"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." Robert Herrick

"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." Robert Herrick

Hello Friends!

Friends, Romans, countrymen...y'all. Foodies, gardeners, artists and collectors - let's gather together to share and possibly learn a thing or two in the mix.

Donna Baker

Showing posts with label Robert Frost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Frost. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Road Not Taken


We own a mountain - at least part of one.  Pine Mountain is beautiful countryside, wooded mostly with oak and pine, and also has a lake at the bottom.  Limestone bluffs are full of fossils from an ocean that covered this land eons ago. Also, many arrowheads and spear points and even a carved stone button from Caddoan Indians that lived here for centuries.  We have two old log cabins, mostly down except for the stone foundations.  We've dug up pottery and flower bulbs from the settlers of long ago. 

I humored my husband and went with him to his "Cabinette" on the mountain this weekend.  He is in preparation for the coming black powder deer hunting season which begins next weekend.  He and his pals all come for a ten day hunt, one of two in the fall.  It is his favorite place in the world.  He would rather go here than go to Paris or Rome.

Me, I avoid it at all costs.  We definitely go down different roads.


Here is what they call the shitter.  It is a nightmarish place with cobwebs, rodent droppings, you can imagine.  And, guess who had to go there?  The toilet seat was full of mosquitos, but I didn't see any rats or snakes.  OMG!


The 'cabinette' is basically a shanty with an old school bus at the end.  That is where the snorers sleep. They have a kitchen and all the modernities of home including satellite tv and internet hookup. It is awful and you couldn't pay me to ever sleep there.

Would you believe these guys are all professionals; doctors, bankers, etc.?



This part of the state is hillbilly country - real Deliverance kind of place. This little gem was on the road a few miles away.  Now you know why I like the city.  I'm not showing the confederate flags, etc.  Though I'll go fishing, or used to, I only go to ride the ATV's around the mountainside.


We stopped by the feed store on the way home.  All the baby fowl are back.  These baby turkeys, my favorite fowl, are sleeping.  We have no more fowl at the farm.


It was 90 degrees this day.  This box (land) turtle has been scanning the patio for caterpillars and such.  He'll go dig a hole and hibernate soon.


And this last little something at the farm, before I head back to the city.  This was the only day that wasn't filled with errands; MRI's, x-rays and a sick cat to the vet.  I'll have to take him back to the city with me to keep an eye on him.  It is very hard going back and forth, my truck filled coming and going.

PS ~ Since Boo, who is white, is going back to my all white city house, I decided to try and give him a bath last night as the outdoor cats like to roll in dust and dirt.  First and last time, with a few puncture wounds to boot.  Ever try and give a cat a bath?

The first picture reminded me of my favorite poem by Robert Frost.  I memorized it many years ago and couldn't remember it verbatim, which was unsettling.  So here it is in toto.  I hope I don't forget it again.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a wood,
and sorry I could not travel both
and be one traveler, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, 
and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that the passing there 
had worn them both about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no steps had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My Day of Days


I reached a new decade back in December.  One that didn't really bother me all that much as I am not very vain.  What are you gonna do?  Nevertheless, it was the best birthday ever.  I went to lunch with my daughters and friends, got the nicest gifts and had the best time.  And, nobody said a word about my surprise birthday party that night at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, sneaky little devils.  They were all there having fun, grinning like Cheshire cats and no one had even let it slip.  I've never had a surprise party before.  It was wonderful.  All my children, husband, sister and her significant other, friends and their children were there.  I love them all.  My cake was a beautiful cake/mousse concoction covered in cherry blossoms ( this because my daughter knew how much I was moved by the movie) and I got a copy of the movie too.  My daughter had even sent out printed invitations with cherry blossoms inscribed and on the back a picture of me in the field and a line from the poem THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost that I quote from time to time.  My friends and family are so thoughtful, so wonderful.  I adore them. It was the best day and night.  "someday I shall be telling this tale ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."  I, I took the one less traveled by and now I'm lost on the farm.