We’ve all heard how important it is to eat a diet high in roughage. Likewise, “roughaging” (spending time outdoors) is essential to our mental health. Even if it’s a settee on the porch, we need it, gotta have it. I aim to be the reason you pulled your bedding out the back door last night.
Winnie Nielsen says: I am feeling confident that this is a dragon fly Idaho variety!! Ours have a more blue/green body here in Florida.
love dragonflies- am always rescuing them as they get caught in the deer netting strung up aruind the gardens.
they are amazing creatures and all colors, love the irirdecent blue ones best!
Road tripping through my favorite state!
The canola fields are the perfect place to stop and giggle.
We don’t have an ocean, but the beaches are beaches just the same to me and my sister.
There’s something about the sand in your toes, no matter where you are. My sis and I love our Idaho.
Winnie Nielsen says: StellJane and Mia, you do have a lovely state to be proud of! I saw it for the first time last summer and it is such a beautiful place with many untouched and wild places. And your glacier carved lakes are pristine and perfect for swimming and playing on the beach. Have a great summer!
Megan says: We hope we get to meet you the next time you venture through!
Nancy Coughlin says: My family lived in Idaho for 8 years back in the 70s. My late husband was stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base and we have many wonderful memories of living there. We camped all over the state: one can find any topography one desires with a little traveling. Would have loved to have retired there, but my husband’s early death put up a major roadblock to that dream. I have been back to visit with friends in that southwest corner of the state and enjoy any time spent in Idaho.
Megan says: Nancy, glad you’ve been able to return for a visit. It is so true, the topography options are unlimited. Wonderful that some of your memories with your late husband include Idaho.
Winnie Nielsen says: Such pretty aprons! Weren’t they referred to as Sunday aprons in the day? I am way to messy to cook with one of those. Instead, I think they would be cute over a denim skirt as part of the outfit showing Farmgirl romance.
Love, love , love this photo of vintage aprons flapping in the breeze in the sun. And with hankies in the pockets, how sweet.
Connie-Killarney says: Beautiful Aprons! I wore an apron to VBS every day last week and my Farm Girl necklace! The kids loved my apron and I got a lot of hugs because, they said, their Great Nana’s wear aprons. The pastor loved it, it reminded him of his grandmother growing up. I said,” We Farm girls wear our aprons in the kitchen and out of the kitchen”” Which sparked another conversation about Mary Jane’s Farm Girls!,
Which is and will always be Dear to my Heart
Nancy Coughlin says: I have a friend from church who collects aprons and displays them beautifully. She stopped counting at 3000+!
Winnie Nielsen says: Vintage Button decorated vintage bottles? Very interesting twist for a touch of romance.
what neat things with to do with old bottles and jars! I have a collection of antique bottles i use for a ” bottle tree , this just reminded me I need to get them out!
Nancy Coughlin says: I enjoy looking out my French Doors to see my bottle tree, glowing in the sunlight in all its various colors. There’s a woman here locally, who lives on her family’s now defunct dairy farm. She has the largest bottle tree I have ever seen covered with milk bottles that had been used in their dairy. Sha says it is a wonderful reminder of family history. She leaves the bottles out all year and says the bottles look so neat in the winter with snow on them.
Last summer, I shared a little tweet (literally) from my morning windowsill …
Photo by Geoff Clarke via Wikimedia Commons
The “tweet” I’m talking about was the song of a Yellow Warbler who was frequenting the trees around my farm.
I recognize the songs of the warblers and several other species that sing the praises of the daily sunrise, but there are feathered farm friends whose voices I don’t know, so I was excited to discover Bird Song Hero.
Want to know what it is?
You may be surprised to learn that Bird Song Hero is an online game (you never thought of me as a “gamer,” did you?).
Granted, I’m not one to linger on the computer, but this game is really more of a fun tool, and it doesn’t take long to play. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology created Bird Song Hero to help bird watchers learn 50 common bird songs using a technique employed by the pros.
“Bird Song Hero trains you to interpret spectrograms, the sound visualizations scientists use to help them understand sound patterns,” explains the Cornell crew. “Spectrograms are used in the matching game to enlist your visual brain in identifying bird songs.”
Here’s the video that introduces Bird Song Hero and prepares you to play. It might take a moment to load, but it’s well worth it. When you get to the song of the black-capped chickadee, you’ll love the way I’ve always remembered its song: “Who did it?” “Who did it?” “Who did it?”
Visit Bird Song Hero to try the full chirping challenge.
Winnie Nielsen says: This is fascinating! I recognized some of the songs of birds here in the South but missed their spectrograms. This could be a great game to play with kids as well as adults in the summer. We have lots of birds in our yard and it is a continual joy to observe them. Right now, they are finishing up the parenting while feeding their young at the feeders. So cute to watch!
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Winnie Nielsen says: Roses for Summer! True Farmgirl romance.
Roses are the true harbinger of summer! The climbers, I planted by my ” Thomas Kincaid Kute Kottage” ( honestly, it looks like one from his paintings minus the thatched roof, alas, is it only a bare barn inside) are finally climbing and have striped red ,fushia and white blossoms. Just splendid this year despite our hard winter.
Stephanie B says: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!
Nancy Coughlin says: Roses!!! Can’t believe that 2 of my miniature roses survived our bitter winter. And my crawler, light pink, has more blooms this year than all of those combined for the past 5 years! Nature is truly a wonder!
Winnie Nielsen says: Wasp vs Bee? Looks like the unfriendly sort, but maybe not.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Whoop, I have service for a few moments !! Beautiful landscape . On way to get rental car and then onward to Idaho this afternoon! If you find any kisses blowing by your window later, they are coming form me in Sandpoint!!
Seriously beautiful!