Wildflowers!

We took our mothers up this weekend, but I didn't take any family photos. Early Sunday morning, I took a walk with my camera so I could identify the wildflowers blooming right now.

And, of course, Beatrice had to check me out and see if possibly I had any apples....

The grapevine is looking really good


with lots of tiny little grapes...



The Rhododendrons are starting to bloom

I had the hardest time identifying this flower - growing between the rhododendrons down by the creek - and guess what it is? A wild raisin!

And out in the fields - common yarrow

and Tom's favorite - Bull Thistle

Oxeye daisies

Fleabane

Moth Mullein

your basic Buttercups

And last but not least - it looks like it will be a bumper crop of blackberries for this summer!

The girls will be happy.....

Well, the girls will be really happy when we go up this weekend.....they now have a dog lot and won't have to be chained anymore!

We came up last Friday just for the day to mow and take some things back and forth. As we drove up - lo and behold - our neighbors (Donald and John) were installing the hook and chain on the gate. John says we'll have the happiest dogs in the neighborhood - they have their own yard, their own porch and their own deck! And a beautiful view to boot!

The lot comes off the side porch, so we can let them in and out the den door. And they'll have plenty of shelter below the stairs and porch. or on the porch if we don't put up a gate. Boy do we love our dogs!!!!!

And just for fun - here's a beautiful rainbow outside our "real house"....I guess there are some reasons to like all the rain besides having plenty of water to drink!

The Girl Scouts invade!

Our friend, Nancy, is a Girl Scout leader for both of her daughters' troops. They were camping over in Ashe county, so they came over for a "field trip" on Saturday afternoon. What a lot of fun!

Here we are starting out on our hike...

Immediately, there was wading in the creek!

And of course, someone fell in - after she saw a snake!

Queen of the stream!

Catherine and Catherine - back to back friends!

And what is a field trip without flowers for the leader!

Back to house - and a little pampering for the dogs...
Suzie feel into a trance
And Sister was really stressed out from all the attention!
And that evening - we had a beautiful full moonrise!

Lots of progress!

Well, it was a lovely, long weekend in the mountains. The weather was perfect, except for a nasty storm early Sunday morning about 4AM. We took advantage of several days without rain to get some of the staining done (while all the neighbors put up hay!). So this is a long post with LOTS of pictures!

First of all, here's the moon at sunset on Saturday night...

And here's sunrise on Sunday morning, after the storm....just rolling off to the East.
With all the rain, the pastures look lovely and tall - we have an incredible crop of yellowbells this year!

This little fella is my alarm clock. He starts up a daylight - which is about 5:45 AM right now - with "FeeBee....FeeBee....FeeBee". Can you guess what kind of bird he is?
That's right, he's a Phoebe!!!

The first project we tacked was staining the back porch to match the house....unfortunately, I didn't get a very good shot.....

Then we tackled the side steps.......haven't done the porch itself yet.Next, came the BIG project - the screened porch area. Tom was very brave. Those of you that know me well, know there was NO WAY I was going up that ladder! I worked on the spindles!And here is the finished product - ready for screening! And it's about time - there are only about a million bees, hornets, flies and other creepy crawlies on the porch all day long.....

I also planted some flowers in an old wine barrel that we cut in half.

And of course Suzie supervised....

while Sister stood guard!

We also ordered a storage shed for the lawn mower, etc. Doesn't it just match the house perfectly???