A Second Look--September 19, 2012

It's getting harder to show you things I haven't featured recently because the same few flowers are hanging on during this time between summer and fall.  Nevertheless, you can see the things I found interesting this week during a Second Look.

Blanket Flower

There are still a few butterflies and moths around.

Moonbeam Coreopsis

I saw a lot of webs of various kinds this week. There was a spider associated with this one.

Rozanne geranium

Berries--Poke, Dogwood, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Begonia

Tree Bark Variations: peeling silver maple, beginnings of woodpecker holes, oak tree fungus, and cherry tree growing around tree house board.

Mistakes

or Get Over It Already

My writing helpers otherwise known as my excuses.

Do you ever read something someone has written such as a letter, email, or an article and find mistakes? Then you wonder how someone could make mistakes so obvious and think, "Shouldn't they know better or at least proofread their work better?" Well, I do that all of the time when I read my own blog posts. Unfortunately, I usually find the problems long after I hit publish and it drives me crazy.

However, I'm trying to get over that. I'm trying not to worry about mistakes I may make because that takes away from the pleasure of communicating with all of you. I am trying to accept that I am doing the best I can under the circumstances. Sometimes those circumstances involve constantly removing one cat from in front of the monitor while another is trying to get on my lap. Sometimes I am writing when I'm really tired so I can publish a post the next morning before I go to work. Sometimes Blogger spacing is not working, so I am concentrating on that instead of concentrating on what I am writing. And sometimes I'm confused because it seems all the grammar rules that I thought I once knew have changed.

But wait, there I go again. I'm making excuses for my blog imperfections instead of accepting that good enough is good enough. While I will try to write well when writing for my blog, life is too short to worry about occasional misplaced modifiers and misspelled words. And that is what I'm going to keep telling myself until I really believe it.

Note: Sometimes I have an idea for a post and the words and the pictures just come together effortlessly and flawlessly. Wow, I love that feeling.

School Days-Lumpy

School is back in session, so it's time to start School Days again. 

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 School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here's Today's Story

Lumpy began kindergarten at age five in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He started at the neighborhood public school in 1950.

Tell me some early memories about when you started school.

I don't remember much, but I do have a story from kindergarten to tell. One day one of the boys in the class bit me. For the rest of the day he had to sit under the teacher's desk. That was his dog house because the teacher said that dogs bite, children don't.

Also, I remember that Mrs. Rinders was my teacher's name and we had mats that we laid on the floor in the afternoon for naps. Mine was blue.

What else do you remember?

We moved around while I was in elementary school. After my kindergarten year in Milwaukee, I moved to Grand Rapids. Here I went to first, second, third, fourth, and part of fifth grade. In fifth grade, we left Michigan and moved to California.

Was it hard for you to make those moves?

The hardest move was to California. They seemed to do everything differently such as eating lunch outside every day. In Michigan, I had walked home for lunch. It was hard to leave all of my friends and it took about a year to make good friends again. I was very interested in nature and I gradually found two or three other kids who had the same interests.

Did you have a favorite teacher?

Yes, her name was Miss Peel. In the beginning of fifth grade my teacher had a nervous breakdown so they brought up Miss Peel, the teacher I had had in fourth grade, to be my fifth grade teacher. She was a large, stern woman, but a very good teacher. After she taught me, she went to South Africa to be a missionary. Knowing that I like animals and such, she wrote me letters about all of the new wildlife she was seeing such as the snake that had been in her hut. We kept in touch until she died about ten years ago.

Did she write to all of the kids?

I only know of one other person she wrote to and they stopped writing after about a year. Eventually she got married and ended up living in South Carolina. I still have a table cloth she sent me from Africa for a wedding present. It has hand painted animals on it and we have it hanging up in our house.

Thanks for sharing some of your memories and I hope another time we can learn more about your school days.

Thankful Sunday--September 16, 2012

I am thankful for clean sheets and a freshly made bed.

Chickens, Pumpkins, and Ribbons

But Mostly Ribbons

In September every year, my town holds a small agricultural fair complete with everything from goats to chickens and tractor pulls to cake auctions. The fair is not only a long time tradition in the community, it has become a tradition with my family.  The first year I discovered the fair, I entered a counted cross stitch piece that won a ribbon. From then on, I was hooked. While winning ribbons is fun, the fair has also become a place for us to meet with friends and neighbors. It's where I have the best grilled hot dog of the year and buy cookies from the local champion bakers.  It's where every year, Ward and I marvel at how many colors chickens come in and wonder how people can have tomatoes that look that good at the end of the season. In other words, the fair is good, simple fun.

However, maybe it's time to get honest with you. I have made the fair sound like it's an idyllic scene from the Andy Griffith Show, and I really enjoy the simple pleasures it brings. Well, that's mostly true. However, I just don't go to see the goats and eat hot dogs. The fair brings out my competitive spirit and the main reason I really go is to win ribbons. As I mentioned above, winning a prize was what got me hooked on the fair in the first place. I love the thrill of seeing a ribbon on some of my work and thank goodness this fair is a place where that happens easily. While not every entry gets a prize, effort is certainly rewarded. Now that is a simple pleasure.

Some Scenes From This Years Fair

The fair has many different categories and age groups for entries. Ward is examining the home arts division.

It took me a really long to prepare these walnuts to enter so I was very happy with this ribbon.

The photo category was the most competitive. We entered several pictures and were glad to get a couple ribbons.

The pumpkins are a favorite of everyone.

Several of our flower specimens won blue ribbons and several won no ribbons.

The library was represented at the fair. I worked here Friday morning.

Our favorite chicken. Notice the curly feathers in the back.