Thank you. I feel properly serenaded.

Happy belated Birthday Debra!!! May your year be filled with joy and laughter and your garden be filled with a rainbow of color!

Thank you, Casey.

Bonnie, please check in.

Daffy's were 'abloomin' all over.....


flowering quince was fully open.....


Winter Jasmine was still holding sway.....


And it was in the 70's and I was doing a lot of needed clean-up in a t-shirt and getting ready for spring. Then the storm came. Early on Friday morning the cold front swept in while i was still where I had fallen asleep on the sofa.

(First, let me set the scene. I have lights in my house that are like disco lights seated deeply in buckets in a nautical living room. You can set these lights to glow in several colors such as red, green, orange, etc. Mine stay on white or blue, depending on my mood, and make a pattern of light on the floor like sunshine sparkling on water. They are really lovely lights. However when I get a power surge they all come on at once flashing from one color to the next and I have to reset them. The evening before the storm came through i had been listening to a CD by a group we used to share billing with called the 97th Regimental String Band. Great guys.)

OK, back to the storm I am awakened by things hitting the house, banging and crashing and outdoor furniture being tossed onto the house. I opened my eyes and the lights in the living room were all flashing different brilliant colors and the CD had come on and was blaring a yankee civil war tune called "Marching to Georgia".

My first thought was should I grab a banner and go a marching to Georgia or should i just crawl under the sofa and wait until the firing stopped. Well, my knees will not allow me to crawl under the sofa and at four a.m. this old granny ain't a marching anywhere but to the bathroom.

The storm blew over. I ain't heard how we did in the fray but I did sustain a lot of damage.

Got the tree people in, got the roof people in, got the fence (chain link) people in and the clean up people are scheduled.

I guess its time to start a 2019 bloomers thread.

Bonnie's back!

Yay, Bonnie!! Welcome back!

Great pictures. Spring is encroaching and I cannot wait.

It'll be a bit longer until we have daffodils and crocuses and cherry blossoms all blooming, but by the end of February!

It has been raining non stop since the storm Thursday morning and I posted this earlier.......

Now it is flood warnings. The Fourche river is rising and covering the roads and the critters are heading for high ground..... me. &%##$@! So, the Bobcats are fighting over my garbage can but it is locked because bigger critters than them have gotten it opened in the past. A guest left my house at 6 pm yesterday.... in the dark.... in the rain.... turned on their headlights.... and sat in their car long enough to text me that there was a panther in my wood shed and for the love of God not to come out of the house and that they are never coming back to this Godforsaken place again! An hour later they texted me that they made it home safely. They live in a city... now that scares me.

grannysgarden said: ............An hour later they texted me that they made it home safely. They live in a city... now that scares me.

Yeah, me too!

Me three!

Please be careful, Bonnie. I am sure the critters are scared too, but they are bigger than you are.

Ooh, that's not a pretty site. I'd definitely not like to walk outside and see a panther, or a big cat or ravenous dogs in my yard where my life, or less, my pet's lives at stake. And I live in the country!!

I thought panthers were endangered. It's kind of cool that you had one on your property, Bonnie. But please do be careful!

Panthers are plentiful around here Andrea. I guess because the deer population is high it is easy for them to survive. They are mostly nocturnal and besides scaring motorist, and praying on pets occasionally, they usually keep out of the way. The scardiest things are the wild hogs. The game and fish commission has made it open season on them in order to decimate their numbers. they roam day and night and come in all shapes and sizes. I think domestic hogs have bred with razorbacks and there are some mean looking creatures out there.

Thank you for the caution, Lucy. I try to be ever vigilant.

Don't know if its true, but its often told, that when the border was being decided between Missouri and the Arkansas Territory on a straight 36/30 line the bootheel area of Missouri was formed at the request of a notable Missourian that the land in that area, which he owned, remain in the state "as he had heard it was so sickly in Arkansas; ...full of bears and panthers and copperhead snakes, so it ain't safe for civilized people to stay there over night even."

I guess when the bears, panthers and copperhead snakes heard that their land had been included in Missouri they headed south?

Bonnie - does your area have the smaller sized Florida panthers, or the full size?

We had a mama Cougar (aka mountain lion, aka catamount, aka panther) with two kittens in a cave near a rockshelter we were excavating. Always made sure to sing and make noise to alert mama of our presence. She then kept her little ones away from us. All that racket also kept the bears away so double bonus. I loved the cougars I took care of at the Preservation Trust. They are the largest of the small cats, the division line being small cats meow and the large cats don't. Yep, cougars meow. Used to meow back at them to get them to move cages for cleaning. Never turn your back when moving away from one. Never. That is when they will attack.

Big ones Leslie. they can clear a two lane road in one bound. I had one on my roof once. Did not like that. Makes me look up now when I go out after dark.

I surely hope Florida keeps all her critters down there. I can cope with these but just don't want to add any more.

I've seen a mountain lion just once on our land in 33 years. But they're around up at the top of these 78 acres, I'm sure. The ridge is wild. Turkeys, skunks, lots of deer - a bear or two, but we don't see them often down here at the bottom - the dogs do hear and smell them, however -and they bark to keep them away. The visiting bear, who came to get the fallen apples for several seasons, is no longer seen - I think he's the one who was shot about a mile away. He/she had tried to break into a neighbor's shed to get at grain stored there. The neighbor called the local tracker and he dispatched the bear...who never bothered us, but we were always wary.
It was the wild ones' territory before it was the humans'.

Haven't had a cougar around these parts since the early 80's. The state claims they were extinct long before then but there were still sightings. I heard them but never saw one. They continue to be seen in the big swamps to the east of us yet the state continues to deny they're there (despite photos). I think they just don't want to disrupt business as usual to deal with the endangered species act.

grannysgarden said:Daffy's were 'abloomin' all over.....


flowering quince was fully open.....


Winter Jasmine was still holding sway.....


And it was in the 70's and I was doing a lot of needed clean-up in a t-shirt and getting ready for spring. Then the storm came. Early on Friday morning the cold front swept in while i was still where I had fallen asleep on the sofa.

(First, let me set the scene. I have lights in my house that are like disco lights seated deeply in buckets in a nautical living room. You can set these lights to glow in several colors such as red, green, orange, etc. Mine stay on white or blue, depending on my mood, and make a pattern of light on the floor like sunshine sparkling on water. They are really lovely lights. However when I get a power surge they all come on at once flashing from one color to the next and I have to reset them. The evening before the storm came through i had been listening to a CD by a group we used to share billing with called the 97th Regimental String Band. Great guys.)

OK, back to the storm I am awakened by things hitting the house, banging and crashing and outdoor furniture being tossed onto the house. I opened my eyes and the lights in the living room were all flashing different brilliant colors and the CD had come on and was blaring a yankee civil war tune called "Marching to Georgia".

My first thought was should I grab a banner and go a marching to Georgia or should i just crawl under the sofa and wait until the firing stopped. Well, my knees will not allow me to crawl under the sofa and at four a.m. this old granny ain't a marching anywhere but to the bathroom.

The storm blew over. I ain't heard how we did in the fray but I did sustain a lot of damage.

Got the tree people in, got the roof people in, got the fence (chain link) people in and the clean up people are scheduled.

I guess its time to start a 2019 bloomers thread.

It's good to hear from you Bonnie and in true Bonnie style, you had a funny story to share