The fruit trees out in the orchard

are starting to bud and bloom...........

yes..........that's right...........I finally have my orchard planted!

I have plum, pear, peach, apple, and apricot trees!

I can't wait to see them start growing and producing fruit!

Along the edge of the orchard grounds, the fragrant stock flower has blossomed.

Such a beautiful flower in both color and fragrance. One can smell them across the yard when walking up to the orchard.

They remind me of vintage floral cards of yesteryear.............

don't you think?

It looks like I am not the only one who has spotted the trees and the flowers.

I have to admit............he is colorful in this world

of brown and grey!

How about you??

Any fruit trees budding?

Any little critters hopping along?

I would love to hear!

It's almost time for the wildflowers

to start springing up across the prairie. I can't wait to see the many colors dotting the grounds and to smell the sweet fragrance in the air. The wind and dirt is blowing so hard today that I had to bring in some of the Italian Jasmine currently blooming to enjoy before it all gets blown away. 

How about you?
Are you already enjoying spring bouquets..........daffodils and tulips perhaps?

Or are the flowers still asleep under a blanket of snow?

I would love to hear!

There is another set of grandparents

 great grandparents, actually, that I almost never write about...........

only because I never had a chance to get to know them..............only through this pie does a fond memory of them surface.

Due to "circumstances" I grew up without knowing much about my other set of grandparents. I only got to see my great grandparents twice when I was very young.  I remember their quaint little house on the edge of town and how welcoming it felt to walk in. I remember the smell of fresh baked goodness still lingering in the air, from something my great grandmother had baked earlier in the day. I remember a smiling and sweet small framed lady in a calico print dress, and by her side a tall, smiling man wearing an eye patch. I found out later that my great grandfather had lost his eye chopping wood when he was young.  During our visit, my brother and I was ushered into a wonderful little kitchen, where the sweet smell lingered most, and welcomed to sit down at the table. A small plate with the most wonderful pie was given to each of us to enjoy......................

Years passed.............as well as these wonderful people, with out much being talked about as time went on.  I never thought much on the subject until I was myself,  a young mother and I was sharing a piece of pie with my young child in my lap. The pie was from a restaurant we were dining at with friends.............it was buttermilk pie. The moment I took a bite.................the memory of the gentle people in the quaint little house came knocking on my heart.  I then had to find this recipe and hang on to it as I do that one cherished memory.  If you would like this recipe..............the true good recipe..........not one that I mistakenly used while browsing the Internet, visit my cooking blog using this link,

My Country Kitchen

  How about you?

Any special recipe that makes you remember someone special?

 I would love to hear!

I thought about my grandparents, yesterday,

as I unrolled the wall paper that had just arrived,

and placed it inside of my grandfather's trunk. I thought back to their old weathered house, sitting in the middle of mesquite covered grounds, surrounded by cotton fields....................

almost the same way I live today................

I thought about my dear aunts and uncles..............some who have gone on................

some who are still here, who have told me that they remember this trunk during their childhood years.

This is the way it looked, before I papered it............and yes, I felt a little sad covering up the old tattered paper...............but it was really worn and tired.

and it seemed to say it needed something like this!....................Grandpa would have probably disagreed, but I think Grandma would not have.

An now, it sits, waiting to be filled with embroidered linens and small treasures. A trunk that was once my grandfather's..............that maybe one day in the far off distance...........might be "Grandmother's "

trunk to my "someday" grandchildren.

I just feel delighted to have it here........... sitting among family and friends...........like a long lost relative come back to visit.

I've been looking for love lately..............

On the long afternoon walks, with Sophie............

I search the grounds along the rocked drive that leads up to our home.........

I found this heart shaped rock............

along the back road of the cotton field..............

I glanced down and saw this one.............

along one of the paths in the woods................

I almost stepped over this one...............

along the hard packed ground around the chicken yard

this was glistening in the sun..................

and this one I love the most..........found on the path up to the water well..

a heart that looks beaten and worn..........

Maybe not every one can see the heart shape "love " in these rocks..........but isn't that the way it is with all of us,...........when it comes to the matters of the heart?

Where one sees only a cold stone...............others can see the heart and soul full of love?

What do you think??

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have already started planting in the garden

although temperatures are pretty chilly........

but that is just what Brussels sprouts love............cold , chilly weather.

I planted a small patch of these.........you can tell by the photo that the chickens wish they could nibble on them.

Did you know that the colder the weather, the more Brussels sprouts produce a better vegetable?

However, in this Texas climate, by the time the plants get big enough, it might be too warm for them to produce.  But that is how the store makes good money from people like me who buy these plants at the wrong time and in the wrong climate. LOL. They really should be planted in the late fall.

However, I have never worked with Brussels sprouts before and wanted to

"experiment".

So you will see in a few weeks, what becomes of this.

I also bought bundles of onions that I hope to get planted later on this week.

If you remember on my January 2, 2013 post, I wrote about a new garden method I want to also

"experiment" with...................

bag gardening. (you can read the archives)

I ran across a really great sale on organic garden soil the other day, and now I can't wait for planting season to use these bags.

I have already begun work on the bed/garden area I want to use this method in.

This is a large flower bed in front of my greenhouse. Each year I battle thick grass, wearing myself out, trying to dig it out. This time, since I am using the bag method here,I decided that I would simply  smother the grass out.

 I placed newspapers on top of the bed and watered them down.

It's a good thing to keep old newspapers for these kinds of things.  

 

I then placed empty feed and bird seed, plastic bags on top of the wet newspapers.

Again, I keep these empty bags for such things. In a few weeks, the grass will have, hopefully, died.

I am not removing any of this however. When planting season begins, I will place the bags of soil on top of this area and begin planting as described in my January 2 post. 

Some of you might remember that I posted about my grandfather's trunk that I was recently given

. I posted about this on November 19, 2011.  You can visit the archives.

I finally found and ordered the perfect wall paper that I am going to place inside of it..............pictured above.........isn't it beautiful?

It should arrive in a week or so and hopefully I will have the trunk papered and filled with my embroidered linens in a couple of weeks!

I can't wait!

How about you?

Have you started planting those "cold month" plants such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage or onions ?

I would love to hear.

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles

instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

(author unknown)

Before we lived this country life

that we have come to love

we had lived in , what most consider, a small average town, on a busy street, in a decaying neighborhood.  We lived in a small "farm" type of house that had been moved from it's roots in the country to a loud, growling, city street..............it seemed as misplaced and unhappy as I felt living there.

However, "bloom where you are planted" has always been my statement for life, and I set out to make our newly wedded life in that home. All of our children were born there and we spent the first 19 years of our lives..........surviving the ups and downs of living inches away from what at times, were scary neighbors. On balmy summer afternoons, my husband and I would take our three children on walks to the "old" downtown area, where ever so often, we would meet up with the ice cream truck. On those walks, I would always see the Italian Jasmine pictured in these photos, gracefully growing along the stone hedges of old boarded up houses. Houses that a family grew up in and then moved away and forgot about..........only the Italian jasmine remained to grow and bloom. I knew this is what I wanted to grow along our backyard fence as well.

When I called the nursery to see if they had some for me to purchase, the owner told me that it was an "antique"plant, that no one carries any longer and that if I wanted it, I should just go dig up a sprig or two at the abandoned houses.  This I did...........which I am glad...........because a few months later those house were torn down and the property was turned into a parking lot..........killing the remaining jasmine.

When we found our home out here, I dug up my rose bushes, lantana, and jasmine and transplanted them  onto the grounds. Now the jasmine has grown so much that I have transplanted sections along the other areas in the gardens. This blooms it's cheery yellow flowers every January reminding me of the arrival of spring just around the corner. I love it for this reason, but I love it more for the memory it has created for me.

How about you? Is there any particular flower, tree, or plant, that brings back memories to you?

I would love to hear.

***just a note to say thank you for all of your supportive comments on my "book publishing" woes on my previous post.   I am not giving up and when it actually blossoms from a dream and into a reality, I will let you all know. Thank you for listening......reading.