Sunday Walk:23

Clouds rolled in, thunder rolled too, and we had a wonderful rain.
It has been dry here for the past couple of weeks and we are thankful for any rain.

Instead of getting wet because I may melt.
I dusted off some bungalow pictures from walks past.





I hope each of you have a wonderful Sunday evening.

Egg and Dart

No, Irene did not get after me when I was gathering eggs out of the hen house.

"Who is Irene?" you ask.

At one time my grandparents had tons of yard birds. (Chickens and Guineas) They wondered the grounds of the home place during the day and roosted at night in the tall cedars that lined the ditch of the dirt road.

Irene was the longest living hen that ever set foot on my grandparents farm. She was mean, and she was ugly, but she kept all her biddies alive. You could not get with in 10 feet of her, before she would run after you feathers ruffled ready to peck out your eyeballs. You would then dart about screaming at the top of your lungs, until Grandma came out with a broom to settle Irene down. ( Come to think of it, a broom is the weapon of choice for Gran. I can recall when she got after dogs with it, children with it, and even Grandpa with it a couple of times. )

It was always a game to see if you could ever catch one of Irene's biddies without blood being drawn. I caught one once. With the (at least 50' tall) stick that held up the clothesline in hand, I "shooed" Irene into the cage that my Grandpa kept raccoons in sometimes. ( I don't know why he had 'coons in the cage? To show us I guess.) Then, I quickly latched the door. The cage "bars" allowed the biddies to get out, and kept Irene in. The worse part was, Gran made me free Irene from the cage. She stood by supervising, broom in hand, just in case Irene made a run for me. Actually she probably stood there to make sure I was doing what I was told.

Anyway...........


The chunk of rubble that I posted about yesterday is a stylized version of a classical egg and dart detail.


I scrolled through my Sunday Walk pictures, to find shots of this detail.


This image shows a very clear "egg" and "dart" no stylization left for any imagination.



This version is a little more loose in the interpretation of the motif.
My favorite part is the half daisies on the corners.

The scale of ThirteenEleven's chunk of rubble is more like what is represented in these images.

An art history professor once mentioned that the Egg and Dart motif was a classical fertility symbol. I can't find a link on line to back that up, and I am too lazy to find it in an actual book..... However, when I think of Egg and Dart, I think of gathering eggs at my grandparents farm and quickly darting out of the way of the mother hen.

Gathering Rocks.

It seems that every area that we clean out from the yard we find old bricks, chunks of concrete, and rocks. Since the lawn mower does not fair too well when it runs over these masonry scraps, I have been picking them up and lining flowerbeds and the vege garden with them.

Last week on one of my hacking kudzu, rock gathering rounds. I reached down and saw what appeared to be just another ol' chunk of concrete.

Then I turned it over.

To my surprise.....it wasn't just another ol' chunk of ordinary concrete.
It was an ol' extraordinary chunk of concrete.

"How pretty!"

"How did it get here?"

"Where did it come from?"

"Has it always lived here?"

or did someone else think, "How pretty" and take it home.

The first layer of paint is an aged coppery green. And the second layer is black. But, actually it appears that the black may have been applied over the green originally and rubbed off to accent the detail. It is about the size of my hand.

Currently I have two theories running through my head.

#1.

This stuff came from this....

Downtown fire in 1931. I may look around for detail images of these buildings.

(images via..vanishing georgia.)

or...

#2.

At one time something else was built on the property.

The fire hose thingy that we found a couple of months ago and all the bricks from a brick factory that did not open until after the house was built make me think theory #1. The concrete slab located under the 'Possum Tree in the backyard leads me to theory #2. The other bricks which appear to be older and made from a different less stable clay, this find, and what I would call "foundation stones" could go either way.

One would think that older maps would be available with information on the property. But no, all of these maps stop at what is today about 10 houses down.

Thoughts?

What?

Yep!
I thought that too, and it had nothing to do with Siamese Yellow Neck Squash.

"The Vine that ate the South"

Sounds like a chee-zee 60's horror flick doesn't it.

There is truth to the statement. Kudzu is a vine that devours fields all over the region.

While traveling to North Alabama to visit my dad's mother in the late 70's we would pass field after field in the Appalachian foothills around Mount Cheaha of the massive green monster.


Photo via flickr Deep Fried Kudzu
Visit the blog here and even read the big stink about White Lily flour.
Big, big news to cooks in these parts.



When the vine climbs up trees it creates interesting organic shapes many looked like ghosts. My sister and I called them green ghosts.

Yesterday, while reading the Atlanta Journal I came across this article. Researchers are looking at Kudzu as a Bio-fuel. Yippie!!! Right on!!! Let the harvest begin, right in the back yard.

It also states that ...

• "It is native to China and Japan, where the starchy roots have long been used for cooking and thickening sauces.
  

and..

• "They found the plant stores the most carbohydrates in its roots; these carbohydrates can be converted into ethanol with yeast"
  

Light Bulb Moment : Meaning.......Kudzu home brew could be made. It could be our own little "recipe" just like the Baldwin Sisters on The Waltons but different. I know there is enough stuff sitting around here we could rig up a still. I even have directions in an old cookbook. (As long as we didn't sell it. Keeping things legal and all. ) Even back in high school chemistry we made about 2 table spoons of some gross type of home brew in a beaker and flask. I bet that is not allowed today.

Then I came across this line.....

• "The plant can have positive characteristics that might be sustainable, but we need to consider the way it is planted," said Fernandes.
  

Oops.... That is why we have the Kudzu problem today. It was planted to control erosion.

Ok... So..........lets not plant it, just harvest it from all the tangled green fields all over the region.
Make the wrongs right.

Til then, I will go back to the back yard and chop down what grew from last week. We are making progress, but those underground roots "the diameter of an adult forearm" are still in the ground sprouting every day. I'll question just how refreshing a glass of Kudzu home brew on the rocks would be on a hot summer day.

After about 15 months...

After sitting in the kitchen floor for 4 months.
and being moved into storage in the middle bedroom for 11 months.

The kitchen wall cabinet frames that Chris built (what seems years and years ago) were brought out to be sanded and painted.




What???
I was surprised too.
Just as I was getting use to the industrial look and thinking about open metal shelving instead of cabinets.

Ya just can't ask, beg, pleed, negociate with or nag at that man. He will do things when he wants to, not a second sooner, and with no advanced warning. That is that. Period. The End.

Last Weekend...

I did travel to south Alabama and visited the new Puppy that we found in the ditch a couple weeks ago at Papa Joe's and my Mom's farm house. (I visited Papa Joe, Mom, and Grandma too.)

He is cute as ever, but never sits still long enough to get a good pic.

We planted corn, butter beans, and peas in garden rows longer than our yard. We also picked blueberries. YUM!!!

There was a brand new baby goat.

Which ...I just had to catch in the goat pen while wearing flip flops. (not a good idea)

I then came home and made lemon blueberry bread. I added extra blueberries.

Tell Simmer......

Take a look what happened while I was away....

Last Monday, I was interviewed by the lovely Marilyn at simmer til done.



To read about my coffee drinkin', what's in the frig, and the food that makes me want to hurl.. take a look at Tell Simmer.

If you are looking for some recipes or just to drool on your keyboard... stroll around her site, but don't get distracted by the cute pics of Puppy's girlfriend, Cleo.

Thank you Marilyn! That was fun. I enjoy each Monday's Tell Simmer, and it was kind of you to include this ol' Georgia girl.

Wish I could say.....

I was here.....
or here........
or here........
even here.......

but I was here......

with a messed up modem or something....

So I have lots of catching up to do.....

Sunday Walk: Part 22

I love this house.

From the Archives..

Salvaged Flooring.








Chris re-built the rotted subfloor in several rooms of the house. Meaning the oak and heart pine floor boards had to be removed. This picture is from last May in the front bedroom. Chris's dad had the cast iron fire place surround (no summer cover ) sitting in some sort of sonic paint remover at his shop at the time. Which was GREAT. It took about 10 layers of paint off. All of the old subway tiles were painted over as well. I stripped the 10 layers of paint off the trim of the mantel in order to find the wood. It was a very pale light wood. Not oak. Actually most of the trim in the house is a pale light grained type of wood. Since the construction of the mantel was not the greatest and had been filled in places, I decided to paint it.
The room is painted Benjamin Moore's timothy straw.

Oh...... and we re-used most of the flooring.

Birdhouse

This birdhouse came with the house. It was hidden on a tree in the Kudzu jungle. (backyard)

I cleaned it up, sanded it, re-painted it, and finally placed it back on a tree.

We had a great rain yesterday. It was needed and thank goodness it cooled things off a bit.

Front Flower bed updates

Just in case you were wondering.......

Here is an update on the progress of the front flower beds.

To the right of the front door. For the before click here...



To the left of the front door. For the before click here...


I did not notice the bricks were crooked until I uploaded this pic. Sigh..........

Every day I do my rounds and pick off those mules, lubbers,or horse devils. What ever you want to call them. I have a smashing stick. Because they are too big to step on in the flip flops with out gross grasshopper guts getting on the feet. So far the only thing they have completely devoured are couple of zinnia and marigold seedlings.

I have also cleaned off 1/2 the back drive for the 10 thousandth time, and warned the husband about cluttering it up. The other half has the old steps from the old deck that we used as temporary steps for a month or so and a couple huge pressure treated pieces of lumber. They are toooooooo heavy for me to move. But....... the husband also has brought home a basketball goal on a metal post and plopped it right in the alley. I don't mind the basket ball goal, but I mind that the beast was plopped in the alley. (Believe me when I say that there is more of a chance of me moving the heavy old deck steps than this basketball goal and post.) I also know the value of scrap metal these days. So....... it better get moved or I am calling Fred Sanford.

New in the Garden.

Baby Figs

'maters

eggplant

Squash, Squash, and more Squash.

and okra two. ( That's not a typo, I really mean two, and too, also.)

A Reminder....

Poison Ivy

Kudzu
Kudzu
Poison Ivy

Kudzu you can touch.

Touching Poison Ivy is NOT a good idea!

Yikes........

This morning, I almost messed up, but caught myself just in time.

Young growth looks this similar, but Kudzu has fuzzy stems.

Kudzu.

Sunday Walk: Part 21

Just some bricks.......

I am running out of Sunday Walk ideas.......

If you have an idea for a walk please comment below.

I walked early yesterday and today. It is HOT here! High 90's, complete with 90000000000% humidity. Nice if you like living in a sauna.

The Air deflated from my left Nike Air causing a flat tire and a wop sided walk for about 1/2 a mile, resulting in a heal blister. I am writing Nike, because those shoes do not have enough miles on them to have a flat.

Have a nice Sunday.