Friday Night Fish Fry

Barnyard Tragedy

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past. I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast.

Bob Dylan

My Mother's Garden:

Today was hair day.  I decided to leave the salon curly...not straighten my hair for a while.  I also decided I wanted the color more natural and really softened the highlights.  Then I was bummed because I was so what...so "natural"  I like the curls again but when my hair is curly I really prefer a blonder look.  I will be back in a month re-lightening my hair.   I just can't stay "normal" brunette.

My Nephew Soccer Star:

In awful awful news today I came home and noticed one of my chicks out alone in the pasture which struck me as odd.  I rushed to the barn and in the breezeway lay one of my chicks dead.  Stepped on by a horse.  And I know exactly which horse it was too, don't we Spirit? I just cried.  Tonight the remaining two a single hen and a single rooster were just so despondent...they just seemed so sad and pitiful.  The other little hen has been inseparable from the remaining hen from the get go.  They were smaller and always playing, cutting up together.  I just cannot believe this happened.

And I just made their little picture Monday night for the Blog this week:

The front one was the victim.

I threatened all three horses with the glue factory if I ever had another accident like this one happen.  I really am just sick over it and can't imagine how the last two must feel.

COT- Cat Overload

"I put down my book, The Meaning of Zen, and see the cat smiling into her fur as she delicately combs it with her rough pink tongue.
Cat, I would lend you this book to study but it appears you have already read it.
She looks up and gives me her full gaze.
Don't be ridiculous, she purrs, I wrote it.
- from "Miao" by Dilys Laing

   For more Cats on Tuesday visit Gattina and her kitties.

Calista and Darius show you the new screened in room construction.  Darius takes to the red dirt pile.  Calista models by the lumber.

"A cat sees us as the dogs...A cat sees himself as the human." - Unknown

Calista proves to the dogs that she is above doing tricks for treats and runs back and forth between Toonces and the Thugs.

Everyone, including Rollie, was happy to have T back home.  We spent the evening playing by the creek and in the cats and dogs favorite meadow. 

(Amy please note who keeps taking over my water bottle...)

Well almost everyone loves to go to the meadow.  Someone refused.

"I'd rather sit here and look out the door thank you."

Enjoy your Tuesday...enjoy Cats!

The Weekend Wrap

Leave well - even 'pretty well' - alone: that is what I learn as I get old.

Edward Fitzgerald

Yesterday afternoon was a girl's day at Richard Childress Winery (close to Lexington, NC)...big brunch, several bottles of wine and many many laughs.  It was a beautiful day.  For more pics go HERE.

Saturday afternoon we had a big time with Jackson at his NBA themed party.  Adults and kids played basketball and had Gatorade with their cake and pizza.   

The smaller kids had their own goal.

And Friday night I had dinner and saw a band with Sharon and friends for her birthday.  She was a wee bit older than 8.

BTW these are the present that I bought for Sharon but ended up keeping for myself not knowing I wouldn't find another pair locally.  But Shishy will have a pair to go with her pjs I did give her before we go to the beach (next week, yeah!)

So Rollie had a busy weekend, keeping the roads hot.  Toonces was away visiting his uncle with his father.  I was glad to see him back home but the cats were not.  Calista was allowed to sleep in bed with me in his absence.

For more pictures of Jackson's birthday party you can click HERE!  

Birthday Greetings

Like Oprah and Gayle,  Thelma and Louise there is Tate and Tate...aka Deana and Sharon.

So to wish my best friend since 9th grade, that's 27 years people, a wonderful birthday...and to humiliate her I have gone back through the albums to find a couple of her best shots.

Ah, 11 years ago at Wrightsville beach.  Yes that is my puffy head and cig.  Shishy looks on.

5 years ago at the Dwight Yoakam concert.  That's her cousin Claude grinning with her.

Tate is having a good time!

I bought that for her birthday, my scanning leaves something to be desired.

(Tate, Melanie, Izzy, Eric, Jackson, Delane, Amy)

(me, Jackson,Caleb,Izzy)

She has been with our family for a long long time.   (You know it is the kids growth that makes you feel old, they change so quickly)

Isabelle asked me the other day why Shishy wanted to be my friend all those years ago.

I said "Well Shishy wasn't jealous of my raw beauty and she saw my sense of humor."  "When we girls got to the catty age Shishy wasn't like that with me."  I think Shishy just saw the real me and that is hard when you're a teenager trying to impress or be super cool.

Izzy said "Oh.  Well somedays I am the prettiest girl in my class and another day my best friend is the prettiest girl so we get along."  I thought you'll get along until about 15 and those fangs come out.  When I told my mom the conversation she said "Yeah, people were jealous of how pretty I was too."

Humility...it runs in the family.  We need friends like Shishy to keep us grounded.

So Happy Happy Birthday Tate!  And thanks for being my friend.

In other Birthday news and the reason for the beach photo of us all together is that my nephew Jackson celebrates number 8 tomorrow and I won't be posting tomorrow so I am doing his birthday shout out along with Sharon's!

So to embarrass Jackson...

Jackson at 2 1/2 getting in the candy bowl of Papa's.

Jackson age 2.

The kid has always been about ball.