To Sleep, perchance to dream...

Last night I dreamed that my husband and I were visiting the town were my sister and mother live and we decided to check out the little gift store/bookshop that's actually there. As we walked in, my husband disappeared into the realm of the books, but I stopped to scope out the front section of the store. The owner then began to talk to me and eventually asked if I cared to have my tarot read. With a bit of mischief in me, I said yes and though now I don't remember all the cards she pulled, I do remember my last one was The Fool. So when I woke up this morning, I decided to find out what that particular card is supposed to symbolize and was a little shocked to learn that it represents new beginnings and infinite possibilities. Now I don't necessarily believe in the whole tarot idea, but I do think it funny that I have been looking to new things and for fresh starts and that the one card I remember is the one that represents that! Hmm guess you never can tell what your heart will say in your dreams....

My lover, the sea...

I walked down to the pier tonight and in fact doing so has become an almost nightly ritual with me. Strolling past the bait shop, I spied a heron, in the shallows, and even a little fish jumped up, as if to greet me. Others had reached the pier before me, so I sat at a distance from them and after a short while everything but the sky, the ocean, and I ,disappeared. There was just this magic communion between the rushing of the waves, the never-ending sky, and the beating of my earth- bound heart. There is a fluid solace and sense of belonging there, that saturates every fiber of my existence and I give myself over to it with utter abandon. It isn't hard to understand what has driven men to the sea for eons upon eons....she is a siren and I too have heard her call. I wish you could see how lovely it is when the street lamps send out their fingerlings of filigreed gold and molten silver, to waltz across the foamy waves. I keep telling myself to remember to bring my camera, but somehow I always forget. Perhaps it would lose some of the magic that makes it my sacred harbor if I tried to capture it with anything but my mind. Oh well...I am tired and with a shirt that smells of the fresh sea air, I shall take myself off to bed. Sweet dreams!!

Advice from an Old Farmer

I got this in an email from my grandmother and just had to share it with ya'll! Enjoy...:
* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tightAnd bull-strong.
*Keep skunks and bankers at a Distance.
*Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than aJohn Deere tractor.
* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
* Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
* Forgive your enemies.. It messes up their heads.
* Do not corner something that you know is meanerThan you.
* It don't take a very big person to carry aGrudge.
* You cannot unsay a cruel word.
* Every path has a few puddles.
* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
* The best sermons are lived, not preached.
* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't Never gonna happen anyway.
* Don't judge folks by their relatives.
* Remember that silence is sometimes the best Answer.
* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get
Older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't Bothering you none.
* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.
* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
* The biggest troublemaker you'll probably everHave to deal with, watches you from The mirror every mornin'.
* Always drink upstream from the herd.
* Good judgment comes from experience, and aLotta that comes from bad judgment.
* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lotEasier than puttin' it back in.

* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of someInfluence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

*Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight,
he'll just kill you.

Smile and the whole world smiles with you!

His smile could melt the sun and make the moon go weak in the knees!

Saying Thank-you and many more...

This post marks the 100th time I have sat down and typed in a few words, added some pictures, and sent it out into the great wide world of the internet. I hope that along the way I've been able to entertain you, caused you to pause for thought, or just brought a smile to your face. May my next 100 posts be filled with the joys and sorrows of a full life! To celebrate and as my way of saying thank-you for sticking around to read my randomness, I thought I'd invite you all over to my little corner of cyber-world to enjoy a cup of coffee(or tea) and a piece of my favorite, Black Magic Cake.

BLACK MAGIC CAKE

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup strong black coffee

1 cup of buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9" in. pans. In a large bowl blend sugar, flour, cocoa, soda, powder, and salt. Add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Batter will be very thin. Pour into prepared pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 for rectangular. Cool 10 minutes and then remove from pans to wire racks.

* I sometime substitute orange extract for the vanilla and also will put in a little coconut and orange zest.

I hope you all know how wonderful I think you are and how sincerely I do appreciate all the kind words you have sent me! This wouldn't be half as much fun without you! So please kick back, sip your coffee or tea, and just enjoy the sweetness of life!

The Ghost of Rememberance

I woke this morning in the midst of remembering those steamy ,Mississippi, summer days from my fifteenth year. My sister Mary and I were spending the whole summer with my grandparents and enjoyed simply being in their home. In the mornings, my Memaw and I would take a walk down the winding country road that lead from their house and in the afternoons I loved to waltz through the little peach orchard that my great-grandfather had planted. There is so much that comes back to me now...so much that I had forgotten. The little wasp's nest that seemed a threat every time you went into the laundry room, the smell of sun-ripening peaches, the neighs of my great-uncle's horses from the field adjacent to our property. My grandfather took us fishing across the road at a neighbor's pond, with him while he transported cars for various dealerships (I got to see the Gulf Coast for the first time), and playing on my cousin's trampoline. It all feels like a lifetime ago...and yet still fresh. As the summer came to a close, we were given the option of staying with my grandparents and starting the school year there. My sister Mary chose to stay and I only went home because it was the year my baby sister, Sara, was beginning Kindergarten. I felt that she needed me there somehow and I missed my parents. So, homeward I went and as the school year began, I fell once more into the rhythm of things. It would be that winter however when my world started crumbling. My mother and I were standing in the kitchen when the phone rang and as I listened to her side of the conversation, I began to feel the knots of dread twisting in my stomach. After she had hung up and turned to deliver the news, the flood gate of tears burst open and I was inconsolable. My grandfather had cancer, but they were hopeful that they had caught it in time. Somehow though....I knew it was a death sentence and no amount of soothing words...no amount of prayer, could convince me otherwise. By that time the next year, he was gone and I'd lost one of the greatest friends I've ever had. Because of that, I think I chose to bury everything surrounding that time and so this morning, when the first remembrance popped into my head, I was a bit shocked and uncertain if I wanted to open that door. I am a little bittersweet about it still, but I know now, that I don't want to ever forget even the tiniest memory of any moment I spent with my grandfather.

I love you Pappaw and I miss you so much!

Even Weeds Can Be Beautiful...

I've been looking around my house today and bemoaning the fact that I had no flowers to brighten up the place nor the funds with which to acquire them. I got to looking out in the backyard and that's when I became inspired to pick a few weeds!

I think the pert little white flowers of this particular weed make a cheery sight and I find them quite becoming!

These lanky stalks of weed grass(or what I always called wheat grass) seemed to be calling to me as well and I couldn't resist installing them in my work room.See...Don't they just perk the place up? Guess it just goes to show that with the right eye, even weeds can be beautiful!