tumbleweedsandthyme

baby bird comes home to nest

In general the words summer and vacation go hand in hand or flight to flight. People plan sometimes a year ahead where they will head the following year. Venice? Paris? Hawaii?  Cape Cod? depending where the heart dreams of adventure, and a little R&R.  1 week? 2 weeks? 3 weeks? based on how much paid vacation time or retirement benefit has been earned through years of service at their employment. Not the case for me but I was determined this year to feel like I had a vacation...ONE day that's all I neded to satisfy the crave of being human, sheding the robotic nature of my life, the day to day syndrome of work, little play.

I've traveled very little in this life of mine, never abroad, because the plan was dear Arnie and I would travel when our children were grown and our last child through college. Until then we'd save the nest egg for their education needs and for our retirement...brrrrrrrrrong! wrong plan! NOTE TO MY CHILDREN if they should read here~ (a reminder though I always tell them)...do what you want to do, when you want to do it, somehow someway, go for it, travel see the world, when opportunity knocks open the door and leave with it as fast as you can go... never live for tomorrow because...well you know the rest of the story and certainly my children do becasue they lived/live through it with us. AND in gest I add if you get seriously sick have someone take all your money out of every account you have, cut a hole in your matress and stuff it away from the greed of medical physicians/institutions who don't give one damn about your life, your family, your loss of health insurance once they drop you, after they themselves have OPPS your life to hell in a hand basket...nuff said..and PS stuff some lavender in the matress too it will keep moths from the taking of your lifetime savings, they too can be greedy buggers when it comes to money LOL.

A phone call from the baby bird was just like a ray of sunshine on a very rainy day in Va Beach, at which time she said she missed us and was coming home for a visit  had tickets to a concert at amphitheater here in Va Beach so she was coming home.  Just the inspiration I needed to find me a rainbow, climb it, sit on top of the highest point and make plans for my vacation day I was determined to have this year.

I needed to tidy up my house and make it feel welcoming. I'd call the housekeeper..OPPS, lost my head for a minute sitting on this rainbow, I can't afford a housekeeper  like most full time working people have....but plan B pops in my head. I'd leave eldest son, who would be on Dad duty while I worked that Monday, a "To Do" list and I'd pay him what I made for working that day if he would change sheets on her bed, freshen up the bathrooms. general light go over the surface and turn house into home for her arrival. Bribe accepted and solution found. And I'd bring home Zinnias for the table in the kitchen and go to bed early since I wasn't feeling well all week...maybe the heat and humidty, maybe the bug that others at work had, who knew but I did know that I would rest ater coming home so that nothing would get in my way of enjoying "our(vacation) day" Wednesday 

Set in stone I was taking Wednesday off while she was here. Arriving late Monday night, Incubus concert on tuesday she would go to with BF (did I meniton he was coming too?) and Wednesday was "our day"...they'd head back on Thursday morning.

I know i said this before but here it is again, nothing would get in my way of Wednesday UNTIL.......Johnny came back to my work sink where I was fixing flower bouquets from the field of zinnias. I happen to love my old sink station at work., Its a cast iron white enamel sink with two ribbed enamel drain  boards (just like the sink I grew up with though ours had a aouble sink). It's old and worn (much like me :-). A  wood frame that holds it and an extra wood side board for sitting vases on. I dont have a picture of it, but it sits right behind this white fence..who would know eh? Its convenient and nice to have this space as my own to work doing flowers or watering a container I have just made up or for whatever.

Johnny: "Carolyn, I need two of those beautiful bouquets like you made me last week, on Wednesday."

My mind hears the word Wednesday and my heart races trying to keep  up with my thoughts, knowng I have to spit out an answer right quick and not knowing what it should be...knowing what I want it to be "I won't be here on Wednesday, sorry Johnny." ...my muse is shouting to me....Wednesday you won't be here. Wednesday its "your day" with your baby bird!"  BUT, Johnny is a good customer, always kind (and he just did say my bouquets were beautiful), always wears a smile, always calls me by my name, (not hey you!),  always says thank you, comes by a few times a week, has forever purchased my zinnias so often I let him take home my good tin buckets trusting him to bring them back at his leisure.

I look up, stalling to decide what my reply will be and ask, "When is your party Johnny?"

"Wednesday."

I could suggest he gets them Tuesday but I know they will not be as vibrant as the day they are picked and I want them to be perfect for him. The zinnias of summer are after all Stoney's signature, and mine... and I like Johnny.

My feet are dancing (though not moving), not a happy dance more like the Bristol Stomp! Oh shoot shoot shoot..BUT I smile as I shoot myself in the foot..."OK Johnny what time do you want to pick them up?"

"Noonish OK?

"Sure, I won't be here by noon that day but I will pick em early, fix em pretty for you and leave them right here on this table. Let me write down your number because you never know with these crazy storms we are having if the field might get destroyed (am i secretly wishing for a tornado to land right in the middle of my zinnia field on Tuesday night? NAH! I love my zinnias too much for that..but seriously with field flowers this sort of thing can happen. A field can be beautoufl and abundant one day and succomb to diesease or weather the next.  A farmer is dependant on Mother Natures kindness.

He gives me his number and says,  "But I sure hope i don't hear from you." (with that same nice smile that is Johnny's signature:-)

Muse pokes me in the ribs, " FOOL FOOL FOOL, repeat after me NO NO NO...its a two letter word easily spoken, someday you'll learn to say it",  and off she goes to leave me alone to be kind and giving of myself, simply BECAUSE even my muse who gets impatient with me knows it is who I am.

Her hug is generous and its so good to hold her when she walks in the door Monday night near 11 PM  the two of us stay up until 4AM talkking AND organizing my art space which is a total mess...she organizes, I talk and watch as h er piole of paper and this and that grows that she is making to take home with her from my stash :-) my art space gets cleaned and it makes me happy, and she has some different things to use for making art without spending any money.

Tuesday baby bird and boyfriend do their own thing, go to beach, go out to buy Dad a new watch band and go to concert that night. I work, coem home make dinner and go to bed looking forward to Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, flowers picked and ready for Johnny (all the prettiest from the field that morning) and some more for the store. K (baby bird) picks me up and we are off. First to lunch since its past lunch time when we leave. Then to the mall Barnes and Nobles (a stop for me_ becasue they have a book I want and this is  my vacation so I am treating myseld to this book..I deserve it!  My favortie independent standing B/N doesn't have it in stock and I'll be honest I'm not much of a mall person.

I find my book and while there leaf through Venice, stroll through (a few pages of) Nantucket and save France to bring home with me in the book I got about growing lavender sucessfully. See there you have it three places I would choose to vacation and got to visit them all in my one day! no packing, no reservations, no spending but for one book. Its called being creative with what you are given.

I walk the mall with baby bird, though I am not feeling well I don't tell her. She gets a couple of new shirts, mamas treat and a couple of skirts..no shoes we don't even look at shoes this trip which is unusual given she is a shoeaholic...but there is always a method in madness!

Unlike her mama she has talent for creating altered art and loves doing it. She is in need of a brayer after she tried mine and I wasn't letting it go into her pile of goodies to take home, so a trip to Micheals or else to our favortie art store is the plan. Given there is signs of a storm coming in we opt for the closer to home, Michaels. We look at EVERYTHING, buy a little and wait for the rain, that we hear outside pounding Michales roof, to lessen.

A quick stop next door to Panara's to bring home some real water bathed bagels for Arnie, and home we head to nest and make art.  We only have until morning then baby bird flys fromt he nest again to her home, and ME, well I turn into a pumpkin, vacation over and back to work.  Just the two of us, enjoying coffee and a choclate crosisant then  play making art until wee hours of the morning once again.

It was so good to have her home though as always its too short a time to be with someone who you love and miss once they are gone.  I savor the time we had and hold onto it until she snuggles into the nest again..sometime soon I hope.

I love you my baby bird!  

Meeting Marylou

All summer Lynn (my boss/my friend) have talked about and been waiting for Marylou to visit.  We were both excited and looking forward to her visit, knowing that the time was nearing.

 Lynn (on left) and Marylou  (on right) have been friends since the early 70's when they were both teachers at the same school. All these years later their friendship remains strong and caring, one of those forever friendships that blooms without end.

 I had never met Marylou though I felt I knew her through Lynn's fondness of her friend and telling me about their dear friendship. And I also knew that Marylou checks out what is going on at Stoney's by reading my blog..how nice is that?...but she has/had never commented here. I'm hoping now that we met she will say hello when the spirit moves her to do so. Through my blog I have met some wonderful people and Mary Lou is one of those people to add to my mental list of "good people".

I always think when special people come to visit Stoney's it is never the right time of year.  Its like that saying, "My garden was prettier yesterday, sorry you missed it." haha.  My sister came to visit two years ago the same month and week that Marylou came this year, and I felt that way then too. This time of year the lot of pretties looks nearly fizzled out for the season. Its nothing like the impact it makes when you see it in May and June. It's so HOT in Va. Beach in August that people stop thinking about making/keeping their gardens pretty...it isn't that their garden has given up on them, they have given up on their gardens, sadly, except for the true gardeners who realize that a garden is never done.

I so enjoyed meeting Marylou and it was like she was an old friend who had come to visit though we hadn't met previously. She was easy going, and YES of course we put her to work. I'm not sure after all those butter beans she sorted through making sure every one was perfect before it went into a quart or pint container, all those onions she peeled the outer skin off of and all the trips out to the country to pick up blueberries each morning if she will ever want to come back.  Sometimes even Merriweather, our precious baby goat, got to go along for the ride in the big red truck with Lynn and Marylou.

Merriweather loves to go on outings, and most days we allow her to come out of the pen late in the day after her last bottle feeding, and run up to the red barn. She makes a beeline from the gate of the pen, turns right at the coop corner, past the coop front and another right then a quick left and she runs right through the back entrance and into the red barn (store area) as fast as those little legs will let her go,  announcing with her baahhhing HERE I AM EVERYBODY. Gosh I love this little goat that Lynn did such a fine job raising. She is a small, yet big in JOY as part of my life everyday when I give her a bottle, while my brother Bobby feeds another new baby Dewey (a 1 month old male baby lamb, pics coming soon). Merriweather no longer needs her bottle, it is time to wean her now,  but she is so attached to it and gets jealous when Dewey gets fed his bottle, so we are still letting her cling (as babies should when they are as cute as Meriweather:-). But, she now drinks half milk/half water, however, she also waits patiently to be sure Dewey is going to finish his entire bottle and if he doesn't drink the last once (which he usually doesn't) she sucks it down with her tail going a mile minute...WHOLE MILK YEAH!

Besides working at the farm, the two friends (Lynn and Marylou) spend some time antiquing, eating out or eating Lynns good cooking at home, reminising over a glass of wine no doubt, and doing things that girlfriends do when they get together for a short visit. The time flew by and I am happy and privileged to have met this dear lady.  She gets my seal of approval as a farmgirl now :-) and Marylou I look forward to you coming again. Soon it will be pumpkin time already and although I know you won't make a trip that soon from Florida back to Virginia Beach I hope you stop by here at tumblewedsandthyme to see how the place transitions over only a few days from Summer Splendor to Fall Abundance.

 Abundance its a nice word.... Notice the last five letters, d-a-n-c-e, its what the changing from one season to the next season does to my soul, makes me want to dance!...and create yet anew.

The dictionery depicts the words as;

a⋅bun⋅dance 

noun

1.	an extremely plentiful or oversufficient quantity or supply: an abundance of grain.

2.	overflowing fullness: abundance of the heart.

3.	affluence; wealth: the enjoyment of abundance.

Marylou, I hope the abundance of our farm fields (veggies and flowers) was a joy for you to see. I know my life is fuller and more abundant having met you in person. May your blessings be many and a little piece of Stoneys always be tucked within your heart until you return again.

We miss you!

With Love from your dear friend Lynn, me, and of course sweet baby Merriweather too.

no answers, only a song

 I have no answers of this life I live, but still I have a song in my heart everyday to sing.

If you could see in person the layers of paint, ink and paper above, (there are many), you might see my life on the page.

If you could run your hand over the page and feel its many textures you would better know the fabrics of my being that I weave daily, and often mend when others tatter to shreds.

If you could walk with me thorugh my zinnias field as I pick the pretties each morning you would hear me in song, though my voice has no answers only questions. ??? many unanswered questions??? But still, as stressful as I find a day to begin now and then, somehow I manage to find a song to sing...instant rise above all the crapola a day can hand you. 

I spent much of the winter in a new greeenhouse at Stoneys, planting one seed after another, each with  hope and faith.   My belief in both made this project a success. 

On cold winter nights when I couldn't sleep I painted little rocks for planters or pockets.

Spring came and went and I was not here to ever show or tell  you about my doings. Summer is moving too fast and I wish it were spring again when everything looked beautiful and everyone seemed to be of happier heart.  Spring ...when these  planters i planted sang their own song as I tagged them for sale for someone else to enjoy the pleasure of their beauty. 

 

A living wreath of thyme was a joy to create.

Besides working hard everyday at work, Arnie and I have been busy building a website for Stoney's. You can view it here at www.stoneysproduce.com

If you stop by there please leave Stoney's or us a comment by going to the testimonial page. There is much more work to do there but all in good time...and don't miss Merriweather at the bottom of the "Our Babies" page. I haven't written more about her yet but its to come. Lynn has raised her lovingly, bottle after bottle:-) and she has grown so much since that first picture I took of her. We aren't sure she really is a goat capable of living in a pen, hough she now spends some hours of h er day with Maddie and Harper but goes home wih Lynn at nighttime  She is so loved and so spoiled by all, so much fun to have around...and she is just precious!

"everybody says I am worth a million bucks I'm so cute, BUT all I could find in that pocket  was this lousy one dollar bill..Pay up!"

Is she sweet or what?

I'll be back more often I hope with pics to show you. My zinnia field is magnificent this year, every color of the rainbow. The farm fields are abundant with veggies picked daily. Sunflowers tower way above my head in rows in several fields, planted consecutively for picking and bundling for sale (my fingertips are raw to the touch from banding them into bundles). Glorious miracles of a tiny seed!

In closing I continue to fight the battle of downs in this thing called life, determine to come out the victor. And I never forget to appreciate the up,  because those are my blessings that keep me going strong , today, tomorrow, and always.

Thanks for coming by to visit me here.  

 
 

Show and tell

 Its been along time since I have felt comfortable enough within myself to come to this page. So, I'm just going to jump in with both hands, and my heart and begin anew.

But not before I thank those of you who wrote to me or left me a comment while I was hibernating in my own cocoon feeling uncomfortably numb.  Thank you for letting me know you cared.

I've always been one to embrace life, and run along beside it, into the whispering wind of the "good within" which life holds, pushing me, forward.

However, now and then there comes a time you just have to slow down, step aside, STOP, and allow life to do the embracing.  It will, and it does, and soon you feel your feet firmly planted again with the earth beneath you providing balance. 

I sit with winter, peacefully, though I long for the scent of freshly turned earth, daydream about fields of flowers, and count the weeks until I can get my hands dirty playing in dirt again.

While facing forward, I walk a bit more cautiously and with intention into this new year.  I choose to focus on change in my life.  Knowing fully that the pressure I alone put on myself for perfection is a hinderance to my well-being, I take action towards change. Nothing is perfect, never will be, (except a mother's children, which is what my mother would have added to that statement).  I have learned that certain things need not be done immediate, and can wait until tomorrow without it mattering, or making any difference in the big picture of living. Doing so has provided for me a space I needed, some down time to savor, some alone minutes that don't belong to another.

Within those free minutes of space and time I nurture my soul, breath in my passions, holding them on my breathe. This also gives me a chance to plant seeds of kindness that germinate without any tending. Since relaxing isn't a skill I've ever been very good or content at doing,  I work at forcing the issue with myself to learn the how of relaxation, I know and understand the why. I needed something to do that I would find relaxing but something that I'd still feel I was "doing" so, I'm making a garden art journal.

After spending the first day of 2009 with my dear daughter who made a surprise visit home for the day only (we had a lovely time together), and spending that night with her creating art (her talents far exceed my deepest hope to reach), and with the encouragement along the way from a dear friend who lives in Berkeley, plus inspiration from my friend Loretta who not only I read at Pomegranatesandpaper but whom writes for Cloth Paper Scissors these amazing words that should make anyone believe that an artist is buried within themselves, I just GO for it. I don't have any idea what I am doing,  except I know its relaxing and it's fun, fun, fun! 

Theres always an available excuse when we don't WANT to do something in our life, and not having a room I could use as an art space was my excuse for along time to put away all my paper and pens, and ink and color that could become. But, my muse, (she can really be a pest sometimes) pushed this vintage table against the back wall in my kitchen and said, " USE IT, and leave it there. It doesn't hurt a thing being where it is."

It is here I sit to play and create whatever comes to the page,  in the midst of this unusual cold winter we are enduring. Every day I spend a little bit of time here, or more likely late at night when the rest of the house sleeps.  Some of the men in my life, (each of whom I cherish all their aspirations) my husband, my sons and my brother are sometimes quick to look over my shoulder and question, "But, what's the point?"  The point is it's my time to do with as I wish, (firm advice from my muse who often has something of value to input).  Arnie gets it, I think, maybe not what's on the pages, but that I need space and time that's my own before spring comes and I bloom at work once more. Won't be long now spring returns to me ______ (insert big smile that comes to my face when I think spring and sunshine, and pretties, and fresh veggies!)

My book is beginning to fill up, and with each page I do the writer in me has inspired the page and my intend is to put stories with the pages at some time perhaps. 

Hesistant to show you, but this wouldn't be much of a Show & Tell if I only told and didn't show and it is afterall what I titled this post. So, here's a peak below.

 

  

the next two go side by side...the thought here is about harmony in a garden and the need to have both good bugs and bad bugs. You can;t have good bugs without bad bugs or the good bugs to eat. Garden party invite the good bugs, menu is the bad bugs.

 

 

and here I think I begin to get more in tune with lots of layers and just slapping paint on the page. These two also are side by side and go together and probably my favorite.

 

  

Of course there are fairies in your garden and if you aren't seeing any you aren't embracing all that is to be seen:-) Have you ever seen a garden fairy with crows feet or wrinkles?  Of course not! They have all that natural goodness of herbs and flowers right at their fingertips to make them beautiful and to nurture their well being. 

 

although there are more I think this is quite enough to post now. Except for these next two... which are dear to my heart, just collage in its simpliest of form, tender to me simply because on a day when I didn't think my Arnie would live until tomorrow I walked this field barefoot, feeling the need to ground myself and his life to the earth,  and it was here I knelt to pray, alone. These are pictures of the zinnia field I took that day. Some of this is three demensional though it doesn't show well in this scan.

Hardly a weed in that feild to see that day though the weeds in my life were strangling me. This brings me to quickly update that my Arnie though he has and always will much to deal with healthwise, is maintaining. Thank you God and all of you who keep him tucked in thought and/or prayer. He/we are still caring for a wound, SINCE June when these pictures were taken. We are both becoming strained from the process of no adviced treatment working to get it healed! Hence he remains pretty much bedridden. There are times I have to pick up his spirit and hand it back to him but all in all he is NOT and well could be a nasty, grouchy, angry,  miserable person. I think I might be if the table was turned and I faced everyday as he has to do. Thank you again for your prayers and good energy that kept him with us this year.

Well, it felt good to walk back in here after such a long absence. I hope you enjoyed stopping by too and I thank you for coming.   Please leave me a comment so I know you were here. May you wrap yourself in warmth while we head through winter which soon will turn the corner towards spring.  I'l be ready to welcome her return.

What do you see when you look at the day?

 My morning began by seeing this butterfly laying/resting on these blue pansies. I was amased at how its marking are identical on each wing. I went about working and when I walked by again it was still there..I feared it dead, but I touched aplant nearby and it fluttered so slightly a wing. I wondered what it was contemplating in such a peaceful state, if anything. I asked it if I could lay my worries beside it as not to carry them with me through the day.

Much of the day my hands were in dirt..a place they like to be. I potted several pots  

 

     In a few days this wonderful deep clay bowl with be entirely full with leaf lettuce having grown to cover the top. Red leaf, salad bowl green (a very tender leaf), red oakleaf, Buttercrunch and little gem romaine make up this, "The Salad Bowl" Imagine at the end of the day picking fresh crisp leaves for a dinner salad right from your very own salad bowl. 

And as always I like to think outside the (garden) pot and so I potted this vintage agate pan with front handle full of pretty pansy, and dressed up for the season with a couple of gourds and a little pumpkin.   Bushel baskets also plant up well and can be sat anywhere this time of year, nut given a chouce I think they would wish to sit on the porch as a welcome basket...tie a piece of mini corn on the handle with a pretty plaid fall ribbon to hold it in place....(I planted one, a bushel baslet today, but forgot to take a picture of it,  oops!)

At the end of the day I looked to see if Sid the spider was still hanging safely and no one had decided to knock down his web...he was fine....

 

the butterfly was gone, hours ago of course but I stopped by the pansies ..picked up my worries, thanked the pansies for keeping them kindly for me through the day...and headed home. Look at the sky before me..rolling clouds of pink and blue like cotton candy swirling in a plastic bubble at a state fair..Glimmers of the sun that has sunk below a level I could view it setting tonight.

 When your day begins like this       

AND ends like this                        

           it deserves a little praise, "Thank you Universe for the day you have given me."

Ps I miss you my baby bird, thank you for teaching me to look up at the sky when the day draws to an end. I love you K.

Autumn Inspiration

I spend my days lugging and toting,,, pumpkins, gourds, dried corn, hay bales, corn stalks and more.  What fun to make displays and see people tear them apart for their pleasure of taking home the perfect pumpkin to decorate for the season, and then I do it all over again. Just some pictures this morning so you can have a peak and perhaps get inspired to Welcome Autumn. This is the season of blessings, a time of good and plenty, and a time to be grateful for the harvest.

Not much time to write here these days, but thought I'd take you on a walk with me through  where I work and play each day at bringing Autumn to life. Remember to click on the pictures below to see them full size if you'd like a closer look.

  Nellie is happy at Stoney's and here she sits after carrying a load of pansies. Children love to have their picture taken sitting on her seat.

One of two tin roof wagons (this one. the smaller, overflows with gourds and Indian corn of all sizes. A barrel planted with winter pansy. 

  A table of pumpkins of every kind, shape and texture, content to be clustered together.

 A wagon painted blue takes up residence in front of Carolyn's Coop. Children have their picture taken here sitting on that very BIG pumpkin in the center. The front of the coop not finished yet (maybe today! or not haha so busy!) but if I waited until I was satisfied with what it looked like I would never get any pictures here for you to see. 

   Harvest Wreaths hang on old wooden shutters. Bundles of wheat are tied with ribbons.

And now just some pictures for your pleasure. I have to get ready to get there so I am running out of time now.  

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkins pumpkins everywhere and loads of good veggies and more treasures inside the red barn.

The entire side lot is orange pumpkins

 

Sunflowers field still in bloom and bunches picked each morning.

 

Look a the texture and colors of this glorious pumpkin.

And this one below is a Cinderella Pumpkin.

  Somedays I feel like Cinderella...Living in a fairytale... while creating with so much beauty of the season...but when the day ends my coach turns back into a pumpkin But the fairytale changes...I go home to my prince.

Next time just some close ups of some different varieties of pumpkins that perhaps you have never seen.

Have a happy autumn. Gather friends for a night of crusty bread and hot soup, call it a bring your own blanket party and eat in the garden, wrapped up in warmth of blanket and friendship. Celebrate the abundance that life gives, if you simply look for "it"... its there to be found.

Until I see you here again...........Blessings to you.

Tractor day YEAH!

Paaha and Nic have left for home and by now are hopefully there safe and sound and happy to be home. We miss you!!!!!!! and would be so happy if you can come next year.

T 

The weather has turned somewhat cooler and fall is here, there and everywhere at Stoney's now. (more pics later of pumpkin and the abundant blessings of this season)

I'm so excited to tell you how happy I am about this.....

  

Last Saturday Lynn and Billy invited me to go to an auction with them. On of the things we went for was another greenhouse (we got one) Yeah! BUT< we also got this adorable tractor that I longed for ever since I started working at Stoney's. She's a "JUST MY SIZE" tractor, 1953 and runs like a charm! Lynn and I will make good use of this baby on the farm. I was happy when Billy bid and got her that I had to turn around as I was in tears of joy! I love it! And I drove it already and love it even more now! I know Pasha and Nic would love to drive it too. YES? (We hope to hear from you two if you read this)

Here we are, Lynn and myself (this pic for Marylou, smile) sitting on her once she got loaded for the trip back home.

And heres one of me on her too.

It issn't everyday a girl wants a tractor, and it surely isn't every girl who gets what she wants

Thank you Billy, Thank you Lynn YOU ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST and Bless my life everyday!  I love, love love this baby! 

homeward bound soon

These four feet have walked our farm fields for weeks now, picking veggies/pulling weeds, and on this day treking through the mud to do so, after heavy rain the night before. The land on which they walk is better for their having been here, and we are touched as well forever by having come to spend time working with two such fine and charming young men.

It won't be long now (just a few days) before they head home and we will miss them. Perhaps next year they will wish to come back and be part of our Summer Stoney Family again.

Just a picture for whom else but his mama. I am going to miss his great smile when they leave us for home.

And I will miss hearing the sound of the "Little car" (what Pasha calls his  transport to bring in the sunflowers from the fields).

Pumpkins have arrived and today we all worked hard unloading and putting them up. Much more to do but some pictures tomorrow if I remember to stop for a minute and take some pictures.

Pasha and Nic went to the Amish Country in Pennsylvania with Billy to pick up some of our pumpkins that are grown there for us each year. It was a fun trip for them both. Wait until you see all the kinds of pumpkins we have, I can't wait to show you.  Nic admires them as I do and today he showed me one as I was decorating one of our wagons. He knew I would want to use this particular one in my display. Pasha put together a ground pallet of several kinds together today and was proud of what he did...I LOVED IT! 

It won't be easy for us who have coem to love these kids when its time to goodbye. But I also know they will be glad to go home...as no matter where you wander there is no place like home and the family and friends that wait for you there. I hope they will always think of us as friend and maybe even think of us as family and stay in otuch through email. God Bless them Both Always! 

All for tonight, lots of pumpkins to lift tomorrow, off to bed for an early rise and to welcome a new day as summer sneaks away and Fall turns the corner to greet us.

From one country to another A hello (Nik and Pasha)

Each summer season Stoney's hires/hosts Russian students who travel to America to work the summer. This year we are blessed with three young men, Nik, Pasha, and Alex.

I'm writing this post so their families in Russia might enjoy to see their sons who have been with us for some time now. Yes, we are enjoying having them here in America and we hope they are enjoying being here too. I took a few pictures today but Alec was not working today so I have only a few pictures of Nik and Pasha to post tonight.  However, I will take more pictures through this week and put them on here for you see of all 3 boys (Alex included).  

This is Nick and Pasha. Nik is the handsome one, Pasha is the handsome one..well shoot they are both good looking young men...so I'll identify Nik as the one with the dark hair and great smile, and Pasha is the one with the blonde hair and all that sunburn, Ouch!

  

Nik speaks excellent English and is inquistive asking lots of questions and learning all the time about our cultural differences and he also teaches us much about his country through conversations we have while working close in the same area at times.  Pasha was very quiet when he first arrived but it didn't take long for us to get him talking and now we are able to understand one another and we talk all the time.

I especially like it when I get to work in the morning and Pasha says, GOOD MORNING! and he always says it with a smile on face, a smile like this big one.

And then I see Nik and he says, "Good morning Carolina." I love his accent when he calls me Carolina, though my  name is Carolyn, (Carol- Lynn) so I never correct him andI think Nik thinks my name is Carolina. It makes me smile every time he says Carolina in his Russian accent.

Through the day Nik and Pasha and Alex too (not pictured yet) work very hard, picking vegetables from the fields, unloading trucks that come in, washing vegetables 

 or like today Shelling Lima beans by hand.

I'll take some pictures of them in the sunflower fields tomorow, cutting sunflowers and whenever I have the camera in hand throughout this week others as well for their families to enjoy back in Russia.

Oh and just so you know they aren;t always working.....

They also take time to re-energize with some food. Todays lunch was rotisserie chicken and rice.

To Pasha and Nic's parents. I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures of your two fine sons while they spend time in America. We sure enjoy having them with us and getting to know them as the summer goes quickly by. I hope once they return to home they might email sometimes to us and always remember their summer at Stoney's, as we at Stoney's will always remember them.

I'll take some more and hopefully better pictures throughout this week of all three boys and post them here so stop by later this week to see these great faces again.

(If you double click on these pictures they will enlarge to full size)

Carolyn

On the wings of a butterfly

 

The butterfly counts not months but moments,

and has time enough.  ~Rabindranath Tagore

 

I come here today to thank each of you who reached towards us with kindness in the past weeks sending me good thoughts and keeping my Arnie in prayer. I am happy to tell you that as I write this he is home with me, resting, after a 2nd long stay in the hopsital. We are grateful for the best part of the medical community that saved his life, and we survived, with great patience. through the worst of it as well, that put his life in jeopardy.  My mnd still spins in disbelief when I recall how ineffiecently run are the systems of Sentara Va. Beach Hospital  I am ashamed of what I saw there as incompetant health care at times, least they be ashamed themselves to recognize their own poor standards. Those days will remain as penned pages in my personal journal, for now.  Although I feel it my duty to others to address certain issues with hospital administration for no other reason but awareness of said issues...hoowever my focus today must be on Arnies care, my work and my family..but the time will come, it must.  

It was here between these rows of zinnias that at times I would walk, always  barefooted, or sometimes down on bended knees in prayer, seeking solace. It was here for brief moments that I felt safe.  My love of the  earth keeps me grounded and I suppose I felt if I kept my feet firmly planted that I coud ground my Arnie as well and keep him with me.

He is still with me, though his life remains fragile. We take not one day for granted and are fully aware how precious time truly is. We learned that now his other leg is suffering blood flow loss and that may have to be addressed soon. s well as a fistula having occurred as a result of a heart catherization through his arm..two things we were not expecting at his last dr appt...

He is on a wound vac at home and also dealing with his first in 8 years a pressure sore that began with his hospital stay. But all in all ......WE ARE BLEsSED! I am blessed that his attitude is good (most of the time <wink> )..he has his frustrating moments, which I fully understand...but he could be miserable, angry all the time, and instead he tries hard to make the best of his situation, as do I.

The people I work for stood beside me through this entire time and I could not ask for kinder more giving and understanding folks to have graced my life. I have returned to work, and although I find it difficult to manage all I have to do I am doing it as best I can and giving it all I have to give, Arnie, work and home (though home suffers greatly now).

Members of a online writing group also were there for me and to them I am very grateful.  And my dear friend Maureen spent time with through those trying days also. My children all put their dad first through this and spent time at the hospital visiting, one making long distant trips home and the other coming after a long day at work to see his dad each and every night. I know how much Arnie appreciated seeing their faces and how hard it was to kiss the little one goodbye each time she left to go back home always with a promise to be back in a few days to see him again...a promise she kept.

And so we go on.....one day a time, one smile at a time and always with hope and love in our hearts.

Since returning to work the fence on Carolyns Coop got a paint job...............

And today the window boxes got stained a wonderful green color and the benches under the windows got painted the same green but solid without the wood grain showing thorugh....love them but no pics to show ya.

I'm looking forward to and thinking ahead to the fall season now...

though I am picking zinnia bouquets and loving doing so each day...this morning i was in the field very early as I had a large order to pick...the peace that is there is remarkable...it is my field of glory, really, and I admit I don't like sharing it with anyone else! I spent the morning picking and singing and Hobo the farm cat wandered through the field with me meowing, wanting me to feed him..I did after carrying in an armload of pretties.

Lynn, my boss brought these babies into the world by using an incubator.....are they adorable or what?

They are only 3 days old at the time of taking this picture. I hope to tame one to be as sweet as Henny was in her short life.

They are a reminder to me that life truly is precious, and how much you must nurture the little things in it that matter to you most.

I leave you now with an apology that it has taken me so long to come here to do a post.and I leave you with this suggestion also..If you have a loved one in the hospital at any time, never leave them alone for long! They really are dangerous places to be without someone by the side of the patient to stay ontop of the mishaps, errors and pure stupidity that happens frequently. Beware! and ask questions and never take for granted they know what they are doing...for the most part they are guessing! Be sure to have a say in your life ...its the only one you have...tend it carefully.

Love to all who stop by here to check in on us.

Thank you for continued good thoughts and prayers for my dear Arnie.

Always,

     Carolyn

Credit is given to one of my customers whose signature is on the first picture. This person has no idea how much that picture taken in our very own zinnia field meant to me that day. Lynn framed it for me and brought it to me at the hospital.