Out of the kitchen...

Finally...I made it out of the kitchen..

My fingers went from purple to blue after freezing the peas and some okra too.

Then after touching the hot jars and lids from canning the tomatoes, they turned a little pink.

I decided to try some dill pickles, after seeing these pickles. I like the sweet type homemade pickles, but Chris likes the dill. So I gave them a try.

Then last night.... Chris brought home a bag of figs from his brother's house. Fig preserves are my all time favorite.

Back to the kitchen for me...

Maybe tomorrow...

Fluttering....

He was found fluttering around the front flower bed.



Gathering the sweet nectar. Full of carbs.

It takes a lot of carbs for all that fluttering.



They saw him too...

I have purple thumbs....

Purple Thumbs ???


Yes... They are a dark purple from shelling a mountain of peas.





Mom and Papa Joe sent home with my Aunt and Uncle (who live in town)a ton of peas for us from their farm. Pretty pink eye purple hull peas.


I guess actually it was more like a bushel, but it seemed like a ton, since I was the one doing all the shelling.





Yesterday I shelled peas and shelled peas and shelled peas, and cursed the peas that went flying across the room, and fussed at the peas that slid down under the cushion of the chair. I shelled until I just could not shell another pea. I did finally finished shelling this morning and now I type with Purple thumbs.






I guess you could say I have been pea-ing. I still have to get them in the freezer along with canning some tomatoes.


My grandfather always had a large garden with lots of peas. Rows and rows of peas. Some of my earliest memories are waking up at my grandparents house, to find my self alone. Everyone was already out in the garden while it was cool, picking peas, corn, beans, okra, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I would hurry out, bare feet dodging the fire ant beds, to the garden in the field beside their home. I don't think I really picked too many veggies. I just did not want to miss anything. They might be having fun with out me.





As children, my sister and I always called the peas from my grandparents garden ....Paw Paw Peas. I don't think we really ate any peas that were not Paw Paw Peas. As long as my grandfather was alive and able.... he had peas, tons and tons of peas. Enough peas to feed half his town. He would say he had to plant enough for his family and the deer. He did.

In the evening, everyone would sit around the t.v. with a bowl in their lap and a paper sack at their feet shelling peas. I would rummage in the sacks and gather the prettiest of the shells. Then, I would glue the shells onto construction paper in abstract arrangements. Showing off the shades of green and purple.

While shelling, I still wanted to separate the prettiest of the shells, but I didn't.





Maybe I should have....



p.s. Thanks for the peas.

From the Archives......

An.....OMG moment....

This is one of my favorite pics from the archives.... I am standing in the front bedroom looking through the half bath into the middle bedroom. Beyond Chris, it the main bathroom. He has completed the demo of all the rotted area and has started to replace the wall between the bath and middle bedroom. You can see the new 2x4's. (Or maybe those are just temps.... to keep the ceiling from falling in?)

This area around the bath was a total rotted mess. The floor joist was split completely in half under the tub and the sub floor was completely spongy. If someone would have filled the tub with water for a bath. I know they would have found themselves in the basement once they sat down.

The combination of the afternoon light and the expression of Chris's shoulders (Yes, shoulders have expression.) tell the story.

The not so Creepy Myrtle....

Actually it is a Crape Myrtle...but from some reason I always want to call it a creep myrtle.
Who knows why... I am a little odd at times.


I never really have looked at an individual bloom up close. Each bloom works together to create a mass of color. I have not seen the beauty of each bloom. It has 6 distinct petals. Who knew? Not me.
When we first bought the house 1/2 of this tree was covered in Kudzu. It has been beautiful. Not Creepy at all.

Sunday Walk

In town they are workin' on one of the old buildings. They took down the existing facade and this was revealed.
I hope it stays..



I have always loved this bungalow. Years ago, it was for sale and I went in and looked at it.
It had great classic bungalow detail with nice built in's and origional bath fixtures. It also has one of those old fashioned "ringer" type door bells built into the door.


Just some other nice details.

Have a great Sunday, folks.

Lubbers are from Middle Earth.

Lubbers are.....



The hard to kill enemy from Middle Earth.



Like Orcs....
They emerge from the ground by the thousands.


The devour everything in sight.
Develop armour. Become very difficult to kill.

And Hiss at you when you kill them...... usually by foot.

Last week, we watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies. (I know we are about 7 years late.)

Ya see....When after 100000000 years of traveling and 3 hours of our time, Frodo did not toss the precious ring into the fire pit. We decided not to watch the second movie, cause we knew it would not be over. Then the third movie came out and we didn't watch it because we didn't watch the second. We would be lost. It took us the whole week, but we finally made it through all three movies.

When I first heard the hiss noise the Orc make when they die, I knew the sound. It is the same sound the lubber makes when your foot or smashing stick is about to send them back to middle earth. Then I started to look at some of the Orcs and in armour they did favor these lubber grasshopper things in our yard.

So now, I am adding Orc to the list of slang names for the Eastern Lubber. Along with Devil Horses and Mules.

So you have an idea on the size of the things....In the pictures above of the adult. (The red one is a nymph, just emerging from the ground.) The bug is on head high corn. The leaf on the corn is about as wide as my hand.

Nasty!!!

In most of the images on line the adult is not black. We must have mutants.. These in our yard are black with the yellow stripe and red under the wings.

In the light.

It was a perfect setting. The morning sun sparkling through the Kudzu and privet. My camera was in hand, not 100 yards away in the kitchen.
This moth-ish butterfly decided to land just in the right spot at the right time.
Carefully I focused...trying not to disturb this lady.
Snap....
Then off she flew

and a lubber hopped over my foot.
Then I hopped on his head. Nasty...

Darn Lubbers....I hate them.

A Walk from the Past...

In the mid 1930's some other alleged old house nut took pictures of the same houses I have snapped.

(Well, Actually...I have never posted this house...there are always cars parked out front. One day I will get a shot with out the cars. The house is a little different with part of the porch enclosed. I do still covet the door and side lights every time I pass it. And look at the dormer windows....Beauts!!)

But wait....
In the 1930's, these house's weren't that old. So this must have been just a house nut. Not an old house nut.

(This house was built in the late 20's. It replaced a grand Victorian. One of the magnolias is still there today. Just bigger of''course.)

(It is the magnolia on the left...Not in this shot.)

This person walked down the same street (our street)talking pictures. I wonder if folks looked at them weird, like they look at me?

(This home is 2 houses down from ThirteenEleven. It too was built in the late 20's. )

(I did not know it had lower windows to the left...)

See those trees in the back....That is our back yard. Yep! The Kudzu Jungle.

When I got to this house....I just could not place it.... I thought...."It looks familiar??...." Then I went to the front porch, and looked across the street. BLONDE MOMENT! Again.....

Well , Sorry to say....there is not snow in July in Georgia.

This picture is from January. It fit in....

Sadly...This photographer did not think much about an ol' bungalow. Our house was left out. The neighbor's house on our other side was not yet built.

From the Archives..

Who wouldn't like a personal fan?

This is our kitchen circa June 2007. When Chris was working on building our cabinets.

Loyal readers will remember....

a couple of months ago, he dug them out from the deep, dark storage of the middle bedroom and primed them. Then ......it rained and the cabinets were moved to the basement.

Um.........They are still in the basement.

Well.... the base cabinets are still in the kitchen and they look like what is seen above. Just with contact paper for counter top, and pots and pans inside. The slate floor was installed last July.

Fresh from the Garden....

There are things that I love to eat, but never buy in the store. Mostly because the ones in the store are just.......blaugh....and go to waste. So blah... I can live with out them.

Finally, we are having a wonderful tomato crop. Big bright juicy tomatoes. And there is nothing like a fresh from the garden orangy red tomato sliced up and sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I don't have to worry about insecticides, or salmonella or whatever. I can just eat the tomato.

I never eat sliced tomatoes unless they are picked from some one's garden during tomato season. Those in the store are just blah.....

Wait...I am sorry ......I said that already....blaugh......blaugh.......

Also, ThirteenEleven is having a bounty crop of Okra.

Chris has been cooking the okra whole on the grill. And it is wonderful! I have never had grilled okra, actually never heard of it. He was grilling eggplant on night and decided to grill him up an okra and it turned out to be the best grilling find to date. I confess....have bought frozen okra to place in soup. However this year, we have okra in the freezer from our garden.

Dumbfounded....

After a year of blogging I am still amazed that people actually stop by for a visit to see what we are doing. I am especially dumbfounded that I receive awards like the one above, from Sandy.

I try to be imaginative and come up with some fluff to type about since I haven't had much to post on regarding the house in months. There there are the times when I just don't have much to say, the creative juices are drained.

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments in Tuesday's post. And thank you Sandy for saying that I am just plain fun to read. That means a lot.

Thank you readers and lurkers for stopping by and checking in. Love Ya !!

Dumbfounded....I like that word.

The dirt on me.....

Four score and 27 moons ago, I was tagged by Jen over at Dogs and Jen.

Jen, along with her girls Pi and K, are renovating a Cape Cod in Maryland. So take a minute and check out her progress. I love her interior paint colors! But just a little word of caution, she is a professor who once worked for Arms Control in the state department. (Gulp.....!)

Jen...........really I am sooooo soooorrry that I was sooooo slooooow at responding to this tag!!!


And Finally.....
here it goes...........
some of the boring dirt.....on me..........

What was I doing ten years ago?
Working for a small branding company designing trade shows and showrooms. Chris and I met in 1998, but he says he knew me sooner.

Five snacks I enjoy.
Only 5? .......Pringles, M&M’s, Oreo’s, Gold Fish crackers, and Whopper’s.

Five things on my to do list.
To do list? What’s that? After I made a thousand to do lists the first year we owned the house and they all were ignored by others. I gave up.

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Finish this house including greening it out so it would be completely “off the grid.” Buy a small beach house on the Gulf side of Florida. Do something wonderful for each family member. Invest in alternative energy technology and start a charity.

Five jobs I’ve had.
Caterer’s flunky, (I was queen of sauces, and made all the fruit trays.)carpet designer, showroom/tradeshow designer, retail designer and construction manager for furniture stores, and I did consultant work in the retail furniture industry before it hit rock bottom. (Currently, I am looking for a new gig so if you know someone that knows someone let me know.)

Five of my bad habits.
I hate putting away clothes. So with that money up there I would also make one huge dressing / laundry room / closet with tons of shelves. And everything could be done in one room. Wash, Dry, Fold, Hang, Store and Dress. ---- So .....you need four more? Putting away clothes, not washing my car, putting away clothes, and not washing my car.

Five places I’ve lived.
Here in West Georgia, a small town in South Alabama, and Auburn, AL. I use to travel a lot and stay gone for weeks at a time, so that was kinda like living somewhere else. When the lady at the hotel breakfast bar, knows your name, coffee order, and where you like to sit, you sorta start feeling at home.

That is about it for now...
If anyone out there wants to play go for it...

Checking in

I've been a bad blogger lately.
I just wanted to thank everyone for checking in and hopefully I will be back at it real soon.

First it was the blogging blues with nothing to blog about.
Then there was this, later it was that.
So, Basically I have been working on lots of other things and not glued to the computer.

I have been tagged by a few people and I need to follow up on those tags.

Til then.... if you are really board.. You can scroll through the archives. The old stuff is really bad. You might get a laugh or two.

And.......FYI.............Nothing is new with the house.

Sunday Walk: 24

Happy 4th !!

There will be a parade today with festivities focused around town square.
Quite fitting since there is a statue of this early French ally standing in the middle of town.

Major General Marquis de Lafayette.

or otherwise known as

Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

his given name.



You can read more here.

Have a save and wonderful long holiday weekend.
(and Yes, they dyed the water tidy bowl blue????)

Today...

Not much to report on around ThirteenEleven, other than the garden.

Weeding.
Picking veggies, cooking veggies, eating veggies, and freezing veggies.

I did eat my first tomato today for lunch. I could not wait another day. Sorry no pic.




While I was in the garden gathering squash.
Puppy was here.


Yes, Chris has taught him to jump in the hammock. Silly dog.



Early in the morning the garden is swarming with Bees.



Buzy, Busy bees dancing around.



Some are a little sassy and tell me to get out of the way or else!!!
I stay out of the way.