May Mercies

Today we had the third major fire in this neighborhood within 2 months, right next door. Yep, had to call 911 myself . The teenager next door (below us) decided to burn an old abandoned trailer himself, guarding it with a hosepipe. Oh yes, the foolish things we do when young! In the meantime before the firetrucks got there (over 10 minutes), we kept it from spreading with our hose and a bucket - did a right good job even if I must say so myself.

Unfortunately I only thought to get the cameras after the fire was practically out. Missed the blazing inferno...shucks!


So - we are grateful for the mercies of a contained fire that had a lot of potential to do great, powerful and destructive things! I hope this ends the streak of fires on our street!

Since I haven't blogged for several weeks I'll catch you up on some of the main events. Lots of music recitals and concerts (for which I don't have TOO many still pictures); another investiture with its party; our CHE year-end party (including a baby raccoon); a picnic at a Gymkhana/Horse show; and other odds and ends of the past month.


We sat by the horse arena with our picnic "basket" on a most beautiful, gorgeous spring day in a very idyllic place on a horse farm, and enjoyed all the events. I think this was end of April. This was a perfect day - warm but not hot; lightly breezy but not windy; no mosquitoes, no humidity, no rain. Yes, a perfect day!


Some of the "free" horses peacefully grazing, after first standing at the fence looking longingly at the competitors.



Waiting around for the next class to begin? or perhaps receiving their ribbons, I don't remember.


A sleepy, orphaned raccoon gets admired by fascinated kids. (May 19)


A gaggle of girls at a photo shoot. (year-end CHE party, May 19)


Peonies from our garden - ah, the memory of its delicious, fragrant aroma...



Orchestra does the church service (x2) April 25, 2009.



McDonald Road Investiture, May 2.



And here, if it's real, is a photo (distributed via email) of a very rare sight in Cape Town - a thunderstorm, supposedly one morning. Lovely, dramatic photos though, photo-shopped or not!!


Sorry about the "webcam" - and oh yes, we have a vegetable garden put in - you'll definitely need updates of that. So, next time I hope to catch you up, but as you can see, we're being kept out of mischief, and that's the main thing, right? Right!!

Why I love the South

Hey ya'll, if you're not from the South, you'll appreciate these wonderful pics ("borrowed" from the internet) showing what life is truly like for us-all down here. We hope you'll better be able to understand our ways and appreciate our incredible, awe-inspiring and intelligent ingenuity. (By the way, following are my own comments on them - I won't blame the internet for those!)

This one is self-explanatory.


How else do you think we feed them?


To be sure, there's one of them signs for real about 5 miles down the road from us!

and again and again and again....

Hey there, sis, have you noticed a drop in population around here lately?


Well, it doesn't snow much down here - gotta make do!


Worthy of Africa itself!


Is this for church?


I'll "git yer"! The Southern version of "Facebook" (or is it a "twitter"?)



Works for me! (but I'm sleeping down below)


Ain't nobody broken in yet! That alarm sign works every time!


Cain't see through it but it shor keeps out th' cold!


Anuther great weekend ahead!


Hope your weekend is great too.
Bye for now!

Life's Little Lovelies

Before April completely bi-passes me, I must discipline myself to sit down and chronicle another couple weeks of spring madness. First off, 3 weeks worth of spring house "cam" pictures.

The first, April 13:


The next, April 17:


The last, today, April 24:


So, our azaleas are in their amazing peak now:



A couple weekends ago was S's Almuni (also known as Alumni) weekend.
It's nice to know he comes from such an outstanding academic institution. Frankly, we wondered , at first, if it was actually a Trekkie convention. But then we saw some friends, and even relatives, so we knew it couldn't be!!


During groupie, uh, group photos, this little doggie came all by himself and sat himself down to get his little mug in the picture! What a smart hound! (Sorry my camera made all these blotches on the picture - one right on his nose!)


C has had and will have, a number of performances and recitals in these two weeks (last and next). On Tuesday night she played her violin in a recital for the first time - Witches' Dance, and did very well. Tomorrow she plays cello in orchestra and promises us this will be spectacular! She's especially excited about two gavotte's by JS Bach. Then next Thursday will be another recital on cello. We haven't quite decided whether to play the Adagio or the Allegro of Marcello's something or other. Since it's an end-of-year type of recital, there'll be about 40 kids playing so we'll have to choose something relatively short.

Oh yes, some more big news is that we have the garden ploughed and quite a bit put in already. It's been so wet lately we haven't been able to do much. Here's Mr Allen doing his thing.

And here is another of C's house creations - this time some kind of tent over an old playset found abandoned when we moved in 5 yrs ago - it has finally realized its destiny!


And that brings us to the end of our lovely spring photo album for now. Next time watch for "Reasons I'm glad to be from the South" funny photos gleaned from the internet grape vine.

Happy Sabbath ya'll!

April's Aim At Assiduous Alacrity

(OK, I did have to verify several words myself, so don't feel bad.)

Happy Birthday to a certain very special family member!! Hope you're having a wonderful 4th of the 4th as we always say!
We've had a very busy time the last few weeks so will start adding photos now to give you the picture. Talking of pictures, I need to start the camera "cam" again as our azaleas are starting to show little buds and peaks of pink, plus the trees' leaves are starting to come out again - just in time for another hard freeze tomorrow night! Hopefully not - that's what happened two years ago and it wasn't a pretty thing.

Last week sometime we had one grand "investiture" and C got a bunch of Sunbeam honors - now added to these on the sash below.



A gaggle of girls pose for a picture. (This is barely half of the Sunbeam group which was very difficult to round up in all the excitement!)



This event was on March 15 (the Ides, you know). It was pouring down rain most of the day and quite chilly but the kids had a blast as usual.


That evening good friend, Jan, from "afar" (Macon) came to stay. We had a nice visit and I got a lot of good school ideas. She is so creative!



A couple of C's Lego creations lately.




A field trip to the zoo. A, C and H (as in ACHoo!)


And here's our sweet baby, being so good (sitting in the cat's bed!)



C's class has been doing some sewing on the machines lately at the CHE Home Ec. class. She has thus made a pillow, an apron, a scarf blouse and is now working on a skirt. Previous to this they were working by hand so this is a treat. (If she doesn't look excited, well, it's because she isn't!)


Well, if that ain't enough doings....I dunno fer ye!
Happy Spring!

Forsythia Forces Feigned Fatuity

while Knight in Matte-like armour slays ferocious lion - beware the Ides of March


and all other Ides....

Skyviews and Other Views

Although we're not members of the official Skywatch, these pics of the recent Shuttle launch (March 15), taken by S who's down in FL (taking a 4 day class), are beautiful and unique. Taken from Avon Park.

Solid booster break-away.









The smoke cloud lingers in the last sunlight.


Still glowing.



And now for something completely different - Dragons (also from FL)


A "little" alligator.



And a big don't-mess-with-my-baby mama alligator,



or I'll EAT you!


And here are some videos of the penguins at our recent visit to the TN Aquarium.



one more:


and ooonnnne more:


And last but not least, our cute little salamander has lost her gills and is now officially a landlubber! We have made a humus habitat and she seems content to burrow into it, at least all day - who knows what she does at night! We've given her cut-worms, grubs, snails, her old triop food and roly-poly beetles to eat....we have no idea if she's eating them 'cos they burrow under too. She's about 4cm or around 2 inches long now - unfortunately about as big around as the cut-worms I put in there - wonder if she'll attempt to attack them!? - or vice versa?
I'm calling it a "her" because her spots seem more gray than white. She is now "Sallie". If the spots turn white, hmmm, maybe Naaman!


And that's all for tonight folk! Remember to dress in green tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, C!

Today was the grand 8th birthday! C had decided to have a low key day so we only invited one friend and they had a wonderful time. Outside was very cold (in the 30's with windchill in the 20's)so they mostly played indoors except for 30 minutes outside doing the treasure hunt. Inside the treasure box was an autograph book for each of them (plus some candy)and they had fun doing a page in each other's book. C decided not to have a cake this year - she wanted "doggy biscuits" and an ice-cream popsicle so here is the result (with candles in some bread to hold them!). Don't worry, the doggy biscuits were shaped out of Graham Crackers (anybody want to patent doggy shaped cookies? - They had to be cut into that shape which is quite a challenge with brittle crackers!)Anyway, we got a few that looked like doggy biscuits.


Thank you all for the phone calls, cards and well wishes for her birthday from all around the world - Africa, Europe,North America and even Hawaii this year! (It helps to have family in such exotic places - H, we know you're having a wonderful time in Hawaii - don't forget to come back!)

At 4:30 C had her violin lesson (her 6th "official" one) and played Hunter's Chorus in book 2 of Suzuki. This next week a waltz. In cello we're continuing in Book 4 somewhere - can't tell you the exact piece right now, and in piano she's playing "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. She's had one week on it and knows the "well-known" part and we'll start soon on the 2 middle sections. She calls it a "famous" piece.

S had minor surgery today to excise a lesion (I first typed legion by mistake - glad THAT'S not true!). Is doing well, thankfully and doesn't have much, if any, pain.

Last week we went to the Aquarium downtown and here's a picture of the twins in the river section,



and stroking sting ray and sand shark(C is hidden behind someone).


Sat. night was a Creative Discovery Sleepover with the Adventurers - which was great fun at the time, but after going to bed at midnight, the next day was a disaster!



March has come in like a lion this year, so we expect a lamb by the end. Daylight savings starts on the 8th for us and then maybe hibernation will end at the Johnson household. I'm not promising anything though!

Ta-da for now and God bless.

February Foibles

Still winter, still hibernating. What can I say? Well, we did have a strings recital and here is C playing the Breval Cello Sonata in C, 1st mvmt, at that recital. She did very well in my humble, unbiased opinion and only took about 2 weeks to learn this so I think she did great!




So, March must march mostly merrily forward....and spring will peep in behind it. Talking of peeps and peepers, our so-called tadpole turns out to be a salamander - probably a marbled salamander! How cool is that? The little legs were so small when we first got it, they were practically invisible. Now the cute thing is quite big in its own little way and getting stronger and more feisty by the day. We are about to borrow a larger tank and create a nice salamander habitat for it. No wonder it wasn't liking the fresh lettuce I gave it every day! It certainly likes the Triop food better which is probably made from fish bits - though as hard as dried toast! I can actually see the lumps of food in its stomach until it digests. Hope it isn't suffering from heartburn though it also gets to eat fresh pond plankton every week when I change out the water...

Some good news: A new girl cousin is born in RSA. Congrats on the sweet little one! And other great, wonderful news is that brother R and family are getting their green cards after all in a few months. They're looking forward to that, and so are we of course. I hope you don't want your trampoline back, ha ha! They've had a bunch of snow in London lately - lucky them!

Well, that's all the news for now. I'll try to get more into writing next month when spring comes to "town" (TN for short!).