Stop and smell the roses

Actually, the sign in front of the church said stop and smell our roses. I did and they were some wonderfully fragrant ones. But what does stop and smell the roses mean…besides literally that is? This phrase was about mindfulness before mindfulness became a new part of our vernaculars. Stop and smell the roses (why roses by the way?) means to consciously direct your mind to take in, experience and enjoy the present world that is around you. We may joke about “Oh that was a waste of time that I will never get back!” but that really is true. Once the time has passed, it is gone.

We can’t always take, or even have, enough time with the way modern life is but when we can we should. The laundry can be done later but watching a sunset that will never happen again with a loved one cannot be put off till later. That may be a bit of a weak analogy but I hope you see my point.

So take the time to “stop and smell the roses” as often as possible; it really is good for you.

Teri 🌹

The beginning of the change

So is today the last day of summer and tomorrow is the first day of autumn or is today the start of autumn and yesterday was the last full day of summer? I get confused with this changing of seasons thing sometimes. Either way, the leaves they are a beginning to change and the weather and leaf peeping boffins are predicting there to be a great autumn color season on the horizon.

I can happily live with that!

But right now as I look out my window the world is grey and raining heavily…which in the end will help leaf color, so I’ve read. You will be missed, summer, as you always are but welcome to your turn on stage autumn.

Teri 🍂

Harvest almost full moon

I took this photo the night before the moon was to be full. It rained on the full moon night and is due to rain (or at the least be very cloudy) for the next few nights. So it’s an almost full moon I’m sharing here.

Teri 🌘

Throwback Thursday – Scotland

The last time we traveled out of the country we went to Scotland and it was a most wonderful driving through the highlands trip. I was going through my files to move some of them to a new external hard drive when I came across my Scotland images.

So for today’s throwback, here is Eilean Donan Castle located in the western Highlands. It has quite the history; if you’d like to read more about it then click the link here.

Haste ye back!

Eat, drink, dance and be merry

This past weekend at the Ohio Renaissance Festival the theme was fantasy. One could interpret that any number of ways but for the most part the fae folks were out in force! Even the Queen sprouted a pair of wings for the weekend.

We ate turkey legs (yay!), drank mead (yay again!) and danced. One could say we all partied like it was 1699; there was much merriment. Can you find a certain elf getting ready to dance around the Maypole?

Teri 🧚🏽‍♀️

Looking for some hot stuff…

The backyard garden – or micro farm as I affectionately call it – has been putting out its goodies pretty regularly even as the growing season is slowly beginning to wind down. This years “crops’ have consisted of: lavender, sweet and spearmint, cherry tomatoes, okra, basil and three kinds of peppers.

The big green ones (they sometimes turn red and are great pickled) are cowhorn peppers, the long skinny ones are cayenne and the little ones are Tabasco. I’ve made more pesto than I ever want to eat again for awhile so now I am drying the basil leaves. The lavender is in a vase on the dining table, the okra has been cut up and is in the freezer awaiting soups and stews in the colder months and the tomatoes have been turned into salsa and eaten with salads all while I try to battle those awful tomato horned worms as organically as possible.

The cayenne peppers have been dried whole for future use and dried and ground up to make my own cayenne seasoning. The cowhorns will be pickled and the Tabascos are going to make a nice pepper sauce. I must remember to wear gloves and a mask when working with the peppers…they get a bit fiesty.

I must tell you the story of the cherry tomatoes. Most of what I have growing started out as starter plants I got from the gardening store but the lavender has grown back (I think this may be it’s second or third year), the mint is on year two and the tomatoes? This is the sixth generation of tomatoes all descended from the first three plants I purchased.

You heard that right! I let some of the first generation tomatoes just fall to the ground and ignored trying to clean them up and the next year they came back all on their own. Once I figured that out I’ve let them do it ever since. We call this years batch 6G tomatoes.

Cool, huh?

Teri 🍅

The goings on at the Renaissance Festival will be next. There was much merriment and glitter.

Going Back In Time

I’ve been quite busy lately – very busy! Not all of it has been sunshine and roses but we are pushing through. But there has been some time traveling as you can see from the image here and it has been fun.

Will explain more next week but right now, like this noble steed, I’ve been running so much that my feet have sometimes barely touched the ground. What have I gotten myself involved in? Well, right now I have to put the finishing touches on my Fairy Godmother look for the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Let there be turkey legs and mead!!!

Teri 🧚🏽‍♀️

You spin me right round baby right round…

Teri 📷

On this day…

In 2012 I made my entry into the world of blogging here on WordPress. So much has changed since then in blogging, the way one can blog, my photography and those who I’ve gotten to know through this medium.

Some followers have left blogging, some have passed and others post infrequently. We’ve all grown a bit older since 2012 with many of us changing how and where we work as well as how we live our lives period. Because of the world changing events of this and last year, with our families and with our own lives and health, blogging became more and more difficult to do many times.

But I tried. I’m still trying. I do what I can when I can how I can. So here’s to having made it this far and hopefully to keep at it. As summer is winding down (you’d never know it by recent temperatures) here are some images of the flowers that mean summer to me…and some farmer.

Teri 😉

You Can’t Catch Me

The street rods at the auto show really looked like they could leave any other vehicle in the dust… well maybe not some of those exotic speedsters like the Lambo’s and Maserati’s that were there but pretty much everything else.

Teri 📷

1935 Chevrolet 3-Window Coupe

1929 Ford Roadster Pickup

1941 Chevrolet Pro Street Coupe

What these owners did to make this 1934 Ford what you see in this image is true dedication. Check out the details. This was the first time I’ve been to a car show where the owners had mirrors positioned so that the judges could see underneath the vehicle. Just as shiny under as above!