Bird's foot trefoil and more

I just love this flower...love the color, love the actual way it blossoms. Just so beautiful!  And I can finally remember its name...

Then there is this...crown vetch. I would think they are what amounts to cousins at least.  Both are just beautiful.
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I had to make a run to Walmart to pick up popsicles, ice cream (Klondike bars), and some other snack for while Lorelei is here.  I would not want to be out of her favorite treats.  As hot as it has been, I think popsicles are going to taste good to all of us.

It is raining and thundering as I type this.  And we are supposed to have more tomorrow, but Saturday and Sunday is supposed to be nice.  I am hoping they are right till Lorelei can be outside some.

I may be slow in visiting, but I will get around to everyone eventually.

A little thistle here.....I think.

Edited to add:
Thanks to Mary, I now know this plant is Teasel. I figured it had a different name, and I remember seeing the name elsewhere now that I see it again.
I am assuming this is another thistle...I should have taken a picture of the leaves, but it was sprinkling so I was hurrying. I did not know there were so many kinds, if this is indeed another thistle. The leaves were different to any I have ever seen,
and the flower was bigger than any I have seen so far. I told Roger I would almost like to have some in our yard, they were so pretty. Almost. I am afraid of what might happen if I brought some home.
The plant itself was as tall as me, and the leave were long and skinny....an inch wide at the most. And prickly just like the rest of the plant. I would not want to grab hold of it by mistake!
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Last night I was warming up some leftover soup beans that I had frozen sometime back to have for a quick meal. I put them on to heat, turned the oven on to preheat for cornbread, and ran out and got a couple green tomatoes from the garden, cut them up and put them in a bag and threw in enough cornmeal to coat the green tomatoes and sat them aside. I stuck a pan on top of the stove with a little oil in it to heat while I quickly made up a pan of cornbread and stuck it in the oven. Then I fried the green tomatoes....

Just as everything was ready, Roger came by and I told him I felt just like mommy...she could always have a meal on the table in such a short time. And this meal was one she would have fixed. It may not sound like much to some people, but it is one of my favorite meals.

And it brought to mind that some of the simpler things in life are really what makes us happy. There are always the big ones like good health, good doctors, our freedom that so many of us take for granted. Things like that.

But just think of the things that gladden your heart to think of.

Of course at the top of my list is Lorelei's smile...it melts my heart. The way she looks at me and smiles when she gets here in the morning and will duck her head into her mom's shoulder and then raise back up and look at me. Who could ever resist a face like that? But maybe she is one of the big things in life.

Hearing the wrens sing here, even though it isn't Carolina wrens, still makes me smile every morn. If I don't sit outside before Lorelei gets here, then we sit outside as her mom leaves and we talk about the wrens. The wrens here and the Dickcissels out at the strip pits make me smile. I love the other birds, but something about their singing is extra special for me.

And the smell of honeysuckle! I would love to have it growing in my yard...I am talking about what we normally call honeysuckle...the vine. I take deep, deep breaths every time I smell it...if I can, I break off some to bring home. Smelling it takes me instantly to Tennessee...Dolly Parton sure knew how to write a song when she wrote My Tennessee Mountain Home.

I guess smell plays a big part in my life...and so much of the time it is smells that take me back home. Besides honeysuckle, there is the smell of woodsmoke! I always wish I could just bottle it or capture it in a candle to burn. Or the smell of old dead morning glory vines in the fall..when I was at the orchard, I would sometimes stir up that smell and it took me to the tobacco patch of my youth. If I would have closed my eyes, I would have swore that I was there.

Hearing a friend's voice on the phone....or getting a letter. Remember a while back I wrote about how much handwritten letters mean....something to hold in my hand? One of my best friends in life set down and wrote me a letter and I got it a couple days later in a card. It is one of my cherished possessions.

When Roger and I lived in Tennessee, she and I lived almost within sight of each other. We talked every day on the phone, and usually even visited each other every day. I miss those days! So I guess I am saying that as I grow older I really appreciate friendship more. Just thinking of my childhood friends brings a smile to my face...and I think of the things we used to do.

So take a moment...and think about the small things in life that make it so much better. I am not naming near all I should. Maybe I will write more at a later date...but right now it is almost 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 is not too far off. Lorelei is supposed to be here by 5:30 so I should be heading to bed.

A thistle in all its glory

I know that thistles are generally looked on as a weed...I have thought of them as weeds all my life.
They are all prickly and will stick you without a thought....
but just look at these blossoms! Aren't they wonderful? Just so very beautiful.
I have been looking at images at google...I think these are different to the thistles we generally see. I wondered if they were milk thistle but cannot say for sure.
It is getting late and time for me to head to bed...Lorelei will be here in the morning. So I need to get some much needed sleep. If you get time, google thistle and see if you think this might be milk thistle. Or if you know for sure tell me. I also seen this spear thistle, but it didn't have an image of the flower....I didn't have time to do a thorough search.

Good-night for now.

From my front yard

I just had to show a couple things from my front yard....first the toadshade...then my dogwood tree. It is not the color pink that I wanted, but I still love it. I wanted one the color Betsy shows on her blog here. Be sure and scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see a picture of a single bloom. I meant to ask her did she know what color it was called, so I bet she will tell me now if she remembers.
I know I post dogwood blossoms every year, but aren't they wonderful. The tree is just loaded with bloom.
ETA: I forgot to mention that my quest for tomato plants is over....at least I plan for it to be over. I talked to the local greenhouse owner yesterday and they should have some Super Fantastic tomato plants this weekend. They are an improved version of the Supersonic. Needless to say, I am very happy.

Wildflowers

I just thought I would post this collage of woods plants...across the top is a Jack-in-the-pulpit, a Mayapple blossom, and toad shade (I always thought it was trillium but according to Audubon Society book, it is toad shade), the three across the middle and the first one in the last row is ginseng, followed by repeat of Jack-in-the-pulpit and the Mayapple blossom.

I love to hunt ginseng, even though I don't dig it any more. It is always a thrill to find it. When I am in my actual photos I will try to watch for a picture to scan of it after it turns gold in the fall--I can't remember if the ones I have have berries on them or not. When I was a kid, digging it was allowed all year long....now there is a season just like everything else. If the summer is been extremely dry, it will be gone by the time the season rolls around.

Robert Morgan has written two or three books--the first I read was Gap Creek. It is a work of fiction. Of course I had to read it--that is the name of the creek that ran by home. Even though the author is from North Carolina, he disappointed me. He talks about finding ginseng in the attic of the house--I forget the number of roots found but it was a ridiculously low number and he said they made 3/4's of a pound.

The other thing, in Gap Creek, he has the the family rendering lard on the kitchen stove. And it splashes out and catches fire. This is the part that really got me...everyone I knew always rendered their lard outside for a number of reasons. Safety was one...at least while people still used wood burning stoves. Probably later, it was just to conserve on electric bills. When my mom made it, she used a huge cast iron kettle and it was usually full of cut fat. It would have taken two or three days to do as much in the kitchen.

I kept telling myself that it was a work of fiction....to read it and enjoy the rest of it. But then he came out with a book about Daniel Boone. Again he mentions ginseng...this time he says it is hard to recognize in the winter without the leaves or berries. I feel like saying DUMMY! There is nothing to recognize in the winter. It all dies back--there is not one thing left to recognize. I think he has heard people talk about berries and immediately thinks in terms of blackberries, raspberries, etc that leaves the briers. I did not read the rest of the book, even though he surely did more actual research about Boone. It makes me wonder what all I have read and took as fact that was not at all true.

Today has done been a busy day for me. I am so lucky to not have to work. I got dressed and took our dog, Shelby for a walk this morn. We live one block from a railroad which has a road beside it. I take her down there when I take her for a walk...sometimes we go every day, but lately I haven't been taking her at all. I decided today I would try to get back in the habit of taking her. As a reward to myself I took my camera. And this picture of what around here is called honeysuckle is one of the pictures I took. Can't you just smell it! I was half a block away and the fragrance made me close my eyes and breathe in ever so deeply.I took some other pictures of wild flowers...it is amazing when you look closely at them just how pretty they are. Other than flowers, I often see rabbits down there. Usually there are deer tracks, and I have actually seen one on occasion. Otherwise, about all to be seen are robins with maybe a hawk flying over head.

After getting home from there, it was off to Walmart to pick up a few things, by the grocery store, and by the post office for stamps. Then home to hang out a load of clothes I left in the washer. Hanging out clothes is a chore that I love!

I hope today to either start a new sewing project or to get some work done on an old one. If I am going to do either, I best get busy.