On Mother's Day__________________________________________________

In the very early morning.

A cup of tea.

A seat at the front room window.

A feathered friend already at the seed feeder.

Happy Mother's Day to me!!

Another friend stops by.

A Chickadee.

I light my mother's day gift.

A special candle from "Our Own Candle Company".

A Watermelon scented soy candle in a mason jar with a handle, like a big mug!

It's a cloudy day, a good day for a bright candle.

After my cup of tea is done,

Time for a cup of coffee.

And a chocolate heart.  Always time for chocolate!

I'm being watched!
In case I might take a sunflower seed for breakfast!!

This boy believes in dressing formally for breakfast!

Look at that black cap and ascot tie.

White waistcoat, and grey top coat.

Very stylish.

It is misting outside.

Mrs. Cardinal looks damp,

I wonder if she's a momma this year??

Stay tuned to the end of this post...............

Now here's a lady who knows how to celebrate the day!

My mom and gardening,

A very happy combination!

A gardener's hands look beautiful.

Her fingernails tell the story of weeding and planting,
and loving the earth.

 And here is a wonderful bouquet in a basket from her step-daughter in West Virginia.

And a special card from her 'other' daughter in Arizona :-)

And more flowers, blue and purple Hydrangea from the backyard of
her daughter here in Mississippi  (uh, that would be me!)

A very Happy Mother's Day!!
I love you.

*****************************************************************

Now remember that I said to stay tuned for more about Mrs. Cardinal?
Well, there IS a Mr. Cardinal, and in this short video, watch closely in the first 10 seconds.

That was Mr. Cardinal giving a sunflower seed to the Mrs.!

Why would he do that??

Because of a little bundle of sticks,

Sitting in a tree on the side of our porch.

Can you see Mrs. Cardinal??

She's very nervous and won't let me get very close.

Squint.  Look for a bird shape.

Her tail is on the left.

Her head is on the right and she's looking toward the left...

In fact, she has one black eye glaring right at you (because of me!)!

What's got her all aflustered??...

TWINS!!

Thanks for stopping by,
See you next time at Hilltop!

Quite Small and Low to the Ground

Pieces of carpets of flowers smaller than my thumbnail...

P.S.  If you just held your thumb up to the picture, remember this is enlarged about 5 times!!

Whoa,  there's a fuzzy whitish intruder in there...recognize it??

Of course, it's from a Carpet of...

Clover!  Did ya guess right?

Beeeeee sure and look closely...

For four leaves at the end of one stem.

Yes, a Lucky Four-Leaved Clover could be yours.

Can they be found??

It's not easy...these all seem to be in threes...

But given a few YEARS of searching,

they CAN be found!!

Here's our little Lucky clover box.

Here's who found them (the blue is me) and when.

They were found during our summer trips here to Mississippi.

 Now here's one you will surely recognize...and please don't call it a weed!

It's a sunburst of yellow, caught in the shining green of the universe.

A Dandy Lion.

As the clover, it also becomes magical as you will soon see...

Yes, here it is at its magical time.

For that yellow sunburst has turned into a round, furry fluff of bitty seeds.

And it is time to blow off the dandelion fluff,

and make your wish!

HA-HA!! I wished for a FIELD OF DANDELIONS!!

That's more chances to wish!!

(This picture brought to you from somewhere else on the internet.)

Now here's somebody else who is certainly

Quite Small and Low to the Ground!

13 years old,

And barely as big as a snow boot,

Gizmo has just had her summer buzz cut.

(Edit:  her eyes are fine, they are naturally buggish!)

That fur coat was just getting way toooo heavy!!

Thanks for visiting...

Please always look for something to smile about  :-)

A Walk Around Our Yard

Admiring the fruits of our labors.....HA!  Not OUR labors at all...These plants do ALL the work and we CONSUME the fruits.  That is, if we get there before the wild critters!

The Fig Tree (with 6 foot tall  handsome scale model)

Folding a leaf back to reveal where the figs are hiding..

(Yes, Mark's hand has a tattoo of

lightening which he and a friend put on each of their hands

by themselves, way back in their army days!!)

Will we get to these before the birds??

Here's a plum tree.  With helpful scale model :)
That's a blueberry bush on the right.
More on those later...

There are the two plum trees, one in front of the other...

with the fig to the right, blueberry bush to the left...
And the red spot on the right which is the neighbor's truck.
Guess he didn't get the message that a photo shoot was going on!

Here is a beautiful plum on the tree. Yum.

But here are many beautiful plums that have fallen to the ground.

We may not get many to eat this year.

But some little animals WILL !!  Yum for them.

The Two Blueberry bushes...

 ---biggest bush with many berries

                 smaller bush, but with sweeter berries---

and here's what THEY'VE been doing...

Some of them may look edible, but don't be fooled.

They're crunchy as carrots and sour as a pickle.

But OH, will they be tasty in a month!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And then, surprise, surprise, we have a

Pomegranate Tree!

It didn't bloom the first year we were here.

Last year it gave out a few fruits that sure looked like pomegranate on the inside,

 but we just weren't sure if they were edible.

Then I saw the neighbor's father sneak over, grab one and eat it.

He didn't die.

So now we know we have a real Pomegranate Tree...

And this year it is wildly happy blooming and fruiting!!

Stay away neighbor!!

Here it is at the corner of the house, taller than the house!

And here are blooms and fruits...

Thanks for visiting...

Smile whenever you can!!