Favorite photos of my grandparents...

I have a big, ole' brown thumb...

But my sister does not.

A long time coming and well worth the wait...

When I was a senior in high school, my coconut pound cake won grand champion at the fair. It sold at the auction for $300. The recipe came from a relative, Sally, who lived in the neighboring town of Sour Lake. She often brought coconut pound cakes to my father at Christmas. He loved them.

Anyway...

I grew up, moved away and lost the recipe. We searched for it to no avail. About 15 years ago, I wrote to Sally at an address I found on the internet. I got no response. It looked like the recipe was lost forever.

When I was in Texas this past October, I got to visiting with a man from Sour Lake who was shopping at our estate sale. We were talking about family history, and such, when Sally's name came up. He knew her well so I told him the pound-cake story. He took my number and left.

Here's the good part...

Within two hours, my phone rang. He had gone home and found Sally's pound-cake recipe in his mother's recipe box. Can you believe it?

So, without further adieu... I am sharing it with you here so it will never be lost again.

(I'm not re-wording it because I think it's so charming just like it is.)

Sally's Coconut Pound Cake

3 sticks butter or oleo
3 c. sugar
6 eggs
3 c. plain flour
8 oz. sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. soda
1 pkg. frozen coconut (not canned)
1 tsp. vanilla

Defrost coconut (to avoid failure). Have eggs and butter out at room temperature. Preheat oven to 300. Grease tube pan. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add flour, salt & soda, sifted together, and sour cream and vanilla and beat well. Stir or fold in coconut. Pour in tube pan and bake until done 1 to 1.5 hours, maybe longer.

Gentle giant...

My sister, Biz, takes in just about any stray animal that comes along. She's had as many as 10 dogs at one time. Her most recent addition, Willis, is very special and she's quite attached to him. Here's a photo of his paw in her regular-sized adult hand.

Fathers from my family tree...

Well, it's Father's Day so I thought you might like to meet some of the fathers in my family tree.

This is my great-grandfather... my paternal grandmother's father.


This is my great-grandfather... my paternal grandfather's father.


This is my paternal grandfather pictured with my dad.


More photos of my paternal grandfather.


This is my great-great-grandfather... my paternal great-grandmother's father.


So, there you have the fathers from my family tree. Unfortunately, there are no photos from my mother's side of the family.

Happy Father's Day!

Birdhouse brings back fond memories...

Seeing this handmade red and white birdhouse brings back some very fond memories for me.

My grandparents divided their time between a wonderful home in Houston and the Old House, which my grandmother called, "the country."

Grandmother and Pa's next-door neighbors in Houston were a retired Army Colonel, who we called "Colonel," and his wife, Boo, which was short for Beulah. You have never met a more proper Southern couple than Boo and the Colonel.

Here are 10 things I remember about Colonel and Boo...

1) They never had any children of their own.

2) When Boo served us soft drinks, she'd always drop in a plastic piece of ice with a fly in it... much to our delight, of course.

3) Grandmother told us to stay off their grass and never to touch anything in their house.

4) Colonel had a fantastic collection of beer steins from Germany. They were way up high on shelves all over the house.

5) If Boo had a piece of furniture you weren't allowed to sit on, you'd know it, because it would have a piece of string tied across the seat.

6) Boo buzzed around Houston in her mint-condition Volkswagon Bug while her also-mint-condition '65 mustang stayed at home in the garage... I'm telling you, she was fabulous.

7) They had the biggest bottle of Old Granddad on their kitchen counter. It was so large, it sat on a wooden stand that tilted so it could be poured.

8) Boo was homesick for Victoria, Texas.

9) It was a rare honor for a child to be a guest of Colonel and Boo.

10) One day my brother and I spent all day in the Colonel's garage and he helped us build this birdhouse which still sits on a shelf in the Old House...

I'm so glad we held onto this treasure for so many years. I hope the Colonel is looking down from heaven and smiling.

Linking to Make it for Monday, Metamorphasis Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Make Your Monday, Transformation Thursday, Rednesday, Show and Tell Friday, Saturday Night Special

Hydrangeas at the Old House in Texas...

My sister just sent these photos of the hydrangeas at the Old House in Texas. I think they are looking really good this year. When I was home in October, I pruned them. I think they appreciated it.

This one is for Pink Saturday...


Also linking to Outdoor Wednesday and Show and Tell Friday

More photos from the Old House...

As you know, my sister took some photos at the Old House last week. Here are the ones she took in the dog trot. I wish I could show you a photo that was taken right down the center of it... but I don't have one. To learn more about dog trots, click here.

Note to self: Paint dog trot ASAP...!!!

That toy horse was mine when I was little. There's one of the small chairs I collect. This one came from a school. There, in the flower pots, are some tiles that came from a different old family house. We used the boat anchor in a wooden rowboat at our beach house on Galveston Bay. The boat and the house were both washed away in hurricanes. Check out the kettle here in a much older photo.

These things are usually out in the yard but I brought them inside so they wouldn't get stolen. We have photos of my dad sitting in this chair when he was a boy. It weighs a ton... Did you notice the arms have horse heads and the legs have hooves? The pulley is from the old well that's still out in the yard.

I'll share more Old House photos later this week.

Linking to Show and Tell Friday

Spring snow on a Big Horn Mountain ranch...

My brother works on the Klondike Ranch at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains, near Buffalo, Wyoming. He took all of these photos during two snowstorms this month... yes, you heard me right... in May.

Crazy Woman Canyon Road, looking toward
the canyon and the Big Horn Mountains

Horses running to the haywagon

Weatherman said 6 inches

Frosted Mini-Wheats

Jack, the Border Collie... He's my dog's daddy and my brother's dog's daddy

My brother's dog, Bandit

Linking to White Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday

Somebody's been in the Old House...

My sister went to the Old House the other day with her camera. These are the photos she took of a shelf in the kitchen.

I love old mixing bowls and that beat-up cookbook was like a Bible when I was a young girl learning to cook. The gourd was used to dip water from a bucket.

There's my favorite yellow Fiestaware mixing bowl and a sweet, little gravy boat with strawberries on it.

There's some red glass from the State Fair and Daddy's baby dish, rattle and silver cup.

There's Daddy's piggy bank and a tin that Aunt Necel used to put tea cakes in.

Oh, and there are my Cheery Chintz cup and saucer and a few pitchers from my great-grandmother's pitcher collection.

I'll show you another shelf on Wednesday.

When I saw these photos, they made me so happy... but then a great sadness came over me. I just cannot put this type of homesick into words.

Linking to White Wednesday at Faded Charm and Show and Tell at My Romantic Home

1849 Calder Avenue...

This was the home of my great grandparents. I know the address because there are many letters still around that are addressed to Mrs. J.L. Hooks, 1849 Calder Ave., Beaumont, Texas. We still have the blueprints to this old house and they are BLUE...! The house was torn down in the 60s, I think.

Today, I will introduce you to some of the people who lived here. But first...

This is the Kirby-Hill House in Kountze, Texas. It is just down the road from the Old House. It is a nearly identical house to the one at 1849 Calder Avenue. This house is owned by the Hardin County Historical Society. You may learn more about it here.

Now I will introduce you to some of the residents of 1849 Calder Avenue, Beaumont, Texas.

This is my great grandfather, J.L. "Sam" Hooks.

This is my great grandmother, Corrie Herring Hooks. Everyone called her "Mama Hooks." I believe she founded the Audubon Society in Beaumont, Texas.

This is my grandfather, Rufus Herring Hooks, Sr. He was born in 1898 and grew up at 1849 Calder Avenue.

Even in his old age, he often spoke of his beloved dogs, Rock and Rye, pictured here with him.

He attended the military academy in Gulfport, Mississippi.

He was a successful in oil-exploration in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.

Here is my grandfather with his sisters Verna and Olga.

When Aunt Verna grew up, she married an oil tycoon.

Aunt Olga liked beer and the beach and wildlife and lived way back in the woods at the place she was born, until the day she died.

This is my great grandmother's brother, Uncle Rufe Herring. My grandfather was named after him. Ain't he perty?

I hope you have enjoyed meeting the former residents of 1849 Calder Avenue, Beaumont, Texas.