from the porches

productive day

Truett and I headed out early this morning to take care of loose ends by buying pool chemicals, enough dog and cat food to last them a month and groceries for Clay which should last him two weeks, but probably will be mostly eaten in one week.  All in preparation for things to work smoothly while we are away.   

On the drive into our yard I noticed the Mexican Petunias are blossoming.  The pictures I'm posting are from last years plot.  They should be this tall upon our return from Alaska, provided we get some rain..and we will.  Whew!  It was 96 degrees today in Gainesville with high humidity.  Typical North Florida weather and also the beginning of hurricane season which begins tomorrow (June 1).

Tomorrow morning I will go to my mom's and take her a sausage biscuit from Hardees.  This is a ritual we have.  She chats about her neighbors and I listen.  Here is a photo of mom from last Sunday morning.  Not bad for 84 with 4 months until her 85th birthday.  We also go to dinner every Tuesday night and sometimes to a movie.  We saw Harrison Ford in his latest Indiana Jones flick last Tuesday.  We were both exhausted afterward due to the continuous action. 

Okay Mom.  Smile for the camera.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

tuttie fruttie

This afternoon I was talking with my sister, Sherry, on the phone.  I said something and she answered,  "Well, tuttie fruttie."

"Tuttie fruttie?"  I said.  "I haven't heard that since the 50's."  Then that reminded me of a conversation I had with our school office clerk and nurse.  Since we've had hundreds of parents wandering our hallways and sidewalks all week due to awards assemblies, we've seen some pretty interesting characters and some very eye-catching clothing or the lack thereof.

Anyway, the clerk said,  "Did you see that man with the cowboy hat and the roach clip dangling off of it?  That went out in the 80's."

Teasingly, I asked,  "The what?  Did you say roach clip?"  Well, she looked at me with horror on her face; but then she saw my wicked smile and the three of us laughed a hearty belly warming laugh.  The nurse then claimed,  "In high school I didn't go to the bathroom because it smelled of pot and cigarettes."

"Really?"  I said.  Then I thought for a moment and added,  "You know girls, you really can tell how old someone is by what they remember.   I am so old that when I think about going to the bathroom in high school, all I remember smelling was bubble gum."

Now that's pathetic, isn't it?

Have a great weekend.  Oh, you want a picture?  Okay.

one

Some thoughts on "One":

One more day with the children at school.

One first grade child who rolled up her art work into a megaphone and shouted from a distance,  "I will miss writing club."

One parent who threw up her hands in exasperation when I stuck my head in her car door and whispered,  "One more day and you have them for the whole summer."  I think I ruined her day.

One pleasant evening with Merry Jennifer and the kids while Truett went to the dentist (Dr. Markham, of course).

One "HOO!" from an owl practically in our front yard followed by successive "hoos", or

One person lurking in the woods scaring us. (Thanks, Truett.  Now I'm afraid to sit on the porch in the dark)

and one bottle dangling from a tree.

 

heating up

Yes, our weather is heating up.  Getting into real summer weather.  So why in the world am I looking for winter clothes?  That's right!  In one week I'll be cruising in the northern seas headed for the glaciers and eagles, moose and sled dogs.  Oh, no!  I said sled dog by mistake so I suppose I'll get another lecture on the plight of the sled dogs in Alaska.  That did upset me but did not take away my enthusiasm for our cruise.  Now that I'm aware of the mistreatment of sled dogs, I need not read that again.  I do object to a stranger invading my blog for her own egomaniacal reasons.  Now I got all heated up again so ...

How about a nice cool down in the pool?

 

Wish you were all here to relax around the pool, swim in circles, splash each other, play Marco Polo, and maybe even see a shooting star as we swim at night.

new growth

Yesterday I was walking around our place and stopped by the grape arbor.  The cutest little grapes are forming.

Seeing these tiny grapes immediately flung me back to the 70's when we first moved to Fort White.  I didn't know a thing about canning but thought at the time that I must make my own grape jelly because that's what everyone did during those days.  Boy, it was hot..hot..hot.  The grapes were always harvested on Labor Day weekend, and back then I had no air conditioning and a very tiny kitchen.  But I made grape jelly for years just to prove that I could.  I kind of miss those times when we made ends meet to just live.  But then again, I was in my late twenties and early thirty's.  It would not be so fun today, I'm afraid. 

        

memorial day-2008

This afternoon Truett and I drove around Ft. White in the red open-air jeep and I took photos of some of our community on this Memorial Day.  Please don't believe this is all there is to Ft. White.  We do have nice clean cut subdivisions, but these pictures make up part of the character of our small town.

     

         Tubing season has begun.  Memorial Day is the official opening of tubing our rivers.

    

                            "Happy Memorial Day!"  this lady shouts.

     

                             Innertubes swaying in the breeze.

     

                             Red, white and blue.

       

           Thanks to all of our men and women who gave their lives for our country.

     

         Truck farming at its best.  Silver queen corn, ripe tomatoes, Vidalia onions and...

     

                 WATERMELONS!  Sweet, juicy, sticky WATERMELONS!

I hope your Memorial Day was as good as mine.

     

Merry Jennifer, Maddie and Oliver came to visit today.  We swam in the pool, ate lunch and just sat around and talked while we watched Oliver busy at work, carrying baskets, loading and unloading baskets, spilling out plastic Easter eggs and putting them back in the basket.  He kept busy the whole day.  What a sweetheart. Maddie is a great sister, offering Oliver some of her snacks, playing with him and waking him up from a nap.  But mostly she watched the Indy 500 while Granddaddy dozed.  Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

     

     

 Grandchildren are so much fun!

the flutters

                      

Have you ever woken up and felt a flutter in your heart and you just know it's going to be a good day?  It's a quiet excitement that special things may just happen if you're open to it.  This is exactly how I feel this morning.  Maybe it's because I have only 4 more days left with the students at school.  Maybe it's because summer is knocking at my door.  Maybe it's because we are traveling to Alaska to see the snow, mountains, sled dogs, eagles, moose, whales and if we're lucky, bears. Perhaps the flutters could be as simple as seeing Merry Jennifer, Maddie and Oliver tomorrow.  Then again, it could be the thunderstorms that are headed for our area today.  Flutters don't just signify irregular heart beats.  The flutters that I sometimes get are pure, divine joy.  Isn't this a wonderful way to begin a day?

Here's a picture of Jacksonville that Truett took from our hotel window last month.  Enjoy.

 

             

Well, here we are at another weekend, and a long one at that, praise the Lord. 

Good things: 

1.  Only 12 days until we leave for our Alaska cruise.  Thank you Merry Jennifer and Sam, for without stimulation package, we would not be taking our first ever cruise...and to Alaska at that. 

2.  Truett and I have shopped Gainesville and St. Augustine for winter clothes for our trip.  We actually believed one rack of winter clothes would still be displayed and marked way, way down at one store we've shopped in.  Nope.  So Truett came up with a brilliant plan.  We'll buy clothes on the trip.  Seattle, Vancouver, etc.  This sure helps with the weight on the luggage we'll be taking.  Ooops!   I almost forgot about the airlines charging $15 to handle the luggage.

3.  I've received two penpal letters, both from second graders.  These guys are so trusting.  I've answered one and will write to the little boy tonight.  After the first letter I recieved I did tell the children not to fill their letters with,  "How are you?  What are you doing?  Are you fine?"  I suggested strongly they tell me what they've been doing and I'll respond likewise.

So here's a Friday bangle for you.  It's in my mother's front yard. 

ordinary day

This afternoon Truett asked how my day went at school.  "It was okay,"  I responded.  Then I wrote paychecks for the employees.  Yet, as I was driving to the post office after having written paychecks and checks to other sources, I was thinking, "Just another ordinary day."  So then I really started thinking,  "Okay, you just spent eight hours of your life and all you came up with was ordinary day. Pooh pooh on you." 

That's when I really thought about the moments of the day.  The highlights and lowlights.  This is what I came up with:

This morning  I watched a 100-year oak tree topple to the ground.  No, it just didn't keel over.  Last week we had high winds in Fort White and a heavy limb of this century old tree fell on top of a teacher's car.  Totaled it.  So we were told the tree was coming down.  So at 9:00 a.m. my class of first graders came to my room.  I told them to follow me because I wanted to watch the men cut down this huge old oak. "Will it make a loud boom?"  one child asked.  "I'm scared," another child whined.  "Save our trees!" a dark-haired boy shouted.  "Where will the animals live?"  another girl asked.These were all valid concerns and questions and I answered each one in rapid succession,  "Yes.  It's okay.  Yes, save our trees. They'll live in that tree."  As a teacher, you have to think quick and answer quick. 

So here's the scene.  The electric company has tied a rope or cable around the upper trunk of the oak and has backed up until the rope was taut.  It reminded me of cowboys lassoing a wild horse or bull.Then one poor fellow began sawing about five feet up the tree trunk with his chain saw.  Bzzzzzz!  Bzzzzz!  I can tell you right now that this poor fellow did the hardest work, but it only took about fifteen minutes before the grand finale.

So there we are. Twelve little munchkins and I are lined up peering through the chain length fence.  We see four workmen walk backwards  toward our gym.   The white electric company truck revved its engine and began backing up.  That's when the children and I watched an amazing sight. The century old oak tree did indeed topple.  Not with a loud boom which I seriously expected, but with a WHUMP!  followed by a pop.pop,pop,pop,pop. 

One little girl said,  "That sounded like fire crackers," and she was right.  There was no boom that we all expected.  Just pop,pop,pop,pop,pop.  The branches were snapping off.  The children chose not to write about what they saw, but I know they can recognize the sound of an oak tree falling to the ground.