Blooms

I played around with a few photos of flowers that are blooming right now in our yard.  I am so addicted to messing with my pictures, good or bad...

Wordless Wednesday: Sensei and Student

Wordless Wednesday: Darr Mine Disaster

The Trees of Girtyland

Our yard here in PA has so many trees that I really have no clue what they are.  No slash pines, live oaks or cabbage palms here!  So one day I decided to take a picture of all the big trees and get George to tell me what they all are.  So here they are:

Alaskan Cedar

 Atlas Cedar

 Bald Cypress (Yeah, the only one I knew in the yard!)

 Colorado Spruce

 Contorted White Pine

 Douglas Fir

 Dwarf Alberta Spruce

 Hemlock

 Hoopsi Spruce

Leucodemis Pine

 Mugho Pine

 Silver Locke Fir

 Weeping Norway Spruce

 White Pine

I am still having a hard time telling a spruce from a pine.  To me they're all "Christmas Trees"!  They're all beautiful and quite different.  Some are kind of rare and some are super common.  The biggest trees in our yard are Black Locusts.  No pictures of them.  Right now they all look dead, but soon the leaves will start to pop and before you know it, they'll be all green and pretty again.  They are the slowest trees in the yard to reemerge after winter.

I'll have to take some pictures of all the smaller bushes and odd trees we have and post them soon.  The flowers are starting to pop all around and everything is so pretty!  Just waiting for the peonies and rhodendrons to start blooming.  They are gorgeous!

My Cracker Grandma

My Grandma, Louella McCollister Miller.

She was born at home in Hatchbend Florida on September 22, 1905.   My Grandma loved to fish.  She loved her gardens - vegetables and flowers.  She loved to laugh.  She loved her whiskey and her smokes.  She was a strong woman that I only ever saw cry one time after her only daughter, my Aunt Mary, died.

I keep pictures of her in my bedroom.  I still have my very first fishing rod and reel that she gave me.  I think I was maybe 6 years old.  A Zebco (of course!).  She would always have to put the worms on for me because I hated the way they would squirt worm juice when you run the hook through them.  I still can't put a worm on a hook.

She loved God and was active in her church.

She cared about all her children, grand children and great-grand children.  She knew where everyone was and what they were up to (well, most of the time).

She was very opinionated.

She always drove a Volkswagon beetle.  Her last one was a '65 that I really wanted, but my Dad sold it while I was living in Texas :(

She held a lot of different jobs, but what I remember when I was young was her selling Avon and babysitting.  "Here's My Heart" was her favorite perfume.

She had tiny, narrow feet.

She rarely wore dresses or bras.

She kept her booze in the nightstand that now sits next to my bed.  No booze in it now, though!

She didn't believe in alien life because it didn't say anything about it in the Bible.

She liked to watch the Lawrence Welk Show.

She told me her favorite brother was named Velpoe.  He died when she was little from a ruptured appendix. His real name was Asa Velpoe.  Why he liked going by "Velope" is beyond me!

I wish I had a recording of her voice, and more of her memories written down.  But she is in my heart forever and I miss her everyday.

I love you, Grandma!  ...and I will see you again one day... XXOOXXOO

Wordless Wednesday: Installation Faux Pas