2013 Richard Loller

November 

Well, here are my handsome children sittling comfortably on the plastic buckets in our blind.  We saw lots of nature, but of turkeys we saw none.	Hanley and Denile came down to visit on Friday and on Saturday Hanley, Travis and I went up to Ed's Farm to wander around and maybe see some turkeys.  We were armed with a long lens camera and walked a long way before setting up a blind and sitting.  Hanley had brought two plastic buckets for seats and when Ed's hogs saw him they followed him like ducklings hoping for a feed.
One of the most interesting things we saw was this.  I've wandered  these fields and woods many times but never saw this before, although the thorny tree it grows on was familiar.	Back home Hanley found it..  It's a Hearty Orange, an invader from China.  Maybe edible and maybe not.  As Hanley said, "Try it on the dog.  If he lives it's probaly ok to eat."
One of the many gag posters the art department at the Methodist Publishing House created for Dave Dawson back when we were all so young. This is an actual book cover with Dave's name and face popped in.	Dave hasn't had such good health lately, so Steve and I went all the way to Cedar Hill, north of Springfield, where  Dave and Phillip now live.  Great big house and acreage.  Just what the doctor ordered for Dave, who loves the country.
This is what happens when we have a big wind when the pears are ripe up at 107 Dellrose Drive, a house we bought when we got moved out of our river house by the 2010 flood.  It's now rented, but I always gather pears.  Some we eat and many others we give away.	One of the dangers of picking through windfalls to find the good ones.  Often times you'll pick up one that looks good, but on the bottom it's split or smashed and covered with wasps and bees. Fortunately most of them are drunk and dopey from the fermented juice they prefer, so no stings if you are quick to drop the problem pear.
Puppy likes to hide out at our house when the babies are too demanding.	Mrs. Jane Tabby likes to relax as well.  After Sherry got the humane shelter to take the four babies by a long session of smoozing the director, Mrs. Jane has had an operation and put on weight.
A good example of why puppy hides out at our house.	Of course, when the babies are here he just has to grin and bear it.  What sad eyes!
October
I don't remember where I got the seeds I planted this year, but the okra was great.  As you can see there are three or more at the top of the stalk and each plant subdivided into several stalks.  We are saving the seed for next year.  Need some?  Just let me know.	We also  have a good crop of  turnips and greens.  This one would feed a small village.
Some of this year's crop.  Also had lettuce, jalapenos, butter beans, squash, cantelopes, and watermelons.  Just forgot to make photos of them.  Still have plenty of potatoes in the ground (it's the day before Thanksgiving) as well as turnips and arugula that we can still eat right out of the garden.	Gone now, but only a week or so, is this herb garden on the deck.  Oragano, parsley, dill, and basil.
Planted these Heavenly Bl;ue Morning Glories all over and got great results.  First bad frost finally got them around the middle of November.	Zinnia found this lady bug and brought it in for us to admire.
September
Early September we visited sister Ann at her home in Eastport, Maine.  Had to rent a car in Portland and drive. Not much public transport to far NE Maine.	Sherry got a bad toothache and I drove her to Manchester, New Hampshire, to fly back after only a couple of days.  I stayed on for the next week and fished a lot.  It was pleasant most days, a little windy sometimes and cool, but not much rain.  I got lucky.
Ann and I went out on a big lake one windy day and really had to paddle hard to get around.  Here we are in a quiet creek off the main lake.	Pretty dragon fly lights on Ann's kayak.  I hear they are the state's most honored insect with a statue to them in Augusta.  Why? Because they come along about the time the black flys are getting bad and help make life more liveable again.
Here's Ms. Ann and her pretty green kayak.	Here we are at home with her friends Ralph and Deb Shields and their Newfoundland pup, Berry.  Great dog, but way, way BIG.
Under the heading of spooky unexplained happenings, here is what I found in the bottom of my coffee cup one morning--an "L" for Loller.  I thought Ann had put it there when she made the cup.  But no, it was just the way...	... the residue coffee formed when it dried.  Above is the cup after we washed it out.  We tried to duplicate the happening, but it never formed again.  If that doesn't make you wonder about signs and portents then what ever will?
August
I found these odd creatures in Puppy's water bowl on the deck. One is just an ordinary catepillar, but the other was a mystery until James, the biologist, named it a centipede.  Sure is a pretty one.	Just as I opened the front door for the babies and Travis who were coming across the yard one morning early to deliver Puppy for us to dog sit that day, all of a sudden Puppy howled and broke loose.  He was planning on attacking the cat and four kittens someone had kindly left on our doorstep.  The cat whacked his nose and Puppy left howling, so we had babies hugging kittens, Travis and me chasing Puppy, and Sherry wondering what the hell was going on.  Busy morning.  The babies played with the kittens every day until it was time for them to go to the humane shelter.  At that time I was in Maine and Sherry was here and worried that the babies would bawl. Ann suggested she have a "Going Away Party" for the kittens.  It worked.  They had cake and ice cream and the girls came in their party dresses.  But when they got to our house Elizabeth was initially disappointed. "Where are the other children?"
July
Here we are in Savannah on our way to Deland, Florida, to meet Frank and Mary Lee.  This is a huge Crape Myrtle at the Oceanographic Center near Savannah.	Another interesting thing we saw there were these tree climbing crabs.  They were all over the place and could climb like monkeys. We stayed at Travis and James' condo and had a pretty good time between rain storms.
From Savannah we drove South to Hoontoon Island State Park near Deland, Florida, where we met Frank and Mary Lee.  Wiley and Betty showed up a couple of days later. Great motel and we rented a fishing boat and and a pontoon boat.	Frank and I fished without much luck, but good!!!  The others hung around and pontooned and drank and ate.  Not a bad way to spend your leisure time.  Above is one of the reasons we weren't doing much swimming in the river.
Well, we weren't really skunked.  Frank caught this gar.	On our sight seeing cruise in the pontoon boat we went through a narrow canal between the  St. Johns River and one of it's old channels.  Someone had put several birdhouses in trees hanging over the water.  Others seemed  drawn to decorating them.  Good trip, but a long drive back to Nashville.  Good to get home.
I don't always go fishing alone.  Here's Berdelle's grandson Stephen with a fish (at least he caught one) on Yellow Creek.  Creek was beautiful and it was nice and cold.  Felt great.  So we weren't too disappointed we didn't catch the big smallmouth we saw all over the place.  Not TOO...	Harry and I fished upstream from Betty's Landing on the Caney Fork before the  generation made it downstream that far.  He caught several nice ones as did I.
June
The pride of Louisville, Churchill Downs.  It was nice. Harry, Wayne, and I took a trip and watched the ponies run...	It's a first class facility  Nice grounds and decorations.
Well, if you can't win at least you get to look at beautiful horseflesh.  The female jockys (jockettes?) ain't bad either.	After all the hoopla and waiting around here they come.  That's my horse  dropping behind after leading all the way.  What a downer!
April
This is the new house Sherry designed with the help of her good draftsperson, Diane.  They worked long and hard at it and  then Sherry single handedly got it through the zoning people.  She wisely did not let me help.  My hat is off to her.
The main room with the dining table at the back of the photo.  Rows of windows look out across the deck to the river.  Doors to the deck at both ends.  Sherry did good!	Almost my only contribution to the design was to insist on a large garage. I now finally have a place to keep all my tools and junk and still have room to build this and that.
This is a view into the kitchen from the entry hall.  That's Sherry's little office in the corner.	This is my office which is off the entry hall to the right.
March
One of the things I really hated about leaving the old house was leaving our owl house.  We lived at 2213 Pennington Bend for 45 years and this house was probably there 15 or 20 of them.  Lots of screech owls made it their home...	Here's Hootie, or maybe Hootie 2, or 15.  Hard to tell sometimes.  But we almost always had a little screech owl in it and over the years have had many nests of babies.
February
Got in a little cold weather crappie fishing, but only caught this one which flopped around while I was trying to take his pic.  He was glad to rejoin his buds just after this.	Here comes the dozer to knock down and flatten the rundown rental house next door.  One of the few good things to come out of the flood.  Metro bought it and turned it into a vacant lot next to our old house at 2213 Pennington Bend.
Now the driver really gets going.  Go boy go...	It's all over but the shoveling into the dump trucks for the trip to the tip.  So long old eyesore.
January
Here is Liz's fancy condo on Ft. Myers Beach where we spent New Year and a few days after that.  .	Ford took us sight seeing on his nice boat.  These are good folks.  Thanks.
Then Liz and Ford took off on an island cruise so we moved out to Frank and Mary Lee's guest accomodations and saved the daily big trip across town to Alva.  Also the big trip back.	Left--Here we are, Sherry and Richard, at the Kiri Hunting Camp.  A lot has changed in the 50 years since Richard first visited it.  More comforts and electronics.  But the lighter pine fire still burns. Above--Linn Mann evidently ruled against a dog owner and excited an ouster campaign.  Didn't work.
Sherry and Mary Lee at the famous double palm discovered by George Mann many years ago and still surviving on the hunting lease, despite extensive tree harvesting.	Frank and Mary Lee's very own double palm.  Let's hope it survives the next big blow.
The squire hizself with Miss Kitty.	We fished and we fished and, as usual, did pretty much nothing in the catching line.
Nice anhinga drying it's wings.	The bird that eats all the big snails from Frank's pond.  What the hell is it's name?  Oh, yeah. It's Miz  Limpkin.
Betty conveniently had a birthday while we were there so we all got some good ol' gooey birthday cake.	The usual suspects, me, Sherry, Mary Lee, Frank, Betty, and Wiley.