RATS!!

Well.......RATS!!! It seems to be that our squirrels bowing in the attic were really, well, rats. Sigh!

There's a story that goes with this picture....

As part of my Christmas traditions go, taking my god daughters to the Nutcracker is an annual Christmas event. This year was the first year to take Norah, the youngest of the three with us.
Now, you might be wondering, what does a toilet painted like a bunny rabbit have to do with the Nutcracker? Well, okay, the bunny painting just got my attention and quite frankly is a bit disturbing, but made me laugh when I found it, but I digress.
So, after the Nutcracker, it's tradition to take the girls out to eat somewhere. Some years, it's just for a snack and other years, dinner. This was a dinner year and I took them to Macaroni Grill for a big girls dinner. After we had been at the table for a spell, Norah needed to go to the bathroom, so away we went to take care of necessary business. Since she is 3 1/2, I accompanied her in the stall and that is where the "mom" moment occurred. As she finished pottying, I reached for the toilet paper and as she got up, an impish grin came across her face and a sparkle in her eyes lite up as she took her hand and dipped it into the public, peed in, toilet water. As I watched this happen in slow motion, I could hear my mom laughing at me from Heaven as I squealed at her to raise her hands and not touch anything as though she had just put her hands in acid itself. Norah's eyes just continued to sparkle with mischeviousness as she giggled and I reached down to pull up her stockings, making sure her hands touched nothing. In the meantime, in my mind as all of this is happening, I flashed back to a long forgotten memory of my own mother finding me in our bathroom at home waist deep and naked sitting in the toilet, as I thought it would be a great place to take an impromtu bath. I remember much of the same reaction as my own from my mother as she fished me out of the toilet, with me giggling the entire time. Flash back to present, I carefully air-lifted my giggling Norah to the sink where we entailed on a hand washing experience that likened the scrubbing a surgeon would do before an operation and chased that with me passing off to her the bottle of magic soap ( hand sanitizer) when we got back to the table. I found myself both horrified and amused simultaneously at our bathroom adventure and have now filed it away in my "special" moments logs with my sweet Norah.

Squirrels Bowling in my Attic

As the colder weather has moved in for the season, so also have a few fluffy tailed friends moved into our attic....
They seem to be diligent about bringing in dinner almost nightly and yet as we listen to them come back in from out of the cold with food, we have started to wonder if they are just really bored and are having some quality squirrel family time.
As the pattern goes, there is scampering followed by a loud "thud" of a nut and then we hear it rolling down the steep angle of the attic roof.

The first time I heard this, I had a vivid image of Scratch lunging after the lost nut.....



But as it goes in our attic, the dropping and rolling is quite frequent, so bowling it must be. So what I want to know is, does whoever wins the bowling match get all the nuts?

For my Besty

A special cake to honor your recent toe breakage

Smoosh

Hello Vader

ARRRGGHH!

Conversation with my three year old god daughter this morning...

me:"Aunt Erin hurt her back sweetie"
Norah: " I had a bad dream and pirates were poking my back....do you have pirates in your back?"

ARGH Matey...there be pirates in me back!

Oh they make you smile!

A View from the First Officer's chair

Many evenings I will visit the Man Cave and hang out with my honey....I find it oddly amusing that as I sit and chat with my honey, I am being eyeballed by a Billy Bass in a Santa hat.

A Moment

So I was sitting on the back patio contemplating the deep question "what's for dinner?" when I saw a red tailed hawk fly into my backyard and land in the bald cypress tree right in front of me. It was beautiful and amazing and just as fast as he landed, he took off again and was gone. I've never been visited by a red tail in my backyard before...it was neat!

Taste Test

So, it was brought to my attention recently that Tasha resembles Olivia...whatya think?
Either way, cuteness RULES!

KitchenSPLODE!

Soooo, I was really tired last night and decided the kitchen would wait until the morning, but not before I noted to my husband that it looked like a bomb went off. I sleepily stumbled into the kitchen this morning to find comedic evidence of my kitchen bomb. Hope your laugh is as hearty as mine.

Nostalgia in the kitchen

So one of our favorite meals for dinner is breakfast!
I had a craving this week and a pint of blueberries just screaming to jump into some pancake batter. I had promised the hubster I would make a big breakfast spread and that it was!
Blueberry pancakes, homemade biscuits and gravy, fruit salad, bacon and scrambled eggs. YUMMY!
I have always used the same recipe for pancakes as long as I have been cooking and as I took my cookbook out to retrieve the recipe I was hit with a waive of nostalgia. This was my very first cook book that I got for Christmas when I was about 8 or 9 years old.



I remember pouring over the recipes, excited to try each and every one and I think I did. I was always so pleased with myself as a young cook as I would measure and pour and mix and blend.
As an adult, I love to cook and even more, love to feed people. I know this desire was heavily influenced by all the many years I watched mama in the kitchen as she prepared meals for our family just about every night. There may have been chaos in the rest of our lives, but there was always dinner on the table and and for many years, we were all at the table together to enjoy her culinary creations.
I have managed to find many of the most coveted family recipes by both mama and my memaw and cherish them. I love that cooking bring me so much joy!

History Lesson

As I sat out on my back patio this evening, enjoying the lushness of my backyard oasis , my mind wandered to my mother and my grandparents and how they have influenced my love of digging in the dirt. I started to think about all of the treasures that I have and the history they carry and the legacy that they have born in the next generation of an endeared family passion.
I thought I would take you on a stroll into my garden to see where these treasures have been and where they are now. Grab your laptop and head out to the porch swing with an ice cold glass of tea and enjoy a small taste of the history of some well loved gardens.



This is my special
angel. Mom gave it to me the first
year I started gardening. She still takes a very
special place in my gardens today.



While I have yet to find a proper home for my
wagon wheels, they sit patiently waiting for
their contribution to gardening legacy.



Here they are at "WindDreamer", at mama and Daddy's
house in the country.





This sundial is from mama's garden where I grew up...
It was so new a shiny then.


And in my garden many moons later.....



The kettle, as I like to call it, is one sturdy piece. It weathered
the house on the hill in the country(as seen here)
and still looks great today.



Shadier home now in my garden



Now this fella is REALLY old. 45 or 46 years. He was the first
piece that my parents bought together for their first garden.
I will have to go looking for the early shot of this guy.




You can see him from a distance in one of mama's country
gardens. Oh, and the birdhouse was made with the skilled
hands of my papaw. I still have it, although it basically needs
to be rebuilt. I refuse to throw it out. One day I will have the
time to get "her" refurbished and out for the birds.


Mama's bird bath and angel at WindDreamer.


Mama's birdbath was in bad shape and did not make the move,
however, the angel did and keeps my ferns company.




The little girl has been a favorite for as
long as I can remember. She always graced
mama's gardens as shown below at the
house I grew up at.



And now, she graces the top tier of Mama's
Memorial Garden in my yard.


My duck is another favorite and much coveted
garden statue that was mama's. This was taken at
the house I grew up at.



And now gracing the company of my nandina's
that came from my grandparents garden.






The Bunnies were always at the front door to greet you
in the country.



And now peak forth from the rosemary ( for remembrance)



And the roses in mama's memorial garden.


Now, I've caught some slack for keeping this ol
rickety bench in my backyard, but this holds so
much history of love and comforting memories, that
I refuse to let go of it. It has character and has
perservered through harsh weather and puppy teeth.
Oh the stories it could tell of laughter and quiet moments,
amazing sunsets and many nights of star gazing....


It is one of the magical places I go in my mind when
I need to escape that brings me an overwhelming
sense of peace. It does in many ways to me, carry forever
the essence of WindDreamer.


May we never lose sight of the beauty that surrounds us
and the peace it can bring to our souls.

Curiosity

A Paws to remember...

I love to dig in the dirt. Even more, I love to dig in the dirt with a dog by my side. There's just something so very satisfying about it...well, most of the time. There was always a love/hate relationship with my beagle and I regarding tomatoes. We both loved to eat them and I hated when she beat me to the latest batch of ripe ones. Capturing this moment on film is one of my most favorite sets of shots of my tomato-eating cohort.