Tenacious Life

My Mom has had ivy growing on the front porch as long as I can remember. Mom planted it at each porch post and over the years it has grown up across the whole length of the porch . The house is on a "slab" foundation and I always thought that the porch was just an extention of the slab. But, maybe not.....
A wonderful neighbor comes over every morning and brings the newpaper up onto the porch near the front door, so Mom won't have to walk out to the street to pick it up. This is the same person that takes her garbage cans in and out for her and calls to see if she needs help when someone stands too long at the front door. He is 72 years old and tells really corny jokes: But he has always been there for my parents. He is a truly good person.
So yesterday morning I went out to get the paper and underneath the Sunday Times was this.....
Right were the stucco meets the concrete was this one ivy leaf growing out of the space between the wall and the porch. This spot is at least 6 or 7 feet from the edge of the porch where the rest of the ivy is growing. That little slip of ivy had to wiggle it's way under at least 6ft of concrete and find a crack where it could finally grow up to the surface and find light.
So now I'm thinking that the slab and the concrete porch may have been two separate pieces and that there is a gap just wide enough to let a very small ivy root squeeze through because..., there it is, growing where nothing should be growing. I'm amazed that this ivy had the tenacity to search for and find the "light" that it so badly needed.
When I asked Mom to "Come and look at this, your not going to believe it." She said... "I know what you saw." She said she had seen it a few days before and wondered if I would see it too.

Maybe this is a lesson taught by example; of a life that has been worth living and included a great struggle for identity while always finding beauty in every corner. Mom and this small ivy leaf know what life is. I guess they know each other well.

My Bordello Bathroom

My grandma and my great aunt would turn over in their graves if they could see my little half bath. I painted it one weekend when the prospector was gone fishin'. ..., and then I just went a little crazy decorating it. The Prospector came home and dubbed it the"Bordello Bathroom" Even the ceiling is red. I thought maybe I had over done it, but I get more positive comments on this little "outhouse"( well, it is off the laundry room so I like to envision it as an outhouse ). Ok it's not an outhouse! But being next to the back door it's convienent if you're outside and need to find a toilet fast.
Jo, at Moodscapes (jonjdsbitsandpieces.blogspot.com) has the ultimate outhouse. I want one like her's some day. It's a real working outhouse and it's a two seater. It has a wash pitcher and bowl, mirror, a chair, a window and vintage towels and ..., well...., it's the coolest outhouse I've ever seen. So until I get one outside like Jo's I'm happy with my "Why don't you come up and see me sometime" half bath .
There is usually an oil lamp on top of the medicine chest. I'm not quite sure why..., but now, it's in the kitchen. Maybe it got moved last winter in the power outage. The little one on the windowsill really works and I love it. I don't use this one next to the lace curtains though. That would not be good.
That's my maternal great grandmother reflected in the mirror. It's what you look at when you sittin'.
She kind of makes you want to get done and get out of there fast.

Well that's about it for today. I'm going to mom's for a couple of days and wanted to leave you with something thoughtful and inspiring. Aren't you glad that most of us have indoor plumbing now; especially in the middle of the night?

See you on Sunday.

Wordless Wednesday: Chainlink

Crow collage

This is actually three separate photos taken through a sprinkler on my mother's lawn. We don't have any crows where I live. They are very interesting birds. They seem to travel in groups and they are VERY noisy. They loved the sprinkler and appeared to be waiting for something to pop up out of the lawn. Bugs?, worm?, E. A. Poe? They're such a presence and so shiny black. I was lucky that they stayed long enough for me to get my camera. They stayed for about 10 minutes and then they were gone.

I love the juxtaposition of the crows in the collage and the sprinkles of water coming down. As I sharpened the picture it looked more and more like a painting. Very cool!

Introducing Freckles. Painting the goat house and flowers in the garden.

First of all...., I want to tell you about one of our goats. This is Freckles. He is the smallest, sweetest Nubian of them all. Bart is " leader of the pack", Brownie is our lovable loner with an attitude and Murphy..., well you all know about Murphy: He's the celebrity( immortilized in verse and art at: terrybusse.blogspot.com on June 8).
Our little Freckles still wants a bottle of milk, cries like a baby when he gets a shot, and tags along behind Murph' like a lady in waiting. Freckles is my sweet baby. He always get pushed out of the way when there is hay or grain to eat but he just goes in at a different angle and eventually gets his fill. He's never pushy, he doesn't complain too much and he always seem to get along with the other goats, even when they are being..., well, you know..., goats. He's kind and gentle and he ALWAYS comes to me with that sweet look in his eyes and no ulterior motives. He loves to have his neck and head rubbed and I almost expect him to say "Thank You" afterwards. He's a truly good goat.


Yes, I'm still painting. The gray color is the primer. The red is what I WAS going to paint the whole shed but then I decided not to. I did a test section and thought that it was just too bright for the whole building. I think I would like a gray-brown color with white trim. I know I'm being a bit particular about this, but color is important, specially when I'm do'in it. Also, I might look at red differently if it wasn't in the high 90's this week. I'm almost done with the primer coat which is soaking into this siding like a sponge. Then I can get the top coat on. Then...., I can decorate my windowless wall with STUFF. I'm still open to ideas for "the big blank wall".

...., and, to close, I want to show you my flowers in the vegetable garden.
I still don't know what was eating the leaves on the sunflowers but the two survivors are blooming anyway. I planted two packages of sunflowers and these are the only ones left. I'm convinced the birds got the seeds in the ground but it's definitely a story of survival

So, my friends, be like the sunflower and turn toward the sun, show the world your wear and tear, and "Bloom where you are planted".

Queen Bee....autiful!

These are my wonderful "buys" at the Queen Bee in Lafayette Ca. I really wanted the blue bench and the Pig, but we just can't have everything we want in life, can we? So, I bought this card which I thought was absolutely beautiful. I think I will frame it or put it on my peg board over the computer desk. It will remind me that each and everyone of us needs to have a vision that is true to our own being and that when we find what that is, we need to follow it and create our world accordingly. The word "attempt" has been crossed out and "transform" has been written under it. I find this reassuring. It says to me that things can be changed or altered according to your vision of the world and that it's ok to make these changes. It's even Ok to show others the change. That's revolutionary! I thought you only showed the perfect, completed, piece of art; as if your vision was born in perfect form from the beginning. Kind of like letting people only see you with your makeup on and you hair combed and every hair in place.

Just look at this interesting woman. I like to think that she was having a really bad hair day. So what did she do? She wrapped a beautiful scarf around her head and let the wild hair fly behind her. Then she added a pair of gorgeous earrings (or maybe two pairs) and said to herself ,"There..., this is how I will be today...., and I I'm beautiful." To me she says: Live for today and don't try to recreate ; TRANSFORM...,believe in yourself.

Then I saw this embroidered ribbon. Isn't this the most beautiful piece of ribbon ever? I bought 1/2 yard of it (it was VERY expensive) and I don't have any idea what I'm going to do with it. I'm kind of intimidated by it. I would like to work it into a collage but I don't want to loose the lovely texture and openess of it. I don't sew much and only have 18 inches of it, so if anyone out there has some good ideas I would love to hear them. I know someone is saying, " Ooooo!, I know what I would do with it ...., I'd.........."

Come on all of you who read blogs and don't comment: Those of you who are talented and have "vision". Start a new tradition. "Follow you bliss";.... dream, imagine, create an idea. I'm open to all suggestions, and maybe you can find inspiration to create something that will honor the loveliness of the ribbon.

If I think your idea is just too super wonderful, I will send you the ribbon so you can create your own piece of art. So please let me know what you come up with.

Happy 90th Birthday Mom

You were always feeding someone...,

And holding someone's hand...

And what a beauty!

We were so glad that you decided to get married and have children...., and that you had such good "mommy" skills. We are forever grateful for the patience, the listen and setting an example of what a person with a good heart can do under, sometimes, difficult circumstances. We are the beneficiaries of your goodness and the recipients of you unconditional love. Thank you.

We send you our love and best wishes for a very happy 90th birthday.With Love, your daughters, Connie & Lisa.

Wordless Wednesday: Jezebel

Queen Bee; dripping with honey.

If you drive in from Oakland and go east through the Caldecott Tunnel on hiway 24, you will come to a town called Lafayette. It's a upper class suburb of the Bay Area and a very nice place to live; with lot's of charming shops and restaurants. This one is called Queen Bee and it's a wonderful place to visit. I think that it was a small house at one time. Now it has been turned into a lovely store with absolutely marvelous things for your home.

Each room is a different color and each is filled with an amazing assortment of things to buy. One room was filled with ribbon , lace, cards , buttons and miscellany that any collage artist would go crazy over.

Check out the beautiful blue bench. I love it! This shop is a feast for the eyes.

This room was probably my favorite. I love yellow and the pig on the table is just waiting for someone to take him home. I'm afraid it wasn't me, so he's still waiting. (As far as I know.)

The Queen Bee is at 261 Lafayette Circle in Downtown Lafayette

Snickerdoodles for Bambino

Yesterday I baked some cookies for the Prospector to take up to Pine Crest Lake. This is an annual event for the fathers , sons and daughters of the family. We moms are not allowed on this trip. It's a tradition. This will be my little bambino bean's first time going up there with his daddy and papa.

So this morning the Bean and his daddy arrived early. Papa hooked the boat to daddy's suv and Papa already had the tent trailer hook up to the truck. I gave the Bean his very own pail with cookies, grapes and things to play with. He had to have a cookie but check out the look on his face. He took a bite. He acted, at first, like he wasn't sure about the cookie, he savored the bite for a minute and then he smiled his sweet little smile and said "That's good Noni. Would you like a bite?" I answered "I'd love one", and took a bite.

"Thank you" I said
and Bean said "Lets go outside".
I said "Ok" and we put the cookies in the pail, which he picked up and never let go of.
He had the cookie in his right hand and I told him to hold it up high so Mokie couldn't grab it.
We got through the gate before Moke saw us and Bean went to Papa and said "Papa, want a bite?"
The Prospector said "Sure" and took a bit. Then Bean went over to his daddy and offered him a bite.
My son took a bite and said "Yum". He looked at me and said "Thanks". I gave him the big bag of cookies.

Bean gave me another bite of his cookie and his daddy finished off the rest of it.
We took a couple of pictures of him in the boat and then Daddy put him in his car seat and as they got ready to drive off, gripping his pail with both hands, " Noni, aren't you coming too?"....., Oh how I wanted to go with him, but someone has to stay here and feed the goats, the chickens and the dogs. Someone has to water everything and take care of the farm. This is the "Guy" trip: Fishing, sleeping in tents and for my little bean, learning to float in the lake and make the same memories that my boys did so long ago.
" Not this time Bean, I have to stay here and take care of the animals. But maybe next time, Ok?"
"Ok, Bye." and they left.

I know they will have a great time. Making memories: Cooking dinners, swimming , camping, sleeping in a tent together but next year I think I'm going to break a tradition and go with them...., next year I won't be standing in the driveway saying goodby.

Take care guys and watch the Bean closely. I'll miss you.

Signs of the Elusive

On my walk yesterday in the early evening I found three tracks in the dirt road. Can you guess what these are? One is fairly obvious and the other two are more difficult. They were all in the soft dirt at the turn( what we call the switch back) on our road. It is the only place where the road is flat and has a build up of very fine, soft dirt. We find tracks all the time here.

Take a guess and we'll see if any of you are good "Trackers"

Old garden and a little green chair.

I came back home yesterday afternoon. Had a short but happy visit to the Bay Area (that's what we call the San Francisco-Oakland area of Northern California). Mom was doing well and I had another nice visit with her. I had some business to take care of in Oakland on Tuesday but after that it was just, as you can see, sitting around with Mom and taking pictures. This is a little photo vignette of her back yard. She loves to sit out here and read. Honey, the cat, likes to have her head and ears rubbed but still looks at me like I'm an alien from another planet. She was a stray that adopted Mom a few years back and still has a street attitude. She doesn't like people at all but Mom has won her over. Honey is good for Mom. She even sleeps with Mom now. This is the cat's B&B, but she wants out right after breakfast and doesn't show up until late in the evening for more food. Then Mom brushes her and she plays with assorted toys that Mom has bought her. Eventually she goes to the back door and wants out. Mom has a long talk with her about the dangers of being outside at night and Honey give her that "Ok, I'll stay inside. But it is my choice to do this." look. If I'm there, she looks at me as if to say "You here again? Don't you have a home somewhere else?"

So..., Sunday afternoon Sis and I went over to Room with a Past in Walnut Creek. It's only open 3 days( and one evening) a month but what bargains! This is a store that used to be owned by Jan Ely(pinkhousepages.blogspot.com) but she sold it recently. She still sells her beautiful painted furniture and other vintage things there, but now she will have time to pursue other artful endeavors. Jan wasn't there (lousy planning on my part) but I bought the wonderful little chair that she wrote of in her last post. See the chair photo in her blog..., now see the chair on my porch. It traveled 120 miles ,yesterday, folks and now I have the "Cute little green chair" that".... can't decide if it wants to grow up or not. Reminds me of a cat that's not a kitten anymore, but sure as heck couldn't be mistaken for an adult quite yet." I love it!! It's just the right size for my porch. I will let Jan know if it grows any bigger. I also bought one of Jan's Pink Calico Geranium. It just seemed to go with the chair. I'll find a pretty pot to plant it in. Geranium thrive here in the foothills: As long as you water them and that's what we do here in the summer...., we WATER.

Wordless Wednesday; summer begonia collage

What! No window box?

What!..., wait a minute, where's my...., oh no!! Where is my window and the window box I was going to put the flowers in. The prospector made a management decision and ....














Don't you think that a small window would have looked good here. It would have broken up the big space, and with a window box below it I could have put real flowers in it because there is a hose and water close by.
Actually, we did talk about it and he said that we could put one in later if we needed more ventillation. The doors are dutch doors and will have a screen door behind them so , as you can see in the second photo, there will be lots of air flow on hot days.

So I'm thinking that I will fill up that wall with all kinds of things. .., pots of flowers on the ground, old signs and vintage farm things on the wall . Maybe an old window frame in the middle and a WINDOW BOX underneath.

There's no goat DECK either but I have see the error of my ways on this one. Goats like to sit in the dirt or go to sleep in the goat house, or run and play. So, a covered deck would have looked good but probably not have been used much by them. Especially after we fence the area below the house and they spend their day eating grass. What can I say. I got carried away. I'm a decorator . I always want to embellish everything. So, when I finish painting the whole thing I will work some magic on that wall. I've got about a 3rd of the painting done so far. The siding is really soaking up the paint. I will have to do two coats on everything.


Do the goats care about all of this? No..., they are just as happy with an old wash bucket.


They have slept in their new digs for two nights now and the Prospector said that they woke him up at 2:30 last night playing around inside the goat house. He said they were making a lot of noise. Must be the full moon. Silly goats!

I leave for the Bay area today to see my Mom. The painting will be put on hold for a few days. I will be back on Wednesday.

Murphy; goat update

Last night was a full moon night. I've been keeping an eye on Murphy to see if he was going to dance. Well, it seem that he's grow out of his childhood this month because there have been no signs of dancing or any other strange behavior. Maybe he is dancing late at night when no one is out there. Whatever he's playing it cool and acting like a grown up goat. This is about the silliest thing I've seen him do . He is rubbing his mouth on a piece of wood. I never get a photo of the inside of their ears, which are beautiful, so I'm glad he did this. Look at those ears!

I'll keep watching to see if he is up to his old tricks tonight. They slept in their new house last night so maybe he was confused. I will have some photos of the goat house tomarrow. There's no roof yet and I'm in the middle of painting it; but its basically done. I do have an issue with the Prospector about some missing architecture. Stay tuned.

Stratus Angelicus: no more smoke in the air!

"Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see.
Bluebirds singin' a song
Nothin' but bluebirds all day long." (lyrics by Irving Berlin)

I don't know much about clouds so I can't tell you, scientifically, what these are. I was taking an evening walk and these clouds where overhead. There must be a beautiful name for them because they are so lovely.
The prospector would call them "Cumulus Acillus". (That's pronounced with a hard C like aKillus). He'll say "Look, those are Cumulus Acillus clouds." But then I realized that he called all cloud formations "Cumulus Acillus". He acts like he know what he's talking about, until I say "Acillus?" , and then he gets a big grin on his face.
I think they should be called "Clouds being scattered by high unseen wind or "Stratus Angelicus. Yep, I like that. If the prospector can make up names..., so can I.

Good News Day!

I have recieved an award. Jo over at Moodscape (jonjdsbitsandpieces.blogspot.com) has given me a "just plain fun to read" award. She loves the writing, photos, family and animals in my life. She always consistently comments on my posts and leaves me funny emails that gives me incentive to keep writing and posting my blog...., and she calls me "Elly Mae".

Dang, Jo, This made my day and it was just a real dog-gone nice thing ta do.

Thank ya kindly, my friend.

*..... and,

I have an update on my friend, Karen. I got an email from her saying that the preliminary report from the kidney specialist was good news. She has minimal change kidney disease that will be very receptive to the prednisone that she is already taking and that this should show some good results. Her heart is ok ( I could have told her that) and she is feeling better. A new water pill is getting rid of some of the fluids that have made her so uncomfortable, which is an understatement because she was so swollen that she felt like a "water balloon ". She very tired because she still has fluid in her lungs. She is not completely out of the woods yet but , as the little boy on the Kaiser ad says...., " Things are looking up." Right Karen?

Bless your heart girl, no one should have to go through what you've been through this last few weeks. The prayers are still coming.