Another great 4th!

First of all.....do you know what this is???

Tom came back from bush-hogging and made me walk out to the field to look at it. He thought it looked like some sort of WWII bomb. So what's your guess? Answer is at the bottom of this entry!On Saturday, Tom and I went geocaching in the Mount Rogers Recreational Area - what a wonderful spot! We took 16 up to Troutdale, the 603 over to Damascus. Then we got a wild hair, and took 91 down to Mountain City, TN, and 88 back to Laurel Springs. Great scenery, and we saw some really remote parts of Ashe county.
On Sunday, our neighbors, Donna and Raymond, came up with some friends of theirs from Texas. Don got right into the spirit of relaxation by giving Ellen a shoulder rub.

And Ellen found the chair that seems to make everyone smile and relax as soon as they sit down...

We took on some really intense activities like jigsaw puzzles.

And of course, we got it finished before we left. It was a real bear! (GROAN...)

And now, the answer you've all been waiting for.....
It was one of the tractor lights that had fallen off while he was bush-hogging!!!!

Birth of a storm

Tom and I were sitting on the screened porch Saturday night....it had been very hot and humid all day, but no sign of any rain. It began to cool off and blow a little bit. Suddenly, a dark cloud appeared over Catherine Knob.... We watched this storm grow and move slowly to the east. The lightening and thunder was incredible, and we were glad it was already past us when it finally blew up. It was a wonderful fireworks show for at least half an hour....There was a severe thunderstorm warning for Roaring Gap and Wilkes County on the TV - hail, wind and deadly lightning. And it all started just east of us.....

It's been a good month - Tom finally got back to his favorite activities this past weekend....spraying roses and mowing on his tractor - lopping off the thistle.

This month, I planted 267 (yes, I counted them....) Lily of the Valley bulbs along the driveway in the rhododendrons.

And my Dahlias are coming up....

And the flower barrels are enjoying all the sunshine and frequent rain!

May and Mother's Day

Well, it's May, and you know what that means - Mother's Day! I took my Mom up on Friday, and Tom's mom came up Sunday for an afternoon. Unfortunately, it was way too cold to sit on the porch or deck (35 degree on Sunday morning!), so we were stuck in the den...Saturday morning, we woke up to the clouds blowing by and eventually some rain. It rained hard for less than a minute - then it was over!

The cows are back for their summer grazing - including Beatrice (that's our cow - the red one with the white face)

The turkeys are back too!

And we are LOADED with goldfinches! One weekend in April, there were so many in the trees, you couldn't hear anything but their song - there must have been at least 100 around the house.

One weekend in April while Tom was off playing golf at the beach, I went up with one of my co-workers to get some work done. Honestly, we really did work....

My Roost....My Rules

My daughter-in-law gave me this for Christmas.
She really knows me, doesn't she?????I finally brought up the glider I've been refinishing

We're going to have lots of fun with this - a gigantic bubble machine! We couldn't use it this weekend because (like a dummy), I forgot to read the package that said it took 10 AA batteries!

The futon is now on the porch - I see great naps in my future!

And, of course, the rockers are still there.

And I can't believe I forgot to include a picture of Tom's work - he painted the house foundation with Double Chocolate.

I promise next week, I'll get some outside pictures!

Hiking in the snow, dead bats...and other stuff!

Last weekend, we went hiking on Saturday up at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. Imagine our surprise when we turned the corner and saw this! There was still quite a bit of snow hanging around up there, and it was windy and cold. But we found 4 geocaches!

As for the Roost, look what we found on the dog's porch.....a dead bat! We have no idea what happened to him. He'd been dead for awhile, and the dogs (fortunately!) didn't seem interested in him.
Tom is so brave.....

It was quite chilly on Saturday morning - this was the smoke from "Mommy's" chimney drifting down the valley.

I went for a long walk and found what I hope will be a woodpecker nest. He (or she) was busy inside pecking away. I waited for a pretty good while, but they never came out so I'm not sure what kind of woodpecker it is. But I'll be checking back each weekend to see if there's more activity.

Inside, we did a few more things....

First we hung our chicken clock in the den.

We hung our rooster trivet on the porch.

We hung our "weather stick" (Those of you who have been up, know what it's real name is!)

and I brought up some new pillows for the sofa

I found them at World Market - aren't they great?

Spring...maybe????

OK...maybe, just maybe, spring is right around the corner! We finally got back up to the Roost for the first time since just after Christmas. The pipes made it through the winter, and everything else survived!

The weather was so beautiful....I had daffodils that I had dug up at home that needed to be planted....so I planted,

and planted....

and planted 120 bulbs!
(Can you tell how thrilled I am to be photographed!)

The Parkway Foundation got some new glasses, so we took a pair up to the Roost and christened them

And we finally brought our NC map back up and hung it in the twin room.

Suzie is having a really hard time settling in up there.

No really....

Can't you tell how distraught she is?

Snow, snow and more snow!

We finally got back up to the Roost last weekend. There was still LOTS of snow in the pastures!Our wonderful neighbor, Donald, plowed our driveway so we could get up and check things athe house.

We still had some trouble - as you can see the snow was still pretty deep!

Icicles were growing from the roof...

But once inside, the views were breathtaking!

The snow on the deck was at least 2 feet deep!

We weren't brave enough to turn the water on and see if the pipes held up - maybe next time!