Welcome! I hope I bring a spot of calm and happiness into these uncertain times. I blog about my photography adventures, flowers, gardening, the importance of chocolate in a well lived life, or anything else on my mind.
You can see one towards the right middle of the picture. I apologize for the glare.
These are milkweed plants, which the caterpillars feast on until their next stage of development. I see at least three in this picture.
The enclosure itself.
This is the Vestal Library's certificate of recognition from the Monarch Waystation program. The program states, in part:
"Monarch Waystations are intentionally managed gardens that provide critical breeding resources and food sources to support monarch butterflies throughout their multi-generational, 3,000-mile migration.....As of 11 August 2026, there have been 57,969 Monarch Waystation habitats registered with Monarch Watch."
The very first monarch waystation was established in 2004 at the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas.
It's Monday and it's time for music, and (sadly) another induction into Rock and Roll Heaven.
Seems like we are having inductions almost every week now, and this one is especially sad.
Who
are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We are a group of music loving
bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in
the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to
join! We are brought to you by Cathy ofCurious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.
Our theme this week is: It’s the end of the month, summer is drawing to an end unofficially. Share songs that make you think of the end of summer.
But I am going to go in another direction today (I'll save this theme until next week, hopefully).
Dolly Parton passed away on August 25 at the age of 80. I had blogged a short tribute to her on Wednesday, and it's time to feature some more of her music. Dolly Parton, in her lifetime, was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This amazing woman first sang at the Grand Ole Opry (the longest running radio show there is) at age 13, in July of 1959. She was introduced by Johnny Cash as "a little girl from East Tennessee".
She was so loved that our national flag was lowered to half staff for the week following her death.
I'm devoting this entire post to her music. First off are a couple of songs familiar to many of us.
9 to 5, sung and written by Dolly Parton, who also starred in the movie of the same name. This song was used as the closing of the Grand Ole Opry's tribute Saturday to Dolly Parton.
From 1971, a deeply personal song, Coat of Many Colors, about her childhood. A duplicate coat made by Dolly's mother is on display at Dollywood, the theme park Dolly developed as a tribute to her East Tennessee roots.
Next, a lesson rooted in Dolly's philosophy of life..
Better Get to Livin', from 2007, is a fan favorite although not considered one of her greatest songs.
My Tennessee Mountain Home, from 1972.
One of the Music Moves Me bloggers, DrillerAA from Driller's Place, introduced us to this song last week. I am including it as another side to Dolly Parton, who was a deeply religious Christian and recorded a number of gospel songs. This is her cover of He's Alive, a song originally by Don Francisco. Dolly heard this song on the radio while traveling in 1989 and decided to record it.
Finally, I had to include a live performance of what was probably Dolly Parton's signature song, Jolene, perhaps because of the introduction.
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
These are pink turtleheads. I bought one plant at a farm market in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012. I also bought a white turtlehead but it didn't survive. Turtleheads are a native wildflower to where I live, but I found out recently that while the white turtleheads are native to where I live, the pink ones aren't. However they are native to where I bought the plant.
Finally, (hiss boo) Japanese knotweed in bloom. It's lovely when in bloom. But: it was brought over to the United States as an ornamental and erosion control plant around 1873. By the 1930's it was considered a major problem. It reproduces vegetatively and is found on all continents except Antarctica. The only good thing I can say about it is that the honey bees make from it is delicious.
I was going to blog about monarch butterflies today, but I find myself blogging about a different monarch. So this will be a fairly wordy Wordless Wednesday.
Dolly Parton used to joke that she was the Queen of Tabloids. She certainly was a queen: a talented singer who rose from poverty to enrich the world, the fourth of 14 children of an east Tennessee family. She was also an actor, a songwriter, a philanthropist,a humanitarian, a re-creator of a Tennessee theme park to enrich and pay tribute to her local community, an entrepreneur, and the bringer of a free reading program called Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to the parents of thousands and thousands of babies and toddlers. (That program is available in the United States, Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.)
Dolly Parton died yesterday at the age of 80, just four days after she reassured fans about her health. The cause of death was cancer.
I am not a country music fan, but I love every song I ever heard her sing. I will feature her induction into Rock and Roll Heaven on my blog this coming Monday.
In the meantime, there is the matter of this cake mix. Yes, Dolly had a line of baking mixes. I had two in the house yesterday, a cornbread mix and this coconut cake mix. I had never tried the coconut mix and now it was time.
Why not bake a cake as a tribute to her? So I baked the coconut cake. It was delicious.
It's Monday and it's time for music! It's also time for another induction into Rock and Roll Heaven.
Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! We are brought to you by Cathy ofCurious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.
Why not join us? This is our "you pick" week when we can pick any music we want.
Frank Beard, drummer and only beardless man in the group ZZ Top, died on August 17, 2026. He was in hospice care, suffering from pneumonia and heart disease at the time of his death.
Beard was not ZZ Top's original drummer, but joined the band after their original drummer (Dan Mitchell) left in 1969. Unlike the remainder of the band, who were famous for their long beards. Beard only grew a (short) beard for a time in 2013. Beard, with some brief exceptions due to illness and other reasons, was their drummer until 2025.
La Grange, released in late 1973, became a hit in 1974.
Cheap Sunglasses, from 1979.
Not an induction but a sad moment. The Hollies officially retired from touring and broke up this past week, with their 80 year old lead guitarist Tony Hicks announcing his retirement due to health reasons. Their drummer, Bobby Elliot (84) followed shortly after. The band had been together for some 63 years.
This is one of my favorite Hollies songs: Stop Stop Stop with Hicks on banjo and Elliot on drums. I never realized, until researching this post, that Hicks was playing the banjo and not sitar.
I wanted to include some music I listened to this week on the radio.
The Babys - Every Time I Think of You, from 1978. This is such a beautifully sung song that I wonder why I don't hear it more.
The Four Tops - Bernadette
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
From this past Friday, let's take a quick visit to my shady back yard.
Last year, a woodland sunflower (according to my iPhone) showed up. This year, several other plants joined it.
Here is the first bloom. Yesterday, a couple of more showed up.
While I was at it, I got a picture of my Persian Shield plant. It looks a little wilted so I'll have to get a better photo one day. I've grown Persian Shield now for many years. The last two years, I've gotten my plants from Select Seeds. This is all one plant.
Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog for her #ShadowshotSunday. Have a shadowy picture to share? Why not join us at the linky at Lisa's blog post?
