Love Thursday Eleven: Me, Mammers, and a Balloon

See how happy Mom is after riding in her birthday balloon?

More Love Thursday at Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday Guest Post: Gideon's Bowlful

I slept all the way to 6 AM this rainy Monday morning, and I might have slept longer if the demon I adore, a big black cat with a deviated septum who snerks and snores and stakes out the best part of the bed, hadn't begun wailing for food. He can't smell, and although his bowl is rarely empty, he lives with the persistent notion that there is no food left in the universe. I usually give in and get up and march him to the laundry room and put his hard head down in his bowl, and he snerks and snorts and dives in, eating like a stray who hasn't seen a meal in weeks.

But blissfully, this morning Gideon meandered heavy footed down the stairs, wailing all the while, and presumably found his way to his own bowl where there was no doubt food waiting. I rolled over in my warm bed next to my warm husband (who also snerks and snores), and he cuddled closer, waking briefly to say "We had a good weekend, didn't we?". I nodded into his shoulder, a strange feeling spreading in my chest - was that - could it be - happiness?

We had a completely unremarkable weekend by most standards. I went shopping for baby clothes with my pregnant daughter, an errand more of fun than necessity since the wee bairn is just now the size of a small apple, and Sunday night I cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes for my son home from college. But I got out of the house without a panic attack, and I didn't cry over the baby clothes, or have a fit when the grated carrots went all over the place, and for two nights in a row I slept. Remarkable.

For a long time now I've been wandering heavy footed and wailing, certain that there was no sustenance for me in the Universe, and even when some well-meaning person shoved my head down into my full bowl, I refused to eat. I don't fool myself into believing that a handful of meds have healed me completely, but this morning Gideon found his own way and I went back to sleep, hopeful that I might be finding mine.

---J. Caroline Boatright

Love Thursday #12: Grandma turns 98

Grandma turned 98 last week and we had a big party at her farmhouse.

Grandma's greeting party as she comes down the van lift.

Grandma with one of her great grandkids and pooch.

Love Thursday #10: Stone Fruit

Keb Mo played on the stereo and a terrific thunderstorm pounded outside while I made this

Stone Fruit Patchwork Bake. Something about baking a simple peach & cherry cobbler with

folks you love in mind--it feels important.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #9: Grandma at 98

Grandma turns 98 in August. I'm lucky to have her around.

We're throwing her a party at her house which is down the road from the rest home. She and her wheel chair will ride in a van with a lift. Her daddy built the house and many others in the area almost 100 years ago. She's still running things, so we won't be bringing any presents, just a bunch of love.

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #8: Maters

My friends who farm shower me with tomato love: Heirloom, Pineapple, German, Roma, yellow, cherry...

Kristin and Marc Daly's dining room table with bounty from their Albemarle, NC farm.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #7: Grandma and Grandpa's Farm

Visiting my Dad's parents when I was a kid meant climbing in the hayloft, riding on the back of a tractor, simple meals, and early bedtimes. Years later, I moved into the farmhouse for a time. Even now, I recognize the farm as being the only constant landmark in my life.

The spring pasture and Judge

The now dilapidated barns and silo viewed from the house

viewed from the pasture

The hayfield

rainy day cows

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #6: Watermelon!

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks!

Love Thursday #5: Purpley Certain

My friend Hope decided I must have her purpley chair. She and her husband dropped it off at my house Sunday. I christened it with my favorite blue pillow. Then spent the rest of the night walking in and out of the sun room to look at it. I get a little jolt everytime I see it's bright bold poofiness.

For more Love Thursday, checkout Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #4: Traveller

He can't walk, but he can ride.

For more Love Thursday, check out Chookooloonks.

Love Thursday #3: Heir

my backyard gardenias passed down from a long line of grandmas (photo by LoLaSuzaanne)

My great great grandmother gave her six year old granddaughter Lucile clippings from her gardenia bush. Lucile nursed those budlings until they were big enough to plant around the brick farmhouse her daddy built.

Grandma Lucile eventually rooted clippings from the same bushes for her own grandkids including me. The smell of these June blooms in my backyard reminds me of my connection to this line of practical gardenia-growing women. The ones who, despite a scarcity of funds, found a way to share beauty all the way down to me. The original bushes, still at the farmhouse, are not as prolific as they once were but have progeny across the land.

At almost 98, Grandma can't see the buds anymore but when I visit her this week, I'm hoping she can still smell the clippings I'll bring along.

**Check out more Love Thursday at Chookooloonks.**

Love Thursday #2 Being Goofy

Remember how you used to play with funny eye-glasses just to make your cousins laugh?

...and your little dog too?

Love Thursday is a Chookooloonks creation.

Love Thursday #1

Thursdays, the soulful Chookooloonks publishes a post, a photo, and a song she loves. I'm not as prolific as she, but I'm inspired to have my own Love Thursday. 

 

Judge at six months.

I can think of no better place to start Love Thursday on LoLaSuzanne than with my favorite four-legged creature.  Especially today, when my little Judge has returned home after 4 days in the hospital. He's had spine surgery and now resembles Frankenstein's dog with his staples and shaved back, but he's home today! I'm confident he will recover fully as I've spent the last nine years under the spell of the resilient Judge.