By Caroline Clemmons
Hello Summer! Like many of you I’ve heard from, we skipped right into hot weather. I know many of you love hot weather and the activities that go with it. While I prefer air conditioning, I enjoy looking outside at our lawn. Hero and I watch the squirrels, birds, and critters that wander through our back yard.
Part of our pleasure looking at our back yard is because we grew up in West Texas at a time when trees were not that common in our part of town. FHA loans required five shrubs and one tree per home. That’s what my family home had until my folks added a few plants that included roses, a couple of crepe myrtles, a cherry laurel, and a pyracantha. Mother added petunias and zinnias from seeds. Oh, and the first year there we had cotton come up in our front flower bed. Before our subdivision was built, the land was part of a cotton farm.
Our neighbor gave Mom seeds for a plant she called Snow on the Mountain. Daddy and I were warned not to harm those seeds. She and I waited eagerly for them to grow. When they did, my dad laughed. He said, “That’s milkweed.” Poor Mom! For a few weeks, when we’d go for a Sunday afternoon drive, Daddy would slow by a field and say, “Look at the snow on the mountain.”
When out eldest daughter was born, she was three weeks late. Our mother’s had worked out a schedule and Hero’s mom was coming for the birth and then my mom—who had to arrange her vacation from work—would come two weeks later. Hero's mom came on schedule to be there for the birth--but our daughter didn't show up. I had a sad looking African violet in the kitchen. For one thing, there was no window in that kitchen. Made no difference for Hero’s mom's care. That violet perked up and bloomed happily while she was there. Sadly, when she went home, the poor violet succumbed under my care.
I got better at growing flowers, but now I spend most of my time at the computer. (You see what I’m doing here, don’t you?) One of the fruits of my computer labor is my current release, A BRIDE FOR CODY. This is book 9 for the Mistaken Identity Mail Order Bride Series conceived by Cheryl Wright with a cover designed by V. McKevitt of Black Widow Designs. It’s a sweet western historical romance that I hope you’ll try. I loved writing about Orlena, a strong woman who has to work around her absent-minded professor uncle’s mistakes. For once, his goof saves the life of a child they're babysitting. This time, it means he and Orlena are also in grave danger. Well… you’ll have to read what happened. Find it here: https://www.amzn.com/B093FYY4FZ
I hope you’ll read all of the Mistaken Identity Mail Order Bride series:
Book 1 – A BRIDE FOR JAKE, by Cheryl Wright
Book 2 – A BRIDE FOR
NOLAN, by Margaret Tanner
Book 3 – A BRIDE FOR WES,
by Patricia PacJac Carroll
Book 4 – A BRIDE FOR
RILEY, by Kathleen Lawless
Book 5 – A BRIDE FOR
WILSON, by Elissa Strati
Book 6 – A BRIDE FOR ADAM, by Marisa Masterson
Book 7 – A BRIDE FOR LANE,
by Lisa Prysock
Book 8 – A BRIDE FOR
QUENTIN, by Zina Abbott
Book 9 – A BRIDE FOR CODY,
by Caroline Clemmons
Until next month, happy reading!
I love the stories about your and Hero's childhood. A Bride for Cody will be a great read.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover, "A Bride for Cody." Very interesting that a FHA loan required five shrubs and a tree. Our development built on a hay field used as a runway for small-plane mail delivery in the early days, and we had no trees or scrubs either.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read the book! I am not great at growing plants- I always say my house is where plants come to die.
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