A Rose

 A rose beautiful
even in decline may it
be so with you and me

wedding flowers two weeks later

Claire and Nathan get married

I have just a few pictures from a beautiful afternoon in early October.  Claire Matzek and Nathan Janes wedding.  More at https://photos.app.goo.gl/LLzbJUsZ5m5MC42t7

 

Ragtag Remnants

October 16, 2026

Some of the summer garden is still hanging on in mid-October.  These ragtag remnants of produce will add to several meals this week.  I was quite surprised to find green beans on the vines that I had left for dead several weeks ago.  I was not surprised to find some okra and bell peppers as these are late summer producers.  With no frost yet, there are still a few tomatoes on the vines.  Sweet potatoes are still in the ground and will be dug after the first frost.  I planted mustard greens and collard greens which have grown nicely with recent rains.  However, the bugs are loving the mustard.  Marigolds have overtaken everywhere and they are beautiful in the fall.

Ragtag Remnants of Summer

Okra blossom

Green beans

Leaf-footed bugs have plagued my tomatoes

Green tomatoes holding on

Beautiful collard greens

Buggy mustard greens

Okra taller than me

A few bell peppers, more to come

Bees are working the marigolds

 

End of August - Bountiful but not Beautiful

The end is coming.  The August garden is not a beautiful sight.  The weeds and grass are taking over some areas. Summer plants that have given their all are fading and need to be removed.  But the garden is not through giving yet.  This week's harvest was again bountiful.  

The bush beans are done, but the pole beans are producing prolifically.  I've already canned more than I have in years and there are more to come.  Tomatoes are slowing down, except for the little Juliets which will probably keep going until front.  They seem less susceptible to the blights that consume the other tomatoes.  Okra is coming into its own.  Fried okra may not be the healthiest, but it is the best by far. I can't believe I still found a few little cucumbers.  They don't usually last this long.

If the weather and my busy schedule will just break a little, I can pull out the bush beans and plant fall greens.  There is still time.

Last evening was cool enough to sit out on the deck after supper.  Hummingbirds fought one another to protect their feeding rights. A flock of birds (unknown) flew over. Peace descended as the did the sun.

A chittering flock flying low
toward the southeast.

Do they speak of 
the end of summer?

Are they bound
for some later holiday?

Do they know the beauty
of this late August evening?

Do they dream
of tropical shore when they rest at night?

A Gracious Plenty

Last Friday I had to bring the car over to take my garden havest back to the house. I hadn't been out to pick in 9 days. When I put it out on the counter for a picture, I thought of Mammaw's words, "a gracious plenty." My harvest was more than enough, and more work to be done.

Mammaw (Emily Farrar Westmoreland) used the phrase often. I remember her using it to mean abundance, as I was thinking, and also to mean enough, even in the face of scarcity. She would say it when it seemed that there might not be enough to go around as her affirmation of "make do."

Mammaw was born in 1902 to a respectable but not well-off family - John Andrew and Nellie Farrar and big-brother Travis. Four more siblings would follow. When she was still a young teen, the family left their hill-country farm in Montgomery County, Mississippi and moved to Sunflower County, no doubt seeking greater prosperity in the rich farmland of the Delta.  Her father and older brother farmed and later were merchant/businessmen.  There was always "enough" though the family never found the riches they hoped for. 

By the time the Great Depression descended, Emily was married to Clark Westmoreland and a young mother of one daughter, my mother Clara Nelle (born Aug 2. 1929).  Emily's concept of "a gracious plenty" carried her famiy through the depression and stayed with her throughout her life. It is but one of the many legacies she left to her daughter and grandchildren.

A Gracious Plenty

A Garden Feast

The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get

The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.  I have always attributed this saying to Pogo, but evidence does not support that.  It does express my busy summer.  With many people-centered activities, time for reflection has been minimal.  And I'm not good at reflection in afternoon or evening. I'm more of a morning thinker.  I will begin a few posts representing some summer catch-up of photos and activities and will date them as they happened.

My last post was a waterfall trip Bill and I took in February to Middle Tennessee.

August 7

Swallotail on a Sunflower

Pole beans are finally coming in

the Goldfinch blends in perfectly

July 2026

July 31 - We Voted!

July with the Whitaker Kids - 

David and Trisha brought the kids to us on July 21 and the next day they took our Kia to Orlando to close the Summer Project.  We had a busy time and I didn't take very many pictures.  On Wednesday, Allison, Evangeline and John went with me to our Kids Summer Lunch at Trinity.  No other kids there, but we all had a good time.  On Thursday we went to the Jellystone Resort Water Park at the Loudon exit, tickets courtesy of Laura. On Friday, again thanks to Laura, I took them to the Regal Cinema to see Minions and Monsters, which was fun all around. Saturday, minus Owen, they went with me to Trinity for the morning legal clinic. They played in the children's room and seemed to enjoy it.  Sunday, we went to Trinity again, where Pam K had fun activities for them. There were actually other children there to interact with.  Sunday afternoon, we went to the Matzeks to play. (They were gone to Colorada to bring Amanda home.) Monday and Tuesday we played at home and did some water color paint by number. David & Trisha got back Tuesday afternoon and they all left on Wednesday.  Whew! What a great week of fun!

S'mores on the grill

S'more fun!

Jellystone pool

Water park fun

Generations competing

John lost a tooth!

July Garden Pictures