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    Today would have been my Mom’s 88th birthday.  She loved celebrating her birth with the birth of the nation and the adopted birthdate of our very elderly Greek immigrant neighbor, whose sons and their families threw a huge neighborhood pool party with spit roasted whole lamb and all the potluck fixings from the large, but rural neighborhood.  I remember these parties vividly, always ending with a few fireworks and a gun salute out over the river.
     Those neighbors and my mother have passed on now.  My husband and I tried most years to participate with our children at a block party or swim club party followed by one of the fireworks displays at the oceanfront or Mt. Trashmore (yep, a park built on one of Virginia Beach’s garbage dumps).  One year about 18 years ago, hubby went to Texas with his parents and sister to visit family, I packed the 3 kids in the mini van and drove to Clearwater, FL and spent the holiday with a friend and her 3 kid where we went to one of the causeways and saw firework displays from several communities.
     This year, hubby and I with our 7 year old grandson are visiting our daughter and her family also in Florida.   The boys have had a great time together, playing with toys and dogs and being taken once to the beach for some wet sandy fun with granddad.  Tonight we will watch the fireworks from the marina after having a cookout at our son in laws parent’s house, then tomorrow, the whole gang of us are going to Disneyworld for a couple days of fun and excitement.  I have never been there and am pretty excited to enjoy the kids, big and little, enjoy the adventure.
     We left our mountain home in 100 degree temps, after the windstorm that devastated the  north east.  We had no power when we left, have heard from a neighbor that it returned about 48 hours later and cooled off to temps about what we are feeling here in Florida, but the humidity here is worse.  We hope that when we return home, the heatwave will have abated.

For the past several days, a beautiful male Cardinal has been protecting his turf around the house from an intruder.  No, the intruder isn’t the two barn cats, nor the Redtail and Cooper Hawks that soar over the fields.

Mr. Cardinal sits atop the shepherd’s crook holding a blooming petunia just off the corner of the front porch and sings at the top of his voice, his repetitive song/warning, then flies to land on either of the two sideview mirrors of hubby’s SUV to repeat the warning.  He will lean over the mirror, flutter to the window frame and attack the intruder again and again, but he just won’t leave his turf.

Cardinals may be beautiful, but not bright.  The intruder is his own image in the mirror.

Seven year old grandson, borrowed for a few weeks with his new friend.

Surprise, the first batch of bush beans are yellow.  Bet they turn green when they steam.

First of the shallot harvest, curing on the back deck in the sun.

  First, we are greatful that the medical scare my stepmom experienced this weekend
that resulted in an 8 hour ER visit is not serious and should resolve itself in the next couple of weeks.

  We have had a delightful weekend visiting with them, in spite of the ER visit, and celebrating one of our granddaughter’s first birthday with a whole flock of 1 to 5 year olds and their Mom’s at the Botanical Garden’s WOW center.

 We are now preparing for another leg of the trip to pick up our 7 year old grandson for a 3 week visit with us.

The travel has allowed me to finish the socks I have been working on for the past few weeks.  The yarn is Trekking, the pattern is Olympian designed by a friend, but modified for an after thought heel as I  am so hard on the toes and heels of my socks.

It has been a delightful, though scorching week and I am looking forward to more time with grandkids in the next few weeks and picking up my new German Shepherd puppy on July 11.

Yesterday actually reached 90 up here in the mountains, not a usual state of affairs, especially this early in the summer.  Our A/C has only been on a handful of days since we moved here and then generally only when we have house guests.

Because the humidity is beginning to buckle the newly laid bamboo floor in the basement, we are running a dehumidifier down there, but also turned on the air last evening when it seemed too hot to sleep.

This morning, it was cooler outside than in,  but like the past few days, we were socked in.

It is beginning to warm up, predicting another scorching day ahead and clearing the morning fog.

Last winter, my love purchased a Flower share from one of our local organic farmer friends as an anniversary gift. At the time, I posted a photo of the dried bouquet that started it off and yesterday, we picked up the first of 10 lovely bouquets of fresh flowers for the summer. Each bouquet to choose from, was prettier than the next and I actually chose a soft pastel one that is not my usual choice of colors, but I know that there will be sunflowers and other bright spots later in the season.

9 lb cat and 90 lb puppy enjoying the front porch shade while I knit socks out of Trekking with a forgotten heel modification of Olympian pattern.

And why I love living here, emerald fields, hazy mountain view, lots of land and look at all the hay!

This has been the most glorious week with nights in the mid 50’s, great sleeping weather, and days in the mid 70’s. It doesn’t get better than that.  The woods flowers are beautiful.

The basement staircase is getting pine siding to carry the wood look from the main floor of the house, where every wall is log or wood siding to the basement that is log siding and pine siding.  This project is being done by our neighbor primarily with some aid by his son or me.

The garden has reached the point where it isn’t just work, it is providing.  We have several meals with peas and or greens from it and today, I picked, shelled and froze 2 1/2 quarts for the winter meals when there is no garden.  There are little green tomatoes, blossoms on the peppers and bush beans.  We have lined up the purchase of half a beef and half a pig for stocking the freezer come fall.

The blackberries are thick with fruit that should be ripe in about a month, my raspberries are providing their first fruits, they are only 2 years old, so I’m not expecting too many and I need to go check the wild raspberry thicket, though I have hesitated because of the extreme tick population this year.

We are well, continuing to improve our health with exercise and good living.  This is the most delightful place in the world to live.

   
Rhododendron

Indian Pipes fungi with young oak

Wood fern

Wintergreen in bloom with wild ginger

All shots taken in local woods on one of our walks with the pup.

Our 30 acres had belonged to the Porterfield family for generations, we are still surrounded by this family, our plot the only part sold off in their midst.  Adjacent to this property is the Hoge family property, my grandfather’s family.  He was born not 4 miles from our home about 120 years ago and there are still a few of his family up here, still owning more acreage than I can comprehend.  My mother sold off her share to her family when I was a very small child.  Though I was born up here, I was raised across the state on the coast.

When we purchased this property, it had an old barn and tucked into the back corner of one of the bays, was some old farm equipment.  Today with the help of our neighbor and his son, both Porterfields, we cleared the bay, took down a couple of old gates and removed the equipment from where it has been stored for decades.

Horse drawn Corn plow

Horse drawn Hay rake

Equipment wheel of some sort

Cross cut saw driven by a belt to an old tractor flywheel ( this piece was in the brush that was cleared last summer and we dragged it to it’s present location with our tractor)

Our plan for these pieces is purely decorative, clean the rust, oil the wood, possibly paint the metal and use them for display.

We also found the old yoke that attached these piece to the horses and it will be cleaned, oiled and hung under the shelter of our front porch.

It is amazing after watching the haying to think of the labor that was involved using the old equipment.

Modern equipment makes the job so much faster and easier like other modern conveniences, but it too varies.  Below is our 28 hp tractor with bucket and brush hog that accomplishes most of the work we do on the farm.

And this is the behemoth that was used to pull the mower and baler that made 82 large round bales of hay in less than 24 hours.