Im still here, I think, are you?

I'm still here, I think, are you?

It's been quite a while since I posted last and I am remiss. After the death of my daughter Leah, in July of 2016, then my Uncle Travis, then my daughters father and ex Doug, I've been readjusting, mourning, readjusting some more. Yes there are certainly 5 stages of grief, not necessarily in an order, and often repeated. I am strong. I am most comfortable in the anger stage, but that is not good for me so I am methodically doing self care.

Routine helps. Busy helps. Learning helps. Helping Leah's young sons, and brother helps. Caring for my husband (who was 80 in July) helps. We both need a keeper. We have each other.


My daughter was kind and loving and special. She was 42. There is a special place in hell for every irresponsible Dr. treating pain, the major drug manufacturers who's claim of non addiction was a lie, the justice system, and every drug dealer. They can't get there fast enough to suit me. But she is free, with no pain, no MS, though we miss her dreadfully.

One of my favorites taken in 2008


Somewhere out there is a link to this site. But my basic domain has no website and I really don't understand all this stuff. I'm going to try and link all this to my facebook for now. It's what I can handle.

Meet Lucy!

Meet Lucy, our new family member! Rescued from the pound, this beautiful 2.7 yr old mixed breed is the perfect little lady. Apparently already housebroken, fixed, and knows basic commands, we feel blessed and loved. She is interested in all that goes on, and participates however she can. The cats have adjusted nicely to her accepting temprament. Its going to be a fun spring!

Fall Holiday Art, Craft and Bake Sale!

   It is Fall! It is time for all the wonderful things that go with it, Fairs, Festivals, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Fun Family Times. A perfect time to gather a few artist friends and have an event to mark the opening of my little back porch studio!
  Five days before the event, I can't sleep and am asking myself "are you nuts?"
Just got back into town from helping a friend in Michigan, but I can do this...it is a one day, in the yard, in the studio from 9-5.
   Along with my work, Grandson Andrew will have his forged metal jewelry and beautiful welded metal Gothic Garden Arches.
   Maryann Greer will have her primitive sewn decorator pieces for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Cindy Keaton will have her handmade soaps in a variety of scents, as well as decorator items., Sheila Mowrey will have machine washable knitted shawls for fall in beautiful patterns to add just a touch to keep you warm. Then the girls are all baking, and can they bake!
A few pics...

Change is inevitable and some changes are good. My husband is retiring. We lived in a parsonage. Where do we want to live? Our parents are gone, our children grown, his grandchildren grown, my grandchildren both grown and young and here in Indiana. We like our small town. We have been here for 15 years. We have ties here- so the search for a house began. I got on line and realized the house I loved most of all in Middletown was still on the market and had been reduced in price. Well that search took about 15 minutes... We bought it. We love it. It is a perfect place for us, our creativity, our family. I call it Spruce Lawn, or the Doll house. 
   Moving has been stressful and painful. It started pre-move with a fall and a broken leg- then here came the shingles....(stress related?) but I am getting better, and the grandkids visit each weekend. Andy the oldest at 23 finished welding school and is looking for a job. He still runs as an EMT. We could not have done the move with out him. or without our dear friends.. Fifteen years worth of stuff is alot of stuff. We are still purging as we unpack- but here is where it is being assimilated..

It was built in 1882, the outside is carved poplar I guess to look like block, the outside is all original. The lot is beautiful with Mature spruce trees and border bushes for wildlife habitat. There is supposedly a cement pond from vVctorian times in the back that was filled in in the early 1950's. I hope to "find" it's remains this summer and resurrect it if possible- mor later....

Renewal, Redirect, Refocus

What is a Vacation?

A place not like home

Something that Challenges you

and gives you a different perspective....

Appreciation of Nature' Magnificence

My husband is retiring, our life is changing, it is time to be creative in a whole new way. I pray it is freeing, for us both. That what we have put aside of necessity, might be picked up and savored. I hope to paint, write, read, travel and explore. We shall see.

Granny, The Seed Catalogs Are Here

My Granny loved to garden. In her unflattering but practical outfit for hot Tennessee weather, her pride did not forbid a smile and a photo taken. Granny would be amazed at the changes time has wrought: that we pay for water, or air for that matter to inflate our tires, that a great majority of her old standby seed companies are owned by a big mega company. She and her husband -my Daddy Ben gardened of necessity, and to share. They and their neighbors, even when they moved to town all had gardens and shared both produce and seeds. Varieties were fewer. They never dreamed the supply of seeds of their favorites would be altered or end. Visiting, I would often see packets of saved seed in envelopes wrapped with string and crammed in fruit jars, her spidery scrawl or my grandfather's precise printing. I wasn't there when her house was cleaned out, nor was it a time of desperate awareness of the value of old seeds. She didn't garden as much as had in her earlier years and my grandfather had been long gone- the muscle and ingenuity behind their large garden. I believe we may have missed a lot in not collecting samples of the saved varieties. Sometimes that next generation, nation -wide prided itself in being modern, making money and Not Having To Garden.
My grandchildren spend time with me in the garden- my legacy against any future hunger they might have when I am no longer around. I save seed, I collect seed. I am a fervent and frequent customer of  Heirloom seed companies. I like to share. Its all about the love you see, of the earth and of one another. It is the opposite of corporate philosophy. Granny you would be amazed at the heirloom seed offerings. You would love the catalogs, the commitment of these businesses. I know you would not have been a high volume customer for you would save seed yourself knowing the importance. I will try and do right by this as best I can.

Take The Children Outside

Take the Children Outside

Take the children outside
It is their great salvation
for corporations don't care for them
government uses them
many, lie to them
but the creator never lies
the lessons are honest, obvious
it is their real home
it is where they came from and where they will return to
the earth teaches her own
no agenda but honesty
no agenda but love

The Parsonage Garden....is

.....an evolving healing place where lessons from plants come most every day. This is Bee Balm. The bee's love it. They never bother you when it is in bloom because they are so happy that it is there. From the mint family it is also called oswego tea. I know you can make a mild tea of the leaves, but I havent yet. I am studying each plant a little at a time both for culinary and medicinal use. Im not there yet- but it is blooming now and I thought I would share it's picture. I have 2 colors of cultivated, and one of wild- this is a cultivated kind- such a pretty pink. It is about 3 to 3 1/2 feet tall. The wild is about 5' tall. The Hummingbirds seem to prefer the wild. I am fighting the drought to keep my garden alive. I had an interesting encounter with a wasp the other day. He landed on my forearm, and tiltel his little triangle head to peer at me. He raised his 2 front legs and did some sort of sign language-looking straight at me- "thank you for watering", he seemed to say. Then off he flew, he looked like a little alien.... 

Re-Inventing Yourself To Serve

Once upon a time I got complacent. Tooling along like I had always done, blaming getting old for hum-drum lack of energy, brain mush, slowing down... Then I met Flo, while home-schooling my grandson, Andy. When Andy graduated she called... "There's an EMT class opening up, do you think Andy might be interested?" Hmmmmm. We went. He registered, I "audited". Then I met Lynn

Lynn with son and grandson

"You goof," she said, "If you are really interested, you can do this too." I was, but wasent I too old? Well sorta- but Andy and I really got into it. Six and a half months of tough training. A book 3" thick, tests, practicals, more tests, finals, state exams.....but I was changing, and so was Andy.
Andy was maturing, and he was handling the incredible realities of the tragic, ill and accidental world for the first time, and maybe save a life with youth, skill and brains. Me? As a minister's wife, I was getting to MAYBE, slow a funeral, save a life, with patience, skill, and experience.
So we did it! With the help of many new friends and old friends. We have learned about Emergency services families. Nation wide volunteers, through out our great land give of their time and energy for their neighbors and their communities. We are honored to be with

Andy

Me- Dont I look better ? My brain is no longer mush, my creative energy is soaring, and my Art work will benefit.

Try on a new day-

Plant Cuttings and Pretty Rocks

Three generations of Women, Grandmother Goodwin, Myself, and daughter Leah. What traits have been shared? Gardening and growing-collecting natural things. Grandmamma started any cutting she wanted in rich dirt, under a fruit jar in dappled shade. By example she taught you don't have to have a lot of money to have an extensive plant collection- you just have to have good friends, share, go different places, and keep a knife in your purse. If you dont have a knife in your purse, you are not related. No matter how busy she was, she always took time to notice pretty things. She had a vast collection of pretty rocks from various fishing day trips, saved and arranged in her flower beds. I do too. Leah's boys collect pretty rocks, my sister does, neices , nephews, and cousins do too. The simple things, that do not clutter when we are gone, but enhance where we have been. Treasures of old home sites, echoes of a common sense of unusual, beautiful, just plain wierd- "that rock looks like a bird's egg, that one a "foot". They are in our cars and trucks first, till we clean them out and place them just so....The special ones move when we do, but we leave a trail, a non-polluting trail, but a trail none the less, to confound geologists? archeologists? No, "Pretty" is pretty much "pretty" to all. Take time for "pretty"

Comfort

Comfort and Joy can be found in fleeting moments and reflected in those around you. It allows time for the observant, to take a deep breath, suck in that satisfaction, and give your whole being a lift. Eleanor "Roosevelt", normally the most active and stubborn of the cats seems to know when to give- so here is her gift

Prairie Coneflower

I bought this plant 3 years ago at the Friends of Mounds State Park Native Plant Sale. Needing plants for my back yard habitat, I figured it was just the thing, but I forgot where I planted it, and Scout dog loves to pull up plant markers... Hind site, last year I pulled it up cause at 3' tall nothing happened and it looked like a weed. This year, out of curiosity I let the "weed" grow to see how it would bloom. At 6 to 7' tall and 5' across, this is what she did ! Go Girl ! Plant Natives ! What Natives (volunteers) have you planted or have gifted you?

SUMMER SIZZLES

I can't do much to change the weather, and I knew it would come blasting in but WOW !
So hats of to pre-steamed veggies, straight from the garden, little kids and pools, and life going on no matter what. May you all stay safe and cool, and watch out for road hazards like this guy

Snow Gives Way

Can it win? After we are amazed and awed, the novelty fading. We must get OUT. What for? Not sure, what is tomorrow's forecast?

Are you kidding me?

But i just had this figured out....

Christmas Play

Remember the Christmas pagents when you were a child? Ever been in one? I was in one, in kindergarten. I had to be a shepherd. That wasen't bad but the fabric for the costume looked ugly to me. grey and black striped wool sort of stuff.

That is what shepherds wear, I was told. OK. So what do I say? You dont say anything you just point your shepherd's crook at the star. What star? That tinsel thing? Like This? NO Higher! Higher! WHAM! Hit the stage with a resounding thud! All the other shepherds jumped. We trotted off. I don't remember the baby part.

Flowing Stream on The Blue Ridge Parkway

We drove up on the parkway the day after my mother-in-laws funeral, in the rain. To get perspective, to honor 95 years of a giving, loving woman. This stream reminded me of the seasons. the passing of time, the end of one era, the promise of another.

VOLUNTEER PUMPKINS

I love volunteers. They are the masters of surprise. Last winter I catapulted the 2 rotten halloween pumpkins to the end of the compost bin. The birds enjoyed the seed feast as intended, but they must have missed some...accidentally or on purpose, it was a good thing. There were 4 as a result, 2 little ones and 2 big ones. It was fun watching them turn from green to orange. It was wild how the vines grew so fast ! Sometimes over a foot a day. We had to keep the vines trimmed as they tried to come in the back door. We named her "Audrey" from little shop of horrors. "Has anyone watered Audrey today?" was the call when the weather got so dry in August. They will be returned to their favorite spot late Nov !

Got Plums ?

Our two plum trees were stressed. Ant wounds on the trunk that ran deep and oozy led to their assumption of a last hurrah. They bloomed and produced with abandon. Many branches died, others filled to breaking with fruit. I mixed up a cocktail of dish soap and canola oil and liberally sprayed on the trunk. Do not despair I whispered, just hang on and if this doesnt work I will get a professional. Come Feb. is a major prune, more spray, and prayers. In the meantime I am making jam, have copied reciepts for cobbler, pie, pudding, stewed, and canned. Why is goodbye so hard ?

Holiday Snow Beginning at our house

Peace