Mom's Angel Wing

When my Mom died 20 years ago, I inherited her house, personal belongings and all of her plants.  Not only living on this earth without my mother but having to deal with owning two houses, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of but I thought I had the responsibility of keeping her plants alive, which some were years and years old.  One of them was this HUGE Angel wing begonia.  I'm talking about a plant that was as tall as me with these gorgeous giant blooms on it.  It survived nicely in our back yard in Florida for seventeen years.  I even started several plants off of it.  When we moved to Alabama, Chuck put all of the plants up over the cab of the U Haul so that they wouldn't get crushed.  Everything seem to have made it.  Because it was winter time we put all the plants in the barn.  The problem was, it was the coldest winter in 40 years in Northern Alabama and we didn't have any electricity for six weeks.  That meant no way of keeping the plants from freezing in the barn.  I thought I had lost everything.  I cried the day I walked into the barn and saw the 65 year old stag horn fern all black.  Then there was the Angel wing begonia with no leaves left on it.  I told my Mom how sorry I was for losing her plants but in my heart I knew she would understand.  Well, come summer the stag horn started spouting new fronds but the Angel Wing was deader than a door nail.  Before we moved from our house in Florida, I had planted some of the Angel Wing in the ground by the deck.  Since Ryan's ex- sister in law had bought the house, Ryan and Michelle would go to the house where they grew up, to pick Genavive up from her Aunts.  When Michelle found out that I had lost Mom's big begonia, she asked Jenny if she could have a couple of pieces from the one that I had planted in the ground.  Jenny being nice as she always is, said " sure".  So, long story short....when we moved Michelle to Nashville last winter, she had the begonia from our Florida house.  Mom's Angel Wing Begonia!  I took care of the precious plant all winter long until it was big enough for me to cut two pieces from it to start my own.  Michelle now has the original from the one from Florida but now I also have Mom's Angel Wing begonia back!!!  I know Mom would be proud of both of us for keeping her plant living in our lives.  Thank you Aunt Jenny for sharing part of the plant that I had started and thank you to Michelle for asking Jenny to share it with her and letting me have the chance to start a new plant off of hers.  This plant will always have a special place in our house and in my heart.

Coffee Table Cat

You've heard of " Coffee Table Books", well, we have a " Coffee Table Cat".  This has become one of Prince George's favorite place to sleep on the front porch.  Even though, there isn't much room for him to stretch out, he's so fat.  Some times I find him hanging off on a couple sides of the table.  I think the glass must feel cool to him in the hot weather.  He's lucky.  The indoor kitties aren't allowed on the tables in the house.  Neither one of them would even " think" about getting on one.  Oh to be an outdoor kitty!!!

Redecorating the Yard

After walking around the yard the day we moved the fire pit, I decided that the yard wasn't looking how I wanted it.  I know... that sounds funny but it's like I needed to redecorate out there.  I decided to move the 12 hosta plants that were under the living room window.  That side of the yard just needs hydrangeas all along it.  It's the North side of the house, which gets mostly shade.  The side of the house that you first see when you drive up to the house.  Won't it be pretty when that side of the house has nothing but big, tall, blue hydrangeas all along it.  So, this meant I needed to find a shady spot to replant all of the hostas.  The only place that I could find that would be in the shade all day was the path on the way to the TT.  I started out clearing under the trees.  What a job!  There were weeds, vines, fallen limbs and poison ivy.  I had to move the two big pots of stag horns which meant they needed to be in the shade also.  I worked out there all afternoon but once I got it all done, I was very pleased on how it looked and how it will look come Spring when all the hostas come back for the summer.  It will soon be time to winterize the yard by putting all the potted plants into the green house.  The yard will look empty all winter long but if we are lucky we'll have some pretty snow to cover it all up, this year.  We've had a very unusual cool summer.  Maybe we'll have a really cold winter.  Here's hoping!!

Fire Pit Moved

Front side yard 

We have this really nice fire pit and we put it in a cleared area down a path a ways from the house.  It looked nice down there when Chuck kept the area bush hogged but I kinda forgot that it was down there.  We didn't use it much.  I decided that if we moved it up to the yard by the house, we would use it all the time.  Soooooo, one morning last week, I set out moving the furniture around the pit.  I set it up around the little round flower bed in the front side yard.  That gave me an idea if that was were I wanted to put it.  It was!!!  So next, I dug up the little tree that I had planted summer before last in the middle of the bed.  Chuck helped me pick up all the rocks around the edge of the bed.  Next I had to figure out where I wanted to replant the little tree.  After walking around the house a couple of times, I decided to plant it in the middle of the back yard.  Once it gets big, it will shade the house.  I dug the hole and planted the tree.  Chuck took on the task of digging up all the grass so we could use the rocks for the edge of the bed, just like it was in the front yard.  The next big job was moving the fire pit.  I had gone to town the next day and when I came home, it was in the middle of the yard.  :-)  There is no way I'm going to forget that we have the fire pit now.  We can see it out of the windows of the house, the drive way and the front porch.  Plus, it gives the yard some interest to look at.  Good move!!

Little Old Lady

Our little Miss Annabelle Lee is still going strong.  You sure can tell she is an old lady kitty though.  She has a hard time hearing and sometimes she stumbles when she walks.  After all she is only 16 1/2 years old.  That's what...115 1/2 years in people years?...Now that's just crazy...ha.  Other than being really thin, she looks pretty good for being that old.  She is still a pain in the butt cat as she always has been for the past 14 1/2 years we have had her.  I have always told her I figured out why who ever owned her before, took her to the pound where we adopted her from.  I will start to worry when she is no longer able to bug me to feed her or just give her attention.  Even though I fuss at her, I know I will be miss the little furry, pain in the butt when she is gone.

Antique Toy Sewing Machine

Look what I ended up getting for my birthday!!  I told ya how I like to celebrate my birthday as long as I could...ha.  About a week after my birthday, we went out to our favorite antique shop.  Mr. Roden was having a 50% off sale.  Those are our favorite kind.  He has a whole collection of antique toy sewing machines that have been sitting in his store for at least the year that we've been going out there.  He wants to sell the whole collection all together but I told him that he should sell them separately. He'd have a better chance of selling them.  Not too many people want 15 toy sewing machines and pay that much money.  I only wanted one out of them all.  Before we left that day, he came to me and said that if I wanted the little Singer, that I could have it for a certain price.  He told me to take it home and look it up on line to find out how much they were going for.  If I decided I didn't want it, then I could just bring it back.  ....not to worry about paying for it until I decided.   Well, I found them on line and they are from the early 1900's to 1920's.  They are selling from $80 to $265!!  Chuck took Mr. Roden a check the next day and I now have a cute little Singer toy sewing machine sitting on my shelf in the studio.  Another fun thing to look at as I sit and sew on my modern computerized machines.  I'm sure some little girl in the early 1900's was tickled pink to sew with this little machine.  I would have been.

Bird Quilt...quilted

Quilt label

It's finally done!!!!  quilted and bound.  Remember the brown quilt block exchange that our Quilt Guild did last year?  Well, I finally took it to be quilted on a huge long arm machine.  I go to this really nice lady who has a shop, way out in the country.  She is the sweetest ever and is very reasonable with her prices.  She did a wonderful job quilting my quilt with a leaf pattern.  The 20 people who were in the exchange, had to use the same brown fabric but could put any other colors they wanted in their blocks.  I ended up with two blocks with pink in them and really didn't want to use pink on the front of the quilt, so I used them as part of my label on the back.  This is the quilt that I had to come up with 12 blocks to fill in between the others.  Since I had the bird fabric that I thought was so pretty, I came up with the idea of making 12 applique blocks with birds on them.  Worked out great!  My quilt is a piece of me and of 20 others in my quilt guild.  What a treasure I have!!

The Old State Bank

Five Columns 

Ben showing us the Civil War Bullet. 

Book and cannon mantel 

The Teller cages

Original Mirror 

The Vault

Standing on the balcony

Original table 

Carol with the "walking wheel"

Original chair

Rope Bed 

Herb Garden 

Flowers and trees from the yard of the Bank 

I will be the first to admit that I didn't learn anything about the Civil War in school.  Nothing!!  How in the heck did I ever pass American History?  I don't know.  I have to say, I LOVE learning it all now.  Of course it's totally different when you are actually at the places where it all took place and you have a person teaching you all about it.  I have learned more in the past three years than I did in the twelve in school...and it's FUN!     We went with Charlotte, Carol ( her Mom) and the boys for a tour of  " The Old State Bank" in down town Decatur.  Our tour guide was a retired Judge who had grown up in Decatur, which was a history buff.  He made for a great guide and teacher.  The old state bank is Alabama's oldest surviving bank.  It was in operation for only about ten years in the 1800's.  Washington Keyes, was the banks first head cashier and resident of the bank's 2nd floor apartment. There are two pieces of original furniture still in the bank.  The table in the dining room which was also used for banking business with the board of directors  and a working chair that was used by the women who worked in the bank.  The rest of the furniture would have been in that time period.  We were all informed by Carol that the spinning wheel was called a " walking wheel".  There is no pedal to spin the wheel with.  You would spin the wheel by hand and back up away from the wheel pulling on the wool or cotton to spin it into yarn.  We were all aloud to walk out onto the balcony of the apartment.  Well, everyone but me.  I wasn't going out on something that high that had been there that long and even through a war 150 years ago.
       As we were all standing inside of the banks vault, we were told that hundreds and hundreds of arms and legs were amputated inside the vault.  The bank was taken over by the Union Army and they used it as a hospital.   There were stains on the floor of the vault but we were informed that it wasn't blood...ha.  The five limestone columns have many bullet holes in them.  There is even a bullet in the bricks by one of the front doors.  Inside the lobby of the bank there was an original huge mirror that had actually hung in the lobby.  In fact, there were two of them just a like.  They hung on each side of the teller cage.  There were two fireplaces in the lobby also.  The mantels were called "book and cannon" mantels.  The columns on them were shaped and looked like cannons.  At the top of them, were pieces of wood carved to look like books.  They were suppose to have been Bibles.  They actually did look like real books.  The bank was built in a year by slaves.  The  five slaves that made the five columns on the front of the bank where given their freedom when they had finished.  There were beautiful gardens behind the bank and a  beautiful brick walk way with an herb garden in the middle.  We were told to help ourselves to pick any of the herbs that we wanted.  The more you pick them, the better they grow.  What a fun morning we had and a free two hour history lesson.  I wish I had the chance of learning history hands on when I was in school.  I'm thankful to have that chance now.
 

Annual Longest Yard Sale

Dogtown, Alabama

Didn't know you could buy PAINT in pairs...lol

Old window table

The Longest Yard Sale is one of the things that we look forward to every summer.  I can't believe this is our third time of spending the day jumping in and out of the explorer all day.  This year, we decided to start where we left off in the last two years, in Dogtown, Alabama.  There is a huge mansion where they must have acres and acres for their front yard.  People rent spaces to sell their " junk" there.  It's nice because there are so many booths you can walk around under the trees and spend time looking at everything.  When we decided to head for home,after spending the day of seeing miles and miles of " junk"  we just turned around and went backwards to our favorite places from the last two years.  We really didn't buy very much.  In fact, I think we spent under $20 the whole day.  I had packed a picnic lunch and we ate in the explorer, sitting under the shade trees in Dogtown.   I found eight thimbles for my collection for only ten cents each.  A couple of booths down were some of the same thimbles and the guy wanted $3 each....ha.  I think my thimbles were the deal of the day.  I also got a cast iron fancy muffin tin for $8.  Found two plates with blue tea pots on them.  I had a set of them a long time ago but had given them to Gene.  Now I have two more and I'm not sure if I will keep them or they will go to Gene also.  They were only $1.50 each.  It was a fun day and I'm sure we will pack our lunch and head out to spend the day of jumping in and out of the explorer again come this time next year.  The Largest Yard Sale is one of our favorite events around here.

Summer Yard

Prince George watches over the yard

Big butterfly bush

We have had a wonderful summer this year.  Lots of rain and some days where you thought it was Fall not Summer.  We had a few really hot days but then it would rain and we would be back in the 80's for the high of the day.It was even down to 60 degrees a couple of nights.   We have been able to really enjoy our porches and yard this summer.  I know in a blink of an eye, the leaves will be turning and the plants will be dying back.  At first you dread everything dying back but then the colors of Fall appear and it's another beautiful season.  After getting everything into the green house, it makes life a lot easier for a few months.  You just turn the hose on everything in the green house every few days and don't worry about the yard or garden.  Every season has it's good points.  I'm so lucky to be able to enjoy them all.