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Showing posts with label Floral Friday Fotos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Floral Friday Fotos. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2026

The Rogers Neighborhood here

With my being Ms Rogers, I am claiming the area I live in as my neighborhood.


Potted flowers at the entrance to the apartment building.

I sat outside with neighbors talking before the noon sun hit the west side of the building the other day. Then everyone scoots indoors.

Sitting here by the entrance. 

I was issued a key fob to let me through the locked door, and during the day, the landlady can let in deliveries in who buzz her office. I also got a key fob for my son and his wife to use, otherwise I'd have to go down to the lobby to let them in.

And looking the other way I see the studio apartment building across the parking lot. The cute little covered sitting area at the end of the cars is the smoking area. I asked a neighbor if they are allowed to smoke pot, but she thought not. I've not lived in a state where it's legal before, so don't know the rules.

And Wednesday I found out my next-door neighbor's apartment is being emptied out by the management...she must have died fairly recently because my son said someone was knocking loudly on her door when we were moving all my stuff in just 3 weeks ago last Monday, (July 27th). (Come to think of it, it could have been Meals on Wheels, because they often will require a response.)

I would imagine if she had had any relatives they would have been clearing out the apartment. But the manager and maintenance man were carting boxes and lots of grocery carts full of her stuff downstairs, putting a lot of things like shoes, audio tapes, kitchen wares on the "free table" in the lobby. The residents were like vultures actually...very friendly but a bit unpleasant to be around.

So I soon won't be the newest tenant. 

Of course I am sorry I never to meet my former next-door-neighbor. It is sad to think how many people in senior living places like this might die. (How did I get into this apartment anyway?) It brings home to me the situation of a blogger who I didn't even know, who is suddenly in Hospice care...and so many bloggers are writing comments to Joanne and her daughter. I am touched by all the outpouring of care from many of the bloggers I know.

Which reminds me that one of the neighbors mentioned that Monday someone's things were all put out by the curb as they had been evicted. Glad I missed that episode of "grab what you want."

Recycling belongings makes sense though.

 I'll pass. I thought of asking the manager if there was a dresser that might be purchased, but decided I'd go through thrift stores to obtain one, and actually am leaning toward getting something new. I'm delighting in not having too much that is left from the "people before me." The apartment itself has a sense that someone cared for some areas more than others. I could show you the awful corroded kitchen sink, where someone used some powerful acid that left the stainless steel completely stained.

The maintenance man said he'd tried everything to scrub it clean. I just purchased a dish pan...not going to put my dishes on that surface! Of course I've tried everything I have except steel wool by now.



There are scrubby bushes by the parking lot, and a few trees around as well. Hogback Ridge and Heron's Peak are huge grey hunks of rock to look at. I imagine they'll be dramatic in snow.





Can I add that meaningful connections seem to happen here on blogs. Thanks folks!

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Flowers for you

 Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Carol Long makes such swoopy decorations in her flowery pottery

You know how I love poppies...

Thanks to a blogger, who I forgot to note when I saved this photo.


Rainy day at doctors office, but magnolias bloom on!




While at the Pisgah Inn last week, I spied buttercups among the clover! 


Mountain Laurel might have been a bit past its prime.

And so were the Rhododendrons!



Coming back into Black Mountain the day lilies are beginning their sweet single-day lives.


And just a note to hope my blog friends have joy in your lives!

Friday, May 29, 2026

Springing flowers

 

This Venus Flytrap may have caught a less than real fly...but it's a new enjoyment of one of my daughters-in-law!

I love honeysuckle, though it can certainly take over a place. My favorite summertime thing to do with it was to pick a nice white flower (the yellows are older) and pull out the stamen from the bottom, and then lick the drop of nectar from it. Sorry bees, I would take maybe 4-5 drops.

A favorite caterpillar...that of the Monarch Butterfly.

Bleeding Hearts, I've never grown.









It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first. - Miyamoto Musashi

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Poppies

 


Afloat Poppy by Under my Umbrella blog


By Amanda Richardson...British fabric/textile artist....Penberth Valley..land's end.. Cornwall, England UK

Oriental Poppies (2021) by Northumberland-based British watercolour artist, Mary Ann Rogers



by Mihai Olteanu

Iceland Poppies by Roulette


Georgia O'Keeffe's Poppy VI


Canyon Poppies..hand dyed and painted silks and cottons...by Karel Hendee...American quilt artist..silk painter..educator


Georgia O'Keeffe 1927 Red Poppy - two views with different shades of red reproduced.




Photo from Facebook


Poppy Platter, after O'Keefe, by Barbara Rogers, ceramic




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I have never had illusions about the value of my individual contribution! I realized early that what a man or a woman does is built on what those who have gone before have done, that its real value depends on making the matter in hand a little clearer, a little sounder for those who come after. Nobody begins or ends anything. Each person is a link, weak or strong, in an endless chain. One of our gravest mistakes is persuading ourselves that nobody has passed this way before.”  

American journalist, Ida Tarbell, best known for The History of the Standard Oil Company, in 1902 that exposed the questionable business practices of the Standard Oil Company.

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Sharing a bit late to Floral Friday Fotos

Thursday, May 14, 2026

We have nature's beauty to be thankful for

 




The North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville posted these wonderful photos of Mountain Laurel on Facebook last week

Living till he is 100, David Attenborough has given incredible education about the environment to so many!

I'm thinking about how much of my life is awareness of my own participation in my environment...and learning still about how I can help keep the place healthy as well as myself. The symbiotic relationship is the key, I think.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday and Floral Friday Fotos!

Sandhill Cranes and colts in Florida


Our peonies before the rain and their own weight made them lie their heads on the ground.


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Robert Louis Stevenson said, “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” And, “Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.”


Thursday, May 7, 2026

Transformations

 



Blue False Indigo at Lake Tomahawk







Storm damage on Blue Ridge Parkway waiting for damage to be cleared

By Mandy Gallimore, Caney Fork Overlook from Blue Ridge Parkway (not the same area as former photo)

By Shelley Hale, Hawksbill in Linville Gorge Wilderness

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos and Thankful Thursday




I made a wall pillow (suitable to hang outside) with milkweed and a Monarch. I gave it to my son who might or might not hang it up somewhere.

The UU Congregation in Black Mountain (UUCSV) had a great project for the religious education classes. (I recently said I wish I'd been able to attend a religious education program like the Unitarian Universalists have.)

In Religious Education this month we've been learning about pollinators and how incredibly important they are to ecosystem. We had the chance to observe some mature caterpillars last Sunday as they began the process of transforming into their chrysalis phase (pupation), and now those chrysalis are hardening. 

 



Day 1 - this is what the caterpillars looked like when they arrived April 16th. Notice how tiny they are!
There is just a little webbing in the cup, and the food substance* (at the bottom) is smooth.

*This paste provides all the necessary nutrients for rapid growth, including carbohydrates (sugars), proteins (such as soybean meal, casein, or yeast extract), lipids (vegetable oils), vitamins, and minerals.



Day 6 - This is what the caterpillars looked like just 5 days after they arrived! You can see they've more than doubled in size (and grown-ups say human kids grow quickly)! There's a bit more webbing in the cup, the food has been disturbed, and you can see evidence of waste & molted skin.



Day 13 - April 28th. Our caterpillars (Painted Lady variety) have now all formed their silk pads to attached to the lid, made their "J" shape and shed for a fifth time creating a chrysalis (or pupa). The chrysalises (or chrysalides) quickly begin to dry and harden after this final molting.
For more videos of this process (by a Monarch group) see this site:




There's a Facebook video (reel) of the chrysalises being transferred to the butterfly habitat...I hope it works to see this next step.  https://www.facebook.com/reel/2559825441143110



Adult Painted Lady Butterfly from the internet.