Faith, Folklore, and Friends

About 1992, someone suggested I read  Tony Hillerman's  latest novel.  I did, and I was hooked.  I read everything he had written up to that point, and got every new novel as soon as it was released.   His eighteen mystery novels are set in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona with protagonists Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee of the Navajo tribal police.  Hillerman's books describes the Four Corners area, Window Rock, Arizona and other desert landscapes. We had been to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but had never stopped at these places and seen them up close. We had a long winter here, and one cold, rainy day, I was thinking (daydreaming?) about how nice it would be to be in the Southwest. I started rereading Hillerman's  novels , and Hub read some of them for the first time. His descriptions make you want to be there, to see these places with your own eyes, to taste the dust with your mouth, to hear the wind and the silence. So blame it on a wild ...

  Keep your servant also from willful sins;      may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless,      innocent of great transgression.   May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart      be pleasing  in your sight,      Lord , my Rock  and my Redeemer.            ~Psalm 19:13-14

Booms of thunder shake the house We look at each other, stunned, Hearing the rain in this windowless room. We are powerless to stop it. We look at each other, stunned, As water creeps under the door. We are powerless to stop it. The water covers the floor. As water creeps under the door, hearing the rain in this windowless room, We draw up our feet in collective fear. Booms of thunder shake the house. ~Wanda Stricklin Robertson

Beautiful is a relative term.  I'm guessing beauty is intertwined with what we need, with what makes us happy. In early June, we had storms for five days in a row.  High winds snapped trees and power lines and heavy rain flooded roads and fields.  On Thursday night, one of our town's electrical workers was fatally injured while repairing storm damage.  During Saturday night's storm, the wind took down our Bradford pear tree, blowing it across the electrical wires that connects our house to the main lines. So we had live wires on the ground in the backyard.  We rescued the dog and didn't go near the downed wires until the utilities department got here to turn the power off at 5:30 AM on Sunday.  When the tree fell across the wires, it tore the meter and weather-head from the house.  Our Sunday was filled with getting an electrician to install a new meter and weather-head,  getting the new work inspected, and getting our power back on late Su...

Today, John and Lynn Ingwersen are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary.  As part of the celebration, they opened their fabulous gardens on Wednesday for tours.  Hub and I were the first ones there that morning, while the dew was still on the roses, as they say. The rose gardens were fabulous, and I wish I could remember all the names and varieties to share. Pretty sure that's not going to happen. And who could look at these and not smile? That is red yarrow in the background. White yarrow with butterfly weed. White yarrow with lilies. Beautiful Russian sage. . . looks like I'm not the only one who loves it. When the   Ingwersens moved to this property thirty years ago, there were four trees, and three of them had to be removed.  There have shade gardens now covered by dozens of large trees. They have an Indian prayer garden, a water garden, and the mediation garden pictured below. ...

                                                                      The oak-leaf hydrangea,  Hydrangea quercifolia Bartr. was  designated and named as the official state wildflower of Alabama in June of 1999. Since then, they have become so popular that garden centers sell out of them quickly.   It is easy to see how it got its name. Seeing this large spikes of white blooms in yards and along roadsides is one of the joys of spring and summer in the South.  They are pretty all year, with peeling bark and red colored leaves in the fall.  They will grow in full sun or shade. The ones in my yard are doing well in almost continual shade.  I've tried other plants in those areas, but nothing grew very well until we planted the oak-leaf hydrangeas. It is nice to be able to...

                                *Image from the National Archives This resolution was passed by Congress June 4, 1919, which was ninety-five years ago yesterday.  It was ratified on August 18, 1920.  The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. This amendment was first introduced in 1878, after fifty years of struggle by women who were tired of having no political voice. The proposed amendment was debated forty more years before it became law. The service of women during World War I finally resulted in the adoption of the amendment. Women like Susan P. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and many others worked without ceasing to insure women the right to vote. Ninety-five years later, American women cannot imagine a world where they wouldn't have the same rights as men. On Tuesday of this week, our state had primary elections. Voter turnout...

                        *Image from Wikipedia Dennis Weaver was born nine ty years ago today. Weaver was born and raised on a farm in Missouri.  He was a track and field athlete at the University of Oklahoma, then served as a Navy pilot in World War II.  He was a 'registered' Cherokee and a respected actor. He starred in the television movie, Duel , which some say launched Steven Spielberg's career and is still one of the greatest movies ever made for television.  He starred in the successful television series Gentle Ben , and later, as McCloud .  Wonderful accomplishments, but to me, he will always and forever be Chester Goode from Gunsmoke . Oh, didn't we love him? Mr. Dillon!  Mr. Dillon! The faithful sidekick, with a drawl and a limp, who always came through just in the nick of time when Mr. Dillon needed him.  In fact, I loved him so much, I wrote a poem about Gunsmoke when I was i...

My sweet friend, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, the Belle of All Things Southern , has a radio program that I listen to regularly via the Internet.  It is a fun program, with everything from Southern humor to recipes to Bible teaching.  She has some fantastic guests, including several of Duck Dynasty's Robertson clan. On a show recently, we heard songs from Si Robertson's CD,  Me and My Smokin' Hot Honey .  Si's son and daughter-in-law were guests that day, and they gave away some CDs and duck calls.  Hub walked in while I was putting my name in the pot to win, so he goes to his laptop and enters, too.  He won a duck call signed by Si. It is cute, and we love that it is personally autographed, but we don't really know what to do with it now.  I have no need to call ducks, and I'm not sure what I would do with them if they came when I called. But for some odd reason, we are just thrilled to own it, and I'm sure there will be stories born from i...

Thanks to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and all the other sponsors listed on the sign, Florence has its first and very popular community garden. Hub, who needed volunteer hours to complete his Master Gardener certification, did a lot of work helping build these 4' x 8' raised beds. There are approximately fifty raised beds, and all of them are full. The raised beds were constructed using pressure-treated lumber, then filled with compost, some of it consisting of decomposed trash from ginning cotton.  Soil tests were done, then lime and commercial fertilizer were added. Each bed was irrigated. First choice of the beds was given to veterans; then to people who do not have access to land to grow a garden; people who are physically unable to garden traditional, non-raised bed gardens, and   those economically unable to build a garden. Unfortunately, there was not enough for everyone who wanted one. There is a large variety of plants, and alm...