Mama's dishes

Just thought I'd show you mama's dishes that were stolen. They're Currier & Ives, each piece is named something different. I think the dinner plate is "The Old Grist Mill". The different sizes of dishes all have a different title and picture. They were not expensive, but I loved them. I love blue transferware. Well, I went to Robbinsnest and Replacements.com and found them so I can replace most of them. I still have 2 dinnerplates and a couple of cups so they didn't clean me out completely. My grandmother's dishes are by Johnson Brothers and they're called "Tally Ho". Brown transferware with some burgandy and a little green on them and they depict different hunt scenes with horses, dogs, etc. They were beautiful, too. Anyway, just thought I'd show you my pretty plates!

Spring

I'm going to change the subject! I'm so sick and tired of complaining and whining about poor pitiful me (altho the last 2 weekends have been really crappy as my kids say). The weather here has been rather nice. Today it was almost balmy. Probably 75 or 80, but with a breeze which kept it from being too warm. I've been wanting to get out in the garden and do some planting, but experience tells me to wait a couple more weeks anyway to avoid a late freeze. It DOES happen even in Texas. The year my brother was born, March 15, 1963, my mama went to the hospital to have him and it snowed several inches and was freezing cold when my nanny took me and my sister to see our new little brother!

I have kept my pansies alive this winter - even remembered to feed them - they still look great! I sometimes have a brown thumb, but it's usually due to the lack of consistent care rather than just not knowing what to do. I have made a new resolution to pay the strictest of care with my plants and garden this year since we are getting started at the farm. I have been busy planting bulbs, and we have set out pecan, plum, peach, dogwood, and crepe myrtle, oh yeah, a few live oak trees, too. Of course we'll probably be dead and gone when the live oaks are big, but maybe our kids will get to enjoy them. We also got a new hybrid called a HICAN (cross pecan and hickory nut). My husband just wanted to get one and see what it did.

Right now we have wild daffodils growing everywhere along the barbed wired fence on the side of the house and they are so pretty. The pear trees are blossoming right now, they're always the first around here along with the tulip trees.

I hope to have tomatoes, carrots, corn, a little squash (cuz I'm the only one that eats it), onions, potatoes, maybe some cucumbers (cuz I have the BEST spicy sweet dill pickle recipe from my grandmother that I'll share with you this summer), purple hull peas and some pole beans. My grandmother taught me how to can, so I'll have to clear out some storage space for jars. In a few years I'll have plum and peach jelly and pear preserves. In the meantime, dad's got all the peaches and plums for that, and I get together with my sister and we make the jelly (mom doesn't like to do that stuff).

Here's a little shot of part of my garden area behind the house. We got it tilled up and are raking the dead weeds out. We'll make our rows this weekend and try to set the onions out. Bunches of folks have already done that. A little frost on the tops won't hurt them.

Well, that's about all for now. It cheers me up to see these flower pictures. I have to say, too, HOW VERY MUCH I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE STOPPED BY TO GIVE ME SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT DURING THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. It's been a couple of hard weekends around our house, but your comments and kindnesses and support have been wonderful! Thank you all my bloggie friends out there. I can feel the friendship and the things we share in common and I'm so glad to have found you all! Vickie