Faith, Folklore, and Friends

We have head a lot about To Kill A Mockingbird this year. It is fifty years old now, which is something to be celebrated. I had it on my ‘to read’ list for this year, so when Amy at HopeistheWord.com issued a challenge to read the book in August, I knew it was the perfect time. To Kill a Mockingbird was relatively young when I read it the first time. An assignment in high school lit class; something that had to be done, where the only goal was to get to the end. I enjoyed it then. Now that I’m a little more mature and understand life somewhat better than I did then, I feasted on this fabulous book. TKAM was set in the thirties, but it could have easily have been decades later, since change came slowly then. Harper Lee made it so real, I can imagine the Radleys and the single ladies living in the neighborhood I grew up in. I can easily understand why the book is eternally young, even after it’s fiftieth birthday. The book is full of words that have been quoted extensively. I...

This week’s favorite recipes Bestest Broccoli Salad (from my friend, Shellie, at allthingssouthern.com) Sorry, no photo, because it didn’t last long enough for a photo shoot. 2 cups fresh broccoli 1 cup raisins 1 cup chopped green onions 6 slices bacon, fried and crumbled Dressing: 1 cup mayonnaise with 1 T sugar or honey and 2 tablespoons lemon juice We'll begin by chopping up this head of fresh broccoli into little florets. I’ve already fried and drained six slices of bacon. We're gonna crumble it into our broccoli along with a cup of golden raisins and a cup of chopped green onions. Mix mayo with sugar (can omit) and the lemon juice. Pour over broccoli mixture. Enjoy! Pistachio Fruit Salad I first got hooked on this when Hub’s aunt, the late Mary Evelyn Sharp, brought it to family dinners. Sometimes, its a side, and other times, it dessert. 1 small box pistachio instant pudding mix 1 package miniature marshmallows 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopp...

Right now, there are three storms in the Atlantic. Danielle and Earl may turn north and do little harm, except to the people on ships (remember Perfect Storm ?). Overall, hurricanes can't be trusted, sometimes changing their direction in spite of the Weather Channel's predictions. Having lived most of my life 'on the ridge', away from the ocean, I've never experienced a hurricane personally. I have friends that have. All of them, 100%, say they will evacuate from now on. Here's some books to go along with hurricane season. This is a sweet story of four women caught in a hurricane at Paradise Resort in the Bahamas. The four women are totally different, and you will be rooting for all of them by the end of the book. Loved it! My favorite author, James Lee Burke, wrote Ti n Roof Blowdown after Katrina destroyed New Orleans. It is fiction, but you will learn a lot about things that never made the nightly news. Starting a JLB book is a commitment for me, because I ...

Sunday dinners used to be the big meal of the week. Family and friends gathered after church to dine and talk about what happened last week and what they are expecting tomorrow and the next day. This doesn't happen much anymore. Maybe it is because we are too busy to sit down for two hours at a time. Maybe it is because there is a scarcity of people who can find the time to prepare a big meal before time for church (Hooray for crockpots!). Yesterday, Hub and I ate alone. I was out of town Friday night, so Hub treated our granddaughters to barbecue ribs. We had the leftovers yesterday. Then, we had brownies from Logans, left over from my Friday night supper. It was all very good, but I miss the big family dinners. While we were enjoying our leftovers, there was another feast happening in the back yard. So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or "What shall we wear?'....your Heavenly Father know that you need them. But seek fi...

Mosquito bites. Wasps and yellow jackets stings. Gnats buzzing in your face until you get tired of fighting them and retreat. All are as much a part of summer as 90 degree days and beach vacations. Perhaps it is summer’s attempt to balance the many good things, like fresh vegetables, beautiful flowers, swimming pools, and lazy days with a little evil just to keep us humble. Thankfully, we have medicine now readily available to combat stings, soft mist sprayed on the skin for instant, cool relief. This was not always so. In the summers of my youth, we used whatever was handy. One of the most often used remedies was snuff, probably because it was always available. Both my grandmothers kept their mouths packed all the time, so they would use the tip of their finger to get a little spittle, or snuff juice, and dab it on the bitten spot. Sometimes, before darkness drove us inside, we would have white/brown polka-dotted legs. It must have helped, at least temporarily, because we kept doing ...

Ocean saw you in action, God, saw you and trembled with fear; Deep Ocean was scared to death. Clouds belched buckets of rain, Sky exploded with thunder your arrows flashing this way and that. From Whirlwind came your thundering voice, Lightning exposed the world Earth reeled and rocked. You strode right through Ocean, walked straight through roaring Ocean, but nobody saw you come and go. Hidden in the hands of Moses and Aaron, You led your people like a flock of sheep. Psalm77.16-20

Morning Glories may be the flower I have known and loved the longest. My maternal grandmother, Mrs. Georgia Gean, was a great lover of morning glories. She lived in a little four-room house that had been converted from an old church/school house. The front porch, with boards for the floor and tin on the roof, was built across the front of the house, which faced directly west. Grandma had dug up beds running parallel with the porch, on each side of the front door. Each spring, she would plant these beds with morning glory seed she ordered from a seed catalog. Long before the little plants were ready to send out tendrils, she built a trellis for them to climb on. Grandma knew what days in early spring would yield the highest sap, and that is when we would go to collect young hickory trees. Gathering her grandchildren and her chopping ax, she would head to the woods to cut down hickory saplings that were bursting with sap. We would haul them home under our arms, even the smalles...

Has anyone noticed the increase in spider webs lately? They are between my windows and screens. They seem to be in every outside angle of my house. They are thicker than usual, very easy to see. This has probably happened every year of my life, but I've never paid attention until now. An old farmer's almanac told me that this late summer web is commonly the last web of a spider's life, when he senses the winter coming and puts all his effort in his final handiwork. That almost makes me feel bad as I use the broom to destroy the webs. Almost. Many years ago, a cousin reportedly saved her son's life using a spider web. The child had cut his wrist badly on a broken window pane and was bleeding profusely. The mother swiped a handful of webs from a corner and packed them on the wound. The spider web immediately staunched the flow of blood. Possibly, that is why God allowed them aboard the Ark. There had to be a reason. The spider taketh hold with her...

"Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness." Psalm 107:8-9 Sometimes, boring is good. The heat and humidity in Alabama August is fierce...it can drive you back inside quickly if you get too adventuresome. We're not really lazy, we're just waiting for the cooler air of autumn before we do anything that requires moving or breathing. We miss our Sunday afternoon walks at the TVA reservation. I've always loved walking in the woods, but we live in the city. TVA provides wonderful walking trails, a wildflower garden that is almost always cool, and facilities with a water fountain. It is one of my favorite places. Walkers abound in our neighborhood, and after we're finished with our walk, I like to sit on the front porch with a book and wave at all the walkers as they come by. It's too hot to do that right now; there ar...

Between our birth and death we may touch understanding, As a moth brushes a window with its wing. Christopher Fry

One of the best things about summer is the local farmers' market. From early spring onions and radishes until the last sweet potatoes are sold, our market meets on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays. Saturdays are the busiest, and some choice items, like free-range eggs, are sold out before seven in the morning. We had a lazy Saturday morning, and by the time we got there about 10:30, lots of shelves were empty. The sellers were still doing a lot of business. As a rich society, we have been spoiled. We want our strawberries and tomatoes in the middle of the winter. We want our fruit pretty and blemish free. It is about supply and demand. Because of volume, sometimes big chain stores can sell their produce cheaper than the local farmers can. But what a difference there is in taste and freshness! Personally, I prefer corn that was on the stalk just minutes before it was brought to market. I don't mind if tomatoes are not exactly round, a long as they taste like my childhood and Ala...

First Fridays: A time of good food, music, dancing, clowns, jewelry, crafts and fun in downtown Florence every first Friday of the month. You never know who you might run into...... Politicians.....old friends.....the mayor Belly dancers...... Even Elvis showed up! Harmonizing and picking.... Treasure hunting....showing off and finding great local talent! At this point, the camera had to be put away so we could handle the ice cream cones. You gotta come next month!

Dog Days: a time period so hot that it saps the energy of man and beast, and there is very little, if any, movement. In the Southern United States, where I am so blessed to live, they start in late July and don't end until September. As a child, we were taught the period was so named because it was too hot for dogs to move from the shade where they spent the long, blistering days. We were warned to be especially careful, for everything from bug bites to ear aches were remarkablely worse during 'dog days'. Fortunately, the crops were 'laid by' and growing by then, with harvest months away, so the work would slow down for everyone except the ones preparing vegetables for freezing and canning. We worshipped the window fans that blew the night-cooled air into our bedrooms enough that we could sleep. Actually, the term 'dog days' can be credited to the Romans, who endured hot days without the threat of global warming hanging over their heads. The star Siri...