Black and Gold. . .

 

Everything is black and gold,

Black and gold tonight:

 

Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon, yellow candlelight;

 

Jet-black cats with golden eyes,

Shadows black as ink

 

Firelight blinking in the dark

With a yellow blink

 

Black and gold, black and gold

Nothing in between

 

When the world turns black and gold

Then it's Halloween!~Nancy Byrd Turner

 

This poem brings to memory many Halloweens passed:  Trick or Treating as a young girl in New Mexico,  then getting my sons ready for Trick or Treat and always reading this very same poem year after year with my students in school.  Today, I look forward to Trick or Treat with my precious grandchildren.  What autumn memories do you have, dear friends?  Many happy ones I hope!

Be encouraging. . .

 

to all you meet.

 

You never know

 

who is having a hard day.

 

Hello, my friends.  I hope you are doing well this fine autumn day.  We are having some cooler temps here in Central Texas for which I am truly thankful.  I am counting my blessings today, and you, my friends, are right at the top of my list!

Ms. Naomi, my gardener friend

I was a young wife and mother raising two young sons and working full time as a school teacher.  Not a lot of time for tea parties and gardening.

 

 

And yet, even then I loved pretty delicate china tea cups and lovely roses.

 

I longed to have a pretty garden but knew very little about gardening. 

 

I was very fortunate, however, because a friend of mine that I had known all of my life, Ms. Naomi, was a gardening expert!

 

She graciously offered to come to my house and help me prepare my soil for a garden and even brought seeds and flowers for me to plant.  She came on Good Friday.  She said she always planted on this blessed day.

 

I was very excited to have her help.  She showed me how to plant and water and my love for gardening had begun.  I will always be thankful for this sweet lady.

 

I had a very pretty garden that spring and summer and into the autumn.  Even though Ms. Naomi has been gone many years now, not a spring goes by that I don't think of her and her gift of gardening that she presented to me.

 

Do you love to watch things grow?  I sure do.  I think I have my daddy's farming blood in me.