loving life

my daughter esther and her daughter, my grandbaby, grace

are visiting from florida.......

so far we have seen beautiful leaves...ate spaghetti ...hula hooped...played twister...

visited chuck e. cheese....made stuffedgreen peppers... spent ages at anthropologie...

watched miss potter...read books....overcame obstacles...had cheesecake from cheesecake factory... laughed a lot.... visited the factory....bought chic winter coats...played jenga...had icecream...talked nonstop....been onstage....hugged spiders leggs... taken a million photos......

all while learning more about each other and following life's path together.

~these photos were taken by various member of the family~

slice of an abundant life

mixed green leafed lettuces growing abundantly.
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csa(community supported agriculture) basket for july
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when i first read the ggw photo contest theme abundant harvest

the natural images that were conjured up were of a bountiful harvest...

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...like this wagon load of watermelons.

or the bounty from our new farmer's market in leiper's fork.

all over flowing with the harvests of the latest season.

wonderfully bountiful apples...crisp and ripe at this harvest time.

baskets full of multi~colour okra....just waiting to be eaten.

but then my mind, heart and the images before me....told me of

a different type of abundance.....a bounty of gratitude....of love....of family.

so with that in mind i thought of how we had picked a special puppy

to be part of our family....beatrice.

how very happy we were and thankful to have her.

then she disappeared we were devasted....but we held out hope.....for the best.

you my bloggy friends said prayers...and made us feel we were

not alone.........remember the day she was found....and by the

kindness of strangers was returned....she was a little frazzled around the edges

but with love, care, and time just look what she has done...

she has fully recovered and we have a bounty of love returned to us.

this year with all the rain....grasses grew.....they were left for

longer periods of time. so what do you do when you have an abundant

bounty of grasses...you cut paths thru the very long stalks...then

run and play in them.....of course.

..........you let your inner child rejoice.

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what about when you do have an abundant crop from your

garden...you harvest it (photograph it) and then eat it.

this image of fresh from the garden okra speaks volumes of abundance.

then there are all those apples...especially right now....

sure there is apple pie, apple crisp....but what is better than

throwing caution to the wind and tossing your freshly picked

apples into a galvanized tub adding water and letting some

costumed guests have at it.

this is sweet bounty.

you know this is the season of abundant loads....truck loads of pumpkins.

okay there is pumpkin in every recipe right now and

on every doorstep, piled high in your decor but why

not have a pumpkin carving with lots of family and friends.

now you have an abundance of fun, creativity.....

....it gets pretty competitive around here come pumpkin time.

we had a bountiful harvest of herbs this year and

love seeing them fill in the garden.......especially the mint.

with all the abundance of herbs....we carefully chose some

fine specimens from the garden....brought them in and

cooked.....until our hearts were content.

having a bounty of herbs means delicious things to eat.

this last year along with a bountiful garden.....

we had something else in abundant

proportion .....

hair.....jesse's hair....
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some mothers might have a problem with this

but for me ....i am okay with personal expression...as

long as you are still being a loving person.

well jesse is a really great kid with a huge heart.

he said he was ready to get rid of his bountiful head of

hair but wanted it to mean something....he decided to donate

his locks to......locks of love.

my mother's heart was very touched....and someone got the

gift of hair from jesse's bountiful blessing.

one thing we did not have in bounty this year was our own pumpkins

but none~the~less....we were very grateful for our one little pumpkin.

success/abundance should not be measured in how much you have

but in how you view it....we were overjoyed.
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another area of abundance in our lives is the ability to buy

farm fresh food......from local growers....we get to pick and

choose what we want...when we want.....i call that a life in abundance.

market flowers

local farmer's bringing and sharing their abundance.

we grew a variety of heirloom tomatoes this year and received

an abundant harvest....to enjoy looking at....

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and of course partake of....as well.

this is our first try to grow raspberries....i was happy with our harvest.

...it gave me an abundance of photo opportunities.

also just one more of the many things that were abundantly bountiful were

our sunflowers....these are mammoth grey striped sunflowers

that reached into the sky at 9 feet high and their faces measured

12 inches across....this gave us a bounty of sunflower seeds....for

the birds....for us to replant and for us to give away.

we are living a life of abundance here on dash home farm....

we are very grateful and fully aware that this is a blessing....so

we are not taking it for granted....not for one little moment.

marmee

my entry for gardening gone wild photo contest.