And The Winner Is.....

There is some sort of problem with Blogger as I try to do this post.  

I keep getting a popup saying that I have logged out elsewhere and do I want to log in again?   I have no idea what's going on.  Here's hoping I can get this post done quickly and I can announce the winner of my giveaway before it shuts down.  

And a happy Monday morning to you!  

     

First, I'd like to say that I wish I had something for each of you who entered my drawing, for I think each one of my blogging friends is a winner.  Over 30 of you entered my little drawing and I typed up all the names and placed them in my red bowl.  Just when I finished, my hubby walked into the kitchen looking for something to snack on.  So I asked him, before he could reach into the cookie jar, to reach into my red bowl and draw a name!   So, without further ado, the winner is........

Susan, congratulations!  If you would just email me your mailing address,  I will get your win mailed to you!  You can reach me at  justablogger(at)yahoo(dot)com.

  

Many of my blogging friends already know Susan, but if you don't, be sure to stop by The Adventure of Old Alice  and say hello.  Susan has a great blog and often shares some wonderful photos of her beautiful state that she's snapped while hiking with her dog, Tiah.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and special thanks for helping me

celebrate 500 posts!

Until next time...

A Fun Friday...and a Giveaway

It's a beautiful day!  Hope your day is starting off bright and cheery like this little yellow flower.  I'm taking my aunt to lunch today.  It's been a busy week and I'm ready for some fun and relaxation.  We got our garden planted and I finished planting my flower pots yesterday.  I think I have close to 40 pots.  Do you think I overdid it?  Well, you can't have too many flowers, I say.  Although, when the summer heats up and I'm trying to keep up with the watering I might think otherwise!  I also have my perennials and I plant flowers in the garden, too.  What can I say...I love flowers!  So, do you have all your flowers planted yet?  

Today is the last day to let me know if you want to be included in the drawing for my giveaway.  The photo on the left shows whats included in the giveaway.  There's a little white pitcher, a gift card, crocheted dish cloth, a bar of soap made with goat's milk and olive oil scented with lavender that's delightful, a dip mix that is one of our favorites that I always stock up on when in Branson, and lastly a cookbook.  I'll have to tell on myself.  I bought this cookbook new and put it on the bookshelf.  Some time later, I was at a flea market and saw a cookbook identical to this one only it was a hardbound book.  I bought it not remembering I already had the other one.  

The winner of the drawing will be announced Monday.  Good luck!  And have a wonderful Friday and weekend, too!

Until next time... 

May Note Card Party

It's party time!  Time for Vee's Note Card Party which is on the third Wednesday of each month.  Can you believe we're that far into May already?  I sure can't.

I was looking through my posts, trying to find something that I hadn't

used before.  The photos I picked out seemed to have a certain

something in common.   

I'd never really gave it much thought before, but a lot of our favorite

places to visit have water in some form.  It may be a lake, park,

river or creek as shown in these 4 photos.

 

Thanks, Vee, for hosting this fun party!  To see some really 

wonderful photos made into note cards, just hop over to Vee's 

place at A Haven for Vee.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...  

 

 * * * *  * * * * * * * * 

Don't forget to let me know if you want to be entered in my drawing!

The deadline is the end of the day Friday.  I'll announce the winner

Monday.  To enter, you only need to be a follower, that's it!  

Barn Charm

This drive-by was taken last month.  I only have a very few barns left in my archives, so I need to do a little day-tripping and look for barns.  That will be fun!

I have a question.  I went to PhotoScape to sharpen this photo a bit and put on a frame, but when I saved the photo and went to get it for this post, I couldn't find it anywhere.  Anyone ever have this problem?  It was supposed to be saved in the original folder.  This is not the first time this has happened.  

Linking to  Barn Charm

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...  

Monday Musings

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you probably know by now that my favorite bird is the Bluebird.  I just had to show you this little cutie with his feather's all windblown.  I have so many photos to share that it was hard to choose just a few for this special post.  This just happens to be my 500th post!  

  

My photos aren't always the sharpest they could be because I often shoot out of my kitchen window.  You know when you're trying to capture a bird, timing is everything.  If you aren't quick, they're definitely not going to wait around for you!  

The Blue Heron is a frequent visitor at our pond.  I really had to zoom in to capture him from my window!  Birds of all kinds are one of my favorite subjects to shoot.  

When I was thinking of names way back when for my blog, I thought I might name it From My Kitchen Window or something like that, but in the end I went with The Farmer's Daughter.  I told how I came about that name in this post.    

Furry critters are another favorite subject.  And, of course, my kitties are right at the top of my Favorites list.  We lost one of our sweet furbabies recently and I did a post about it here.   It's still a sad subject for us.

 

I love sunsets and I'm always watching the skies to see if I should drive out to the lake for a photo op.  My hubby and I picked up some fast food the other evening and headed to the lake to eat our supper and I got a few shots of the sunset that evening that are pictured here.

 

   

These are just a few of my favorite things to capture with my camera...there are many.  I started this blog as a sort of online journal of my memories and musings and I think that is what it still is, for the most part.  I don't do posts every day, so it's taken me awhile to reach the 500 mark.  Not being a very wordy person, I'm really quite shocked that I've done this many!   

To show my appreciation to my blogging friends who have been reading my blog, I'm having a giveaway.  I mentioned it last week in this post.  If you would like to have your name in the drawing, just let me know in a comment by Friday.  The only other stipulation for being included in the drawing is that you must be a Follower.  

I hope you had a nice weekend.  I certainly did as I was treated to dinner by my 2 wonderful children.  Now a new week has begun and it's time for me to get busy.  I still have a few flowers...which is another favorite photo op...to plant!  

Until next time...  

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!

Wishing each of you a very happy day!  

Until next time...

Comments closed.  Enjoy your day!  

Flowers, A Giveaway, Etc.

Yesterday was another beautiful spring day with the bluest sky and fluffy white clouds overhead.  The air was perfumed with the scent of lilacs.

Our lilacs aren't blooming as well as usual this year, but they survived the drought so I'm happy with what I have. 

I got a few flowers planted and spray painted some old pots that were looking a bit tired, kind of like me without my makeup lately.  The paint really made them look better, if only makeup would work such wonders!  I've been dealing with vertigo lately and bending over aggravates the situation, so I'm slow getting some things done.  Looking up doesn't help either, but I just had to stop a few times and admire the clouds and watch the jets streaking overhead.  I wonder where this one is headed?

You just knew I'd have to zoom in, didn't you?  I love to see the different airliners. 

Our little dwarf apple trees we planted last year are blooming.  We kept them watered all through the drought, so they are doing fine.  I think I counted all of 12-14 blooms on this little tree.  Hubby says we should have planted semi-dwarf trees.  To tell the truth, I don't want too many apples.  We used to have a lot of apple trees and I made apple pies and froze them and canned apple pie filling.  I don't want to do that again.  

I still always plant the tried and true geraniums every year.  I also bought flowers such as African Daisies, Petunias, the Supertunias, Marigolds and others.  I plant a lot of the Sweet Potato vine, it looks so good trailing out of a pot and is very hardy.  I'm needing a few more flowers to fill all the newly spruced up pots, so I'll be shopping again.  What is your favorite flower to grow in pots?  

My 500th post is fast approaching.  Most of you have long reached that number, but I don't post every day so it's taken me a while to  reach it.  It's still hard to believe that I've done that many.  

The blogging community is a terrific group of people and I've enjoyed getting to know you through your posts and wonderful photos.  So, to celebrate the big 500 and to show my appreciation for your support of my little blog, I am doing a giveaway and the drawing will be next week.

I picked up a couple of things while we were in Branson over the weekend, there will be a gift card and some other goodies.  I won't have any strict rules other than you must be a follower....I think that is only fair....and tell me in a comment that you would like to be in the drawing.  I will post photos of the giveaway items and announce the time of the drawing next week!  You can let me know anytime between now and the cutoff date I'll announce next week if you would like to enter! 

Until next time...

Barn Charm

While not in the best of shape, this old barn looked like it was still being used from what I could see.  It is just off a gravel road about 10 miles or so from my house.  Even though needing some TLC, this barn has a lot more charm than the metal buildings being built these days.

Linking to Tricia's Barn Charm 

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...   

Snow in May!

See the photo above?  Not exactly the scenery we hoped to see on our little weekend trip to Branson on Friday.  This was a first for me....snow in May!  If we hadn't already made our reservations, I daresay we might have cancelled.  Not only did we see snow, we saw quite a bit of light rain.  And very chilly temperatures. 

We decided to go to Silver Dollar City Saturday morning.  It was the last weekend for the World Fest.  We walked around the park a while and ate lunch, watched a group from Ecuador play their instruments, which was very good, and also stopped in at the old cabin to listen to the Homestead Pickers.  However, around 1:30 we decided the rain and cold was too much for us, so we left and headed downtown to look around.  We also stopped in at the Hard Luck Diner for one of their old fashioned sodas and listened to the singing waiters/waitresses.  

We were back in our hotel pretty early.  And let me tell you, their pillow top mattresses were soooo soft that I got really comfy very quickly!  I started reading a new cookbook I bought that looked interesting at Mulberry Mill....doesn't everyone love to read cookbooks?....and hubby tuned in to a basketball game.  We both were soon sound asleep and when we woke up, it was too late to go out to dinner!  Luckily I had packed a few snacks to tide us over.

Sunday, we had breakfast and headed home.  We stopped at an antique/flea market along the way.  I didn't see anything that I couldn't live without, so we were soon on the road again.  I'd like to say we had a great time, but with the weather so crummy, it would be a stretch to call it "great".  I hardly ever took my camera out of the bag.  Hope your weekend was better than mine!  

Until next time... 

In Memory of Truman

We lost our sweet furbaby, Truman, just a few hours ago as I write this.  We are all heartbroken.  He had become very special to us in his short 1 year of life.  I'll never forget the times that he would hop on the bed and flop down beside me and turn on his back wanting his belly scratched.  Truman was a sweet cat and never bothered anything.  He did like to go outside when he could sneak out.  Last night, I tried to get him inside but he didn't want to come in.  How I wish I could have gotten him in.  Please don't tell me that cats should stay inside all the time.  That won't bring Truman back.  We tried our best to keep an eye on him and his sister when they were outside, and until now, he never went near the highway preferring to stay in the back part of our property. 

In memory of Truman, and with tears running down my cheeks, I'm going

to go ahead as planned with this post on Truman and his sister.  I just took these photos Monday evening.  

Truman to Sissy, "I want you to tell me where you hid my mouse."

"I want to know now.  Got it?"

"What do you mean, you don't remember?"

Sissy, with head bowed, "I'm sorry."  Truman, "Hmmph."

"Let me tell you, sis, you just better not lose another one!"

Sissy, feeling bad, "I said I was sorry!"  Truman, "Yeah, well, you can

make it up to me by letting me have your treats."

~Truman~ 

April 2012 - April 2013

Goodbye, sweet Truman, you will be missed.

Until next time...