The gift of the bean seed....

Earlier this year I ran across this post at Frugal Little Bungalow Small Space Living....and I commented on it.  She was kind enough to share and this is the result.
I am not showing the Hyacinth bean plant--it is growing wild and I love that part.  But there is something eating on all the leaves.  I have dusted it with Sevins and it does not seem to slow it down.

And yes, these are all from the same plant.  I don't know if they varied colors has to do with the age of the bloom or the amount of light they get or what.

But every day I go out there and look at it and admire its loveliness, and I think of Deb!

things that make the heart skip a beat...

 What are the things that make your heart skip a beat and the juices start flowing when you see them...I think most of us have things we photograph over and over and over.  There are several for me, but right now I am eagerly awaiting fall color.  I am so in hopes that it is a good year.

I love how in the fall there seems to be more clouds like these above...

And of course winter follows fall...I don't look forward to the cold but I do the snow...

These and so much more make me feel alive!  What are the things that trip your trigger...or rather snap your shutter?

Funky tomatoes and other thoughts

 I took pictures of these the other day...not all my tomatoes look like these

but a big portion of them do.  At least these bottom two.

Have you ever seen anything quite like them?  The bottom two are from my Brandywines....and all my plants are Brandywine except four. 

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I still have a lot of decluttering to do.  Just have not been doing much of it.  However, the other day I got in the mood to spend some time at it.  When I start, I always end up getting a bag for things I want to donate and one for things I want to throw away.  I got rid of old VCR tapes, some college textbooks, other books, boxes...I cannot even think of all I got rid of.

Well, some of it has actually been picked up when the trash service ran yesterday morn.  And I have a big bag just full of stuff to be donated.  And have another bag started of things for donation.  And you know with all we have donated, and all that has found its way to the trash, you cannot tell that anything is gone.  I tell Roger all the time that we are rich....we have to be to be able to get rid of so much and not even miss it.

Granted, some of it is things that have been given to me.  And I got rid of a pair of my jeans that were threadbare almost.  One of my pairs for mowing the yard in.  A pair that most women would not be seen dead in.   And I got rid of things that I have not worn in ages.

anyway, the point of this is I got in this one tote that had some of the girls school work...notes, etc.  And then there was a spiral notebook and I opened it and there was a 'journal' I had started when we lived in Tennessee.  I sat down to read a little bit in it and came across where I had been to the grocery store.

This was back in 1978.  I spent $28 plus some change and here is what I got for that amount:

3 chuck blade steaks

10 pk chops

2-3 lbs of hamburger

gallon of milk

16 slices of cheese

lunchmeat ( I didn't say how much--probably one of those variety packages they used to have)

tea

toilet paper (I am sure that was back when we always got a 4-roll package)

and some canned goods.

That is just how I wrote it back then, except for the part in the parenthesis.  I wonder what that would cost now?