One year later

I retired one year ago today.  

Three hundred sixty five days of pure self indulgence.  

I feel light as a butterfly.

Corvette Weekend

Today I got to watch the parade of Corvettes with Phyllis and Joe Williams, the local Corvette experts.   If you have a Corvette question, just ask them.  Enough said. 

Catalpa time

Growing up, I had two trees of my own.  One was a willow that I planted from a twig. The other was an old catalpa tree.  I could climb the catalpa and sit up in the crotch.  I think I had romantic notions about reading up there but I don't think I ever did, even though I read all the time when I was younger.  Dad wove an iron pipe through the branches and I used that for a monkey bar.  But my favorite thing about that tree was the clump of fungi called little british soldiers that grew up in the rotting hollow of a broken branch.  My fifth grade teacher, Miss Ruth England, had the same fungus growing in an old terrarium that she would bring to school.  It felt very special to have my own little british soldiers.

My tree is gone now but I have a new catalpa tree to enjoy.

9

Fish Fry

The goldfish fry are growing

Yesterday's treasure

This was yesterday's great find at Restore for 50 cents.  It has an old paper tag on the bottom that reads, "Mr. and M.  R. Wolfe.  Very old.  Come from my home church."  I also got a Meakin ironstone plate and four old saucers with butterflies and tendrils in black.  But nothing compared to this cup.  Last year I found a pink luster saucer there.  The broken base in the photo was found in a dump at the Solon House several years ago.  Pink transferware.  Wish I had the whole piece.

I love pink roses....

An old rose from St. Francisville.

This has been a good year for roses.  And weeds.  

A rose with a fancy french name from Menards.

Another rose with a french name that I can't remember.  Madame something or other.

David Austen Heritage.

Mary Rose