Spring Chores

The weather is beautiful today! But, along with the nice weather comes the chores.

Charley pruned the grape vines.


I dealt with the berry vines. What a mess!


Plants are are popping their heads through the dirt!

If you look close, you can see the first white shoots of Hosta emerging through the earth. They aren't very colorful yet.


The red leaves of my Bleeding Hearts are pushing up.


My spreading Poppies!


I transplanted this flower today. I'm not sure what it is, though. Do you know? It grows from very large round bulbs.


I almost complained about the heat. I got hot working outside! But, I didn't.

I just wish the flowers would wait a little while before pushing up through the earth, because I'm sure we'll have many more frosts before the hot weather. I hate it when my flowers get bit by the cold.

How about you, are your plants popping through the dirt, yet?

Travel Souvenirs

When my husband was in the Navy, he bought souvenirs in most of the places he traveled. They were in his parent's house until recently. We brought them to our home this week.

He was stationed in Puerto Rico, and he sailed on the USS Leahy DLG16. When they weren't steaming out in the ocean, the Leahy was docked at Norfolk, VA.

Here is a souvenir pillow from Puerto Rico. Isn't it beautiful? It goes perfectly with our chair.



He bought beer steins made in West Germany. He believes he bought these in Greece. The one on the left winds up and plays music.


While he was in Greece, he also bought handmade Greek vases. The ones on the left are made of spun copper.



My favorite items he bought were alabaster items handmade in Italy. Here are candlestick holders and a small birdbath with tiny doves around the edge of it. He bought these when they stopped at Naples, Italy.


My very favorite alabaster items he bought were two lamps. Here is a picture of one lit up. See how the pattern of the alabaster shows when the light is turned on. I just love the lamps!



They docked at the piers of Barcelona, Spain, and like all the other sailors, he felt compelled to go to a bull fight. Now, before anyone says anything about the cruelty of bull fights, I totally agree. I feel sorry for the bulls, too. Here is a large tapestry he brought back from Barcelona. It is huge and covers the entire length of the couch.


I think these are what they called banderillas.


I will never get to go to these places, so I'm glad he brought back souvenirs of his travels home with him. Now, I just have to figure out where I'm going to put them all.

Our little house in the hills of West Virginia is getting a little crowded.

Pot Holes!

I hate pot holes. My husband hates pot holes.

We zigzag down the road trying to avoid the pot holes. It is impossible. You swerve to miss one and you hit another. We sometimes find ourselves driving down the middle of the road.

I attempted to take some pictures of pot holes. Aren't they pretty?


Pot holes are everywhere!


There are a lot worse ones. You are on top of them before you realize it. So I missed taking pictures of a few doozies.




Sometimes I wish the highway department would just roll up the road and start all over.



Don't you?

Recipe Submissions

Hey, does anyone have a recipe to submit to the West Virginia State Fair 2010 Cookbook?
It doesn't say, but it may be just for WV residents.

Go to this site and download the form for submission. The address to mail it to is on that page, too.

But hurry, the deadline is March 5th!

I'm sending in my blackberry cobbler recipe that everyone loves.

So, if you have a tasty recipe, you might want to send it in to them.

What to do

I have been busy with things and I haven't been posting a lot. I am tired of posting about snow.

But what do you do when the snow will not disappear?

Right now I am watching a herd of deer in the field in front of my house. They are scuffing their hooves through the snow and nibbling at whatever they can find beneath the fluffy white stuff. They look beautiful standing in the white backdrop of the snow.

this picture was taken a few days ago, we are now covered with snow again

Our bird population grows and grows. I think they have spread the word about the people who buy the suet and the 50lb bags of birdseed.

I think this year we are having a winter to tell our grandchildren about. Our grandparents don't have anything over on us. We now have snow stories that will match the ones they told us.

When I was young we sledded on everything imaginable. Of course, there was the standard wooden sled. But we also used large pieces of cardboard and hoods of cars!

We stood around large bonfires lit to keep the hands and feet of sledding children warm.

We had snowball fights, we built snowmen, we flung backwards on the snow and made snow angels.

Of course, we did all of this after our moms bundled us in layers and layers of clothes, hats, gloves, coats and boots.

What a mess we made at the front door when we ventured back in from the cold and snow! Mountains of wet boots, outerwear, coats, hats and gloves piled on the floor. We ran to the heaters and our mothers made cups of hot cocoa to warm our insides.

I love the titmouses. . .


the cardinals. . .


the juncos, the woodpeckers, the chickadees, the wrens and the finches, but I am looking forward to seeing the first robin of spring.

The Three Crosses

There are 1864 of them. Have you seen any in your state?

Fairplain,WV

When I see them along the roadway, if I have my camera ready, I snap quick pictures of them.

According to this article on the internet, WV has 352 of them. Check it out and see how many are in your state.

Here is the history of the man who erected them.

Mr. Coffindaffer was born in Craigsville, WV. He had a vision where the Holy Spirit instructed, blessed, and dealt with him and told him how to go about installing the crosses.

For the final years of his life he spent approximately 3 million dollars planting the 3 clusters of crosses in 29 states, Washington DC, Zambia and the Philippines. He started the project on Sept. 28, 1984 and he died on October 8, 1993.

I watch for them when driving through our state.

I didn't snap this picture quite soon enough,
the third cross on the left is hidden by the brush.

I took this picture on our way back from Pipestem in January.

This picture was taken in West Charleston.
I'm not sure if these were erected by him or not since it is in the middle of town.
But the colors are right with the yellow one in the middle and blue ones on each side.

I think they add beauty to the landscape and they are an inspiration.

You can go here and see other pictures of the crosses from across the country.

Have you seen any?

He Was Right!

I hate to say it, but, "I told you so."

I just remembered my "Uh-Oh Blog Post" in September where I posted a picture of this little critter:


Needless to say, that little black woolly worm has made a believer out of me.

How about you?

Happy Valentine's Day

An early Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

I ♥ my husband!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I just learned how to type hearts!

Isn't that neat. You probably already know how to do it, but in case you don't this is how it works.

Press down the Num Lk key, then hold down the blue Fn and Alt key at the same time, then press the 3 key and let up. Don't press the 3 key on the top of your computer, but the one on your number pad. On my computer it is on the L key.

♥Happy Valentine's Day. ♥

Great Backyard Bird Count

I didn't know it was supposed to snow today, but huge flakes are currently falling.

The 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count is February 12-15.
You can go here for more information.

It doesn't take much of your time, as little as 15 minutes a day to observe birds.
They provide you with a tally sheet to keep track of the birds.
You can enter your totals on line and there's a photo contest also.


So put out some seeds and have fun counting your birds.


On another note, we went to Parkersburg yesterday morning and this was a scene along the way on I-77. Click on it and you can see the car that slid off the road.

Rain, Snow, Sleet. . . Take your pick

It's been raining all day and we have the high water to prove it. It got a lot deeper than this, but I couldn't snap a picture after dark.



But now it has turned into a wet snow. I guess we'll see how much has accumulated when we get up in the morning.


Are you wondering if February is good for anything besides snow and Valentine's Day?

I found out a few things I didn't know when I was researching my February children's column for Two-Lane Livin'.

I bet you didn't know that February 11th is National Inventors' Day, in honor of Thomas Edison.

Of course, everyone knows that two of our most famous presidents were born in the cold month of February. . . but did you know that February 14th is Ferris Wheel Day? I didn't.

I found that February is also a good time to buy clothing on clearance. I was at Wal Mart a couple of days ago and I got two skirts for $3 each, 2 blouses for $3 each, one pair of pants for $3, three shorts for $2 each and a blouse for $5. I hardly ever pay full price for clothing and I thought these were pretty good deals.

I guess we should be glad that this is not leap year or we would have to put up with 29 days of yucky weather. . . I am ready for the first blooms of spring! How about you?

I close this post as I listen to the sound of the snow plow rumbling down the road.

Weekend Trip #2

This is my second post about our weekend trip to Pipestem State Park.

We checked out at 12 noon on Sunday. We stopped by the Nature Center . . .


to visit our friend, the Park Naturalist. . .

Charley and Jim relaxed and gabbed while I took pictures.

this little one got sprinkled with snow while nibbling at the pine needles

the cardinal looked beautiful on the snow covered limbs

the little ones couldn't reach the bird feeder, but this one could

Jim said he usually ran them off because they ate all the bird seed, but he let me take some pictures first

they would go away, but kept coming back for more

and more. . .

We spent a long time sitting in the rocking chairs, watching the birds and deer. A good end to a cold, frosty trip to southern WV.

Weekend Trip

Snow was in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, especially in our southern counties. So what do we do? We take a trip on Friday to Pipestem State Park, which is in Summers county!

The trip down was uneventful and the only snow we saw was on the slopes of Winter Place as we passed by. But, what a difference a day makes. We woke up on Saturday morning to a winter wonderland. Pipestem ended up with I'd say a foot of snow on the ground. We were snowed in for the day on Saturday. This is the first time we ever went on vacation and our car never left the parking lot until we left to come home.

I took so many pictures, it was hard to figure out which ones to post. I thought I'd post of few pictures of my favorite parts of our stay.

Our room was on the 7th floor and the deer entertained us down below our window. They rutted in the snow for any food they could find.



The little ones were so cute. Their fluffy hair reminded me of wolves.


They looked so cold with their snow covered faces.



We took a walk in the snow. The only place we walked was on the roads, everywhere else was covered with a foot of snow and I didn't bring any boots. I looked like a red bird in my coat.


We walked to the playground. We decided eating on the picnic tables was out of the question :)


But the view from the restaurant on the 7th floor was beautiful.


You usually go on vacation to relax. But, my husband spent hours removing snow from on top of and around our parked car. I made fun of him when he packed a scraper, broom and snow shovel in the trunk of our little car. I guess he got the last laugh. Here he is sharing his broom and scraper with another lodge guest. Charley is the one on the right.


After walking in the snow and shoveling out the car, the lobby fireplace was a warm place to go and relax.



Wouldn't it be nice to soar like the birds over the frosty, snow covered hills?



We found out that, unlike a lot of people we met, we really do not like vacationing in the winter, especially during a snow storm. But we did enjoy ourselves and tomorrow I will post pictures of my favorite part of our trip.