Guest Blog from my friend, Roanna!

Weather and Folklore. 

Red sunrise in the morning, sailors take warning.

Red sunrise at night is a sailor's delight. 

(this is one Jesus referenced in Matthew 16) 

Foggy August mornings

The bands on a woolly caterpillar

The seed of a persimmon (the Fall of 2012 it was a spoon) (look it up)

The thickness of a mammal's fur in the winter

A ring around the moon

How many can you name? Check your local Farmer's Almanac for more.

A lesser know weather observation indicator is the 12 days of Christmas.  

For many years I have been watching and recording the weather happenings beginning on Christmas day through January 5 to help me have an understanding of the possible average weather patterns for the year. Each of the 12 Days of Christmas represent the 12 months of the year. 

     December 25 = January

     December 26 = February

     December 27 = March

     December 28 = April

            and so on...

During the 2011-2012 Days of Christmas, I worried then that we would have a hot dry summer - and we did.  Burn bans as early as June as well as at least 20 wildfires in Arkansas during June indicated the summer was going to be rough. Most gardeners gave up their summer gardening efforts in hopes of a successful Fall garden. It was, though, a tolerable summer (for those of us acclimated and conditioned to the great outdoors)  in that the humidity wasn't nearly as brutal as is usual here in Central Arkansas.  The summer of 2012 was dry!  

This past 2012-2013 12 Days of Christmas, I was chomping at the bit to get in my garden because the prospects for a beautiful spring and summer with rain or at least not drought conditions were indicated by the 12 Days of Christmas weather patterns.  So far this year, I have not been disappointed with my weather *predictions.*

On December 24 while standing outside saying goodnight to our Christmas Eve guests, we all ooooohed and ahhhed over the beauty of the moon, the huge clear ring with a lone star on the inside of the ring.  I determined then and there that this was going to be a weather year worth observing and I determined to write it all out. As it turned out I had all the time in the world as we were snowed in with an EPIC history making snow event the very next day (hint - one star on the inside of the ring around the moon). Here's what I wrote in my calendar for the 2012-2013 12 Days of Christmas

December 25 (January) -  Day started out windy.  Ice. freezing rain, sleet, thunder, lightning, SNOW - EPIC! Temp hovered around 30. Power's out! 

December 26 (February) - Sunny, windy, dry, 10 + inches of snow on the ground.  Cold! barely above freezing today.  34 maybe.

December 27 (March) - Sunny early turning cloudy.  Cold! Stayed below freezing most of the day. 

December 28 (April) - Cold, Cloudy, freezing rain turning to rain.  Snow still on the ground. High temperature around 37.

December 29 (May) - Sunny, cold, snow still on the ground, another freeze.  Temp barely made it to 33. Power's back on late in the evening.

December 30 (June) - Clear sunrise but turning overcast all day.  High of 41 - finally warming up a bit. snow and ice still on the ground, rain moving in. 

December 31 (July) - Overcast.  rain.  high of 36.  Significant rain to end the day.  Cold. Late night fog.

January 1 (August) - Overcast. Gloomy.  Cold but warmer than it has been.  40 degrees. Snow is finally out of the trees and melting.

January 2 (September) - Overcast. Cold. some snow still on the ground, but not much. 39 degrees as of 2pm, but it feels colder than that. 

January 3 (October) - Heavy frost. Low morning temp of 25 - SUNSHINE!!!! 46 degrees as of 3:30.

January 4 (November) - cold. again. overcast. again. High of 45. 

January 5 (December) - cold. overcast. day warmed to about 46. 

Well.  That's it.  That's a look at my weather observing skills.  I'm learning as I go what these indicators mean.  It's definitely not a 100% accurate look at the weather each day of each month.  But, I have found that it's a good way to get an overall average look at and expectations of the weather for the seasons.  And I'm typing this on a beautiful cool for July in Arkansas day with clouds and rain.  Oh.  And the short-lived burn ban for Pulaski county has been lifted thanks to the rain.  

Observation is a good thing.  And now I can tell Ellen that I finally did this.

Atticus loves blueberries

 Kaitlin and Marisa's Sunday School class went on a picnic.  Kaitlin brought her camera.  Atticus enjoyed blueberries and humus.

phone photo apps that I love and you will too!

I need to tell you about a few things that I have found that I am so enjoying!!!

Mpix is a photo processing site.  I use them along side of shutterfly and snapfish but a new feature that mpix has that has made life so wonderful is they have an iphone app that I can download my iphone photos right to from my phone.  The photos cost .29.  They even print the photos that I use apps to write on them.  I am working on my Project Life scrapbook and being able to order my phone photos this way has been wonderful!!!

Speaking of apps----  I am taking an online phone photo class and in addition to the insight on how to take better pictures, new apps are introduced each day.  I am loving that part even more!!!  Here is a list of apps that you might like to investigate.  Some are free, some not.

In no particular order

A Beautiful Mess
PicTapGo
Snapseed
Magic Hour
Diptic
Halftone
Self timer camera
DBLCAM--- this app is one that allows you to take pictures with both cameras on your phone/front and back
Over

I have had so much fun playing with these!!

The class I am taking is a Big Picture Class. Look them up, you may find a class that you would enjoy too. I plan to take more in the future.

I am working on a new picture using the app Over!  I'll up load it soon!

Cousins, cousins and Camp Monroe Vacation Part IV

 On Saturday the 29 we got up and went to breakfast at a place in town that Carl found.  It was outstanding and I highly recommend it.  Doesn't my breakfast look yummy??

 For lunch we headed to the Monroe family reunion at ... Camp Monroe

 Carl and his brother, Raymond, helped with some of the food preparation.  Their cousin, Fud, prepared all the food and it was good, southern and yummy.

 Here I am with Carl's cousin, Becky!

 Here is cousin Eva Ruth giving us details about lunch.  Eva and I had grandsons born the same week and year.  What a fun bond to have with her!

 Here is the circle that was formed to say the blessing for lunch.

 Camp Monroe is in Scotland county so named because of the great concentration of Scots that settled here.  Lots of Presbyterians here too!

 Kaitlin has a cousin named Kaitlin Monroe- isn't that cool???  The other Kaitlin couldn't be at the reunion this year but her mama was.  Here is a picture of Kaitlin with Kaitlin's mother.

 Eva gave a tour of the camp.  Here is a cabin.  They are made out of cyprus trees from the camp.  Carl attended camp here one summer.

 Here is Lake Andrew at the camp.

 After our great visit at the camp we came back to our motel.  Grandma and 5 of her 6 children and families stayed at the same motel.  We took over the pool went swimming that afternoon.  The cousins plus an Uncle or two did a few tricks in the pool.  I believe I see a few non-Monroe legs in this picture too.  We are an inclusive group!

 Here is our jumping in the pool picture!

 We had a few chicken fights!

 Here we are with Andrew and Taylor.  They joined us on Saturday.  It was great to see them.

We had a great vacation!  We are blest with a great family.  I am glad to be home but I am sure I'll be ready for the next reunion.

Vacation Part III cousins and crazy Uncle T

 The above is all that is left of a pier that was standing before a hurricane hit this beach!  Yikes!!

 These are our beach chairs all set up for our day with our motel behind them.

 Here are all the cousins with Grandmother above and a cousins jumping picture below

 There were three of us from our family at this family reunion

 Kaitlin with Miss Violet above and with Uncle Ted below.  This is what Uncle Ted did when Kaitlin said she wanted a picture with him!

Kaitlin caught this of Charlie and his daughter Violet, I wish you could hear her laughter as she flew

Vacation. Part II. Cheerwine and Sunrise and Cousins

We drove through Atlanta and missed any slowdowns that were projected for that day- what a blessing.

We had to stop for petrol and to 'powder our noses' and Kaitlin found it.  Her soda that means we are close to the beach.  Let the Cheerwine drinking begin!  She shared her love of it with lots of family during the week.

Oh yes!  Kaitlin checked into the motel with an app called Foursquare and we got upgraded to a suite.  Oh my!  Above is Kaitlin sitting on our sofa in our living room.  It was awesome.

I love this picture of Alex and me.  Because on this vacation we laughed and laughed and then laughed some more.

 This was my view for most of the week.  My way to do a beach vacation is on a comfy chair under an umbrella.  The temperatures this week were lower than normal and that was so refreshing.  I put my toes in a few times every day.

 This picture also tells lots about our week.  Here is Carl and William sharing apps for the Ipad and I phone.  We also talked about books, work, food and plans for the future.  Our family reunion reminds me of a seminar of sorts because so much sharing goes on.  I came home with web sites to check out, knowledge of their future plans, and books on my TBR list.

 Alicia and Kaitlin shared lots of hairdo time!

 William and Alicia asked us to come down to their house one morning at 530 to watch the sunrise.  It was not a breathtaking one but the fellowship and laughing was!

 Our Sunrise group!  Charlie and Sarah joined us too!

 Lots of jumping happened!  Kaitlin, Alan and Tanner.

 Lots of time out in the water.

 The last picture is the view from our room.  I looked at it every chance I could!