Tuesday 4, A Visit From the Future

I'm participating in the Tuesday 4 which this week has you examine yourself from the prospective of someone from the future. I've have done similar exercises to this in the past and always found them difficult. To me, everything around me seems normal, of course, so nothing seems special or worth mentioning. But each of us lives in a situation that is unique to us and has our stamp on it one way or another. So much more to say about this, but before I get too far into my thoughts, I will try to stop overthinking things and just answer. Here it goes. Play along if you'd like.

1.  Let's pretend that it is 50 years into the future, and explorers have just discovered your house, "frozen in time" exactly as it is today. Everything is preserved, even the food, but of course no one has lived there for fifty years.  What do you think would be their first reaction as they walk in the door of your house? I think they’d want to know why everything has a wire attached to it and why we have so much paper around. I don’t know where technology is going in the future, but if present trends continue, we will be in a wireless, paperless world.   2.  What would the things left in your house tell the explorers about you? First, I think they would see evidence of pets with our shredded furniture, fur balls, scratching posts, and cat food that abound. They would also see that we hold onto things if they still work even if they aren’t that attractive. That along with the primitive technology that they see, even for 50 years ago, would suggest that we do not part with our money easily.   3.  What kinds of books would they discover on your bookshelves or beside your chair/bed? They would discover many classic science fiction books since my husband still has the ones he got in high school and college. They would also find several “how to” books particularly in woodworking and gardening. Added to that would be some children’s classics, as well as popular fiction and nonfiction books-meaning books I read and liked that I found at used book sales.   4.  What things would they discover in your closets or cabinets that would make them wonder why on earth you were saving it? When we moved four years ago, we got rid of many things, so nothing really ridiculous comes to mind right now. However, they might wonder why we have so many empty coffee cans and empty cat food boxes. If I could talk to them, I would say that I’m saving the coffee cans for a children’s craft program at the library if we ever get to do programs in person again, and those cat food boxes are very sturdy and handy to use in many situations.

Aimless puttering

Today was my day off and I had several things that I wanted to get done around the house. However, it wasn't Ward's day off and he seemed to have an entire day of important meetings. What did that mean to me? Anything in the kitchen was too loud. Vacuuming - too loud. Computer work - hard to concentrate on my things while listening to his meetings. So what did I do? Played a few computer games and wandered around from shady spot to shady spot in the yard doing a bit of clean up. Along the way, I took a few pictures to share. 

We are seeing a lot of rabbits this year. This is one of the younger ones.

The day lily blooms are very pretty. However, the leaves all turn to brown as soon as it gets too hot. Ours are moving into the browning stage, but we still have some blooms.

Despite the fact that I pulled up all of the coneflowers two years ago because of disease, some of them have come back and the insects are enjoying them. If you look closely you'll see the bee's pollen covered legs as well as a busy proboscis.

Our little fig tree is growing. We may actually get a dozen or so figs from it this year. That's at least a 200% increase from previous years.

Little skipper butterflies are everwhere.

Some cicadas come out every 17 years and some of them come out every year like this green-eyed cousin to the red-eyed Brood X that invaded earlier this summer.

Another skipper on comos.

The Black-eyed Susan bloomed this week. Something eats the petals of them as well as the cone flowers' petals. BTW, Black-eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland.

Spirea

Caladium and vinca. These are planted in front of Ward's shop in a planter, made by his dad, from an old hot water heater .

A Patient Mother

 Today is my birthday, so it's time to rerun a birthday post from the past. 

_____________________________________

I am thankful that I had a patient mother.

Today is my birthday which has me thinking about when I was a baby. Of course, I don't remember anything about my first year, but I have the stories I've been told.

Apparently, I was late in arriving. Very late. My mother had to wait three weeks past her due date for me to be born.  My parents sent my older sisters to stay with my grandmother in the next town when the event was eminent or so they thought. My sisters were there so long that my parents visited them on the weekends. My mother had made them a box of surprises for their stay with ribbons attached to a trinket that they got to choose everyday. However, the box emptied before they were back home. During what must have been a very miserable extra three weeks, I am thankful for my mother's patience for my arrival.

Me at 4 months. True to form, I had a cold in
one eye for this appointment.

My mother said that before I came she had time to clean the entire house and she even waxed the kitchen floor. She thought things would go smoothly with me. The house was in order and this was her third child, so she knew what she was doing. But then I came. And I cried. And cried. And cried. For the first six months, I cried so much that I burst a tear duct and herniated my naval. The neighbors used to take me in the car with them while they were delivering groceries to try to calm me. I am thankful for my mother's patience during the very noisy, exhausting time of when I was trying to settle into the world.

Soon after there was finally some quiet in the house (as much as you can have with a baby and two small children), I got pneumonia and was in the hospital for two weeks. The hospital was in another town and my mother spent all of her time with me while the rest managed somehow at home. Once I was back home, my oldest sister remembers the extra care that I still required. For my mother's patience while taking care of a sick baby, I am thankful.

Throughout the years, I have heard various stories about when I was a baby, but never did the stories come with any guilt or resentment. Just another story from my mother like the one when they had to call the fire department to get my sister's foot out of a drain. So for having had a very patient mother who gave me a great start to life despite how hard I made it for her, I am very thankful.

Well, that's annoying.

 My life is good. I know that. I have lived through enough stressful times in the past to fully realize when times are good. But that doesn't mean that I don't get annoyed sometimes. It's just part of being human. Can you tell, I'm working up to some complaining?

Here it goes. My email wasn't working for about a week despite the fact that all of the settings were identical to my husband's. Most of my communication happens through email, so it was a problem. One that I could awkwardly work around, but annoying all the same. I am happy to report after many hours of trouble shooting, my email is working again. However, now Ward's has stopped working. Hopefully the fix we found for mine will work for his.

And even more annoying is the bill pay feature with my bank has stopped working. Every time we try to go in, it takes us back to the sign in screen. We were on the phone with their tech support for an hour the other night before they said they would have to escalate the case because they don't know what's going on. This is a problem. Some of our bills go straight to the site. Almost all of our bills get payed through here. Bills are due and I can't get to them. We do have an ipad mini that we could use, but it's old enough that the bank software doesn't work on it any more. Anyway, I'm gonna have to start figuring out other ways to pay things. Doable, but tedious--and annoying.

And another thing that annoyed me, even though it was partly my fault. We get our cat food delivered through Chewy (prescription food, good price), and usually they put it on our front porch. Well, on Friday, two cases of it got dropped off at the end of our driveway right in the middle. So while leaving to go feed Miss Lander's cat, I ran over it. I didn't see it in the backup camera or the mirrors. Anyway, what a mess! It took about an hour to clean it all up and to see if any of the cans were still usable. I managed to salvage a few and called Chewy. They were able to file a complaint with UPS for me and sent me a new order. I offered to pay for it because it wasn't their problem, but they said no. Chewy has the best customer service in the world and I'm not complaining about that.

And finally, this is not annoying, just disturbing, even though it was totally natural. I checked one of our bird boxes last week to see if the house wren eggs had hatched. Inside, I found a rat snake eating the babies, next to a dead mother. I know that its all part of nature and all of God's creatures have to eat, but I don't want to see it up close and personal. Ward kindly volunteered to clean out the box.

Neighborhood flowers

So as not to end with the bird image, here's some good news. The little girl who lives behind us, periodically has a flower stand where she sells flowers from her yard and her grandmother's yard. They are raising money to put a Little Free Library in the neighborhood. Ward and I bought three arrangements to support the cause. They were also giving away yellow squash. We have more zucchini that we can easily process, so we politely said no thanks.

Until next time...

Tuesday4-Movies

Another Tuesday, and time to play along with the Tuesday4. Feel free to join me.

1 A movie theme song will play every time you walk in the room.. what is it? (consider asking family or friends)  I'm not a big movie goer, so my mind was pretty much blank on this question. With a little Googling, I decided I'd like Doo Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann - at least the first verse. The words speak of confidence with a little silliness. And not to mention that I like the tune. There could be worse ways to enter a room. :)

There she was just a-walkin' down the street, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
She looked good (Looked good)
She looked fine (Looked fine)
She looked good, she looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind

2. What movie, book or TV program could you live in? I don't know if I could live in the book, but I would love to have a garden like the one that Mary and Colin discovered in a Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Imagining that garden coming alive, along with Colin, has always been magical to me. 

3. Is there a book/movie/TV quote you often think about or that effects you in some way? I'm sure there is, but I don't think about it often enough to come up with it now. What came to mind was the theme song to Gilligan's Island--a catchy tune with attached nostalgia. Always brings a smile to my face. I'm deep, right? :)

4. OK friend, its your turn to organize our Blogger Movie Night where we get together as a group for snacks and movies!  What movies have you planned for us tonight and what snacks are we going to have? Prepared to be scared all over again. We're going to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder and have traditional snacks of popcorn, M&Ms, and Junior Mints. I'll throw in some veggies and dip for those who want something a little healthier to snack on. As for drinks simply water and soda. 

Thankful Sunday, July 11, 2021

 I am thankful for a fun outing.

Still Water Farm

Yesterday was a busy day with chores and errands. After we got home, we settled down on our back porch for a rest. The temperatures were warm, but a fan was blowing. Perfect for a little reading. But soon the noise of neighbors' radios and lawn mowers broke the spell. Then I remembered a co-workers band was playing not too far away. We jumped in the car and were at the Stillwater Farm in a few minutes - a new-to-us place. It was a working farm, but had diversified into a microbrewery to support the farm. I'm not a beer drinker, but no problem. I had a enjoyable time, anyway. 

The farm was surrounded by rolling hills and other farms. There was a pavilion with music playing, kids climbing rocks, a food truck, picnic tables, and a hot air balloon. It was a  great way to end a busy day.  So for a fun outing, I am thankful.

The Beginning

 Yesterday, I participated in the Tuesday4 that was about reflections on blogging. One of the questions was how did you come up with the name. My very first blog post ten years ago was about the name, so I'm rerunning here to better answer the question. BTW, I had no idea what my first post was about until I looked it up.

---------------------------------------------

What's in a name?

I've been toying with writing a blog for a while now and decided it was time to put thoughts into actions. It all seemed so simple. Use one of the free blog sites and start writing. But wait, what was it going to be about and what would I call it? My kids advised me that I needed a subject or it would be nothing more than an online journal. Well, since I'm not that knowledgeable or passionate about any one subject, I decided that it would be personal reflections. My idea was to make comments about things I experience or see around me that other people may be able to relate to. Now what to name it. Not as easy as it would seem. With the millions of blogs out there, there's not much left to choose from.

My first idea was Observations of an everyday boring life. However, it was suggested that I don't need to tell people ahead of time that my life is often boring. Next I played with, Run of the mill, Matter of fact, and So on and so forth. All taken. Next was Watching paint Dry, but that was taken also with actual web cams set up to watch paint dry. How about Dull as Dishwater?  Maybe that was giving too much away ahead of time again. (BTW, the original phrase was supposedly, "Dull as Ditch Water.") 

I was going to have to get creative. The family started brainstorming. Running with safety scissors and Your guess is as good as mine. Taken. My personal favorite was one I thought up- Lend me your nose. A play on Lend me your ear but using nose indicating that you should Take time to stop and smell the roses. 

After several more hours of deep thought, I settled on Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. This title is supposed to indicate that no matter what happens to us, we can always learn from it and the unknown can still be a little scary and cause us to toss and turn. Or maybe the title just means, that I was really tired and the rhyming of the words seemed good enough. This morning my son asked me what name I came up with and after I told him, he replied, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." I don't think I will ever be able to live down, "Lend me your nose."

I'm joining the Tuesday 4

I read several blogs that participate in the Tuesday 4 ,so I thought I would join in this week. Here it goes.

This is the first picture I posted on my blog.
It was on my second post from which
came the idea for my Second Look series.

 

1.  Tell us about your blog.  When did you start blogging?

My blog is a personal blog with no particular focus unless you say that I like to share more flower and nature photos than any other kinds. I started blogging April 2011. 10 Years! I'm amazed that I've been doing it that long. And while there have definitely been ebbs and flows in my posting, I don't think I've gone more than a couple of weeks without posting over the past 10 years. Once again, I'm amazed. I didn't think I had that much to say, and perhaps, if you read some of the posts, you will agree. But sometimes, when I am able to express my thoughts and feelings in a clear and meaningful way, I feel like that maybe I do have something to share.

2.  What prompted you to begin blogging?

 Originally, I had stories that I wanted to tell, but soon learned that they were not my stories to tell. They involved others and out of respect for their privacy, I didn't share most of them. Over time, bits and pieces of some of the stories have come out, but most of the original material I thought I might write about is still bouncing around in my head.

My third post was about my cat, Annie.

3.  What was your first blog about and why did you choose that subject/title?

My very first blog post was titled, "What's in a Name?" and discusses how I came up with the title, Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. It's too complicated to explain here, so I will rerun that first post soon.
 

4.  How has your blog changed over time, and has it done for you what you hoped it would do in the first place?

In the beginning, I was trying to find a voice for my blog. Since I wasn't going to share the personal stories I had planned, I tried different things. I did cooking and recipe posts. I participated in food waste groups. I did my own set of inspirational sayings and photos. I documented some of our visits to various places both local and far away. I collected stories of others first memories of school. 

But I really hit my stride when I started doing my Second Look posts. Every Wednesday, I would explore my yard and look for details that I might otherwise not notice. We inherited an overgrown large yard that was hard to control and it wasn't until I started doing the Second Looks, that I truly appreciated it for it's beauty instead of  the work it needed. I also learned a lot about nature as I researched a bug, bone, or plant I would find. 

Looking for the positive in my yard spilled over into other parts of my life and in general made me a happier person. Four years ago, we moved into a new house with a smaller, better contained yard and the Second Look posts didn't inspire me in the same way as they did before. Eventually, I dropped them as a regular feature. I miss them and would like to find another focus to replace them. Someday...

My blog didn't turn out how I imagined, but it did something that I had never imagined that it could. It gave me a whole new set of friends that I would have never had the chance to know without it. Because of that, my little blog has exceeded all expectations and for that I am very thankful.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is my father's birthday. He would have been 95 years old. My sisters and I are going to Dairy Queen in his memory because he loved ice cream and had it almost every day. Below is an updated post I wrote about him that I'm rerunning as I remember him today.

My father as a teen.
He started earning adult wages at 10
because of how hard he worked.

I think about my father every day, but today, I've been thinking, in particular, about the things he taught me.  In no special order, here are a few.

1. Life isn't fair, but that shouldn't stop you from succeeding. My father was the oldest boy in his farm family. That meant that farm work was more important for him to do than attending school. As a result, he often missed school and eventually dropped out of high school because of it. It wasn't fair because other kids (and siblings) got to go to school regularly. But he didn't dwell on that. He learned to work hard and be highly successful at anything he attempted. While I don't have quite the same amount of grit as my father did, I do try to move ahead when life throws me a curve without spending too much time in "Woe's me land." (By the way, he got his GED in the Army and aced every single test he took there in his engineering and bridge building courses.)


2. It's okay to not be the life of the party. My father didn't like crowds, so he didn't attend many things where there were more than a few people gathered. But he had many friends because one on one, he was a talkative, interesting person.  I am much like my father in that I am more comfortable one on one with someone instead of in a group. So even in a society that values gregariousness over quietness, I learned that it is okay to be one of the quiet ones.

My father talking to his two younger brothers on
the farm where they grew up. Notice his uniform. :)

3. Comfort and function win out over fashion every time. My father had a uniform so to speak. You would usually find him donned in a gray work shirt and Lee jeans with army socks. The clothes were comfortable and fit his outdoor lifestyle. When I was younger, I didn't quite understand the lack of variety in my father's clothes. But now, I see the wisdom in his choices from saving time while shopping to feeling good in what you're wearing. Perhaps because I'm female, I have varied things a bit more than my father did. I buy my shirts in several different colors instead of sticking with just one. :)

4. Where there's a will, there's a way.  While we had all of our basic needs met while we were growing up, there was not much extra money. But that didn't mean that we missed out on a lot. For example, we had season passes to the swimming pool because my father did work for the pool for free. Also, he was a great barterer, as well as retrieving things others had cast away. His favorite was what he would find floating in the river while he was fishing. We got all of our lawn chairs this way. He showed me that when the easy ways of doing things are not available, it doesn't mean that you can't figure out another way to do it.

5. It's okay to treat yourself.  My father worked very hard. He was a lineman and spent long days, often in bad weather, doing very strenuous and dangerous work. But every single night he a had a bowl of vanilla ice cream. A simple but satisfying treat at the end of a long day. I try to remember when I get busy that it's okay to stop and enjoy a treat. We all need a break and something special from time to time. 

A cross stitch my sister did of father doing his lineman duties.

6. Freckles are fun, but wear your sunscreen. My father had red hair, fair skin, and plenty of freckles. My sisters and I all took after him in that way. Most of his life was spent outdoors without the benefit of sunscreen and he paid for it in his later years with many skin cancers. By example, he showed us that sunscreen and regular checkups with the dermatologist are very important.

7. You can break the cycle. My grandfather was not the best father to my father. Grandpa handled the difficulties in his life with alcohol and did not always provide a kind or stable environment for his kids-especially the older ones. Instead of practicing what he knew, my father was a different kind of father to us. We grew up in an incredibly stable environment and never had to worry about any of our basic needs being met. Along with my mother, he also encouraged education as an important part of our future. He showed me that you can overcome whatever difficulties have happened in the past. Not that it is ever easy, but it can be done. 

I'm going to have ice cream today using
 the same bowl and spoon my father did.
Yes, this is in addition to going to the Dairy Queen.
I think he passed his ice cream gene down. :)

8. If you have, give. The classic example of this is the large amount of vegetables my father gave away every year. Even in the years when we canned and froze hundreds of quarts of things, there were always extras for others. In the empty nest years, my father continued to raise huge gardens that supplied many people with fresh vegetables. But it didn't stop there. A tool, a fishing pole, a knife, if my father thought you might like something, he would give it to you. Or at the very least, make a very good trade so it would be easier to accept. His generous spirit showed me that it's easy to make the day of someone else with very little effort.

9. Connections to nature are vital. My father grew up outdoors on a farm, and later, both his job and leisure time were spent outdoors. It was where he was most comfortable and came alive. Even when he was winding down his life, he kept his connection to the outdoors through the window of his nursing home watching deer from his wheelchair. While I don't spend all of my time outdoors, I have learned that the connections to nature are important for my mental health just like my father.

10. We all have differing abilities. While my father had great spatial awareness, I do not. At all. While my father was an expert marksman whether with a rubberband, gun, or bow and arrow, I am not. While my father never got motion sickness, I always do. While my father could ably whistle any tune, I cannot. But you know what? He never said that I should be able to do all of those things or anything in particular. He just expected me to do the best I could with the talents I had. And that was a freeing thought.

I think most of us could talk for days about the things we learned from our father in one way or another. And I am one of them. But 10 seems like a nice round number, so I'll stop here for today.