More on the road....

Click to enlarge please!

I took the above mushroom photo at the beginning of my Thursday drive. I have looked at it, but not enlarged it very much till tonight. When I did, I noticed the drops of dew on the bottom of the mushroom. And those petals on top are from locust blossoms.
This barn was on the way home...it and the barn down below are okay. They don't capture the movement of the grass as I tried to. But I thought I would show them anyway. I think you can almost catch the movement. It is just something I wish I could capture...till you could almost feel the wind by looking at the photo.
And not far from that first barn, I came across another field of gold...and I must say it is the goldest field I have seen thus far! This is a pretty good capture of what I saw...it was just such intense color. And so much of it that I had to share it, even though I have done posted some, and seen them on other blogs.

Another of my favorite songs....

I have tried to find this version of this song for years...when I worked at the orchard I made myself tapes--tapes of all types of music. And over the years I worked there, I wouldn't even want to guess how many times I listened to this song. And the copy I had, I taped off a radio show years ago. Just listen to the words...they sure paint a pretty picture!

More locusts photos....

Last weekend when we went for our drive, the drive where I got the photos of Miami mist, spiderwort, etc, we came across this barn.
We went on down the lane and I got this side view of it....
then came to this locust right beside the road. I am not sure what kind of locust it is--it only had buds and no open blooms at the time I took this. I think it is a honey locust, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I know my mom and dad always said locusts made good fence posts. What I don't know is if that applies to all types of locusts.
Just thought I would show you the thorns that were growing on it. I don't think I would want to grab hold of these by accident. I think it would be quite painful.

As usual, click to enlarge!

Sky Watch Friday

Click to enlarge!

This is from the archives--a while back I posted a photo that was taken just seconds apart from this one and there is a world of difference in the two. This one is one of those flukes that come off my camera every so often for no apparent reason. Only this one is nice. It is a little bit on the dark side but when I try to lighten it up, it really looks unreal. So I left it as is.

For more sky watch photos go sign up at Wigger's World....

The year of the locusts

This year has been the year of the locusts around here...not the insect but the tree. I have never seen so many locusts in bloom as this year. I could not narrow my choices down any more than this...and I am apt to have some another day. Every where you look, there are locusts in bloom. I hope you enjoy them. And please enlarge the photos--they are well worth it. Also, the ones with the real blue sky are not from photo software, but were not quite that way in real life. Almost, but not quite. I think it is from my polarizer, but I have never had it work this good....or maybe it was just a fluke of my camera in the good direction rather than how every now and then a picture or two will turn out totally wrong...today I had a couple that the color was totally washed out--no way to save them even with software. And there was no reason for them to be that way.
Please click to enlarge and get the full effect!

More from the roadside

Click to enlarge--they really are nice when opened up big.

Other than that I am not going to say a word...other than it was my husband's suggestion to take a picture of the clover.

Time gone by

These photos were taken long before I even thought about a camera, and at least the top two maybe before I was born. But I am not sure about that. The top is our horse, Old Bob, and that is our dad. Neal nor I know who is on the horse...not any of us kids. And if you look close you see a little girl standing behind Bob. I have no idea who that is either. Bob looks like he is either getting ready to go to work, or coming in from working...notice the collar, etc.

I did not think I had a picture of Bob, but my nephew reminded me of this one. And I had it...but I did not have the one I wanted and of all the photos I took once I got a camera, I cannot find one picture with him in it.

The photos below are taken looking down the hollow from our old home place....all the fields you see plowed up were probably all the work of Bob...as Neal mentioned in his blog, Bob probably kept us from starving. And though these fields don't look very big, it is still a lot of work for one old work horse.
I am sure my brothers could tell you much more about it than me. Each year the ground would be turned over with a plow, which a friend did that had a team of horses, followed by Bob pulling the disc harrow, and maybe pulling a drag over it after that. I barely remember the drag...I don't even have a clear picture in my mind. So I hope Neal or George will pipe in here and explain it. I guess you would call it an implement to pull over the ground to level it out more and maybe to help get rid of the bigger clods of dirt....

I know this picture I am painting is about as clear as mud, but still maybe you will feel some of the same feelings I have when I look at these old photos. It is a time gone by that will never be again. And especially for us that know this place, it does not even look like the same place today. It seemed so big back then, and now when we go up there, we wonder how they raised all the food that they did there.

Plus there was tobacco to raise and field corn for the animals, and probably corn to raise to for cornmeal. I don't know if we raised hogs when we lived up there, but I think we did. When we moved to the new house...we raised and butchered 4 hogs every year...or at least most years. But I will save talking about that for another day.

It is later....I wrote the above this morn and I have just got off the phone with my brother. We were reminiscing. He reminded me a bit back about how Old Bob did not like to be spit on...I don't know if anyone ever actually did. But he got mad if you just made the sound like you were spitting. You ask how do you know he got mad? Make no mistake--he had body language. His ears went back and you could tell as plain as day. I can remember seeing him get mad at someone, but don't remember who or what for. The funny thing about it, I told Neal I never had him get mad at me...I think he would have bit someone had he thought he could get by with it when he was mad. But I tended to spoil him what little I could. He was done getting age on him by the time I got very old. I can remember riding on him a few times when I was very little to get from the old place to our new house and I can remember my older brother plowing the garden a time or two with him...but basically I remember him being retired for the most part since I was old enough to start remembering much.

Roadside beauties....

We went for a drive this morn--I had the intentions of getting another picture that did not work out. Hopefully I can work on that another day. But I managed to capture these beauties. I do not know the name of any of them right now. I don't ever remember seeing the flowers in the top photo...

The red flower below I have seen before and I think I knew the name at one time but for the life of me I cannot remember it now. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at images on google, but so far no luck.

And I don't know the name of either of these. Does anyone else? I know I will spend more time searching but if you have a name, I would not mind hearing it.

Black cherry???

Not sure what this blooming tree is, but by the leaves and the bark I thought wild cherry or black cherry. I took these over in Edgar County, Illinois at this little graveyard....if the graveyard had a name I did not see it.

Fields of gold....

Click any photo to enlarge

I took these pictures May 20--just a few days ago. Then while trying to visit all the blogs that participated in Skywatch Friday, I came across the post at Nature Remains. Look at those photos and then look at these and see if you think it kind of funny. Great Minds Do think alike!

It is kind of hard to believe but this corn will probably be to or well past 'knee-high by the Fourth of July.'

For Sky Watch Friday

As usual, to join in the fun, or just to visit people that have joined, see Tom at Welcome to Wigger's World.

I messed around again the other night trying to get moon shots...next time I am going to try to think and remove my filters. Hopefully that will eliminate the double images. I did have my camera on a tripod, and used a cable release for the shutter. If anyone wants to know the specific settings on these ask and I will try to get back to you relatively soon. On some I made the moon out of focus to make it appear bigger, but you still see the real moon in the reflection.

About me

Click to enlarge.

I am Rose, or Rosemary, depending on who you are talking to,
the daughter of Sarah and Ellison,
youngest of eight children that survived to adulthood,
of those eight I am one of the two that was born in a hospital,
and probably the only one that does not actually remember living without electricity.

I lived in the shadows of the East Tennessee mountains
till adulthood
Claimed by them as if a part of the evening shadows that filled our yard so quickly come evening,
Filling me with their peace
till no place else can ever totally claim me.

I feel as if I were a part of the very earth from that place that will forever be home.

I grew up knowing how to sew on treadle a sewing machine
and do the wash with a wringer washer,
and sit by the fire and dream.
Helping to raise about all the food that we ate,
Planting, hoeing, picking, cooking, eating, canning, freezing
Making sure every jar on the place was full and the freezer so full it was almost hard to close.

I ate mustard greens and cornbread, and still do to this day
And ate fried taters and soup beans and considered them as fine a meal as could be had
Grew up watching my mom make biscuits from scratch,
never measuring a thing
She made pies and dumplings and cornbread the same way.
Oh, what I wouldn't give for some of those biscuits or the chicken and dumplings...
the cornbread I actually make myself--the same way--never measure a thing.

For entertainment there were swings in the tree,
Barns to play in with hay in the loft
Creeks to wade, a pond to swim in, fish to catch
Calves to play with
a horse to pet, dogs to hug,
And each other
We had hide-n-go seek on summer eves after dark,
Sitting on the porch and talking,
Listening to the whippoorwills
While planning the work for the next day.

And there was ball--baseball, basket ball, football, and wiffle balls. I must have drove my brothers nuts,
But with four of us, we could always play something
We didn't own a baseball bat,
but would find a stick or short board and whittle a handle,
That served the purpose just fine.

The three siblings that were close to me in age were my brothers George, Neal and Robert
So some of what I like about myself is due to them
I am not a woman that is afraid of her shadow
I can use an axe or gun or rifle as easily as my sewing machines
I come from a home that had guns and hunting
and that was just a part of life.
We were taught to be responsible from a very young age...

We didn't get fireworks on the fourth of July--too afraid of starting a fire
Our time for firecrackers was Christmas--at night
We always hoped for snow, but it didn't matter
Just build a fire and
have a brick of firecrackers and a few M-80s to made a big bang
Specially when you collected the firecrackers that didn't go off the next day
Unroll them and collect all the powder, get a piece of fuse, bore a hole in a piece of wood, poor in the powder, place the fuse, and make or find something to make a plug
and Presto, you have an even bigger bang

And we survived it all!

So Good To Be Home

This is the chimney at our old home place...

And the song playing is and probably always will be my favorite song of all time...it so captures the strong emotions I have when thinking about Tennessee. I have always been a person to play a song to death, over and over, but usually it is replaced from time to time, with a new favorite. But I never stop loving those favorites...just a new one will take centerstage for a while. However, I don't know if any will ever replace this. I will leave it on for a bit, and hope that someone else will like it just a little bit.


One of my childhood friends, Debbie, that now lives in Pennsylvania liked another song by The Everybodyfields and had me listen to it...well, I got to listening to their other stuff and I will forever thank her because through her I found this song. Their My Space page has a different version than the one heard here...I definitely prefer this one. You can get this version from Emusic.

Anyway, listen to the song and read the words--

SO GOOD TO BE HOME by The Everybodyfields

I was sick about the time we hit Virginia,
I had tombstones down both sides of my face.
Driving all night home from Boston,
I was so tired of being away.
Thinking about summer time and heat waves
And a town, it hardly ever snows,
Hitting apples with a baseball bat in August,
That's where I want to go...
So good to be home.

Well sidewalks down here, they go forever
and they always seem to meet you with a smile.
If they don't park the cars out where they shouldn't [??]
I believe you can see clear for a mile.
Well there's a tree on Maple St., it turns so yellow,
it turns lose the leaves; the ground, it turns to gold.
My car, it always knows what gear to be in
and my feet can always take me home.
So good to be home.

Well the lights here, they can spin the head of a young man
into thinking that the whole town loves you.
But your heart is not protected from the city
it might help to get you through.
Well the downtown has given me some problems
and we've all had some growing up to do,
walking on cars and across the tops of buildings,
I think that God was probably laughing too.
So good to be home...

Down the street my neighbor's son is walking,
the north side is getting bigger all the time.
I owe the girl down at the library some money,
she says she's just gonna let it slide.
In my mind every single day is sunny,
it's so bright it almost hurts my eyes to see.
When the rain is pouring out over the gutters,
thank the lord just to be here in Tennessee.
So good to be home...

Half a mile now from the border,
half a mile just to roll my windows down.
Sitting, staring at the windshield,
telling myself "not too much further now".
I call David up to see what he is doing
and I pass him as he's getting in his car.
Down the road and take a right down State of Franklin
and we'll p__ the night away down at the bar.
So good to be home...

Restraint

I so wanted to go for a drive this morn, but it was supposed to rain. Our yard would look like a hayfield should it happen to stay wet very long, so I forced myself to stay home and mow the yard. But I took a few more pictures around the yard. Not so surprising, I found myself taking more of the smokebush--both before it rained and after it rained. So you are about to be forced to look at more pictures of it and I promise to not post any more of it for at least a week;-) I also took more photos of irises and a couple of Lily of the Valley...

As usual, click to enlarge

Etc...

Click to enlarge photos

I just had to show you what the smoke bush is now doing...this is not the greatest photo but I was doing a couple things at once and did not download them till just now.

Yesterday I had one iris bloom almost all the way open and today I have half a dozen of these that are open plus dark purple ones, as well as the peach.
I think this barn scene just looks so inviting...I just had to share.

Barn being propped up

Click to enlarge

Yesterday, I had planned to go for a drive....but after Clover died I debated going. I thought it was supposed to rain today, so I went ahead and left. Only to be back home in an hour or less. I did take pictures of three barns including this one. If you will enlarge it, notice what looks like a 2" x 4" board propping it up at the far end. Coming from the other direction I really noticed the leaning more, but could not get a good shot of it. The roof is in bad shape also...I hope they do something to save it. I just hate to lose the old barns.

Sad...

I hate to have to tell this...I almost did not tell about it at the beginning simply because I was afraid this would be the outcome. But Clover died this morning while I was holding him. He had not ate much yesterday....and this morn when I got up to feed him, he was so cold, even though I still had the heating pad in his cage. I held him trying to snuggle him and get him warm but he died while I was cuddling him to me. I could feel the congestion in his chest.

I had the thought where I wondered if he caught what I had, but I know when Roger first brought him to me, I did not think he would live cause he coughed a time or two and I felt it in his little chest. I was really beginning to think he just might make it, but I never felt sure. He was just so tiny. And just a couple days ago, so alive. It was hard to get him to be still long enough to eat.

The day has sure seemed empty without him....

Sky Watch Friday

Click to enlarge

Where the Earth and the Sky Collide

Another scanned image...I know this is in Tennessee but cannot remember exactly where I was when I took it.

For more Sky Watch participants go to Tom at Welcome to Wigger's World.

Smoke bush

I cannot seem to post without posting a photo because that is what I look forward to when visiting my blogging buddies. So I searched in my archives for something of beauty. These were taken of my smoke bush. The first was taken a few days back and the others were taken in 2005 after a summer rain. When enlarged, I cannot imagine anything more beautiful. I don't think man could create anything even near as pretty as what happens in nature.