THE DUST WILL WAIT

Nicole B . is hosting another scavenger hunt. I just love photo memes. Especially the ones with a challenge. Most of these photographs were taken since the first of May. A few had to be pulled from my archives in order for me to make the deadline and get on the road. Yes, I'm leaving in the morning and will be out of touch for awhile. So here's the list. Done at last! 1) A Souvenir . Our daughters celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a surprise Hawaiian luau in the back yard. That's my lei - I couldn't throw it away. 2) A Fish . "Blub Blub" and his pal were so happy in our pond. When we saw babies, we realized that happy wasn't the half of it. 3) A Religious Building . A repeat from three years ago. Yes, I've been blogging religiously for three years. June 11, 2006. Happy Blogiversary to me. 4) A Fire Department. Reminds me of those days when my husband was fighting fires and saving lives. That was years before the doors were

I woke up at sunrise yesterday, grabbed my pillow and comforter, padded quietly out to the hammock on the deck, and snuggled down in hopes for another hour or so of slumber. I may have drifted off for a moment. Not long. I realized that my little blanket wasn't going to keep me comfortable in the cool moist dawn air. Easy answer, you say? Just pad back in and grab another blanket? Nope! The sprinklers came on and surrounded my one dry spot with more cooling splatters of water. They don't call them rainbirds for nothing. So, I just wrapped myself up, waited, and shivered. I listened to the birds waking up - so it wasn't time wasted. If you take a look at the right side of the photo, you can just make out that the net is still on the pond. It will probably be a few weeks before the water lilies provide the fish protection from the marauding King Fishers and Giant Herons. As for othe r news, I'm just waiting for that call from California - where I'll be headin

The house towards the end of our street is hosting a yard sale this 3-day weekend. For a very good cause: Relay For Life. They have a very large team of people who spent most of Thursday evening delivering items to be sold as well as organizing tables and displays. This morning I drove past at 6:45 and saw bargain hunters scoping out the junk treasures in spite of the sign that said: We open at 9 o'clock. To be nosey neighborly, we walked up there late this evening to see how things were going. M was exhausted. Friday was her burden as many of the participants worked at their regular jobs. Then she shared the worst part of the day. Her next-door neighbor boy stopped by early and propped his bicycle by a table where some of the things still needed pricing stickers. She sold it.

This is week number fifty in Carmi's Thematic Photograph series. He is intrigued by the fact that signs are everywhere, " but they seem to pass through our lives almost invisibly." Not this one. It was kind of smelly. Post your interesting photo and SIGN up at Written Inc. (ps. Haven't been home much lately and visiting my favorite blogs has been limited.)

Happy Birthday Mandy .

Forty years ago I graduated from high school. I didn't go to my reunion (long story), which was 5 hours away on the west side . Two of my high school friends now live here in the valley - minutes away from me, and one lives several hours to the west in a small town on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The four of us got together and looked at Diane's photos from the reunion that Kari, Polly, and I failed to attend. We ate Mexican food, laughed, reminisced, and wondered out loud "why" we didn't do this every month. Kari, Diane, Polly Love you guys! (But why didn't you tell me my hair was such a mess?)

Roller skate in a Buffalo Herd My Mom Better Than Yours I love Dana love Shelby Support Strippers

(Me & my dad) The best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow. ~Author Unknown (My little vegetable garden this spring.) Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden. ~Orson Scott Card (In our flower garden last June) I think that if ever a mortal heard the voice of God it would be in a garden at the cool of the day. ~F. Frankfort Moore, A Garden of Peace This week you'll find everyone one talking about gardens for Fun Monday over at Faye's Summit Musings . Please join us!

Carmi (who also happens to be a year older today) is using YELLOW for this weeks theme - The first time he's used a color. Yellow is a great indicator of spring! Look at the lovely blossoms in my garden. Isn't baseball a harbinger, too? The sports complex I passed this morning on on my daily walk is getting a fresh coat of paint on the dugout -- and has a brand new yellow pad on the outfield fence line. Go team! Let your fingers do the walking to the other yellow pages out there who are linking back at Written Inc !

Great Aunt Jennie and Great Uncle Arno. Feeding the chickens. Jennie was 45 and Arno was 30 when they married in 1907. She had a son and daughter from her previous marriage. I'm assuming that their father died. This photograph is most likely taken in Boulder, Montana where she and Arno resided until she died in 1937. Her given name was Phoebe Jane and her twin sister was named Telith'a Anna (Annie). They were four years younger than my grandpa William . Their brother Benjamin died while a toddler. Ten half siblings were born after their mother remarried - their father died from Typhoid while serving in The Civil War. I know there were other twins, and more childhood mortality. Bernetta, their mother, died at the age of 42. William, Annie, and Jennie - probably in the 1920s Arno, Jennie, and her lovely daughter Lulu. Daughter Lulu in a hat. I recently learned that Lulu died in 1999 at the age of 105. Jennie on her front porch reading the newspaper. Jennie has been a

Cannon Powershot (Digital Zoom)

Fun Monday 's theme is Kid's Say the Darndest Things (or your pet does the darndest thing , whichever) and Karisma ( Karisma & Kids ) is the party hostess. Our daughters were no exception to making us and others smile. I decided to share a moment from each of my now grown up girls. (There are many more moments somewhere locked in my mind - but these are the ones that surfaced first.) (1) Once upon a time when Amanda was still a little Cakers..... I was driving home in my little yellow bug one evening when Amanda leaned forward and asked (with her five -year old raspy voice) one of those philosophical questions. “Mama? Is there an end to the world?" Karmyn, was in the passenger seat and her spreading smirk told me that she (the teenage smarty pants) was going to enjoy listening to my response to this one. “Well….!” I spoke slowly, to garner time. “There are people who think that the world will end in fire, and others who think the world will end frozen in an i