Early Morning

First, I'll clarify that for me, early morning is when I awake before 9:30! If I have a somewhat decent night's sleep, I will awaken between 8 and 8:30, which is what happened this morning. It takes me awhile to get out of bed and do what's necessary, so I was happy to have a little bit more time today. I ate breakfast on the back/side porch and took my camera out there with me. Here are some of the things I saw this morning!

I was out in the wet grass for this one, near the porch.

And this one.

I had pink portulaca planted last year, and this year some volunteered, with pink and white flowers!

We had planted trees in pots last fall, and they were sitting under the standing baby tub where the pansies were planted. Imagine my surprise that we now have a few volunteer pansies, even in the month of August!

The old stump which would have normally been surrounded on 3 sides 

with impatiens, but I already told that sad story.

I just love this green moss on the stump!

We also had a volunteer sunflower.

another view

These roses were here when we moved in. They bloom and then in a matter of days they are falling apart. I am not sure if it's what they are supposed to do, or I'm not doing something for them. (?)

In the early hours, the sun just briefly shines on the south side of the stump, which is facing the house. I thought these little toadstools just seemed to glow in the sunlight!

I've noticed that one of the gifts of this illness is that you have time and solitude to see the little blessings from God, which might have been overlooked before!

(Click on any picture you wish to see closer.)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Taoist Fairy

I finished my media/collage painting.

Mo-ku-hsien, Taoist Fairy

(click for details)

Until I found this image, I didn't know that Japanese literature included fairies. She always has her deer in attendance.

The image is a color transfer, and other images are transferred and then collaged on top of the transfer. Background is acrylic paint with oil pastels. I also included tiny Italian square ceramic beads, paper flowers and 3 tiny rolled scrolls. It's on 12 x 12 wrapped gallery canvas. Enjoy!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

A Little Bit Of Art

In the last post I was excited to have gone to to Jones Gap. Since it has been several days ago, you might guess I sort of overdid it, and you would be right. It's been a rough few days, but it was soooo good to get out and do some walking!

I was hoping to show a painting, but it isn't finished. I did however, get one more page done for the Milk Carton book. (other pages are here, here, and here.)

Page 4, Front

Page 4, Back

The front includes a scrap from an earlier painted paper (with some stamping & mesh netting), acrylic paint, ribbon, metal buckle, and postage stamp. The back is a collage torn from paper I didn't like, and painted over before it was torn. I also scattered acrylic paint across it. 

Lord willing, I will continue to gain a bit more strength so that I can show you the painting. It's mixed media, paint and collage, with some transfer. Hope that stirs your curiosity!

(Click on any picture you wish to see closer.)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Jones Gap

Not far from where we live, about 30 minutes, is a grand wilderness State Park called Jones gap. The only camping available is tent camping, and there are a large number of trails going in and around the area. When we moved up here, we had planned on hiking some of the trails, which I am now unable to do, but I am putting that on my "when I get well" list for now. We went there for a visit today, taking the dogs and the camera. It's a beautiful place, which I hope the readers who are not from SC can see. The Middle Saluda River runs through it, and further down into to South Carolina, the North, Middle and South Saluda rivers come together to make a large river called, simply "The Saluda River! :) How creative, don't you think?

The structure on the left is an enclosure for Brown, Rainbow and Brook trout. It has a run off, which flows back into the Middle Saluda. The dogs evidently found some very interesting smells in there!

These are Jewelweed plants, with individual flowers in the preceeding pictures. It's common name is the Wild Impatien, but I don't think they look very much like impatiens!

Asiatic Dayflower, commonly called "Mouse Ears"

Moss growing on a rock

The log across the river is a tree which evidently recently fell in a storm, and they are cutting it up.

John and the girls! (That is a lead around both of their faces, not a muzzle, otherwise they could not open their mouths)

Greenville County has a proclivity of renaming streets with the word "old", when they redirect the road because of growth in an area. For instance, there is Buncombe Road, and right near it is Old Buncombe Road, or White Horse Road, which is straighter than Old White Horse Road. But I always thought this designation was the ultimate in this time honored tradition - Old Old Hwy 11. Highway 11 is a Scenic Highway through the Upstate, but why they had to label this is beyond me. It only runs about 100 yards and both ends are on the current highway. It isn't used, there isn't anything on it, but there you go, anyway!

Now I am hoping that I did not use up all my spoons and then some today!!

(If you don't understand that, click here.)

(Click on any picture you wish to see closer.)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Happy Birthday, Kikie!!

My friend Kikie in Arizona has a birthday today, and like last year, I made him a card.

I found this hilarious photo of the fearful statue with a crow aiming for it, on the Internet.  It's one of those floating around with no name attached or I would give credit for it to whomever took this shot. I used some brown cardstock, a piece of an envelope with words printed faintly on it, a small piece of ribbon, and then a textured wallpaper scrap. I attached a metal piece with the letter K punched out of the center, with a brad. On the inside, I placed some stamped paper over the part of the card which had the brad attached so that it was not visible, and printed out a little sentiment and glued it in. I'm afraid that since it was not one of my better days when I made it, it's a bit uneven in places, but I don't think he will mind! :)

I hope that Kikie has a very Happy Birthday!!!

(Click on any picture you wish to see closer.)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Story From Guest Author

Story Day again - yes, I know I said I may have to give it up, but so far......... and we will see.

So this one is from my sister; she is four and a half years younger than I and it is one of her memories of the trip to Pennsylvania which I wrote about on 2 Feb 2011(story). Her memories differ from mine, since we all experience things differently, especially as children. I was twelve that summer, and she was seven and a half.

*********************************************

Grandmom And The Outhouse

58th in the Tuesday Story Series

Here is the story of when I first met Grandmom Alice.  

She was smart, independent, tough, resourceful, and a fun loving Grandmother.  

Her name was Alice and I loved her totally.

I finally met her when I was in grammar school.  She was my mother's mom and she lived in Pennsylvania which is where my Mom grew up.  There are 6 kids in my family, I am number 3, and each one was named after someone except me.  That used to bother me until my Mom explained that she and Pop had let Grandmom Alice pick out my name.  Now that made me special.  I was really looking forward to meeting this woman who had picked out my name.

We left our home in Charleston, South Carolina early in the morning when it was still dark.  Mom and Pop piled all 6 of us into the station wagon and tied down the luggage to the top of the car.

Off we went and it took forever, it seemed, to get there.  We played all the usual car games that we knew, count the cows and then burying them in the graveyards, the alphabet game, the license tag game, we sang, we bickered, slept and ate, and kept asking Pop how many more miles to go, and the answer was always the same; "Oh about 85 or 30".  We finally arrived in the dark at a huge farmhouse and straggled out of the car sleepy but excited.  There were more people there than I expected.  I had thought since we were going to meet Grandmom Alice then that was the only person who should be there.  Being the shy type I kinda hid behind everyone else until I finally realized which one of this crowd was my Grandmom.  She gave me a huge hug and I was ok then.

We were scattered off to bed in different rooms and I ended up being in the same room with her.  What fun, I felt so special to be the only one in the room with her.  She tucked me in and I apparently went straight to sleep, because the next thing I know is waking up in total darkness and was about to bust to get to the bathroom.  I woke her up and asked her where the bathroom was and I was slightly puzzled when she pulled this elaborately decorated pot from under the bed.  No, Grandmom, the bathroom is what I want, thinking she was not fully awake.  She said it was this, pointing to the pot (which I later found out was called a chamber pot) or a trip outside to the outhouse.  Outhouse?  What???  Outhouse?!  I think not!  I can wait until morning.  I'm not about to venture outside in the dark to an outhouse!  And no way was I using the pot!  She laughed and said well you will either go now or wait.  So I waited.  Needless to say I did not sleep another wink and finally the sun started to come up.  As soon as it was enough light she got up and took me to the dreaded outhouse.  It was not as bad as my imagination had blown it up to be while I had been waiting for the morning light.  I was relieved, in more ways than one, that I had survived the whole experience.

The rest of the visit was much calmer for me than that first night.  Except for the visit and 

stay over at my Mom's cousin's dairy farm.  But that's another story.

Judith Marie Livingston

 Thank you Judy!!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!