Gardens are growing, almost everyone here has one, but not me

post #343
       Another lovely day, and great garden weather continues here, so far. In this post, I revisit some gardens I've shown before, to show changes. And I have added a couple more -- all this being close to where I live.  May your vegetables be beautiful and delicious....

three photos from my former home place, looking amazing!

herbs WELL cared for....

family support system

           I stopped by Margie and George's, who unfortunately weren't home at the time, but they have given me permission to stop and take photo whenever. Photos of their garden are in earlier blogs over the six years I've been doing this weekly.

purple martins devouring bugs and more bugs

lovely, lovely lilies

    I also stopped by the barn-in-revision project, and took just a few photos, and most were about the garden.  So the next five photos are from there, yesterday.

Progress!  Stay tuned!

Jean's garden, next to the barn

another use for those tobacco sticks now that tobacco is no longer done all that much

Jonathan taking a barn break by redoing the metal roof on the house!! And he still has his fulltime job!

the view of the house "across the street"

a late daisy, a big one, and a good photo with my iPhone.... Be bold, be beautiful!!

Note: My granddaughter has been away, but I will keep my plan to share a weekly photo of her -- when next I can.

More sky, more garden, more barn, more, more, more

post #342
       Yikes, this day has disappeared! I went for a short walk this evening, and remembered in the middle of a field that I hadn't done my post yet! My lawn around the house got mowed today, however, with lots of visiting at the same time with Seth and his family. Later Daniel, from my photo class, came out. He was late because he lost his keys for a couple of hours. This made me feel so much better, yes better, because I tried to drive to Prestonsburg on Friday and left my wallet at the house -- so I had to borrow $5 from a friend in Sandy Hook where, luckily, I had stopped to get some gas. It turned out I needed that gas to return home to retrieve my wallet -- which I had cleverly left in my camera case but then later I had decided not to bring the case because I might have to leave in a hot car at some point. There's more to this story, but it's getting late and I have these photos I want to share....  This is called hiding behind one's art.
        I'm choosing to start with the granddaughter photo, on her way back to the car after her ballet recital in Morehead. I love this quiet moment after a very busy day and evening.

   This second photo is one BY Thea: her three kittens. They live on the porch behind a stack of wood. So far the kittens and the puppy are not killing each other off. This is very good.

    Now back to that barn. I stopped by one afternoon before a big rain was forecast. First I had a good visit with Jean and her niece and great niece. When I got back outside, the wind was blowing the corn in Jean's garden, which now is quite full compared to a couple of weeks ago. She gave me a cucumber to take home.

     Her barn was getting siding at a fast clip. I saw today that it is now done on this side.

    
The front entrance is now back to being high and wide:

      The rain started just about when I finished up.

 

Had another adventure this week -- with a cow snake in the shed where I sometimes park the car to keep it from getting too hot in the sun.  These snakes are LONG.  And they must demolish a lot of mice and creatures to feed their enormous selves. I am grateful for its services and help, but I did not want to get intimate so I got in by using the passanger side of the car. The third photo was taken after I had crawled over to the drivers side and opened the window. Nothing seemed to get the snake too excited.  Where do they spend the winter??

 the shed, with a deer to show its size

First view - the snake stretched out along the top of the wall... I was using my iPhone.

the lumpy and lazy look....

      There have been many evenings this month with great skies -- these photos show the most recent one:

pond reflection

   The day lilies have been wonderful this year. Here is one of the last. And also the last photo for tonight. I hope while we all observe the 4th of July, we can celebrate what's best about America.  Surely that will include being able to overcome the meanness we are all experiencing. Reach out to a fellow citizen this weekend and say something supportive -- so we don't lose sight about what the USA is really all about. I also hope my sharing several stories about where I live count as a testimony for the country we each share with so many others.
 

recent photos of clouds, a barn rebuild, and flowers in northwestern North Carolina

post #338
       Three weeks since my photo class ended! Summer has arrived! I took a brief road trip through 4 states when a friend from Indiana, Rachel, drove to North Carolina to pick up her daughter at the Arthur Morgan School; she picked me up, too, en route [see Garden Flowers and Ice Cream!] Now that the class has been over for 3 weeks, I finally had time to stop by to check out the enormous barn redo that my neighbor Jonathan has been doing -- lowering the roof to make the barn last another several decades, replacing some rotting posts, etc. (This project is in addition to both his full time job at the Little Sandy Correctional Complex state prison and the care of his own goats and fields and family!) And, in May, there were some spectacular skies around here, though I only recorded them one time.

Flowers, first in the garden and then Mountain Laurel while walking along the road: 

Mountain Laurel

Can you tell this used to be a tobacco barn? It will now be used for live stock, including horses.

Jean's garden

-- more barn and garden photos from here soon --

 And now the sky, over time, one evening, from Sideway Gallery:

OOPS, I almost forgot the ice cream, from The Ice Cream Deck, in Burnsville, NC:

Rachel's nephew, Adrian, ate the whole thing! including the beautiful scoop of blueberry kale!

     To end, I want to share a beginning -- this morning -- the first lily from this bed of lilies outside my front door.... I do nothing, and they come up every year. In these unsettled times, this is reassuring.