Gettin' By the Best I Can
One huge bonus in woodland life is the abundance of wildflowers in the spring, and they vary until late fall. Enjoy the pictures!
BTW, the whole saying the title came from is:
Spring has sprung
the grass has riz
I wonder where
the flowers iz?
Always a music aficionado, I have all kinds of musical instruments, a few cassettes, hundreds of CDs – and a grand mess of vinyl records. Yes! LPs!
I have an old stereo turntable, but a few years ago I got a new one that you can attach to a device and record the albums onto CDs. Never actually did it…yet. Nonetheless, it plays the tunes well!
Since they came out, I’ve been a CD freak and listened only to them for many years. Just recently I set up that relatively new player and brought some records up. Whoa! The memories! I still have the first album I ever bought at the Ben Franklin 5&10 store! Having to flip them is annoying, but worth it. Who knows, some might be worth something!
Striving to help the light and dump the dark
Trying to keep busy sewing dresses, skirts, jackets
or painting on canvas
Weeding the garden
Making bread, yogurt, cookies
Writing…
Job ripped from me, no friends, no pay, alone
Reason for eating regularly?
Reason to keep my heart beating?
Reason to imagine soaring sheep?
Sheep bleating in the clouds – yes, I could pull another crazed story from my brain. Forget it.
Today? Cozy in my homemade jammies and housecoat, what about today? Get dressed!
Too much sewn , I don’t need more bread or yogurt, nowhere too hang anymore paintings, all outside is dormant. Another story or book? Nobody reads them, so why?
In the early morning sun’s shadows, I walk to the end of the long gravel driveway and see the wild yellow narcissus plants budded out. I look closer. Many new ones, the established ones have big, tinted buds, and there! There are a few in bloom! Spring’s grand harbinger! Possible hope? Barky nudges my knee for a pat and wags her tail.
After rain, rain, rain and more rain, I got jazzed to not only get some snow but 8 or 10 inches of it! I’ve lived in New York, California, Illinois, Florida and a little Indian Ocean atoll, but have the dearest attachment to my birth state of Kentucky. I love the environmental diversity, the equality of seasons (usually) and the log cabin I built here amidst the woodland and wildlife.
Yet I still love science and the fascinating areas of astrophysics and energy production. I study the climate issues and pick out the constellations on clear nights. I write science fiction with real science issues in them.
These two aspects coalesced on a snowy afternoon, impelling me to etch a Snow Geek in the freezing white fluff. Enjoy your day!
Here are a few views of my Christmas decorations. Have a wonderful holiday!
The news is filled with the disastrous photos, a drone that caught the storm in action, too much; I need no pictures here. There will be more and more horrendous storms like this, the hurricane that hit Labrador in September, another historic disaster. I could go on, but why? Either you believe this is associated with wildly irresponsible carbon usage and are acting to reduce your footprint or you will deny it until a storm obliterates you home.
I still drive a gas car; I can’t afford to get a new electric one. I can barely afford to heat the house since I got fired by a hateful boss last year; the ‘anniversary’ is just before Christmas. I do keep the heat low and wear long johns and a coat with ski pants, but I’ve done this every winter since I built this cabin about 25 years ago to do all I could. My car is a very good mileage Subaru and I only use it to drive to the post office for Old Lady Who bookstore orders once a week and the grocery tacked onto that trip once a month. I make my own bread, yogurt, clothes. I grow my own fruit; the blueberries and apples were great his year.
This is the tornado swarm I watched from the concrete front step when I lived in Lousivlle as a young teen. I was an observer there too, not a victim. How long will that last?
From the local WDRB-TV Website: “This year marks the 40th anniversary of the April 3-4, 1974, tornado outbreak – one of the worst tornado outbreaks to ever affect the U.S. Dubbed the “Super Outbreak”, at least 148 tornadoes struck 13 states from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes over a 16-hour period from the afternoon of April 3, 1974 into the early morning hours of April 4, 1974. When it was over, 330 people were dead and 5,484 were injured.”
May you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving! Times are trying these days, let’s make the best of it!
Living out in a Kentucky forest in a log cabin is idyllic and close to Mother Nature. I hear a wide variety of birds, see skinks and lizards scampering across the front porch, watch for deer and ‘possums every time I drive to and from the Post Office or Grocery.
Alas, Mama Nature also features the ferocious HORNETS that can cause grievous hurt and even kill when they gang up. Were they out in the woods I would not bother them. They built a nest right above the back garage door to the outside. And they get into the garage.
I use the garage to store the thousands of books I sell in the Old Lady Who? online ABE Books bookstore, I have the clothes racks and shelves for more items to sell since I got fired last Christmas; gotta pay insurance, taxes, internet, electricity and oh, food bills. I sit at the desk in there for hours at a time to put more books into inventory and suddenly hear that dreadful deep buzzing – another one got in. Stop everything!
Last night I decided to watch a DVD (Hidalgo) and lounged on the sofa. About when they were on the ship to the Middle East, I felt suddenly uneasy and leaned forward to look back. A hornet was two inches from climbing into my hair. I generally do all I can to save wildlife, but these guys have GOT TO GO!!!
I used to drink 3 or 4 cups of strong black coffee over day. Then my work environment started getting rough and anxiety loomed. That much caffeine became a hazard. Thus, I went tea-crazy!
You can see a bit of the painting I did to hang over this shelf (there’s another shelf below with a teapot and stufff…). Below is the whole thing.
And I’m not selfish with my tea, oh no! I have a few cups on hand to share with…should an army drop by!
Green Apple Bonanza!
I planted my apple trees a few years ago and became accustomed to them just being trees. Lo and behold! Two of the four dwarf trees were loaded with apples this year! I kept waiting for the apples to start turning red, but when they got bright yellow, they began falling off the limbs. Duh, yellow apples, not red ones!
Naturally I had not adequately planned what to do with them yet. Weren’t apples supposed to get ripe in the fall? Well, I use apples in muffins, pandowdy, crumbles and such so I peeled, cored and sliced about 40 of them and mixed them in a great big pot with a generous slop of cinnamon and nutmeg, a little milk and flour, and simmered them until they got to about 40% of their original volume. Ready for anything!
Now they’re in the freezer, awaiting the next cobbler…pandowdy…pie..
How Would You Do It? 