Filed under: Nature
My lovely neighbor, Mrs. M., will celebrate 83 years of life this month. She is a wonderful person who loves flowers and gardening as much as I do. She bemoans the fact that she can’t work outside as much as she could in her younger years, but she still maintains some beautiful flower beds. My birthday is also this month. I tease Mrs. M. relentlessly about only being 14 days older than me. She loves it. We get together to celebrate our birthdays every year and we always exchange gifts.
My tiger lilies are exceptionally beautiful this year; at least I think they are. I took a gazillion pictures today and the shots below are my favorites of the tiger lilies. I want to have one or some of these pictures matted and framed for my gift to Mrs. M. My problem is, I can’t make up my mind. This is where you come in. Which shot or shots do you like best? I was thinking I’d have three 4×6 pictures matted in one frame. But I can’t decide if that would be best. Maybe I should stick with one 8×10 or maybe three 5×7’s in separate frames. Again, what do you think? I really will appreciate your opinions! I inserted my mom’s comments to get you started.
Too much sky, not enough flower although I like how you captured the sun shining through the petals. It’s a little too dark.
The petal details are nice, but you cut off the stamens. I can see your propane tank in the background.
Hmmmmm…..I like this one alot.
This is nice. It looks like the petals are on fire. I like the buds in the background.
This one is real good.
I like this one, but I like the single flowers better.
This is one of the busiest weekends of the summer. The school I attended from first through twelfth grades (we didn’t have kindergarten or pre-school in the school district back then) holds its reunion every other year on the last weekend in June. At each reunion, two classes are ‘officially’ recognized as part of the celebration. My class, the Class of 1976, was honored along with the seniors of 1977 this year. The school auditorium is open all day on Saturday. The reunion committee has an archives room that people can explore and many folks bring memorabilia to share with those who attend. In the late afternoon, there is a program during which the former students, teachers and administrators who have passed away since the previous reunion are honored. The program is followed by a catered dinner. The reunion is a huge deal. Our school district was very small (my class was a large one with 21 graduates if that tells you anything). People of all ages come from all over the place to the reunion. We had around 300 people in attendance for the program and meal. The oldest graduate attending was a member of the Class of 1932 and the person who traveled the farthest to attend came from San Francisco.
Many people get together with just their classes Friday evening before the actual reunion. My brother and I grilled steaks for our parents’ classes Friday night. (We’ll do just about anything for a free meal.)
My family has a reunion on Sunday and I was drafted to supply all the desserts for that event. So, in between grilling steaks and spending most of today in the auditorium visiting with people, I’ve been baking cakes.
Finally, I have arrived at the Fun Monday part of my post. Lisa of Lisa’s Chaos wants us to talk about our quirks. I’ll be honest with you. I looked up obsessive-compulsive behavior before I began my post because I kept thinking my quirks sounded a little OCD. Regardless, here they are:
1. I simply have to wear earrings. I wear them when I’m mowing, gardening, hauling hay, or just sitting around doing nothing. On the very rare occasion that I forget to adorn my ears, I keep rubbing my ear lobes until they are red. I’ve actually begun keeping a pair of earrings in my purse because the last time I was running late for school and forgot to put earrings on, my students commented throughout the day about my red ears.
2. I love pillows. I have fifteen pillows on my bed. I sleep with six of the pillows and the other nine are decorative. I have a pillow ritual. One of the sleeping pillows is for Jasper who sleeps at my side. Then I have two stacks of two pillows each and I center the fifth pillow on those stacks for me. The nine decorative pillows are put on the bed and taken off the bed in a specific order. (This sounds so bizarre it makes me cringe, but it’s the truth!)
3. I cannot stand when someone erases everything off a blackboard or whiteboard except for one little spot. This was a real problem when I was in college. When a professor left a little swirl of a letter or part of a number on the board, I could not effectively concentrate on the lecture. I would obsess about that little doodle remaining on the board. Many times I got up and erased the offending mark myself. If I was in a large lecture hall with hundreds of other students, I was too embarrassed to erase the board so I squirmed and wiggled and usually ended up having to get the lecture notes from a fellow student. As an adult, the mark left on the board still irritates me, but my ability to focus on the subject matter is much better.
Ok, I’ve totally revealed myself as a complete weirdo which is really making me squirm in my desk chair, but I’m wearing earrings, my board is completely erased and all my pillows are in order so I guess I’ll survive. Check out more quirks at Lisa’s.
Filed under: Life in the South
The mimosa tree in my back yard is in full flower. I can smell the sweet blossoms the minute I step out my door. The scent is intoxicating in the warm night air as I sit on my porch and watch the fireflies work their magic.
My mom just had a new deck built and the man who did the job brought her some fresh produce from his garden. He brought her so much that she shared it with me so earlier this evening I cooked a good southern supper for Mom.
My favorite way to cook fresh squash is to sautee it with sweet Vidalia onions in butter. Yummy! We also had black-eyed peas, pork chops and cornbread.
And, of course, we had to have some salted, sliced cucumbers. The only thing that would have made the meal better is sliced tomatoes from the garden. We’ll have to wait a little longer for those.
