LorettaNJ said: All those amaryllis. So much fun to have them outside!

Yes it is! I will be planting my dark pink one outside sometime this week.

Amanda, I think you've said you live on a windy ridge? It was (and still is) quite windy here today. I hope you're not being blown away.

Yep. Moved from a holler to a hilltop. Big difference!! I roll my eyes when the news says it's quite nice out with barely a breeze and I step outside and have to have a firm hold on the door. I've lost quite a bit of weeding time due to the wind here this year. Hard to pull weeds when the wind is blowing the dirt back in your face and takes whatever is in your hands and sends it off somewhere else. It'll calm down eventually...I hope.

hnallo
\ Muh rsain in Holland. Was very ill my brother to but because my lungs are elder it take more time to get well. Many greetings Roelie

Good to hear from you again, Roelie. Hope you're better now and able to enjoy your garden.

Roeile, glad to hear you are feeling better.

Roelie said: hnallo
\ Muh rsain in Holland. Was very ill my brother to but because my lungs are elder it take more time to get well. Many greetings Roelie

Are you feeling better? Sure hope so!

I have another week and a half with students. This has been a fantastic job for me! I think I mentioned that my kids are autistic with mild intellectual disabilities. They are a delight to work with! We have done lots of plant activities. This week we are studying the movement of water through the stems to the leaves and flowers.






Today we made paper flowers. I will use them to reinforce the lessons learned.

Looks like the lawn is not going to get mowed here this weekend. Rain Thursday and Friday, and just started up again today. More is predicted for tomorrow.

I'm not complaining-- we've had several months of less than average rainfall. But I'm going to be way behind on yard work when these systems have passed.

David, enjoy your rain. You will get yard work accomplished when the weather cooperates. I'm spreading mulch today. It is overcast and breezy. I know this weather won't last long so I'm taking advantage of it while it lasts!

More rain today. I've been doing a little outside work-- obviously no mowing. The lawn is starting to go "squish-squish" when I walk across it. Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day.

I'm a happy camper because I caught my next door neighbor and she was willing to give up a couple scoops of straw/goat poo for me to use in my gardens. Save me some money on mulch. I'll still need to buy some but not as much this year. This fall I'll have to remember to hit the feed store in town and get me a couple bales for some spots. It goes alot further than wood mulch and lasts longer too!!

Beautiful day in the garden!

Beautiful blooms Alice!

I grew up in a small, mostly rural county in SE Illinois. One of the things I've noticed, and have been looking for actively the last few years, is the different ways people in the community were connected.

Of course, there were your blood relatives. Then there were your in-laws. The next degree of connection was to your in-laws's blood relatives. Legally no relation to you, but sometimes the connection could be fairly strong. Then there were the connections formed at church.

There were two elderly ladies who Dad and Mom frequently gave rides to church on Sunday. Maggie, the oldest, and first to pass away, was the grandmother of one of my first cousins' husband. Her nephew was the church janitor; her niece's son was one of my high school classmates. After Maggie died, we gave Sunday rides to Minnie. Minnie's younger brother (20 years younger!) was married to one of Dad's first cousins.

Then there were two elderly sisters we saw regularly at church, Lucy and Mabel. Mabel's son had married one of Mom's best friends. (Mom grew up in a different county, but her friend had moved to my home county.) The two of them (Mom's friend and Mabel's son) acted as matchmakers and got Dad to start writing letters to Mom, and Mom wrote back. After a few years they met in person, and married.

I guess these examples just go to show that in a rural community where the same families have been settled for several generations, the word "family" can cover a lot of ground.

David, how close to you is/was the tornado that's hitting topeka now?

pepper23 said: David, how close to you is/was the tornado that's hitting topeka now?

It was around 30 miles away. (Jonathan just corrected me. At its closest it was about 15 miles away.) The last I saw it was southeast of us, heading away from our area. We had heavy rain with some hail, not too bad.

Glad it wasn't closer!!! Alot of damage out there. Getting hit with the front of the storms now. Strong wind and maybe some hail. Basement will probably flood again.

David, I found your post about small town connections most interesting. As a child, we lived on a little dead end street and we were the only family that weren't related. Obviously, at one point the land had been owned by one person who had passed it down to his descendants.

My parents were both from the north and settled in a little run down shack in the middle of this big southern family. How were we treated? We became extended family! They took us in and loved us like their own! I was so blessed to have them in my life!

pepper23 said: Glad it wasn't closer!!! Alot of damage out there. Getting hit with the front of the storms now. Strong wind and maybe some hail. Basement will probably flood again.

Amanda, I hope you didn't have too much damage.