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I am so excited to see the very first roses of spring.

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Do you remember what my front lawn looked like in October?  Here is a re-cap of one of my earliest posts entitled:  I Blog About Sins, Not Tragedies.

Upon returning home from a weekend trip to Atlanta, this is what I found:



Everything in my front garden was gone, except the two crepe myrtles and leyland cypresses. Even the grass was missing.  The original plan was this: remove the juniper bushes in the front and replace them with double knock-out roses.

Obviously, there was a slight miscommunication.  My roses are gone.  My azaleas?  Gone. My Japanese honeysuckle, Lady Banks rose over trellis, and gardenias?  Gone, gone, and...oh, yea...gone.

I know it was not a life or death situation, and there are far worse things that can happen in life.  It was not a tragedy, but it was a tremendous disappointment.  I worked hard to keep my roses black-spot free (which is a feat in Alabama, I tell ya!), and I fed and babied my beautiful azaleas.  Oh, well.  That's what I get for leaving town when we are beginning a big project (which, at the time, I did not realize was going to be so big).

My husband is a prince, and he helped to make it right.  The company he hired was the best, and all the gentlemen tried very hard to design, build, and plant a lovely front garden.

Here are the results:


We now have a brick retaining wall that matches the brick on our house. They moved one of our crepe myrtles, and committed crepe murder on them! I am thinking about adding a few knock-out roses to curve around the left-hand side of the wall.  It might soften it some. Do you think it's a good idea?

Here are a few close-ups of the foundation plantings you can't see from the street.  Now I have camellia and hydrangea babies to take care of (I have never had either before).




I also planted three planters for some fall color:





We also planted bunches of rosemary by the front steps.  According to lore, rosemary keeps unwanted guests away from your home.  We are hoping it will repel deer so they won't eat our flowers!




I am looking forward to the shrubs maturing, and I am anticipating beautiful camellias by Christmas.

{End of post.}

I can't wait to plant flowers later this spring!  Please share any suggestions you may have.

I am joining Fishtail Cottage's Flora Thursdays, and Flaunt Your Flowers Friday @ Tootsie Time.


Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

First Roses of Spring

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Many of you have teased me about my obsession with The Fresh Market's super-fun and tasty Coffees That Make Eighties Girls Smile.  :D

So laugh along with me because I paired my favorite coffees with my favorite MacKenzie-Childs mugs.  Be sure to read the names of the coffees.  They rock!  (seriously)


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Linking to litte red house's Mosaic Monday.

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

You're My Obsession (Remember Human League?)

Monday, March 28, 2011

                                               The University of Alabama


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                                                  Denny Chimes





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                                            Shanley Belle and Big Al


                                                 Roll Tide Roll!!!


Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Bama Bound

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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This week I read Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.  This book should have come with a warning label. It's like giving a person a cigarette and telling her: "This will help you relax, lose weight, and give you something to do with your hands in awkward social situations" without telling her that: "Oh! And they cause cancer, are addictive, contain nicotine and carcinogens, and can cause birth defects if you are pregnant."  I found it very disturbing, and although the book flap gives a very broad plot outline, there is no indication at all about how dark this novel truly is.

The book is (for the most part) told from Ava Bigtree's point of view.  Ava is fourteen years old, and the youngest daughter in a family of  alligator wrestlers.  The family owns an alligator theme park called Swamplandia! in a swamp near the Gulf of Mexico and out from Ocala, Florida.  There they put on shows, conduct swamp tours, run a museum, and operate a diner. Ava's mother Hilola, the star of the Swamplandia! Gator Show, died of ovarian cancer the year before the book opens.  Since she had been the big draw for tourists, business is way down. Ava's father Chief Bigtree retreats to the mainland to supplement their income as a result. The oldest sibling, Ava's brother Kiwi, abandons his sisters and gets a job on the mainland at their new competitor, a theme park called the World of Darkness.  Since the World of Darkness' opening, almost all business ceases to exist. Ava's sister, Osceola, talks to ghosts and claims to have fallen in love with the ghost of a WPA dredgeman.  He dies one of the sickest deaths I have ever read in fiction, and Osceola runs away with him to live in the underworld leaving Ava all alone.

What happens to Ava is nightmarish.  I think that Karen Russell is a brilliant writer, and her sense of place is uncanny.  The world she has created is fantastical, terrifying, and brilliant. Her descriptions of the World of Darkness theme park (where the patrons are called lost souls) are so bizarre and creative that it is worth reading the book just for Kiwi's coming of age story from his point of view.

I do have a bit of a problem with the inconsistency of Ava's voice.  As a reader, you really get rooked-in to the fantasy bit about the underworld, as if Dante is waiting to guide you. What is fantasy and real in the book is a bit cloudy to me until the end, and I must confess that I am still not one hundred percent sure.  The book at times reads like a fantasy, and maybe it is depending on whether or not you believe Osceola's obsession with the occult is a real gift (or curse), or whether or not she is schizophrenic.

I will definitely keep an eye out for Karen Russell's next book.  I just wish I had not been so blindsided by Ava's tragic circumstances.  I thought that this was going to be a fun spring break read; I could not have been more wrong. It is way to dark for that, so if you choose to read this book, you have been forewarned.  If you would like for me to email you spoilers, I will be happy to, but I cannot post them.

Until next time...

Happy reading!
Ricki Jill

Literary Friday: Swamplandia!

Friday, March 25, 2011

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I am taking a break from blogging this weekend and a few days next week as my daughter and I are enjoying a college visit.  I will post my Literary Friday Book Review later on today, and a post for Mosaic Monday.  Other than that, I will not be able to respond to many emails or comment on blogs because we have a packed schedule!

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Taking a Break This Weekend

Look at what I bought on sale for under $5.00:  two pounds of strawberries (only one is shown) and dipping chocolate!



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I am using an olive serving dish, but that's okay.  I don't like olives.....


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Life.  Is.  Good!

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Best Snack *ever*

Thursday, March 24, 2011

If you have not visited Jane over at Flora Doora, you are missing out.  Her blog is eye candy! She makes the cutest little plastic-lined bags just perfect for hanging flowers on your doorknob.


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This is the Chelsea Flora Doora that I bought from her etsy store.  I filled it with daisies and hung it in my kitchen.  I did not hang it on a doorknob because of all the kids coming in and out during Spring Break.


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Here are two pictures of each side of the Chelsea:

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I think the Flora Doora bags are too, too cute!


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Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Chelsea from Flora Doora

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

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Linking to Mosaic Monday at little red house.

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

A Tapestry of Roses

Monday, March 21, 2011



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This week, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I re-read Frank Delaney's Ireland. The "framework" story in this book is that of a young man named Ronan O'Mara, whose life is drastically changed forever when a Seanchai, or a traveling storyteller, visits his home when Ronan is nine years old.  The storyteller's larger than life persona and story delivery makes a lasting impression on young Ronan; he knows that fate has brought this man into his life. Ronan is devastated when his mother sends the storyteller away from their home.

Ronan now has a new passion in life: history and stories about Ireland. Ronan spends most of his free time collecting and chronicling stories and searching for the storyteller.  Along the way, Delaney chronologically retells some of the most fascinating stories from Ireland's history: from the Architect of new Grange to the 1916 Poets' Rebellion.  Some of my favorite stories from the book include: St. Patrick and the Devil's Bit, The Origin of the Book of Kells, The Pursuit of Finn MacCool,  The Marriage of Strongbow, and The Man Who Could Handle Handel.  These rich stories are, for the most part, told in Ireland's oral tradition by the storyteller and other characters in the novel.  Delaney's writing is so perfect in recreating these oral stories that I feel I am there, in the smokey room, listening.  And I believe every word as the Gospel truth!  These stories of Ireland are what make this book so special.  I am not trying to take anything away from Ronan's story at all; it is very good in and of itself. But the Irish stories make this book unputdownable.

When Ronan enters university in Dublin, he decides to read history.  When tragedy strikes, Ronan takes to the road in pursuit of the storyteller.  After several months traveling and searching, Ronan is shocked by a family secret everyone seems to know about but him. Devastated, he returns to his favorite history professor's summer school session, and later to his family.  Ronan continues his education in Cork, and gives-up on finding the storyteller. Throughout the book, there have been odd coincidences in how the storyteller is able to find Ronan and send him transcripts of stories.  Other characters seem to know far more about the storyteller than is seemly, and no one is telling Ronan a thing.  Family secrets, Irish folktales, an ingenious plot, and a perfect climactic ending make this book a must-read for anyone who loves a good story.  And in the case of Ireland, you get dozens of well-written stories woven into its framework.

Until next time...

Happy reading!
Ricki Jill



What We're Reading #2

Sunday, March 20, 2011

What a wonderful week!  I have been enjoying Spring Break with the girls, and accomplishing several projects around the house.

My Happy List:


1.   Today is my wedding anniversary.  I have been married to the love of my life for 23 years.  My husband makes me happy!


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2.   I have a clean dog.  Bonnie, you look beautiful, and you smell so good! Clean dogs make me happy!


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3.   We have a blue heron who lives in our neighborhood.  I finally got a good picture of him.  This makes me happy!


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4.   My grandmother turned 91 yesterday, and I got to spend the day with her.  I love her so much!  We had four generations present:  My grandmother, my mother, my two daughters, and me :D


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5.   My spring break reading list.  I have been revisiting some of my favorite Irish authors.


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6.   What We're Reading Linky Party!  Please join Bonnie and me tomorrow and share your book love!





What We're Reading



Don't forget to write your own Happy List and join Mamarazzi for her Happy List Linky Party @ Dandelion Wishes.


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Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

My Happy List #5

Saturday, March 19, 2011

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Top of the mornin' to ya, Lassies!


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Since my oldest was a wee colleen (that's what my Irish great-grandmother used to call me and my girl cousins....I think it means young girl...but I digress...) I have cooked green eggs and ham for St Patrick's Day breakfast.


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We also enjoyed Irish soda bread and shamrock scones.


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This year I have also added a very special Irish Cream Coffee.  Yep!  The Fresh Market has done it again with Irish Cream Believer Coffee (and a...ho-ome coming quee-ee-ee-een)!


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Look at what I found on sale at Homegoods.  This little dessert plate set was originally $25.00 and I bought it for $3.00!

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I hope you have a blessed St. Patrick's Day!


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I am linking over to Kathleen's St. Patrick's Day Blog Crawl @ Cuisine Kathleen.

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Happy St. Patrick's Day Breakfast

Thursday, March 17, 2011

We found some goodies to bring home during our recent trip to Southern Accents.  See pictures from our trip here.

We bought an 8 X 10 picture frame made from salvaged wood.  I will use it for my daughter's graduation picture or prom picture.  Most of the frames in our house are made from recycled wood and other materials.


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I could not resist this adorable cross.


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We did buy a fabulous corbel to serve as a small entryway table.  Our foyer is not very large, and there is very little wall space because it is open to our living room, family room, and there are two doors, a closet door and the front door.


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The artwork is by Ryan Carlson.  You can read a post about his art here.


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I added Ariana Franklin's The Mistress of the Art of Death series.  I recently learned that Ariana Franklin passed away.  I am so sad because she was an incredible writer;  this is one of the best series I have ever read! I got the idea about the corbel and books from a wonderful book entitled Decorating With Books.  I will post more on this subject next week!


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The wood shop at Southern Accents added some molding on the corbel for us.  One of the highlights of visiting Southern Accents was the tour of the wood shop.


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I also added an old plant stand in our foyer.

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Please remember our What We're Reading Linky Party hosted by Bonnie and me the twentieth of every month.  Our next one will be this Sunday!


Linking to: Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style, and White Wednesday @ Faded Charm Cottage.










I am also joining Whassup Wednesday @ Elements Interiors, and Vintage Inspiration Friday,




and Courtney @ Feathered Nest Friday.



Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

Treasures from Southern Accents

Wednesday, March 16, 2011


Hello!

I'm Ricki Jill. Welcome! I'm honored that you're reading my blog. I enjoy sharing my creative lifestyle @ The Bookish Dilettante. For more information about my blog, please read the Start Here page. Thank-you for stopping by, and I hope you'll consider following me via email.

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