True love, homegrown tomatoes and sunflowers

We had a nice, long Memorial Day weekend at home, in the AC, binge watching stuff on TV.  It was just too hot to get outside and do anything.

We're in the middle of a heatwave and I can't remember 100 degrees in May, ever.  But climate change is a joke.  Global warming is a hoax. Yeah, okay.  I'm not getting on my soapbox about it (but why not?  This is MY blog, right??) but climate change is real and global warming is real and I don't know exactly what we can do about it but doing virtually nothing sure isn't the fix.  Before I left Facebook, I used to see willful ignorance daily about this and that and climate change was one of the things I saw being made fun of, made light of.  And yet, tornadoes and hurricanes are getting stronger and coming more frequently, the seasons are pretty much nonexistent these days and it's 100 degrees in May in Georgia.  Kids graduated from college last week in Colorado in the snow and over 150 tornadoes hit the central part of our country.  And last night, three tornadoes hit Ohio.  This ain't just happening, y'all.  God gave us this beautiful planet to live on and we are destroying it.  And He knew we would all along.

We do what we can but we can do better.  No more plastic bags in this house!  There are shopping bags in the Jeep, bought specifically for that purpose.  We haven't used paper towels in over 10 years and we shop local when we can, pay our bills online, plant flowers to help the bees and the butterflies and y'all know we buy OLD and vintage whenever we can.  Instead of buying a new toaster, we just go get one at an estate sale.  We can still do better, though.  There's always more you can do.

I've been working really hard these past several days trying to keep everything hydrated outside.  Everything is looking good, despite the heat.

Larry planted these tomatoes, plants he bought from the local high school plant sale, at the end of March.  They are monsters now!  He had to extend the space they're in.  I cannot wait to have a sun-ripened, homegrown tomato on two slices of white bread with Duke's mayo and a little salt and pepper.  Shut yo' mouf.  That's what I lived on growing up in the summertime.  My daddy always planted the biggest gardens in the spring and we had tomatoes, squash, peas, okra and peppers all summer long.  I used to love to go out there first thing in the morning with the basket and pick everything that was ready.  I used to take baskets of squash down to Florida to Larry's folks when I'd go spend weeks with them in the summer.  Such wonderful memories...

We had to put netting over them to keep the birds and squirrels out because we feed them in the backyard, too, and they think anything you put out there is for them.

Georgia Peach Dianthus...

Squeeeee!!  My sunflowers, thanks to my amazing husband who planted these for me because I couldn't this year. 

And I'm working on two avocado trees, just to have a pretty little tree plant.  They won't make avocados for years, if at all.  I did this once before at the condo but it grew very spindly and died.  Hopefully, these two will do good! 

I'll be having surgery number four Thursday and I sure hope this is the last one.  I'm tired.  I know I have to do it because I can't walk without pain and the beach is calling my name SO loudly that I can't think sometimes.  This is my favorite picture of me and Larry, just a simple phone selfie at sunrise at Tybee.  

I need this girl back.

Sunflowers update

Squeeeee!!!

Weekend ramblings

We went in opposite directions yesterday, Larry down to south Georgia to take care of some business and I went to Macon to a couple of estate sales with my friend, Debbie.  Larry checked out a sale in Albany that was all furniture (borrrrrring!) and then an antique store on the way home.

Deb and I had the best time!!  We even ran into a local celebrity at one sale and I got a gorgeous rug for our bedroom.  And at the other sale (a beautiful old home on Appleton Avenue, built in 1858, with the heart pine floors and ten-foot ceilings, sigh), I got a pretty red and cream tablecloth for fall, a red and white striped vase that looked like peppermint to me, a smaller throw rug and an aqua paisley throw blanket.

Larry brought home some pretties, too!  I'm slowly decorating the kitchen with chickens and roosters, since this stupid poopoo head county won't let me have chickens (yet) but when they dooooo, my girls are gonna be living in style!  This is what I have in mind.

The Chicken Ranch.  For Omelet, Poppy and Sunny Side Up.

It'll happen.  :)

Anyhow, Larry found some Jadeite Rooster stuff!!  A huge measuring cup/pitcher, a lidded canister and two shakers.  I love 'em!!  They look great in the kitchen window.  And they're perfect for the little Jadeite rooster we got in Florida last summer.

He found a pretty little Napco lady head vase for me, too!  I LOVE her little flippy hairdo!

I have wanted a See Rock City birdfeeder for soooooo long.  Not the birdhouse but a feeder.  Well, yesterday at the first sale Deb and I hit in Macon, this one was hanging in a tree in the backyard and I grabbed it.  The roof is metal, they don't make them like that anymore, so it's old.  It's rusty but, to me, that just gives it character.  It's had a life!  And it's perfect.  I hung it in a tree in our backyard and filled it with bird seed.  I love it.

Larry pulled up the sunflowers today.  I was sad.  But they were dead and needed to come up.  They only bloom once or twice per stalk and they sure did their job this summer!  They were gorgeous.

I've planted some red sunflowers next to the house and I hope they'll grow tall there by Thanksgiving.

Larry added some more new fence this weekend, too.

One lone little wildflower blooming between stones in the backyard.  I scattered wildflower seeds all over the place in the spring and they are finally blooming.  

And these pretty things are two poinsettias I had as decoration on the porch last Christmas!  I just planted them out by the fence and hoped for the best.  I'd never planted poinsettia before.  They seem to love it out there.  I'm excited for them to turn red and bloom.  With our weather, though, it'll probably be January or February. 

Yard pretties!

Things are just bustin' out all over in our yard!  We've had a bit of a cool snap this weekend and Larry and I worked outside all day today, he, cleaning out the backyard shed and me, planting flowers and cleaning flower beds.

Here's what's growing around here! 

This is a little arrangement of begonias, petunias and ivy that I did by the front door.

 Day lilies blooming in the front yard

 The roses by the mailbox have really loved all the rain we've gotten lately!

 

I repotted my poor pot-bound aloe vera plant today.  It's much happier now!

My little garden is coming along, too.  I've had to put stakes in for the tomatoes already!

To me, this is definitely a yard pretty!  Vintage sheets that we picked up at an estate sale yesterday drying in the sunshine.

And this one.  This one is the prettiest yard pretty we have!  He LOVES being outside and would just stay out there if we'd let him.  Unless, of course, he hears neighbors talking or an airplane flying over.  He's such a joy.  Banjo, too.  We have quite a happy life, the four of us.

We had some thrasher eggs in a nest in one of our ferns and the other night before the weather got bad, Larry secured the fern's hook with wire so that the wind wouldn't blow it down.  We thought they'd be okay but the clips broke instead and the pot still fell and the eggs bounced out.  They'd been in the nest for eight days but were still nothing but yolk so they more than likely would not have hatched anyway.  We were both very sad but have hope that a mama bird will try again this spring and we'll have some babies.  I've been feeding them premium seed and suet with mealworms all year to try to help the mamas have healthy babies.  Spring is still early and I still hope!!

Earth Day and a birthday!

I left Larry at home today on Earth Day cutting grass and replacing more of the fence and finishing up a chest-of-drawers that he's been working on and I spent some of the day down home in Montezuma for our Katie's third birthday party.  Katie loves Minnie Mouse so a Minnie party it was, complete with cake, cupcakes and pizza!  She got Minnie clothes and toys and Larry and I gave her a Minnie Mouse sofa!  She was so cute opening her stuff.  

I just love this picture of her when she saw Minnie on that little sofa.

Here she is tooting her birthday horn!

Clumsy me, I busted my camera while I was there today.  The strap came loose and I dropped my camera on the concrete step.  10 seconds earlier and it would have landed on the soft dirt and been all right.

Owwee.  Hopefully we can get it fixed.  I finished the birthday party taking pictures with it and they all turned out good so it still works, you just can't see the picture.  I probably won't forget hearing that craaaaackkk any time soon.  It sounded like my ankle felt when I broke it.  Owwee.

I came home and finally got my little garden planted.  I decided to try container gardening this year so I planted my 'maters and peppers in a pot and I planted zinnias in the middle.  In two other pots, I planted my lavender, sage and rosemary.

I still have flower seeds to plant --- wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds and mums and I even got a pack of catnip to plant in a pot for Tabbie Hoffman.

Maybe tomorrow... 

Goodness, what a February!

We have surely had a FULL February!!  Our friend, Stephanie, came to visit the first part of the month.  We so loved having her here again!  We enjoyed her company, her cooking, her talent, and Banjo and Tabbie Hoffman enjoyed having her here during the day and snuggling with her at night.  In fact, Banjo started sleeping in the guest bed after she left because he missed her.  Awww!  

We celebrated Ami's birthday at Olive Garden here in town on the 4th and it was so great to have everybody together.  We had a blast!  

My baby sister is 40.  So incredibly hard to believe.  Life is so short, getting shorter every day, so we need to make the most of every day.  Love on the ones you love today because tomorrow is not promised.

I took a couple of days off work to show Steph around a bit.  We went to the Museum of Aviation, Wilson's Bakery and thrifting one day.  I was checking out at the thrift store and all of a sudden, I heard this beautiful music playing!  I looked around and saw Steph sitting at a piano, just playing away.  Stephanie is a musician, after all, and has her own band, so naturally if there's a piano nearby, she's gonna play it!  It was such a treat.  She had the whole store in awe.  We went to a couple of really good estate sales on another day and there was a piano in one of the houses.  Sure enough, Stephanie played!  One of the estate sale employees did a video of her playing and she said she was going to show it to the lady of the house, who is now in a nursing home.  She told us she'd be happy to know that somebody was playing her piano.

I love this picture I took of Stephanie at an estate sale down in Perry that Friday.  I bought this plastic flamingo and when Stephanie left here, she flew to Cancun, Mexico to bird watch the flamingos!  We joked that this was her first flamingo sighting on her trip.  Ha! 

We took her back to Atlanta on the 12th, to a hotel, since her flight to Mexico was really, really early on the 13th.  We stopped in Juliette and had lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe (fried green tomatoes, of course!).  Steph and I had the Bennett's BBQ sandwich and I declare, that doggone Frank Bennett is still delicious after all these years!

We walked McCrackin Street, browsing in the little gift shops and I swear, once, we caught a glimpse of the bee charmer.  I'm sure of it.  It may sound silly, but every time I'm there, I can feel the spirits of Idgie and Ruth.  I just love that story so much!

After we'd found some vintage goodies and sampled some fudge, we left Juliette and headed north to High Falls State Park.  It was a beautiful day to climb some rocks and put our feet in the freezing cold water.  Well, maybe it was just me doing the feet thing.  Larry and Stephanie climbed the rocks.  :)

Stephanie and I took this selfie in the car on the way to Atlanta.  It pretty much summed up how we were feeling.  It's never goodbye though, just see ya later! We're already looking forward to having her come see us again.

Larry's and my 18th wedding anniversary was the 13th and we'd already opened our presents to each other AND our Valentines.  We're awful.  We do that at birthdays and Christmas, too.  We just can't wait.

Larry got me (us) a Google Home and we have had the best time with that thing!

We play music and make shopping lists and play trivia and get her to tell us jokes and sing songs to us and we get the weather forecast every day before we go out.  It's awesome.  I'm trying to get "her" to say "I love you" and her responses to me telling her I love her (and I do it every day!) are getting more and more friendly.  She was saying things like "you're not so bad yourself" and now she says things like "I love helping you, even more than I love searching."  

She's playing hard to get.



Larry has always gotten me traditional anniversary gifts and for the 18th, you're supposed to give porcelain.  He found this beautiful girl for me at an estate sale.  Isn't she so elegant??
 

 

He also gave me this BLUE Fire-King relish dish!  The blue is kinda rare and I'd never seen one in the wild (only online, eBay and various Pyrex/Fire-King groups) and I was tickled to get it!!  I have a couple of the white ones and a couple of deviled eggs trays to match but I didn't have a bluuuuuue!

We've just celebrated all month.  Our anniversary, Valentine's Day and Larry's birthday, which was Friday.  I got a new piece of Pink Daisy Pyrex and a pretty blue Fenton hobnail vase, too, and I gave him a remote control drone with an HD camera so that he can take aerial photos!  I also got him the last two ghost division Army patches that he needed to complete that set and some new clothes to run in.  He gets up every morning now and runs for an hour and a half.  Bless it.  

We went to our favorite local Mexican restaurant on our anniversary and Larry had set it up for the waiter to bring me a rose and card during our dinner.  Soooooo dang sweet!!

Yesterday, we went to Massee Lane Gardens down in Fort Valley to continue our birthday celebration.  It was such a gorgeous day with even more gorgeous blooms!  We spent almost two hours walking and taking pictures and smelling the flowers.  Well, maybe that was just me smelling the flowers.

And when we got home, we found that one of the little tulip bulbs that I bought at Christmas and planted on MLK Day last month had bloomed while we were gone!  I've never grown tulips before and I am so happy to have this little one.

Garden update!

We've had a lot of rain this week and our little garden loved it!  Everything is so lush and green and growing!

We have eight little green tomatoes that are almost the right size to fry!

Larry cut the grass today and it looks sooooo good!

I have been really, really tired lately so while I slept in yesterday morning, Larry went estate saleing all by himself.  He brought me home lots of goodies!  A good bit of Pyrex and this beautiful seashell chime that we immediately hung on the front porch.

It reminds me of the beach and I just love it!

I'm still loving my blue porch ceiling!!

I've been growing these little beauties in pots on the porch.  

Tabbie Hoffman loves to be on the porch with Mama.  And it was a glorious 78 degrees today so Mama loved it, too!