Choice Morsels

     Have you ever examined a Dogwood tree blossom closely?      We had a huge, old one in our yard. With a large, thick trunk and sturdy branches we could easily climb into and sit on. I can't imagine how old it was--I read they can live up to 80 years.      They grow wild throughout North America and Europe and I observed tons of young ones dotting the woods with white on the drive home all the way through to southern Alabama. (I took the above photo at a rest stop in Alabama.) In Florida, you see them typically planted in yards, having been purchased, but in fall they are thick with clusters of red seeds and I suspect squirrels and birds seed they easily, so they escape quickly into the wild.      There white outer leaves from a cross-like shape, with two being longer and two shorter and on each there is a rusty-reddish spot. The crown at the center is the actual flower. ...

      The lucky Mama Kat Blog Prompt for today is #5: "Write about the last time you stayed in a hotel."Since we just came back from our trip and did stay at a hotel, this is perfect!        There was a time when we used a tent and a State Park for a hotel on our various journeys, but that fell out of preference with tides and time. When we did camp, we used a tent we could stand in and a air-mattress we could blow up with a portable blower that could be plugged into the car's cigarette lighter. However, eventually we just reached the age where ground-level sleeping, having a little A/C and a bathroom we didn't to hike to were all preferable.        So now we hotel---motel really--on our journeys. You might wonder what the difference is between a "hotel" and a "motel"?  The distinction is hotels are considered larger, have more ambiance and are generally located in...

     “ This Christmas,” our Mother firmly and unexpectedly announced, “there will be NO chocolate.”       My sisters and I stared at her incredulously. What, no chocolate? It was inconceivable!       You see, every year, for as long as I could remember, there had been chocolate on Christmas. Not just a little chocolate, but an opulent extravaganza of chocolate that would've made even Willy Wonka blush. Empty decorative bowls would be laid out on Christmas Eve, enough to cover our 7 foot dining table, only to be “magically” filled by morning with Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey's Mini-bars, chocolate peanut clusters, chocolate turtles, chocolate cremes, M&M's of both types, chocolate stars, chocolate-covered cherries, Tootsie rolls and candy bars of every type. It was a veritable chocolate feast the Ghost of Christmas Present would surely admire.       However, this particular...

Yup, time for another tale prompted by Mama Kat. Today's prompt of choice is #5: "What is the one 'vice' you can't give up?"    Quite a number of years ago, in the mid 90's, we visited some friends, who were living in North Carolina at the time and what makes it memorable is the wife declaring that she, "had to give up eating chocolate because it had caffeine in it."  Apparently she was under doctor's orders not to have any sort of caffeine. Why, I don't know, but back then there was a general "caffeine scare" going on. Of course, a lot of scientific back-peddling has occurred since then, as it so often does, and science now declares coffee and chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, as having health benefits. Though those fancy coffee drinks full of sugar and all kinds of high-calorie stuff other then plain coffee are fattening rather then healthy.      I mention this, because if I'm going to call anything I unrepentan...

Today I'm showing you how I recycle old greeting cards:  My friend, Megan, showers me with gorgeous, glittery "Papyrus" brand greeting cards. (Remember I love glitz!) They were just too nice to throw away. Plus I had this years and 2 previous years Christmas cards to sort through to decide what might be used for something else and what to throw away. Seems like we get an increasing number of photo cards and you know what? Those can't be recycled. Frankly, I rather have a regular card-stock card with a really nice picture and a photo inserted, mostly because I like re-using cards.       This time, however, it was a pile of birthday, anniversary and just all occasion cards I wanted to recycle. The project required a box of card stock with envelopes from JoAnn's Fabrics. (In the stamping section.) I got a box of mixed bright colors and it required a couple glue sticks. I prefer rubber cement, but glue sticks is what I had on hand. And a pair of paper sci...

     The Mama Kat's Writing Prompt of choice this week is #5: Share a story about a sibling .      My growing up years were full of magic and adventure. I remember so much laughter and romping  through sun-dappled woods down to the gurgling creek flowing through the valley below our house, the dog running ahead of us, her tail like a flag in the breeze. My two younger sisters and I could skip agiley over the rocks we placed in the stream for crossing, like little mountain goats, our feet never touching water. There was always adventure to had, flowers to be found, creepy-crawlies to be discovered and I remember our Barbie and Ken dolls enjoyed many a luxurious, stone-lined spa in that stream.       However, the particular sibling story I want to tell happened not by the steam, but near the house out in my Mother's garden. Now we're talking a huge garden, two of them, in fact, arranged one above the...

     What most people think of when you say, "hail."      "Umm, we're gonna tell."      I stared with appall at my fellow 4th grade classmates, who were standing around me by the 12 foot floor-to-ceiling window just as a hail storm began peppering cars below us with ice pellets. I had only just made a simple weather observation.        "Look, hail," I'd said.      " That's a cuss word," I was promptly informed.      "We're gonna tell," someone else promised.       I puffed up defensively. The idea of being "told on" for saying something entirely correct intimidated me, but I would not go down without a fight. "No, it's not ," I insisted, then pointed out the window. "That's what you call rain when it turns into ice balls--HAIL."      My classmates eyes bugged and hands flew over...