" Frosty Mor'n "

Today being the last day of February, I'm really dreaming about Spring. Warm sunny days to dig in the dirt...........I ventured out this morning to find the farm covered in frost.......






I can't complain as some of you have been knee deep in snow for weeks now.........

However I am proud to say so long to February and the fury she has shown..........

This flower bed struggling to grow is frosted over..........

A thin sheet of ice covers the bird bath...........

This morning I let the chickens out for the first time!!

Let's hope Max will be able to get them back in by dusk.............

We had to buy more hay this week as winter has lasted longer than normal.....

It's frosty hay this morning......

The cattle are wondering why I'm out so early.............

Big Momma had a baby calf yesterday.............

I think the cattle are wishing for Spring and some tender grass to chew on...........

I've been suffering for the past few weeks with back problems that have now started to affect my shoulder and left arm. I lost the feeling in my left pinkie and my left hand tingles like it's asleep most of the time. I'm left handed so it's a real problem. I went to the doctor this week and I'm scheduled for a myelogram. In the meantime he wants me to stay off the keyboard as much as possible because that seems to make it really flare up. So I'm going to be scarce around the blog world for awhile. Just this little bit already has my back feeling like it has fingers crawling all over it. If any of you suffer with this also I'd appreciate advice. I'm too chicken to have surgery but it may be in my near future.

Have a great week everyone!

" Windsor" by Artist Donna K. Woods

Right after I first started blogging, I wrote a post about Hubby and I seeing a Yankee soldier ghost at Windsor Ruins... "Did You See That" ?





If you recall I saw this print at my Indie Book Store when I went to Rick Bragg's book signing.
Hubby bought it for me for Christmas........

I finally got it to the framers a couple of weeks ago to be matted in my great frame find from

Dirt Cheap. ( $20.00)

Yesterday the artist Donna K. Woods and her husband Gary came to visit us!

I made a pot of coffee and fixed a Blackberry Cobbler and the four of us had a wonderful afternoon talking about haunted plantations, southern history and art.

Donna brought me copies of historical documents she's collected over the years about Windsor.

One of the things she brought me was a copy of a letter written by Elizabeth Ross who was the sister of Catherine Daniell, the mistress of Windsor Plantation. apparently she lived at Windsor with her sister during the Civil War. This is an interesting exert from the letter dated January 25, 1867..........

"sad changes have taken place in the last six years. Smith Daniell and four of his little children have died, only six of us left, my sister Catherine, Pris, Tom, myself and little Smith who was born six months after his father's death. ( the 6th is not named)

We had no one to protect us and fight for us during the war, the anxiety and trouble we passed through is past description, all of our property taken from us, one hundred and sixty five horses and mules taken from us, three steam gins,three thousand bales of cotton burnt at one time,our house searched about twenty times. Grant made this his headquarters for two days and then made our house into a hospital, had between four and five hundred wounded in the house at one time and they would not suffer us to leave the house. They allowed us four rooms in the third story. Our cook, cooked our meals out at her house and brought them to us until they left here. The smell from the wounds was very offensive, we could hardly bear it. They made our yard their burying ground, if we made any complaint, they would threaten to burn our house, so we had to bear it patiently. We are so thankful that our house and lands have been saved, we can rent out or lease our plantation land so that we will be able to live comfortably."

So I'm now thinking that the Yankee soldier we saw, is buried in that yard !!!!!!

" Winter Confusion "

Yesterday it was sunny and 70 degrees.....of course I know Mother Nature was just teasing us into thinking Spring had arrived! I wasn't gonna let her confuse me but............

This morning I got out early and found I might not be the only one suffering confusion.

The sky seemed to be confused as to "weather " to storm or be sunny..........

I also found that the Forsythia might be suffering also......It's trying to bloom in February!

All this new growth in the Rose bed wasn't so confusing because I've been covering and uncovering it during the freezing cold nights and sunny days........

I'm determined to help Spring along...........

I'm clear headed about seeing the Roses bloom....SOON !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the Italian Parsley is confused too.........it had all froze out but look what I found this morning!

The Rosemary has remained green through it all! No confusion here............

Yesterday, Hubby goes to gather the eggs. He comes in and says to me; We got 6 and 1/2 eggs but one was busted so we have 5 and 1/2 eggs. Now I'm on the couch reading and I think to myself, one half egg? What is he talking about? Come look he says! Well blow me down! Isn't that the cutest little egg ? Talk about confused! Who laid that? Now we are not " chicken experts", so I call one. She says that sometimes when a hen molts, she will "lay out". The eggs will get tiny and have nothing in them. I haven't cracked this one but it's too heavy to have nothing in it...........

However Queen Vicki is moulting...........

See her bald spot??

That's Miss Trixie GoLay in front of her who was the first to lay. So I'm confused......

Shouldn't she be the first to moult??? HELP???

Now the whole chicken gang is confused because I never enter the pen without a treat.....

Sorry gang, I'll be back with a treat later............. :)

No confusion here.... the Peek Gang along with TC the cat are napping..........

L to R....TC, Patch, Sadie and Jake........

OOPS! This is Monkey Man, he used to be called Duke but when he was tiny he had the face of an Organ Grinder Monkey so we started calling him Monkey Man and it stuck. He is confused because he still hasn't figured out how to get up on the couch with the others........

The one thing I'm not confused about is......Today is Queen Vicki's namesake Vicki Lane's Birthday! Go Here and wish her a Happy Birthday!

HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

" NY TIMES BEST-SELLER"

I am by no means an expert on books, if I was I'd be an editor in New York! However I am pretty good at picking great reads. I think this comes from being a multi-genre reader of 50 years. I will admit there are a few genres I don't read such as sci-fy and certain types of romance. I like a little romance if there is a strong woman involved, such as Elizabeth Goodweather in Vicki Lane's 5 star series. Years ago I worked for a record company in Nashville picking singles. For those who don't know what that is, I'll explain. The artist records an album of say 12 songs. Usually the first single release has already been picked. I would get a copy of the album, listen to it several times and then I picked the song I thought was the best one on the album to be the next single. I had a pretty good track record for picking # 1 songs.

This past week I read 2 really awesome books by NC author Peggy Poe Stern.

Heaven -high Hell-deep and its sequel Above All. Both of the books in my opinion should have occupied the # 1 spot on the NY Times and Indie Bound Best-Seller lists!

I would categorize these books as literary fiction.











In Heaven-High, Laine Elder is a 14 year old (going on 30) mountain girl who knows nothing but hard work, her mother's mental abuse and the tragic heartbreak of her baby brothers death. To save her from her mother, her father forces her to marry a man much older. This book GRABS you from the first page and holds you tight till the end leaving you with an ache for more. With grit and determination reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara, her love of the land will have you cheering her on

and turning the pages to see if she comes out the victor over the trials and tribulations of mountain life. Its cliff hanger ending made me thankful I had also bought the sequel Above All because I don't think I could have waited to find what happened next with Laine!

Above All is an equally great read that you cannot lay down!! At the end you say NO, I can't believe I have to wait for Peggy Poe Stern to write the rest of Laine's story! Thank goodness there will be 2 more books in Laine's story. These books are some of the best writing in print!

I would say run don't walk to your nearest bookstore but here's a shortcut which is your best bet to get these wonderful books. http://peggypoestern.tripod.com/id14.html

" Hats Off To Valentine's Day "

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY..................
The day is all about love.....I love the beautiful card my Hubby got me! He's under the weather, in the bed and I'm trying to be real quite so he can rest.....
Valentine's Day to me is more about hats than Easter is, I guess because I love Victorian Valentine's Cards where the women always have on a beautiful hat!


Those women knew how to dress and the hats were fabulous! I went through a hat phase in the early 1980s. My BFF and I loved wearing our hats!

When I watched the series House of Elliott last year, I wanted those hats! I wanted to wear those hats!

For over a week I had been watching this collection of Vintage Hats on EBay. The bidding ended last night. I WON these 9 hats and let me tell you the bidding got fierce!! These are my Valentines present from the Hubby!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!! I intend to wear them too!

These are a few more hats I'd like to own! That Angelina is a doll in hers!

So I guess I should say " hats on to Valentine's Day ".................

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY EVERYONE !!!!!!

" My Top Ten Favorite Reads "

Yesterday I got a e-mail from a lady in Mobile, Ala named Twila. She ask me if I would tell her my all time favorite top 10 books.......

For someone who has read thousands of books over the last half century,( I started reading at 7 years old) that is not an easy thing to do! So I walked around "the porch" and gazed at my hundreds of books. I was a hundred pages shy of finishing one of the best books I've ever read, so I'm really glad she didn't pose this question to me last week. I thought long and hard about it and unless my memory is in serious trouble and I've forgotten one, here goes Twila...............





1. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I was 22 when I read it the first time. I was 24 when I saw the movie and decided if I ever had a daughter she would be named Melanie after the sweet, compassionate and loving Melanie Hamilton Wilkes. I have read the book I believe 4 times!



2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Released in March 2009 this book has been on the NY Times best-seller list for 45 weeks and has for the last 3 weeks occupied the No.1 spot.



3. Heaven-high Hell-deep by Peggy Poe Stern. I just discovered this awesome NC author recently and bought five of her 17 books. This is the first book she wrote, I finished it yesterday and I'm 100 pages into the sequel, Above All.
THIS BOOK is awesome and should have been a number 1 best-seller years ago!



4. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have read this book 8 times and it just gets better!



5. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I first read this book in 1994. I have purchased 4 copies of this book over the years. I loaned out 2 that I never got back, which broke me from loaning my books. I currently have the 3rd and I ordered one for my daughter, it is her all time favorite book! This is a christian romance set in the California Gold Rush days based on the biblical story of when God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. This book is an unforgettable read for anyone!

6. Alex Stewart by John Rice Irwin. This is the non-fiction story of an incredible man. Alex Stewart lived on the Tennessee-Kentucky line in Appalachia in a county(Hawkins) that Irwin describes as 100 years behind times when he met him in the early 1970s. Irwin visited and tape recorded their conversations for 20 years.This book reads like a well written novel and you will cry when it ends and never forget Alex Stewart!

7. Christy by Catherine Marshall. Another book I've read several times. Set in Del Rio, Tennessee on the NC line, this is another unforgettable book about old Appalachia.

8. The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb. Set in Appalachia the story is based on the first woman hanged in the state of North Carolina! An awesome read!

9. The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan. Another Appalachian story of the hard fought survival of a mountain woman...........

10. Forty Acres and No Mule by Janice Holt Giles is the personal account of the authors move from the city to the Kentucky backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1940s. It too reads like a wonderful novel! I have read this book more than once and love it more each time.

So, there is my top ten favorites. It would take me days to list all the books I consider 5 star reads and all the authors I think are amazing writers. We live in a time when great writers and great books are everywhere!! Just look at a portion of my TBR stack, everyday it seems I hear about another book that I want to add to it! My greatest fear is not living long enough to read ALL the books I WANT to read!

So lets see.... 9 out of 10 are Southern writers, 6 out of 10 are Appalachian Writers , 6 out of 10 are Appalachian Mountain settings. We may not have won the Civil War but the South is the winner hands down when it comes to the Literary War in this readers opinion! :0)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE and READ A GOOD BOOK !!!

" It's Snowing In The Pines "

Christmas In Dixie, it's snowing in the pines...............one of my favorite songs is sung by the group Alabama... It's not Christmas but friends it is snowing in the pines big time! A forecast of 5-9 inches by 2:00 P.M. In 1894 it snowed 16 inches in Southern Mississippi.............




In Dec.1963 it snowed 8 inches. I was living here then and I was 3 months past my 11th birthday but I do not remember this event.

Yesterday morning at 6:00 A.M. this beautiful sunrise gave no hint of what was to come but we'd been hearing about it for a week.............

5-9 inches! No Way! Not here ! When it snows, which is rare, it is usually 1-2 inches but mostly less than that..........

I looked at this sky thinking in 12 hours we will be under a Winter Storm Warning.........

Around 4:00 P.M. these clouds had me thinking, Snow Streaks?

We battened down the hatches, put out hay, cranked up the greenhouse heater and filled 5 bird feeder's. At 6:00 A.M this morning the birds were in a frenzy at all the feeders and there was about 1-2 inches of snow............

You guys hurry up! It's my turn said; the little fellow!

Excuse me, we are on the fence...waiting our turn........except for the Cardinal who preferred the bent branch of the Oleander.

All by myself......at a seed buffet............

This Gardenia is bowing...............

The pines and popcorn trees carry the weight...........

Heavy wet snow is falling on the pond..........

I'm in a world of beauty on this early morning...........

St. Francis must be freezing...........I covered the bird bath so that when it quits I can fill it with bird seed...

It is supposed to snow until about 2:00 P.M which I think may end up leaving us with about 6 inches.........

Looking out on the back pasture........

This Oleander is in the front...........

That's another Gardenia behind St. Francis...........

Some of the pines on the front..........as I said........it's snowing in the pines!

Birds use the limbs to pearch on...

This waiting is for the birds.........huh?

A snow covered Crape Myrtle...........

Dinner on the ground............... :)

It's getting heavy eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I'll have the end results this weekend! Stay warm, dry and read a good book why don't cha?