nothing is ordinary

Odd things

sometimes something will catch your eye; a color, a pattern, a shape.  the front of this old air-conditioner caught my eye the other day.

one of those days

today is one of those days; dreary, chilly, damp and depressing.    the trees are fully clothed with leaves with a green mansions feel to it, the wild, yet there is not one spot of sun reflecting on anything, anywhere. i'm not really complaining (except a little bit) because i know that at any moment the weather can take a sharp turn and it will be hot and humid, the sun so bright it will burn your eyes out... and miserable.  i do not take heat well.  so as of this moment, i've decided to just enjoy the damp green day through the window and plot and plan how i will regain my farm.  i need a gardener or time at home and a sharp saw. 

i did find something interesting to show you...a heart-shaped tree stump.  at one time in my life i found hearts everywhere and knew they were a "sign".  i never knew what they were a sign of but i could just feel that they were special and that i had been special to have had them presented to me.

spring

it is spring.  the yellow daffodils and forsythia are blooming. the periwinkle and violets and  the wildflowers are popping up; the toothwort,  trout lilies, the bloodwort, all beautiful and all oh, so  temporary.

it is also the time for mating and princess freckles went into heat, so thursday she was spayed.  poor baby was zonked out on medicine for a day and extremely submissive, but yesterday she rallied back.   black wolf dog is still lingering in the yard.  sorry, buddy, our little girl will not have your pups.

                                                                                  

what is age?

                      after spending a week with my mother, i came home with bits of wisdom.  

                                                   

Tears for Luanna

This weekend Tiffany did a lot of on-line research into Quinn's family tree, specifically his  father's side.  Quinn never met his Grandfather, Oscar Pearl or his grandmother, Luanna Pearl who died when she was only 36 after having two sons; Quinn, Sr. and Uncle Frank.  Quinn's father was only 8 when his mother died.

In any case, we scoured the Bullitt County Pioneer newspaper from 1904-1918.  This wonderful little paper had tidbits of personal information. They lived in Shepherdsville, KY.  We saw where O.W. Pearl (Oscar) and Mrs. O.W. Pearl visited friends or relatives.  The paper never mentioned her by name, just as Mrs. O.W. Pearl.  We saw  Christmas letters from masters Quinn and Francis Pearl to santa, we saw that Quinn's grandfather had been ill, but recovered and that she had been ill and recovered.  There was the Spanish flu outbreak. We saw where Oscar and a friend went to the world's fair in St. Louis.   Page after page, year after year we read, looking for more details.  We laughed about Quinn's grandfather's twin brothers when they purchased a new car (one of the first), or wanted young ladies to meet them at the fair. We saw where O.W. Pearl had been a teacher, a principal in Bullitt County, then the Circuit Court Clerk. We saw where a child's white coat was lost and was asked for it to be returned to Mrs. O.W. Pearl. 

It was fascinating reading, like solving a mystery.  It was like reading a book.  Tiffany would cross-reference other family members and find their connections and places.  She was on the computer for hours making notes, printing pages.

Then tears ran down Tiffany's cheeks.  "What?"  I asked.  Tiffany told me she found it, she had found the article where  Luanna Slaughter Pearl, Quinn's grandmother, Tiffany's great-grandmother,  had died at age 36.

Now we knew it was going to happen, but somehow we had become so involved with their personal lives and comings and goings, that her death was as shocking to us as it must have been back then, in 1918, to them.

                                               

snow monsters

last night it began to snow.  at 4:00 a.m. it was still snowing, two inches at that point.  at 6:00 a.m. when i got up there was at least 4 inches of snow, and it is here for a while because the temperature is dropping.  we are expecting another two inches.  i was sipping coffee this afternoon, looking out the window and i saw it...the snow monster.  it wasn't there earlier, but with the shift of the wind it appeared.

cowgirl

like most kids i had several horses, one was a stick, my bicycle was sometimes my horse and then there was

the gas tank behind the house.  "silver" was its name.

"gas horse" painting was inspired by that childhood memory with "birdie" as the rider.   i think 

"birdie" is my inner child.  this is one painting i regret selling but i was told by the purchaser that she

also had similar memories as a child.

 

"jack-ie!"

this is a dog story.  the story is about a dog calling to another dog in the night...the kind of call that wakes you up and you think, "hush up!", but it doesn't.  you can't go back to sleep because the dog continues to bark, on and on and on and on.  annoying, huh?  very annoying.  you are not awake now, nor are you asleep, but you get in the rhythm of the dog barking, and then for some unknown reason a miracle happens.   suddenly you can understand  dog language and you know the dog is calling, "jack-ie!", "jack-ie!", "jack-ie!", "jack-ie!", "jack-ie!", "jack-ie!"

awakening the next morning the first thing on my mind is, "who is jack-ie?"

meet coyote.  coyote is about 15 years old now and has never been touched.  she wandered the fields as a puppy and finally ended up at our house, too wild to be touched although she will eat from your hand.  we love coyote and so does princess freckles.  i think jack-ie must be coyote's other friend.

taffeta dresses

today i was thinking about grade schotol and  high school things, i suppose because of the photograph i had taken.  i'm not sure that taffeta dresses were during my time, but it still caused me to reflect back.

On Christmas Day I saw...

fortunately i had my camera with me on Christmas day when i captured the following: