Just a Quick Opossum Story

Last summer, at the end of summer we were all over my sister Cris's house of Mommy's Midwest Mountain for a swim. She had been telling us about this little dwarf opossum that would come to her bird feeder for food. So we stayed late to see it. We were all gathered around the sliding glass window with the lights off like it was a movie theater waiting for the tiny opossum to show up.

He did! He was so tiny and cute, but it wasn't long before he was scared off by a normal size opossum. We were all like awwww, go away normal opossum we want to see the little one again. The normal one kept coming back and forth from the dark to the light teasing us. Each time we thought it would be the little one back. So one of the boys scared him off so the little one would come back. We were all glued to see it , when all of a sudden the face of what looked like a wild bore, but white and huge appeared right before the glass! We all screamed, "Ahhhhhhh!" and ran away. It was the largest opossum I had ever seen in my life. It really was as big as a pig. I still wish I had a picture of that.

Jennifer

Gone Fishing

We spent a very interesting weekend at Rockbridge Rainbow Trout Ranch in the Missouri Ozarks fly fishing from a spring fed trout stream. It was beautiful! My brother in law found this amazing secluded spot where you can rent this big old red farm house. No phones, No radio, No TV. This is fine, I can handle that, but when you are a mother of two little ones you get a tad bit nervous when you are more than an hour away from the nearest hospital. I know, I know ,call me crazy, but my son has severe food allergies so there! I have an excuse. After a little panic attack , I did calm down enough to enjoy the beauty of the hills and water and the fun of Bonn fires and scary stories. My pictures do no justice.

This is a scary little petrified troll that my little Rose found. We were just walking past a tree and she said, "Scary." I was like what? Oh, my! You are right! that is scary!

How does something happen like that?

One of my newest paintings on ebay "Apple Cats". It reminds me of a picture from an old children's book.

There are five black cats in the orchard.

See if you can find them.

So much to be done outside. I started raking this garden. Believe it or not, this will be full of flowers soon. This is one of my perennial gardens. I started another one yesterday. Splitting my mature perennials to make more. It is a cheap way to cover a lot of ground. I have been here for about 6 years so I have many plants to work from now. I split every year. When you live on a rocky ridge without a sprinkler system you find plants that grow naturally to this habitat. Lots of sedum, rebekia, and cone flowers . Hee hee :)

Rose loves to play with the worms when I garden. She was even pushing one on her swing yesterday. Poor worm.

Jennifer

Here is a look at my newest painting. It is called "Apple Blossom" . The colors are so bright and cheery. I have really fallen in love with this one. I will be putting it up on ebay tonight.

Anthony had to read me the story of Johnny Appleseed for school and that was my inspiration. Of course Spring is on the my mind too.






I thought I would also share a picture of Rose and her guests enjoying some tea. We had a little tea party yesterday. It was quite fun. We are going to try to make it a Friday afternoon tradition. Anthony had fun too. He brought a Lego Robot as his guest. If you look close you can see a Wonders of Whimsy creation in the background. My "Kitty Boo" . He is quite cute and goes very well there with all of my prim things.

Well, must get to baking my Green Cupcakes and I have Corned beef that needs to be checked. And, don't forget the green snake bread. Kids love that kind of stuff. Happy St. Patrick's weekend!

I was photo tagged by the lovely Caroline of Carolines Crafts She has such a sweet blog , please check her out.

This is a photo that was taken last Easter of my dearest Rose and Nino. As I recall it snowed here and made for a very beautiful day.

I am photo tagging the 6 blogs below. I will be interested to see their photos. You are to pick your 6th photo from your 6th folder. This is a fun tag.




Suzi Whitaker at Art with a touch of Whimsy
Hayley Judith Egan
Micki at The Art Hermit
Cris at Mommy's Midwest Mountain
Jenny at Wonders of Whimsy
Pistacchio E Nocciola



Then I was awarded the Lemonade Stand award from the Wonder Woman Jenny of Wonders of Whimsy. She does such wonderful work saving kitties. Please stop by her blog. She is Raffling off one of her handcrafted dolls to fund her cause. Check it out at :
Wonders of Whimsy
Alley Cat Rescue
Or Art By Jenny



Last but not least I was given the Kreative Blogger award from Micki at The Art Hermit. She has such a cute blog and just updated her Etsy shop so check it out. I was also given this award by my very talented sister Cris from Mommy's Midwest Mountain. She paints the cutest cats so go check her out too.

I have to list the 7 things I love and then 7 other people who I think deserve this award

1. I love my family of course and I love the sound of my kids playing nicely together.

2. I love avocados. I could eat them everyday in various ways.

3. I love painting, obviously. I even love painting rooms.

4. I love summer and spending most of my day outside.

5. I love cats, even when they are a little naughty.

6. I love that tired worn out feeling of accomplishing a big project outside, like putting a new garden in or something fun like that.

7. I love that first feeling of hitting the bed at night.

So now here are seven very creative people in no particular order .

Please check them out if you have not already. :)


Sonia at The Dark Ravens Nest

Linda Cardina

Audrey Eclectic

Sarah at Cottage Garden Studio

Ooty

Julie at The Art and Life of the Ruby Nest

Amy at The Heart of a Seed

Wow, what a nice weekend. We had such warm weather. We were even able to dine out on the front porch Friday night. Then Saturday evening my sister and parents and me sat out there again and had drinks and snacks. The front porch is my favorite place to be in the summer. Every summer day ends in a celebration on the front porch. I wanted the warm weather to stay so bad, but it is gone with the wind.

This is my latest painting on ebay called "Bun Buns".

Here are both of my serious sunbathers. They too had sooooo much fun playing outside with us this weekend. Foster actually slept through the night without attacking my feet.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Jennifer

Here are my latest paintings on ebay.

It sure is tough to get anything done around here. So much going on this week. Whew. I just need to take a deep breathe.

I did get one little fun thing done. I have had this chandelier hidden in my closet for about six months or more. I am a light fixture junkie. I love looking at light fixtures even when I don't need them. I was strolling through the light fixture aisle at Lowes when I spotted this gem for $20.00 regularly a hundred something. Anyway it was in my cart and out the door and then I was too scared to show my husband until this weekend. I LOVE it! I am so glad I grabbed it now. I have a whole new feel in here and I can't wait to add to it .

Don't tell, but I have another light hidden in my closet. Shhhhh. ;)