I referred to the clove of seasons
years ago, when summer was over and fall hadn't started yet. Well, the junction between winter and spring is very similar; it's still chilly, but the plants are starting to grow and get pretty. Thus is the case today. The wind is high, the sun is shining, Second Uncle has old vintage commercials turned up to eleven and won't turn the noise down, so what's a fat thirty-something to do? Take Camille out for pictures, of course! Camille is my new Wellie Wisher (why I have her will be discussed on St. Patrick's Day), and she was as sick of the noise as I was, so out and around Grandma's house we went, looking for the spots that I used to play in. First stop was here, where some flowers are starting to grow. I don't know what kind.
Just adjacent to the plants is this tall but slender evergreen tree, complete with a foot-deep mass of dead needles. Camille thinks it would be a good bird's nest.
I agree, Camille! That WOULD make a good bird's nest! Once when I was a little kid I did indeed use a wad of sticks and pine needles as a nest. I set there in a crouch for a good two hours, convinced that if I sat there long enough I'd lay an egg. It didn't go too well; I didn't have the sticks distributed very well, and this one stick kept jabbing me right in the rear. I was a bizarre kid.
Right then! Stumps are at a premium in my yard and in Grandma's yard, but Camille managed to find one.
This used to be Grandma's apple tree. Her handyman cut it too close and killed it. When I was little I'd jump off stumps in attempts to fly, but this stump would've been too short for me to do that. It's the perfect size for Camille, though!
In the front yard there's a young maple tree. Camille had to get close to that, too.
To our delight, it has some new growth on it!
This tree is a little over ten years old, and it has a rather sad backstory behind it. When I was little there was a crab apple tree here. It was the perfect tree for climbing, and that was exactly what I did. I climbed it when I was little and I admired it when I was older...and in early 2008 an ice storm split it down the middle and destroyed it. It was the first and only time I've cried over a tree, though I do like the maple tree. It's made for some good photo ops in the past (see
here,
here, and
here).
Camille also is fond of looking at the sky, just as I am.
I'd lie here and watch for biplanes when I was small. Back in those days things like ants in one's hair and sun in one's eyes didn't matter much. Camille isn't heavy enough to really look realistic, but...who wants to be realistic???
Camille is not my only new addition to the American Girl league, by the way. Let's just say that the past couple'a months have been a mite enjoyable for Mama and me and keep the rest of y'all in suspense! Now that Second Uncle has turned his stupid commercials off I can go back inside!
Much love,
RagingMoon1987
Your pictures are very cute and so is Camille! I think the Wellie Wishers are one of the better things to come out of American Girl in the last few years. We have two in our household. My daughter got Willa for her birthday a few years ago. And I have Ashlyn who I found at Goodwill a few months ago for $4. She was in good shape and even came with her dress - but not her boots.
ReplyDeleteWilla and Ashlyn are sweet. That's a shame that your Ashlyn is sans boots, but I'll betcha eBay will have replacements! I agree that these were a smart move on American Girl's part, and I hope they stick around.
DeleteI found a glitter girls outfit pack that included glittery pink boots, so I gave those to Ashlyn. Maybe someday, I’ll find her actual boots. :-)
DeleteThat works too! I'd forgotten that Glitter Girls clothes fit Wellie Wishers.
DeleteLOL, I'm glad you liked it! I wanted to be a bird so badly when I was little, and I thought if I acted like one I could spontaneously become one. Of course that's not how it worked out, but it made for some interesting situations!
ReplyDeleteCamille is quite the arborist. In front of my childhood house, there was a giant maple tree, that at one point split into three separate growths. Eventually those growths had to be "tethered" together to keep the sections from falling under their weight. However, the maple was eventually doomed, because its roots kept growing into the water and sewer lines coming into our house. It grew way too big for a suburban lot.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember talking about this before, but were there a lot of biplanes that flew around your area? Or was it like the bird thing, and you thought if you looked for biplanes, you'd see them?
LOL, I legit did see biplanes. Not a ton of them, but they were common enough that if I heard an airplane flying around I'd look up...y'know, just in case. Some of them were used as crop dusters, and others were going to and from airshows at Poplar Bluff or Cape Girardeau or somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteOh Lordy, the maples I've known never seem to live very long! When I was small my old house had two in the front yard, and they both had to be taken out before I was ten. A fungus invaded one tree, and the other was partially eaten by black carpenter ants, which were fun to watch. Hopefully Grandma's tree will have better luck!