Day Two Hundred Ninety Five 2013

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October." 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne


Red maple leaves and jack o’ lanterns and pumpkin doughnuts ~ just to name a few things that make me wish October would stay all year.

Day Two Hundred Sixty Five 2013

“I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it.” 
~ Lee Maynard

Hello, Autumn! So nice to see you again.

Day Two Hundred Thirty Nine 2013

Backyard Wandering
"Not all those who wander are lost", a line from the poem All that is gold does not glitter, written by J. R. R. Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings.




We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost.
~Henry Rollins

Day Two Hundred Sixteen 2013

Fly to where your heart takes you. He who waits for the approval of others has clipped his own wings.
~ Almine

Day Two Hundred Twelve 2013

Wonderful Wednesday

"What has happened to summer,
That's what I want to know.
Is she on a vacation -
Who knows where did she go?
Tell, what was she wearing;
A zephyr breeze and rosebud
Or grass and wild berry?
Could she be honeymooning
With spring or early fall
Or has she gone so far away
She'll not return at all? "
~ Dorothy Ardelle Merriam, One July Summer

End of July ~ it hasn’t felt like Summer all Summer. Yet. Did you have a wonderful Wednesday?

Day Two Hundred Ten 2013

Miscellaneous Monday

Lunch in the gazebo at Dogwood Park with my honey/hubby Neil ~ those cool breezes felt like fall ~ noisy there today ~ they were cutting down a huge dead tree by the picnic tables near the stage

Down my street ~ the weather today was perfection

Seedless black grapes ~ yummy but kind of dry ~ thinking about using them in some chicken salad with some apples

My Geraniums have had a tough time blooming this summer ~ they like heat and sun ~ a rare commodity this July ~ very unusual

Creepy crawly on my backyard garden flag [garden?]

Sunset in the Kroger parking lot ~ Neil was pumping gas into my grannymobile  [dirty windshield ~ must get car wash]  Neil was aggravated at the guy in the car next to us because the guy’s wife/girlfriend/whatever was out there pumping the gas while he waited in the driver’s seat ~ I thanked him for pumping gas into the car I drive every day ~ and  for still being so chivalrous [he still opens my car door for me almost all the time] Monday wasn’t so bad, was it?

There are no miracles on Mondays.
~Amy Neftzger

[I say it depends on your definition of miracle ~ just saying]

Day Two Hundred Four 2013

If it could only be like this always - always summer… the fruit always ripe... ~Evelyn Waugh

Summertime on a plate

Day Two Hundred Three 2013

Random Hearts [at my house]









Home is where the heart is.
~Pliny the Elder

Day One Hundred Seven 2013

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
~Khalil Gibran

Day Ninety Eight 2013

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game.
~Walt Whitman

Grandson Elijah is back in the swing of things this evening, as he played his first T Ball game of the season. He’s a seasoned player on a team made up mostly of newbies. He’s definitely the tallest player on his team ~ The Sharks. They played hard but lost the game, 25~4.

Day Ninety Two 2013

Grandson Knox ~ 16 months old today ~ totally knows how to work an iPad ~ all by himself.

"Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun." ~Mignon McLaughlin

Day Eighty Six 2013

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
~Louisa May Alcott

Day Seventy Eight 2013

Come, gentle Spring! ethereal Mildness! come.
~ James Thomson








And all about, the softening air
Of new-born sweetness tells,
And the ungathered Mayflowers wear
The tint of ocean shells.
The old, assuring miracle:
is fresh as heretofore:
And earth takes up its parable of life from death once more.
~ Whittier

[We’re in the final hours of winter. Finally. Spring begins with the vernal equinox at 7:02 A.M. (EDT) on March 20, 2013 in the Northern Hemisphere. Today was a beautiful sunny blue sky spring like day, this last day of winter. But we all know ‘Mother Nature’ doesn’t pay much attention to dates on the calendar when it comes to the weather. So, for what it’s worth, goodbye winter!]

Day Sixty Five 2013

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~Mae West

I think we’ve had more snow days in March than we’ve had the entire winter. [this makes me think of the first moon landing for some reason ~ one small step]

Lunch at Ocha today with daughter Holly, grandson Knox, daughter Kelly and hubby Neil.

Knox and his mom went back home today after spending the last several days with us. Miss you guys!

Day Sixty 2013

Grandson Knox has no need of toys to amuse him. He’d rather play with anything that isn’t a toy. He sat on his ‘Pa’s’ lap for probably thirty minutes this evening, putting pens and pencils in this mug. Neil kept taking some back out, and Knox was happy to put them back in.
 
It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.
~Paulo Coelho

Day Fifty Eight 2013

All you need is …

… is all you need.
~John Lennon

Day Fifty Six 2013

“Beneath the crisp and wintry carpet hid A million buds but stay their blossoming And trustful birds have built their nests amid The shuddering boughs, and only wait to sing Till one soft shower from the south shall bid And hither tempt the pilgrim steps of Spring.”

~Robert Bridges

Day Fifty One 2013

Randomness. again.

Afternoon out my front door

Two of my favorite things~stained glass and a book of quotes.

I tried a new slow cooker recipe for supper~sausage and black bean soup.  It was yummy.

Always do whatever’s next.
~George Carlin  
[random quote for the middle of the week]

Day Forty Nine 2013

On the road to Chattanooga

where we rarely travel

the East Tennessee landscape is undeniably beautiful

even in the dead of winter

At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.  
~Toni Morrison

I haven’t reached that point in life just yet.