Great Day for Bikes

Hannah is the proud owner of a new bike. She has grown several inches in the past year and was ready for a bike that matched her long legs. Just to make sure it worked before going for a ride with her sister she checked it out by riding to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

My first bike was a used one I got around the third grade. We lived on a gravel road and it was not until the summer I was going into either third or fourth grade that I had a bike. It was a green and white bike in very nice condition. The first owner was another Rebecca.

Rhett learned to ride his bike in about an hour. The neighbor boy had a dream where he could ride his bike. He got up in the morning and within an hour he could ride by himself. Rhett saw what was happening, got out his bike and shortly was riding too. Before that the two of them had spent hours on their big wheels and were not interested in riding bikes. They rode round and round in the cul-de-sac all day long.

Cul-de-sac is French for bottom of the bag. I had to look up the spelling of that word. Thanks for visiting my blog.

STAPLES

A while back we were in Ames with a bit of time to spare. We drove around campus and then by the first place we called home. It was a basement apartment. As we recall it was clean, cheap and four or five blocks from campus. It was not lovely but it was serviceable. We were young; we did not have much money; we were together.

About a block away was the area grocery store and laundry. We have an ongoing laugh. When we got to our apartment and were settling in I announced we needed to go get some staples. My new hubby wondered what this was about. Why did we need staples of all things? I wanted to stock my kitchen with the items we needed to start off our domestic life together and he assumed I was thinking of the kind of staples that one put in a stapler. I doubt if we owned a stapler between the two of us. His family had never used the word staples, as in basic grocery items, mine did.

We learned a good lesson that day about communication. It could be argued that it has yet to be fully implemented but the lesson was presented early in our marriage.

Rhododendron

Our rhododendron was beautiful last week. It needs protection from the winter freezing and thawing. We planted it in the north east corner of our house. Having something so beautiful in the back of the house is kind of a nonevent. The bush is over 25 years old and beautiful for about one week out of the year. I give it some acid once a year and enjoy it one week a year. It usually is in bloom for Mother's Day.

MOTHER'S DAY

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

There are very few pictures of my family together. I believe there is just one picture of all six of us taken after I was married. It is the only photo I know of with all of my siblings and with Mom and Dad. This one must have been taken around Christmas 1955. Cindi looks to be about one and a half. Dad still has a bit of hair. Gosh, do I remember the pretty dresses that we got each Christmas. I can tell you the colors and feel of most of them. The dots were raised on the navy skirt and the top was a crisp white crinkly fabric. There is red piping around the collar and the red sash tied in the back.





I think this must have been taken in 1952 at Easter time. I remember that purse. It had a navy velvet ribbon that went down the middle of the purse. The top of the purse was like a hat or lid with a hole in the middle of it for the ribbon. As I recall the braided straw was woven in circles. Maybe this was not Easter as us girls do not have gloves on. I loved that purse. Mom looks so stylish. She was and still is a lovely lady.

Country Birds

Birds

On the drive to town I pass the creek (except we say crick). On Monday Hannah and I spied what I think were Cattle Egrets. She got a couple of so so pictures with the cell phone. I have not spied them again. For most of this week I have seen up to four big black hawks, or birds of some sort.

l have taken to traveling with my camera. They either fly away too quickly or there will be another vehicle approaching so I can not get out to take a picture. Hence the awful quality of the photo. It was taken from inside of my car. Perhaps part of the reason it looks so blurry is the dirt on the windshield.

On another note when I walk along the road sometimes my only companions are the birds on the electric lines. There are plenty of red wing black birds, sparrows and once in a while a blue jay when I walk to the creek area.