My beans are all gone

Well, it is time to pull the bean plants and stick them in the recycle bins.  I have picked a huge sack of beans and will take them down to Erin’s house.  She and I are pigs…no other way to state it, we eat green beans until we cannot move.  Sallie and Mike?  Hate them.  Will not eat a single one and have been known to gag upon trying one about 40 years ago, so I give up.

The pumpkins are turning orange and with luck, I won’t have to convince Kaylie that GREEN pumpkins are even better than orange ones.  She bought it for a few years, but she is getting wise to her Meme’s ways. 

I am turning my attention towards my next trip to Tennessee.  I am going to give my demo on weaving and I know there are a million things that can go wrong, starting with the weather.  It is either going to beautiful or wet.  I will have a tent (I assume.  Glenda, I will have a tent?)  I hope it is dry and nice with lots of people.  The first Celtic festival was very nice.  I understood the second one was lots bigger. 

I will be Trick or Treating in Jackson Tennessee this year.  Erin has provided me with a sneak preview of Peyton’s outfit ….

 

Haven’t seen what Kaylie is going at.  I will go an update when I know this information.

Maggie Mae

From the time I was a little girl, I was in love with a tree.  It was already big and the blooms were amazing.  They trees were two Magnolia’s that grew in my aunt Nancy’s house in Virginia.  She told me that her husband, Uncle George, always grumbled about them.  They were messy and they dropped stiff, crunchy, large leaves and then there was the “cones”.  (After the blooms, the stems in the middle of these huge blooms look almost like pine cones…hard as a rock.  A mini hand grenade looking thing with red seeds in them)  Yep, he was right, they had to be dealt with each year, but Aunt Nancy did it.  She loved the trees enough to put up with the wheel barrel worth cones each season.  She would pile them next to the base of the tree and I don’t remember what happened after that.

The years have passed and the trees are gigantic.  They still live, happily in the south..one on each side of the driveway leading to the old house, built in the 1800’s.  It is a picture postcard of southern house and home.  The shade is so thick, you can crawl under their branches and get out of the hot, humid weather.  One of those hot days, Mike and I were joined my Aunt Nancy and we sat on the edge of a peanut field and talked for hours about our childhood and life in general.

Maggie Mae

Several years ago, my sweet aunt Nancy died.  I was blessed to have had her in my life for a long time and I have been trying to think of something to honor her memory.  Then, a few months ago, my other aunt died, Sallie.  I feel like the air has been knocked out of me.  How lucky I was to have them in my life.  I had two wonderful uncles and cousins and their spouses that have filled my life with such good memories.   I was lucky to have gotten several pieces of furniture from the old farm and pictures all around my home. 

This week, my friend found a Magnolia tree at a local nursery.  She bought one, too, as some of her “roots” have extended to the south and her love of magnolia’s.  We got her “Maggie” planted and the next day, we went and bought me one. 

I think of it as my memory tree.  I can look out there and remember all my family in Virginia.  I can remember my father, who left Virginia to make a life in Seattle with mom.  I will smell the blooms in the spring and curse the cones in the fall, but I will love my tree forever.

Halloween is coming!

I got these pictures of Peyton.  It seems Erin was sorting out boxes from her move to the new house and ran across KK’s old Halloween outfit.  She must have decided to try it on Peyton and I think a disagreement might have ensued.  He doesn’t look all that happy.

He has his binkie and his blankie…so he can tolerate everything else in his life.  Wouldn’t it be nice if that is all it took to find comfort and happiness when times troubled us?  Now I find chocolate, ice cream and a fudge brownie is the only thing that does the trick. 

color me...sad

On a lighter note, he sure enjoys the outdoors.  Erin has her whole yard dedicated to kids.  A trampoline for everyone, a play house, swing set with slide and attachments, plastic pools and Peyton’s own “porch” swing.  Kaylie is jumping on the trampoline day and night.  She loves it so much.  Great exercise, too.

She has been with her father enjoying Great Wolf…the one down by Centralia at Grand Mound.  It is a water park.  This is why I don’t have pictures of her this time.

I swear, he is an image of Erin!