Happy Mother's Day

Every year my family works on my front flower garden, rearranging plants, planting annuals and generally setting up my garden for a new year of beauty.  This tradition has brought me years of joy as every time I go out and come back home; I am greeted by beauty that my family has created for me.

I have been missing from the web for several months now due at first from problems with our Internet provider, which took several months to even get them to realize that we really did have a problem.  They kept telling us every thing was fine.  We kept after them and finally got a tech who found a problem, fixed it, sort of, but we continued to have various problems.  After being a squeaky wheel for weeks on end and several different techs later we now have a temporary fix.  The Internet is now fairly stable, but it is still on a temporary basis. (Roll of eyes)

  

Anyway I decided to come back to the web today despite the temporary nature of our fix to share with you the beauty that greets me as I return home.

Hopefully this will be a good welcome back to the web as I greet you with the beauty that greets me daily and continue to share with you the beauty which part of my life.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺



Christmas Georgia Style



Christmas Georgia Style

What a beautiful day we had today; sunny and almost 70 degrees.   All the photos in this post were taken today with bare trees, flowers, green grass and Christmas decorations.

Flowering bushes and Christmas decorations



One of the nice things about living in Georgia is we have some kind of flowers blooming all year round

December roses greeting Hospital visitors

Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Carlyn's flower stickers

Carlyn of Crafting with style has gotten back to me and chose the theme of flowers for the 2nd set of stickers she won.  I tried to choose a variety of flowers both from my garden and some wild ones.  There is even one taken at night using shutter speed to take the photo instead of a flash.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Morning Glories

A good garden may have some weeds”

Thomas Fuller quotes (British Clergyman and Writer, one of the most prolific authors of the 17th century. 1608-1661) Sometimes there is a fine line between flowers and weeds and sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.  Some of my herb plants look like weeds but they are wonderful smelling and tasting and add so much pleasure to the other senses.  Some weeds are beautiful and add vibrance to the landscape, but choke out the useful plants. Even though these Morning Glories are really pretty flowers they are none the less a weed here in Georgia.  They are so invasive that they will choke out all other plants, useful or not. As you can see from this photo of my veggie garden the Morning Glories have indeed taken over.  This picture is simply the same picture as the one at the beginning of this post just taken from a different angle where the weediest shows. I was just going to post the top photo with a short quote on flowers and weeds, but in seeing these two pictures and remembering why I started this blog in the first place I expanded this post to use my photos as a way to show about my survival of all the things that I have been through, both the abuse of my younger years and the struggles with health problems of my more recent years.  As a way of expressing what it means to me, what I've learned and how I've learned to see the beauty in spite of the struggles. Growing up in my household meant living with the unwritten rule of 'Make it look good to the world'.  Much like the  top photo only the good was to be seen.  It was incredibly hard work and those who knew me as a child never knew of the abuse that went on behind closed doors and most still don't know unless they read this post of course. Then there is the second picture that was just taken from a different angle that shows how this beautiful covering is in reality strangling and taking over the garden.  That beautiful covering that masked the problems and kept me from growing, being productive and getting the sunshine, the help, I so desperately needed. In spite of the struggles I have learned to see the beauty of the things that I learned, the strength that I have gained and the gratitude for being alive. Since I got a late start on my garden; I have planted some Morning Glories on purpose in my front garden because they are pretty and fast growing and will cover my trellis quickly.  I was cautious when I planted them, planting them in a pot and setting it on plastic.  I have indeed conquered the weed; tamed it using what I have learned and am enjoying the beauty that it can provide.    Enjoy ☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺ PS please remember the giveaway and check it out and enter.

Diversity

I saw this Quote in a doctor's exam room.  He has a different inspirational Quote framed in each of his exam rooms.  This little touch to the exam rooms makes for a more relaxed atmoshere.  I like it, great idea.   I put this quote with a bouquet of flowers because the beauty of the bouquet is in it's diversity

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Welcome Home

I'm feeling much better now.  However I am trying to catch up on what was left undone while I was not up to doing much.  This seems to be a constant theme of my life.  I am on an upward spiral this time not a downward one, so I am recuperating faster and getting more done when I do feel better.  Hooray! Hooray!  Right now I am also researching how to do more to improve my health.  The better I feel the more I can do to make myself feel even better so now I am deciding on my next step.  Since my herbal teas seem to be helping so much I am researching herbs and what they help with.  I am trying to find a good reference book on how to use and maybe grow the herbs.  I've been checking books out of the library in hopes of finding one without spending a lot of money on books that may not fit my needs.  If anyone knows of a good book or a good blog on herbs and natural healing I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment or e-mail me (see Hi this is me page above)
Since I was feeling better I edited some of the front door gardens and mailboxes that welcome home the people in my neighborhood.  I love my front door garden and the colorful, cheerful greetings they give to me and have started to notice those around me and take photos of them.  These pictures were taken just a few days ago as I walked around my neighborhood.

                            ENJOY ☺☺☺ Johnina☺☺☺

Relief



Jack Benny rose and spider guest
On a rainy day



Jack Benny rose and spider guest
On a rainy day
Art edit

 It was drizzling outside but it had also cooled things off a great deal. What a relief! Just standing outside a couple of days ago would make the sweat drip down my back; I'm still getting wet outside but it feels so cool and refreshing.



Blanketflower in the rain




Blanketflower in the rain
In the star lit sky
Art Edit

 I still can't go out in the garden and work so I am practicing with picnik.com and having quite the good time. Some people might complain that today is cold and dreary but I think it is absolutely wonderful, cool and refreshing; a relief from the heat. You just have to know how to make it fun. I took some delightful water dropped photos then came in and played with them.


Leaves in the rain



Leaves in rain
Art edit



Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Cheer up

I haven't felt good for a couple of days now so I decided to post some photos of my flower garden to cheer me up.  I hope you enjoy them too.

Blanketflower Dazzler

Black-eyed Susan



English Daisy, Purple Coneflower, Jack Benny Rose



Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Wild Georgia

Have a Plum delicious day ☺

It still amazes me that so many plants grow wild here.  These plums are wild plums from my neighbors front yard.  I'm still surprised when I see plants for sale in catalogs sometimes for quite a price when here they are almost weeds and will sometimes take over others plants. They do make for beautiful landscapes when they are in bloom or delicious when they produce fruit.

Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Greetings from my garden

Good Morning

 Enjoy your day

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Early Spring Garden

 

An all new assortment of flowers from my garden.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina ☺☺☺

Pleasures of living in Georgia

My life has kind of gotten in the way of my blogging.  Sunday was actually kind of wonderful.  I got to go to church, counsel with my bishop to get my head back on straight, and spend the rest of the day with my family setting wedding plans.  Just one of those pleasant days. Until.... late that night and Felicity started throwing up what she ate the night before. OH YUK!!  That wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't continued till noon Monday.  They say having a dog is like having a 2 year old and that's what it felt like.  Sleeping lightly listening for her. Getting up when I heard her, cleaning up, checking her to see if she was still hydrated.  Like most 2 year olds it's the mommy who gets to do this but unlike most 2 year olds Felicity weighs 100#.  We've had dogs with stomach problems (Akita's are notorious for it) for so long our family cookbook has a recipe in it called Dog Soup and when those outside our family see it they think it is a joke, but it is not it is what we feed our dogs when they get sick. Anyway I am no longer a young mother so the rest of Monday was shot,  I was one tired Grammie.  Tuesday I had cataract surgery, for a secondary cataract which is only a short office surgery, but still requires some recoup time.  Wow Wednesday I got up and what a difference the surgery made, everything was so much more detailed.

On the way to the pharmacy I was reminded of one of the many pleasures of living in Georgia.  I quite often make fun of living in Georgia and having a sense of humor does help no matter where you live as each place has it's own idiosyncrasies.  Every place also has it's own pleasures.  In Georgia being a temperate rain forest there are flowers and trees everywhere.  There are wild spaces and some surprising cultivated spaces.  I take an alley to the pharmacy and the back doors to the stores are landscaped.  There is even a couple of small parks and sitting areas right there on the alley.  All the photos today are from that alley yesterday.  Parking lots tend to be landscaped also.  Almost everywhere you go in Georgia there are flowers, trees, birds, and little critters.  And gardeners abound.  There are garden tours and shows.  Georgia is a beautiful place to live.

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina ☺☺☺

Signs of spring- mating calls

Many of my spring pictures look peaceful and quiet.  But this is only an illusion because I mostly just take photos of flowers.  The reality of my early mornings are that they are very noisy.  We have many kinds of birds in our yard and the nearby woods, bluebirds, robins, sparrows, cardinals, mockingbirds, crows, blackbirds, vultures, hawks, geese and we used to have whip-o-wills and bob whites.  All in all they add up to a lot of noise especially this time of year as they start their mating calls.  We also have an animal rehab place nearby and shortly we will hear the lions with their mating calls.

All my spring photos have been taken within a couple of days of posting.  These were taken yesterday.

ENJOY

☺☺☺JOHNINA☺☺☺

Signs of spring

Signs of Spring

I think the photos speak for themselves.  All these pictures were taken in the last three days and provide a preview of more beauty yet to come.

ENJOY

JOHNINA ☺☺☺☺☺

Autumn Colors

Blanketflower art-edit

Splashes of color 17

Splashes of color 19

Splashes of color 18- Art edit

Autumn wildflower 1

At this time of year everyday brings a change of colors.  The leaves change slowly down here and this year it seems to be slower than usual.  One day you wake to a completely green tree, then maybe a day or two later that tree may have just a couple of colored leaves, then maybe a couple of clumps a few days later and then days later a tree in fall color, looking the way it should.  In the meantime another tree is doing the same thing but on a different schedule.  Added to that is the fall flowers that are currently blooming.  It is really quite pretty even if the colors are not coming out as they normally do.  I have not been able to get traditional autumn landscapes so I have concentrated on the colorful leaves, especially those that are sunlit. I have also taken the pictures and turned them into art-edits so that I have more than just leaf photos.  Enjoy some of the colors of autumn from Georgia.


Johnina :^A