Our Trip-Day Two-Part 2

The scenery in my Mom's hometown of Sparta was breathtaking!

All through the county were these lovely quilt squares mounted on buildings

and barns

In the hardware store in town, there was a poster of them all

The hardware store also gave us some interesting photos :)

Don't you love the quilt on this display?

Then we hit a little boutique in the town--so fun to shop in!

We thought the shirt below was cute, we are flip flop wearers :)

The sign below is from the Christian cafe that is in the same building

Most of the pictures are Bri's--I did try and take the one below of the window dressing

(sorry it didn't come out that great)

It was a long day, with a lot of emotions...some very sad, and some very joyful.

Isn't that just like life?



Our Trip-Day Two-Part 1

Day Two dawned with threatening skies...

The servicemen preparing for the burial

As if on cue, the rain began

The soldiers carried on as if it were a dry day

Unfortunately, the rain drumming on the umbrellas made it impossible for us to hear

what was being said

Afterward the rain began to let up a bit

It made for dramatic skies as we headed for the meal provided at the VFW hall

How about this old newspaper headline on the wall at the VFW?

My Mom and her sweet cousin

Lots of relatives that my Mom hadn't seen for a long time

A lovely group of ladies-each one is special.

I will continue the rest of the day in a later post...



Our Trip-Day One

The reason for our trip to North Carolina was a solemn one as we were there to attend the burial of a loved one. But, we did have many rays of joy during this trip as well.

We got really excited when we began to see these gorgeous mountains!

It is always moving for me to see the Three Crosses alongside the road

On I-81 we came to a dead stop as they were blasting along the road

This gave us time to goof around as we had to wait about an hour

(we were punchy from no sleep!)

We finally saw the sign declaring our destination state!

 Even better was the one telling us we were only 10 miles away!
These lovely Christmas trees are one of the crops grown by local farmers in the area

We just had time to check into our room, and dash out to dinner before the viewing.

After the viewing they conducted the funeral service, and the graveside services were

scheduled for the next day.

We went back to our room afterwards and fell sound asleep!

A Great Loss...

I am just home from North Carolina, where I drove my mother and daughter to the funeral

of a dear and sweet cousin, Robert Eldon Edwards.

This Christian man fought a long, valiant fight against cancer. He had an army career that spanned 21 years.

Many of his comrades attended and stood vigil in the rain to pay their respects.

He was buried with full military honors.

This church and cemetary are adjacent to his homestead.

Our prayers go out to his sweet wife, children, and grandchildren.

He will be missed by many, but we wouldn't wish him back...he sits at the feet of Jesus!

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.Psalm 116:15



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Herbs and things...

We've had a good growing season thus far this year!

This barrel houses my "kitchen herb garden" as it is right out our back gate-

not too far from the kitchen door.

As you can see...it's full and overflowing!

I always love trying new things--this year I found this lovely purple basil

(& purple is my fav color)

I love this varigated thyme

This Apple Mint really does smell like apples!

I also have a grape tomato plant in the barrel w/the herbs

Here are the regular and purple basils together

(sorry, not a great shot--the sun was so bright-I couldn't see for the glare!)

Just at the foot of my barrel, this chammomile is growing-in a bed of plantain

Bri and I are going to make a tincture out of this plantain soon!

I was blessed to win the Giveaway for Shoshanna Pearl's Making Herbs Simple DVD

over at Imperfect Housewife!

It gives a wonderful demonstration on how to make the tincture!

Makes me feel brave enough to try it for sure!

Here is Bri's herb pot-also located just outside the kitchen on the patio

I love that rosemary! :)

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:11