We're Back!!!

--with new pictures!

Last time I was posting pictures, I ran into a glitch with transferring them to the Blog, so I do really hope that the pictures we want to post this time come up as we want them.

As Lynne said, we had the family over for Memorial day. Celeste was the hit of the day, and Mom really enjoyed the visit with her.


It's a busy time of year right now for our local family. Saturday was our oldest grandson's birthday party, and Lynne and I were the designated grillers for Brad's guestlist. Lynne, of course, rotated the very best hot dogs to perfection, while I was in charge of flipping burgers that weren't too bad, either. At least we didn't lose any of Brad's friends or their parents in the process.


Next weekend is a family graduation get-together for one of our nieces, and Mom has declared her intentions that she will be there to help celebrate this occasion. Mom hasn't ventured away from the house (other than doctor's appts.) since she took seriously ill right after Christmas. She has, however, with our unusually warm spring, been out on both the front porch and our newly screened back porch again, to get a better view of things. Walks in the yard... well if we get the right weather and all... lately we've been close to 90 for a week, and high humidity, not a good mix for Mom and a garden stroll.

So, as far as surprises... seems that we keep discovering them as we work the property. Besides the 4' or so black snake that was sunning himself in the driveway ( no picture posted again for a dear friend's sake) :) ... we did discover that we have a small stand of mulberry trees back in the deeper woods that got cleared out of vines and overgrowth last winter. But we're kind of excited about a relatively small vine we found back in the far corner of the property.


Apparently, it's a native plant to North Carolina, but according to the USDA tracking of plants, it hasn't ever been recorded here in the county we live in! Now we're at a quandry... do we report it and have someone tell us they want to document it as official, and deal with papprazi? Some research also found out that apparently it's an endangered species. What would YOU do?

Other exciting news.... a bird we've heard on rare occasion over the last year, but never seen, made an appearance last week, (of course, when the old camera was off for attempted repairs - thus no pics), but we saw our first cuckoo bird. It's a bird we've heard a few times back in the woods, but never seen before. And it seemd that the wrens have decided to build a nest on the front porch in one of the window boxes. Lynne just noticed it yesterday while watering. The cool thing is, we can watch all the activity going on with it, because it's right outside the dining room window!

In the previous blog, Lynne didn't mention the giant bullfrog tadpole down in the pond. When we first saw it, it was about 6 1/2" long. Now, it's down to about 5" and finally getting it's legs as the tail gets absorbed into the body. We've been enjoying the chorus of frogs and toads for about a month now, with the warmer evening temps. Won't be long before the frog choir has a new member.

Most of the veggies Lynne posted about last week have now been pulled, but it won't be long before the summer crop is going full speed ahead. Surprisingly, we've already picked our first cucumber! Tomatos are setting their fruit, peppers have the blossoms, squash (many varities) are setting fruit too. We did have our first picking of the bush beans tonight with dinner, and all I can say is "Mmmmmmmmm"

The pictures posted with this entry are from the disposable cameras we finished up (they were leftover cameras from the wedding and honeymoon 11 months ago, that still had pictures left on them), so there were some nice surprises that we came across ;)

Well, I've typed enough, time to get going with posting this entry and the pictures. Hopefully we'll have the new camera dialed in and will be back soon with a new assortment from the Heartland, where everything continues to be Wonderful.