By Lynn, on November 23rd, 2010%
Can it be Tuesday already?? Really? Every day I think I’ll get here and post a big hello, but then every day goes crazy with errands and work, cooking and cleaning, and I go to bed thinking, maybe tomorrow.
This week started out with a trip to the orthopedic surgeon so that John could have his cast removed. Does it seem like it’s been six weeks since the break? He does have to go into a removable splint now for a couple more weeks. He’ll be working on range of motion for his wrist, which is somewhat limited after the break.
I thought you’d like this picture of John and his doctor, Dr. Lark. He’s a very nice man and, we think, an excellent doctor. John especially likes him. He’s got a really nice way with the children, younger and older.
Remember the bladder campion I got from Yorktown? It is still blooming and looking ever so pretty in a pot on the porch.
Do you love it as much as I do? I am wondering if it would totally take over if put in the ground? Maybe? I’ve read it can be a bit invasive. But then again, the little wild garden has a way of letting things go wild while putting on a air of orderliness. (I’m quite sure it’s the stone border that the carpenter man installed.)
I believe this yellow jacket is enjoying the edges of some decaying vegetation in the goldfish pond. I’m not sure if I should go ahead and scoop everything out, or just let it float around until it decays away to nothing. The first answer seems to make more sense, but then again, it is the little wild garden. When you let things go, you something see things you wouldn’t see otherwise.
I love the horsetail.
Isn’t it lovely?
We’ve had violets in bloom again, scattered here and there about the yard. Not many. Just a few. I love violets. They are good in salads and to snack on.
The bird feeder has just been a blur of activity as black-capped chickadees, house finches, cardinals, tufted titmice and other songbirds land continuously throughout the day. It sure makes work easier to be able to look out and see songbirds playing and feeding!
I must run. We have school to do, I must work, we are preparing for Thanksgiving, and I also want to work in the garden! I have some bok choy I want to plant!
Enjoy this day!
By Lynn, on July 30th, 2010%
Yesterday evening I walked outside and saw a beautiful cloud. The tip-top was full of the last bit of the day’s sun. It would soon be dark. So many thoughts went through my mind. How the light filled the cloud with a beauty that it wouldn’t otherwise have had (though clouds have their own beauty anyway). How there are some people I know who are in their last years of life and their beautiful spirits have come to the top and show that what they’ve lived for is truly worth it. How it would soon be dark and there was hope for a new day in just a few short hours.
Life really does pass quickly. The older I get, the faster it goes.
I have found myself more determined lately to have a joyful spirit. There are some very specific reasons why, which I can hopefully share later. For now, today is a work day and I’m just peeping in to wish everyone a good day!
Creatures. Sigh. On my little garden walk this morning I noticed this clear-winged sphinx moth sitting on the basil. They remind one of a hummingbird the way they move through the air.
This pearl crescent was visiting the butterfly bush.
I had nearly let the walkway disappear! The garden needs tons and tons of work. We won’t even think about it today. I’ll focus on how happy I was in the garden this morning to see my stepping stones again. Lots more weeding to do, but it’ll be there next week.
I hope you have a lovely day!
By Lynn, on July 16th, 2010%
Just popping in for a quick hello this morning afternoon. My how the time flies when we’re having fun!
I’ve been working on pins all week. And enjoying life with four kids, my own Wild Kingdom, of sorts, and continuous housework. It’s a wonder I have a mind left at all.
Figure into all of this that in the background of things this week, my van began to make a faint screeching, clicking, whining, scraping sound on and off. I was so tempted to call Click and Clack to find out what they thought, but then today I found out on my own. On the road. I was out running errands before work and the belt that apparently winds around the alternator and does something for the power steering came loose completely. It’s like the clouds opened and a bright light shone down on my van engine. It went back to sounding like a finely tuned machine, just as my power steering went out and I had to wheel up into the bank parking lot looking like a driver from the 1940s, pulling on that steering wheel with all my might to make the turn. Thank goodness I still have some tone left in my upper, 40-something-year-old arms.
I called the carpenter man and he showed up to make arrangements for the van to go to the shop and me to go home. And hopefully it won’t cost but a couple of hundred to fix it. I’ve been driving all week wondering what in the world was wrong, how bad it would be, and how much it would cost. Let’s keep our fingers crossed today that all ends well, because I want to need to see my mom in the morning at the farmer’s market.
Then, I’ve been lamenting over not having enough creatures in the garden when I noticed this morning that droves of them are building right near the front door. How convenient for a certain creature-picture-taker I know, who now only has to crack the front door to get creature pictures. Don’t tell the carpenter man about this.
I hate to tear apart a community, but I suppose I’ll have to remove both freshly constructed homes and take them away from here. They should be happy. It beats the carpenter’s Raid.
May you have a blissfully chaos-free day. 
Lynn
By Lynn, on July 1st, 2010%
It sounds racy, I know, but don’t worry. My new male friend is a praying mantis that has been hanging around the front porch in my spider plant.
I wasn’t really thinking of him as a male until the carpenter man pointed out that he was brown, so he was male, and also that he must be smart because he’s still alive. “Males don’t usually get that big,” the Carpenter Man said, “because the females kill them.”
My fondness of Mr. Praying Mantis grew by leaps and bounds instantly. He’s been such a good friend. He lives faithfully in the spider plant. Sometimes he scares me by not being visible when I look for him, but then when I water the spider plant he comes running out and perches somewhere to look at me like, “Hurry up!” I used to think he was saying “hurry up” and that was all. Now I know he’s saying, “Hurry up, would ya, before some lady praying mantis finds me and kills me!!!”
Who knew.
I’ve been too busy standing and staring to keep refreshed on the fact that male praying mantises are brown and that they don’t live long.
I think it’s time for a bunny update soon. In fact, it’s urgent. I came home from karate class tonight to find the carpenter man looking at me from over his reading glasses.
He proceeded to tell me a long and exciting story about having to catch bunnies from the neighbor’s yard while I was gone. He showed me his bleeding arm.
To be continued…
By admin, on May 24th, 2010%
Yes, it’s that time of year. Creaturetime. My 2-dollar chair from the Restore is planted comfylike near the goldfish pond and my head is half surrounded by a cload of rue when I sit there.
No need to wander around to get pictures. I just turn my head a bit and snap. These pretty wasps are, I believe, black Mason wasps. You don’t see them just everywhere all the time, but there are a host of creatures that come to visit the rue. It’s one reason I keep rue planted throughout the garden.
The paper wasps live in abundance here. In fact, we get them in the house on a regular basis and they can deliver quite the sting. I remember one year when I put my hands on a window to open it and pressed my fingers right down on one of these. I did not even see it. Sting? Yes. I’m not sure who I felt the sorriest for, me or the wasp. The kids, when they were little, used to come screaming downstairs proclaiming there was a waps in their room. Yes, WAPS. It was so cute to hear them say it that way.
The wasps are intently focused on their relationship with the rue. They don’t really pay any attention to me. For me, it’s a beautiful time just watching their behavior right off my shoulder, and then at my feet I have the little goldfish pond. Ahhh simple joys.
Today’s a work day for me and it’s one of those days where I’m not very easily migrating to the work desk. Thankfully, I have the luxury of having a good bit of liberty to choose when I actually sit down there. So I think I’ll enjoy a bit more time out in the garden.
The NC homeschool conference is later this week. I’m looking forward to being there and driving up with a friend or two. This week I’ll be planning out departure times and what workshops I want to hear. Fun stuff.
By admin, on August 9th, 2009%
I see dragonflies in the garden pretty regularly, but they are hard to photograph. They like to land on the very tips of spiky plants and sit, but just you move towards them with the camera and off they fly.
Today, however, I spied a dragonfly that looked like it might stay put. It let me walk closer and closer.
Right-in-your-face close.
It left me at one point and I thought it was gone for good, but it made a big circle over the garden and landed behind me on another plant. Perhaps it wanted to have a photograph with a new backdrop.
Okay.
What big eyes you have!
There were other creatures in the garden as well.
A jumping spider.
And a parsleyworm, the caterpillar stage of the black swallowtail.
In spite of working this weekend, I got a lot done. I’ve done a lot of filing. Michaela’s 5th grade notebook/scrapbook is nearly complete, and I’ll post on that when it’s done. I have just a few more things to glue in. I’m working on filling in her final report card for 5th grade. I’ve got a lot of our 6th grade plans under way, including my reading of Charlotte Mason’s works, printing off the weekly lesson plans for Year 6, and Friday night I ordered over a dozen books, taking my time and finding a few old ones with gorgeous illustrations.
Happy Sunday Evening,
Lynn
By Lynn, on September 29th, 2008%
I was out in the garden today for a relaxing break from all the stuff that goes on INSIDE the house. You know, cleaning, working, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, math, cleaning. Did I say cleaning?
Four times? Okay. 
Anway, high up in a large gardenia bush was this…
Yes, the gardenia bush is large. The praying mantis sits above my eye level. Quite an imposing sight. Praying mantis slowly moved the wasp(?) away from its face to look at me.
Praying Mantis has obviously been eating. I can only imagine the dread this wasp felt when caught. If wasps experience dread, that is.
I think Praying Mantis strikes a very imposing silhouette.
I mean, I would hate to be an insect right now. Wouldn’t you?
Lynn
By Lynn, on July 14th, 2008%
I was thinking of you in the garden today. Yes, you.
I was thinking that one can never have enough thyme…
to stroll in the garden, that is.
Look at the red-banded hairstreak!
and the liatris.
Black-eyed Susan. Summer makes bright colors!
Maybe more of crepe myrtle’s snow will cool things down.
Look at the insects hanging out underneath the Achillea bloom. Can you see them?
Top floor, please.
This Mason wasp (Mon0bia quadridens) knows what it likes.
A beautiful creature.
Can you get any bluer than this?
Anyway, we’re not blue, because we’ve had thyme in the garden today. :)
Lynn
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About Lynn
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.
For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool. The Players
Lil Ol' Me
Son Daniel, 23
Son, Big Joe, 20
Son, John, 17
Daughter, Michaela, 13
Annie Fatso Beagle
My Symphony
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Contact Me 
I would  for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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