Carter's Water Garden


Sunday Reflection’s…

Beautiful Sunrise 🌅, early morning chores, including breaking up ice in every bowl and trough… Cold 🥶

But the coffees is Hot ☕️ And breakfast was epic! We had black beans 🫘 and rice with applewood smoked sausage for dinner last night. Left overs almost demand my wife’s favorite breakfast – Huevos rancheros! 💥 ie; Ranch Style Eggs 🍳 But when I fix them… Markus T.’s Hillbilly Eggs 🍳 💥

Jo likes her eggs 🥚 over medium. I like egg whites only… But both have rice, black beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole 🥑 & salsa 💥 It’s a meal 🥘

It’s the kind of breakfast that fills you up, warms you up, and let’s you skip lunch 😊

It’s a Cold 🥶, Sunny 🌞 Beautiful 🤩 Day! Don’t waste it 🙏🏻

“The sun is brilliant in the sky but its warmth does not reach my face.
The breeze stirs the trees but leaves my hair unmoved.
The cooling rain will feed the grass but will not slake my thirst.
It is all inches away but further from me than my dreams.”

~ M. Romeo LaFlamme


Enjoy this day! 🌞

~ Mark C.



Sunday Reflection’s…

We woke up this morning to electricity ⚡️ Yes! Lights 💡 running water 🚿 ICE! 🧊 Wow 🤩 Not having these basics at your fingertips for just a couple of days is… Strange to say the least. We are so use to having them, we can completely take it for granted that they will always be there at the exact moment we need them…

80 MPH strait line winds are no joke! Think Hurricane… I was downtown in the radio studio when it hit – 💥 It shook the whole building! The roof on the building across the street started peeling off and flying down the street 🌬 Traffic cones and barrels were flipping down the street, cartwheeling into parked cars and flying through the air. Trees were snapping, so were the power lines! The signal went out, along with all streaming and phone lines. It was one of the worst storm scenes I have ever witnessed, and it was over in a matter of minutes.

This is the window I watched the debris blown hurricane force wind storm through ☝🏼 But I really saw the damage that was done on the ride home. Trees down everywhere! Power poles and lines down all over town. Debris, trash cans, barrels, toys, clothes, you name it were blown into piles everywhere you looked. Wow! Then when I got home… No power. I wasn’t surprised after seeing the level of damage. Luckily, no one here was hurt 🙏🏻 We had some damage, but nothing we couldn’t clean up and repair. Then we sat down and expected the power to pop back on any minute. But it didn’t. None Friday, none Friday night. So we were forced to close Saturday. No power all day… But, they did restore power over night and this morning, we had lights and water🚿 a HOT Shower was nice 😊

  • Thank you 🙏🏻 to all the hard working men and women who worked day and night for 2 days to clean all that mess up and get the town back up and running. We are fortunate to have dedicated folks to take care of business like this! ❤️

So what did we do to pass the time? Here’s a little video for ya’ Entertainment is where you find it 😊

“If it weren’t for electricity, we’d all be watching television by candlelight.”

~ George Gobel

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Mark C.



Sunday Reflection’s…

Spring is elusive. It tease’s us a bit. My Saucer Magnolias are in full bloom, my big Weeping Willow is leafing out. The ground is very wet, muddy in fact with more rain forecast all week… Then a cold snap is expected that will nip all these early plants and trees back. This time of year it’s always 2 steps forward & then – 2 to 3 steps back… But that is also part of the magic that Spring brings us 😊 Resurrection, renewal, regrowth… ❤️

My Grandma planted this flowering Almond many years ago. When it blooms, like it is doing now, it brings back so many memories of her and my granddad ❤️

It was a cool, muddy morning, but we got the chores done in record time. I fixed coffee ☕️ Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to be exact (so good!). Had a simple quick breakfast (bagels & eggs 🥚) and then I got a pot of soup going for dinner (homemade potato 🥔)! No football 🏈 to tie me down this afternoon… Who knows what might happen! 😇

“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size.”

~ Gertrude S. Wister

Have a great afternoon!

Mark C.



Sunday Reflections…

Good afternoon 🙏🏻 I always try to post a Sunday Reflections blog, and they have almost always been in the morning. The morning just got away from me 😂 Coffee ☕️ Chickens 🐓 Breakfast 🍳 Picking up, cutting back, composting, trash duty, etc. Preparations for the coming season… Plus Preparations for the coming week 😊 February is only a few days away and I already have Spring Fever 🍀

The buds are swelling on my Saucer’ Magnolia! Spring is coming!

Thursday is Groundhog Day, the half-way point of Winter! Then it’s a downhill roll into Spring ❤️

Have a great afternoon!

Mark C.

“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle … a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream.”

~ Barbara Winkler



Sunday Reflection’s…

It’s always easy to “Fall back”! My personal clock didn’t change though… I was wide awake shortly after 4am this morning. My iPhone had already updated, so I changed all the clocks ⏰, reset the oven and microwave clocks… Straitened up, made coffee, made biscuits and waited for the sunrise.

Shortly after breakfast, I let the chickens 🐓 out to free range a bit, then came back to drink some coffee ☕️

In the short time that I was in the house a couple of things happened. My sons Australian Shepherd got out of the fence and not only scattered my flock of chickens that were outside, she went into the hen house & ran ALL of my chickens out and scattered them to the wind 💨

You know what comes next… Trying to locate and round up chickens isn’t easy, in fact I’m still in the process… Y’all have a wonderful Sunday afternoon 🌞

“I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mark C.