A word from Mark Twain . . .

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

Mark Twain

Leave it to Chesterton!

"I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it."
-- G. K. Chesterton

Spider webs

My camera and I found some busy spiders in the backyard. Although it is hard to see with the sunlight, the third picture has a spider hastily wrapping up his recently captured lunch. I have never seen this happen in the moment and it was fascinating and a bit scary to see how fast the spider caught and saved a meal for himself. The poor bug probably didn't know what hit him. Spiderwebs are pretty when the sun hits them just right. When I was taking art, it was a project to spray paint a web and then quickly press a sheet of paper to it thus immortalizing the spider's hard work. I work too hard myself and just can't bring myself to do this anymore!

Passing Seasons . . .

September is always an interesting time of the year. The garden starts sharing seasons and you can see the tomato plants struggling to produce a last crop while the citrus trees start mellowing out their fruit. Although tomatoes are a great favorite, I'm extremely partial to oranges and lemons. Fresh lemonade is good with just about any lemon but made with lemons fresh from the tree . . . No words to describe it, you just enjoy it.

September is also my husband's turning point of the year as he has less to fuss with the fading garden but gets to start planning and dreaming about how he is going to make his garden next year.

I have to laugh as the neighbor behind us. He is a do-it-yourself kind of guy with no respect for the requirements of the building code. It will be interesting to see how he can ever sell his house as he has so many self-made code violations going on. He goes through phases as evidenced by the dank and empty fish pond he started several years ago. He has added onto his house both in the front and back - way too close to the rest of the houses in the area - code violations. His most recent 'addition' was to extend air conditioning to his illicit room extension. It is most lovely with a huge swamp cooler balanced on the edge of the room and the duct work snaking across the outside of his roof. He has a large citrus garden but never picks the fruit. Fortunately for us, he doesn't trim his trees, either, so we enjoy the fruits of his lemon tree that hangs way over into our yard. His lemons ripen at a different time of the year so it is a win/win situation for us. His tree looks a little sad at the moment as there are many beautiful lemons out of reach that will never be enjoyed by anyone.

We have our dwarf lemon and orange tree and they are our pampered plants. The lawn can go unmown and I won't say a word but I do nag about whether or not my citrus trees have gotten their feeding yet.

Lincoln and the Library all in one day . . .

The sudden ideas always turn out to be the best ones when it comes to field trips. Our friends threw out the option of heading to a nearby town to check out the Lincoln Memorial. I had seen this small building many times over the years but never thought to venture inside. So, on a summer day, last year, we finally got to see what the inside of this place looked like. It was amazing at how much Civil War History was in this rather small museum. We spent almost two hours and were ready to go back again and again. One of the highlights to the younger group was an actual piece of hardtack from the Civil War. Seems to me that any food substance that can last that long, cannot have tasted all that great to begin with!

Afterwards, we visited the library and gardens. What mother can resist posing the brood in a set of arch ways? Oh, and the studious group on the garden bench . . . posed!

Anyone who lives in the Redlands, California area should definitely check out the Lincoln Memorial there. Oh, as the group picture with Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln is not a ghost but cardboard. The soldier, however, was a real person but not of an age to be from the Civil War Era!