Friday Randoms

~Stay still, butterfly!~

That age old question...where does the time go?...certainly comes to mind today.  I just realized we only have one more day left on this calendar page.  For such a busy month, how can one accomplish so little? 

 ~Salvia loaded with bees~

I was talking to my friend, Ell, yesterday about vacations.  She and her hubby just got back from a bus tour that went through Tennessee to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA before heading back up to TN and coming home to Missouri.  It sounded like a great trip, except for having to be packed each morning with the suitcase outside your door at 6 am and on the bus by 8 am.  I was telling BG about it and he said I would get left behind.  LOL!  Have you ever taken a bus tour?  It sounds like fun, if you don't mind sticking to a strict itinerary. 
 

~Photo taken from my kitchen window~

We need rain here.  We've only had a sprinkle or two, the rains have been very spotty in our area.  Our garden is looking good right now, but I will have to start watering soon and also watching out for the deer who are beginning to eyeball the backyard goodies.  I've seen them casting a hopeful eye when they make their way to the pond for a drink.   

~Haystacks~

I was hungry for Mexican food last night, so I made one of our favorite quick and easy meals.  I call this recipe Haystacks.

Brown a pound of hamburger and pour off the fat.  Stir in a package of taco seasoning and about a half cup of water and heat through.  Meanwhile, crush up some Nacho flavored Doritos on a plate.  When the hamburger mixture is ready, spoon on top of the Nachos and then top with lettuce, diced onions, salsa, shredded cheddar cheese and top with a dollop of sour cream.  Yummy!

 ~Peanut~

Look at those big, scared eyes.  It breaks my heart that this little girl is so timid and scared of everything.  She jumps at the slightest  noise.  One of our other cats attacks her every chance they get.  Peanut growls, but won't fight back.  So, one of the cats is going to have to leave, I'm afraid.  Peanut was here first, so it will probably be the other cat.  It's hard to give up any furbaby that you've gotten attached to, but I can't have Peanut living in terror all the time.  Sigh.

Happy Friday to you!

xo xo  Cheryl  

Good Fences

This is one of my drive-by shots so I didn't have time to get much of the fence as I was mostly interested in the beautiful gate.  The fence, gate, and landscaping are all pretty new.  I would love this sort of gate that you have to key in to enter if I still lived in the country.  

I remember so well at our former home that we often had strangers driving up to our house asking for directions.  Fortunately, our German Shepherd, Baron, would greet the callers and most didn't try to get out of their vehicle.  :)  I wasn't worried being alone in the country with him by my side.  

Baron loved to jump fences, but one almost did him in.  He went missing a couple of days and we searched for him and found him hung up in a neighbor's fence that ran through the woods.  His leg was torn up pretty bad, but with lots of Epsom salt soaks and TLC he healed up nicely and lived to a ripe old age.    

Linking to Good Fences at Theresa's Run*A*Round Ranch Report.

Happy Thursday to you!
xoxo  Cheryl    

Wordless Wednesday

Busy as a bee...that is me.  I'll see you when I can!

Happy Birthday and Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day as we remember 

all who gave some...and some who gave all.

We are also celebrating a birthday this weekend.

The grill is hot and it's time to get the food finished so I'll 

mosey on and leave you with this last photo.  I hope I don't get 

into too much trouble for showing it.  My children don't care for 

their photos being taken, neither do I for that matter.  We're a

private bunch!  I clicked this one just the other day when she

was mowing for us.  She loves the opportunity to get some

sun and we love to have help with the yard work!  Win, win.

 Happy Birthday to our daughter, Kim!

Happy Sunday to you!

xoxo  Cheryl

Good Fences

This is a photo I've shown before, but I just happened to

pass by this little farm yesterday and thought I should use it

again for Good Fences.  There's just something about this little

Hen Hotel, as the sign says, and the little fence and gate that is 

 appealing to me.  The old red barn that used to stand just

to the left has been torn down and replaced with a new metal barn.

 At least it's red.  :)

Linking to Good Fences at Theresa's 

Run*A*Round Ranch Report.

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl

May Note Card Party

 

For this month's Note Card party, I'm sharing photos that

I've edited in PhotoScape using the watercolor pencil.

For those of us that don't have the Waterlogue app,

this is a fun edit that works for most photos.

The photo below is one I've shown before on my blog 

and was taken in Branson.  The other flower photos were

taken in my back yard.

 

Be sure to visit Vee at A Haven For Vee 

to see many lovely photos that make delightful 

note cards.  Or, better yet, choose 4 photos that you

have taken (one of the 4 must have already appeared on

your blog) and join in the fun!   

The boxtop below shows the original photos before

I edited them in PhotoScape. 

  

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl  

Sometimes...

Sometimes there are no words...

to adequately describe how you feel.  I try to keep my posts happy and light, for the most part.  But sadness can be part of life and sadness is what I feel today for members of our community and also in our circle of friends. 

Two in our small community chose to end their lives recently.  

One because they had a terminal illness, and the most recent tragedy involved a beautiful young woman who had everything to live for.  No one has a clue why she would do this to herself or her loved ones.  It is such a shock.  So sad.

A young man passed away due to heart problems and the latest heart attack and stroke was too much for him to survive.

Yesterday, my husband got a call from an army buddy to tell him that another of his army buddies was just given a month to live.  That news hit BG pretty hard.  He is a good man and he and his wife had just built a new house and also recently welcomed their first grandchild.

Sometimes there are no words...

to adequately express feelings or sorrow or to tell those who are hurting how much you care.  

I want to tell each of you how much I care about you.  You are each a unique and special person and important to someone...and important to me. 

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl

Good Fences And A Few Thoughts

    

I have a few more photos from Branson's Silver Dollar City 

to share.  When I spied the first fence at SDC, I immediately thought of Theresa's Good Fences at The Run*A*Round Ranch Report.  See what blogging does to you?  You even think about blog posts while on a mini-vacay!

I've been getting a lot of Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

in my email.  It will say something like this:

 Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

(email address here)

    Technical details of permanent failure:

Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the 

recipient domain ______.

 What is not being delivered to the bloggers email is my comment, I suppose.  But I'm not trying to send my comment via email anyway!   Any ideas why this happens? 

Have you ever changed your blog name?  I've been

pondering this idea for a while.  I have a sneaking 

suspicion that there is an online game or something that

I probably don't want to associate my blog with from some

of the hits I see on my stats.  There might be 200 hits about

the same time of day.  I wouldn't hesitate to do it if I knew I wouldn't lose my followers.  Tell me what you think, please!

One last fence shot that was edited in PhotoScape using the Watercolor Pencil.  You just knew I'd still be playing around
with that, didn't you?  :)   

Thanks so much for visiting this busy month! 

 

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl

Wordless Wednesday - A Few Photos From Branson

 

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl 

Monday Already?

Watercolor pencil in PhotoScape

First of all, I want to wish a belated Happy Mother's Day

to all the moms out there, including moms of furbabies!

 My hubby and I headed down this highway Friday to 

Branson for a long weekend.  We've had a great time, but 

 our few days have passed quickly.  We'll return home 
sometime later this evening.  

I understand, while we were gone, that there were 
tornado sirens going off in our town Saturday night, 
but we've had gorgeous weather where we are.  So far.  
And at home the storms passed through without 
any damage that I am aware of.

I hope all of you stayed safe from the storms, too!

  

I'll be back soon to catch up on what's happening in

the blogging community.  

Happy Monday to you and I'll see you in a day or two!

Until next time...

xoxo Cheryl  

Good Fences

It's time for Good Fences hosted by Theresa at Run*A*Round Ranch.  Today, I went back into the archives for a fence photo and decided to use some photos I took in 2011 at Arrow Rock, MO, which is a quaint little village on the Missouri river and well worth a stop if you are ever in the area.  I don't know the history behind this home, but I loved the pretty white fence.

I've been having a lot of fun lately using the water color pencil in Photoscape, so I just have to show one of those.  If you would like to read more about this charming village and see other buildings from my post in 2011, just click here.  I was having fun with the water painting feature, which is a little different than the water color pencil, in Photoscape back then, so you'll see some of the buildings including the photo above have the water painting effect which gives it a different look that I also like.  

This is the original, unedited photo.  Is that a crape myrtle on the other side of the fence?  They are so beautiful and I want to try to grow one sometime.  

Now it's time to hang out my Gone Fishing sign and say that I'll see you next week, if not before.  Enjoy the rest of this week and your weekend!

Until next time...
xoxo Cheryl  

 

Wordless Wednesday

~shots from my patio edited in Photoscape using the water color pencil effect~

Happy Wednesday to you!

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl 

The Weekend

We had a perfectly beautiful weekend with sunny skies and nice temps.  It was a productive weekend as we got the garden planted except for this part that you can see above.  I'll plant my zinnias and sunflowers there.  

The birds were busily singing away as they went about doing whatever birds do.  Or possibly they were trying to tell us to turn off the tiller because we were disturbing them. 

Most of the flower pots are now planted.  I even took apart an old fire pit and spray painted the base and had BG drill some holes in the bottom for drainage and planted flowers in it.  I love repurposing things.  I'll show it later when the flowers have grown a bit more.  Several other pots are in need of a little spray paint to spruce them up, but it might be a few days before I get all that done.  My muscles are aching today and my right hand will barely make a fist from all the work I'm not accustomed to doing after a long, lazy winter!
 

I also have a nice sunburn going on after being outside most of the weekend, too.  Ouch!  I'll be sure to pick up some suntan lotion when I run to the store later today.  I have BG's truck today to get some mulch and a few other things we need.  I hate to waste a pretty afternoon when I could be napping shopping, but it's one of those jobs that needs to be done.

Our son came in Saturday evening and I fried up a batch of mushrooms that were given to us.  Yummy!  We have only found 2 around our place.  Do you like morel mushrooms?  They are a real treat for us that we all look forward to every spring.

It's time for me to hop in the truck and go shopping.  No, I'm not moving very fast today but I'll get it done.  I plan to just sit on the patio with some fast food for supper and relax when I get home!  What will you be doing today?  Hope it's a good one!

Until next time...
xoxo  Cheryl

 

Good Fences

Our beautiful spring weather has turned chilly 

and cloudy the last couple of days.  Maybe the cattle 

across the highway from my house 

are bawling because they are missing the warm

sunshine too!  Whatever the reason, they sure are 

noisy this morning.

~water pencil~

I've been playing around in PhotoScape lately.  This shot of

the cattle that are directly across the highway from my

house was done in water pencil.  

 

~original photo~

This plain and simple woven wire fence is what

I see when I look out my front door or windows.  I used

the zoom to bring the cattle a little closer.

I'm happy to be joining for the first time

 Theresa at The Run*A*Round Ranch 

for Good Fences.

 Be sure to visit Theresa to see many different

fences and gates around the world.

Happy first day of May to you!

Until next time...

xoxo  Cheryl