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Hummy Hummingbird

25 Aug

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

My husband and I spent a few days this past week in Raleigh, North Carolina visiting family and eating way too much good food. Since we returned home, I have been busy catching up as well as wandering aimlessly.  Fortunately, our guest blogger, Patricia Franklin  sent a story that I am posting today. I feel better missing my posting day if I can share something good. Enjoy- Onisha

Patricia Franklin

A Few Thoughts

 

I just had a quick story to tell you.  We got home last night and I noticed the hummingbird feeder was out of juice.  I wasn’t going to put any more out, as it draws the hornets and they fight with the hummingbird to get it.  Also, it is getting to the end of the season.  But, I was standing at the patio door this morning, about 6 feet away from the feeder, which hangs right in front of my window over the sink.  Little Hummy came up to the patio window and buzzed around several times right in front of my face.  I was a little startled and thought “Is she trying to tell me something?”  I went about my work in the kitchen and went over to the sink to start the dishes.  She came flying over and was buzzing around the feeder.  I watched her and suddenly she came up to the window over the sink and flew around in front of my face again.  I said to myself, “She really does know where the food comes from, and is telling me she is hungry.”  There are fewer flowers around now, so she is looking for food. Guess she does not mind fighting with the hornets.  I sit outside frequently in my chair next to the feeder, and I know she keeps an eye on it because occasionally another hummingbird will come, and she is immediately there to chase it away.  So I made up some juice and hung it out there. She has been back about six times already today.

 

Hummingbird

 

I loved this story. I do believe that hummingbirds communicate with us humans. We have had them fly from the feeder to hover in front of us as though saying “thank you.” One summer my husband put his camera on the tripod and took some great photos we treasure. Here is one of them-Onisha

 

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Do you have any hummingbird stories or photos?  If so, it would be fun if you shared them in comments.

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It is Good to Give Thanks

18 Aug

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

During my growing up years, we lived in Orlando, Florida. My parents loved to fish, so most Fridays as soon as my parent’s made it home from work, we loaded the car with fishing gear and headed to the east coast. We would fish all night and most of Saturday.  We usually fished from a pier and late at night when most folks had gone home to sleep, we would often  begin to sing hymns in the evening stillness. Just my family, the moon and the stars. Wonderful memories.

What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
    to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
    sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
    the full-bodied music of strings.

Psalms 92: 1-3

The Message

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Missing Mother

11 Aug

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

We attend an old-fashioned country church. You know the kind, where the preacher gets excited and everyone stands to sing the Doxology. When our daughter visited she said there was so much standing and sitting, she felt like she was in a Catholic service.

I wonder what the pastor and the people in the choir think when they see my face and body language during congregational singing. Do they wonder why my stance appears poised to chase some invisible being and why my face has an attentive listening expression?

I would gladly chase the invisible being if she was indeed there. Yet, while death can take away her physical body, it can not take away the memories of my mother’s voice. She sang with the prettiest alto voice I have ever heard and she was not a timid singer, whispering the words to the hymns. She belted them out joyfully.

 When the older hymns are sung, it’s like amidst the voices of those around me,  I can hear her voice.  I tilt my head and close my eyes, trying to capture it. That is when my singing gets really funky. Have you ever tried to sing with someone who isn’t there?

I always wanted an alto voice like my mother, but was born with a low soprano. I may have been able to develop an alto voice but our family of five, needed a soprano. I think my voice became confused because when our family would sing together, my patient dad would frequently shake his head over my lack of ability to stay on key. I can carry a tune, I just carry it in many ways!

I don’t think mother approves of using the over head screens to display the song lyrics without the notes because lately, when we sing hymns  like Standing on the Promises, her voice fills in the alto part in the chorus while the sopranos hold the note.  I decided to do it too, but I do it softly…..standing on the promises, standing on the promises. I felt awkward the first few times so I decided to stop singing and listen. Sure enough, there was a faint echo of other folks singing it the old-fashioned way.

Standing on the Promises

Photo from Church Hymnal 1979

Maybe one day I will be brave enough to ask the pastor if he notices my odd expressions during the singing.  Or maybe I won’t. I will keep sitting in the back of the church and hope he can’t see that far!

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The Impersonal Internet

28 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

Yesterday, after breakfast with friends we made our weekly stop at a produce market that in season, sells veggies from their farm. Often the items have been  picked mere hours before I buy them. This year’s crop of cucumbers, tomatoes, melons and peaches  and lots of others have been delicious! And hurray, green beans are cheaper this year!

Osage veggies

The corn was so pretty I wanted to bring home several ears,  but decided to settle for two. I have a tendency to put  corn in my fridge and forget it.

 Our dinner menu was sweet potatoes, sliced pork barbecue sandwiches (I ate mine without bread but I buttered and grilled a bun for hubby) and corn on the cob. Everything was super simple to prepare except the corn. I didn’t want to shuck it, pull off the silks, boil water and time it. Then I remembered that my friend, Sharon is the queen of  microwave corn and decided to call and get her advice. But I didn’t. Instead, I went online and viewed several recipes and a couple of short videos. I chose a method and the corn was incredibly delicious. (Regretting I didn’t buy more)

Now I feel a bit cheated. I chose the impersonal internet over an opportunity to talk with a dear friend.  Maybe I should invite her up to visit. We can chat and “put up some peas” the easy way. : )

I will supply the freezer bags!

Shelled peas copy

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My Dad Changed the Family DNA

14 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

I have been hearing about DNA Encoding. It seems that when a very traumatic event occurs in a life, it can affect the DNA, and future generations will have an irrational fear due to it. Well my dad was way ahead of the science. He didn’t give me an irrational fear but he did change the family DNA.

Me and dad

Me and dad

As a kid, if I got mouthy around him and THE LOOK from my mom didn’t work, he would grab the hair on the top of my head and pull until I was standing on tip toe. I hated having my hair pulled so I calmed down pretty quick. When our son came along, he did the usual kid thing of throwing himself on the floor and pitching a fit. Nothing worked to stop it. Finally at wit’s end, I reached down, grabbed his hair and pulled him off the floor. (Amazing how one’s body will follow the hair) It worked. Unfortunately, he did this frequently so a lot of hair pulling went on. Now I know, some people will be appalled by this, but it took the drama out of the situation.

When he was in kindergarten, his teacher asked him why the hair on the back of his head always stood up. His reply “my mom pulled it so much it stuck that way.” Embarrassing. Fast forward twenty years and he has a son whose hair sticks up in the same place.

I love this guy!

I love this guy!

My dad gave me a final hug twenty-three years ago today. I still miss him.

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Crazy Hot Weather

7 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

The weather here in our area has been crazy hot.  Fortunately, here in the North Carolina mountains, one can escape the worst of the heat by heading to the higher elevations. Our daughter, Rebekah, has been visiting the last week and we have revisited some of our favorite cool spots. Our first escape was to Wayah Bald and the fire tower. It’s elevation is around a mile high and a nice breeze was stirring the air. I didn’t take a picture from the fire tower as we have a lot of those, but now I regret not snapping a fresh one. We did picnic at one of the concrete picnic tables tucked into the woods.

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We had planned a 4th of July picnic at another favorite, Standing Indian Campground, but we didn’t get motivated to get moving so I declared it a PJ day.  A good time was had by all. : )

The following day began with rain, but we decided to proceed with our planned visit to Standing Indian. In the mountains, it can be raining on one mountain and dry as a bone on the other. We did run into some scattered showers, but not enough to ruin our day. At 3,880 feet, Standing Indian doesn’t have the elevation of Wayah Bald, but the rain had left a cool breeze so we were quite comfortable. In fact, we had to don our lightweight jackets for a time. At Wayah, we took sandwiches but since we knew Standing Indian had a spacious pavilion, we decided to grill hot dogs. We have a battered Volcano Grill and love it. It folds up nicely and runs on your choice of three types of fuel.

On Wednesday we made a new discovery, Mud Creek Falls,  an easily accessible waterfall in Sky Valley, Georgia. We learned of it from friends but had not yet made the trip to see it. Since Rebekah was up here visiting and writing, it seemed like a good time to explore. We made a couple of wrong turns but once we found it, we realized it was very easy to get to. The falls are perfect for folks who can’t walk far,as you can view them from your car. There are also three picnic tables where you can enjoy a meal to the music of the water. Since we had breakfast out, we didn’t pack a lunch.

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On the way home, we stopped by Georgia’s Black Rock Mountain State Park. At a previous visit the ranger had told us to return at the end of June for a spectacular Rhododendron display. We must have been too late, but it was still fun to drive through the park and stop off at some overlooks.

One thing we saw at a couple of the parks was the awesome kindness of leaving a walking stick that was picked up along the way, next to a trail marker or collection box for someone else to use.

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The temps have cooled down and it’s not so crazy hot. Rebekah is working on her seventh novel while she is visiting. She has decided that five hours of “exploring” and five hours of writing is the perfect combination. I have read the first half of her new novel, which is a sequel to Jessie and I can’t wait for her to finish it.

While we were at Mud Creek Falls, my husband pointed out an incredible tree, whose roots were laced into a large boulder. Immediately these words flowed into my heart, what are you rooted into, are you rooted into me, the solid rock?  It looks like the dirt has been washed away from the roots but the tree is firmly planted on the solid rock.

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Memories

23 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

I remember Summer vacations and the trips we made from Florida to North Carolina to visit with my parent’s families.  Getting together with my cousins was always fun but the visits where my parents sat and talked with their elderly relatives were torture. They would sit in rocking chairs and rock, talk, rock, talk, asking if this relative or that one was still living. Had it not been for my love of books I would have disgraced myself and pitched a fit to relieve my boredom.

Years later as I reflect on my childhood boredom I have a better understanding of it. As a child my memories were written on a virtually blank space, consisting for the most part of things my brothers did to aggravate me.There was very little to stimulate pleasant memories, because only a few had been written. Now, in my senior years, my mind bounces like the steel ball in a Pinball machine. A scent, a song or even picking up a frying pan used by my mother all set my memory bells dinging. My present and past mingle in pleasant harmony and sometimes my mind is so refreshed that the sharp pain of an aching knee comes as a shock.

My body betrays.

Disconnected from my soul.

Childish dreams remain.

Back in the “day” I had a tape by Beth Nielson Chapman. Her writing is poignant, expressing deep feeling.  I love the song Emily which talks of lasting friendship and Like a Child Again, which portrays the inner being of a person with Alzheimer’s. I decided to share Years with this post as it seemed most appropriate. I hope you enjoy it and check out her other songs.

Am I only one who is surprised when their body is not in sync with their mind?

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Just. One. Book. Thoughts from the Airport

22 Jun

On the Porch 

Onisha Ellis

Last week I shared a blog post about a town that had no Library for their students. Well the call for Just One Book has been answered. I am sharing a small part of the post, be sure to read the rest. It will be worth it. With so much discord going on, this is heartening.

The 2016 Silver Buckle Rodeo Queen, Hannah Lambach, stopped by for me to interview her for the local paper. She’s 16 and a Greenville High School student. Her words, “You mean we will finally be able to check out a book?!” She stood there amazed. Then went and got her truck to back up to the building and haul the recycling to Evergreen Market which employs students. The store owners Centella and Ken Tucker are volunteering to pick up boxes while I’m gone and bring them to the library. Ken told Hannah to have the students who work for him help unload the recycling. Hannah promised to come back and tell others to come help.

IMG_7821  These were the bags from Saturday’s UPS haul. That’s not counting the Fed Ex afternoon bags, or the post office which had 5 rolling carts of boxes.

IMG_7824Sue (on the left there) instructed Jazmin how to orderly open and sort. Jazmin was sort of dazed for the first few minutes. “These books are for us?!” As I was unloading the UPS bags Jazmin opened a box and stared at the book inside. You could tell she wanted to pick it up and go to a corner and start reading.

“It’s impossible to open the boxes and not want to read everything,” I said. “Oh yes,” she said.

Then more students started to arrive to help as I was leaving. I was nervous about my trip to Wisconsin for a few days, but one of the things I love about Greenville is that when there’s a project, everyone is all in–doesn’t matter whose idea it was, or what your affiliation is. If there’s something that needs to be done, someone is there to help. Weber wants the students active in this. There’s a whole lot of thank you cards to write.

This attitude is why I like this little hamlet of a town. Despite it sometimes not quite being in the 21st century, despite the Internet going out in the middle of the day, despite the crumbling sidewalks rolling up at 5 pm (hey they have a grant from the state to fix our potholes and highway and sidewalks!), it’s a great place to teach kindness and breathe fresh air. It’s a place where there is always something that needs to be done and there are people willing to show others how to do those things.

 

Don’t miss out on the rest of this story.

Source: Just. One. Book. Thoughts from the Airport – Throwing Chanclas

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Just. One. Book.

15 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I am reblogging  this post and asking if you can help. This school library has almost NO BOOKS. I know that several of our followers are poets and this school would love some poetry books. If you click the link to the original post, you will find information about sending books.

JUST. ONE. BOOK.

By Margaret Garcia

June 7, 2016

Just. One. Book.

I live in a town of 1200 people in the Northern Sierra Nevada –where it meets the Cascade Range near Mt. Lassen National Park and about two hours drive northwest of Reno, NV.  Two hundred of that population is students. Over the years as the population dwindled after mines closed, then mills–nothing except tourism and retirement have emerged as ‘industries.’ Many businesses have closed down and with it many things we take for granted—like libraries.

The local junior/senior high school has not been able to purchase new books since the 90s. Some of the “check outs” for old books are in the 1980s. There are no books by people of color in the library. Hardly any books by women are in the few book cases except your standard Austen and Lee. It’s an uninviting place. There hasn’t been a librarian for nearly a decade. And volunteers weren’t allowed. The last eight years students couldn’t even check out books.

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But all that is changing now.

Greenville Junior/Senior High School and Indian Valley Academy, which share the library space have new leadership which are welcoming the idea of revamping the library. Both principals want to see the area’s students supported and reading. Like most of rural America we have no budget for such things as books, film, music , and other media and arts.

We need racially diverse books. We need graphic novels. We need women’s studies. We need science. We need series. We need film. We need comics. We need music. We need biographies of important people. Looking for Young Adult. Classics. We want zines! Contemporary. Poetry. Everything that would make a difference in a young person’s life. Writers send us YOUR BOOK. We have many non-readers who we’d love to turn on to reading. We need a way to take this tiny area and bring it into the 21st century. We have a whole bunch of kids who don’t like to read because all they’ve ever been given is things that are either dull , dated, or dumbed down.

Please, please click the link and consider sending a book. You can have one sent directly from Amazon if you don’t want to mail one yourself.

Source: Just. One. Book. – Throwing Chanclas

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Watching Grass Grow

2 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

  You know how people joke about watching grass grow, indicating boredom? Well, watching grass grow at our house has been pretty darn exciting. In the past we adopted the haphazard method of dealing with our grass in North Carolina. This method involved a lot of head scratching as each of our efforts failed. This year, due to our slide area, we spoke with the Soil and Water folks and took their advice.

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In Florida, we didn’t sow grass seeds. We bought slabs of St. Augustine grass  and voila, we had grass. Of course, if we didn’t water it frequently we had dead grass.

My husband changed his method of dealing with our apple tree that had not produced a single apple in five years. In the fall he gave it a stern lecture, threatening to turn it into applewood lumber if it didn’t quit stalling. It seems the tree took it to heart.

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We do have still have some gardening questions and your input is appreciated.  Why are our blue hydrangea now blue and white and is this pretty flower a weed or a plant that I can buy more of? It looks like Foxglove, but is more delicate and spindly.

It hasn’t been all gardening the past two weeks. We finally figured out how to get our sidewalk poured. My husband had been dreading hauling the concrete laden wheelbarrow. as he has painful shoulders, but we received an unexpected blessing in the form of the concrete truck driver. I call him our angel of mercy. He didn’t allow my husband to push even one wheelbarrow load. He and the handyman we hired went way above our expectations, hauling the excess concrete around the house and bucketing it up on a hill where we plan to build a water feature. They even smoothed the concrete!

Do you see our “porch dog” Gus supervising the men? My job was to make sure Gus didn’t make paw prints on the walkway. He only jumped on it once and it was easy to smooth out.

We were especially pleased to get our walkway finished as our aunt was visiting and we wanted a nice surface for her walker to roll on. We spent several days out and about with my aunt and my cousin. Lots of fun! We visited Black Rock Mountain State Park in Georgia. What a beautiful park it is!

Beautiful overlook
Husband goofing around.

I’m not a big garage sale fan, but my visiting family are and they always find great deals. I even found some myself. The best part of “garage selling” was discovering new communities in the area, The mountains sure have an abundance of nature and beauty. Here are two photos I took at one yard sale. I was warned a black snake was sighted heading for the old door. No worries. Black snakes are our friends.

It is quiet here now that our family returned to their home. I am back to watching the grass grow and the flowers bloom and I am enjoying every minute of it!

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