It's been interesting, to say the least

Out of the gate, I had to show you one of the cards I received for my birthday this year. Isn't this gorgeous? It's a pop-up flower garden, and the birthday wishes were made to the Queen of the Zinnias! Love this tons.

Well, so far, 51 has been a bit too eventful. I'd love for it to slow down a bit! Four sick kitties (yep, Bunny and babies), multiple trips to the vets, meds, a week of vacation that turned into becoming a nurse to Bunny and babies instead, and here we are at the weekend. Next week, I begin training for a new-ish position at work, and I'm both nervous and looking forward to something different, although, if I'm honest, I like the current job that I have just fine. But growing and learning is still important to me; new skillsets can be valuable in many ways, including self-satisfaction that you really can learn new things far into your years.

The birthday fun lingered all last week. On Thursday, my work friends had a butterscotch pie party for me! Two of my work family are retired/semi-retired, so it was good to catch up with each other. We've been together for over a decade and we are all mostly still in one piece, one way or another. They are lovely people, to say the least. I'd take a bullet for any of them. 

See my pie (what's left of it)? It's from Peggy Ann Bakery, and it's the old-fashioned, cooked butterscotch kind. This stuff is great. In fact, if they sold just the cooked part in containers, I'd buy it on a regular basis, because who wouldn't want that in their life all the time? Thick and creamy, with tons of flavor, this is the stuff I'd never bother to make since it's made so well locally. The pies at Peggy Ann are extremely reasonably priced, too.

It is hard to believe that Memorial Day is nearly upon us. I plan to enjoy every drop of summer this year. I've never been a summer person, but I find that as the years pass, I am living more and more for that summer season. I've got some red and white checked bunting hung out in the apple trees and garden, with just a bit more bunting yet to add around the porch for Memorial Day. Isn't this the best stuff? I've only started using bunting in the last five years or so. Can't imagine why I didn't do this sooner.

I feel tired today. The humidity is revved up, thanks to a storm system that arrived yesterday and has yet to move on. We've had dry heat with a good breeze for several days, and it has spoiled me. Now, we're looking at humidity through tomorrow. I'll be glad to send it packing and get my energy back, but I also recognize that the rain was very needed. The newly-planted Zinnia and Calendula seeds have germinated, and they look like they have grown inches just overnight!

Heading to the kitchen for toasted sourdough topped with an over-easy egg and Dukes mayo. Not a bad way to kick off a Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure that Grainger county tomatoes will factor in there somewhere! Have a blessed Memorial Day weekend. Never forget those who died in military service on our behalf, selfless acts of love for people they never knew. I am eternally grateful.

The humidity is killing me (not)

We have turned hot! Not warm - hot! Well, hot to me, anyway. low to mid-80s with the potential for two days at 90 this week. I know for people out west, that's not considered very hot, but to East TN, that's hot! We cool off again, eventually, and we have the gift of being in the 50s in the early mornings in this part of the country during a large part of the summer months. Thing is, this heat that has set in has almost no humidity. Now, having said that, we need rain. But I'm not going to lie - in the shade, with 83 degrees, a breeze and 37 percent humidity, you can kind of imagine what heaven will be like! It's very nearly perfect. You don't sweat, the bugs don't stick to your skin, and you don't have the makings of a headache somewhere at the back of your brain that often happens when the humidity sucks. We'll see how long it lasts! It's a gift, that's for sure.

Grainger County tomatoes are already available. Got three big beauties at a local nursery, and I'm all ready with several jars of my Dukes mayo on standby. Nice to know those tomatoes are available until our garden begins producing. They're very good. Not nearly as good as our own home-grown tomatoes (what is, though??), but they taste like the real deal. Along with big slices of Georgia sweet Vidalia onions and sourdough bread, salt and pepper, those sandwiches will be a staple for the next few months. I love autumn, but with that season, I always mourn the passing of tomato sandwiches.

One of my best girlfriends made me an old-fashioned 7-up cake! Here it is, ready to be cut and served with chocolate covered cherry ice cream later today! I'll get a better picture after I pop open the container. I am beyond excited. It's been a few years since I had one of these. I'm looking forward to the nostalgia of the taste. It's a big cake, so this may very well be breakfast for a while, lol (kinda not kidding; I mean, is it any worse than a donut??).

The next three pictures are just an indulgence of the things I love because today is my day. So, I give you Lacey, Oscar and Baby Higgins. I was talking with someone the other day. My job is pretty demanding, and I spend a lot of time working. That's okay, I like my job just fine, even on the hard days. But between the job and the rescues, it doesn't leave a lot of time for self-care. 

I look a mess a lot of days. That works for me, though, because look at these guys. They're stunning. They were all in need at some point. Sickly or abused or vulnerable or all of the above. To take something like that, to make it healthy, to make it feel safe, to make it feel loved is the best thing in the world. I don't care about my gray hair, the lack of makeup, the old clothes. I do, however, care more deeply than I can ever express about these guys and all of our other babies. I'm grateful for a husband who loves them as much as I do and who indulges the heck out of them. This is worth everything to me. This is what will be with me when I am with God. I cannot wait!

The coming week will be a bit different. I'm on a wonky schedule in an effort to take a bit of time off. I'm hoping to gut through some closets and drawers at home and to do some neglected spring-cleaning. I did manage to pull off a small bit of deep cleaning recently, but a couple of rooms I've yet to work on need some attention. 

I'm looking forward to a week of open windows and fans and breezes blowing through the house up until lunchtime, followed by a closed up house, curtains drawn against the heat, and an afternoon scary movie or two. I've got popcorn and Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate bars for the movies. I hope, also, to have that one morning where I throw on shorts and a tank top and head to Sonic for my Ocean Water and tater tots, summer music blaring, moon roof on my old Subaru rolled back, and literally nowhere to be for half an hour. 

I hope your Sunday is lovely and that your humidity is low and you have a healthy breeze. It makes a difference, doesn't it? It feels - literally - like life is so much easier when the weather is glorious. It doesn't hurt to have an old-school 7-up cake waiting on you, either . . . . Love to you!

Train whistles in the south in the a.m. hours

We live in the south, albeit not the deep south. Our south is the mountains, the Appalachian south, the Allegheny range view where on a hazy day, no matter what season, your view is a soft gray-blue combination of mountains and lonely. I can see why so many people find the mountains to be mystic, full of secrets and things that are beyond normal comprehension. They're beautiful, but they don't look inviting. If you go for a drive in the middle of a sunny day, it's dark and cool in the higher elevations, and it becomes very easy to lose your sense of time and direction. I was brought up by someone from the mountains, my father being from way back in the hills in Tennessee. I believe that melancholy plays a significant role in the hills. While I'm not melancholy in general, perhaps that is where I get my hint of the melancholy every now and then, and it manifests in my reaction to some sounds and smells.

We live not far from the railroad. It's not in our backyard or anything like that. You can't hear the train going through, chugging down the tracks at all. But what I do hear, particularly in the late summer evenings or the early summer mornings before dawn, is that long, soft-as-cashmere whistle that emanates from the train as it passes through the railroad crossing. Throw in some honeysuckle on a breeze, and suddenly the world stops for a few seconds while I live in the moment. It is the utter culmination of reaching the point of total relaxation, even if for just a few seconds. I feel my body tune itself towards the sound, and I breathe. There is nothing quite like it. I listen for it daily before the sun ever debuts. It has been part of my morning routine for over twenty years. 

Meanwhile, in the yard, lots of color is popping out all over. Yellow coreopsis and Siberian blue irises are in full swing. These will last for a couple more weeks, then the irises will be done for the year. The coreopsis will bloom periodically up through autumn. It's nice to walk out the back door and see these happy golden flowers! 

The front porch is ready for ice tea, tomato sandwiches, a box fan and chit-chat or reading. Now, we just have to get warm enough to utilize it. Looks like next weekend will be in the 80s, so I suspect the mornings will be perfect for some time out there with a book. Plenty of that to come in the near future, I hope. I do have some red and white checked bunting that will be put up around the banisters next weekend. That will add a bit of pizzazz for summer, which will be here in about five weeks. 

Look at Bunny! Isn't she fabulous?! Yesterday afternoon was a tad cloudy, but it was warm-ish (well, I had to wear a jacket later in the day, but . . . still better than freezing). We spent some time outside with Bunny and babies, part of our weekend routine. Bunny would live outdoors if we would let her, but it's not allowed. She's only outside under supervision to keep her safe. Other than that, she's required to be inside. As you can see, she's a very good girl.

And here is Bunny with her babies, all looking out the front door, wondering "why aren't we out there?!!" This little crew loves being outside. Unless the weather is terrible, they get to go out at least once a day, twice a day on the weekends. Bunny is second from the left. Look how her babies are outgrowing her! 

We finally head into warmer weather this week, so I made pasta salad yesterday, old school style with Dukes mayo, vinegar and just a hint of sugar and salt, fresh onion, peas and carrots, and cheese diced up. Refrigerated overnight, it will be eaten cold with saltine crackers and a slice of tomato. It tastes like spring turning into summer, which, if you are me, that really is a thing. Train whistles, honeysuckle, pasta salad, hazy mountains - all of this is my change of season melancholy. It's lovely, though. It's a good kind of melancholy, it forces me to just "be." I'm not great at that, I move around a lot, I'm too busy for my own good some days. But I have always invested in and been good at celebrating the season with sights, smells and tastes. I hope I never lose that ability; it brings me such joy.

Here's to the next coming season, where the food has flavor, shorts and t-shirts rule the fashion world, and the breeze carries the smells and sounds of life.