Life of an Iris

One Iris from birth to death in my pond. I can see a tiny little bud. 4/22

It is getting a little bigger. 4/24

Almost there. 4/26

It is almost completely opened. 4/27

There opened up. I love that bright yellow against the dark purple. 4/28

Starting to die, closing back up. 4/29

All over. But if you look closely you will see a new bud on there. 4/30 The bog garden behind the pond has some more of the irises and some elephant ears.

From Blogger Pictures

My CED week in a nutshell

Under Banna's bed above her desk. Still need to do a little on it.

2 of the 3 kittens playing. They are 4 weeks old today.

Some kind of I just showed up plant. I like I left alone.

Frog in my pond.

The view I see if I look up from my swing.

Shadows on my car hood.

Ready for prom. 3rd from the left is our neighbors daughter.

Banna posing.

From Blogger Pictures

Natural Color in my Yard

Leah over at Creative Every Day suggested the other day to be a color detective. She said "Late last week, I was taking a walk and started to notice bits of color on the ground. Scraps of plastic, a tag, a bit of paper, a ribbon, a child's barrette, and the yellow balloon pictured above. Suddenly, my walk transformed from something ordinary into a magical color detective adventure!" Leah went on to suggest we do the same. Below are pictures of color in my yard. All I took the other day are nature's colors. But I think I might try colors of things in my yard today. Enjoy the colors of nature in my yard. As always if all things work right the pictures are clickable for larger viewing.

Magnolia leaf Plant by my pond. Japanese Maple Confederate Jasmine with new growth showing against old growth. Do not know what this is a neighbor gave it to me years ago. It self seeds every year. Anybody out there got a clue. It has little clusters of blooms and almost smells like a mint. Azaleas that came from my mother-in-law. Amaryllis also from mother-in-law. Looks like some type of Shamrock. On a hedge that was here when we got here. They smell heavenly if you like sweet smelling. A white Amaryllis this too came from my mother-in-law. But before that they were growing in her mothers yard. From my father I got some privet hedge that started in his mother's yard. So I have plants that originated from hubby's and my grandmothers. I hope that one day our grandchildren can get some of each of the plants for their yards.Dandelion... DH pulled up a plant the other day and I was mortified and he was like well hell it is just a weed. I try to let the weeds grow with my planned flowers. I mean just look at that beauty of the dandelion and the beautiful blue sky, and the "shamrock" above in the post is just something growing in random places in my yard. Rocks around the pond are the last 3 pictures.

From Blogger Pictures

Crouching Cat

ODD's cat that YDD gave her caught a snake by the back porch today. It was just a little bitty garter snake. But... He is the second snake we have seen in the yard this year. Now my real question is just how quick will this cat be to catch a snake if it is poisonous or do they know the difference? Anybody out there have a clue.

Below are 2 pictures I took of the first one we saw. DH took some pics of the one the cat caught but they are still on his camera.

From Blogger Pictures

CED week 16

Ice Cream Recipes

Coach Creative

From Blogger Pictures

Silly Cat

Here is my cat Precious eating a caramel. That crazy cat thinks she is human and will eat anything I will let her have. Any kind of meat but, no steak for her for some reason she throws steak up. But she will even eat onions if they are in a salad or things that the kids think are to hot she doesn't care she just eats it right up. She apparently thought caramels were the best thing ever. Usually she will sit at my feet and beg like a dog for food if I am eating something she wants, but with the caramel she jumped up in my lap and actually tried to take it out of my hand as I was putting it in my mouth.

Smelling it,

Here she is just taking a small taste by licking it.

Then she decided it was really good so she had better take a bite. That was fun to watch because of course it got stuck on her teeth. But she didn't care just came right back for more.

And that's my cat. Who bad girl that she is has 3 kittens these days. More on that later.

From Blogger Pictures

Childhood

Wow first there was peach ice cream in the store. I never buy something so plain when I buy ice cream. But I saw it and it looked so good. It was too. It brought back bunches of memories of helping to make ice cream as a child. Of course by helping I mean I got to turn the crank on one of those old ice cream makers. No electric for us, it was manual all the way, even the ice cream base was not one of those prepackaged deals. Nope it was a custard style that Mom cooked. I am sure we had more than peach but, peach is all I can remember.

Then we spent Easter Sunday at my Mom's and as we were lounging in the yard watching the umpteen grandchildren and great grandchildren of Mom's pelt each other and themselves with water balloons and playing like kids used to play, actually out in the yard running around, I looked up and there it was. Oh the softest thing and the prickliest thing in the world. A thistle in full gorgeous bloom. How can a thistle be gorgeous you ask? As a child I lived in a very small town(and I use that term lightly) more like a blink and you miss it kinda place, 2 service stations(back when they really had service), 1 general store and a post office, that was it. Until I was 6 I was an only child, in my home and pretty much in my town the closet children on either side age wise of me were a boy about 6 years older and a girl 4 years younger. So I spent many hours playing by my self or with my faithful companion my dog Rebel. Even back then I loved the outdoors so that is where I spent most of my time. Drawing houses and furniture on the driveway in the dirt, riding my bike, or hanging upside down over the clothes lines t shaped pole. I kid you not, I spent hours on hours like that. Then there were the thistles. When they would bloom I would pick then oh so carefully so as not to get stuck. But I would get stuck every damn time. But the softness of the bloom was worth it. I would pick off all the prickly parts and be left with a nub of a stem and the softest "powderpuff" ever. And that is what I would pretend they were, and I would powder my face and arms and legs until it feel apart. I have not seen one in full bloom for years. But there it was in Mom's yard, not the same yard that I picked them in as a child. But it was there like a beckon and my eyes just kept being drawn to it until finally I got up and went and took some pictures of it. After I took my pictures I could concentrate on the people around me. So in the last week I have had 2 childhood memories come flooding back and they were simple but sweet as anything could ever be. Those are the types of memories that I hope I gave to my girls and now I hope I am giving them to my grandchildren.

This would be my grandson Jake If you click to enlarge you can see the water from the water balloon he just exploded onto himself.

From Blogger Pictures

This is what happens!!!!

This is what happens when you let an 11 year old boy do the dishes and you are out of dishwasher tabs. He uses dishwashing liquid and you have a big mess. So don't forget to tell them NO dishwashing liquid.

In Memory of Maddie

Maddie's memorial service is today at 2:30pm in California. We the blogging community have been asked to place this picture of her on our blogs to show our support to her family. Some of you that visit might get the idea that Maddie was my family. She was not. She is a fellow bloggers child. I did not even read her Mom's blog. My youngest daughter follows her mother that and some of the women I follow on Twitter. I know there is really nothing any of us can do to make her parents feel better at this time. But I have lost a grandson who was more like a son to me and I have lost my father. A father is way different than a child I know. But the reason I mention him is because during the procession from the service to Daddy's burial lots of cars meeting us on that major highway pulled off the road and stopped or stopped right there in their lane to show their regards. Lots of cars and the big rigs did not stop. Except for one big rig. He stopped his truck in the middle of his lane until we passed. That for some reason was the most amazing thing to me that the driver of that big rig would take the time out of his day and work to actually stop for my Daddy. That is the clearest moment of that day for me, remembering that he stopped. So who ever you were driver Thank you for that moment in a sad day for me. When Ty died I was in a complete fog for days I have no real clue as to who was at my house when. People came and people went. Some did not even come in just stood in the yard and talked to who ever they were there to see. But one moment, one old man's tribute, and that old man being so excited that maybe he could help just a little to ease my daughter's pain, eased mine just a little and is as clear in my memory as if it just happened. He came in the house early the morning after Ty died. He wanted us to come with him and bring a camera we had to have a camera and we had to hurry he said because the wind was blowing and it might mess things up. I will tell you the truth here I just thought he was being the pain in the butt old man like everyone in town said he was. I did not want to be bothered by this old man I wanted to be left alone. The only people at the house so early were the ones who had spent the night. I was not ready to face the onslaught of sad faces and the hugs and the I'm sorrys. I wanted to have my few minutes of misery before I had to put on that brave, everything is going to be OK face even tho I felt like my world had ended. But there he was and he was determined. So Jamie and I went with him and took a camera. We got in the yard and could see nothing that should cause us to have to be drug out of the house with a camera. He told us no we had to follow him and down the road we went following this old man. What should we see but the most beautiful sight that was possible on this day. The old mans tribute to our lost doodlebug. It was a hodge podge of things he thought a 4 year old boy or his mother would like. Plants stolen(his word) from his wife before she got up. A freaking empty Happy Meal cup. Pine cones and sticks that spelled out Tyler well in his eyes anyway and we could pick out some of the letters. A freaking sled in south Alabama. And spray paint on the concrete where he had set this all up.This old mans tribute meant way more to me than the impersonal fowers that were sent. He had gotten up before daylight to set this up for us so we would know he cared. It has been 9 years since TY died and one month before Tys anniversary this year we lost the old man. Maybe they are playing on the other side. I am sure if Mr. Lantz could find Ty he did. Thank you Mr Lantz for trying to help us in our darkest hour. So I know we can not take any parents pain away. But you never know who or what will be the tiny light in that darkest hour. So do what you think you can and you migt be that one teeny tiny memory that is the light. So for Maddie and her family Love Hugs and Blessing on this one of the hardest days you will ever face. To Maddie's parents do not try to get through that next week, or day, or hour, or even the next minute. Just take it one breathe at a time. That is the only way to survive. And it will get easier, not today not tomorrow maybe not for years, but , one day you will wake up and not be quite so raw.

Playing Catch Up again for CED

For Maddie and my YDD

I don't know if any of you have run across this outpouring of love for one little girl and her family or not. But my YDD has a blog post about it @ The Water's Calm . Please check it out and if you can find it in your heart sponsor her in her March of Dimes Walk for Maddie. There is a link on her blog to follow if you wish to sponsor her. You might wish to see if there is a walk in your area to sponsor, I know there are a lot of them out there in memory of Maddie. This is such a heat breaking story as it always is when parents lose a child. So hug your child extra tight tonight and every night that you are so lucky to be able to. Love Hugs and Blessings

5 new tats between us

Hubby and I got new tats on the 1st. ODD talking "Mom can you keep the kids while we go riding on Sunday. You can have a new tat for payment." Well now what? I can always find a new tat, I think I would like. But where do I want it becomes the question. They already owed us each one tat for the last time we kept the kids. I had picked the bird but never got around to getting it. I had been talking about getting it on my ankle and maybe one day getting the dragonmarks on the wrists. So she told me if we would keep them Sunday Trai could do all 3 on Wednesday. He also did the 2 on hubby since he already owed him one from last time. hehe fun and pain.

I wanted the bird to show you can sing/be happy even during the storm, whatever it might be. Now the dragonmarks as they are called. I just liked them. They are the first out of my 9 count them 9 tats that do not have some kind of deep meaning behind them. I just liked them. Wow 9 I never thought I would have 9.

My bird singing in the storm clouds on the inside of my right ankle.

Dragonmark one on the inside of each wrist.

Hubby's 2 new ones crying(the blue one) and laughing (the orange one).

Happy Birthday to YDD

To my youngest daughter. We love you kiddo. Mom and Dad

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