Brambly Pines Pet Cemetery

Kitty Heaven was shining down on our kitties.
(Michelle took this picture) 

Cleaned up cemetery

The weather was finally nice to where Michelle and I could make our beloved kitties that we lost last year, grave markers.  When we finished them, we went down to work on the cemetery.  Michelle redid the iron fence and I brought the rose trellis from where I had it in the garden.  I'm going to plant ivy to grow on the trellis and I'm on the look out for two urns to put on each side of it. We're also going to get the grave vases on a stick that we can put at each grave.  Yes, we will have "Decoration Day" here at Brambly Pines.....(smiling).  I raked up pine needles to spread over the graves to keep the weeds down.  It will take a few days before the markers are dry enough to put on the graves, but we were really pleased on how they turned out.  Not only did we take good care of our kitties all the years they were alive, but we're still taking care of them.  Lucky kitties !!

Brambly Pines Easter

Antique Bunny

Beautiful strawberry plant

We couldn't have asked for prettier weather and the perks of Spring for Easter this year.  Michelle came down to spend the weekend with us.  She brought us a really nice dogwood tree for our Anniversary ( which was Friday...44 yrs)  It's almost like she knew that one of our pink dogwood trees that we planted in the front yard when we first moved in, died this winter.  I had just told Chuck that I wanted to replace it with a white one.
    We had our traditional Easter brunch on our deck.  I decided to put a few decorations out.  One was a rabbit that my Mother had bought me and Marina ( by BFF) one Easter when we were around 12 years old.  It looks real and it's head moves.  Christina still has Marina's too.  It has always been a part of our Easters.  We were entertained by the hummingbirds fighting over the feeder next to the deck.  The beauty of the wisteria just said " Easter".  Even some of the azaleas were blooming.  All we were missing was an Easter Egg Hunt in the woods.  Maybe that will happen in the near future Easter's.  Something fun to think about.
   

Guess What.....

There are three baby bunnies in there

Guess what George kitty has found now.....a rabbit's nest with three babies in it, and guess where it is....in the daffodil bed along one of the retaining walls.  I know!!!  Why would a mama rabbit make her nest there?  I let George outside this morning like I always do and a few minutes later, Chuck was looking out one of the living room windows and saw George jump up onto one of the retaining walls.  About five minutes later, here comes George with something in his mouth, high tailing it to the front porch.  Chuck went out onto the porch and George dropped what was in his mouth.  It was a tiny baby bunny.  It had fur but it still had it's eyes closed.  So, as I held the bunny, Chuck went over to the retaining wall where George was and sure enough.  There was the nest in the pine needles, lined with the mama's fur, with two more babies in it.  The baby that George had, didn't seem hurt so I put it back in the nest.  Then, I locked George in the basement until we could figure out what we were going to do about this situation.  Last time George brought us the two bunnies, I had read where the mother only nurses them at night.  So, I came up with the idea of us putting a crate over the nest and putting something heavy on it so George couldn't get to them again.  When we put George in the basement for the night, we will uncover the nest and in the morning as George goes out, we'll cover the nest.  Meantime, we will keep an eye out for the Mama rabbit to see if she shows up during the day.  We don't think she will.  Not until around dusk.  That's when they come into our yard to eat.  Then and early mornings.   We read that they should leave the nest when they are around four weeks old.  I told Chuck this morning that we will get these babies raised and to have the hawk that has been hanging out close to the house or our two owls that have lived in our woods for years now, to get them when they leave the nest.  We have the "circle of life" a lot here, living in the middle of the woods.  It's sad sometimes but it's something that I'm learning to live with.  We're just wondering what George will be bringing to the front porch next.  If it moves or makes a noise....he will find it.  I'm beginning to think I should have named George...."Hunter" instead of George.  ....or how about this for his name.....George Lee Hunter Peterson.  That's the ticket.  That's his official name now but you can just call him George.

Pretty in Purple

We planted a little sprig of wisteria to cover the deck, two Springs ago and it's already showing it's beauty. Since it grows so fast, I'm predicting that the whole pergola will be covered by the end of this summer.  I can't wait to have these beautiful flowers hanging down over half the deck.  I'm picturing it in my mind as something that you see in a magazine.   Not only are they pretty, but they smell wonderful too.  Something else that I'm having fun growing that I couldn't in Florida.  

A Day on the Sipsey

60 people waiting to go down the river

Chuck in one of our " sit ins"

Michelle and Craig in Char/Raimey's kayak for two

Charlotte in Chuck's kayak

Lunch

Michelle/Craig made it over some rapids

Bluebells everywhere!!!!

Saturday was the perfect day to be outside.  It was between two very rainy, stormy days.  The sun was shining and the temps were in the 60's.  I think everyone in Alabama who owns a kayak had the same idea that we did.  Go down the Sipsey River!  When we got to the put in place, there were two very large kayaking club groups getting ready to launch.  We thought we were going to be surrounded by tons of people as we went down the river but we let one large group go ahead of us and then there was one behind us.  Strange enough, we never saw another person on the whole trip until we stopped for lunch. After eating lunch among the "bluebells" that covered the banks of the river the whole way, we finished the trip without seeing any other people again.  We didn't see any animals this trip but it's because of all the people on the river.  We did enjoy the red bud trees that were blooming and so pretty mixed in for color.  We went over a few fun rapids and all of us got stuck on the rocks throughout the day.  It makes for good exercise, getting free.  At the end of our trip, the "Game Wardens" were waiting at the take out point.  They were checking to see if everyone had life jackets in every boat for every person. If not, they got tickets.  No tickets for us!  We always make sure we take our life jackets.  So, we didn't have to pay for a fun day on the Sipsey with the BNOE and the kids.

All Planted

The 2014 Garden has been composted, tilled and planted.  It's so much fun to watch the seeds you plant, come up and turn into food that you can eat.  I love this time of year, but the love grows all through the summer as you pick the lettuce for your salad,  the green beans, cucumbers, okra, several kinds of squash, dig potatoes and pull up carrots for your meals though out the week.  Then there are the surprise mystery veggies/fruits that just pop up from the compost through out the garden.  Those are really fun.  One year, we had mystery cantaloupe. Last year, the garden was full of free tomatoes.  Wonder what it's going to be this year.  I'll let ya know.  We will be picking, pulling and digging before we know it.  Oh yes, also weeding....ugh!

Mom's Hanging Around

Mom's Angel Wing Begonia

Mom's cement planter that I grow my herbs in 

Mom's pickle crocks

Mom has been gone for 20 years but she is still hanging around.  It makes me smile to know that I have some of her things.  She would be smiling too that I'm using them.  Remember the two little cuttings that I took off of the Angel Wing Begonia that Michelle started from the one that I planted ( from Mom's) at our Florida house?  Well, that's it in the picture.  It's almost as big as the original one that died in the freezing weather the first winter we were here, since we didn't have any electricity to keep it warm.  I'm not going to take any chances on losing this one and it be gone forever.  I'm starting several off of this big one. Mom used her two pickle crocks to make pickles and sauerkraut in but since I doubt if I will ever use them for that, I thought I would put them on the back steps and put some kind of plants in them.  I just haven't figured out what kind of plants.  Yes, we lugged her pink cement planter all the way from Florida and I have used it for my herbs at my back door, every since we moved into the house.  I love that I only have to step outside the screen door and pick my fresh herbs for cooking.  Right now I have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme....  are you singing it?....I know you are!!!   So, until Winter comes again, I get to enjoy Mom hanging around in several places outside.  I'm glad she is still making me smile.  

Spring Blooms!

The Iris are starting to bloom in the median.

In the Fall when you are planting all of your Spring bulbs it's hard to picture just how pretty they are going to be come Spring.  After they all come up and are blooming, you wished you had planted a hundred more.  Daffodils come up year after year but the tulips don't.  It doesn't stay cold enough here for those to bloom pretty again the next year.  I think they need all the snow of up north, all winter.  So, every Fall, I plant tulips and try and plant more than the year before.  They are a real treat that I didn't grow up with in Florida.

Two by Two

Chuck's wine bottles 

All the wine that I've drank since we moved up here...ha Works out to two bottles a year.

Remember the two bottle walls that were at the beginning of the path to the BNOE?  Well, we had to take them down so they could move the TT up the path.   All of the bottles just got piled up in three big piles at the beginning of Fall and that is where they stayed all winter long.  They became covered in tree branches, pine needles and dirt.  One day last week as I was working out in the yard, I decided to dig out all the bottles and line them up so I could see just how many there were and make plans on what to do with them again.  I dug out one of the piles and Chuck helped me do the other two.  Now remember the bottles come from all of the wine that Chuck has drank since we moved up here.  Around one a week.  There are at least 20 more empty bottles down in the barn.  Chuck is saving some of them to use his glass cutter on to make some different things we've seen at some of the craft shows we've been too.  I guess until we get the new studio built and know where to build the bottle walls back, they will stay lined up going to the BNOE.  Sure hope they don't reach the top of the path before we use them again.

The Cat Who....

Our Book Club is reading " The Cat Who Had 60's Whiskers" by Lillian Jackson Braun.  I had read it years ago because I have read all of the " Cat Who" books, but I couldn't remember what this one was about, so reread it.  The bed on the back porch is the best place to read a book.  Cool breezes and birds singing.  A lot of times, I put the book down, close my eyes and I'm out for a nap.  After reading for a little while, I got up to get a drink and when I came back Annabelle kitty had taken my place.  It's funny because when I read the book the first time, I said that Annie had 60 whiskers.  I had even tried to count them several times.  Her whiskers are the biggest part on her. Lots of them and they are soooooo long.  A cat's whiskers are suppose to be as long as they are wide so if they put their heads in a hole, their whiskers will tell them if their bodies will fit.  Annabelle's whiskers have always been a lot longer than she has been wide.  No getting stuck for her, that's for sure.