Country Auctions

Have you ever been to a country auction? If the weather is nice it’s a lot of fun. Not only was the weather nice this past weekend, but one of the auctions was held indoors. Yay! Did I spend money? You bet. Bought a great chair that is just waiting for one of my “famous” slip covers and a mid-century modern chest-of-drawers. The latter may be more that I can do, but I’ll give it a try. It was sin worse shape than I realized.

Whether or not one buys anything, people watching is a great past time.

See that big dark blue-ish pot? I bought it.

The auctioneer. Hard to understand. I’m new at this. My friend Deb helped me.

And then a real, live cowboy walked in; spurs and all. Yahoo!

Signs

I could make a book of photos that I’ve taken of signs. One of these days I’m going to sort through all the pics and put them all together as a collection. These three were on the side of an old church pointing to parking space in the rear.

Trip to Joplin

This week included a trip to Joplin to meet other art quilter friends for lunch and to see the traveling SAQA exhibit “Sightlines.” Lunch at the Red Onion was delicious and “Sightlines” at Spiva Art Center was exceptional, in my opinion. I would urge you to see it if you can.

On the way home we passed this sidewalk exhibit and couldn’t pass it by without making these two photographs.

Little Road Trips

It’s deer hunting season and not a good time to be hiking in the woods – So –  we take little car rides along the country roads. Last week we came home through Bois D’Arc and found that most of the houses were built of stone. Here’s two examples. Actually this is a church, which is obvious.

And this is a garage, but have you ever seen such beautiful stone work on a garage? The stone mason must have been having fun.

Today we drove down Hwy. Z. More evidence of deer hunting in this “grocery” store.

Do you think they do any business any other time of the year?

And here’s a pastoral scene of a horse and bull enjoying the shade together. Don’t ask about the school bus in the background. I haven’t a clue.

I do love this time of year after the leaves have fallen and one can see through the trees. The whole landscape opens up. But, it’s hard to take pictures on these roads. There’s no shoulder and too many hills and curves to park safely.

106 in the Shade.

The latest Uncommon Treads challenge was Hot and Dry. Dianna Callahan chose that title since we have experienced a severe drought this summer. You can see the other participants works here.

Mine was inspired by my dead and dying landscape, thirsty animals, and the dying trees in the forests. If I were to make it again, I’d put a window with bars on the house because I felt like a prisoner in my own home. It was so hot one only went outside when it was absolutely necessary. The worst day was a Saturday that actually was “106 in the Shade ” when the sun felt unbearable and the wind felt like I was standing in front of a blast furnace. Thank goodness, we’ve finally had some rain and some of the landscape has revised.

 

Life at the Lake

Lake Stockton is a beautiful small lake in the Ozarks with two federal parks and one state park. While driving through one of the campgrounds the other day, I saw all this circle of chairs with no people. So inviting to questions. Who are they? Where are they? Where are they from?

Then the camping vehicles are as varied as people. I love photographing the various ways that people depict our flag.

Yard Art

While wandering around El Dorado Springs last week we stumbled upon this yard art. Anything goes don’t you think?

An Ozark Adventure

Yesterday was a lovely warm day in the high 50s, unusual for January, so we decided to do a little exploring at the new Capes Creek Conservation Area. The first thing of interest that we saw on our way was this house with a life size bull on top of it’s roof. Most unusual!

The next thing of interest was this partial skeleton of a cow floating at the creek’s edge. Scared Mandy, our little dog, to death. She crouched down low  and backed away.

Since it was already after noon  we walked to a gravel bar for a picnic. This is not the prettiest creek we’ve ever seen but it wasn’t bad. Apparently it’s more appealing to fishermen.

After lunch we hiked about two miles along the creeks edge though briars and brambles. We exited onto a gravel road and while walking back to the car we found jonquils blooming!! I have never, ever seen them bloom in January.

Finally, arriving back at the car to return home, my lovely little Toyota Prius wouldn’t start. Dead as a door nail.

Down low in a creek bed, we couldn’t get cell phone service but a kind fisherman who was ready to go home gave us a ride to the nearest town, 10 miles away, where I could call my roadside service. After waiting 45 minutes a tow truck arrived, took us back to the car, loaded it up, and carried it and us the 73 miles back home.

Our trusty mechanic has just now called to report that the little 12 volt battery is dead and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, it’s a very small size, made only by Toyota, and very expensive. The $$$$$ are adding up. All that money I’m saving on gas is being spent on spare parts! So much for a quiet little picnic on a quiet little creek.

Gooseberries

Time out from creating fiber art and being more domestic. I’m in the process of cleaning out an old flower bed under four hickory trees. DON”T EVER make a flower bed under trees. Besides their nuts falling and making new baby trees, birds sit in the trees and drop seeds from every thing else; like poison ivy, virginia creeper, grape vines, red bud trees, I could go on and on about the stuff I pull up. I should have taken a before picture because it’s beginning to look better now. I’ll do that on the next bed. Yes. There are two beds under trees. I never learn!

On a more positive note, there was one little goose berry bush here when I bought this house nine years ago. It has expanded to three and here is what it has produced. There must be three or four quarts of berries. Ummmmmmm.

Actually there were five quarts; four of which I froze and the fifth made a yummy pie. We couldn’t wait till supper!

Buffalo River

This week we joined friends to kayak on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. If you’ve never been there, it’s well worth the trip. We’re lucky enough to live in the general area and can visit fairly frequently. Although the weather was mostly chilly and damp we managed to do a little kayaking and some hiking. The wild flowers were beautiful.

National Buffalo River

Triple Falls

Shooting Star

Jack in the Pulpit