Friday, March 25, 2011

FMTSO - Yellow

Yellow is not my favorite color, about the only color I detest more would be Orange. I don't own a single item of clothing that is Yellow although I did once upon a time have a Sunflower Yellow blouse. I looked around my house and I do own a beautiful Yellow piece of pottery that sits in the kitchen...




Speaking of kitchens, my kitchen used to be Yellow so long ago. Back when it was mom and dads house, it had a Yellow wall and some hideous yellow, orange and brown flowered wallpaper. I cringe thinking about it! I do however love this shade of Yellow that the Barnwell County Museum chose to paint the new/old building.

The C.G. Fuller House was donated to the county for a library,
it is now being refurbished to house the county museum.


I realized while writing this that my garden holds very little Yellow although I did add some beautiful Yellow Daffodils last year and this year and they were beautiful... perhaps I don't plant Yellow as Mother Nature always drowns us in a fine mist of Yellow every Spring when the pollen begins to fall?

My dreadful Yellow hose! It tangles up and crimps if I look at it wrong!




Spring blooms here in Snelling when the flowers begin to bloom....




and the pollen starts to fall! This is Althea's hand and finger prints on the car layered in pollen.




The Caution Light in downtown Snelling



and the warning sign outside the Savannah River Site gate.



And finally...


the Yellow glow of the moon ... Althea jumped and said she touched it and I believe she did.

(I must have taken 2 dozen shots or more of the moon that night, and aside from lightening it up a little I did nothing else to this one shot that turned out just as I saw it... it felt like something out of a movie).

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Violets Are Blue


Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Time flies by and
We still miss you


Frank and I went to the landfill today and as we came back up the road I turned my head to look at the barn and the house sitting there so empty.... my heart sank and I began to cry. I miss you so much and well sometimes it is unbearable.

I turned to look at Frank as we flew along the road in the old farm truck and his tears were falling as fast as mine... what a friend we lost, what a brother we miss. It seems like just yesterday we were all so young, traveling the world without a care in the world... they say only the good die young, and I so believe it now.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Wearing of the Green





Our Ireland National Flag that we fly during March to celebrate our heritage.



Wearing of the Green

O Paddy dear, and did ye hear the news that's goin' round?

The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!

No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll keep, his color can't be seen

For there's a cruel law ag'in the Wearin' o' the Green."



Saint Patrick's Day is more than a simple holiday to me; it touches my heart as I remember a brave couple who boarded that ship in 1842 bound for St. Johns, New Brunswick...

Dennis and Catherine Cussen along with their children left behind all they held dear to start a new life in a new country. After arriving in Canada they later went to Boston and then on to Wisconsin to settle. I wonder if they or my Great-Great Grandfather William ever thought of the generations of descendants they would not live to see. I think of them often, but mostly around Saint Patrick's Day when the entire world seems to become Irish.

While we celebrate with green beer, Corned Beef dinners and parades we often forget that a vast amount of the Irish people who came to our shores did so out of desperation. And while nearly 2 million people fled Ireland seeking a better life throughout the world, more than a million of them died on Ireland's soil during this time.



Table arrangement for our St. Patrick's Day family dinner.


I grew up listening to Irish and American Folk music and the sound of a good ballad sends my heart soaring and my mind wandering to a place I have never set foot in. I have been to St. Johns and found the surrounding countryside in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia to be breathtaking... oh how I wanted to be able to cross the sea and glimpse the home of my ancestors. If I close my eyes I can just hear the beautiful music that my daughter Becki and I listened to at a traditional Ceilidh while in P.E.I.


Our fountain gone green.

When our children were small I would wake them singing When Irish Eyes are smiling and put them to sleep with An Irish Lullaby (Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra), they loved one and hated the other! Often they would wake on St. Patrick's Day to coins of gold or a golden nugget left by the wee people in exchange for the potato they had left out and we'd drink green koolaid or some silly something I made up...





This year I whipped up a complete meal with Jameson and Orange Marmalade Glazed Corned Beef and Carrots, Buttered Steamed Cabbage, Champ (mashed potatoes with chives) and Green Beans. For dessert we had Chocolate Irish Cream Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting... which were wonderful if I do say so myself... my son-in-law seemed to love them!

Corned Beef, Cabbage and Glazed Carrots and those wonderful Chocolate Irish Cream Cupcakes...








As I sit here at the computer I can hear Althea Clare (named after the county in Ireland) talking with her Papa; earlier she cried as Dorie Jean  (named after a Dory which is a small fishing boat found in Ireland and other coastal areas) left to go home . I love telling them stories of the wee folks, singing Irish songs to them and helping them know where we came from so long ago.


Becki and Althea wearing their green at the local St. Patty's Day Celebration.




A Wish for a Friend


Wishing you a rainbow

For sunlight after showers—

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours—

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!






If you'd like to read up a little on Dennis and Catherine Cussen just click to link below.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

FMTSO - Chaos


Bag search at Disney, Chaos at it's best.


Well it has been that around here the last couple of weeks.
Frank has worked 7 days a week for the past 3 weeks and we are attempting to get an old lean-to torn down and a new roof put on.


The chaotic jumble of stuff under our lean-to.

To top it off, the pollen has started and I have either walked around in a fog from medicine or blurry eyed and cruddy from not taking it.

Althea has hit the terrible two's and there is no telling what she will be doing next... funny faces, tantrums, crying spells and being just plain silly, it is definitely chaotic around here...


Althea on a recent trip to McDonalds.



And finally, a wonderful way to get away from the Chaos of life.... a jumbled up bowl of pickled Shrimp!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

FMTSO - Sssss

S has always been one of my favorite letters to write.
You can do so much with the letter S; curls, lines, Swirls and blocks.

Sneezing - Dorie 2005



Smiling and Snoozing - Rusty 2011


S also starts the names of some of my favorite things...
Spaghetti, Squash, Spices, Soups,
Sodas...


Shrimp, Sliders and Spiced Tomato Jam


Snapdragons, Sweet Williams, Spider Lilies, Shamrocks, Scented Soaps, Smiles, being Silly, Swinging on the porch or a Swing and Snow!


Sliding - Althea 2011


Snow - Papa and Dorie 2010



I have a SIL named Shelia, I live in Snelling, South Carolina and
my bedroom walls are painted Sailcloth...


Sign - Snelling - 2011



Everywhere I looked this past week I saw so many S things that I took way too many pictures so I combined Some into collages.


 Steeples - St. Augustine and Charleston