Spontaneity

The spontaneity of Instagram photos cannot be resisted by me.

Snap the image.

 Hit the quick edit (or not) and share it. 

No fussing like I do over this blog.

Shelley Puppy watching his daddy mow the lawn. 

This shot is my wallpaper for my smart phone.

One person I follow, on Instagram, is now on holiday in Thailand. 

She is sharing the loveliest tropical beach images.

 It is likely I will never see Thailand but she is taking me there

 pebble by pebble, with a coconut thrown in every day.

 Thanks to those bloggers who started following me on Instagram.

Also to my new followers here on Olive Out.

Happy Friday My Darling Friends

Olive

Garden Shots

Still shots in the garden.

 

 The Hollyhock is now blooming and I will get those images up soon. I have issues with real time photos. Come back and you will see a lovely pink Hollyhock. I am also having issues with finding our professional images on my computer. I have lost them....oops. Must contact my photographer friend.

Stonecrop Angelina and another sedum with a succulent. All taken from other places in the garden.

We are having a cold and rainy day here. I have walked Shelley Puppy three times in the cold drizzle and he is an absolute hoot and a half. Clovis is not giving him an inch. Keeping Shelley out of the flower garden is a job but he is catching on. I have only lost two Ginger Lilies. A tiny matter compared to the joy of a sweet puppy. If he gets into the Hydrangea Lab we will have to talk.

Partying with Sherry at No Minimalist Here for Open House Party

happy gardening friends

Olive

***Web***

The web appears to be floating on the ivy.

An astute reader remarked in a comment on my post about the nest that spider webs and birds nests are similar in their intricate weaving.  The difference being that birds must find their material and spiders make theirs. Spider webs are fun to capture in images as long as I am not close to the spider. We live, part of the time, in an antebellum home that is brimming with wolf spiders and we have an understanding. The understanding is that they cannot be view in the five rooms we use. If in view then they have to go. I fully realize they are hiding in all those nooks and crannies that comprise an old house.

 If I thought about it for long, which I do not, I would never sleep there. Joe is completely unaware of the spiders. I swear he does not see them.

He has no spidey sense.

joy and peace

Olive

Blue Green Shutters

  We have original shutters from our old house. 

They are chippy. 

Blue green and beautiful.

Joe cleaned these with a brush because they were covered in cob webs and spiders.

 I did not touch them. 

Call me chicken.

The piece of equipment above is on the post of the shed the shutters were stored in.

 Do you see the wolf spider holes?

 Shudder. 

There is an area right now in Australia covered in these webs because of flooding.

 Barns, fields, and trees appear snow covered because of wolf spiders.

 It really is beneficial as the spiders will eat the insects that multiple due

 to the water but I would have to move. 

Every shed we own looks like that image above and also

 the upstairs of our house which is not in use. 

A squirrel is running around up there as I type this.

 It is not boring here.

I leave you with a shot I zoomed in on from the back of Joe's truck. 

The filter is Window in Photoscape.

Now I am off to sell some shutters, old windows and a truck full of junk. 

Thursday's are fun.

Linking with:

Vintage Inspiration Friday 

joy and peace

Olive

~life in the lantana~

Our lantana thrives in the heat and is brimming with life in the form of several kinds of butterflies and something slightly more sinister. 

The hummingbirds frequent it's blossoms as well but I have no patience to capture that image.

Look at that face!

This garden spider is hanging there waiting for a butterfly to get caught in the web. It is difficult for me to approach a spider for a photograph but I did it.

I confess, this one is cropped and thereby slightly enlarged. I was not this close.
Ick.

Now if you toss in a few hummingbirds this is life in our two huge lantanas that flank our deck.

So plant you some lantana and you will not regret it.

I am joining Tracie at Fishtail Cottage for Cottage Flora Thursdays.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Barn Chicks Baby

October’s theme for the Barn Chicks is a seasonal one filled with pumpkins, barns, recipes, and such.

We begin in the  back yard of our old house where chippy and rusty reside in perfect harmony.

Beware this post is loooong.

I have had this concrete pumpkin for about twenty years. He has spider webs in his eyes. They are real.

He weighs about twenty pounds.

Joe asked if I was going to clean it.

Well no.

Every thing we own, that sits outside, the spiders think belongs to them.

Silly spiders.

I found a barn nearby that is rather ominous.

For a Southern barn it is tall.

I almost walked onto a rattle snake while taking these images.

Once again Barn Chicks is fraught with danger. You can read my previous chick post here .

Tom, I did not kill it.

I walked away.

Slowly.

Are you still with me? That barn was chilling to me in broad daylight.

I have no recipes. I know you are thrilled!

Please visit Julie-Marie our hostess at Idyllhours and the other Barn Chicks.

Look at the list of chicks on her side bar.

Julie is guest hosting for Karen at Brayton Homestead Interiors.

grace surrounds us

Olive

spider webs

Absolutely no need for faux spider webs at our old house.

Our industrious eight legged fellows have created a huge display in some of the shed windows.

Our spiders are harmless. Joe has had this house for a coon’s age and has never been bitten.

Are we ready for Halloween or what?

There was a cabinet door in front of this window and when I moved it I could hear the webs tearing away from the window.

Eek.

grace surrounds us

Olive

This House is Solid

The old house has a ginormous central hall. Originally the front door looked directly onto the back door.

Then some one, not so bright, decided to put the bathroom at the end of the hall where the back door was located.

This blocked the breeze flowing down the hall. This bath is stuffy and poorly constructed with a false ceiling.

When CC and I moved here some years ago it required gradual adjustment to this old house.

Pre-teens do not adjust well. It’s that simple or not.

This house is solid. If you are on one side you cannot hear what is happening on the other. A loud homicide could occur and you could miss it.

We actually call each other on our cell phones if we need something. Modern Intercom.

When CC took one of her first showers, apparently it was a long one, I just happened into the central hall.

She was screaming. Homicide  in progress?

I went in. In the shower with my child were no less than fifteen rather large spiders!!!

Pre-teen, taking a really hot shower for gee about thirty minutes…she steamed them right out of the walls. Dear Lord.

It was kind of  like a TV movie except I had to deal with the screamer and the spiders!

Forty somethings don’t adjust well either.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Hidden Treasures At The Old House

I have lost an important quilt. It was on my daughter's bed when she was a small child. I believed it to be packed in a box somewhere here in the old house. We cannot find it.

Do you know how old houses in the South have rooms added on to them? This house has several. One was a beauty shop in the fifties. It has it's own porch. The current header photo for this blog is a picture of it's little window with Lady Banks Roses. The room itself is small with low ceilings. Unlike the thirteen foot ceilings in the rest of the house. The beauty shop is dark and full of curious artifacts. Two light bulbs dangle over the spider webs. Joe brought out three fabulous lamps. I have been looking for lamps at yard sales. I need to ask Joe to look in the innards of this old house before I buy anything!

We located three plastic boxes of mine from when we moved here. Apparently I never unpacked them. I think the contents must not have been critical. They have been fellow shipping with the spiders for seven years . The quilt was not in them. But HOLY BAT SHEETS ROBIN we found CC's Bat Man sheets. I always put them on the bed when she came with me to camp when I was a camp nurse.

There was gnashing of teeth and some mild wailing about the quilt. Regardless. It was not found. I do like that my child has a love for things from the past that have meaning. We have quilts made by my grandmother and Joe's mother(pictured above). Dishes from every one's mother. I try to tell CC how treasured they are. I think she's got it.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Old House and Eight Legs

Having lived in a house that is over one hundred years old for over six years now I have a new view of old homes. That mine comes with the most wonderful husband is why I have lived here this long. For no other reason. So many reasons not to like this house. The main one has eight legs. Multiply that by eleventy thousand times and that is how many spiders we live with. Wonderful husband says they do not bite. For the record he has never been bitten in thirty years of living here. Well I am overjoyed by that. No joy is found in the copious amount of webbing they put everywhere. Spiders don't spare anything from these hideous webs.
Wonderful husband insists they benefit us by killing insects. An actual cockroach would not stand a bat's chance here. I see a roach carcass on the backporch on occasion. Spiders are efficient that way. The backporch is covered in webs. I cringe. I shudder. I need to clean it. I cannot. The spiders won it. The inside of the house I keep relatively clean. Vacuumning is essential. I worry about that porch at times. So many nooks and crannies. Would an exterminator ever kill all of them? No.

Olive Out