Black- Eyed Susans....Flowers that grow both in New Jersey and Utah

Here is a photo from my Utah garden of a Black- Eyed Susan.  I love these flowers.  The scientific name is Rudbeckia hirta.  Rudbeckia is after the scholar Olaus Rudbeck and his son who had the same name.  Hirta means rough and hairy.  And if you look at the stem and leaves of a Black Eyed Susan you will see that they are rough and hairy.  One thing I love about gardening is to watch a plant grow from seedling to bloom.  This is one of those plants that I know what the seedling looks like.  So even though I did not plant these in my garden, as soon as I saw the seedlings come up I knew what the plant would be.

This is what the Black- Eyed Susan flower looks like before it  blooms.  You can kind of see all the hairs on the plant.  The Black- Eyed Susan is a type of Cone Flower.  I am trying to grow some Purple Cone Flowers in the back of my garden, they probably won't bloom till next year but they are growing.

Black Eyed Susan's come in various sizes and shapes.  I'm amazed by how different they can look.  This is a photo from my New Jersey garden.

Here is a photo of one before it has fully opened.

Some have a red center.  I like this photo even though I think there was some problem in the development of it.( I want to say development of the film, but it was a digital photo so not sure what to say other than the light when taking the photo was off. I'm not a professional photographer.)  The background has a bluish tint, but I find it a bit on the artistic side.  As the flower to me seems to pop out of the photo more.

This flower is actually very small.  It is from my Utah garden.  I just thought it was beautiful.

Here is the small Black Eyed Susan by my petunias, just so you can get an understanding of how small it really is.  So these photo's show the types of  Black- Eyed Susan's that I was familiar with from New Jersey and Vermont.  Out west there is another type of  Black- Eyed Susan.  The Black- Eyed Susan Vine. Which really is not related to the Black-Eyed Susan at all.   I planted one this year.  So here are a few Photo's of it as well.

The only similarity is that they have a dark middle. And the middle of this flower is actually purple.

Here is a photo of the them together.  I'm not sure which I like better.
Sending Black- Eyed Susan flowers to someone means you are sending them encouragement.
They are a bit toxic to pets so keep the kitty from eating them.  I had some in the house and my cat did not want to leave them be, so had to put them outside. Well hope you enjoyed the photo's.  I'm working on getting my photo's together in my old computer so I can print them out and possibly sell them as cards or framed art work.  I have a few new post ideas coming soon....One on listening to the stories of parents and grandparents, and one on the fact that 3 generations of Bowlby men were not going to get married but did. So be watching, as I hope to be more productive in the next few weeks.
Related sites:
Meaning of flowers 
Olaus Rudbeck
Wild American Beauty, All about the Black Eyed Susan
Types of Black-Eyed Susan with names and photos.
G.G.

Grow Old Along With Me 17 Years of Marriage (Part 3 An Eternal Marriage....)

As happy as my wedding day was, there was one bleak out look.  My husband and I were married only until  " Death do you part"    Deep down inside I know that we are more than the people we are today.  Deep down I wanted more than just this life.  We had a "Civil Marriage"  because we are the first members of our family to have joined "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."  We did not want all of our family to be upset that they could not go to our wedding.  It was a very hard decision as I would have liked to just go to the Temple for our marriage.   My husband was right though, it would have caused a lot of hurt feelings.

On November 2nd,1996 my husband and I went to the Washington D.C. Temple and were sealed for Time and All Eternity.  I knew in my heart that I had found what my soul has always told me was true.  Life exists beyond this world, and I wanted my best friend to be with me always.  Looking back on it, I realize that I did not fully understand all that went on that day.  I'm thankful now to be living in Utah and able to attend the temple regularly so that I can learn more about the world and the eternities beyond.

Over the past few weeks of looking at old photo's and remembering our wedding day and sealing day I have learned an interesting fact.  The song that I loved for our Wedding "Grow Old Along With Me."  Was taken from a poem by Robert Browning.  During our sealing the person who sealed us read a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  Two poets who were in love.  Their love story is very interesting.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barret Browning.

Those who love with all their hearts don't just love for this life.  They love forever.  I can not imagine a day with out my husband, how could I survive an eternity with out him.  A few weeks ago we went to the temple to do sealings for the first time since we had been sealed in the Temple.  It had been a desire of mine for so many years to go back and do this.  It was so wonderful to be able to think about our special day while doing this.  I gained a wonderful testimony that day of how important this ordinance in the temple is.  I am so thankful for the wonderful blessing of being sealed to my husband for eternity.

Related Sites:

The Family

Eternal Marriage make it special

Temples and Eternal Marriage

 

 Temple Mirrors of Eternity

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 

 

 

Grow Old Along With Me......17 years (part 2 more photo's and favorite wedding songs)

After the wedding we got into my husbands old classic car and went to our Bishop's house (who also happened to be my husbands boss at the the time) to take some photo's of the wedding party.

Ready to drive away.  I can tell you though sitting in my dress was very painful.  For some reason it was a bit tight and breathing while sitting was hard.

Here is our wedding party.  It wasn't that big, as I was new to New Jersey and the only friends I had were my friends from work.  I have to say now working in retail, I'm glad we went with the black tux.  So many people run around crazy looking for the same colored shirts and ties.

I love all these photo's.  We were so young, so in love.  I look at young lovers now and think oh you have so much to learn.  Our wedding song was "Grow Old Along with Me."  Sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter.  I think even then I knew that this was just a beginning.  Making it to old age together is the challenge.

I think he is whispering things to me, he always has a way of making me laugh.  My next favorite song I found when we were married for ten years. " I'll Love You All Over Again."  By Alan Jackson.  Country singers seem to have good wedding songs.  On our ten year anniversary I made a DVD with photo's of our life together to Alan's song.  I'll have to see if I can find it.  Gosh it seems like yesterday was our 10 year anniversary.  I didn't really believe my husband when he said we were married for 17 years.  Time sure does fly by.

The last photo before going off to the reception.  I have to say that the one thing I remember was there were lots of little black flies out and the fact that we smiled through all these photo's is amazing.

Our first dance.  I remember I took off the pretty little white dress shoes and put white sneakers on for the reception.  You couldn't see my feet anyways.  Now looking back 17 years the song that I love about marriage is "Dancing in the Mine fields." by Andrew Petersen  Marriage is not easy, it is a lot of giving, and caring, and forgiving, and accepting each other.  It's hard work, its being tossed in a storm and being committed to staying.  There have been days when my husband has cared for me and helped me, and days when I've done the same for him.  We said " I do"  For better, for worse, when sick, when healthy, when poor, when rich, when young, and when old.  I remember a time when my husband was struggling and he said, you should leave me, I've changed I'm not that young sure man any more that you married.  I said, I know, but I love you more now than then.   To grow and change with some one is hard.  But I know in the end it is worth it.  

A toast to our future.  We don't drink alcohol so I'm sure this was ginger ale....

Cutting the cake.  I made the little angel with the flowers on the top.  It was a really good cake, but I don't think we ate the frozen half a year later.
In part three I'll share photo's from our Temple Wedding.  It's kind of neat I have two wedding days.
G.G.

Grow Old Along With Me..... To 17 years of Growing together (Part 1... until death do us part)

In honor of my upcoming 17th wedding anniversary thought I'd share some wedding photo's.  Here I am with my mom before the wedding.  I had this dream of a princess dress.  I think I watched too much Disney Princess movies when I was young.  I loved the dress, but it was a bit tight and at points breathing in it was hard.  I'd never fit in it now.

A friend of ours from church took the photo's of our wedding day as a wedding gift.  I'm am so thankful for that every year I love to pull the album out and look at our special day.  The first set of photo's were taken at my in-laws house.

Here is a photo of me with my husbands grandmother.  When she was young she was a talented seamstress, She made many of my mother in-laws dresses.

Here I am with my parents getting ready to head off to the church.

Here comes the bride.  These photo's were taken after the actual ceremony.

Exchanging of the rings.

You may kiss the bride!

I love this close up of our hands.  I want to have something similar done at some point.
So this was our wedding day, our until death do you part wedding.  In my next blog post I'll share more photo's of our wedding and the songs I love about marriage.
G.G.

Adopt a pet.... You'll have a friend for life. (Part 1)

This is my cat Amber.  We adopted her about 4 to 5 years ago.  See is my most loyal companion.  No matter where I am at home she is always with me.  Most of the time she is tying to help me with my projects.  In this photo she is protecting my nook.  She is always around while I am working on my computer.  As I spend over 20 hours a week on family history work, she is always there helping.

Here she is helping me fit all my clean clothes into the dresser.  She thinks it might be a good bed too.  She is one reason clean clothes get put away fast, if they don't get put away then she will get them all hairy.

Here she is getting ready to help me do my research.

I don't think I would like to sleep on books, but amber sure loves to.  She is trying to remind me to start planning my trip to Scotland.  My dream vacation.

These are photo's of her helping with my new project of learning how to strategic shop.  I think in the last photo she is trying to remind me to get her food.  Look mom I'm really thin and hungry.
I'm so glad that I adopted Amber.  One other great thing she does is alert the family if there are any intruders in the house.  Here is a cute video of the mouse we found in the house because of her.  She knew where the mouse was and would not leave the area. 

So if you have the time, and the money I suggest you adopt a pet.  When we decided to adopt a cat, we decided not to adopt a kitten, but to get an older cat.  Why because I really wanted to feel like I helped save a life.  Amber is a great companion.  I'll be doing a second blog about amber soon as I took lots of photo's and have a few more video's I'd like to share.
Hope you enjoyed seeing what my cat gets up to.
G.G.
P.S. No animals were harmed in the making of the mouse film, hopefully the mouse was mental traumatized and will stay in the field where we brought it to.

A walk through the Bowlby cemetery brings new information for my family tree.

Most people when they go on vacation want to go to fun places, one place you most likely don't think about going to is the cemetery.  Yet when my husband and I were offered a trip back to New Jersey I told my husband one place I really wanted to go was to the cemeteries where his ancestors are buried.  In  fact my love of family history makes me think if I had unlimited funds one thing I would do is travel to every cemetery that has an ancestor and photograph their tombstones.  This tombstone was a great surprise, and gave me information I did not have before.  I had the birth dates for these people but now I have the death dates too.  So I now have all the information a family historian likes to have.

When I lived in New Jersey I didn't have as much time to go to these cemeteries and looking back I wish I could have found the time to go more often.  My kids were young and it was hard to do much with them running around the tombstones.   My father always thought it was wrong to bring my children to the cemetery.  Yet there is so much information to be taken from a tombstone.  Year of birth and death, and on this tombstone you can learn that they were parents. Sometimes you also get the wife's maiden name. All very important information in my search for a complete family pedigree chart.

Tombstone come and all sizes and shapes. The older ones can start to fall apart as this one has.  I took a photo of this tombstone because my son has the same name.  I'm going to see if I can find where in our family tree this Jacob is.  I love a puzzle and family history is most often a giant puzzle.

Sometimes family history shows you the sad moments in life.  A child who died young.  If I had not found this tombstone I may never have known about this child as he was not born on a census year, and he died before the next census.  Only by finding his tombstone next to his parents tombstones do I now know that he was their child.  Sometimes you can only find family members by going to the cemetery.
I put these two tombstones together because my son's full name is Jacob Bartholomew Bowlby.  It is interesting to find name connections.  When we named our children I was not into family history at the time and did not name my children after anyone on the family tree. As I work on family history I find lots of ancestors with the name Jacob and James, there are not that many Gabrielle's or Kimberly's though.

One thing I wish was that I had had a cooler day to visit the cemetery.  It was so hot and humid, I know I could have gotten so much more information if I had more time and a nicer day.  I also wish the day was more over cast as then the photo's would have come out better. 

One nice thing is that some cemeteries have been transcribed and posted to the Internet. So I can look for information on the people with out going.  But there is something cool about having the photo's of the tombstone.  I guess I just have to keep thinking positive thoughts about travelling.
My dream job would be working for a genealogist and going on trips to find family history information, and learning as much as I can about being a family historian. 
Related sites:
Bowlby Cemetery sites
Visit to A Cemetery is a visit to family history
Visiting Cemeteries
How to prepare for a cemetery trip (wish I had read this article before my trip!)
Ancestors in the cemetery
Hope you learned something new about family history today.  Our family is enjoying the last few weeks of summer.  Looking to find a pool to swim at and to have a day at Lagoon.  I've collected more flower photo's so I should have a new post soon.  I have quiet a few new ideas.  I'm also starting to learn about strategic shopping.  Hope to put some tips on that in here too.  I have a goal of reducing my grocery bill by 50%.  So hope to see how that works.  Have a great day.
G.G.

My garden at the end of June..... Where has this month gone??

Here are some photo's of the flowers in my garden at the end of June.  I can't believe that the month has flown by.  I have learned some cool things about flowers and plants this month.  One thing I have learned is that the color of flowers also brings meaning to your garden.  Lighter shade of colors have a more positive meaning while darker shade of colors have a more negative meaning.  I'm not sure what this little blue flower is.  But it is really pretty.  A light blue in the garden is connected with spirituality, love and religiosity.

Here is one of the beautiful lilies in my garden.  It's color meaning is most likely connected to attraction or friendship.  I love these lilies!

One of my favorite flowers Rudbeckia (aka Black eye-susan).

Here is another Black Eyed-Susan.  The Black Eyed-Susan Vine.  I talked with a customer about this plant at the garden center so much she decided to buy two instead of one.   It's a very cool plant.

Here are my Blanket Flowers.  They are so pretty.  You have a mix of red and yellow with these .  I'm not sure of what the meaning could be.  The darker red could be a sign of desire and the lighter yellow is insight or intellectuality.

My petunias are getting huge.  At some point I will do a whole page on their growth.  From tiny little plants to covering the whole front corner of the garden.  Next year I'll have to get more creative with the colors.

Here is one of the Day Lilies.  Light orange is associated with wisdom and justice, but dark brings about pride and selfishness.  I've come to think part of the problem with negativity in my garden is I have dark shade's of color in it.  It is still beautiful. 

Here are my Hen's and Chickens and my Ice Plant.  I hope the Ice Plant flowers soon.  The Hen's and Chickens are very happy as they are starting to grow babies.  I'm so happy for that.

Here is a view of the garden from a distance.  I think it looks really nice.  I have started a new project.  I'm going through all my photo's and editing them and preparing them to make up cards and prints to put into frames.  I have hundreds of photo's.  I'm also adding the name of the flower to each photo.  I wonder how many different flower photo's I have?  It is going to take a long time to finish.

My garden and blog helper.  She is always near to where I am.  Definitely the queen of the house.  We are currently teaching her cat agility tricks.  So far we can get her to jump through a hula-hoop for treats.
My family is doing really well.  We are all trying to stay cool right now.  I have a few projects and ideas brewing.  I'm researching my next family history blog on cousin marriage.  I've found some cool articles.  I had a great inspiration come to me today on that.  I'm also thinking of writing a chapter a week on my blog of my book I've been trying to write.  Perhaps someone will read it and help me edit it and make it into something great.  I also want to begin to plan my trip to Scotland.  Perhaps if I love and desire it enough the universe will send me on it.  I'll explain all that later. 
Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you for reading this blog.  I hope you have enjoyed the flower photo's and it has made you want to learn more about gardens and plants.
Related sites:
Aura Color Charts
Meaning of Lilies
Flowers Meanings
Black-eyed Susan (This is a really cool link!)
Blanket Flower