Daily Musings, page 8

Just like Margaret Mitchell - one hit wonder. Did anyone notice what a fine first edition of Grapes of Wrath auctioned for the other day? $47, 0000!! My rare book dealer friend lamented that he sold a great copy about fifteen years ago, SIGNED by Steinbeck, for $300!! Ouch.

I sold an original Barbie doll for $13. I can't even remember what I wanted the money for. No one was doing contemporary collectibles yet. Sigh.

Sidekick Sarah and I took a ride to Easton this morning so I could take some pics of these trees. They are in a large field on private property on a busy road with no parking. Week days are way too busy.
I drive by them every day for this latest job.
Andy P

Nice shot, Andy. Kind of spooky looking trees - like in Wizard of Oz.

Victor, I think of them as having a lot of 'character'.
Andy P

That one really looks like the wizard of oz! I can see its face!

The other one is a lesson in survival.

Trees are really pretty amazing. there should be more of them :0) think I'll plant some this spring.

They are both dieing, don't know why. That's what gives them the eerie look. I went by them this morning, they had a couple inches of new snow on them.
The commute to this weeks job is pleasant, no hi-ways or traffic. Just nice rural roads for 25 minutes.
It was very pretty this AM with the fresh snow cover. I followed a plow for about a mile spraying 2 inches of slush onto the side walks. The slush was knocking down Real Estate signs, banging into rural mail boxes hard enough to pop them open. Kinda funny as long as it wasn't my mail box, lol.
Andy P

The snow plows smash snow into my mailbox every year. Last year I started having trouble opening and closing it, this year the wooden support was twisted into a pretzel! Wish I could laugh! :(

I saw one mailbox encased in a brick 'stand' ~ no damage, lol.

Hi, everybody. Tried to get pictures of ice flow in the canel, but the ice melted the day I took my camrea to work.lol

Took me a while to read everything.

''To Kill a Mockingbird.'' I taped it from a no commercial channel last month. Been waiting for the perfect evening to watch it. Power went off Saturday night while the satellite was on and toasted it. SCREAM!!! There goes all my taped shows not transfered to DVD yet. I also lost ''The Name of The Rose.'' Very hard to find.

We were so lucky. Saturday morn started with sleet, switching to rain. We had a 1/2'' of ice encasing everything. It stayed 34° all day. Power went out all around us, and some may not get their's back on for a few more days. Our's came back around 1:30 am. We only got a light layer of snow too. Sunday morn, we picked up all the limbs that broke off and shoveled slush and ice chunks from the driveway and sidewalks.

Ice on the plastic covering the sideporch windows.

Hey Billy, I grew up in SW Iowa so it is nice to see someone here from that area.
It was a big shock to try to put in a garden here for the first time in the Northeast and find so many "rocks"!! ;)
Happy to say I do not miss the extreme weather patterns we had in Iowa though. But I do miss the great gardens. It takes so much more work here to get things up and running when starting from scratch. Funny how I never paid much attention to "cultivar" as everything tasted good. You may have to give me some helpful hints on what types of each veggie to grow. Cyndie

Hi Cyndie, I can't imagine trying to dig and hitting rocks all the time! It always amuses me to see Maine has the same zone. The growing season here is about 120 days. Is it shorter there?

Sally

Hi Sally, Yes the growing season is normally shorter. We put most of ours in around Memorial Day to mid-June depending on the weather. The warm weather crops need a good head start inside and I pick short season on most except for tomatoes. However, the weather has been really strange the last couple of years. I was picking broccoli into December last year. I know my mother, who still lives in Iowa is always mowing her lawn much earlier in the year than we are. Cyndie

Laugh! I plan on mowing on a nice day in either March or early April. I can do that because I let it put down roots in the fall. I love to mow. I feel ''one with my yard'' when I do. Memorial day is usually miserable here. I don't know why I put tomatoes out before it's past.

Bigcityal, I had enough of thinking about the No Bake Cookies, aka Skillet Cookies, so I made a batch with coconut. I just looked in the fridge and DH ate the last one :(( I'm making another batch tomorrow with coconut and the black walnuts I've been cracking this week!

I like coconut - no one else does in my familiy, bunch of commies.

boojum - I have plenty of cars I'd like to run into while plowing.

Al, I agree, if you don't like coconut you are red through and through. Although I was always hmmm... dismayed(?) that there wasn't Almond Joy in dark chocolate. BTW Al, my first two winter sowing jugs are labeled "Bigcityal, helenium, Moorheim"" and "Bigcityal, helenium, Ruby Tuesday"! Thank you much, since I was too shy to come right out and beg for them! No sprouts yet, of course.

Back to Dave: do you feel that (Miss) Harper Lee did a good job of portraying male (as well as tomboy) characters? And who named a girl 'Harper' back then? I guess the same types who named their kids 'Flannery' or 'Dylan'.

xxxx, Carrie

All our rain moved into Illinois and Wisconson. Looks like we'll have to wait till tomorrow for the big storm. I was hoping for some lightning.

We got the replacement satellite reciever and it's up and running. DH took a sick day to hook it up and watch it.

Don't tell DH I haven't made any cookies yet. Neither one of need the extra calories.

Carrie -That is really all you need in life is 'Almond Joy has nuts - Mounds don't'
Don't worry about begging - I have people that beg a lot and then send me a sase postage due ;( Good luck with the seeds. I am redoing a few beds this year and have 2 spaces reserved for new helenium.

Sally - not too sick to watch TV huh.

No he's not! He has one more sick day left. He's retiring in April so its been a week of work and a week of vacation since January. Too bad he likes the computer too. I'll have to learn how to share :((

The wind is blowing pretty good here. DH had to run out and get the mail because he saw the maillady come. I just sat here ignoring the fact.


One nut, one don't.

Oooooh, I think I get it. (Too dumb to come in out of the rain.)

xxx, Carrie

Sally, Cute little guys! But they both look like they got a little nut in them!
Carrie, the book is so much about a girl and her father, but I do think she wrote the brother well too.

Who are the cute kids Billy?

Thank you Those are my grandsons! And yes, I think the little one will be a nut too. He growls and talks to his teething toys now. It gets hilarious!!

The best thing about Mockingbird is the resemblence to the town life I grew up with. I ''visit'' grandparents and aunts when I watch the movie. We even had rabid animals. How many exciting times in school, to find a town council member had to shoot a rabid skunk, in the garage across from the school. Twice. I still remember a dream I had when they had to shoot a cat across the alley from my home. I was on my monkey bars, but it was a dog jumping up, barking, trying to get me.

This message was edited Mar 1, 2007 4:58 PM

Sally,

Your grandsons are so cute!

Thank you Lorettamar, I think I'll keep them!

Sally, You're a pretty young gram if I remember correctly!

Better re-phrase that Dave or I'll tell Mrs. Dave47! You can mean 'pretty young', as in rather young or you can mean 'pretty, young', as in pretty and young. Most importantly (to Mrs. Dave47), why do you remember at all??!!

Victor, You wouldn't be trying to start trouble would you? ;) Mrs. 47 knows my heart is true.
I meant that,from what I remember, Sally is pretty young to be a grandmother. I also think she once posted a picture and she is very pretty.

Dave, i think you and I are the only ones up right now posting. ;) I would love to see a pic of Sally. Is it recent? Maybe I am the only other one here old enough to be a grandmother? I have 2 daughters but neither of them are going to be starting a family soon. Dave- ( I realize this is getting into the personal area, but you guys seem to be edging that direction) Are you a grandparent yet?
Sally, That picture make you want to pick them up and scrunch them. LOL

Cindie, My 33 year old foster son who came to live with us when he was 16 has a 5 year old daughter so I am a grandfather but not technically I guess. I'm 52. My other kids are 23, 14 & 7 years old. Go figure, right?

Dave, There is nothing "technical" about it. You are. ;) Kids have a way of growing on you. My house was where everyone congregated so I still have a connection with some of them after many years. My daughters are 23 and 26 so you can do the math as to how old I am. ;) I was a single parent most of their lives and we are pretty tight. I love kids and if things were different, would have loved to have been a foster parent to as many as I could fit in. Kudos to you.
I am sitting here waiting for 15 inches of snow. Luckily I only have to drive 5 miles to work. I am seeing Ct is getting rain. You are lucky. I am ready for spring. Last year the ice went out on our lake March 27th. The loons came back the next day. I am marking the days to see how they compare.

Thanks Cyndie. We have an interesting family and I am very grateful for it. And though we've handled some tough stuff with our kids, my hat is off to anyone who raised children alone. I can't imagine how hard that is.
Glad we are not getting snow but I'm concerned about my basement!

Cyndie, my Aunt does that too. We live on/near China Lake and she has been the offical record keeper for the town. She has been keeping track of when the ice goes out for over 45 years.

I was a young parent and a young grandparent, no regrets.....I still have enough energy to keep up with an 8 and 2.5 year old. I swim, fish, go tubing, hike, 4 wheeling, and occasionally, I run!

I'm an old parent and was a fairly young grandparent at 47. I used innovation.

Excuse my very southern New Englandishness, but I never heard the phrase " when the ice went out" before. I like it.

What does it mean??

Anita,
It's just a way of saying when the ice melts from the lake, and no ice is visible. They even have a small contest in the Town Line (local newspaper) where you can guess what date you think the ice will officially go out.

Another interesting thing I have learned about the ice going out is that the loons come the next day. I have kept track for the last two years and will see if it happens again. I guess they send out a scout every day to see if it is clear. We have an island across from our lot and when the ice was clear to there last year, the loons came back. It is a great sound when you are waiting for spring.