The trees at the top of the page are on the north side of our house.  I was so pleased to see the sunshine finally that I had to capture the loftiness of the view.

We finally have a flagpole!  Charles has always wanted to have a flagpole, but not until building this house did his dream come true.  I took this picture yesterday, as I headed out on my neighborhood walk.  

As I walked yesterday, I realized that not all of our friends would recognize the "cricks" that look like ordinary landscaping until we get rain.  They turn into "instant" streams of flowing water, gurgling along merrily on their way to the surrounding lakes.  This one is near our home.

Another beautiful scene near where I walk is a good view of Lake Balboa, which is only across the street and one lot over from us.  It's the largest lake here.

I am thinking that this might be the perfect place to bring the little grandchildren to go fishing this summer.  It is so peaceful. 

As I headed out of the cul-de-sac, I caught this picturesque view that appealed to me, as well.

And then I returned home to inspect the backyard, namely my herb garden.

Only this week I discovered that my precious husband sprayed my organic herb/garlic garden with Round-up.  I can't start to explain how disappointed I am in this knowledge.  I sent to Colorado for the certified organic to plant.  Hubby planted the garlic before we even moved into the house.  I have watched it grow, eager to share the bounty with friends.  I even had visions of taking it to the local organic Farmer's Market.  I can see now, that none of that will happen.  Another of life's little twists and turns adds interest to my week and gives me a rather sad story to share.

I had a new experience today here in the Village.  I volunteered for the first time at the Farmer's Market.  It was incredibly fun, but fairly hard work.  One vendor was a "no-show," and another was terribly late.  The third wrench was that several pounds of the tomatoes brought in bountiful supply by the wonderful Amish farmer were squashed, because "the children" had packed them too tightly into the boxes used for transport.  I joked and said that we could blame the day's problems on the children and the one volunteer!

Afterwards we went out for fried catfish, which I had no business eating, but enjoyed to the hilt.  Of course, the thing that was most delicious to me was the baked potato.  I never fix them at home because they are so bad for BC, but oh, do I ever love to have one when we eat out!

And so, I have slowly started my writing, my sharing, my rambling here in the piney woods of Arkansas.