Sunflowers!

Cooper and Maggie love hanging out in the garden with me. Cooper
likes to just chill and watch the koi in the pond while Maggie chases
the finches throughout the sunflowers.
We love how the goldfinches sing song and flutter through the rows of
sunflowers. It's become their private playground!

This year I bought all different varieties and just scattered them down the rows. The results were great! I think next year I may plant our lower field in sunflowers and millet.It may keep the birds...and the deer happy..at least for a little while.But for right now we just enjoy sitting on the porch watching the show!

Tomato Wars!

On the vine they're nice and kind.

After that...it's War!

Let the tomato wars begin!

It's a fight to the finish

But...whatever they're fate.

It's All Good!

A little Ra - lief!!

Come on Ra - what do you say - rain today? For weeks now come late afternoon we've watched some great thunderheads form. They just roll right past us..usually northwest towards Forest and Lynchburg or along the mountains toward Big Island. A friend who lives just down the road from Peaks winery had over 4" of rain in less than an hour. Their road washed out and his driveway went along with it! Don't know when we'll get some - Wait!! I actually hear thunder...and it's right overhead! Can sun gods grant rain! Who cares...I'll take it!

Winning!! midnight rantings...

Writing certainly has its rewards at times. Never a loss for words, we take to our keyboards or grab a pen or our journals. Whether happy or sad, right or wronged? What better way to get it all out and write, right? Well lately I've read some pretty disastrous online posts. Most were written in haste (and after too many of whatever they had in their wine glass?) As a writer friend puts it: never!...ever!!...get on your social network while under the influence of any substance that could impair your thoughts or comments in any way. If you this compulsion to vent about something, draft first! post later. Wait to see how often you'll think twice and click cancel! It's good to remember what message boards are for...there's one on FB. So, for your own good - use it! Now, I admit I'm guilty! I have forgotten to draft. I've gone right to publish, only to have to go back and edit and edit again! But mostly to correct a sentence, spelling or grammar etc. Yes, I'm guilty of that! And once I put something on FB and quickly got a message from a friend who said, "ah-ah..think about that". I did and deleted it - and very quickly too...Awk-word!! But I've thanked my friend a million times! I don't know if it's the ease in which we have access to our own little audience but, Wow! I've certainly noticed an increase in what I would describe as some - Real Winners! I could tell they had been written the previous night, out there for hours, too late to delete! It's already been read by everyone and now they're 'stick a fork in ya' Done! Sadly, some people have even lost their jobs over some radical midnight rantings about their bosses. Don't know if that's completely fair or even legal? But I do know I've learned this: if we write when wronged, it may very well be our own epitaph!

I'll just be a few minutes~~

It was early enough this morning when I sat down, a steaming cup of coffee beside me on the little side table. I checked my email and FB, left a few friends
comments, and then decided to freshen up my own blog, nothing major, maybe add a new gadget. Well - three hours, two cups of coffee, quarter of a chicken
sandwich, and a diet coke later....here it is!! I love my daisies - as once did a
very dear friend. A new 'Look' for sure and I hope to be sharing alot more views! Some from a new Nikon with a few of my own in between....
...words and weeds ;)

My Children...by Mary Etta Perry

I have cohabited with life
and borne a hundred children!
Love and Laughter
Hope and Joy!
Passion, Pain, and Sorrow
A hundred children have I borne -
And would bear a hundred more -
tommorow.

Poetry Corner

While on a trip to Brevard, N.C. recently I came across several shops selling used books. One had rooms just filled with books! It looked like
even the garage finally got cleaned out or someone got themselves a Kindle and decided to give up their library! In any event, I had the pleasure of wandering through the rows and picking up some good finds.
One book is titled "How to Say It" and the other is "Handbook for Writers". Both should prove to be helpful references for writing. Even
better, they were worth every bit of the five dollar donation I made to the humane society. The third book was a most interesting little chapbook written by a teacher from Brevard, N.C., and dedicated to her students. . I'm wonder if at least one or two of these are tucked up on a shelf of one of those students, or maybe a family member. Safe to say it's been some years since anyone cared to read them...until now. So this is a poem from the book called "The Dance Goes On" by Mary Etta Perry. The poem is called {With Interest' .... When you are pleased, you give me back to myself! And I am pleased when I find some of myself in you. --Once I found the taste of me, salty, on your lip. When there is love, I can let you take me away from myself, and give me back again.} Such a Beautiful Love Poem...Thank you Ms. Perry :)