My weekend has been full of blooming bonnets of peas;
green star backdrops;
talking things over;
dusty barefeet;
smells of fresh turned flying dirt;
faint sounds of chirping baby birds from a box in the basement;
and more than one silly kung fu fighting incident.
Hope your weekend has been as nice as mine.
Tipper
Candied Sweet Potatoes Roastin’ Sweet Potatoes – Murphy written by John Parris Sitting around a hearthfire of a winter night…
I’m wishing each of you a Merry Christmas and giving you a song to send some cheer to you and your…
Like most things in life, when it comes to saving heirloom tomato seeds to grow next year, there are numerous…
I say chester drawers. Do you say chest of drawers? Over the weekend my cousin said she had a word…
A few weeks ago Blind Pig reader Carol Stuart mentioned using running cedar as Christmas greenery when she lived in…
Last night Chatter and Chitter’s school held a Holiday Spectacular for the community. The Dramatic Literature Students had the audience…
You got CHICKENS!?!?!?!
Bev-never worry about taking up the comment space-I love all your comments!! I believe those 2 are discussing the new tiller-and The Deer Hunter did plow up the whole garden LOL!
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
I heard ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ on the radio this morning!
You’ve had quite the weekend. I love the little birds.
Perfection!
Tipper–Since B. Ruth has pointed out to me the error of my ways, I will acknowledge that I actually thought about the use of sweet gum balls in Christmas decorations when I made my original post. Momma made wreathes and such like using them, but even then I preferred hemlock cones, seed pods from milkweed, hazelnuts with their husks, sycamore balls, white pine cones, and other makin’s to sweet gum balls. Come to think of it, I don’t belive Mom ever used sweet gum balls until I was grown, married, and lived where the trees are all too common. They aren’t exactly thick on the ground in Swain County. In fact, the only ones I recall seeing anywhere were along roadways where they were doubtless imported, accidentally or otherwise, by some flatland furriner.
B. Ruth is a good woman to defend this tree, which needs a defender or two since it surely has to be an invention of Beelzebub. I don’t mind her taking me to task a bit, as Miss Cindy has done once or twice. I learneed long ago to pay heed to wise mountain women. Speaking of the spawn of Satan, along with the sweet gum the same thing can be said of skeeters (which B. Ruth mentions), barbed wire, bureaucrats, and biting dogs. LOL.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
In defense of that evil, mean, wicked and nasty sweetgum, it’s about the best chop block there is. Supposed to make a good maul or mallet too. And it’s fruit can add a little life to a cob fight.
Got some of my herbs planted today. Am mighty blessed about that. Will do a few more tomorrow.
We have to wait to plant everything until the farmer does whatever he plans with the field behind us, because he often sprays with Roundup, and if we’ve already planted, we lose everything that we’ve planted that’s growing on that side of the house. But he sprayed a couple of weeks ago, so now our plantings will be fine.
God bless.
RB
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Lovely photos! Sounds like a pleasant and creative weekend. Apart from an outing today in the countryside which I thoroughly enjoyed, I spent most of it working and marking past exam papers.
Hey there again…..
I hate to take up all the comment space on here…but wanted to know …Is Deer Hunter and Pap discussing which kind of flowers are a’goin’ to be planted down (looks like a driveway) or is he tellin’ Pap…”I shore love yore daughter and if this whole place has to be plowed up…I’ll do it!” What a Man, what a Man!” LOL
Are the girls Kung Fu fightin’ over which chick they are goin’ to name or hold?
We planted one Mandalvillia in a big pot this afternoon…just waiting til evening to plant some petunias…Still got to stick the marigolds all around the raised beds we use to help keep the bugs away…and WOW! do we already have’em by the thousands…dusted already once….
Later and thanks Tipper,
Hey Tipper,
I did want to comment on the beautiful sweet peas….I happen to love them…My Aunt in Canton used to have a whole bank full of them…The colors were just beautiful..
A fence was behind the bank, and on one of the posts, attached was a bluebird house…Imagine; a watercolor painting with that bluebird sitting on the rusty barbed wire, the wearing away of the old cedar fence post and birdhouse worn with time too…In front a whole bankful of Sweetpeas….In my minds eye I can still see them…When I was a child I thought that bank of sweetpeas was the most beautiful thing I ever saw..along with the male blue bird sparkling in the morning sun….
Thanks Tipper for the memories
Tipper,
I’m back…this time to spout off with our friend Jim….
Did you wonder why the ole Sweetgum was such a hard old tree to get rid of…Them old P, P, P, and P trees you mention, (them words I can’t even spell/type even goin’ back to look at’em)!LOL
They’us put back in thar fer Tipper and the mountaineer women like us to make purty Christmas ornaments out of…Crafty folks like us just love a Sweetgum…A ton of em’ glued on a wreath and (or not) sprayed gold or silver is beautiful at the holidays as a center piece or on the door…Cute little animals can be made out’of ’em too…Many a
young’un stacked ’em high clutched together with their spiny hooks holdin’ together to make houses and little forts…Now then, walking barefoot about a tree can reek havoc on the feet…amd most folks think the tree is a’liken to the Lord givin’ us the ‘skeeter…and I understand whar yore comin’ from Jim…I’m just glad I have to go the dry woods to find one and one don’t grow in the yard..We just took one down behind the shed to make way for a new chicken house…The man runn’in the backhoe fussed the whole time he’us a’tryin’ to push hit over….
Thanks Tipper,
PS…some folks rake’em, put’em in the mulch grinder after dry and put in the compost…
It looks like a perfect weekend! I’ve been catching up on your posts — love the May Pole dance. And what a gorgeous arrowhead!
@ Ruth B! My dad’s favorite comment: sulled up! I was often being chastized for same 🙂 Love the kung fu poses, too.
Tipper,
I loved all the pictures….
Shore did want me to spout another ode…but I’m laughin so hard at some of the comments that I just couldn’t brang myself to it…..
Ed..When we got our baby chicks a few weeks ago..(Ideal236 breed) they were just pure balls of fluff..So we immediatly took them over to show the grandkids…
Over the oooohhhs and ahhhhs..
from the grandchildren, along with, so sweet, little
chickie babies, can I hold it, etc…………..
there came a loud voice that said, “Allright, chicken nuggets!!” One nugget, two nuggets, three nuggets, four…
You talk about a damper put on seeing the first baby chickies of spring. It was from my son that laughed and laughed, as the kids just sulled up, the thought of McDonalds chicken nuggets danced in their heads!..Of course you would have to have been there…LOL I don’t know if they have eaten any nuggets yet…I think that was a sure fast food stopper….LOL..
Thanks Tipper
I love your description of your weekend. It seems to me that you are able to find the ” joie de vivre” in everything you do!
Ours weekend has been filled with preparing our garden plot for sowing! This morning we have planted our potatoes and in the square foot garden, radishes and green onions. We also have the seeds we sowed on Monday sprouting and showing their beautiful selves! Can wait until we can plant everything!
Tipper–You are sho’ ’nuff an agelic soul if you can find a green star and something positive to say about sweet gums (at least that’s what the green star backdrops appear to be, although they aren’t overly common in the mountains, so maybe it is another tree). Anyway, sweet gums have to be one of trhe most pestiferous, pestilential, perplexing, and positively irritating trees I know. They won’t split worth a toot, are lousy firewood, stick roots up in a way guaranteed to trip the unwary or destroy lawn mower blades, send up sprouts every which away, their balls will throw the belt off a lawn mower in a heartbeat, they tear asunder all too easily in storms, and provide virtually no benefits to wildlife.
Sorry, but I have an ongoing war with sweet gums and you offered me an opportunity to ran.
I loved the picture of a mock clash between Chitter and Chatter, and the peas are perfection. Oddly enough they took me straight to boyhood, because they were scattered all over a steep bank below the house.
Jim Casada
http://www.jimcasadaoutdoors.com
What fun! Isn’t it just the perfect time of year to take it all in!
It’s been an exciting week and weekend here in Derby City. I try to stay 30-45 minutes south of all the traffic and crowds. I have spent days working in the yard and garden, trying to catch-up between the storms. My weekend doesn’t sound as relaxing as your, but I enjoy being outside no matter if it’s work or play.
I hope the girls didn’t end up on the ground or need a referee:)
I think you are on to something just perfect for a family weekend! Happy Sunday!
On the cusp, Tipper……
Girls on the cusp of being women….
Baby chicks on the cusp of being hens laying lots of eggs……
Blooming bonnets of peas on the cusp of being peas for dinner…..
Maple trees on the cusp of being full shade for the hot and tired……
Fresh turned flying dirt on the cusp of being another part of the garden growing beans and corn…
Men on the cusp of..a plan, LOL, or something……
Spring on the cusp of summer!
Looks like an active weekend there. Thanks for pointing out the beauty in “routine” everyday life.
Looking at the baby chirpers from the basement brings visions of other babies. Baby dumplings?
What a beautiful and varied way to spend a weekend, and it’s not over yet! I love your similes–being a poet of sorts–“bonnets of peas” and “green star backdrops”–fabric for cutting out and sewing a poem here! And the little birds so cuddly and withs such potential. And people, too, who love the earth and its beauty (and even working it: all the above and more make life worth living, news days worthy of exploring the wonders that await!
It has been a good weekend here in the Ohio Valley though it has been a wet one.
My weekend has been full of visitors. A fish Fry. Beautiful flowers, Green mountains ( which I adore)and God’s many Blessings and my family.
Beautiful way to spend the weekend.
I’m having a great weekend too. Visited the downtown farmers market yesterday, loaded up with all kinds of goodies. Resting on my laurels today.
“blooming bonnets of peas” what a fantastic way of describing them!
Enjoy yourself!
Good weekend here on Sunrise Ridge as well!
love the kung fu girls. and i think i smell the dirt you described. it does have a smell of its own. sweet little birds.
Sounds like a good weekend.