Nature's Surprises, Life in Picctures

Best friends Madchen and Schatzie riding high!

Is it a seal pup or a puppy?

 Madchen's summer address.

The silent pet - all that's left of Buckshot's blanket.

fat mice? 

Beside the MS River, a tree and it's happy.

I see a happy turtle. Aja sees a dragon. JB sees a bathmat - no imagination.

What a runaway drop of tea made on the kitchen table. Is it a what or a who?

A drop of coffee making love.

                                               The town of Alligator, MS.                                                                                      

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series

The Fork's Life

Dedicated to Angela Levkoff whose Grandmother passed recently.

An heirloom
with its own stories
of foods forked

at Grandma's Sunday dinners

Crispy fried chicken

homegrown potatoes mashed and milk gravy
sweetcorn
picked and shucked Sunday morning

 lettuce
wilted with bacon, green onions

and a splash of vinegar

homemade buns

butter and honey

angelfood cake
real cream whipped

sliced, fresh garden strawberries

on top

and the things it heard . . .
the neighbor is in a family-way
markets are going down
so and so's kid stole the boss's tools
will he go to jail

it's job done
washed in hot soapy water
dried with a soft towel
tucked back in her silver chest

Grandma died
the silver chest laid untouched
until a granddaughter
lifted the lid
oohed and aahed
and took possession

the craftsman heated it

 intertwined the prongs
to make two hearts

and bent the handle

to go around her wrist

one more way
Granddaughter
holds Grandma close

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series

Mercury Retrograde - Keep a sense of humor!!!!!!

I've learned to keep a sense of humor when Mercury goes Retrograde. 6/26/13 thru 7/20/13. It's do over time. Annoying but not disastrous. The best advice is Keep a sense of humor! 

July 4th we went camping at a mini-lake with a dock that stretched half-way into the lake and two port-a-potties. Yah! Two fellows said they'd seen the very large three-legged alligator that lives there. We didn't. Thank goodness! However, the generator wouldn't work, which meant we didn't have electricity. The propane tank made more whooshing noise than fire. And short, rusty wires kept the outhouses wired shut!

We had a flat tire on the truck. We aired it and I headed home. About ten miles out I checked and the tire was flat again. I aired it to 35 psi and limped the rest of the way. The next morning the tire was flat with a hole as big as the end of my finger.

After careful editing, I UPS'd a letter. When I got home I discovered I hadn't completed the address. If it comes back, I'll do it over, thanks to Mercury Retrograde.

Yesterday I went out of town to pick up a car  and couldn't get its doors to unlock. One of the shop guys opened it. Okay, I'm good to go. The next time I tried to get in, I had to enter through the passenger door and climb over the console. That wasn't the cool look I wanted driving a flashy, two-door, black and white BMW with multiple buttons and switches, but I was laughing too hard to care. At the gas station I couldn't open either door. Dawn had to pump and pay for me. A hundred miles later I parked it at the owner's home and neither door would open. This car has security issues! Just as I was stretching to go out the window, I spotted a lock button on the console. It's situations like this that make extra laundry.

In spite of careful editing, I suspect there are clerical errors here, too:)

CamilleAlbrecht.com for more on Mercury Retrograde

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series

July 4th Gunshot Celebrations

    image courtesy of nirots/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Clarksdale Press Register article 6/26/13

   "It's something that we've grown accustomed to during the last few years. The 4th of July and New Years being rung in by the sounds of gunshots mixed in with the bottle rockets, Black cats and Roman Candles. The sheriff's deputies and Clarksdale police officers alike will surely be chasing calls in the hundreds as citizens make reports concerning the celebratory sounds they are hearing next week.
   "Not that the geniuses that actually decide it's a good idea to fire weapons into the air are actually reading the newspaper, but hopefully others that can pass on this message, 'GUNSHOTS FIRED INTO THE AIR HAVE TO COME DOWN SOMEWHERE! THEY DON'T JUST DISAPPEAR!'
   "The bullets travel up to a mile into the air (depending on the angle) and fall back to the earth at terminal speed.
   "If we're lucky enough not to be hit by the returning bullets, they can still damage property and cause major repair bills.
   "We celebrate the 4th of July to honor those who had to fire guns in order to protect our freedoms. Don't dishonor them by firing yours needlessly."

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series

Drink Tea and Talk Nice

My friend, Evelyn, and I had a "tea for two" party at her house. I wore my new straw hat with the high crown, 4" sloping brim, and wide black ribbon with a flat bow, a long blue flax skirt and blue linen blouse. I felt "Southern". I don't remember what she wore. It's her complexion that catches my attention. It's to die for: peachy and without a single line.

Welcoming Petunias spilled out of front porch containers sharing their sweet summer fragrance on a hot spring afternoon.

Her cottage is decorated in white, crisp and subtle blues. I could live on her large screened-in porch with its swing and ceiling fan.

We "took" tea in her dining room. She served icy cold lemon and black tea. Refreshing! We shared cucumber sandwiches on savory sesame crackers with a smidge of sour cream and dill weed, and nibbled cold oven almond pound cake. We talked recipes, family and friendship. She brought out her latest commissioned needlepoint project. Over the years several churches have commissioned her to needlepoint kneeling bench pads and other projects. She paints free-hand on wooden eggs for any occasion, too. I celebrate her creativity!

Rose-like double impatience grace her shaded and fenced-in back yard of little paths between the monkey grass. There was "something" growing at every turn. Her green thumb is evident inside and out.

Lace-cap hydrangea centers remind me of elderberries that grew wild in
Nebraska. Grandma and I used to ride through the country side searching the ditches. It was a dusty job collecting them. All our efforts netted a few half-pints of jelly, but our time together was priceless.

Hydrangeas peeked around the corner of her house. So brilliantly colored, who could ignore them? I grew them in NE and saw houses surrounded with hydrangeas on Nantucket. They are voluptuous fresh and dry well.

We had a pleasant afternoon. A tea party represents a slower, kinder time. I'd like to have a cottage by the sea like Evelyn's, where I could drink tea with friends, retreat, read, write and rewrite to my heart's content and take walks on the beach. I'm putting it on my bucket list.

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series