Little Cabin in the (Southern Illinois) Woods

The Cabin at Mountain Glen in Cobden, Illinois

Little cabin in the woods
Little old man at the window stood

Saw a rabbit hopping by
Then knocking at his door

Meadow view from the Cabin 

"Help me! Help me, sir!" he said.
"Or the hunter shoot me dead!"

Passionflower vine in the meadow

"Come, little rabbit, come inside,
Safely to abide..."

Elderberry?

Yes, I really am off my rocker, just in case you were wondering--off my rocker on the cabin porch and back to work in Florida. Vacation in Southern Illinois is over. Or is it?

I am still savoring wild cherries and wondering what elderberries (if that's what those pink berries are) taste like...

Capturing deer emerging from thickets...

Taking a boat ride on Kinkaid Lake to a favorite jumping-off point...

Shooting wild turkeys--with the camera--just as the sun comes up...

Watching Grandson take his first hike in Giant City State Park...

Taking advantage of family photo opps...

Thinking that silliness abounds when Grandson's around.

I can't leave Southern Illinois without bringing home some of its summertime bounty. The peaches are from Rendleman Orchards in Alto Pass. Tomatoes are courtesy of a generous brother-in-law who loves to garden.

WFREC: Cheers! Here, Plants, Everybody Knows Your Name

I don't know why, but for me it's a pleasure to pull weeds--as long as they're in someone else's garden. Maybe it's because I get to learn something new every time I visit. Wouldn't you know this lovely shrub is a Clerodendron ugandense (maybe 'Blue Wings')? I didn't until I asked the real Master Gardener in charge of volunteers at WFREC. It (the WFREC Gardens in Milton) is one of those places where, if you're lucky enough to be a plant, everybody knows your name. Everybody except me. I'm still learning, and it takes a lot of repetition. One of these days those plants will be as familiar to me as the characters on Cheers! I credit years of television reruns for that phenomenon.

Bees visiting this shrub don't have blue wings or extraordinary power, but they do tend to transcend ordinary when captured on a flower.

Some beds, it may be noted, were designed in formal style. If not for outside heat and obligations, I would have stayed there quite a while.

Who can resist antique roses that invite you to sit a spell and enjoy their smell? Forget your venting and breathe in their scent(ing)?

I'm glad that there were signs to remind me of the names. If not for that small help, I would have to resort to games...

Like memory-jogging-hopscotch or pick-a-plant-by-number or jump-in-the-nearest-fountain. Or smell-the-rosemary or ask-the-master-gardener-again or climb-the-nearest-mountain.... Oh dear, I would not have you deluded. In Florida, you see, the mountains are not included.

If "cool" is what you're looking for, then take a walk among shaded caladiums galore.

Some weeds in other beds are left for next time 'round. You won't notice if you don't look closely--they never make a sound.

(Thanks to Mary, my friend from NFREC and Gardening Friends of the Big Bend, who gave me the idea for this post.)

The Haves and the Have-Knots

Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) blooms abundantly in my NW Florida garden

Business for massage therapy has been a little slow lately, but I'm not worried. That's what I told someone today at the fitness center where I have my practice. It's summer vacation time, and the massage business has its ups-and-downs like any other business. Will it ever be perfect, you think? My "practice"? I hope not. It should always be unfolding, and I should always be learning something new. That's what I told someone else I met today who is still a massage student. She is hoping to make a decent, maybe even good living as a therapist. I encouraged her to not be discouraged if it takes a while to get to that point.

Curled-up Black-eyed Susan waiting to unfold

Even with the economy being depressed and many people out of work, there are still the "haves" who "have knots"--in their necks, their backs, their shoulders....By "haves" I don't mean people with more money than they know what to do with. I'm not personally acquainted with any "1%-ers," whatever that means. Around here, the people with money to spend came by it honestly. They've had to work hard for it, which explains the knots.

Francis Bacon had some wise words to impart concerning wealth, among other things, and he paid close attention to what other wise men before him had written. Wouldn't it be nice if policy-makers making decisions that affect other people's wealth would follow suit?

"...as Solomon saith: 'Riches are as a stronghold in the imagination of the rich man;' but this is excellently expressed, that it is in imagination and not always in fact; for, certainly, great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract nor friarly contempt of them, but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus:

'In studio rei amplificandae apparebat, non avaritiae praedam, sed instrumentum bonitati quaeri.'

(In his anxiety to increase his fortune, it was evident that not the gratification of avarice was sought, but the means of doing good.)..."