Summertime

A picture of a moth, during one of my

late-afternoon walks

There is something so picturesque -

so beautiful -

even captivating,

about a field full of hay bails drying out underneath

a late-Summer sun

Our "neighbors" :)

Angus cows

We have had a horrible number of

grasshoppers

all over the place! In the garden,

sun-bathing on the house,

on the cement... It's disgusting!

Some of our Bountiful Harvest.

We'll be canning these beautiful clusters of spheres

very soon.

Home made grape juice is very much enjoyed,

especially on Christmas and Thanksgiving

This is not a view of our house, but from our property of

another "neighbor," who lives

about a mile and a half, maybe two miles, away.

I enhanced the coloring on this picture...

Looking out our dining room window.

Overall "dining room window" shot

Need more be said?

Wild flowers speckle the sides of the roads.

This Spring wild roses were rampant.

This Summer, wild daisies, black-eyed Susann's,

sunflowers... and these enchanting little

yellow buds

decorate the fields, road-sides

and just about anywhere they can take root.

Butterfly and bird pictures are probably my favorite,

although frogs are fun to capture

on the camera as well.

Here is a monarch atop our blooming onions.

And our roosters. 4:30 Am they begin their

"every half hour" crowing sessions.

We named them Lafayette and Napoleon

(which we took from The Aristocats,

the Walt Disney movie)

And all of us kiddos during our family vacation at the beginning of August.

Enjoy the rest of your Summer,

and God richly bless :)

Miss Elizabeth

August is the Last Summer Month...

"The sky is blue. The sun shines.

The sune shines and shines.
The cows doze away the noonday.

You know it is hot when the old
cat comes out for a breath of air.

The flowers are growing, too. Flowers
need hours of attention in August heat.

The vegitables need attention, too..."

This passage is just a bit from one of my favorite childrens books The Year at Maple Hill Farm, but Alice and Martin Provensen.

August has been a lovely month so far. Not only has it been filled with the adventures of traveling with seven people in a mini van over a ten day period, but the flowers seem to have a bit more flair and vibrance this time of year. There are frog everywhere!.. another one of my favorites: catching frogs and taking pictures of them:) Although, they rarely stay still enough to get a good picture (they are not very photogenic).

We've been blessed with an abundance of vegitables from our garden and some fruit as well. The grapes are ripe and we'll be canning grape juice tomorrow, which will be a lot more fun than this afternoon because the weather man claims it will rain tonight, chasing away this horrid humid heat! Thank God! It's hard not having central air conditioning on the great plains, although after a while you learn to grin and bear it.

On some strange whim I took my little sister (and myself:) out on a drive down some gravel roads - mostly unused roads with breathtaking views of rivers running around, alongside and under them. The night air was truly beautiful. Crickets sang strongly. Frogs bounced across the road happily (most of them had very unhappy endings as they were squashed into the road by car tires). The moon was just a sliver of silver in the vibrant bluish hue night sky....

It is amazing that God creates such breathtaking beauty with a simple phrase "let there be."

Mom and I canned peaches this afternoon, I cut grapes to can tomorrow, and mom made salsa to can tomorrow too. The salsa is pretty good, although I think it could stand to have a bit more zang.. or spicey flavoring to it, however I live in a "low spice tolerance" home where the majority of the people think that garlic chicken is VERY hot and spicey.

In the middle of our family vacation at the beginning of August I spent a day with my older sister at her college in Kentucky. To be quite frank, I have not had so much fun in many, many years. Which, in my opinion, is just pitiful, but this mostly has to do with the fact that I am overall unhappy in the place and situation I am in life right now. But this season will too soon end, as so many other season have ended in the past, I am here, right now, in this place, with these people, for but one fraction of time and the rest of life is an unknown path to take - a great adventure awaiting you and I :)

God richly bless and keep you this week.
Miss Elizabeth