Our Memorial Day Adventure

I'm in the house with a mosquito buzzing around me - because of the torrential rainfall and flooding yesterday - but we missed it all because of an overly curious dog.

First of all I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. "Thank you!" to all of the men and women who have served our country.

We decided to go up Thursday night so we could wake up Friday morning at the farm. It was a wonderful way to start the weekend off.

I noticed this right away - smothered in blooms and smells just heavenly!

Gardenia bush in full bloom

I picked a bouquet and brought it inside to enjoy:

We had pretty nice weather - cloudy with the sun peeking out, showers in the afternoon but nothing to mess up the day. We went into town to the farmer's market for fresh produce,

got a flag to hang at the end of the driveway,  and took care of some other things that needed to be done.

Bruce also got my fountain running. It's wonderful to have it going - I love the sound of the water spilling into the basin:

We had supper over at the vineyard next door. Always fun to go visit with the neighbors. :o)

Saturday was a perfect day. Sunshine and warm. Lots of different flowers blooming and everything is nice and green.

Cardinal climber

 I saw a patch of pink in the field and went to investigate. This is what I found:

sensitive briar

The blueberries continue to get bigger and bigger:

The dogs had fun swimming in the almost full pond, Bruce worked on the barn roof patching holes, and I picked some remaining dewberries. Yes! I have enough to make a pie!

I changed up the flower arrangements in the guest room. These pull in the colors from the new chair:

and added this cute bird:

Sunday was mostly a lazy day as it rained on and off. We did stop by Lowe's after church to pick up the last things Bruce needed to finish the barn roof and later I changed up my chalkboard canvas and  a few things in the living room decor:

Canvas

This toy tractor was Bruce's. I rescued it from his mom's house. :o)

Monday, we decided to leave before noon, hoping to miss the heavy rain that was predicted and some traffic. And that's when the dog got in trouble.

As we were gathering things up, I heard a yelp, went outside to see what was wrong, and saw Herbie (the brown and white border collie) frantically rubbing his nose on the grass. I figured he got stung and went to look in the spot they'd been digging in.

Trouble at base of tree in clump of irises

I didn't see anything in the leaves and dirt. I was worried because I could tell Herbie didn't feel good and his face was starting to swell. So Bruce got the rake and started poking around...yikes! He found a copperhead snake! I'm glad I didn't reach down to move the leaves around! I got the dogs away so Bruce could take care of kill it then ran inside to call the vet.

They told us to bring Herbie in so we got the dogs in the truck and sped off; Herbie definitely wasn't feeling good and the left side of his face was getting bigger. They didn't rush us back - we had to wait our turn - but finally the vet looked him over, gave him some shots and pills, and told us Herbie would be fine. Seems copperhead bites are common and most dogs do fine - the biggest issue being the airway swelling shut.Wow, I thought it would be a bigger deal. Maybe I've seen too many TV shows? I really thought he'd end up on IV's and be really sick.

Even so, we decided to wait until Tuesday morning to head back. We wanted Herbie to rest and be able to take him back to the vet if it was necessary. Turned out to be a good thing because major storms rolled through back at home and roads flooded.

Here's all the water at the end of our street rushing to the creek (Pictures courtesy of my sister):

The creek over the road:

We would have driven right into those storms had we left when we intended. Scary. Never thought I'd be thankful for a snakebite!

Tuesday morning was calm with blue skies peeking through the clouds and while a little tired, Mr. Herbie is otherwise fine and back to normal.

No swelling and looking sweet

We made it home safely and fortunately, we had no damage in our house from the storms. Just the darned mosquitos buzzing around. I think I can handle that!

If you made it all the way through that, hurray! I realize I was kind of all over the place but I had a lot to say. heh. On our way home, every body of water we saw whether pond, creek, or river, was overflowing it's banks. Some where incredibly over. The amount of water was just astounding. We were fortunate but I know there are others who were not and their homes are flooded. Please pray for all affected. Thank you.

Hugs,
Cecilia

New Art Opportunity

I've excited to share my new art opportunity!

Have you heard of the Painting parties - you know, the ones where you bring your own beverage (usually wine) and you get to do a fun painting?

Well, our neighbor at the farm with the vineyard asked if I'd be willing to do a class in the vineyard. Oh fun! Of course!

I told my art instructor about it and there's the possibility of me teaching them at the art school for Ladies Night.

And then I had friends ask if I'd come to their homes and do a party there. Sure! Have party supplies, will travel. :-)

I've been a busy bee gathering supplies and coming up with the paintings.

I'm having a blast! My friend, Cindy, fixed up my apron for me along with this cute towel.

Bruce helped me put all my easels together.

A table full of easels

And I have my first official booking! Thank you, Denise! We're going to paint my "Vino" painting.

I'm waiting to hear back on when the vineyard party will be offered. Have to work around the weddings and other events.

I don't know where this will take me but it's going to be a fun ride! I'm hoping it turns into a business for my art studio at the farm. But the best thing about it? I get to share my love of painting with others.

:o) Cecilia

Mother's Day Review

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! I know I did.

I got to spend most of the weekend at the farm. That's always a good thing. But this time, we had extra fun as my mother-in-law, Bonnie, and Bruce's oldest brother, Barry, came up too.

We spent Saturday relaxing and enjoying each others company.

Bruce and Bonnie 

Bruce and Barry shot guns and worked on a small project venting the water heater properly. It's good to have that done. The previous safety vent was too small so they made it bigger. Whew.

Bonnie and I enjoyed the beautiful day, sitting on the back porch, walking around looking at everything and picking the first dew berries. We got a good start for a pie! :o)

Sunday, Bruce and Barry took us over to Sabor a Pasion for brunch. Yum! Simon always makes the best food! Bonnie enjoyed getting to meet him and try out his food. She said she'd never had a breakfast that looked so pretty or tasted so good.

Simon and Bonnie

Of course, I made the guys have their picture taken with their mother:

After some cutting up, I got a good picture of the three of them.

Barry, Bonnie, and Bruce 

Then I had Bruce take my picture with her:

She's a special lady and I'm so blessed to have her as my mother-in-law. I'm so thankful for her.

We headed home after brunch as Jay and Megan were making me a special Mother's Day supper. I should of taken pictures of it and them but I was too busy being pampered to remember to do so. It was so good and I loved spending the time with my kids. They really know how to spoil me!

As the night came to a close, I sent love to my mom in heaven. Still miss her even after 13 years.

Thank you, Mom, for the love you showered on us. I look forward to seeing you again someday. You are very much missed.
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On another note, we've been getting a crazy amount of rain. I'm not complaining after the drought we've been in the last several years. We fortunately missed the tornados and flooding other parts of the state got. Spring weather can be scary sometimes.

I hope all is well with you.

Let's Play Catch Up

Hello, friends! I've realized I've been a very bad blogger lately, not posting much. I've been working on an exciting opportunity that involves painting and teaching a fun class so I've been working on getting everything together. It takes a lot of time to come up with the ideas and then painting the examples but it's been so much fun!

Sooo, let me catch you up to what I have done in the past several weeks. First of all, I rearranged the living room. (I did this the end of February so excuse the wintery decor). We brought the other red chair up and I needed to move things around to make it fit. Plus, I finally relented and let Bruce bring a small tv up so we could watch movies in the evening.

Before:

Couch along wall, red chair on other side of fireplace (not shown).

After:

Moved the couch in front of the window and chairs on either side of the fireplace.

Although none of these pictures show the tv, it sits on the table where the horse head is sitting.

Then we decided to move the woodpile that has been in the backyard since we bought the place. It  wasn't in a good place and since Bruce had started a new pile over by the shop, he just loaded it up one loader full at a time and dumped it over by the new pile.

After it was all stacked up, we have a nice big woodpile:


The hay rake is a new addition. Now all we need is a baler!

I took a large candle lantern and turned it into a terrarium/gnome garden.

It stays moist enough to survive even though I'm not there all the time to tend to it. I want to add a few more accessories to make my gnome a pretty home. :o)

I also finished painting the other bench. It is sitting on the back porch for now but eventually I want it up next to the art studio.

And our three blueberry bushes have quite a few berries on them, growing good and getting bigger. We should be able to pick them in June!

I also redid my dining room wall. I found the tin cafe sign in Canton last month and wanted to put it in the middle of all the plaques and pictures. Plus, I wanted my coffee pictures on that wall, too, where they could be easily seen.

More of my finds at Canton include these flip flops - Yellow Box shoes. Everyone has been telling me how comfortable they are and boy are they right! I love these!

And my best find besides the buffet for the bathroom is this little tractor. When we were in Virginia last Fall, I found one for around $200. A perfectly rusty pedal tractor. We just can't find them that cheap here. I was sad I had no easy way to get it home and told Bruce how much I wanted one. Told him they were around $400 here. So imagine my joy at finding this one for $80! It needs a seat (found the perfect solution which I'll share soon) and it's missing its pedals but I managed to talk the lady down to $60. Whoop!! As I merely wanted it for decoration, those are not biggies. I'm very pleased and happy with it. Isn't it cute?


Lastly, we moved my fountain up here and placed it in the front flowerbed. We just need to get the pump hooked up and running. Love how it makes the bed look more civilized. ha. The whole look of it will change as the plants grow and take over.

I think that's it for now. If you've stuck around this long, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and getting caught up on all the happenings here at Heartwood. See you soon!

Hugs,
Cecilia