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Gardens, Babies, and Family

May 17, 2016 By Rhoda 43 Comments

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Last week, most of my family (dad stayed home, we can hardly get him to travel anymore) headed to Florida for my Aunt Mary’s funeral.  It was a bittersweet time of seeing family that we don’t often get to see and saying goodbye to our precious Aunt.  She will be missed, but never forgotten and it will be so different not to have her at our family gatherings this year.  This was my mom’s sister-in-law, married to her brother and they were very close.  Mom doesn’t get to Florida all that often anymore, so she really enjoyed getting to see many people that she knew and grew up with too.

We celebrated Mother’s Day with mom (Mark went with me for BBQ at their house and we also saw his mom) and then mom and I drove down to Florida the next day with my brother-in-law.

mom

Lauren and Renee drove from New Orleans, since my sister was down there helping Lauren out after baby Iris was born.  Baby Iris is 4 weeks old now and growing so much already.  She’s a little peanut and so cute.  Looking at her, she reminds me so much of Parker and it is hard to believe Parker was ever this little, but she was.  We got to meet the baby for the first time at the hotel and great grandmother and baby got acquainted for the first time.

mom and iris

Mom and baby Iris, her namesake.  There was eye contact and a few little smiles.  Babies are so sweet with their newborn squeaks, they sound like little kittens.

rhoda and iris

Selfie with Baby Iris

I didn’t take my big camera, so relied on my iPhone to take these first pics, but I hope to get better ones when Lauren comes up to Georgia in a couple of weeks.  Since she is on maternity leave, she’ll bring both girls up for a visit soon.  Can’t wait for that!  More baby time!

baby iris

We could just eat her up, the precious thing!  She’s got a headful of dark hair and her daddy’s genes all over again.

family013

Mom, of course loved it!

family014

She is so sweet and precious and we are in love already with baby girl Iris!

cousins001

I thought y’all might like to see a picture of all my cousins.  This is most of my first cousins on my mom’s side of the family. There are 4 missing, I think.  The siblings are all standing together in pairs, can you tell that we are related?  It was good to see them all and get together for the first time in years.  We don’t often get to spend time together.

From left to right:  Keith and Kendra, Carla and Howard, Renee and I, Brenda and Dennis (who lost their mom), Jan and Jacque.

dads garden001

In garden news with my dad, you may remember just a few short weeks ago, the garden was planted.  You can barely see green shoots popping up on the backside.

garden 1

And now it looks like this!   These pics were taken Mother’s Day Sunday.

garden2

Daddy is so proud of his garden.  This is a row of Irish potatoes, looking strong and healthy. We’ve gotten quite a bit of rain, so it’s growing well.  He runs his tiller down the rows to keep the weeds down and as things spread out he hoes it with a hoe.

garden3

This row is squash and zucchini.

garden4

Parks Whopper tomatoes on the next row. He’s a proud gardener and he should be.  I don’t know anyone who does it better than he does.

garden5

He’s got corn and beans on the far rows, with a few other things in between too.  I’ll keep you all posted on how it all looks and when things start coming in.  We are salivating waiting for the tomatoes to come in at the end of June or first of July.

garden6

He planted pole beans on fencing this year.

garden8

And his muscadines and scuppernongs are doing well as they always do.  He babies them and cuts them back every winter so they will grow out and produce.

The main thing he does in his garden is to fertilize regularly with 10-10-10 fertilizer and keeps it hoed for weeds and makes sure it gets plenty of water. He and my brother-in-law added composted leaves to the garden over the winter and dad tilled them up in his dirt and he thinks that really made a difference this year too.  He planted Parks Whopper tomatoes because he heard that they are more disease resistant than the other kinds he had been planting, so we will see how they do.

Can’t wait for a Caprese Salad and fresh bruschetta this year!  We dearly love those tomatoes!  I wanted to share my dad’s garden, because I know how much you all love him and my mom.  Thanks as always for reading and stopping by my blog!

 

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Filed Under: Family Friends and Me, Gardens and Flowers 43 Comments

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Richella Parham says

    May 17, 2016 at 11:57 am

    Oh, Rhoda, so much love is in this post! I know how grateful you are for your family, and it’s good for all of us to see all these generations of love. Bless you all!

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      May 17, 2016 at 12:46 pm

      Thank you, Richella! I know that not all families are like mine and I do treasure them.

  2. Patricia says

    May 17, 2016 at 12:04 pm

    Wonderful post ! Your family is just amazing – you are so blessed. Your Mama and Daddy are the best ! You must be so proud of them. I enjoy your posts so much – completely honest and always interesting to read. Many good tips – I love the ‘Fashion over Fifty’ posts – you could be a model !
    By the way – I don’t have any ads blocking any content – just a little skinny BMW ad off to the side !

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      May 17, 2016 at 12:46 pm

      Thank you, Patricia, I appreciate all the support from my blog readers.

  3. Donna Pike says

    May 17, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    Love the picture of you and the baby. Thank you for sharing your whole family, warms my heart.

    Reply
  4. Jason says

    May 17, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    Rhoda,

    I am so sorry to hear of the loss of your Aunt Mary. How bittersweet with the wonderful addition of Iris! As I’ve said before, I think you share a wonderful message of what’s important in life! Love and Prayers to your family!

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      May 17, 2016 at 7:27 pm

      Thank you, Jason, I appreciate that.

  5. Barbara says

    May 17, 2016 at 4:19 pm

    Rhoda, Your sweet daddy is the best. How fortunate you are to have him as your dad. His garden is beautiful and those rows are straight as an arrow. Baby Iris certainly does look like Parker, she is a cutie but they need to have one that looks like that beautiful Lauren. I so enjoy reading your blog, it’s my favorite of the few I subscribe to and always read it first. Keep up the good work, gal. By they way, I didn’t have any ads covering my page. I have an HP laptop with Windows 7, I think.

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      May 17, 2016 at 7:28 pm

      Thanks, Barbara, they need one more so maybe Lauren will have a chance of one looking like her! Thanks for your sweet comments!

  6. Jeanie says

    May 17, 2016 at 7:20 pm

    Also having a problem with pop-up ads. So nice to get together with family, but too often it’s for a sad occasion. Baby Iris is precious, and I can tell your mom is smitten. I’m always amazed at your dad’s garden. So much work to keep it so gorgeous. What in the world are muscadines and scuppernongs?

    Reply
    • Rhoda says

      May 17, 2016 at 7:26 pm

      HI, Jeanie, I guess those are a Southern thing. They are in the grape family and have seeds.

  7. Anita says

    May 17, 2016 at 9:39 pm

    Baby Iris looks exactly like Parker! So cute and precious!

    Reply
  8. Jamie Szalabawka says

    May 18, 2016 at 7:44 am

    Sorry for your loss of your aunt. Baby Iris is such a cutie pie! Love the pictures. Love seeing the pictures of the garden. Wow! From the picture on 4/27 to the picture on 5/17, what a difference!
    Its too wet yet here in Ohio to even get in our garden!!! I didn’t realize the zonal difference until I saw these pictures. Love your dad’s garden. Wish it would dry up enough so I can get into mine :).

    Reply
  9. gina says

    May 19, 2016 at 5:33 am

    Love that you share your family. As always, love the vitality in your dad! My mom’s middle name is Iris.

    Reply
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Thanks for stopping by! I’m Rhoda, from Atlanta, GA and I love decorating and DIY projects. Decorating a home doesn’t have to cost a fortune and I’ve spent years thrifting at antiques markets and yard sales, finding those treasures that make a home unique. I’m here to inspire and encourage other women to find their own inner creativity. Won’t you join me?

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