Live and Learn

I think we all learn something every day. That's just part of living. Sometimes it's big, and sometimes it's small. From time to time, I think that I should do a regular feature here about things I've learned, you know, because I have Live and Learn in the name of my blog. However, my follow-through is not always the best.😏 But today, I'm going to make it happen. Here it goes. Some things I've learned recently.

It took way too long to put this sticky straw
around the tomato plants.

1. Straw made for covering up grass seeding is very sticky. Occasionally, we buy a bale of straw to mulch around various plants. Last fall, we bought a bale at our local Southern States like we always do. However, it was very difficult to pull apart. Annoyingly so. It turns out that we got straw coated with something sticky to be used for seeding, so that it won't blow away. You can be sure that we will be very careful when we purchase straw again to know what kind we're buying.

Costco chicken

2. Costco's Kirkland Signature brand is 30 years old, and the worldwide celebration for this is happening at a Maryland depot. (Knowing these kinds of things happens when your son works there.) I think the most popular Kirkland product is the $4.99 rotisserie chicken. Costco sells enough of them that they raise their own chickens, and last year, they sold over 157 million. However, I consulted with Theo, and he said that if you didn't count gasoline, the most popular item is probably toilet paper. :)

3. Speaking of Costco, their stores are called warehouses, and their distribution centers are called depots. Theo works in a depot. I confused the two when I first learned this.

It's been over a month, and
I'm still waiting on this parsley to sprout.

4. If it's important or takes a lot of prep work, it pays to use newer seeds. I planted 6 packages of old seeds, and only two (seeds, not packets) of them sprouted. There were some flowers, some veggies, some in pots, some in the ground. All of these were a hopeful experiment, and luckily, the lack of results is not of much consequence. On the things that really mattered to me, like tomatoes, I used newer seeds.

These peas have been good both for pod eating and shelling.

5. Peas come in purple and yellow varieties. Uncle Billy gave me some extra pea seeds he had that have purple and yellow pods. I've only seen green ones before. The peas are doing well (new seeds), and it's fun to see the new varieties.

This is what the peas look like on the inside--more like the peas I know.

Well, nothing earth-shattering in this list. It's funny how I know that I'm processing new information all the time, but nothing much came to mind as I was writing this. Maybe I should keep a list. We'll see how I do with follow-through on that. 😀

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday

 I am thankful for the kindness of strangers.

Last Tuesday, Ward and I went with friends to see a John Prine tribute concert at Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is a National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia. The stage is surrounded by open-air covered seating and lawn seating, and is a magical place to watch a concert (if the weather cooperates, which it did).

When we made our way back to our car, we found the battery was dead. After a bit of asking around, we found someone with jumper cables and someone else who gave our car a jump. Soon, we were finding our way home.

So, for the kindness of strangers who helped us start our car, I am thankful.

Throwback Thursday

 It's time for another Throwback Thursday, when I will visit a post from the past that was from the same week. (As an aside, when I think about it, Throwback Thursdays were popular years ago, so maybe the concept of doing a Throwback Thursday is a throwback in itself.😄)

Today, we're going back to June 2011 when we had been strawberry picking. I haven't noticed local strawberries being available yet, but I should look around because the season is short.

Without further ado...

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Strawberries for Now

It's strawberry season. That time when the aromatic, sweet, and juicy strawberries are ripe. We were very fortunate this year because Aunt Martha had a lush strawberry patch that she shared with us. We quickly consumed the first batch of berries we picked, but luckily, we were invited to pick more.

Strawberries from Aunt Martha

Wally was excited with this prospect and started discussing everything we could do with them—make strawberry shortcake, make smoothies, make jam, and the list went on. 

So we set off one afternoon to go picking. As we were picking, Wally asked me if I remembered one of his favorite books from when he was a child, called Blueberries for Sal. 

In this book, a little girl named Sal goes blueberry picking with her mother but finds herself eating the berries faster than they can fill the bucket. He said he was reminded of the book because he was doing something similar. However, we did end up with some to take home.

When we poured our berries into a container, there weren't as many as we had hoped for, but we still planned to make strawberry jam. However, when I returned to the kitchen a couple of hours later, all of the berries were gone. I guess the fresh berries were just too tempting.

Now you see them.       Now you don't.

I started to be annoyed, but changed my mind. We could enjoy the strawberries now, or we could enjoy them later, and I guess now was okay. I reminded myself about the practice that is hard for me—being in the moment. That helped. Then I didn't feel so guilty about my part in the disappearing berries.

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Until next time...

Visiting with Sea Creatures

Recently, Ward's cousin, Cynthia, was visiting from Guatemala. One of our outings during her stay was a visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It's been several years since we last visited, and we were pleasantly reminded of how much we like it. Below are pictures from our outing. Probably more than you want to see, but the animals were just so darn interesting. 

First up are the jellyfish, perhaps my favorite exhibit. They floated and glided so effortlessly that I found them mesmerizing. 

Fluorescent flower hat jellyfish

Egg-yolk jellyfish

Upside-down jellyfish that lie on the bottom with their tentacles up.

Tiger jellyfish

Not sure what kind these are, but we got to pet similar ones in a petting pool. They felt firm with a squishy layer on top.

Spotted jellyfish

And the giant display of glass jellyfish. 😉

On the top floor of the aquarium, you leave the water and enter the tropical rainforest. Cynthia felt right at home here, as many of the plants featured grow where she lives.

This banana tree, with its blooms and bananas forming, reminded me of the one time we got bananas from our tree in New Orleans. (Look to the right of the big yellowed leaf near the top to see the bananas.)

There were colorful birds, including parrots...

and scarlet ibis.

The real star of the rainforest display was the sloth. 

The poison dart frogs were not allowed to roam freely like the rest of the rainforest animals, so we saw these brightly colored frogs behind glass. It was pretty dark, so not the best pictures. The frogs ranged in size from about 1/2 inch to 2 inches.

This tiny frog had a very big voice.

A few other things we saw:

Green moray eel

Puffins

And no visit to an aquarium would be complete without seeing sharks.

After our visit, we made it home in time to go line dancing. A busy, but fun day.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday

 I am thankful for my father-in-law.

Ward's cousin, Cynthia, decorated the cake.

Yesterday, we celebrated my FIL's 93rd birthday. It was a typical family afair in his backyard with family and friends. With fans, plenty of shade structures, and cold drinks, the 90-degree temperatures weren't too bad. Add to that music and little kids running around, and it was a festive time indeed.

The family band. Ward's father is playing the bongos.

My father-in-law has lived a good life despite some tragedies and contributed positively to the lives of so many others. And as part of this life, he and my mother-in-law raised four amazing children, including Ward. I have definitely benefited from this.

So, for the wonderful human being my father-in-law is and the excellent example he set for Ward, I am thankful.

Until next time...