Tuesday's This and That

My very first coneflower has bloomed!  I'm so excited to see they survived the harsh winter and the plants are healthy and loaded with buds.

 
The Stella's are blooming now, too.  The flowers are really loving the rains we've been getting.  As is the grass, which is making the yard mowing a never-ending job, it needs mowing as I speak.  See in the photo above how tall the grass in the pasture is?  It needs mowing and the hay baled.  We wait on our neighbor to do that when he has time. 

I won't complain about the yard work after the long, cold winter we had.  Too much.  Not after I find some knee pads to wear so I can easily kneel on the ground to pull weeds without my knees aching so much.  I need to get my pitiful looking zinnia and sunflower garden weeded.  Soon as I find something for my knees.     

Yesterday was one of those days that seemed like a good day to read.  I picked up a Gladys Taber book and read a few chapters.  Her books are akin to eating comfort food for me and they immediately transport me back in time to a simpler way of life. I love the word pictures she paints of her life at Stillmeadow and her love for nature and animals.  Her writing is much like talking to an old friend about birds, the weather, gardening, pets, cooking and living the simple life.  Do you have a book that you love to read that transports you into a place of peace and comfort?  I'll leave you with a quote of hers that I like.
  
“Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others.”  ~Gladys Taber

Happy Tuesday to you!
xo Cheryl