Knock-Out Rose

Clicking on the above photo
will take you to a Picasa web-album
containing a few versions of this edited photo
including the original.

Decoration Day

US Navy ca. 1929
Winfield Kearns Hooper
1908-1940
(sitting)
and
My maternal grandpa
Robert E. Henry
1905-1976
(standing)

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 30th day of May . . . in the year 1868 . . . Decoration Day (the predecessor of the modern Memorial Day) is observed in the United States for the first time . . . by Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic John A. Logan's proclamation on the 5th day of May . . .

Early Morning Visitor

God Bless the USA

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,
From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there’s pride in every American heart, and it’s time to stand and say:

I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

Lee Greenwood

Oh long may it wave

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Vintage Charms

Dusty Miller

Beauty Shared

. . . And marvelous and magical,
Across my drab, bare fence,
The morning glories climbed and bloomed
In blue magnificence. . . .

from
Texas Evening
by
Nancy Richey Ranson
Poet Laureate of Texas 1941-1943

Hearts and Flowers

Wordle Business Cards

This is a photo of a project that grew out of the current version of Randy's weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge . . . I used Wordle to generate the original image . . . and then, after cropping the initial Screen Capture of the Wordle image, I used the print function within Picasa and printed eight images per page to create a business card . . . the border around the business card is one of the options available when printing from within Picasa . . .

Happy Birthday, Uncle Bob

In loving memory
of
Robert E. Henry, Jr.
born
21 May 1930
Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
died
21 December 1997
VA Hospital
Temple, Bell County, Texas
only son of
Elizabeth Marilla Henry nee Smith
05 October 1912 ~ 03 February 1932
and
Robert E. Henry, Sr.
20 February 1905 ~ 13 December 1976

Pinky-Orange

The very air seemed to be pinky-orange this evening . . . a weird glow . . . those towers sitting on the horizon are what make it easy for me to pick up all the local DFW television channels with just a set of rabbit ears sitting on top of the TV . . .

Trumpet Vine

Baby State Bird of Texas

Clicking on the photo will take you to a Picasa photo album showing several shots I captured today . . . but the sweet little baby Mockingbird shown here was the star of the show in my backyard this afternoon . . .

Handbook of Texas Online

This photo of the screen on my laptop highlights the page for James Wrigley at The Handbook of Texas Online . . . and I am using this for my photo-of-the-day because today I discovered that this page just happens to mention one of my blogs in the bibliography . . .

As it happens, it was 115 years ago yesterday when this James Wrigley died in Alvarado, Texas . . . and I have a blog-page about him because . . . during the 1860s, he is mentioned frequently in the Hall Journal as recorded by James Madison Hall . . . as a matter of fact, in 1862, Hall writes in his Journal about naming his newborn son after his friend, James Wrigley . . .

This J.M. Hall was the brother-in-law of my 2nd great-grandpa, Samuel Houston Sharp (yes, he was named for an old family friend by the name of Sam Houston) . . . Hall was also the stepson of my 3rd great-grandma, Mahala . . . who was the mother of the previously mentioned Sam Sharp . . . in other words, our Mahala married J.M. Hall's father, Joshua James Hall . . . and then J.M. Hall married Mahala's daughter from her first marriage, Margaret . . . so he was her stepson as well as her son-in-law . . .

Baby Mockingbirds

There's an empty nest somewhere!

Seasons

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones,
a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace,
a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear its not too late

Words from the book of Ecclesiastes
Music and additional words
by
Pete Seeger (1954)

This photo showcases another of my James Avery pieces . . . a four seasons ring . . . it is displayed on the glass of a shadow-box containing one of my tatting displays . . . this ring arrived last week . . . purchased during this season, the autumn of my life . . .

Mizpah

This little charm arrived in my mail today . . .
it is a James Avery Mizpah charm . . .
when new, this was one-half of a whole set . . .
it is now missing its other half . . .

And Mizpah; for he said,
The LORD watch
between me and thee,
when we are absent
one from another.
Genesis 31:49

Morning Glories After Lunch

Still waiting to see if blogger gives back the blogposts they took away . . . if they don't, I will repost the photos from the past two days . . . this one was taken at 1:30 this afternoon . . . as you will see through the summer, I have quite a variety of colors in my morning glory garden . . .

Granny's Lantana

First Bloom

This is the very first bloom I've seen on my new knock-out rose . . . it came home with me from Mom's house after Easter weekend . . . like my raindrops? . . . well . . . it did sprinkle here . . . a little bit . . . but definitely not enough to create this look . . . so I helped it out a little bit . . . with the trusty spray bottle . . .

Happy Mother's Day from the Dog

This card & photo arrived in my mailbox today . . .
don't I have a smart pooch! . . .

[thank you, Mom!. . .
good job on the photo of Riley . . .
AND! . . .
you figured out how to print a photo
from the digital camera!] . . .

Flowering Weeds

April Showers

This perfume bottle arrived in the mail today . . . along with three more Evening in Paris bottles . . . there is no label on this one, but it is similar to another one I have that is labeled April Showers . . .

Hood's Texas Brigade Descendant

Received this certificate in the mail this week . . . had submitted my application to hoodstexasbrigade.org at the end of last year . . . based on the service of my 2nd great-grandpa, Joseph Helidorah Nettles . . . who was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness on this date in 1864 . . . the photo of John Bell Hood on the far left is from one of the books in my personal library, Jackson & Lee, Legends in Gray, featuring the paintings of Mort Kunstler . . .

Rockdale in the Saturday Evening Post

Today being the 101st anniversary of the day George Sessions Perry was born in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas, I decided to photograph my copy of an article he wrote about his (and my) hometown . . . it was published in the Saturday Evening Post in the mid-1940s . . . I have the original here . . . somewhere . . . but I guess that's another one of those items I put somewhere for safekeeping . . .

Blooming Clover

Blue Jay

Blue Jay Photo Album

Morning Glory at 6:30 pm!

They are called morning glories for a reason . . . they only bloom during the cool of the day . . . and here in Texas, that usually means in the morning . . . but it was sooo cool here today, that this little bloom was still in its glory at 6:30 p.m. . . . and those are still real raindrops . . . been raining here since the wee hours of the morning . . . we definitely needed that!

Hail Storm Survivor 7:36 AM

Riley (the poodle) and I were awakened about 4:30 a.m. by hail pounding on the roof . . . weather-guy reported that we had 1"-diameter hail in Red Oak . . . ruined today's morning glory blooms . . . broke the wings off the dragonfly . . . left some dents on the Sequoia . . . have not yet checked the shingles . . . too durn chilly outside today . . .