April Showers

 April Showers Bring May Flowers, 

or April Showers Bring April Flowers

Here are some photos of April flowers around the yard this week.

Grape hyacinth

The sunshine and warm temperatures brought out the bees.

While some daffodils have faded, others are in full bloom.

This is a first time bloom for these. I planted the bulbs from a friend several years ago and they have only shown anemic growth of the leaves. What a special treat to find these blooms.

Wallflower

Violets

The peas have finally come up. Time to put the garden fence up before the rabbits find them.

Our little apple tree is blooming.

As well as one the bigger apple trees.
However, we have never gotten more than an apple or two from it.

The cherry tree is blooming, but the wind is causing its blossoms to rain down.

Another daffodil.

The phlox is in full bloom.

Are April showers bringing April showers where you are?

Until next time...

Celestial Happenings

 Or The Eclipse Has Come and Gone but Is Not Forgotten

Image from James Webb Space Telescope

Most people are moving on after Monday's eclipse. They have posted their pictures on social media and told stories of the traffic they endured in the path of totality. I've moved on, sort of.

We viewed the actual eclipse in our backyard with the neighbors. We had an 87% blackout at our location and were lucky it was only partly cloudy. While the "lights" dimmed, the biggest change we noted was the marked drop in temperature. It was enough so that I retreated inside for a jacket. Ward and I were duly impressed and may travel to see the next one in a couple of years in Spain. But that's just a pipe dream for now.

However, the real excitement for the eclipse began a few months ago when I was told that I needed to do a program about the eclipse. I was putting one together before I remembered that we had previously had someone from NASA come to our library to do programs. She said yes, a date was settled on, and I relaxed a little. So much better to have an expert come than for me to educate myself and try to come up with something. We advertised through the normal channels, and I encouraged my friends and family to come. I was worried we would have a small turnout, which I didn't want for our speaker. 

And then it all began. On Thursday, the day of the program, the phone calls started coming in. Did we have eclipse glasses? Yes, but they are for the program. We'll pass out any leftovers after the program on a first-come, first-served basis. We were surprised when people started to line up 1 1/2 hours ahead of time. We opened the doors 15 minutes early, and the 70 chairs in the room were filled quickly. The doors closed, and others were told that they could go into the library for glasses. I stayed in the room to introduce the speaker and do crowd management. I was lucky. I got to hear an interesting program with an engaged audience.

Meanwhile, outside the program room, the line started to grow out of the lobby onto the sidewalk. That's the line Ward was in. Everyone seemed to need another pair of glasses for someone who couldn't make it. When no exceptions were made, people were upset. I was lucky that I didn't get the brunt of that. We had 253 pairs of glasses that were all passed out that night. 

There were phone calls and walk-ins asking for glasses the following days until everything came to a fevered pitch Monday morning before the eclipse. It was reminiscent of the toilet paper frenzy during COVID. The phone calls came in much faster than we could answer them. It was crazy, and I felt sorry for the people who had other library business. I was exhausted from the chaos and glad I got off just in time to go home to view the event.

We're a small local library with friendly customers, so these large numbers of inquiries were out of the ordinary for us, as were the short tempers. However, let me clarify that most people were polite, even when they were surprised that we didn't have any glasses for them. I don't know if they ever found any last-minute ones, as all the libraries, Walmart, and the drug stores were out. Hopefully, they found someone to share with as we did with our neighbors and Theo with his coworkers.

I am really happy that the program was a success, and I think I will remember the excitement at work around the eclipse more than I will the covering of the sun during the middle of the day. Maybe. The eclipse was really amazing.

Until next time...

Happy Birthday, Wally!

Wally, first grade

We are going to celebrate Wally's birthday today. Birthdays often cause reflection, whether they are your own or a loved one's. Children may be the prime candidates for this reflection—at least, they are for me.

When I thought about writing about Wally, several things came to mind, like I often read on other people's social media post tributes: Wally is intelligent, kind, and hardworking, and he has added a richness to my life that I never imagined possible. But when I read one of those tributes (including mine), I think, yeah, yeah, yeah. All of our children are wonderful, especially through our eyes. You would think we all live in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average. (Oops! A little of my cynicism slipped out there. 😀) So, instead of a list, I'm going to focus on one of Wally's traits I often admire and try to emulate - the way he handles stressors. Here are a few examples.

--When Wally was in second grade, we went to Disney World during a school break. We had a great time the first day, but that night, Wally couldn't sleep. He said that he kept seeing images from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and they scared him. So, he took the TV remote to bed with him, and every time he had a scary thought, he pushed a button on the remote to change the channel in his brain. Ward and I learned about this the next morning, and we were pleased that he had figured out a way to take care of things for himself.

--We moved to Maryland from Texas when Wally was 10 years old. It was a big move, and everyone was stressed about it, especially Theo. He was getting in all kinds of trouble at school, and managing him took all of our attention. After a couple of weeks of helping Theo, we realized we still needed to talk to Wally about the move, so I asked how he felt about things. And his answer was simple. He said, "I sat down one day and thought about all the negative things about the move, and then I told myself I was done with them. Now, I only allow myself to focus on the positive things." 

--Wally changed from T-ball to coach pitch around first or second grade. I watched along the sidelines at his first practice when the coach pitched and pitched and pitched until Wally finally hit the ball. There were many more pitches than any of the other kids needed, and I was dying watching it, hoping the coach would stop and say that they could try again later, but he didn't. We generally tried to teach our kids to stick with something, but I was ready to say Wally could quit if he wanted. However, after practice, I asked Wally what he thought. He just said, "It was fun, but I think I need more practice." I had very mixed feelings about that. But Wally stuck out the season. He got better, but not much; however, he was there to have fun, and that's what he did. 

Wally has continued to handle life's difficulties in this way. Of course, as an adult, it's not quite as easy, but he still exercises good coping skills. Good coping skills are an area in my life where I am very much a work in progress. So, thank you, Wally, for setting a good example for me to follow. 

Happy Birthday!

Note: I didn't include examples from Wally's recent years. Those are his to write about if he wants, but I will respect his privacy. Maybe, I'll ask him if he wants to share any. And the answer will probably be, as it usually is, "No, thank you."

Weather and Other Things

We've had over 1 1/2 inches of rain so far today.
(Looks like we need to fix the time and date.)

 You know what they say: if people didn't talk about the weather, they wouldn't have anything to talk about. That rings very true to me because the first thing I thought about when beginning this post was to describe the weather. And that's what I'm going to do.

It is a cold rainy day. It's been raining for a few days and will rain for a few more. This afternoon, the system that caused the devastating tornadoes in the Midwest will be coming through. We are told to expect wind, rain, and hail, with a chance of a tornado. As the system moves north, Mary Ellen, who lives in ME, said they expect 2 feet of snow. I know that I am lucky that we will probably not suffer either of these extremes here. I wish strength for all who are dealing with them.

Because of the weather, Ward and I have postponed the errands we had planned for the day. None are urgent, so there's no need to go out in the mess. Instead, I'm puttering around the house, and Ward is in his shop working on a table he is making. He hopes to get some work in before the storms this afternoon.

Miss Landers made a bunny cake for Easter dessert.

However, the weather on Easter Sunday was beautiful. It was a warm, sunny day with temperatures in the low 60s. A perfect day to spend time outside with our company. We had a small family gathering (10) for Easter lunch. We made a few dishes, and others brought the rest. 

I am slowly making progress on our spring yard cleanup. However, we are entering the stage where it is hard to outpace the weeds as we are clearing the dead foilage. I planted peas a couple of weeks ago because the forsythia was blooming—a general rule of thumb for when to plant this cool-weather crop. However, the weather has been cold since then, and I don't see anything sprouting yet. I hope the seeds don't rot in the ground before it warms up.

What's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Until next time...

Jelly Beans

Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

I have a busy day getting ready for a crowd for dinner, so I'm running a post from the files about jelly beans. Enjoy.

Jelly Beans

The techniques for making jelly beans have been around for hundreds of years, but when they were first made is uncertain. One thing that people seem to agree on is the first time they were mentioned in writing in the US, which was in 1861 by William Schrafft, a candy maker, encouraging people to send jelly beans to the troops. In 1905 they were selling for 9 cents/pound in Chicago.

Did you know that jelly beans weren't associated with Easter until the 1930s when someone decided they looked like eggs, as well as beans? Before that, they were considered a Christmas candy, and even today, after Easter, Christmas is the next most popular time for jelly bean consumption. That is a fact that is broadening my horizons because I have never associated jelly beans with Christmas. However, a quick Google search showed that there are plenty of people out there who are happy to sell you red and green jelly beans, so there must be something to it.

And speaking of jelly beans looking like eggs, when I think of jelly beans, I always think of eggs. Never as beans, which now seems curious since they are called jelly beans. However, when I mentioned the Christmas and Easter facts about the candies to Ward, he said he guesses that they could look like eggs, but he always thinks of them as beans because, after all, they are called beans. And after all of these years of marriage, who knew we had such differing ideas about jelly beans? :)

One of my thoughts for this post was maybe I could make some homemade jelly beans and share my experience. I had no idea how to make them, but it's the day of Google and YouTube, so I thought there would be some easy instructions to find. And I was right. There were several recipes involving gelatin, sugar, candy thermometers, and lots of time for drying. It would have been an interesting experiment, but I should have thought of it before last night.

I had a few more things to share on the subject, like Jelly Bellies being the first jelly beans to add the flavor to the inside instead of just in the coating, but I think this post has reached its natural conclusion. I'm hungry now, and I don't think anything will satisfy me except jelly beans. And I may not even wait until they are marked down after Easter to buy some.