Fat Lip!!

Wouldn't you know Jerzie got her first fat lip at Grandma's! She toppled over face first! Click to enlarge and you can see two red marks on her upper lip and some blood(!!) on her shirt. She spent a lot of time sleeping today. She went to her cousin's birthday party at the park yesterday and really played hard. I couldn't resist this pic of her sleeping with her doggy.
Well, I finally gave in and mowed my lawn after J. left. It really needed it. I would have had a hard time if I had waited any longer. It'll probably need it again in a couple days. Nothing like a fresh mowed lawn!
I'm planning on expanding the flower bed in the middle this year. The foxgloves have already gone out into the lawn.
My shade garden is in this corner and the day lillies go the length of the lawn on the left.
The garden on the left of the shed is bushes. A hydrangea and an azalea to name a couple. My bird bath goes in there too. The ladder has a clematis growing on it. The spot on the right has iris, fever few and Indian Summer to name a few. I just put the wheel barrow in last fall. It came from our friends camp and has a metal wheel. Sweet peas are going to grow over it.
The maple trees are budding. Isn't the sky beautiful?
I took all these pics from my deck.

Weeds and blooms

It's beautiful here today. Sunny and 60. I've been working at putting my deck together. I got out the hose today and washed it down. Yesterday I scrubbed the rug. I'm changing it from this.. to this. I covered all the cushions and just need to get a few things to finish it off. I'll show you when it's done except for plants, of course. Around here we don't plant much until after Memorial Day.
I walked around the yard and found a few things blooming.
The bleeding heart is beginning.
There are lots of forget-me-nots all over. I let them bloom and then pull them out.
Several of my primroses are blooming besides the white and blue ones I showed you here.

Naturally I saw some of these
and this
and these.
Isn't it nice that all the weeds are in bloom! I really need to mow the lawn but it is still pretty wet. At least that's what I told myself when I decided to work on the deck instead!

Wind Chimes

I've already shown you this wind chime when I showed you out back of my house. It was given to me and it is much more pleasing to look at than to listen to.

When my Grandparents lived in Florida wind chimes made out of pipe were all the rage. I bought this wind chime in Florida about 25 years ago. It's made from real pieces of pipe. You can buy all kinds of pipe chimes now but I love my old rusty ones. I have restrung them many times and they don't look so nice anymore but they have a beautiful tone.They may drive some people nuts, but they are comforting to me. I painted this chime a few years ago.
It is 3 sided with a different picture on each side.
I love how they look but they don't have as nice a sound.
I enjoyed painting the chime so much I even painted some pins with the same design.
I just bought this wind chime at the craft show last weekend. It made me smile and matches all the old kitchen stuff I have in my garden. It has a pretty nice sound and when ever the sun shines again I will put it on a shepherds hook in my garden.
Do you like wind chimes or are you one of those people who would hate to be my neighbor?

The Clan

This is a picture of my Grandfather's family reunion in June of 1925. Thankfully someone in the family listed every name, married and maiden, on an extra sheet of paper. There are several people I've never heard of but I do recognize my Grandpa's 3 brothers and their wives. My Grandpa is the third from the right in the back row. He is holding my Mom and my Grandma is on the left. Mom's older brother is the forth from the left in the front row. He's wearing a sailor type shirt. Her younger brother wasn't born for a few more years.

The tiny woman sitting in the middle in the second row is Grandpa's Grandmother Julania. She is the person that made the quilt in this post. The older man behind her is her son Herbert, my Grandpa's father.
Family history is the Great Grandpa S. was still working in the woods in his 80's. He was told by the Dr that he had the body of a 50 year old. They say he would eat anything that "would go down his shirt collar" He ate the rind from cheese and ham and salted everything. He loved peppermint patties and would eat a whole bag if they didn't watch him. He broke his hip at 96 and just gave up. He never got over my Father dying at such a young age. He said it should have been him. I remember him a little. He loved to hold my baby cousins. He would sit for hours holding them out in front of him and rocking them up and down.

I know that I am very fortunate to have such strong family roots.

Aunt Elsie and Uncle Gurd

Aunt Elsie was one of my Dad's sisters. She and Uncle Gurd lived on a dairy farm on a mountain in Pennsylvania. My brother and I would stay with them once in awhile when we were young. They had 3 daughters and like the other cousins they were all older than us. Our parents were married 7 years before they had my brother and my Dad was the baby of the family.
This picture is of John and I with 6 of our cousins.

We loved to go to the farm. They had a big old farm house with lots of rooms and there was always something to do. One thing that really fascinated us was their telephone. As I said the farm was on a mountain. There were 2 other families with farms up there. Because all three families would not agree to get a phone, the phone company would not put phone lines up the mountain. The families didn't think they all needed a phone as long as someone had one! These 3 families communicated with each other with the old crank phone system. This was in the late 1950's and early 1960's when everyone had a telephone. They had no way to call anyone off the mountain.

Another thing we loved was riding in the milk truck. The milk was put into milk cans and loaded unto an old pick up type truck and driven down the mountain. Everything had to be done on time because the school bus wouldn't pick up the kids. Every morning during school, the girls would meet the bus at the bottom of the mountain in the milk truck.

As we got older we didn't see much of Uncle Gurd and Aunt Elsie and eventually they could no longer farm. We went to a party at there house for their 50th wedding anniversary several years ago. My uncle had become quite a collector. He had actually built an extra room around 3 sides of the old farm house to hold his collections. He had little collections of all kinds of things from farm tools to, well, bowling alleys! My other uncle, Uncle Elmer, told me that one time when they were visiting he was telling Uncle Gurd that my Aunt Sig wanted a butcher block island for the kitchen. Uncle Elmer said he wasn't sure what to make it out of and Uncle Gurd said he might have an idea. He took Uncle Elmer out to the barn and showed him an entire bowling lane! Aunt Sig ended up with a beautiful butcher block island made from a section of a bowling lane.

The picture on the top is Aunt Elsie and Uncle Gurd on their 50th. They are in the last addition that was built. Aunt Elsie died shortly after that but Uncle Gurd is still living. Although I haven's seen him in 10 years I will certainly never forget the time I spent with them as a child.

Typical spring.

It's a typical spring day here today. It's been raining all day. Just a nice steady rain. As I look out the back window I'm amazed at how much everything has grown with all the sunshine we've had. The grass is a beautiful bright green and some of the perennials are up 6 to 8 inches. They will grow even faster after the rain. Once it dries I'm sure I'll have to start mowing the lawn.I realized this morning that I hadn't hung my spring wreath yet. Of course, my daughter made this for me.
Can you see the door knocker under the wreath? I found it in a little shop last year when my girl friend and I went to lunch for my birthday. I had to have it!
I'm anxious to get my deck set up and have been checking it out every day so this doesn't happen again! have a great day!

Another Jerzie Day

I had Jerzie today because of going to Erie yesterday. I don't normally leave home when I have her but I had some errands I had to do. She was an absolute angel! We went to Walmart and Aunt Laurie showed her off to some of her coworkers. Then to the bank, beauty supply store and to pick up my new glasses. She was happy and smiled at everyone. I bought this at the craft show Buffalo. You bought the shelf and the letters separately and you could add any extras from a huge selection. The shelf has a groove that the letters fit into. I know I won't be able to find things with her name so I had to have this! Her room is the original Poo so it's done in pastels. Her Daddy and I sponged on some bees and butterflies so the flowers, butterfly and dragon fly were perfect. They sparkle too and every little girl likes a little "bling"!
Doesn't she look cute in her new jogging suit I bought yesterday? I love the color.

Shopping marathon!

Laurie had to go to the Dr in Erie today so of course I had to go with her. I needed to keep her entertained so she wouldn't think about the dreaded "annual exam" all the way there! Luckily there is a plaza close to the Dr's so I could get started shopping. We left home at 8:15 and this is what the car looked like when we got home around 7:00.
These are only the stores I bought stuff in!
I am so excited about this! I have a wicker couch on my deck and I wanted to change the look but can't afford to have new cushion covers made. I found this wonderful upholstery fabric at Value City for $9.99 for three yards. I'm not sure how I'll make it work but I'll figure something out. The black iron thing in the front is a hose guard so the hose doesn't run over the plants. I told Laurie to remind me that I didn't need any more gardening things and you can see how well she did at that!
Jerzie's Mom said she needed some long sleeve tops but we couldn't find too many. Mom loved the tan bib shorts I got last year so I had to find her another pair. Every little girl with a rottweiler needs a dog bone onsie(top right), don't you think? A girl can never have too many shoes!
I even got myself a new spring purse and tee shirt. I'm always on the look out for pj's since I'm so fussy about them. When I find what I like I have to buy them.

All and all we had a very fun and productive day and we didn't pay full price for anything we bought. Now I need to go put my feet up. Jerzie comes tomorrow.

Prom dress

I wasn't sure if I was going to do this or not but what the heck! Beemoosie is having a drawing for anyone who will show their prom picture. When I was going thru my pictures this winter I threw out my prom pictures. Some friends of mine were getting married the day after graduation and I was in the wedding. The groom was in the Navy but he got a leave for prom. A friend that was to be in the wedding came home with him and he was my date. The year was 1967!

My ex and I decided to get married in September of 1968. We didn't have any money so we had a very small wedding. My aunt cut off my prom dress and made me a veil. My girl friend had a dress of hers cut off too. Another aunt made the wedding cake and snap shots were taken. Some different than todays weddings!

The best man did own a cool car though, a candy apple red 57 Chevy!
Does this count, Beemoosie?

Church pew

It's another beautiful spring day! Sunny and almost 70. I could get used to this!
I've had this church pew on my deck for several years and decided I was tired of it there.
This park bench outside my beauty shop door is really rotting so I decided to bring the pew down here. I didn't realize just how heavy it was but once I make up my mind to do something there is no stopping me!
I really like it down here and gives me a lot more room on the deck. Notice I also put away the snow shovel that was in the last pic!
The daffodils are blooming and everything is getting green! Look at that blue sky!

Hospital visit.

On Wednesday my daughter-in-law called to tell me she and Jerzie were in the emergency room. Daddy was still at work and had a dentist appointment right after. Jerzie hadn't felt well for a couple days and her sitter finally had to call Mommy at work because all J. did was cry. I made a bottle because it was dinner time for little J.and went over to the hospital. This is what I found! Can you believe that hospital gown they had on her? After taking her temp, checking her ears and doing a throat culture they said she needed some blood tests. They gave her this popsicle while we waited. I'm feeding it to her and her Mommy took this picture with her phone. It was aweful watching them take 3+ vials of blood from her little arm. Boy was she mad! Three of us held her down and 2 took the blood. They also had to get some urine. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious. She has a double ear infection and a slight upper respitory infection. She's feeling much better now. I can't imagine some of the things parents have to go thru with really sick kids, just this little trip was enough for me!

Spring is back!

Well, it's looking like spring here again! Sunny and 55 right now. These is the tiny daffodils I showed you here. They had almost 2 feet of snow on them last week. I was sure they would be gone when the snow melted.This hyacinth didn't do so well. Two of the blooms are bent over but the smell is still heavenly.
I don't know where these white violets came from but there are a lot of them!
This poor turtle has been out all winter. I'll bet the sun feels good to him!
If you would enjoy planting a spring garden just click on the link, http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Click your mouse on the black area and move it around.