Lee Ann and her family came for their annual summer visit to the lake house.  The whole clan streamed in over the two weeks, and we stayed pretty busy.  The kids tubed, did some skiing (or spent some time trying to learn) swam, kayaked, took a lazy float down the Little Tallapoosa, had a campout, and learned to jump from a rope swing and we all did a lot of eating.  Jimmy, bless his heart, worked himself to death getting everything ready for the visit.  We had 10 to 15 people there most of the time, with some dropins throughout the weeks.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weeks.

On the water:

Lee Ann demonstrated her rope swinging skills for her girls.  But, the swing was too high for them.

So they chose to jump from the ‘cliffs’.

Georgia and Lexie try their skills with the kayaks.    Ila gets advice from her mom, then gets up on the skis.

IGeorgia has her first ski adventure.  Abigail comes up out of the water.

Lexie is a pro.

Lee Ann still has it!  Couldn’t let those young whippersnappers get too cocky!

That’s no ham-that’s just Ila being Ila.

Dianne and Sue both take their first wave runner rides.  I think we may have created two wave runner junkies!

                                                                                  So Papa J decided to make the kids a shorter version of the rope swing.                                                                                                                 But when you’re at the lake, there’s also that time to just relax and enjoy.

                                                                                    Then there was the nature hike, the campout, the river float, and lots of good food and good times.

               Floating down the river.

Bert with his entourage.

And, yes, these two old ladies kept up with the others with their motors by paddling for four hours.

And probably my favorite, boat rides til sunset.

You leave home for a few days, and just look what happens in the garden. The lilies are starting to put on a show.  I love the rust colored ones, but I also love the Easter lilies (especially since I got those a couple of years ago on the discount table the week after Easter for 50 cents each).  The pink lilies came from California.  The pink calla lilies I started from seeds.  The white one, I bought years ago. Some of the sun loving, pollinator plants have started blooming, hopefully to attract butterflies, moths, and bees to the garden. Some of the nonblooming plants are beautiful this year, thanks to the rain.  This is a hosta I’ve had for years.  Its span is about 6 feet, three feet tall, with 10 inch leaves. And, of course, it’s hydrangea time.  The Snowflake oakleaf hydrangea has twelve inch clusters that weigh it down to the ground.  Some of the mopheads and the lacecaps are also blooming.  Still waiting on the pee gee and limelight.  But the Annabelle is covered with blooms. The alstromeria are blooming, along with the dwarf butterfly bush.  The alstromeria will be moving to Leslie’s house since I planted this years ago just for her.   It’s just an adventure every day to stroll through the garden and spot new things in bloom, or just sprouting from seed.  And of course, the veggie garden is up, but well behind its usual size by this time of year.  The cold and the wet weather got me off to a slow start, but with blooms can cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes be far behind?   I can see pickles in the near future.

Whew!  With all this rain, I’m in a race against the weeds and the reseeding flowers that are crowding their neighbors.  But I still find a little space here and there to tuck in something new.  The butterfly garden is coming right along.  The cosmos are blooming, the first of the butterfly weed opened this morning, and the pentas are ready to go in the ground.  I am seeing hummers at the red honeysuckle and the bush salvia.  If only the weeds would disappear, I’d be a happy gardener, indeed

Coral Bells in full bloom.

Bleeding Hearts still blooming after all these days.

Praying Hands hosta in homemade hypertufa pot

A foxglove that I have no idea how it came to be in this flower bed.

Nigella, with one of the rarest blue colors, much like a bachelor’s button. Brought this back from a trip to San Francisco.

Rose Campion-an heirloom plant that I got from my great Aunt Maude over 30 years ago. It can be invasive, but I like the magenta color enough to overlook that.

Planting pentas just for the butterflies. Of course, it doesn’t hurt my feelings to look at it either.

The snapdragon is a sentimental favorite. I remember my Mama Gentry having it in her yard.

The Cyclamen have enjoyed the rains.

My shade garden in the back yard is also a water loving garden. It helps that the fountain splashes water on the plants all day and all night.

Blue Mammoth hosta was one of my first hostas. It is over 5 feet across. Has done exceptionally well with all this rain.

The mailbox clematis hasn’t bloomed well for two years. The oak tree above it has spread so much that it keeps the clematis shaded. The blooms are nice, but the plant is very lush.

The potato plants are blooming, so I should be digging some spuds before long.

Can we say cucumber pickles anyone?

The blackberries can’t be far behind with all these flowers.

The deck baskets are sporting some pretty new petunias.

Blueberry pie, blueberry muffins, blueberry cobbler, or blueberries for the birds. You want to guess who gets to them first every year?

For the past six years, I’ve been chairman of the Master Gardener Plant Sale.  It totally consumes parts of my life.  From potting plants, to making signs, writing publicity articles, to setup week, I pretty much work on plant sale stuff throughout the year.

Our sale on Saturday was a huge success.  Within an hour and a half of opening the doors, we had sold the vast majority of our thousands of plants.  Unfortunately, the cold, wet winter did some serious damage to many of our plants we had propagated for the sale.  But we still had a building full!

We have some very loyal customers who come every year, waiting in line for a couple of hours so they can be the first in the building, getting the pick of the plants.  With several hundred customers, rows and rows of tables filled with plants, plants in very nook and cranny of the building, it can be overwhelming for first timers.

But at the end of the day, we make a ton of money for our projects and charitable giving.

Now it’s on to a new project.  Not sure yet what it will be, but I want to do something that will benefit people, help them learn to have a love of gardening that sustains me in my darkest hours, and is a community service.

I know that the Native Plant Society is going to become a bigger part of my life.  I absolutely love going out to the woods to rescue native plants from the bulldozer.  I’m slowly filling my yard with natives, displacing much of the nonnatives.  I’m not a purist, but I do love that the natives can pretty much take care of themselves once they are established.  Maybe my new ‘career’ will be educating people about the importance of our native plants.

Whatever I decide to do in my ‘next life’, I want to make sure that nothing consumes me and causes me to ignore my family and friends.

Just when I think March and early April are my favorite bloom times, along come the irises.  They are outdoing themselves this year.  One of the reasons I love these plants so much is the people associated with many of them.  Some came from Mama’s garden, some from gardening friends.  I wish I had labeled them all with the names of those who shared them with me.  But strolling amongst them recalls the warm feelings I get thinking about who each one reminds me of, or a special occasion when I received them.

Along with the iris are the columbines, whose multiple blooms will continue to give me such pleasure for a few more weeks.

I love the native red columbines with the native red honeysuckle as a backdrop.  The hummers love it as much as I do.

I’ve finally achieved my goal of blooms every day of the year.  I hardly ever fail to stroll around the yard daily, just to see what’s new and blooming.  It’s a wonderful thing.

I heard a sermon once in which the preacher said it doesn’t matter what year you are born, or what year you die.  What matters is what you do with the dash between those dates.  Many of us spend our dashes rushing around trying to find something to make us happy.  Others spend their dashes doing good things to make other people happy.

Yesterday, I saw a fine example of someone who has lived her dash well.  Dianne has devoted herself to her nursing profession for 42 years.  Now that she is sick and unable to work, her dash is paying off.

While most people are soon forgotten by coworkers, Dianne has one of the most caring, persistent bunch of coworkers and friends I’ve ever encountered.  When we got home from her doctor visit yesterday, one of her supervisors and her husband were in Dianne’s yard mowing, digging out monkey grass, and generally sprucing up the yard.  We pitched in to help and soon two more friends arrived, then a couple more.  For over three hours these women (and one husband) worked tirelessly in her yard, clearing out her wooded area, pulling privet, honeysuckle and blackberry briars.  They loaded it on a trailer to be hauled off.  They even climbed over in the trailer by ladder to pack it down so they could dump in more stuff.  The yard looks great, thanks to these wonderful ladies.  One even provided home made soup to feed the work crew.

I have to wonder how many people would appreciate my dash enough to devote so much care and concern on me.  Makes me stop and think that maybe I need to spend the rest of my dash being a better friend and family member.

I think of the many birthdays I forgot to send a card or a gift, how many times I didn’t call to check on a sick friend, the favors I promised but failed to follow through on, and the list goes on.  I can honestly say, that Dianne remembers those birthdays, calls on and helps her sick friends with rides to the doctor, gift baskets, books to read, and anything else she can to to make the time pass for them more pleasantly.  She is never stingy with her time, always willing to volunteer where needed, always available to take mama where she needs/wants to go.  She is overly generous with her money, always donating to a needy cause.

I guess she’s just about the best sister anyone could have, and I’ve only recently understood just how special she really is.

So from now own, I promise myself to be a better friend, family member, Christian, and person.

Please pray for Dianne and our entire family as she has her surgery on Monday.  I know there is much left for her to do, especially being an example of what we should all strive to be.

We had a huge crowd at Mama’s house today for our annual Easter covered dish lunch and egg hunt.  I think each year we have to add more table space for food, as well as guests.  It’s so easy to forget how much family means to me, with all my busy-ness.  But I love to sit around talking to Mama’s brothers and sisters and swapping stories about her!  They have some real tales to tell.

Mama’s brother, Harvey, saying the blessing.  I enjoyed hearing his tales of his and Mama’s competition with their gardening.  He doesn’t believe in planting by the signs, but Mama sure does.  Don’t know which one has the better garden, although Mama has really cut the size of her garden, and is a little slower getting around these days.  But what can we expect of a soon-to-be 86 year old spring chicken.

We cooked coconut pies together on Friday.  As she finished making the custard filling for her coconut cream pie, she said we should stir in the coconut.  After she stirred a bit, she said, “That looks just right.  It’s lumpy, just like me!”  I told my Leslie about this and that I’m putting it in the cookbook.  Leslie wondered how anyone making the recipe who didn’t know Mama would know how lumpy she is, so how lumpy should the pie mix be?  Good question, but not my problem!

Mama’s sister, Ima and her husband, Bo.  She is such a neat person, a real go getter.

Her sister, Irene, checking out the Thomas the Train book Lucas got in his stocking.

Her sister, Pearl, holding Lizzie, our newest addition.  Lizzie’s grandmother was Pearl’s twin sister.  I know Myrl would have been totally wrapped up in this little girl.

The food- Oh, my goodness, we’ve got some super cooks in the family.  Brother Steve smoked pork to make barbecue, all the women made their special dressing, vegetables, fried chicken, sandwiches, salads, and desserts-cookies, cakes, trifle, pies, candy.  There was enough left over for everyone to take a plate home, with leftovers for Mama to feed ‘the boys’ next week.

Everyone takes a seat and chows down.  There’s no shortage of food at the Gentry family reunions.

And there’s always plenty of visiting and ‘catching up’ to be done.

The best part of the day-except the food, the family fellowship and did I mention the food?It’s the Easter Egg Hunt.  We have two hiding fields-the front yard for the little ones and the orchard for the big kids.  With over 400 eggs to find, there’s plenty of fun to go around.

I can’t imagine any family enjoying each other’s company any more than our family.  While it’s sad to think of those who are not there to share the day with us, there are the new faces we see who just joined us-through birth, marriage, dating, or just as friends who come for the fun of the day.  I love being part of such a wonderful group of people.