Family

The past week has had a lot of family time. Isabelle and Joseph spent Sat. evening and all day Sunday with us. We made some more pepper jelly and I think we'll have a little more heat in this batch as it sure smelled hot when cooking. I tried to get the kids to pose in various spots of the yard in order to make some "creative" pictures, but I got more silliness and groans of "Mimieeeeeeeee!" than I did creativeness! Happy Birthday to Tamara today. It was on this day-July 23 19??- that I learned what unconditional love is. The instant I saw her I was OVERWHELMED! I don't remember anyone telling me that I was going to love so much. Maybe they did and I just couldn't understand. I loved my next child just as much but it wasn't as overwhelming since I already knew that I would love like that. Last Sun. evening we celebrated Elisabeth's birthday(neice's daug.). She was born 7 yrs. ago on Tamara's b'day. Two beautiful baby girls!

My little girl all grown up with the loves of her life

What's cooking lulu?

Ah ha! Another batch of pepper jelly!

Monkeys!

Isabelle and Joseph

A gaggle of cousins at the birthday party

It's all about water and food

Really there hasn't been any earth shattering events taking place around here, but I guess that's not what this blog is about so will give a brief update. We haven't been to the lake house for 3 wks. as Ken has been so busy with work(like that's something different..people who know him know this is just the way it is!). We have had a few nice rains in the past 3 wks. though not enough to make much of a dent in our drought situation. But the lake we're on-Hartwell-decided that repairs to the dam were necessary and they dropped the lake 9 feet!! Our dock has been moved out again. At this rate we'll have to put on hiking boots just to reach the dock..well not quite, but it is a sad situation. On to a happy note now. I picked the first cheyenne peppers from the garden..consisting of 12 plants. The tomatoes are almost ready to be picked. Yippee! Today my daughter and I took Isabelle and Joseph to see the World of Co. Cola. We had such fun in the tasting pavilion that I forgot to take pictures in it but let me ask, have you ever tasted lychee coke, punky peach zappel or vegita-beta? There were over 60 flavors to sample. Some were good and others, well let's just say they didn't float my boat. It was a fun day trip.

An open space in the middle of high rises

Two little visitors

Some really cool bottles

Hello

Our server was a little stiff!

Boy have times changed

The machine in my H.S. cafeteria looked like the one on the right, but I'll confess to remembering some of the other ones too!

Think pepper jelly

Happy Birthday!

We know that our country celebrated it's 232nd birthday this week-end and I hope you all had some fun and some good eat'in! Also celebrating a big birthday (but not quite as big a number..at least I don't think it was as big) was a certain Tasmanian couple. So here's a birthday shout-out to Kevin and Lyn. I know that you had a wonderful surprise gift in the form of a far flung son. We missed him here with us, but are happy that he got home for a visit. We took Isabelle and Joseph to the first parade they'd ever attended, and even though it was very small townish they were thrilled. The Atlanta paper showed several celebrations from around the city and burbs(didn't think they considered this even in the burbs) and one of the pix was from the parade we took them to..and they were in the picture! We grilled out on Friday night before heading out to the fireworks. Throw in swimming and it made for a big day and some tired people.

Our patriotic boy

I got IN the truck with a man & boy but got OUT with 2 cowboys


Beautiful Tn. Walking horses




Isabelle has gotten interested in crossword puzzles, but after trying the adult form thought it best to stick to kid puzzles!

It RAINED! TWICE!!

Friday evening it poured! And that ozone smelled SO good. :) And on Sunday it rained again. No, it wasn't nearly enough to raise the water level in the lakes, but the plant life just loved it. Our yard is watered by our well, but the rain from above still does a better job. Sunday evening I made lots of pictures while the living green things were still plump with water. On Saturday we went to the wedding of Jamie S. and Tim D. This was a union of a Ga. peach and a Calif. golden boy(nut/raisin?:))I've enjoyed seeing them every Sun. and watching their relationship mature, but now they will be 30. min away. I'm including a few pix from the wedding for viewers who might know them.


The rainbow at 8:45 Sun evening

My maters. Can't wait to bite into one!

Aren't these peppers yummy looking..think pepper jelly!

This arch of trees is down the street from me and I never get tired of looking at it.

My side yard. Yep I live on a hill..see the sun on the tree tops. My new daug.-in-law planted the flowers for me so that means she's a definite keeper!:)

Every yard needs a birch tree. Their bark texture is a beauty.

My front flower bed

Looking up through the trees at the setting sun. Can you tell that the rain did a lot for me too? I'm feel'in GOOD!

4 Week Follow-up on Vineyard

The grapevines are growing in spite of our severe drought. Last yr. a large % of the crop was lost and I am assuming this yr. will be no different. The vineyard is being irrigated with gray water but that's not adequate I guess. In the pictures made 4 wks. ago you can see a "baby skeleton" of the grape clusters. This time the clusters are very defined. If interested in comparing these pictures to 7wks. ago you can see my May 29 post.

June 23

May 29

June 23

May 29

June 23

May 29

From the desk of...

I've been some what of a slacker in blogging so will try to remember the happenings of the past several days. I have been practicing piano more vs. just playing piano so will use that as my excuse for being slack. I'm ashamed to say that I don't have any Father's Day pictures but we all got together for a cook-out. I've also "done lunch" with the kiddos each week since school was out. Factor in a funeral(Olen S.), a doctor visit, a fun thing called mammogram & ultrasound, a birthday dinner for our son and misc. stuff(like cooking, cleaning,etc.) and you have it. Lora hosted the birthday dinner..can hardly comprehend that my "baby" is as old as the number says he is.
I had a stroke of good luck this past week-end. My car air-conditioning compressor went out. That's not the good part as it was SO hot. The good news is that I have a 100,000 mile warranty and my car has 92,000 miles! Whew, that's close.
Last Sunday we were at the lake and I stopped the car on the bridge going over the lake to take a picture. I will post that pix to show how severe our drought is.

The "lake"

Kelley the birthday boy, with Kate the newest family member

Antique(200 yrs?) Chinese cow feeding trough. Kelley and Lora plan to put glass on it and make a kitchen table. How cool!

The three Kathryns

The fight billing Kelley & Joseph:this might have been the knock-out punch

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails vs. Sugar and spice and everything nice. He loves play dough and dirt. She loves Mommy and milk

Can you say Japanese Beetle?

Summer is officially here when the crepe myrtles start to bloom. These plants add great beauty to our landscape but the negative aspect is that Jap. beetles LOVE these plants. If you have the dwarf variety it's not a big deal as you can spray them with insecticide and reapply every time it rains and washes off the insecticide. Well, forget that when your crepe myrtle is 20 feet tall! I've learned to accept the ugly invaders and just wait for them to die after 4-6 wks. I planted this crepe myrtle in the flower pot, pictured below, about 7 yrs. ago and it was only 2 ft. tall. When summer was over I moved it to the flower bed and it has thrived. The tree trunk showing behind the pot is the crepe myrtle.
Yesterday I made pepper jelly....THE favorite item in our extended family. A must at every large dinner. You can find the recipe here. This is a nice "hostess/teacher/new neighbor" gift.

Crepe Myrtle

My summer flower pot

Pepper Jelly