing red, white and blue. Today I put it away and started getting out every thing I own with sunflowers. Do you do that? Think of months as colors and shapes. September will be the beginning of fall things, orange and black and brown and yellow.
But August I just think of yellow and brown.

 

My beautiful Hydrangeas are now just faded and I still think are so pretty.  Now that August is here, I find myself racing to get my list accomplished that I so excitedly wrote down in May. My thoughts want to go toward fall. We have had 25 days as of yesterday over 100 degrees. I thought no wonder my poor flowers look so droopy.

 At least zinnias are always there to just look happy. I love the very bright colors. My stitching has slowed down.

I finished this one, It is by Pineberry Lane.

 

It is called Mehitable Wright's Red Work Sampler. I do love redwork. I like it because I can take it with me when I am in waiting rooms.

My latest rug. I don't hook as much as normal just because the heat just makes me put it down. It is so much easier to hook in the winter.

 This pattern came from The Wool Street Journal.
The pattern is drawn by Robin at Bird In The Hand Primitives.

I may be doing a lot of reverse hooking as I look at this as a photo. I am not wild about that water or the back ground. I feel like I have lost my hooking mojo.

At least the sunflowers are so pretty and happy out there in the sun.

Our peppers and tomatoes are amazing. I have only  had one red tomato. That is it. This morning though I noticed finally the plants are loaded with green tomatoes so all is not lost.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. A great start to August too.

~Kim~

" Beautiful things are often full of pins."
---Sarah Somebody, Florence Slobodkin, 1969