Cats and Catbirds

This cat loves to sleep on the porch swing where she can watch the birds come and go to the feeders and dream of catching one for supper.

Another favorite hangout is inside a cozy birdcage that was stored in the garage. The door latch was broken and the cats started taking turns sleeping inside. We call them our catbirds.

This black and white kitten came to live on our farm when Margaret moved and couldn't take her along. 

She is a beautiful cat.

Another Windowsill Bouquet

Flowers for Sale

Beautiful trays of plants were sold at the Azalea Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma this spring. After winter the flowers are such a refreshing sight. Coleus comes in many varieties. It was one of my mother-in-laws favorite plants.

Impatiens, petunias, moss rose and so many of the brightest and most loved summer plants can be purchased at farmer's markets during April.

I bought two new white azaleas and a purple azalea to plant between my pink and red varieties. It should look like this when it all blooms next spring.

The Hollis Table

Summer's here with the first hot weather visit  to Grandma's house

complete with popsicles. 

 Sweet Emma Irene enjoyed this blueberry blue treat

 and finished with a tongue bluer than her eyes.

The Hollis Table

Michael comes to visit and eat with us often. He's always smiling, especially when food is involved. Ron grilled steaks and we had salad and baked potatoes.  With sweet iced tea to wash it down, what teenager would not be happy?

Azalea Gardens in Muskogee, Oklahoma

One April morning in Muskogee those azaleas begin to burst open. Everyone has been waiting.

Horse drawn carriages carry the park visitors  around to see the park set on the hills west of town.

Horses are one of the many happy sights.

Ducks and geese are another!

Friends stop to rest on one of the docks that surround the pond.

(Alton, Evan, Julie, Brenna, and Quinton)

One of my favorite azaleas is this wonderful pink variety.

A bride and her maid-of-honor ride in the white carriage.

White azaleas for the bride.

Azaleas are sold at the Festival in April.

This one and the pink favorite above, I bought and have enjoyed in my yard the last few years.

These friends have a tradition of visiting the gardens every spring for a picnic and a hike up the waterfall trail.

These friends have a tradition of enjoying the flowers too.

Don't miss out on the gardens this year. Tulips and dogwood bloom early, and then azaleas, and later the park shows roses. There is a boardwalk around the pond, a gift and flower shop, and a playground. There are picnic tables under shade trees and a baseball field where children fly kites.

The Azalea Gardens are wonderful!

An Uncle Like Alton

Here he is, Uncle Alton, one of the all-time great uncles.

Alton, the fisherman, the lure man!

 He's everybody's favorite.

Alton loves all the babies. Here he rocks Jacob and Emma Irene.

They are all pretty happy when they are with their uncle.

Kyle's favorite in the whole world has always been his uncle Alton!

There is no one greater to run and play rough and tumble with.

 Nobody so cool and totally awesome!

Uncle Alton with Stewart. They look like they could be brothers.

Alton's nephew, Anden, was born on Alton's first birthday. They are like cousins.

Feel the love?

Drawn by Joseph Michie for the My Name is Different Book.

 The letter "t" forms a cross to show Alton's

faith in God. 

The name Alton means strength ( His hand lifts a ton, see?)

Sweet Uncle Alton and sweet little neice, Jessie Lynn.

Alton has 16 neices and nephews now.

Do they love him? Yes, they do!!!

In Unexpected Ways

God meets our needs in unexpected ways.

Jeanette Oke

Don't Fence Me In

This little donkey stood watching me pass and she seemed to be considering how she might escape her pasture. I don't know, maybe she felt safe inside and  only wondered where all of us fools were headed when there was security, sunshine and plenty of green grass.

I love to ride through the country and see the fields and meadows, looking for wildflowers and hawks soaring, and watching the world wake up with spring. I pull my van off routinely to get a better look at something. As exciting as the activity in a big city may be, there are life and events of interest to my heart in the country.

I wish I could have seen these fields before there were so many fences.

Even our farm now has fencing everywhere. Mowing and cleaning up the property exposed fences in all stages of demise. Pieces of old barbed wire have had to be cleared from brush hog and mower blade shafts.  We have discovered wire that tree trunks have grown over and incorporated into their bark. Fences around the barn protected chickens for the Howard family. Cows and horses, and turkeys have resided in pens that kept them safe from coyotes, passing vehicles, and hawk talons. Now our own fences guard our pecan orchard, our fruit tress, Brenna's herd of donkeys and her farm animals, the garden, and our buildings.

In some places, fences had been left standing, but new fences were built close beside them. Brush and trees and briars had grown through and forced apart the wire and posts. Wire has been trampled into the dirt and prairie has grown over it.Gates and new sorts of fencing, like chain link and pipe fences enclose farms now, and yet the barbed wire is still the cheapest and used for cattle pastures.

I try to envision travelers who saw this land when there were few houses, no paved roads, no electric poles or wires, and certainly not much in the way of fencing. How different, how large, how thrilling, how fearful it must have been. When there were no boundaries other than those made naturally by creeks that snaked across the land, by rivers, by the trees that grew along their banks; where the grass grew so tall and unbroken that little children like Laura and her sisters could become lost in it within a few hundred yards of their father.

When I say don't fence me in, I really mean "unfence" me. Is that relly what I want or is fencing what protects me? Is fencing what I need to feel secure and tamed. Doesn't a fence keep others out as much as it holds me in? Like the boundaries we moms set for our children, aren't fences for our ultimate good?

A fence we can see through may have covinced us that there is greener grass on the other side. Yet, there is sweet grass inside too and and open blue sky above. The sky gives us our greatest freedom. And the sky will never be sectioned off by barbed wire.

The Hollis Table

Happy people eat at the Hollis's Table. Every Sunday I'll show you one of the smiles I saw at my dinner table. Here is Zachary Collins keeping his smile tight to cover his missing front teeth. What a cute boy!