Fx4: Aunt Julie Airs Her (formerly) Dirty Laundry

I know, I'm a throwback. But in my humble opinion, there's something special about crawling in bed at night and falling asleep with the smell of sheets that have been dried on the line. Nothing like it!

In honor of Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Finish Fiesta, I'd like to share this little verse. I don't know the author, but it reminds me of my Mom and my grandmother and days gone by, when everything just seemed to smell sweeter!

Clothes Line Poem

A clothes line was a news forecast

To neighbors passing by.

There were no secrets you could keep

When clothes were hung to dry.

It also was a friendly link

For neighbors always knew

If company had stopped on by

To spend a night or two.

For then you'd see the 'fancy sheets'

And towels upon the line;

You'd see the 'company table cloths'

With intricate design.

The line announced a baby's birth

To folks who lived inside

As brand new infant clothes were hung

So carefully with pride.

The ages of the children could

So readily be known

By watching how the sizes changed

You'd know how much they'd grown.

It also told when illness struck,

As extra sheets were hung;

Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,

Haphazardly were strung.

It said, 'Gone on vacation now'

When lines hung limp and bare.

It told, 'We're back!' when full lines sagged

With not an inch to spare.

New folks in town were scorned upon

If wash was dingy gray,

As neighbors carefully raised their brows,

And looked the other way.

But clotheslines now are of the past

For dryers make work less.

Now what goes on inside a home

Is anybody's guess.

I really miss that way of life.

It was a friendly sign

When neighbors knew each other best

By what hung on the line!

POPrs Alert! A new POPrs Giveaway launches Sunday! Want to make your veggies...and your yogurt...sing? Make sure you tune in for Aunt Julie's maiden voyage in the world of bloggy giveaways!

Tomato Update

As promised, here are photos of my Topsy Turvy Tomatoes. The plants are growing quickly, wanting water almost daily, and have actually produced a few tiny tomatoes!

Yes, they are the size of marbles, but it's a start. I may just be growing my first tomatoes ever. We plan to make lots of salsa, and eat BLT's til our arteries clog! Yum

If any of you have these planters, let me know how it's going!

From BIG dogs to little birds...

Many of you are already familiar with me, Aunt Julie. For the others, welcome. I have four boys; I love dogs, pelicans, quilts, flowers and girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes...(I used to like The Sound of Music, but now it's just down to still thinking Christopher Plummer was gorgeous back then! ) Anyway...

Oh, better put photography on that short list! These are pictures I took of the hummers last summer. I put nectar out this year, and had them again for a week or two, then nothing. Maybe they were sitting on eggs. But it's been weeks!

The feeders are all cleaned out, and filled again. Will let you know if they come back to eat. I would usually get up about 5:30, have coffee and sit and wait. It was never too long a wait, either. I miss them. Seeing a hummer was always a nice way to start the day. Til they return, I found these photos. Just makes me want them back all the more. They are little miracles!

The Time Has Come to Pass the Torch...

...well, not necessarily to a new generation, but to a new blogger, nonetheless.

Please welcome Aunt Julie to the blogosphere, as she takes the helm of Eat Your Veggies!

In the past year, I've written in this space before about The POPrs Family, about blogging, about the love of my life, the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat. We've been blogging buddies for more than a year; 376 different posts, ranging from the Joy of POPrs to the Joy of Dogs Running on a Beach.

When I first started this enterprise, my goals were blurry, unfocused. But I can see clearly now.

Eat Your Veggies! is about family. It's about readers. It's about a blogging community that dares to share and benefits so much from the journey we all take together.

As the months have grown into a full year-plus of blogging, I've learned so much. About me, about my expectations. About my limits.

It's time for Veggie Mom to move on. But this blog is gonna stick around. I have a woman waiting in the wings who is more than ready to continue this journey with you, our readers.

You've met Aunt Julie before. She's my SIL. She's married to Uncle Lynn, and has four boys. Together, with my family thrown in for flavor, we constitute The POPrs Family.

Julie's already made her mark on the blogging world. She guest-posted last fall about College Boy and College Life. She's given us soooooooo many great recipes, which have all been compiled into Aunt Julie's Kitchen. And she's the gal one reader referred to as The Quilt Lady. That's why we continue to feature Aunt Julie's quilting creations.

And Aunt Julie's been the author of the last three posts (before this farewell) at this site. The sweet salute to my girls; the misplaced photo of a little boy on the 4th of July; the gargantuan Nelson, with a giant's heart and a fierce loyalty that was 10 times larger than his mammoth melon head.

None of the wonderful content will change as Eat Your Veggies! graduates to a new hostess. We'll still host awesome POPrs Giveaways. We'll still feature family, food and fun. We'll still complain and kvetch about the little things in life, which make everything so improbable, and at the same time totally possible.

Please give Aunt Julie a little bloggy love. I'll still be here as a guest-blogger, on occasion, to liven things up a bit. Until we meet again, my thanks to everyone out there, for the sweet, sweet ride.

Weekly Winners: For All the Dogs We've Loved Before...

Meet Nelson. He is (was) a Landseer Newfoundland. He was 175# of big, sweet boy.

He had a head like a buffalo, people said.

Everywhere we went, he drew attention. We'd have him on a leash when we'd be walking with the boys in a stroller. People would stop and say "what a beautiful DOG!" instead of "what lovely children!" Before Nelson, people always commented on the kids. Hmmm.

Nelson had hair, that's for sure. So much, that a I collected a big bag full, and a friend spun it into yarn, and knitted a scarf for Uncle Lynn for Christmas!

Nelson was a great dog. He was protective by nature. When I'd push a child in the swing, he'd get up and walk over to the swing, take the child by the foot, and stop the swing. Not on his watch! If the kids were in the driveway on trikes or playing with trucks, he'd lay at the end of the driveway. His nickname became "Nana."

We took Nelson out on a pontoon once. I say "once" because it only happened one time. First of all, he was afraid of the space between the boards on the dock. It took 3 big men to lift him onto the boat. Everything was great until the kids went swimming. Six little boys jumped into the lake at once, splashing and hollering. Nelson jumped in, too. He could not figure out which boy needed saving the most, so he swam from one to another, trying to pull them to shore. All he had to pull with were teeth! It was quite a scene.

Imagine my surprise when recently, a dozen years after his death, we were walking near our home and met people with a Landseer Newfie, like our beloved Nelson. "Oh, what a wonderful DOG!" we exclaimed. Come to think of it, did they have children with them?

Would we have noticed? Probably not.

The little guy sitting next to Nelson is our Springer Spaniel, Trouble. More about him later!

Weekly Winners is Sarcastic Mom's production. I think I shot these snaps with a Canon Rebel of the film variety.

SWS: Photo hunt comes up empty...almost

Don't you hate it when that happens?

I had the cutest photo for today...one of the kids (#3?) in a stroller, in the park, with Uncle Sam.

He was clutching a flag, (the child, not U.S.) and looking quite concerned about the extravagantly dressed stranger leaning into him. He had on a white sailor hat, and...

...it was Americana, all the way!

Well, my two-hour photo hunt did not end with finding the fondly remembered snap, but I did have fun going through years of memories... Maybe the child (#3?) will be off work today, and we can stage it again. Do you think I can get him to put on a white sailor hat, clutch a flag , and look up at Uncle Sam in that same way he did when he was 2? After all, that was 19 years ago. Funny~to his mom, it seems like yesterday...

Happy 4th of July from the Poprs Family! My Six Words are brought to you courtesy of Cate at Show My Face.

See You in September!

This is Aunt Julie, guest writing for Veggie Mom today, so she can have a day off. I wanted to take this moment, and this medium, to brag about her girls, College Girl and the Wild One, a little.

I have known them since they were tiny, (naturally, since I am "Aunt Julie" and all) and just wanted to say what lovely young women they have matured into! Uncle Lynn and I could not be more proud. Their cousins are too, thought they won't admit it!

College Girl recently graduated with honors from Lawrence University, with a degree in History. In the fall, she will be off to the University of Wisconsin Madison to study law.

The Wild One is studying photography at Lawrence, and just completed her freshman year.

UW-Madison is Moker, their Dad's, alma mater. And also that of Uncle Lynn, who got his law degree from there, when tuition was about $1.50.

As part of Candid Carrie's Friday Foto Finish Fiesta, thought I'd share some photos, and wish the girls a safe and happy summer.