Happy Halloween

On Sunday this is what came my way. It was the first rainfall in at least 7 weeks at my place. It came with the wind as you can see but it was good. On Monday the storms brought some tornados to the area. We don't have many tornados in our area but one touched in the city knocking a few business out for a day or two. Nothing too severe.

After the rainfall has left the area it was beautiful to see this sunset yesterday while blowing in some colder temps.

Hope you all have a blessed day.

PS my in the ground nest of yellow jackets have been gased. They looked like an ant bed swarming. There were so many down in the hole. I so wanted to get a photo but I was not getting close enough to the swarming varmints. Glad to have them gone. I bet they had some monstrous living quarters like high rises.

My baby will turn 34 on Sunday too. Happy Birthday Jimmy.

Blooms and Bees

This hole started as a small hole in the ground and has grown to this size. It has been slowly getting bigger over the past 3-4 months. I had noticed bugs flying in and out all the time it seemed but really thought that it was something harmless since I haven't been bothered by any flying bugs. Finally I got my camera and got a closer look at what is going on since the hole has grown so big. There are bees and they have built 'condominiums' in the ground. I assume it is honeybees. Have you ever seen bees build in the ground? I am going to contact the Agriculture Dept for them to tell me what to do about them. I don't want to kill them - they are such a vital part our food chain.

NOTE: I called the Alabama Cooperative Extension and they said there is no way this could be bees. They think yellow jackets. I will have to kill one to see what this is. I still say it is bees.



Cleome still blooming.

The rest of the photos are a little blur. Sorry.

Mums blooming their heart out. The bees don't have to worry about not having enough nectar in my yard.

 I have volunteer zinnias coming up all over the gardens. In the spring I'll have to thin them out but for now not much else is blooming in this little garden.



Hope you all have a blessed day.

This and That

Sorry guys - but I'm complaining about blogger this morning. Got to load all photos at one time - can't add any more after that. sucks. A couple got deleted. Oh well. That's life.

I had a good weekend. Got out of town for a change. And the change was good. Headed up north to Cleveland MS. My dad lives there and I went up to see my dad and step mother.

The trip up was boring as heck. We were in the Delta area. I learned that this road runs along the MS River and is nothing but flatlands. For the entire 107 miles that we drove this road nothing but flatlands. Boring.

I saw mostly open fields of nothing but dry dirt. The farmers can't plant due to the draught conditions we are experiencing here in the south. However there were tractors stirring up the dry dirt along the way.

Little Buddy did really well for the 5 1/2 hour drive. He mostly rested in his riding bed but sat up now and then to look around.

My dad and me.

We decided to take a less boring route into Jackson MS and rode the Natchez Trace. This was my first trip on the Trace and you couldn't ask for better weather for traveling. The bluest skies and temps of maybe 78. One day I'm gonna take the Trace to Natchez or start there. Natchez is a place I want to visit. It's on my bucket list.

Here we got on the Trace.

This is the first marker we saw.  

We saw only a few vehicles on the Trace. Ended up passing the only 3 vehicles 3 different times on the way.

 

We stopped at this park and walked part of the trail.

The view at the park.

The trail was open and well maintained. Buddy enjoyed getting out too.

Along the paths were mostly the Beautyberry that someone identified on my blog from my yard. Correct me if I'm wrong.

There was very little color which I found surprising. Guess it's not far enough north. However this was pretty.

We passed the resevoir. Forgot the name of it. The sun sparkled on the water as the sun hit it just right.

It's always a joy to see the grands, daughter and husband.

Gavin is taking guitar and piano lessons. Gavin is the oldest - going on 13. He is strumming me a tune.

Ben is in the middle. He is into martial arts and is showing me his routine for his next belt. The boy is good. (have I said I hate blogger sometime)

Luci is the youngest just turned 6. Luci decided that she wanted to take karate/tai kwon do too and she is doing very well. Last year she was in dance and I hope that she will resume dance along with the martial arts. Martial arts teaches the children self control and coordination among other things. (Could it be too late for me - I could use some self control and coordination. just kidding ya'll. I think something would break)

April and Luci and me. (have I said I hate blogger sometime)

The SIL Brian with Ben.

Gavin.

On Sunday I decided to fix a seasonal meal. Baked Tilapia with fresh basil, parsley, lemon, butter and paprika for color. Also baked sweet potatos and cooked yellow saffron rice and baked apples for dessert.



Baked apples was on the menu.

I make this stuff up as I go along here.

Apples with the first ingredient - honey.

Blogger didn't load right so they are out of order. Ready for the oven. Believe it or not what you see is two apples.

These are the ingredients for the apples. I love honey on just about anything. Except for all the butter I use, it is a somewhat healthy baked apples. I use a lot of butter/margarine on lots of things. Could I be related to Paula Deen? Just asking.

I have been wanting to learn quilting for sometime now and just haven't taken the plunge. Well my step mother set me up here with this Quilting Bible. And a quilt starter piece (under the book-blogger wouldn't load the photo). I need to get me a little Singer sewing machine and begin making some quilts. Can't wait to get started.

For the past few weeks - everyone who sees Buddy has commented that he has gotten so fat. I guess I didn't really notice that he had gained weight. The vet didn't say anything when we were last in for a visit. He weighed 22 pounds 4 months ago.

This is Buddy's cabinet filled with dog treats. I had been leaving his food on the floor and filling the bowl whenever it gets empty. Plus I love passing treats out to my little companion. He kinda ate when he wanted but - I'll tell you - Buddy eats when I am present and only if we are in the same room and he has to be sure I'm not doing anything with food. Funny dog.

Buddy loves his treats and I love to pass them out.

I decided to begin picking up the food bowl and putting it down for him only once a day now. He is focusing on his food now. After he eats good I'll give him a treat. I think this will help the little fat fellow.

Look at this sweet rolley-polley. He loves his momma and loves mommas chair.



Hope I haven't bored you too much.

Hope you all have a blessed day.

A Few of My Pretties In October

I fugured out how to delete blogs thanks to all of you. Let me clarify that I am wanting to delete blogs 'I follow' who haven't posted in more than 9 months. I woudn't delete any blogs that follow me. 

Had a beautiful weekend. Still no rain here. It has been the driest Sept and Oct I can remember. There are burn bans and there have been some fires too. Last weekend a home on Dauphin Island caught fire and quickly spread to 4 other houses. Burned down 4 homes and left one standing that will need to be repaired. Luckily no one was injured which is not the case with a home fire this weekend. One person died. We need some rain here bad. There is a 30% chance tomorrow but after that no more chances of rain.

I've been keeping things going in the flower beds with the sprinklers. Everything seems to be coming along nicely in spite of the heat and lack of moisture from above.

I think my mums are going to do nicely. They are beginning to open now.

Begonias have been the best performers this year. They have been in bloom since probably April and are still blooming. They will bloom right on till the frost gets it.

Zinnia volnteers are everywhere. I pulled out the main plants from the spring and they self seeded and are coming up all over the place. 

Usually I don't have much success with the white shiny leaf begonias but they have performed beautifully this year.

Gerbera Daisy's have always been a favorite of mine. Normally they do not do so well in my gardens. These are new ones though so I'm enjoying their beauty.

Love me some snapdragons too.

Marigolds are good performers here.

 Love the color of the snapdragon.

Dianthus is a good performer giving flowers all summer long and into the fall. I put out 12 more Dianthus plants last week.

Pink begonia.

I did get out to a yard sale on Saturday. I could kick myself in the butt for not buying more of these figurines. This lady had a table full and they were all .50 each. No name brands on the bottoms but they are very nice.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this ornament. My daughter sold these when she was in 2nd grade many years ago. I had that ornament till just a few years ago. I lossed/broke it and then I found one just like it. Made my day.  (April do you remember this ornament)

 This was .50 too. They look just like Snowbabies and I couldn't tell the difference. But they had no name on the bottom. Good lookalike.

Loved the Granny holding her little puppy. This is me and Buddy.

I love a good Snowman. This one is well behaved.

I should have taken a photo after I washed these platters. These were a dollar for the pair. Who can go wrong with white platters and there are no scratches or chips either.

I have a thing for night lights and accent lighting. I loved these little mushrooms. I added a blue night light and like the effects. The night light was a dollar. 



Didn't do anything that I had planned this weekend. But oh well.... Spent the weekend by myself cleaning and stuff like that. I love it when I can mark off all of the items off my 'to do list' and I did that.

Have a wonderful and blessed day dear blogger friends.