After the Rain

Just some pretty things I saw yesterday morning.

Let's see who gets to eat this strawberry first, me or the birds.

This clematis always makes me happy. It's so enthusiastic. I'm not sure where I bought it or how long I've had it, but it's one of my favorites.

The iris is not pretty yet, but it didn't bloom last year, so I'm happy to see it.

I never knew a pyracantha could be so pretty in the spring. I wanted one for the berries in the winter, but I think I like this pretty well.

A nice surprise yesterday afternoon was a visit from my friend Karen from NY. She and her friend Bob were in town and came by for awhile and brought me this.

I've had her homemade strawberry jam before, and I can't wait to have some of this. She obviously grows more than 2 strawberries at a time like I do. Here are some pictures I took when I visited her there, including the guest house that she's promised to let us stay in if we ever get back up there.

A church in Connecticut, I believe, not far from Karen's home. I wish I could remember the names of the towns we went through.

This is the view of part of Karen's "yard" looking from the house.

More beautiful scenery. It takes my breath away. I've always loved mountains. She'll have to remind me which ones these are.

The famous guest house. I love it. I'll need to have another rooster though if I stay for awhile.

Karen's house. I could just sit on the patio and enjoy the scenery and the company forever - at least up until October. I've seen that driveway that has to be plowed after it snows. It's loooong.

I have more pictures of that trip I'll find later when I have more time. She did remind me of the exploding apple cider story that I'll go into when I have more time. I didn't have to be reminded; I see the evidence of it daily in my car and maybe sometimes even the pleasant odor of fermented apples. There were more adventures we had during that week too, not all of which can be shared. Like that exciting drive down (up) the Taconic Parkway in the rain with my having no idea where I was going. Ah - rain and strange toll booths - one of my pleasanter memories - of which Karen was blissfully unaware.

Cuteness

Elise was worried that anyone who saw the clown pictures from a few days ago would think she really looked like that all the time, so I promised her cuteness, and here it is. I hope she agrees with what my favorites are.


Sweet baby. With her hand-me-down mobile and hand-me-down crib but her own lacy socks and pink dress, humoring yet another dress-up session, and behind her "Lisey's Lamb," also her very own. I notice no crib bumpers or coordinated bedding like is necessary now. I guess they just had to bump their heads. You can tell who took what pictures. This was about the time Mike got interested into photography and did some beautiful work. The off-center snapshots are the ones I took. This was the year she was a mascot for Gray's little football team - the Wams (before speech therapy with Mrs. Newman). By the way, I made that outfit. It was not easy. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I had ever tried to do. The skirt had little pleats all around, and I agonized over it for days. A good thing is that those are press-on letters and didn't have to be cut out and appliqued. She also had her name in press-on letters on the seat of her pants. No picture of that though. One of many cat-holding, cat-squeezing, cat-loving, cat-torturing pictures that we have of Elise. Probably the only one of her sitting on a pumpkin though. Sam the Cat, brought in a box from N. Georgia by the same friend I made the fisherman knit sweater for. Long-suffering Sam.

  I don't know who this pinched-face little beauty was - one of many in the parade of cats and dogs through the Monroe Street years. I'm thinking Daisy, but that's probably not right. No animals were more loved than they were in her arms - loved half to death, it looks like.

I remember thinking as she left to sell Girl Scout cookies that day that it would be hard to resist buying cookies when that face looked up at you with the front teeth missing. And anyone who sees that wallpaper and lived in that house is bound to get a lump in his throat. Those were the days. I have no taste now and didn't then, but we thought it was so pretty.

This is one of Mike's masterpieces. He was/is quite a photographer, and one day he's going to have time to get back into it. He would take the girls and their friends and the neighbor's children to various parks, put them in trees and roll them down hills, and take the most beautiful pictures. I have many more like this, but my time has run out. I don't think anyone could think this was not a beautiful child. And still is.

Beautiful Easter Morning

Although a little bit chilly. My cell phone rang at 6:45 this morning from the kitchen. I barely heard it, and by the time I got there, there was only 1 Missed Call showing with "no number." I figured anyone who knew me would call the home phone. But it got me up earlier than usual to enjoy a little of the morning.

The wind at the end of the week was wonderful. I tried to sit outside one day, but I was afraid of being hit by a flying object. I noticed that the grill cover had blown off and was on the other side of the yard against the fence. I would have liked to have seen the animals' reactions to that! Darby probably thought she had a real interloper instead of the pretend ones she's always barking at. These were taken on Friday I think when everyone was enjoying the breeze. The grass clipping line on the fence is how high the water was at one time. Such a swamp in that area.
Sheepy is never far from her side. I put it in a tree yesterday to tease her, and she went crazy. I think if I had gone into the house, she would have climbed the tree to rescue it. At night when I let her in, she won't come in until she's gone and searched for it and brought it in. It amazes me the attachment animals get for things. And surprisingly she has not tried to chew the ears off this one or eviscerate it like some of the others - kind of like this one-eyed, three-legged frog that Stella is lying beside. She wouldn't look at me, so I stood over her and made her give me one of her withering looks.

Even Miss No-Nonsense Maddy got into the spirit of things and chased a tennis ball, although she would never admit it.

  Yesterday's breeze was perfect for clipping threads off the back of the quilt. They would blow away as soon as I clipped, but the only problem was that the quilt squares tended to want to blow away too.

I worked hard this weekend and have made some progress on the little quilt. I wanted to wait until I completed all 64 squares before I started sewing them together, but I just couldn't wait to see how it looked (AND, more importantly, if it would work). I'm glad I did. One was a teeny bit off - maybe an eighth of an inch - but I don't think it will matter, or I may go back and correct it. The picture below shows how placing them in a particular order will make a pattern.I think I'm going to be glad I tackled this. One thing that has helped is moving my iron to right beside the machine, so that every time I sew one of those 17 strips on each square, I don't have to get up and go across the room and press it out. That was discouraging and kind of made me dread working on it.

It's about time to get ready for church. One day I'd like to go to a sunrise service, but I haven't gone to one here yet. There will be Easter music this morning, and if it's like last year, it will be wonderful. We have a small church and small choir, but there are some good voices there, and a few have shown they can play instruments also, and that's not even including our pianist. I look forward to hearing her little mini-concert after the offering every Sunday.

Oh, speaking of windy days, Mike says we haven't experienced winds until we've experienced West Texas 55 mph SUSTAINED winds and tumbleweeds as big as Volkswagens. I'm still waiting for a picture or for Elise to back it up. And she's waiting for me to post some cute baby pictures of her to make up for the clown ones that she didn't know were going to be there when she told her boyfriend to "check out Mom's blog." Be patient, Elise. I have bunches of pictures to prove you were cute.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Homemade Shoes

Sorry, but I can't claim these. I had an email today about Etsy, probably because I ordered something from a seller, and I clicked the link and found these amazing shoes. Amazing because they're cute but more amazing because they are completely hand made - to order. So you don't have to be wealthy to have your shoes made for you.

The web site is called Hydraheart's Shop. I guess it's okay for me to do this.

I have been hearing that term Etsy for quite a while and just never paid much attention, but it's really the neatest thing. You can sell things to the public - a vast public - as you make them. It's really nice for people who don't want to keep an inventory. I believe it's pretty much handmade things and craft supplies and such. But buying is the fun part. I could go there and just spend half a day looking at and being amazed at the talent represented here. (Ask me how I know) In fact if you search for shoes, there are 103 different pairs. I'm especially taken with these little beauties. If I ever have grandchildren, their parents are going to hide them from me!

I really, really do need another thing to spend my time on. I have had a whole day without work, and I got absolutely nothing done. I did wash sheets and other laundry and took Mama to the beauty shop and J.C. Penney. It's so hard for me to psych myself up to work on those quilt squares, but I have made a little progress. I had to bribe myself today to get some done. I told myself that if I would sew while the clothes were washing, I could have a cup of coffee and waste time on things like Etsy afterward. It worked pretty well until I happened to look out and see the little cosmos and zinnias that are ready to plant. That was more fun at the time than quilting, so I planted maybe 20 of the hardiest ones. Here's a little progress on the Latte Log Cabin in various stages, some squares completed and others about halfway. I believe there are 72 total ones I have to finish, and then sewing them together the proper way to make a pattern is going to be a little tricky too, but if I get that far, I won't mind that at all. But then that's what I said about this whole project.

I'm trying to think of something to motivate me to go do a few more squares. Maybe another cup of coffee. On second thought, after last night's awakening and hearing breathing under my bed, I'll pass on that other cup. I'm still not sure what it was - no dog snoring in the sunroom because she chose to sleep outside last night, and I know a cat's breathing very well - purring - but it sounded exactly like someone sleeping and breathing deeply - in the same room with me. Mama's bedroom is 2 rooms away, so I can't blame her. I didn't exactly look under the bed to see, but if it could get under that bed, it would be too small to harm me, and it either stopped or I went to sleep. Maybe it was the quilting ghost telling me to rethink my priorities and get to sewing. I guess it worked.

Emily told me last night that she and Ryan have a joint email address for talking about the wedding, but after the things I've sent today, he may have already blocked me. I think he just THOUGHT he wanted to hear about wisteria garlands and tulips and cake stands. I'm hoping to get to go to Atlanta with them next weekend and see the yard and park to get an idea of how far and on what I'm going to have to walk before I pick out what shoes to wear. Things are coming together a bit better now, and it's going to be a really fun evening.

I Miss Spring

Just as we were beginning to get used to the warm breezes and sunshine, this cold wave comes. In January, we would love to have a day like this, but now it just seems cruel. Actually, I think it's probably warmer outside than I think. I just haven't gone out to check. It's been an uneventful 3 days, and if I don't write things down as they happen, it's like they never did happen, and it's all forgotten. How can this be when Mike and I can remember going into a store in Auburn over 40 years ago and buying me not one but 2 pair of shoes for graduation (his - I was just a spectator) and for whatever might happen with our exciting move to an uncharted territory - Georgia. On one hand, it was exciting to me to actually buy something after a full year of "starving student and wife," although I don't think we were ever hungry. And probably the reason he remembers it is that he had to buy 2 pair of shoes. When I was doing a search last week to see if I could find the type of Villager shoes I liked so much then, I noticed that regular women's shoes could be bought for $7.99. I think these would have been more than that and probably seemed like a whole bunch to us at that time. One pair would have surely been enough, but I probably had a hard time deciding. That was more than likely the first of the "Go ahead and get what you want," phrases that he has uttered hundreds if not thousands of times over the years and as late as Monday to the daughter trying to stay in her wedding budget.

Speaking of which, I got an overnight visit from Emily, finally finishing up her clinicals in Warm Springs with much relief and excitement at being so close to her goal. Her car was crammed full of whatever it took to live there for that time (Grandaddy knows exactly how many days it was) - birthday party hats in the back, many, many books piled everywhere, snack bags and water bottles and CDs, and I don't even want to imagine how many loads of dirty clothes that are being washed this afternoon. We talked ourselves into exhaustion about deadlines and park rentals and flowers and knives and more flowers and why lily-of-the-valley is one of the most expensive flowers to have for a wedding bouquet and why that's what she has had her heart set on. I believe we saw on line that a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley that some celebrity carried in her wedding was $600. We were wanting a teeny bit less than that! The whole bouquet thing started out that she would just carry an informal handful of flowers, then she saw lily-of-the valley, and that looked simple, and that got ruled out, and then we ended up looking at hundreds of bouquets until my head was spinning. The consensus again this morning was that it doesn't really matter. It's not a formal wedding, and they'll be dead the next day, and we're back to the simple handful. Oh, and cakes! People spend a LOT on a wedding cake. I know if had to do the decorating, you would need to pay me a lot too, but again it's something that will be gone the next day - if it's good - and that's what the "tastings" are for next weekend - to pick out an affordable, pretty, but mainly good-tasting cake. I do remember that our wedding cake, although beautiful, was not really good.

To get my mind off weddings, I'm going to go back and post various unrelated pictures that I took last week. The one I'm not going to include here is a picture of my neck that I took so I could enlarge and look at a puzzling red spot. Kathy, if you read this, stop right here. It started off like a mosquito bite but kept getting bigger and redder, and I was afraid it was a spider bite. Enlarging it didn't give me any more insight except that I'm more in need of plastic surgery than I thought. I think it's better now, just a dry patch, but I still don't know what caused it.

These are pictures I took on a library visit last week in the rain. I just think this spiral staircase is interesting. I had to be careful not to get the bag lady loitering at the foot of the stairs - or was that a mirror? The big wide steps make it not so painful to get to the second floor.
This is a kind of generic media room, but I love the fact that it's just filled to overflowing with audio tapes, and I still have a tape player! In several towns, I had a hard time finding anything to listen to, so this is a good thing.
They're beginning to get more CDs, enough to give me a little choice, but I think I mentioned before how low they are, and I'm standing on my head or kneeling down to look at them. The last CDs I took back, I had failed to put the last one of the series in the case, and the nice humming lady called and told me. It wasn't in the CD player, and I looked for it for days. Then I happened to open the CD slot or whatever that thing in the computer is called to back up some files, and there it was. Happy day! I think I mentioned something about my memory. The next two are some I took on the way home. The first is just a beautiful building across the street from the library. I'd like to know more about it. There's no sign out front to indicate it's a public building, so I don't know what it is. The last one is an area that I love when I come over the crest of a hill and start down. The Regions Bank building is the tall one and the capital and all those building are toward my left (somewhere). Again, I'd like to take a tour one day.
It seems like there's more and naturally more that I have to say, but the afternoon is gone, and I have to start back to work.

Cruelty to Plants, Animals, and Children

The plant and animal cruelty happened this morning and the children over several Halloweens in the 70s and 80s.

I think even I have had enough rain and would like to see a little sunshine, but according to the weather reports, there may be one more storm, although I don't see a thing on the satellite map. I woke up this morning early to rumbling thunder and went back to sleep. Finally as it got a little louder and the lightning was flashing, I remembered two things: One, that I had left Darby outside last night because she asked to go out, and I just forgot her. She has a doghouse near the back door that gives her shelter but doesn't protect her from the noise of the thunder, so I knew just where she would be. There is a French door from the sunroom to the back yard, and I could see her little black silhouette as close to the glass as she could get. Was she ever happy to get inside. The cats didn't give going outside a second though last night, so they were snug in their cat sleeping places.

I didn't hear Mama up keeping watch with her clothes on, so I figured it must not be bad enough to stay awake, and I had almost dozed off when I remembered another thing. I had left my flat of seedlings outside - not just outside but in a place where the runoff from the roof would destroy them. Bad sinking feeling after all the trouble I had gone to on their behalf, taking them in at night and giving them a sunny spot during the day. But I had to try to save them, so I opened the side door, and a wall of water greeted me plus constant lightning and big peals of thunder. I could reach them in about 3 steps, and I debated a long time, but finally I just ran and got them. The water from the roof poured down the back of my neck - not a happy feeling - not to mention feeling like I was going to get struck by lightning. Here they are and not too much traumatized.

They've already forgiven me and perked up during the day. I also planted 2 more flats of zinnias. I'll be sorry when it's time to plant them outside. I already tried one cosmos out back near the new daisies, and it seemed to weather the storm just fine.
The little cosmos is near the little piece of fence that I have to put there to keep dogs and cats from lying there until I get more plants. The rosemary and oregano would like to take over, but I want something a little more colorful there. These daisies I noticed at Wal-Mart Friday, and they look pretty healthy. I might have to go get more.

This is not a trench I dug to keep the rain away but the animal path. It's funny how they can wear a path that deep as soft as their paws are, but they hardly ever venture far from it. It goes from the back door to the storage shed which they like to get under and the side fence which the cats like to climb and sit on top of and which Darby would like to be able to. At the very top of the pictures is my chopped down ginkgo tree.

Okay, now for the cruelty to children and the clown outfit. This costume got made one day (or days) in October of 1973 when I was about 8-1/2 months pregnant. I take leave of my senses like that sometimes for no reason, but I think this was because Gray at 22 months had been invited to a neighborhood Halloween party. And wanting to make sure he was the cutest child there for the 10 minutes he would stay at the party must have been pretty important to me. I should have been more concerned with getting to the party myself. At that point, it seemed easier to walk the half a block than to try to fit myself into the bucket seat of the Vega. So the 3 of us walked up the street, and I think we ended up having a good time - briefly, I'm sure. Here's the cutest child at the party, looking not at all enthralled with it. I think it was the hat.


Here he's warming up to it and thinking he does look pretty cute.

Now, never one to let a costume go unused - and also having just moved and having a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old and no time for anything remotely resembling sewing, Elise had a perfect outfit for her third birthday party. Coming the week before Halloween, we had everyone wear costumes and trick-or-treat on our street (neighbors warned ahead of time). I hate that these pictures are so bad, but this is the birthday girl helping herself to her 20th handful of candy corn.


And after the party, time for a nap and to retire the clown costume.

But not quite. There was still one more to go, and this one looks like she agreed to wear the thing but under her terms - no hat and permission to use the ruffle as a make-up remover.




It's still in the attic for any unsuspecting grandchildren who might one day want to be a clown. Makes me want some candy corn.

Wedding Dress and Clown Suit

I've seen some wedding gowns that fit both descriptions, but these are 2 very separate outfits.

When our parents got married in 1945, neither of them took wedding pictures on the actual wedding day. Emily wants to use family wedding pictures at her reception, so we've managed to get pictures of both couples that year, just not on that day. Mama got married in a navy crepe (?) dress, and I was sure I had seen a picture of her in it, but she says she doesn't remember one. When I was looking through pictures to send Bobby of his parents, I found one of my Aunt Mildred and Uncle Radney with her wearing the dress. And holding guess who? This was in 1946, and their little boy wouldn't be born for another 3 years. I'm not even sure they were married at this time, probably not. Anyway, they were a nice looking couple with her red hair and his good looks, and she shows off the dress nicely. Not a bad-looking baby either.

Then exactly 50 years after this dress was worn as a wedding dress, my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary. During the planning at some point, Mama got out this dress, which I had seen off and on through the years. Emily took one look at it, and fell in love with it. When she tried it on, it was a perfect fit, so she wore it to the anniversary party. This is Emily in 1995 at age 18 with my niece Robin - who is getting married herself next year.

It was quite a conversation piece at the party, and it's in surprisingly good shape.
I just wish I knew how to edit photographs and make the color better.
I'm kind of too tired to scan all the clown pictures tonight, but I'll do them tomorrow. We have an incentive at work plus overtime, so I'm working a little extra today. I heard a funny thing from a doctor today - it wasn't that funny at the time, just exasperating - but now I find it amusing. I pretty much enjoy ESL doctors as long as they don't speak too fast, and the one I was typing today, a Hispanic doctor, was taking great pains to be clear. He tried almost too hard. On a wart removal (these are clinic notes), I heard "reduced the wart with a ficey lemon scalpel." Hmm. I've learned never to doubt the names medical terms and equipment are given, so I did a Google search for just that ficey lemon scalpel. I won't mention the connections I found between lemons and scalpels but nothing that would work. I tried fisylemon, plain old lemon scalpel, wart-reduced-with, wart scalpel. No search turned up anything, so I decided to blank it. We're allowed 1 blank for this facility. But I hate, hate, hate to send blanks, so I listened one more time, and that did it. I thought I heard 5 cc, but that didn't make sense, but it started me thinking about numbers, and all of a sudden it was there, "size 11 scalpel." See if doesn't sound like ficey lemon. That was the highlight of my most exciting Saturday, so it must have been pretty dull.

I did stand in the yard and survey the damage the yard boys did Thursday and made plans to fire them. I complained about them to their boss last year for playing chase with a riding lawnmower in my yard, and they now hate me. I thought they would have forgotten, but no. They do a little something spiteful every time they come, like damaging a pot with the weed trimmer or not blowing the grass clippings off the door and (especially) dragging my heavy table and chairs to different spots on the lawn and leaving them there for me to drag back. This time, in addition to all of the above, they chopped down a little ginkgo tree that I had nurtured all through last spring and summer that was just beginning to have some leaves. There was no reason to chop it down except for meanness. It didn't look like a weed and it wasn't run over accidentally by the lawnmower. Someone had to walk over with the the weed trimmer and hack it down about a foot off the ground. I'm sure there are other people who would be glad of the job, so I'll do some calling Monday.

With all that griping, I would have had plenty of time to scan pictures, but it's more fun to fuss and fume. Brings back memories of the troll who did our yard in Greensboro.
Clowns tomorrow.

Back to Sewing - 1968 to 1971

It's time for a breath of fresh air.

As I've been looking through my pictures lately, I found that I put my sewing/craft activities on hold for the most part in the late 60s and early 70s. (I also realized again had badly color pictures from 30-40 years ago have held up.)

I did make yellow curtains for a guest room in our new house in 1969-70?, but it turned out to be a nursery soon after we moved in. This is the only picture I could find, and they're all tied back here to let the fresh air in for morning juice.

My next project was maternity clothes. I don't know what brought out the sewing machine for maternity clothes, but I made most of them all 3 times. Maybe it's pricing things that you will just wear a few times, or maybe it's the nesting instinct. Or maybe they were just easy to make. Nowadays, maternity clothes are just bigger versions of normal clothes, but then the only style seemed to be a yoke and gathers, long or short, add rick-rack or braid,change the fabric, but all basically alike.

This is a lovely fashionable jumper that I made. Excuse the quality of the picture; the more I tried to lighten it, the worse it looked. I'm sorry this is not in color. Black-and-white doesn't do justice to the red and yellow plaid of the jumper and the yellow shirt. This was at a shower given by Mike's co-workers. I did love this jumper though. I wore it to an Auburn-Georgia Tech game on one of the most beautiful October days I can remember. We won 31-14 (I looked it up), we more than likely saw Sullivan and Beasley make some outstanding plays, and we were to have a baby in 2 months. It's funny to remember something that long ago, but I remember standing in the stadium and having an all's-right-with-the-world feeling. I probably told myself to remember that moment.


Keeping with the red and yellow theme, here I am 18 months later actually crocheting but not for the new baby; this was a red, white, and blue afghan for Gray's big-boy bed fixed up and painted blue to lure him out of the baby bed so Elise would have a place to sleep. These pictures are awful. I don't think I really looked like this. I'm sure it's the quality of the picture that makes me look this way and nothing to do with hairbands or goofy smiles.

Speaking of goofy looks. Back to plaid but this time blue and red. This was in 1977, and I felt sure my best years were over at 31. Too old to be having a baby. Too old for anything. But now I've doubled those 31 years and have changed my mind about being too old. I don't know if I want another 31, but I'll take it if it happens.

I found only 2 pictures of that completed red, white, and blue afghan, but even after Gray outgrew the little blue bed and moved into a bigger one, it stayed in his room. And here it is in the early 1990's making a very comfortable spot for Chappy the cat to sleep.


Another smaller glimpse is in this picture of our oldest 2 and Debby's oldest 2. I think they all look just as guilty as they can be.


The smallest one on the right, Brent, is now a physican in Hartford, Connecticut, and he sent his mom a picture lately that she shared with me. I'm sorry I couldn't get it any bigger or clearer and that I don't know exactly what his specialty is. I found out - it's foot and ankle surgery!
I got a chance to talk with him last fall at his grandmother's funeral, and he's such a nice guy. I think he's going to do well and hopefully will get to come back to the south in a few years.

I have more pictures I have unearthed this week but no more time today. I bought some daisies this morning that need planting. Stay tuned for clown suits and wedding dresses.

Pobre Serpiente

So I'm now supposed to start liking my worst enemy because a python thinks Dina is its mother? Sorry, it'll take a little more convincing. Gaby asked if I had had an encounter with a snake that makes me fearful, and I had to admit I've managed to avoid them nicely all my life except for one time, and Mike thinks it will do me good mentally to talk about that "encounter."

I guess there is no explanation for a phobia. It's just there. I did have a few times as a child when I was forced to look at one. A cat once came running out of the woods behind me with a snake when I was pretty young, probably just as proud as could be, but I thought it was chasing me, and that's probably the beginning. And my brother used to throw worms on me. That too.

People tease me about it, but it's a real thing. I pass a woody or grassy or swampy area, and I think about what's living in there. If I were driving into a tornado, and there was a choice of diving into a ditch (where who knows what may be lurking), I would just get blown away in my car. We once were looking at houses in Thomaston when a huge snake shot out from under the deck. Mike told the real estate lady, "No use opening the door to this house." And another time in North Ga, a real estate person was showing us a house she had once lived in with a beautiful yard and a stream with rushing water, but she made the mistake of saying, "My boys would sit out here and shoot snakes as they came over the dam." Another lost sale.

I lived all my life in Thomaston without any encounters somehow. I realize that people protect me from knowing about things, so there may have been some sightings by others in those 20 years, but they never got back to me. Then we moved to Meridian, MS. The house was on a beautiful wooded lot set back from the street a ways, pretty little pool in the back yard, and a lot of woods behind us that Mike enjoyed working in - I think. I'm not sure when he decided to get me a gun called a Snake Charmer, but that terrified me - both the gun and the thought that he thought I needed one. He was the one who usually cleaned the pool filters, and according to him, he NEVER saw a snake, but I'm not sure I believe him. Although when he was out of town and I cleaned them, I found only frogs, which were bad enough. Maybe the gun came after some workers found what they called a "ground rattler" underneath a juniper in the back yard.

We didn't like the juniper. It was huge and took up a lot of space and was just ugly, but as soon as we got moved in, I started planting a flower bed nearby. I used the juniper to hold my sacks of soil and mulch and sometimes sat there to rest. There was a little dachsund next door who was always sniffing around under there, but I had to idea what lived there. A day or so later after the flower bed was done, some guys came to dig up the juniper. I was luckily outside the fence when I heard them start screaming - really screaming! So I guess I'm not the only one who's scared of them! They killed it thoroughly and with a lot of fanfare and threw it on the trash pile Mike had started behind the fence. But after that I was very cautious and watched where I went. Mike says he killed one in a neighbor's yard with "my" gun much later (also maybe true and maybe MY yard), but other than that, they either stayed clear or any sightings were hidden from me.

Until my house snake. It was an early fall day. Mike was out of town, and I had spent a fun morning with my heirloom sewing friends. I came in the back door and immediately noticed something on the dining room carpet. The carpet was very light, and there was what looked like a brown shoestring lying there. My first thought was that the cats were playing with something and left it there, but I couldn't remember either of us having a brown shoestring that they could have gotten. I walked toward it to pick it up, but by some stroke of luck, I looked closer and saw a - well one of THOSE. Granted it was small but it was not a huge worm, it wasn't yarn, and it had a head that was definitely snakelike. This is not helping me much to talk about this.

It wasn't moving or anything, just lying there, and all I could do was just stand there and stare at it. We had just moved there and didn't know any of our neighbors - no one was home during the day next door anyway. I stood there and cried for maybe 10 minutes. Not sure what good I thought that would do, but I guess I felt like if there was one there, there might be more, and what else could I do but cry. Then I realized the tears didn't wash it away, and it was still there, so I summoned up all my courage and got the broom. Not my Snake Charmer (although I don't think Mike would have been surprised to come home and see a hole in the dining room carpet) but the broom. I gritted my teeth and went over and tried to sweep it, thinking I would get it to the door - a long way away. The thing moved. If it had moved fast, I probably would have died right there, but it just kind of crawled a little - straight for a card table draped in drop clothes that held paint and stuff for the room we were painting. So now I had a snake hidden under a table in a bunch of cloths. I lifted up one corner and looked, and - pobre serpiente - I actually did feel sorry for it. It was just a baby and was curled up trying to look invisible. But then I realized what it would grow up to be and started sweeping - seriously, this time. I did manage to get it to the back door and out onto the patio. There was a butcher knife on the grill nearby, and I just picked it up and hacked it into 2 pieces. Not sure where that courage came from, and I nearly threw up while I was doing it.

Just about then, up ran the cats - just in time to "help." I imagine one of them might have chased it into the house in the first place, or maybe I brought it in in a potted plant. Who knows? I then swept it into a jar and took it to an exterminator's office down the road to see if someone would come out and check the house and to see if anyone could identify it. They promised to send someone but didn't know what kind of snake it was - just a brown one.

A little bit later, 2 young guys from the exterminating company came by, and I followed them around while they looked under every bed and in every closet. I'm not sure who was more skittish - me or them. They jumped about 2 feet when they opened the hall closet and saw a lizard cat toy. They checked the fireplace and cabinets and behind the washer and dryer before they left, but that night I took all the sheets off the bed and sat there in the middle of it with the lights on. I guess I slept but not too well. And then for months (well, even now), I wouldn't stick my hands in drawers or cabinets or boxes in closets and was always convinced I heard something in the attic.

So that's it. Maybe I do feel better, but I kind of feel sick talking about it. I have read about people seeing snakes in their cabinets, under their dishwasher, on their porches, and I've wondered how people get over something like that. If it had been big and evil and such, I would probably have had to move or go stay in a hotel for awhile. But I kind of got back to normal after a while.

But that's not all for Meridian reptiles. The next fall, Emily was staying with us awhile, and we had been raking leaves and cleaning the flower beds. She had the skimmer and was getting leaves out of the pool when I heard her exclaim. I turned around, and she tried to pretend nothing had happened, but then I saw her face. I said, "It's a snake, right?" And she said, "Daddy said I was never supposed to tell you if I saw one." Again it was a baby, and she nonchalantly scooped him up in the skimmer and took him to the front (out of my sight). She said later that she had a shovel, and was taking her time wiping him out (and kind of feeling sorry for him) when he got into a striking position. She didn't waste any time with the shovel after that. Thank goodness she was there!

Since then, things have been good for me until the email came yesterday with the "baby" python. I'm always conscious of what might be in flowerbeds though and never work without a couple of cats with me or the dog - not that they would be much help, but they might distract something while I ran. I wish I had some way to get better about this and not be so afraid. Maybe letting one crawl all over me at a zoo is the answer - but probably not!! And if any packages come from Guatemala, someone else is doing to open them.

Cancel My Trip to Guatemala

These people are no longer my friends. I know Mike told Gaby to send this e-mail to me. If this is a baby, I don't want to see its parents. I notice that Carlos is the only smart one in the group (hands in pockets, not on the creature). I think I'm going to like him.

We went to the zoo the last friday night and took this nice pic. The snake was a baby piton of 10 months, her body is so soft, cold and firm. Are inofensive, dont bite, she only eats baby chickens and mices, that fact make me sad, but almost every body eats cows and chikens, so it is the same thing. (don't want to look hipocrit)

At the photo, to left to right: Dina, Carlos, Herwin (daddy), and me. Below: Diego y Alejandro, hooo and I forgot: The Reticulated baby piton. Here the snakes are so common animals, more on the suburban houses, they are looking for a nice warm place to sleep, but nobody wants one on the bed hahaha. Do you like it? Waiting for coments

And Mike's answer to her:

Sra Gabriella bruja--you are correct, I believe. Humans eat animals...snakes have the right to eat food also. You are not a hypocrite at all. (Excellent English vocabulary, Gaby.)
I think Guatemala has many snakes, no? Is this correct? Is the reticulated python a Guarmalena? Si o no?
Maybe when Becky visits to Guatemala we can arrange for a visit to theMaya jungle to search for wild animals and reptiles?
I HAVE NO FRIENDS.