Silent Sunday!

Walking the dog.

So youngest daughter and I thought the dog was getting a little flabby and decided to take him to the park for a walk.
So

Youngest daughter with The Pooch.

This is one of the twin lakes. Yep it has been dry for a while now.

 You can tell it is the beginning of fall because of all the beauty berries.

 

 

I love the symmetry of palm trees.

Only one bundle of flowers on this crape myrtle. But what a beautiful bundle.



This old oak with its strange appendage has become an old friend over the years. Before picnic tables it was the only bench.

This old hickory is suffering from a hole, perhaps put there by a wood pecker.

Here are some hickory nuts that were strewn about. It looks like the squirrels are making their stores for winter already.

The way out.

After a nice long walk The Pooch was ready to head home. Boy is he out of shape.

War of the Armadillo's and cancer scares.

I went to let the dog out this morning when I found, right off the back porch, two armadillo's. One trapped in the cage and one desperately digging underneath the trap. Chris removed the trap and expected the other to run away but it didn't so.... sadly he had to shoot it. They do carry leprosy and we don't want to take a risk. Also it was digging up my back step the step is now moved away from the main step. I'm sure if it believed we were going to harm it's home it would have done the same to us. Still.... It is always sad to end the life of a living creature. The one in the trap was safely released into the national forest near by. The other was buried in the back yard.




What I woke up to.

Armadillo!

 We decided to shore up the hole with some concrete to help keep the step from sliding away and hopefully to detour other armadillo's from digging in this same area. This makes six armadillo's that have been trapped. And one shot. I don't know why the corner of our house is so attractive for them.

This hole doesn't look large but it is huge.

As some of you may know I found a lump in the back of my head earlier in the month. Of course I would think the worst but fortunately it was just a enlarged blood vein or something. The doctor said nothing to worry about. My mother has been struggling with a bad esophagus for some time. And of course I worry that it could  be the worst but they have not said that and are working to get it fixed. The problem is of undetermined cause. She is doing much better now. But may still need a operation to fully fix the problem. And then my daughter found a lump in her breast. Which the doctor said was very rare for her age 16. So she had to have it removed, which she faced like a trooper, and the preliminary test are all good. We should get the all clear on Wednesday. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and ask every one to keep them up until then.

Summer time and watermelon!

We recently got our watermelon for the fourth. It's a little early but I wanted to be sure to get it before the guy sold out. It's just not summertime until you get that first watermelon. I remember as a kid having watermelon feast. We would eat so much that we wouldn't want any more, ever.

Last year we got that seedless watermelon everyone has been raving about from the grocery store. Don't like it. It had seeds. They were just white or clear and harder to find and I think there were twice as many of them. At first I tried picking them out and then ended up eating them. It was OK but it tasted like seeds and I'm sure everyone has heard about that girl who ate the watermelon seed and a watermelon grew in her belly. I don't want to eat seeds I'd rather have nice big black seeds I can spit out. Which reminds me of all the seed spitting contest we use to have when I was little.

On my way to work there is a large patch of land next to a tiny little church. Every year they have a big soul food day there.  Any way, every morning, on my way to work, I watched the guy go out and plant and tend the water melon and so finally... he was sitting next to a big pile of watermelon. No signs just him and his pile of watermelons. Last year he did the same thing and I never stopped. So this year I stopped to see if he was selling them and got a big one for only $3. He had three sizes and two kinds, stripes and no stripes. He said the ones with out stripes were sweeter so that's what I got. I asked if they had seeds and he looked at me like I was crazy. "Yes, they have seeds." So I can't wait to bite into that sweet, sweet  water melon and the taste of summer!

Safely tucked in the frig!

Cranes and Candles!

Over the past month or two we have been watching as two Sandhill cranes have grown up. We were lucky enough to have their parents choose our pond as their home. After about a month one of the parents came up missing it was very sad. Sandhill cranes mate for life. You could tell the other didn't know what to do. But did not abandon the babies. The lone parent carried on with the two chicks and now they are just about grown. They have become quite accustomed to us but still keep their distance.



Sandhill crane family back in March.

Babies were pretty camouflaged by the weeds from predators.

And here they are in May. click here It is amazing how quickly they grow up. Our birds are unique because usually Sandhills only have one chick at a time. We have twins.

Same chicks one on either side of parent.

And I found some pictures I took while oldest daughter was here for a visit. We went to the Swan Creek Candle Company in Leesburg where a friend of hers is now working.

We went in the back way.

Here is my daughter and granddaughter with her friend who works for the candle company.

 I liked the candles that looked like food. And the grand baby liked to eat them. Luckily they are soy based and free of lead.

They have all kinds of candle and candle accessories.

Latte?  No it's a candle!

Hot chocolate with wipe cream? No candle.

 Some of the candles you would never guess was not food.

You could make your own candles. They had the kits.

Over view of the shop. Everything was so beautiful

I could go crazy making gift baskets for people in this shop. And the smell of yummy was almost over powering. Visiting the candle company was a lot of fun and I will definitely be back for my candle needs or at Christmas for gift ideas.
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