Sixty Years Strong

Another one of the treasures to share from our road trip last week, is this wonderful old garden plow.
Still in usable condition, with the original red wooden handles.
An old advertisement shows this plow cost a whopping 12.75 in the year 1950.

I've been up to my eyes in cardboard boxes for the past two days. The First Sergeant has been organizing his workshop and moving tools and equipment out of the garage and into their new location.

How do we accumalate so much 'stuff' ' ?

More 'Pickin'

There is a noticeable change in the air, the mornings are cooler and have a certain crispness to them, the dew is heavy afoot.

Yesterday, The First Sergeant unloaded the 'pickin' goodies and began placing them around the garden.


Old tractor wheel and new mums, displayed along the spilt rail fence.




I spotted this copper weather vane, and wanted him for the potting shed. It turned out to be a little overbearing, and so it was decided to mount him freestanding next to the fence.



There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.
~ Winston Churchill

The First Sergeant had his sights set on a huge old cast iron pot, which took up most of the room inside the trailer.

He filled it to the top with sand and soil, and planted it with Asters, Chrysanthemums, and Winter Pansies.

The next 'pick' was something I have been keeping an eye out for, an old bicycle....

There she was, in all her glory, propped up alongside the iron pot.

"Picked"

I've still to work on her flower-carrying usefulness, but I'm already loving her.

There a still a couple of treasures to share with you, I'll get busy with the camera today !

Hope your Sunday is a treasured one......

American Pickers

Yesterday The First Sergeant and I decided to enjoy the last of the summer weather, and so we loaded up the trailer and headed East..
We had a mission in mind, we were going 'pickin', just like the American Pickers on the television show.

Instead of randomly stopping to see what we would bargain for, our destination was an old antique/junk store situated within a stones throw of Center Hill Lake in Smithville, TN a reservoir constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1948.

The lake, which is 64 miles long, and covers an area of 18,220 acres has approximately 415 mi (668 km) of shoreline, with the deepest point at 190 ft and is well-known for water recreation and fishing.

View from atop the Dam entrance

View from Dam onto lake

Traveling down the back roads of nearby Edgar Evins State Park

Abandoned homestead

We returned home with our little trailer full of treasures, mostly for the garden, of which I'll post later, but wanted to share this wonderful old Blue Willow teapot I bought for a fraction of it's worth.

Time for tea !

Simon's Cat " In the Box "

For all of us cat lovers out there, a new Simon's Cat video, for your purrfect enjoyment .

This message approved by Oliver >^..^<

Nobody Left To Love Me

Someone always leaving
and never coming back.
The wooden houses left too long abandoned
to turn old and gray.

Weeds pushing apart . . .
Trees gone wild,
Fields taking over
Shredded curtains blowing in the wind.

Beams of weathered wood . . .

No longer able to hold in
The soft heartbeat of Home.

Summertime: I Bid You Adieu

The wildflowers continue to share their beauty, despite lack of rain, and hotter than normal September days.
It's been a HOT summer, period.
And so, as we transition into the gentler days of autumn I share with you the last few flowers of summer........


The goldenrod is yellow,
The corn is turning brown;
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.

The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curing in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun.

The sedges haunt their harvest,
In every meadow's nook;
And asters by the brookside
Make asters in the brook.

From dewy lanes at morning
The grapes' sweet odors rise;
At noon the roads all flutter
With yellow butterflies.

By all those lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather,
And autumn's best of cheer.

September ~ Helen Hunt Jackson 1830-1885

Bouncing Bet, Soapwort

Purple Passionflower

Yarrow

Joe Pye Weed

Blue Lettuce, Aster

Queen Anne's Lace

Black Eyed Susan

Heavenly Blue: Morning Glories

Summer's End

"Spring flowers are long since gone.

Summer's bloom hangs limp on every terrace.

The gardener's feet drag a bit on the dusty path and the hinge in his back is full of creaks."-

~Louise Seymour Jones

View Through My Window

What I'm watching when I should be working.....

Making A Start

There has been copious amounts of huffing and puffing around the garden today.
The First Sergeant's lady found an absolute 'steal' on Craigslist, enough cedar split-rail fencing to
build all of those projects we've talked about lately.
One fifth the cost of new lumber, and all delightfully weathered over the past fifteen years.

Bright and early this morning , The First Sergeant and favorite son-in-law, loaded up the truck and trailer and headed out to collect the 'goods', and before noon this was the result.


The first sections have been installed, and as the days progress, we'll be installing more.

We added a barnwood birdhouse

The Morning Glories are still blooming their little hearts out.

The field is full of wildflowers

An old garden implement wheel a yard sale 'lucky' find

A 'ginger' helper

Wandering Path

The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes.

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins,

Strong love of grey-blue distance

Brown streams and soft dim skies

I know but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

~ Dorothea Mackellar 1904

Heads Above The Rest

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.

It's what sunflowers do."

~ Helen Keller

The House With Nobody In It

In the early Spring, I wrote about an old abandoned house on the edge of town.
Sadly neglected and in disrepair, the remains of a once loved and vibrant homestead.

Running errands earlier today, I drove past the old house, but didn't realise I had done so, until I was several miles further up the road. How could I possibly have missed it, I thought ?

On the return trip, I made sure to be on the look-out, and plain enough, they have torn the old girl down ......

My heart is heavy, I shall miss her.

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do, a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

~ The House with Nobody In It : Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

Sitting On The Fence

Fences are some of my favorite things.
They can be both beautiful and functional, and are most often used to keep pets, children and strangers, in or out.
They protect our gardens, and offer privacy as well as giving our homes a more rustic appeal.

I prefer old fences, time-worn woods, covered in lichen or mosses.

We are preparing to install more fencing around our home, we've yet to decide on the tradition Split-Rail fence, or a Cedar Stack Rail fence, either way they both make my heart skip a beat....

Split Rail fences mimic the look and appearance of fences built in the early settlement days.

Cedar Stack Split Rail fence can be easily disassembled and re-located.

Need A New Plan ?