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Your Father Might Be a Redneck If…

…he does stuff like this.

My Mom sent me the above photo by e-mail this morning with no explanation. My first thought was, “What is it?” (NOTE: that’s a censored sentiment. This is a family blog, so I won’t type what I really thought. I was having a crappy morning.)

My Mom didn’t reply to my query, so I showed Hubby. He said it’s my Dad’s take on the Topsy-Turvy Tomato Planter that is advertised on TV.

It appears to be working. I mean, look closely and you’ll see the tomato plant is thriving. And it is still early in June. If he’d planted that plant in the ground, it would probably be dead.

But it’s hanging on their front porch. In an old 5-gallon bucket. It looks a bit rednecky, if you ask me. I guess I am just not as environmentally conscious as Dad. After all, he’s making use of something (the old, 5-gallon bucket) that would otherwise get tossed in the trash.

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Dad. It’s a couple of years old. That’s CeCe on the lower left. She’s no longer with us. This was taken at the WV place one weekend that Dad came up to help.

Speaking of West Virginia, if we’d saved the drywall buckets that were left over from that project, we could have had our own tomato FARM.

That’s Hubby pictured above with some of the buckets we had left.

So, is my Dad a redneck? Or environmentally responsible?

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The Hodgepodge (Playing Catch-up)

So, I’m setting a bad precedent. Today is June 5 and this is my first post of the month. It’s been sort of a rough week with some definite ups and downs. Let’s just say the highs were high and the lows were low.

The high for the week was our dinner with half of the Swiss Family Mac. The elder half, of course, Mr. & Mrs. Mac. Some other friends, Mr. and Mrs. White, joined us, too. We ate a bunch of really expensive, but good, Maryland-style steamed crabs, and got to catch up on the various happenings in each of our families. No pics. Sorry. Two bloggers together and not one picture shot. What losers!

I did get a cool pic in WV last weekend. Actually, the image is not so cool. It’s the subject. Remember this weird bug I got photos of on May 18? It grew up! I still don’t know what it is though. I also don’t know if it has finished growing.

My girls both celebrate their birthdays this month. Meg (left) turns 10 while Belle (right) is 2. They both got haircuts the other day. As soon as the sun comes out again, I’ll take a picture to share. Yes, I have a flash. But natural light is better. So I’ll wait.

Our lizard showed himself. As I told Hubby, I think we intrigue him. He watched us for quite a while. At one point he even climbed down into the grass and started to make his way toward us. Until Belle walked past and scared him.

This is my favorite, recent Belle picture. You can see the smile on her face as she runs free at the WV place. She LOVES it there.

Here are some miscellaneous nature pics. This is one Hubby swears I’ll be hating in a couple of months. Once the seed-heads dry, they become big ole burrs that’ll get caught in the dogs’ fur.

There’s just one of these pretty flowers in our driveway. At the very end, too, right beside the road. Don’t know what it is, but I like it. We have lots of very small raspberry bushes, too. I am anxious to see if they yield any berries.

I don’t know what this is, either. It’s a tree. Not a bush. I liked the red berry.

That’s all for today. Hopefully the next post will be new and exciting!

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No Idea What This Means…

…but it sure is colorful.

And definitely fun.

Maybe it is just art for art’s sake. Click on the image for a better view.

If you dare. Or care.

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Elvis the Pelvis Pretty in Pink

Here’s some more Eureka Springs art.

Notice I’m in the picture, too?

I typically hate the way I look in pictures. Especially since I always look fat.

But I’ve come to the conclusion that I am fat. This is what I look like. So why not showcase me?

I’m not morbidly obese or anything. Just way more plump than I ever thought I’d be. I am shrinking slowly though. Mainly because I am making a concerted effort to eat less and exercise more. It’s simple. In theory anyway.

It is much easier being fat and unhappy than working to lose weight. That laziness is what brought me to my present girth. I’m trying to change that.

I guess we’ll see what happens. Acknowledging that you have a problem is one of the first steps to correcting said problem, right?

Speaking of problems… I’ve been at a loss recently for things to Blog about. Can you tell?

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St. Caffeina

Click here for a larger ganderThis image was on a wall adjacent to a parking lot in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a quirky little town where we spent all of about two hours during our Oklahoma-Arkansas motorcycle tour. To me, the town felt like a cross between old town Ellicott City, Maryland and Deadwood, South Dakota. Except there was art everywhere. Lots of eclectic shops, too, which we did not even bother to peruse since I had all of about 4 square inches of extra space in my backpack.

I’m no art aficionado. But if there’s any art I like, it is art with a sense of humor.

Look closely at the words surrounding St. Caffeina’s halo and you’ll see that it reads “double grand mocha no whip.” (HINT: click on the image and you’ll get a closer look.)

It struck me as funny for some reason. Not “ha-ha” funny, mind you. Just interesting.

I’d love to have the talent to do something like this.

It would have been fun to spend more time in Eureka Springs, but we still had miles to go before we slept. So back on the bike we climbed…

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Why I Keep the Camera Handy

I was chatting with a friend the other day about pictures and she asked me something to the effect of whether I always have my camera attached to my hip.

I don’t. But I do keep it handy. Because you never know when you’ll look out your back door and see this…

It’s a turtle. But it is not just your plain old everyday box turtle. It is a painted turtle. They’re the kind that live in water. Since I no longer have a pond, I was quite surprised. The girls were both intrigued.

Apparently, when there are long periods of rain, like we’ve recently endured, and ponds/streams/creeks are unusually high, these turtles seek out dry land for a while. REALLY dry land, I guess.

I got a kick out of watching them examine this turtle, so I just had to take pics to share.

Belle decided to “talk” to the turtle, too. She’s cute as a button, but remember, she’s a killer. So I didn’t leave the turtle at her mercy for long.

Instead, I plopped it in a box and sat it on the kitchen counter until I could set it free in a more appropriate spot. Like, somewhere near water.

The turtle doesn’t look too thrilled. Better than being ripped apart by my cute little princess, though!

I’m sure the turtle was smiling when I pushed it gently to freedom through the fence of the storm water management pond across the street from my house…