Mollie scurried around her kitchen, cooking for the festival in her town. Food from the southern US is often prepared differently than food from anywhere else.
Mollie couldn’t decide between entering her stack cake or a cushaw pie in the competition. Her neighbor was going to enter cushaw pie, but Mollie’s pie was her specialty dish.
The day of the competition came and Mollie’s pie won the blue ribbon. Her neighbor was angry and threw Mollie’s pie to the ground screaming.
Mollie learned that real friendship is hard to find and should be cherished and nurtured.
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Note: Cushaw pie is not common outside the southern U.S. A cushaw is a gourd and the filling is used to make pie. Many think it is tastier than pumpkin pie.
I awakened with a start. What had I heard? Oh, it was only Sophie, my German Shepherd dog who sleeps beside my bed. Wait! Sophie! Why was she whining? I leaped out of bed realizing my clock said 6:45 a.m. I usually took her for a walk on the beach by 5 a.m.
We walked outside. She pushed open the garden gate and started for the beach. I followed trying to stop her. Since one of her strides is equal to three of mine, there was no hope of catching her.
I jumped in my car. What else could I do? My dog was taking herself for a walk to the beach.
I pulled up in a parking space watching Sophie run gleefully around on the beach. As soon as I stepped on the beach calling her, a police car pulled up beside me. Sophie immediately ran to me, fearing I was in danger.
Ma’am, get your dog off the beach.”
Sophie barked at the officer. Her bad dog bark.
“Get off the beach with that dog,” he said in a loud, aggressive voice.
“Officer, if you would just give me a………”
What happened next wasn’t very pleasant. Sophie and I ended up looking through the bars of the backseat of a police car.
I was unhappy. The officer was unhappy. But Sophie? She had gotten to defend me from the bad police officer. Now if she can only figure out how to charm us out of jail.
The old lady trudged up the street to the church she had attended for more than 60 years. The light from the steeple caused the white church to glow. She climbed the stairs up to the steeple.
The violin was lying on the table. She opened a window for some cool air.
The old woman started to play. She played Horner’s “My Heart Will Go On.” A crowd gathered on the street. They waited for her to come out to praise and thank her.
The steeple went dark. She didn’t appear. They looked for her, but she had vanished.
It was an old locksmith shop located in an ancient building in a small town. The windows were broken. The inside was filthy and filled with rats. Henri was determined to revitalize it. He was a locksmith by trade and felt like he could make a good living here.
Henri had seen all the special, butnecessary, services drain away from the town. Occupations like clockmakers,shoe repair, and locksmiths were gone as young people wanted to work in themore exciting field of technology. He dreamed of a large town square wherethere was an abundance of such services. Henri had hope since, just down the street, another space would house a clockmaker.
As the crews went to work on the locksmith shop, they found so much that had to be completely redone. Henri also found treasures. Equipment from over 75 years ago. He found antiques that, although he couldn’t use them, he could display them.
Henri’s friend, the clockmaker, also found treasures in his shop. As they talked, the thought of a small museum featuring the old treasures popped up.
One day, a young woman, happened along and spent some time talking with Henri. She was a painter and a former museum curator who was looking for a store front. She had the idea to share her space with the old treasures.
As time went on, Henri’s vision of a town square started to take shape. He and Anais, the painter, grew close and worked together on their projects, both for their work and their lives. Finding that old store front turned out to be the best thing that had ever happened to Henri, Anais, the small town and even the clockmaker.
They found that dreams can come true with a lot of vision and a little luck.
She sat under the protective canopy of the tree reading on a summer afternoon. No one could see her sitting there, but she could see the going’s on outside.
As a small girl, she’d had a tree house. It was a rudimentary one that her dad built for her. That tree house just had a floor and stairs to the ground.
She dreamed of a bigger tree house now, as an adult. The small deer stand was a start. She wanted four walls, a roof, and even heat for winter.
Lily always took her morning walks along the banks of the canal. She loved to watch the graceful and elegant swans as they glided across the water glistening in the morning light.
Lily was nostalgic about her own life. She loved the old, dilapidated boat docked there and she could see its potential. The boatman who owned it seemed content to leave it as it was.
One morning, Lily was standing near the old boat on the canal dreaming of taking it to far away places. A big, white dog bounded up to her full of joy and love. She wondered where he belonged and when she looked up, she saw a man approaching, calling the dog. He was an older man and handsome in a distinguished sort of way.
She and John fell into a conversation about their mutual love for the canal. Over the next few hours, John regaled her with stories of the history of the canal and they set out to explore it together. Over the next few weeks, John filled her heart.
One morning, John told Lily that he had bought the old boat from the boatman. He then declared his love for her, and she fell into his arms.
A few months later, they started off on a magical journey in the old boat. As they left, the swans danced in joy.
One year later, Lily thought back to that day. She was glad they hadn’t known what would happen during the coming year.
Thank you to CE Ayr and Jenne Gray for hosting #TheUnicornChallenge!
She was 20 years old the first time she heard him sing.
It was a normal weekend day. She was in her senior year in college and was studying for exams, sitting on the sofa in the living room. He walked into the living room with a Budweiser beer in his hand and carefully sat it down on the coffee table. He was in his work clothes, dirty from working overtime as the town electrician with a five o’clock shadow on his face and tired eyes.
She was hard at work at her books and had just looked up to say hello. There was no music playing, no television interrupting the quiet. She looked back down and continued to read.
Her head shot up when he started to sing. She listened for a moment. He wasn’t singing just anything. Without preparation, he was singing…..opera? How could that be?
Through her shock, she tried to place the opera and it was easy. He was singing a part of Don Giovanni in a beautiful baritone voice.
She had never heard him sing anything as simple as a lullaby. She couldn’t believe her ears.
Somehow, she knew not to go to him. She just listened. He sang the most beautiful music for what seemed forever but must have been just a few minutes.
”I don’t know what got into me,” he chuckled, as he started to walk off.
“Daddy, that was beautiful. Sing for me again,” she said as tears rolled down his face.
Good morning and come on in! Join me for #weekendcoffeeshare #160! I”m so glad to be blogging again. I really enjoy the writing, but I also enjoy my interactions with all of you. Grab a cup of coffee and please join me for a catch-up.
Wild weather in my part of the world again this week. Terrible thunderstorms and wind. It’s spring here and the weather is always unsettled, but never quite as unsettled as it is this year.
The week started with the solar eclipse! We did not get totality here. We got about 96%. It was quite cloudy that day, but most of us still got a pretty good glimpse at the eclipse. I was surprised because it did not turn as dark as we expected. Quite an event! The University here has a space science division and very nice facilities including a large telescope. They invited the public to come take a glimpse and that was fascinating!
I’ve done a lot of work this week. A lot of writing. What is your current WP? I’m looking at ideas for two books. I don’t know, for sure, if I will pursue these ideas or not, but I like them both. It’s not about me, however, it is about the potential audience for my work. I have to undertake some market research to find out if there is a potential audience. I feel like I’m out of touch with what the public is reading for pleasure since, until recently, I was writing on contract in my field.
What do you feel the public likes now? I’d love your opinions!
I have some pics of my garden although Mother Nature seems determined to make this gardening year difficult. Our last frost date isn’t until May 15, so there is plenty of time left for her to kill it! I used to grow vegetables, but not now. Living in the forest does not let you have access to enough sunlight. There is also a tree here, the black oak, that drips sap that is poisonous to veggies. So, now it’s flowers for me!
Speaking of flowers, allow me to show you the progress of some of my favs in my flower garden! Here are the perennials just starting in my shade garden.
Siberian Bugloss (top) and fern (bottom)
Ajuga – a great shade groundcover
Coral Bells
Here are a few of my plants in another flower bed that get partial sun/partial shade.
From the front:
Hosta. Left of the hosta is a clematis. Immediately behind the hosta is two peonies. Behind the peonies and to the right, climbing, is another variety of clematis. Behind the peonies/clematis is an iris bed. The irises are slowly coming up. I have both Siberian Iris and Louisiana Iris.
Other flowering plants are in this bed that have not come up yet. It’s early spring here in the Kentucky mountains.
Thanks for having coffee with me and have a wonderful week!
The Write Scribe 