Showing off!

"What the heck is that lizard doing?"  It was the first time I'd ever seen a lizard puff out his pouch (that I now know is called a dewlap) and I was shocked.  I didn't know that our friendly little green buddies did that.  So I looked it up.   Obviously, I had not been very observant over the years, or maybe they had never felt safe enough around me to strut and do their push-ups and puff their dewlap while I was around, but this one was bold and brave and, frankly, a bit brazen.   They puff that thing out there as courtship ritual.  He could have just been trying to tell us to get lost.  It's a territorial thing too.

Nature does seem to like to show off a bit.  How about this fuchsia?  It looks all dressed up for a ballet performance.
Dahlias are some of the showiest flowers out there.  Here's one from Giverny.
Have a great day!  Follow nature and show off a little in your unique way.

Oh no! Not another one!

I think I may have totally lost my mind folks.  I have decided that I'm going to homeschool David, too.  Have I completely gone bonkers?  Well, maybe not yet, but I wouldn't answer that for next week.  I just couldn't take the madness any more.  

I gave it a good shot.  Five full weeks.  After K-5 in school and all the ups and downs of it.  I figured it was time to give homeschool a shot.  It has worked out really well  for the E.  If today is any indication, it's going to be great.  He was doing everything I gave him without complaint. When he finished he came almost begging for something else to do.  Heaven!  This has not been my experience with my other beloved student.  Shall we just call her resistant to instruction and direction.  

Time will tell on this.  The excitement may wane, but I think this may really work and be good for all involved.  E was actually looking forward to doing Japanese with the D-meister.  So...

Mama rejoices!

Red honeysuckle

Visiting my sister, I was struck by the red honeysuckle that she had in her yard.  As much honeysuckle as I'd seen through all the years of growing up in the south (and that's a lot of honeysuckle let me tell you), I'd never seen the red variety.  

Before they open...(check out the leaf--so cool!)

I guess it was there all along unless it's a recent invasion.  (Does anyone know if there has been one?  The was even some in my parents yard that I thought I knew inside out.  Obviously not.)  The red and yellow combining into peaches and tangerines.  I found it beautiful, especially glowing in the sunlight. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Doubling up

Here's something to consider...
double yolk eggs.  What the heck!  I'd never seen them before that morning at breakfast.  With the first one I was amazed.  I thought it was just a fluke.  With the second, I was floored.  When practically the entire dozen were double yolk eggs I was dumbfounded and, frankly, a little freaked out.  How could that happen on a consistent basis?  I wondered what those farmers were feeding their chickens.  Maybe it's just one particular chicken that lays double yolk eggs, and we just got a batch of her eggs.  Hmmmm?  I don't have any idea?  Anyone? 

Mixing dogwoods

One of my favorite things is the pink dogwood.  I especially love it when there are pink and white dogwoods intertwined.  I think this must be true for a lot of people because in the last few years I've seen this happening more and more and there are quite a few trees I've seen that appear to have white and pink blossoms on the same tree.  It seems to defy logic.  I wonder how they do that.  Plant the two varieties in the same hole?  

Anywho....

It was just something I was thinking about this morning.  Any ideas?

Lurking dangers

I was just thinking of some of the dangers lurking in places we don't suspect like the cedar tree at Mama and Daddy's house.  Here I was practically hugging one part to get a nice close-up.  When...

I take a gander at the trunk beside me and for the love of all that good and holy!  I find some of the healthiest poison ivy I've seen, and I've seen a lot of poison ivy.  Needless to say I gave it some space.

Lest anyone suspect I'm the only one making discoveries, here's Chelsea's little buddy that showed up under her chair at the beach and liken' to scared her to death.  Oh! the screaming and jumping and waving of arms!  I about busted a gut laughing!

Contrast it with the sunset just a little while later .

Beauty and danger are so often together.  Haha!

Have a great safe weekend!

While in the throws of trying to hack up a lung I'm trying to think happy thoughts.

Camellias in the spring

Bees doing their thing.

and Moonrise over the Carolinas with the pine trees swaying in the breeze.

Old and New

I just finished French by Heart by Rebecca Ramsey about a SC family who lived in France.  I laughed and cried through all her ups and downs and was moved to remembrance.  I've been pondering some of the contrasts I saw the last time I was there.     

All the classical architecture.

All the modern elements.

All the time weathered loveliness viewed through modern eyes.  

The contrast of old and new fascinates me.

The joy of curling up with a book will never be replaced by technology.  I will resist at all costs!  The happy crinkle of the pages, the creamy texture of the paper, the feel of the smoothness of the cover under my fingers while I hold it, the building anticipation as there are fewer and fewer pages to go, the location of the words on the page, the different fonts, the page numbers, etc, etc.

Just thinking about life and making my kids do things they hate.  Mwa ha ha!  Sometimes it's great to be in charge.  Does it make up for all those time my parents made me do things I hated? I'm not sure yet.  

I don't know if anything can make up for all those summer mornings weeding the garden at dawn. Weren't we supposed to 

be able to sleep in in the summer?  I suppose it could have been beautiful, if I'd been looking up, but those dang weeds were on the ground.

Yea!  I figured out how to upload pictures!  Thanks Renee.  You did help me even without being here. I'm going to get this down, baby!  How 'bout this one?  You gotta love the reflections on the glasses. I especially love the swath of color on Alyssa's cheek.  Photo booth is so much fun!  I love my Mac!  

I'm still working on figuring out how to put this thing together.  With all my researching and writing I've apparently not spent enough time working on figuring this thing out.  I'm just going to practice with it and see what happens.  I'll probably end up having to ask my kids.