Angel - Digital Photograph

Angel

The Cemetery...Digital Photograph

Magnolia Green Cemetery

I have spent a lot of time in cemeteries the past few months. Visiting my dad, traveling through the South. I am always amazed at how different yet the same each one is.

Back in the day, families would visit the cemetery after church on Sunday. They would share a light meal, the children would play, the adults would tend to the graves of their ancestors. Mow the grass, plant flowers, neaten things up a bit. Stories would be told during the meal. This was a way to pass down through the generations the family's past, and ensure that the graves would be maintained. 

I still see many families who go to the cemeteries passing on tradition today. When I lived in Wilmington N.C. there was a woman and her granddaughter who visited one of the cemeteries there every week. I would see the grandmother stopping at different graves telling their stories and leaving a flower or a note. Sometimes the granddaughter would have a little something or a picture that she would leave. It would warm my heart to see these two making their rounds.

Now we have caretakers to keep the cemeteries mowed and neat. Families live far and wide. Lives are busy. It is sad. It is just the way it is. I still enjoy visiting. I still try to honor those graves I see. I am always amazed by some of the angels or headstones I find. I always remember that once they all had lives and people who loved them...

Cemetery Finds...Digital Photographs

One of the most unusual headstones I have seen.

Close up of the babies face.

The setting is like out of a movie with the swamp behind it.

Here in the South we know how to honor the dead. Whether it be a small country graveyard, a private cemetery, or a big city cemetery. Our dead are sacred.

I developed a love of cemeteries in high school. I dated a boy who lived next door to one. We would often hang out there as teenagers do like to "hang out". This particular cemetery had Anne Morrow buried in it. Her story was so sad[she was Charles Lindbergh's wife and her son was kidnapped and killed]. My boyfriend gave me a book of her poems and I would sit in the cemetery and read them. Oh, to be young and innocent.

Once I was done reading the poems I actually looked around and realized there were a lot of different headstones. Some were shaped like trees, some had little lambs on them, others were obelisk shaped, or had different things carve on them. I had to know what they meant. So, a life long interest was started. You can tell a lot about a community by their cemeteries.

This incredible monument to a lost daughter can be found in Magnolia Green Cemetery in Charleston South Carolina. They have a beautiful cemetery with old Magnolias and Oaks dripping in Spanish Moss. Quite the mood setter. I have never seen so many unusual gravestones, headstones, monuments to the dead. Each one trying to over power the next.

I really enjoyed this cemetery. I hope to go back and take more pictures. Until then I leave you with these photographs.

Digital Photograph - A Headstone

Headstone

I can not tell you how beautiful I found this headstone 
to be. This is all carved stone. I fell in love with this one.

Welcome Fall!

Vincent Van Gogh's Wheat field with Crows

Welcome Fall! Today is the first day of Fall. The one day a year when there is exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. Soon, the trees will be bare and the winds cold. Until then, I am going to enjoy Fall. I like the cooler nights, the beautiful colors of the trees, apple cider, soup, and getting to wear my boots!

This painting of Van Gogh's is one of my favorites. It has so much motion and energy. I can feel the wheat blowing 

and hear the crows cawing overhead. I can smell the threatening rain. It reminds me of Fall. The farmer's getting in the last of the harvest. Time to start thinking about bringing my plants in.

I found a big woolly caterpillar this week. They say it is a sign that we are going to have a cold winter. I think it is time for the chimney sweep to pay me a visit. I am planning a few fires in the fireplace this year. Along 

with a good book or two. I have stocked up on my favorite tea and my favorite chair is calling me. I love Fall. 

Digital Photograph - Pink Flower

Peach & Blueberry Cake

This is a recipe I found while going through a bunch of magazines. It is very easy and the results are fantastic. Your friends and family will feel very special that you have made this for them.

Peach & Blueberry Cake

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

8 Tablespoons butter [one stick]

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

4 large peaches/cut into wedges [4 cups]

1 pint blueberries

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Confectioner's sugar to dust top of cake

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

You will need a 8 by 8 inch pan or 2 quart baking dish.

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. In another bowl mix with a hand mixer the butter and brown sugar till it is light and fluffy. Around 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Then beat in the egg and the vanilla extract, scrapping down the bowl.

4. Then on low, mix in half of the flour mixture and the sour cream. Once that is mixed add the rest of the flour and mix.

5. Add the fruit to the batter and fold it in. It will look like there is too much fruit, but the batter will rise around it.

6. Place in pan or dish. Sprinkle the top with the almonds.

7. Bake for 1 1/2 hours to 1 3/4 hours. Test with a toothpick in the center of the batter. If comes clean done. 

8. Sprinkle the top with Confectioner's sugar. Serve warm. Vanilla ice cream goes nicely with this. Enjoy!

My Favorite Fall Hangout - The Farm Stand

Doesn't this just make you want to grab a bunch and make something!

I love fresh potatoes and onions. They taste so much better.

I always buy a few jars of homemade jam, barbecue sauce, honey from the area, and here I found Peach Salsa. It all looks so good.

I just bought some of these and made a hot vinegar that is excellent on pork, rice, greens. Yum.

I love all the different colors you can get these in. I love the red and orange the best. Here they even had purple peppers.

Don't these peaches look beautiful? South Carolina grows the best peaches. Something about the dirt or maybe the runoff from the mountains. They are so sweet.

These little peppers are hot! They make really good hot vinegar in pretty jars for gifts. I also like to dry them and use in chili, soup and stews for a bit of a bite.

A nice way to say thanks for stopping by!

I love to stop by a good produce stand. I think it is another one of the reasons I like to get off the big highways. Locally grown tastes so much better than things that have been shipped from who knows where. This stand is in South Carolina. My cousin and I stopped after a particularly good day of thrifting. I will say the peaches were great and the boiled peanuts were the best I have had in a long time. A good day was had by all. Please enjoy your local produce stands!

Digital Photograph - The Old House

The Old House

Abandoned, sitting across from the railroad tracks. This house in South Carolina reminded me so much of another house. A house I spent many happy days and nights in. My grandmother's house. The basic structure is the same. Her windows were larger and shuttered, there were Oleander bushes around the house, lots of wicker to sit and rock on on the front porch. A profusion of plants on the porch. It was always painted white, the porch floor gray, and the shutters a deep green. It was a much loved house.

This old house has seen some days. It looks like somebody must have loved it. Once. Now it is on it's way to forgotten. I want to scoop it up. Paint it. Fix it. 

Instead I sit and take photographs, thanking it for the memories it conjures up a childhood ago. Is there a house in your past full of memories?

Graffiti Quote - People Wait

Freebies - Women whose eyes tell it all

"You can see it in her eyes" never a truer word said than when you look at this woman. 

Here is the girl I used in my collage Remembering the Past.

She looks like she just stepped out of Gone with the Wind. I can not imagine all that she has seen.

I see Hope and self assurance here in these eyes.

Kindness, intelligence, a peacemaker. Her eyes are so beautiful. They are like liquid.

She has seen more than one person can imagine. It has not been an easy life, but a proud life.

I have been very busy, visiting and traveling up and down Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Lucky me.
I have visited with my cousins, my mother, my friends and family. I have seen a lot the past few weeks.
With that in mind I thought this weeks freebies should somehow celebrate the long vacation I have had. So, here is an array of women who are able to tell their stories through their eyes. They bare witness to their life stories by just sitting in front of the camera. Enjoy!

p.s. I have missed you all! Your kind comments and thoughts. I am back for awhile.
Looking forward to catching up and the cool, crisp air of Fall.

Digital Photograph - Orange Zinnia

Orange Zinnia & Friend

Digital Photograph - The Old Farmhouse

The Old Farmhouse

Traveling back from South Carolina one late afternoon I spotted this old farmhouse. I pulled over and took a few pictures. I loved the way the old farm light and the new electric power tower sort of compete. It sort of sums a 

lot up with out having to speak. 

As I rolled my window down the smell of fresh mowed hay 

was the first thing I noticed. Then the sound of millions of insects. I am sure many a hot and humid night was spent in this little farmhouse. The only shade given by the big ole pecan tree. Stories are here, just listen.

Quote Book #14 - The Past

Digital Collage - Remembering the Past

A sweet little collage I made today playing around on my computer with various techniques on Photoshop.  
The background of grey with flowers was a freebie I found a year or so ago on a scrap-booking site.
Unfortunately I did not record the site nor the artist who made it. If any one knows let me know so I can give them credit for it. I really like to give credit when credit is due.
The girl is a cabinet card and the house is another oldie that someone has walked away from and forgotten. There are so many of them.

Four Letter Words - Past

Pause and Remember....