A Little R & R

No, I didn't get to spend the weekend here but reading a book in this setting would have been a real weekend of R & R............. :) Instead I tried to do a little relaxing here at the farm. Hubby's son David came up from New Orleans and brought us a cooler full of huge fresh Shrimp! They de-headed them and I washed them and bagged them for the freezer.







I got this cute tissue holder in the mail. I won this on Linda's Prairie Flower Farm Blog last week! Thank you Linda, I love it!

Remember I told you I planted seed to grow these Pink Swirl Hardy Hibiscus?

So far I have 15 out of 21 coming up!

We planted this Bottle Brush Tree in March 2008. It is blooming for the first time!!

I can't wait till it is in full bloom!

On Saturday it was a cool 80 degrees with a good breeze so I sat in the Pond House watching Momma Mallard swim with the 3 baby ducks..............Click on the pics for a close up view!

I wish they would stay this small, they are so cute!

You may remember awhile back I posted on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, our resident Blue Heron. I told you how Hubby fishes for him..........Here he waits for Hubby to throw him a bream.

There it is Henry! The first of three Hubby caught for him!

He has it in his beak..........

If you look below the black stripe on his head, you can see it going down his throat!

And this fellow flew over to get in on the action. Unless he is some kind of a Goon, I don't know what he is..........

So mainly I just read, watched the chickens and pond life and took it easy over the weekend!

I hope yours was restful too!

" Pass It On "

"Pretty Is As Pretty Dies" by Elizabeth Spann Craig







Paperback 2009 ISBN 978-0-7387-1480-6 ( 206 pages)















This is the first book of the Myrtle Clover mystery series. Myrtle is the 80 something year old mother of Bradley, NC Police Chief Red Clover. Her son thinks she should attend senior meetings and knit, Myrtle has other ideas about how to spend her golden years! Solving a murder is more to her taste! Myrtle is a sassy, nosey Grandma who knows how to use her age and common sense to get around those who give her no credit for a lifetime of accumulated wisdom. She'll show them just how much spunk is left in her and how NOT ready she is to be "put out to pasture".







A delightful cosy mystery! An easy read you won't want to miss! I will be passing on this signed copy to one of you commenter's! So get your name in the pot!







Oh and doesn't the book look cute with the two Gnomes I got at half price the other day to go in my courtyard?
















































Missy @ Missy's Book Nook gave me this fantastic BINGO BEAUTIFUL BLOG AWARD! This is how it works! Thank You Missy!

The B-I-N-G-O Beautiful Blog Award was started by Bookin With Bingo Blog.

BEAUTIFUL......KB @ ROMPING AND ROLLING IN THE ROCKIES AND

Catherine @ A THOUSAND CLAPPING HANDS

INFORMATIVE...Willow @ WILLOW MANOR AND Katherine @ SMOKY MOUNTAIN CAFE ........










NEIGHBORLY......Lori @ THE SELF SUFFICIENT LIFE




AND Dirt Princess @ THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A SOUTHERN GARDNER

............













GORGEOUS......Jo @ A BRIT IN TENNESSEE AND




Pamela @ FROM THE HOUSE OF EDWARD ....................












OUTSTANDING....Katherine @ LADY KATHERINE TEA PARLOR AND




Merisi @ MERISI'S VIENNA FOR BEGINNERS





I did not check to see who does or does not have an Award accepting blog. If you don't then you can ignore, if you do then Pass It On!!

I also recently got the Kreativ Blogger Award form J Stanton Chandler @ Woolgatherings.

Thank you JSC ! Every blog I follow and those who follow me in turn deserve this award!

So all of you who wish to receive this award, please right click and post it on your blog from me!!

And Pass It On if you wish!!









Thank You All For Your Great Comments! There is a lot going on here and I'm slow at

answering and getting to your blogs but things should slow down soon and we will all have more time for BLOGGING!! YEAH!

I'm Ready-Are You?

For the past few nights the temps have gone down into the high 50s and low 60s making the morning coffee on the screen porch a "fallish" affair. I'm ready, are you? The weather has been really crazy this summer! We nearly cooked in June with 14 days of over 100 degrees and a month of no rain. July and August have been much cooler than I've ever known it to be. Records have been broken these past few days with this fallish weather, highs being only in the low 80s and no humidity. I'm looking forward to Fall though. I'm just wondering if this will be a colder than normal Winter?



I'm ready for some football too!! We've been watching the pre-season games and my Titans look good! They will be wearing the # 9 on their helmets in memory of Steve McNair. We also like to watch the New Orleans Saints, Arizona Cardinals and The Chargers. We want to attend some of Oak Grove High Schools games and watch Steve McNair Jr. play. I have been ask " what in the world" is wrong with Hattiesburg home boy Brett Favre? He likes to play football I guess and doesn't know when to quit! HA!

This is a Pink Swirl Hardy Hibiscus. I planted 20 seeds for these yesterday and hope to grow them in the green house over the winter.

My Cannas are so pretty and fallish colored!

They really have outdone themselves this year............

Those blooms came from this bed............

My little Morning Glory Vine.........

I captured this butterfly on the Zinnias in the St. Francis bed...........

The basket I fixed the other day is thriving............

I made Pepper Butter over the weekend. We tried it on Hamburgers. So good! We are going to do a Pork Tenderloin glazed with it.

We had to relocate another coon yesterday. He was a real doozy. Scared our cat out of two lives with his hissing and squalling. Didn't do me much good either!

If you click and enlarge this pic, you see two of the three baby ducks. The third one was there but it doesn't show up in the picture....

Well........after 10 weeks, we are just way too attached to Duke to let him go. My Aunt took the news fairly well. :) This Pekingese family will stay together at the farm. Now we have to start the Spay/neuter process. Sadie's going first as it will stop the nursing process. Then Jake and then the fat boys.

Have A Great Day! :0)

" My Week "....

It's been a pretty busy week around here, which is really nothing new. The Book Mobile, as my husband calls the mail carrier, brought some good stuff this week. I had never read Under The Tuscan Sun, I read on a blog this week it was entirely different from the movie and much better.

It is one of my favorite movies so I decided to get the book. I found two more by the same author so I got all three. I'll be "going " to Tuscany this fall, at least via these books anyway! I also read how good John Harwood's two novels Ghost Writer and The Seance were, so I ordered them too.

Stalking Irish Madness was recommended by Willow @ Willow Manor and Vicki Lane @ Vicki Lane Mysteries recommended The Natural Laws of Good Luck. The New Seed Starters Handbook I got for future use in the greenhouse!









Again we were privileged to see a gorgeous Sunset this week.....

Well, it's easy to tell Oscar Wilde from the others but I can now tell 2 of the girls apart! I guess 2 out of 8 is not bad for one week ?

Meet Queen Victoria! She's one of the Australorp/Rhode Island Red mixed!

She runs the show in the yard! She is called Vicki for short !! HA!

The other A/RIR mixed is Madame Willowmena ! She's definitely 2nd in line to the throne!

She's Willow for short! :)

As you can see....Vicki is the one who decides WHEN it's time to go to roost!

That's Willow following Vicki's lead.................Can't wait to name the others!

Now TC has his spot to wait for the Peek Gang to come out!

Can you believe they were 9 weeks old last Wednesday? Duke will be going to his new Mommy soon. We will miss him so much!

Lucky for Patch, he gets to stay @ Swiftwater with Mom & Dad.......... :)

These are two really smart puppies. They are fully house broke. They will go to the door and whine to go out to potty! They know their names and the words outside, potty, eat, bedtime, good morning and who wants to go inside? Which is what Hubby said to get them to come to the door for this pic!

Henry Wadsworth has decided the Pond House rail is a good place to fish from....

I fed the fish for Hubby the other evening and took this of the big Catfish eating.........

As you know, my Peppers are unbelievable! I made Pepper Relish this week. I was told this makes a Hot Dog into a gourmet meal. It's true, we tried it last night! Click on the PR link and go to Mennonite Girls Can Cook for the recipe!

Today I am making Pepper Butter! I saw the recipe @ The Self Sufficient Life, click on the PB link for the recipe..........

Have a great weekend everyone! Thank you for all the comments both on my blog and Lady Katherine's!! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers !!!

HOPE- THE REAL MEANING

I went to Lady Katherine's blog and found the whole story of her battle. Please read the post Lady Katherine below and come back to this link below the figurine and read what the word Hope really means!

http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/2008/10/ladys-hope.html

" Lady Katherine "

I talked in my post yesterday about being surprised by several different things. I also talked about how amazed I am at how many bloggers out there have such creativity flowing in their lives. One of those very creative spirits I had in mind while writing that post was Lady Katherine @ Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor. When I visited her blog yesterday I got not only a surprise but my heart was broken after reading her post. Katherine also lives in Mississippi, about 100 miles from me. She is the founder of the Mississippi Blogger group Mississippi Magnolia Southern Belles. She contacted me a few months ago and ask me to join the group. I started following her blog and was just amazed at her enormous creative talent!




This is Lady Katherine drinking Tea in her Parlor............

She makes her own Scones to go with tea............

In fact, her talent for making things is incredible! A handmade Wall Sconce....

Her Hand Painted Kitchen Floor.....now this is creative talent!

She designed and built this China Hutch............

Built this Chandelier from used parts of other stuff..........

Painted this Cabinet...........

She makes Handmade Brooms..............

She painted these end tables for her Native American room............

Oh...and if you can make Brooms, you can also make Baskets! Can you believe this woman's talent?

Katherine lives with her talented husband of 31 years in a Bungalow on 10 acres of land where she also raises Chickens and Sheep......

Yesterday when visiting her wonderful Blog http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/

I learned she has been in a long fight with Breast Cancer and is about to under go her 40th surgery. I not only was shocked, I was heart broken! I had to leave my computer and pray. After having my own recent scare about this disease, I just felt that posting about her today and asking ALL you wonderful friends out there to PRAY for Katherine was what I needed to do! Please visit her blog by one of the links I've provided here, join up to follow it and let us band together the way you ALL did for ME and ask for the FAVOR of GOD in Katherine's life and a MIRACLE in defense against this Monster Disease!