Icicles in winter, waterfalls in summer....

At lunch yesterday Mama was looking out the window. She turned to me and said, "When I was little our house had a metal roof. There were no whatchamacallits (gutters) so in the winter there were always icicles hanging from the edges of the roof." She went on to say that she used to get one and eat it. (I think these were the first pop-sicles.) She assured me they were clean because the roof was slick and nothing would stick to it.

I asked her if Grandad went out and knocked them down due to the weight. She said she didn't remember him ever doing that.

Then we talked about the old front porch (now enclosed) where the rain came straight off the roof in sheets. It fell into a shallow trench filled with pea gravel. That kept it from causing the water to hit dirt, make mud, and splash it onto the house. I can remember playing on the front porch in the rain. It was like having a waterfall all around you. You could put your hand into the sheet of water and make peep holes, then take your hand back and the sheet was solid once again. At one end of the porch was a fragrant Mock Orange bush. It smelled soooooooo good!

Mama seems to feel a little better these days. She's awake more than she's been in weeks.