Gardens

Quote for the Day:

Gratitude is the intention to count-your-blessings every day, every minute, while avoiding, whenever possible, the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances.

Timothy Miller
How To Want What You Have

Butterfly

Is it a Swallowtail butterfly?

Is that another one hidden under those leaves? 

What belongs and what doesn't...

OK, we've had breakfast, and now it's morning nap time.

But what's this?

Lake Tomahawk never floods, it has controls where the water goes out, and the level doesn't get higher than a few inches.

The big sluice is part of the drainage, and there's another valve that is turned to release water out a big pipe below the dam.

So I knew right away last Monday morning, how the Stop Sign had ended up in the lake.  Young people having their idea of fun.  I saw this as a younger-than-I-am man walked along with his dog.  I asked him "did you do things like that when you were a kid? I sure didn't."  He kind of looked surprised to have me ask him.  His dog just took it in stride.  (The sign was gone the next time I walked!)

Rain and summer camps

The morning after a rainy night, the lake is high, and the walks are flooded at Lake Tomahawk.

And it's summer camp time.  These are just a small sampling of the camps which visit to play along the edge, cast little fishing lines in the lake, and splash in the swimming pool.

I'm sure the children enjoy this outing.  If I remember my summer camps, my favorite part was the arts & crafts class.  But that's because I hadn't learned to swim yet.  Oh yes, and we didn't have a swimming pool available either.  Hot.  That's what St. Louis summers were in my memory before airconditioning.

I stepped into this lively chase and told the little girl "that's not nice, to chase a poor defenseless duck."  She quit, at least while I was around.  But since I walk there daily, I see her again and again.  She's watching me now too.

Did you go to summer camp?

A rockin' town

Black Mountain, NC has rockers all along it's sidewalks now.  They were donated by the businesses, and decorated by local artists.  Yes, they are there for the foot-weary tourists to use!

When my friend Jerry Pope painted a rocker, he put some of his post card watercolors of local scenes right on the chair, as well as the faux bricks!  See more of his work at http://www.harebrandideas.com/.

Evening Primroses

What's that I see?  It's early morning, the heat of the day hasn't yet come about, and the evening primroses are still open.  I dropped by here about a month ago and said this about their scent.

I admit, I don't smell a thing.  So the scent must be evening oriented at least.

I wonder if our daily downpour is the cause of so many of the flowering plants dying.  I am grateful to say I've finally seen evening primroses...even if in the morning.

What North Carolina used to stand for...

There is is, Seal of the state of North Carolina.

Though I disagree with many of the decisions our founding fathers made, I try to understand where they were coming from.  England mainly.  Eighteenth century.  Being colonial.  Being people who used chamber pots or outhouses.  Being people who had baths only once a year if that.  Being people who had a zillion children, but only a few lived to adulthood.  Being people who never saw a doctor throughout their lives.  Being people who might live to 50 if they were fortunate.

I'm sharing this post with Sepia Saturday, just for the fun of it.  I'm not exactly on the theme, but look at the women standing there...don't they remind you of someone?

OK, now to understand this Seal business.  Keep scrolling down.

This seal commemorates meetings by important NC men (no women of course, remember 1775 and what women spent their time doing!)  But wait, one of those dates is "thought to be the date of the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence."  Why don't they know, if they have it on the seal, and the flag?

I wonder if there's a secret about that date that only the "in" people know.

Oh well.  I just grin when I see "to be rather than to seem" as the state motto.  The republicans in our legislature are sure following that...being just whatever the heck they want to be.  If you haven't seen anything on the news about Moral Mondays, here's a bit of info to get you started. water-element, remembering-why, demonstrations-with-aging-hippies, and forgiveness.

If you live in another state in the US, what does your state seal represent?  I grew up in Texas and Missouri, and learned a little about what those states' histories were like.

The main thing in my mind today is, how does our current government represent those values?

Renewal

No this is not one of those spiritually inspiring talks about renewal of something that we've forgotten to have awareness of, but have anyway.

This is about mundane renewal of ...yep, go to a State Highway Patrol Office and renew that...

Drivers License.

So I just wanted to show you this lovely office...including the seal of North Carolina.  If you (like me) haven't learned anything of North Carolina history, this seal (as well as their state, er I mean, MY state flag) is full of strange dates and symbols.

The officer let me take a picture of it, which will be my post tomorrow.  For now, I just want to celebrate that I've 5 more years to legally drive.  And that this waiting room was empty in McDowell County where I drove for my renewal.  Sometimes it's worth 30 miles drive for fast service.

Do you remember?

I parked and couldn't resist taking a picture of these lonely pay phones.

 It's not the Tardis...another ancient and mysterious source of a phone box...but it's also the first of these I've seen in maybe 5 years.

How about you?  Where did you see one last, and when?

 Of course I wasn't brave enough to go see if they worked.  The last few I tried didn't.

Fishing floats

Thanks to Hank for collecting these and showing them off outside in his garden.  Do you think he will sprout some baby floats?  Or fish?  mmmm, unlikely.  I remember my ex-husband had collected Japanese glass fishing floats (all in green) which washed up on one of the Aleutian Islands when he was in the Coast Guard.