Vacation day 14 Flowers & old buildings

Gardenia's are my favorite flower. Our church has two great big bushes with blooms that are just wonderful. Native to Africa & Asia this bush is just full of these blooms. I am enjoying their fragrance in my kitchen and beside my bed. They are the best ever and they don't last long, so I have to enjoy them while they are in bloom.

The rose bush on the property has only one or two blooms and really they just can't compete with the Gardenia. So they stayed on the bush.
The Hydrangea bush was so full of blooms it made me happy to see them so blue. They are just the best large arrangement flower you could use. The color blue is bright and the little flowers all over the bunch are happy. You can't see a hydrangea and be sad, you just can't.

Here in Prescott is an old building, that housed some kind of business and like so many in this town closed up. The sign says "Are you a woman? Take Ca..." I can't tell what the next letters are, can you? I remember traveling with sister, my mom and dad during the summer as my dad went on sales calls to the feed store across the railroad. I can remember the smell. Very musty, dank, and chemical laden. I have no idea what he was selling, but being in the broker business he must have been checking up on some order a grocery store was to have shipped out.
I remember my sister, my mom and I would cross the street and shop in the little dress shop on the main drag. I was always so surprised because it had wonderful little Villager dresses. It was run by two older women and it had the most wonderful deep drawers make of some kind of wonderful wood. They kept the socks and underwear in there. I was always shocked because I came from the big city of Little Rock, and no one else was supposed to be cool.
Old buildings hold memories and old fashioned flowers hold hope.

day 8 vacation

Here is what is exciting at my house. If you know me you would know this open space on my front porch is unusual. Yes I did it! I called the Bee Hive and sent all (well almost all, because they didn't come back for the second and third load yet) of it away to help those who really want to work hard at redoing or revamping furniture. When you have a vision, sometimes the vision has to be worked out in actuality for you to know your strengths and weaknesses. I realize that I will want my "store" to have painted furniture, but I don't want to paint it. I know what I want it to look like and I will have to hire painters, who work as independent contractors to do my painting. I also will hire an upholsterer to recover chairs and couches. I do have a plan, now all I need is venture cash!!!
So as you can see the porch is now ready for refurbishing. I am excited about getting this done. If I can get it screened I will truly be blessed. A porch in the south needs screens especially for the summer months. Just too many 'skitters. Today was one of those hot and humid days. I let the cats in and boom the humidity hit me like a brick. I looked online at the weather channel and we were up to 80% humidity; in the morning!! These are the days when you really do smell magnolia blossoms. You know "the air was heavy with the smell of magnolias" type of day. I actually love the smell of magnolias. I didn't know they smelled like lemons but they do. My favorite flower is the gardenia. It is about as sweet as you can get. So lovely and so delicate.

I guess I mentioned that I get to see sunsets almost every day in Arkansas. You never know when you are going to get to see something spectacular. I was driving to Emmet Arkansas one day and came up to the stop sign and there before me was this most amazing sight. I grabbed my camera and took a picture from the inside of the car and lo and behold this is the picture I got. You can see the window has a crack in it. I just can't believe how great God is to let us see this kind of sight while we are on this anomaly of a green planet.
This is my dad at a Founders Day, for Arkadelphia, event at the park down by the Ouachita River. I just love this shot, because it is so quintessential my dad. Turned around at a picnic table (I must have seen this posture a million times) and watching the singers on the stage singing "Everyone's got to be from somewhere." I sing this line all the time and we laugh, cause it is so axiomatic.

Which brings us to this picture. If everyone has to be from somewhere we are from here. The South. With all the foibles of the southerner in tow, we are who we are. We may try to be different, but as Judy said, "I'll try to be different." and Steve replied "Different than who?" "Different than those who are the same." she answered.

But alas we are the same. Same as those who are different.