Law it's hot!

Gibson's in Laurel it's hot here! In Laurel Mississippi there was a store named "Gibson's", their TV commercials were the usual local fare; over the top regional redneckery. Kind of like the commercial for Samson's used cars here in Charlotte where the guy walks around his used car lot and stops by the car with his dog on the hood and hollers "Come on down and see Spot & I, we're dealin'!" He raised his right hand up in the air and kind of made a circle with his index finger when he said "we're dealin'!"
The Gibson's commercial had a guy who hollered "WOO, Gibson's in Laurel!" to impress upon you the importance of their bargains. My parents who are from Laurel often say "Gibson's in Laurel it's HOT!" on days like these.
Today has been a Gibson's in Laurel day on the official heat index; too damn hot. I went to my sister's for a bit but came home early because I was just too "G.I.L." hot. I have found myself busy in front of the fan with the window unit a/c going full blast, sorting through pictures on my computer.
Here is a sneak peek at something I started yesterday. I can't wait to finish her!!!

On my way home I stopped by Mom's house, which was blissfully cool, to take some cuttings from her hydrangeas, another thing that reminds me of Mississippi. My Granny Jefcoats was every bit the green thumb a granny should be, and more. She was forever rooting plants, tending to her flowers and her garden, saving Dairy Queen cups to start seedlings in.

The classic light blue hydrangea blossom always conjures up memories of playing in the yard in summertime. We had one of Granny's hydrangeas at the back corner of our house and I remember playing in it when it towered over me. Just be-boppin' around, finding June Bug empties and attaching them to my shirt; the hydrangea was always a good place to find these, and Daddy Long Legs too.
I love having fresh flowers in my house, especially in my bedroom, especially real ones as in not bought at the store. Stick in a few Kimberly Queen fronds and viola! Or should I say "Hocus Pocus Chevrolet Nocus!" Another Mississippi treasure, my Popaw says that. He is quite the wordsmith, I am hoping my Dad will write a book about him, I'm not good enough a writer yet to tackle the legend that is Red Caldwell.

My other great grandmother,Popaw's mother "B-Mama" was one Hell of a Mississippi figure too. On hot days like these (but worse) she would tell a young Red Caldwell "I can't wait for the first frost. I will plop my fat ass right up here on this tin roof and cool off!"
Come to think of it, that would feel good.
So Hocus Pocus Chevrolet Nocus, WOO, Gibson's in Laurel try to stay cool any way you can. It's a long way off 'til the next frost.

Summer Solstice

Today was the 2010 Summer Solstice, an important celestial event and a time to be fruitful and enjoy the longest day of the whole year.

I spent the day with my sister & her kids, we went black berry pickin' near her house. I love blackberries, they're so summery!

This little jewel was nestled in some leaves...he doesn't know he is perfect 'possum food. Opossums eat these and other insects like M&Ms.

It was hot & humid, could have been worse but it was muggier than early on in the day. I have naturally curly hair which coils up in the humidity somethin' awful. The best is when I can feel beads of sweat fall off the ends of my curls onto my shoulders.

My eyes are green, but not in this picture.

I love the light at the end of the day, everything is sideways. The kids all bebop around Bran with various commentaries and complaints. But they will surely have fond memories of observing the solstice with their Mom & aunt out amongst nature; as it should be.

Cassie & Danny are game for anything! Cassie took off her pants & flip flops and left them by the creek early on and then complained about not having them to Bran! We just laughed about how when we were little we would never have confessed to such a lapse in responsibility for your gear much less complained to a parent about it. My how times have changed! She picked them up on the way back and all was well.

Bran proudly displays the fruits of her labor. "Had she purchased them elsewhere they would have been costly!"
Danny took to the foraging with much appreciated gusto.

The sun sets and the moon rises on this,

the longest day of the year!

I know I have not been present on the blogosphere lately... I have been exhausted all week, I think due to the heat & MS. I don't do well in the heat which is a shame because I really like to get out in it. I never know when I feel this way if ms is to blame or if I'm just being lazy! I should be able to differentiate by now.
In other news I have a new roommate! This praying mantis took up residence in my bathroom! I love mantids (I had to look up the plural). I was just about to spray in there with insecticide too. Now I'm just hoping he'll eat all the other insects, but either way I can't risk poisoning him.
I love these insects so much because they are so beautiful and unusual, they always reming me of aliens with their triangle heads and green exterior.
I am taking his appearance in my house (I've never had one show up inside before) as a good omen and a blessing.
At least I have a very swanky bedroom with plenty o' ambiance in which to "max & relax".

Brandon

This is the home of my oldest friend, from way back in Kindergarten at Charlotte Country Day School. We were bffs all through elementary school and drifted apart, as kids do around Jr. High age.
Through keeping in touch online I offered to come advise her about irradiating mold from some antiques in the house. I met her there yesterday.

It was great to see Brandon, and to see the very cool old house I remember loving so much, like a second home. On the back porch were kittens! Some things never change.

My Mom loves to tell about the time when we were probably 6 or so and Brandon's cat had a litter of kittens. She put a sign in front that said "Kittens for sale!" She did not yet know that kittens are not very lucrative...

Here's the familiar patio with the exact same furniture we had at my house.

I love this picture of Brandon kitten wrangling! She is a cat lover in a big way. She's also a horse lover and one of only two friends who shared my love of horse riding growing up. Brandon and Vanessa are my two horse friends, and also both happen to be my oldest friends. Those bonds you form as a child are unbreakable.


This was her playhouse. Naturally I thought it was the coolest thing EVER. We once tried to dig a little pond in the dark brown dirt in front of it, condeming her goldfish to a murky and sure death. We poured the fish in the mud hole and lost him right away. I thought it would be easier to keep up with such a bright orange thing in all that dark water...but I was wrong.

This is in her brother's room. There is a built in bed with this empty box at the head. We used to put things in this weird hole in the paneling. It was a hole that lead to an unknown universe in her house...
The times we had in there!
This was the fancy room in the front of the house. You know the kind, all beautiful furniture and gorgeous things that you're not supposed to touch. I LOVED it. Her Mom has exquisite taste. The house I grew up in was beautiful, but not filled with history like this one. I think my love of old houses and architecture was fostered at least in part by the time I spent in Brandon's house.

I have to say, I expected it to look smaller, I hadn't been there in over twenty years, but it didn't. It was pretty much just as I remember. The smell took me back as soon as I walked in! Back to the days of riding her horse around the circular gravel drive, through the cedar filled woods, all over land that has since become "The Arboretum", a yuppified shopping area that I have always resented. Back to the generations of white kittens with gray spots on their heads that ruled the property with furry fists, roasting marshmallows in the fireplace, pushing the upholstered love seats together to make a big bed for us to sleep in together, singing along to the Grease album on vinyl and dreaming of days when we would wear pink satin jackets and smoke cigarettes like the teenagers in the movie, "playing model horses", riding real horses, running around in our bathing suits, baking zucchini bread and chocolate pound cake, staying up late, pilfering through her older brother & sister's stuff, having a blast.
You can't make new old friends.
I am so grateful to have so many friends who I spent formative years with. Vanessa & Karla, Molly, Tiffany, and Brandon. I'm rich!

Nighty Night.

It's dark outside, I see through the vines growing into my bedroom window.

Roxi curls up tight, holding the mattress down. She wants to snuggle with me again tonight.

I'm up late again, sad to see the day end. Cajoling to kiss this day goodbye.
Goodnight.

Time to turn down the candle light and sleep in sheets so white...

And dream in rhymes, with images in mind
of the world that
I live in at night.

Rambling on...

One of the things I enjoy the most is texture and color. Look at all the visual delights this tree root had to offer! Richly textured in nature's palette with soft moss growing next to brittle lichen...joy!
I like to bring plants into my dark house to struggle to survive in the filtered light. I don't know what this one is called but it seems to find my bathroom inhabitable. I love bringing these colors and textures inside to live with me. It makes the whole house feel different.
I found a delightfully tacky plastic cherub, spray painted in a 70s gold with matching glitter. I wanted to paint it bronze and give it a mossy patina.

I was telling my Mom about my little project; transforming a gaudy cherub into a little Devil by sculpting horns and changing his color. She cracked me up when she said (for those of you who know her, imagine this in her voice!) "I wish you would make sweet little God things" with a look of concern on her face!
She loved it when I was finished though. What's not to love? Look at this cute chubby little Pagan lute player and tell my it's not adorable...

Right now he lives hanging from the chandelier in my kitchen. I love making my house a beautiful place with visual delights everywhere you look. Of course I end up having too much stuff, but I do work consistently to cull the stock.
My bedroom is probably the barest place in the house. I like a more serene, Spartan environment to sleep in. I can't sleep with crap everywhere! Then again, I don't think the term "Spartan" can really be used to describe any room in my house.
Georgia O'Keefe painting compliments of my brilliant sister Brandi McKenna of She's Off Her Rocker:)

I'd really like to sleep right here, by the pond. This is the area I always thought of as "The Swamp". This time of year it's just bursting with all manner of greenery and texture. Pictures do not do it justice! Can't you just hear the tree frogs?

For no particular reason here is a shot of Roxi smelling some old kitty bones, just by the swamp. She takes a keen interest in whatever I am photographing, looking at, pretty much anything I am pointed towards.
When I become aggravated I remind myself that she won't be around forever. Enjoy her while she's here! Life is short.
Remember to stop and smell the bones...

Crawlin' Kingsnake

This weekend was chock full o' various delights. I love weekends because I get to see my family and get together for all manner of awesome conjuring, kid wrangling, dog calling, critter catching, pond tubing good times.
I was in the car with Mom yesterday and just before my house two neighbors were watching a gorgeous Kingsnake basking on the asphalt. I hopped out, slipped off my flip flops and promptly caught him. Score!

I was so thrilled by his absolute perfection in design, proportion, temperament and size. Right away I attempted to photograph him with me holding him in the mirror. It's hard, but I need to master this kind of skill.
To my eyes there are few things more alluring and compelling than a perfect snake, and this was was a fine specimen indeed. I didn't get the "fear of snakes" instinct, or I was simply habituated to them at a young age. The first family pet snake I remember was "Elvis", the beautiful Kingsnake Dad caught on the patio when I was five. He had striking white bands along his slender body. Their patterns or saddles vary greatly, and this one has faint white bands with a Georgia red clay tinted background. He molted the same day, or a day before because his scales were perfectly iridescent and flawless.

I took him to the Farm today to show the kids and turn him loose. He will make a fine livin' for himself out there, certainly better than in town.
Dad takes to snakes like a duck to water; he is in his natural element with a snake around his arm. He fostered in us a deep love and reverence for nature and all critters (with a specialty in snakes).
So now we pass along the family tradition to the youngest generation. These kids know what's good! Can you see him around Ellie's neck?
"These toddlers is gettin' raised up right!"
When I got there Dad was giving the girls an archery lesson! Let me just say, shooting a bow and arrow is divine; it is a physical means to marvel at the collective unconscious of man throughout history, or God. Call it whatever you want. It is pleasurable in a way that eclipses shooting guns entirely. Dad explained to Ellie & Cassie that humans have been using bow & arrow to hunt for tens of thousands of years, and when you are shooting, the spirits of your ancestors are with you, loving you and guiding you.
So that is my church.

They let me have a turn, and with a few reminders about which feather should be facing you when you knock the arrow and such I fell easily into form like no time had passed. It has been over twenty years since I've shot a recurve bow. I am telling you it is divine and I intend to get me some more of that soon!
Bran looks like a warrior and just as comfortable with a bow in hand as anybody could be. She has awesome archery skills too. The Pearson's carry an archery DNA trait.
I am so buzzed from all these activities today! I want more! I left the charger for my camera, which was dead so I couldn't take any pictures. I thought I was gonna jump out of my skin I wanted to photograph so bad, but Bran had her phone camera, and Dad had his so these were copied from Bran's facebook post.
Next time, I'll be prepared for picture taking!
Until then,
enjoy!