Hot Town, Summer in The City

This has to be the weirdest looking cucumber I've ever seen. Terry picked this out of our garden this morning.

Another scorching hot day in Middle Tennessee. The best place to be today is holed up inside with the AC blasting! This was the temperature in the shade on our back porch earlier this afternoon.

Beautiful, rolling hills of Jackson County Tennessee.

Old headstones in Richmond Cemetery.

This picture was taken in Richmond Cemetery near the Flynn's Lick community of Jackson County.

Fried Okra

I fried up our first batch of garden Okra for dinner last night and it was so yummy! It's really starting to crank with the hot weather we've been having.

Cats Just Wanna Have Fun

When Terry got up the other morning, he found our cat, Bullet on top of our kitchen cabinets.

He decided while he was up there to have a little snack. At night, we take up Jessie and Libby cat's dry food and stash it on top of the fridge. Looks like it's time to get the Scat Mats back out :0)

Queen Anne's Lace. I didn't notice the two little insects above the flower until I uploaded the pictures to my computer.

Postcards from Cordell Hull Lake

Scenes from Cordell Hull Lake in Granville, Tennessee

Mimosa growing on the bank.

June 19, 2012

Yesterday morning me and sister Jane met in Gainesboro, TN to spend some time with our 97 year old Aunt Joy. Joy is the oldest sister of our mom who passed away in April and is our only living aunt. She treated us to a wonderful lunch at a place called Bethany's Cafe. The food was great and the view from the restaurant was awesome.

They had a variety of pretty flowers around the house.

This is a view of the Cumberland River from the back of the cafe.

View of Gainesboro from the front of the cafe. I'm sure the view is even prettier in the fall when all the leaves are off the trees.

After lunch I asked one of the owners of Bethany's if he would take a picture of us. He gladly obliged. To the left is my sister Jane,  my Aunt Joy, and me.

Sister Jane walking Aunt Joy out to the truck after having our picture taken. It was a hot day, so Jane brought an umbrella to shield Aunt Joy from the sun. Afterwards we drove back to Joy's house for a slice of her delicious homemade Lemon Ice Box pie. We had a nice visit and hope to do it again real soon!

Thistle seed pod.

Honeysuckle!

Bumble bee munching on thistle in the field adjacent to our house.

I looked out our back door this morning and found a deer in our backyard. I grabbed my camera with zoom lens and quietly made my way out to try and get a picture. He looked up at me and froze and I snapped this picture. I love deer, but really hope they don't discover our garden. Soon after I  got this picture, he headed off toward the hedge row and into the field.
 

I had another nice surprise this morning. After getting some pictures of the deer, I spotted our Tree Swallows who had come back for a visit. They left the bird house over two weeks ago. They sat on the garden arbor long enough for me to get several shots of them. All in all a great morning for photography :0)

Flowering onion top.

June 12 Sunset

This picture was taken on June 3rd in a cemetery
somewhere between the Granville and Flynn's Lick
communities in Middle Tennessee. Someone colored
a chalk image on the front of an old headstone in the
cemetery. It was kind of creepy.

Sink Kitty

Bullet in our utility room sink. Crazy cat!

This little beauty is the very first squash from our garden. I'm so
excited! :0)

Afternoon Nap

Bullet in one of his favorite napping spots...the window sill in our
office window. With a nice breeze and low humidity today, it's an
ideal spot!




"All I do is eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. Eat and sleep. There must
be more to a cat's life than that. But I hope not." ~ Garfield the cat

Transit of Venus 2012

Transit of Venus 2012: Spectacular show seen for the last time until 2117


More incredible pictures at the link. Check them out!

Bye Bye Birdie!

Yesterday morning, our Tree Swallows left to migrate. Terry happened
to see the entire family happily flying around the birdhouse and arbor.
Here's how he described it to me in an email he sent me yesterday morning.

"Those were definitely the babies flying around my head when I went
out there. Kinda freaked me out – I was standing in front of the box
looking up and there wasn’t any sign of the babies. I couldn’t hear
them or see them. Then out of the blue 4-5 tree swallows swooped
down near the entrance of the box but didn’t try to feed the one left.
That’s when he started jabbering. They didn’t do it again but the
momma bird did come back and feed him a couple of times. It was
like they were all trying to get him to fly out and I guess it worked
sometime between when I left and when you got up"! Pretty cool I
got to witness it.










We will miss them, but are pretty sure they'll return to nest in our
box next spring for the 4th year in a row :0)

Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. ~ Mother Teresa

Sunday afternoon me and Terry took a drive down to Rob Draper
Memorial Cemetary in Gainesboro, TN where my parents are buried.
My mom passed away 5 weeks ago and the monument company went
down on Saturday to finish the engraving on the headstone. We also
took a little cherub to place on the headstone as well. It was given to
my mom when my brother Rob passed away 4 years ago. I miss them
so very much and not a day goes by that they are not in my thoughts.

Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.
- Anonymous

Hungry Babies!

Our ever hungry baby Tree Swallows.

Two of four baby Tree Swallows residing in our birdhouse this year.
Yes, that big one is a baby if you can believe it. We call him "Hoss"
after the character from the 1960's tv show, Bonanza. The three other
babies are much smaller. Hoss is always hogging the food and is always
fighting to be the first at the opening of the birdhouse. So much so, that
one of the smaller babies got pushed out of the birdhouse today.
Luckily I found "Little Joe" in the driveway. Terry got the ladder, I got
Little Joe and returned him safely to the nest. I'm glad I found him
before our cats did.


The three smaller babies. We've had so much fun today watching them
jockeying for position at the opening of the birdhouse. Mama and
Daddy have been busy all day feeding them.


Daddy Tree Swallow taking a short break on top of the arbor.
If if he thinks you're gettting too close to the nest, he'll swoop
down at you. He's attacked our cat, Libby, a couple of times.

Daddy Tree Swallow. I thought there were only two babies in the nest,
but it turns out there are three :0) More pics to come.