Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Daffodil or Narcissus (plant)

The pictures below show the variety of daffodils that we have growing in our yard. They look fantastic when in full bloom but don't last long enough. Sadly, the flowers have already passed but they're being replaced by our dogwood tree, which is beginning to flower now.







Daffodil Fun Facts:

  • The earliest record mentioned about Daffodils was around two or three hundred years BC.
  • Daffodils were brought to Britain by the Romans who thought that the sap from Daffodils had healing powers. Actually the sap contains crystals that can irritate the skin.
Daffodils - a poem by by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Find the Critter VII

Can you find the critters in the above picture?

A Pair of BaltiOriolePears

I was leaning towards posting this as a "Find the Critter" but thought it too easy. My reader are simply too intelligent to be patronized that way!

Here is a pair of Baltimore Orioles that found something to eat in our beautiful, bloom'n Bradford pear trees.

They were there for some time busy as a bee. Hopefully, they'll nest someplace close so we can continue to enjoy their visits.

Monday, April 27, 2009

I'm Not Talking About Cereal Here

SNAP, crackle and pop, but without the crackle and pop! You know it's entirely possible that there was some crackl'n and pop'n taking place just moment following the SNAP...

Been working on the problem and as you can see I'm making progress.

You can refer to this particular field mouse as, "Marty Feldman".

May they both rest in peace!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Menagerie Addition - Spring 2009

Here are a couple pictures of the new additions to the Lincoln Street menagerie:

This is a picture of Oreo's litter of (4) baby bunnies that we're born on 4/14. They're twelve days old in this photo and their eyes are just beginning to open. We had them out for the first time, and although they're behaving for this picture, they had been bouncing and crawling all over the place, as well as piddling.



Here is a picture of (10) baby chicks that I picked up yesterday from a local feed store. There are (5) Black Sexlink and (5) Amberlink - can you tell which is which?!?! They are a couple days old now and still require a heat lamp. We haven't decided yet but leaning towards keeping 4, maybe 6 and selling the rest. This also means that the three old hens we currently have today; Lucy, Ethel and New Honey (the egg eaters), will also be going. We just need to sell Emilie on this idea.


More cages to clean and maintain - oh, happy happy, joy joy!!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Siberian Squill



Scilla siberica

Visited to our local town library, the Franklin Public Library the other evening. The Franklin Public Library is considered America's first public library and is also a member of the Minuteman Library Network.

Unlike the night putting that Ty Webb (Caddyshack) was caught doing, we did a little bit of night putting of our own and "checked out" some Siberian Squill plants.

Scilla siberica bulb plants brighten yards with spring flowers like tulips, snowdrops, crocuses, hyacinths, grape hyacinths, daffodils, etc.

They've been rehomed along side our Lily of the Valley. Hopefully they'll take and begin spreading and offer up some nice flowers come spring 2010.

Need New Apartment Sale

BIG sale - Need money for another apartment.

The following items are available:
  1. Porch swing made from old couch
  2. Commode planters
  3. Bathtub planters
  4. Used bib overalls

Oh, almost forgot, and one 5-month old infant child at half price...

West Virginia has produced some "unique" folk!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Eggstructions

Above are the Easy to Grow instructions for a product called "Egg Plants". Egg Plants is a cool idea - it's a ceramic type egg that comes pre-filled with soil (growing medium) and flower seeds already sown. According to the instruction all you need to do is crack off the top of the egg , as you wood with a soft boiled egg, water and in 7 - 10 days your sporting a blooming (no pun intended) butterfly desired flower garden. Of course this remains to be seen. It's been 10 days today and nada, bubkis...

Step 1 reads, "Place plastic wrapped egg on a plate. Using a spoon, gently crack the top of the wrapped egg. Remove the plastic wrapping and broken pieces of egg." Pretty straight forward wouldn't you agree?

I've underlined and highlighted in red above the flaw in their instructions. You see in order to obtain said instructions one must remove the plastic wrapping!

Here's your sign...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

And We're Off...

Emilie and I got outside late Friday afternoon to plant some veggies.

We got a row of carrots and a row of radish seeds sowed in one raised bed and (6) broccoli and (6) kale plants in another, as well as (4) parsley plants along side the garlic in another bed. The garlic was planted in the fall and it's doing fantastic; it took off as soon as the weather broke and hasn't looked back. I suspect we're going to have a bumper crop, with no worries of vampires...

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Find the Critter VI

Can you find the critters in the above picture?

First Timer

Nope, not the Boston Red Sox but rather a pair of dress socks that I darned. Yup, all by myself and I did a darn (hehehe) good job, if I do say so myself. Now that I've tapped into this hidden ability it'll free up some time for JoAnne, which could be used for things like ironing or washing or dishes, etc. (hehehe)...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter


Easter according to 3 blondes

Three blondes (natural) died and found themselves standing before St. Peter.He told them that before they could enter the Kingdom, they had to tell him what Easter was.

The first blonde said, “Easter is a holiday where they have a big feast and we give thanks and eat turkey.”

St. Peter said, “Noooooo,” and he banished her to hell.

The second blonde said, “Easter is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth and exchange gifts.”

St. Peter said, “Noooooo,” and he banished her to hell.

The third blonde said, she knew what Easter is, and St. Peter said, “So, tell me.”

She said, “Easter is a Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. Jesus was having Passover feast with His disciples when he was betrayed by Judas, and the Romans arrested him. The Romans hung Him on the cross and eventually He died. Then they buried Him in a tomb behind a very large boulder…

St. Peter said, “Verrrrrry good.”

Then the blonde continued, “Now every year the Jews roll away the boulder and Jesus comes out. If he sees his shadow, we have six more weeks of basketball.”

St. Peter fainted

Friday, April 10, 2009

A Mulching Story


We had the day off today, Good Friday. So, this morning JoAnne said she was going to the market to pick up the fix'ns for Easter dinner. Said she wanted to beat the weekend chaos - good idea. I should have known something was up when she took a left out of our driveway. You need to turn right to go to the market.

She came home abut 10 minutes later and announced that she just ordered 5 yards of bark mulch, that it was being delivered and would be here soon. I didn't realize that the market now carried mulch, interesting concept.

Well, it took all day but we spread ALL 5 yards and it looks FANTASTIC! Hopefully, I'll be able to stand up straight again soon, walk without pain and lift my arms above my waist.

Note: We went with the black mulch; looks sooooooooooo much better than the red!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Fast Pitch, Inconsiderate Bitch

Place: In our town's high school field house.
Date: Saturday 4/4
Time: 8:30 - 10:30 AM
Event: Girls Fast Pitch Softball Clinic
Rating: Excellent

===============================

Emilie attended a girls fast pitch softball clinic that was given by the varsity girls softball team and had a ball (no pun intended). It was open to all ages with the girls grouped by grade level; Emilie was of course in the kindergartners & first graders group. The high schoolers taught the girls the fundamentals; throwing, catching, fielding, base running, batting, etc and let them all take turns doing each. The little ones all enjoyed themselves and the high schoolers did a fantastic job; a GREAT event and fundraiser!

However, that's where my praise and pleasantries end. Please also note this rant has NOTHING to do with any aspect of the event itself but rather one particular douche bag who I will affectionately refer to from now on as "dipstick", OK?!

The field house contains an indoor track with a full basketball court in the center and bleachers on one side - it's big with plenty of space to roam and accommodate many, many people. So JoAnne and I find a spot and settle in to watch Emilie. Then outta no where Murphy appears; you know Murphy, of “Murphy’s Law”! He always makes an appearance at the most inopportune times and this day and event was no different. OK, technically it wasn’t Murphy but rather a parent making her way over to watch her daughter too. Naturally she wasn’t alone, nope, she had two little rug rats in tow…let the games begin!

With all the seating choices and possibilities available how and why this woman chose our space, next to us kills me – only Murphy would find humor in this.

She’s one of those people who behave and act as if she’s sitting at home in her living room regardless of where she is - completely inconsiderate, oblivious and doesn’t care about anyone else around her. I can’t imagine what goes through the melon of someone like this or how someone can be this rude and clueless.

She was constantly yelling at or calling for the rug rats as they were tearing up and tooling around all over the place completely outta control and being supervised, if that’s what you’d call it, by a women sitting on her gluteus maximus and yelling from afar - after all she was in her own living room wasn’t she?! When she wasn’t yelling at them she was horse playing with them. At one point she had one hanging on her back and was spinning around and around weeeeeeeee so much fun, what a wonderful parent – NOT! Of course this wonderful parenting was taking place smack dab in front of us and other parents who were their trying to watch their own kids through this dipstick only to need to strain their necks to see around them. The quote Charlie Brown, “UGGGH”!

Oh, almost forgot another gem of an example - The signs that were hanging on the entrances to the field house that read, "No food or drinks allowed inside the field house", well those were obviously for everybody else and simply did NOT apply to her and her rug rats. So, when one of kids proceeded to empty his juice box on the turf track, well that was fine. Oh, she scolded him but that was it. She didn’t move off her ass; no common curtsey or decency, nope, she never even made an attempt to clean the spills. Just what the track needed twenty feet of sticky juice box stains, PRICELESS!

Fighting back the urge to put the woman in her place, which at that point would have been nothing short off a barrage of profanities, we decided it best to move away to another spot – confrontation averted.

Now, here is the ironic and cruel part of the story – the event ended with M having a fantastic time and we went on our way. Later that day M had her first softball team practice – (13) 6, 7 & 8 year old little girls learning the fundamentals of the game. Again, Murphy appeared and just who do you think one of the girls on her team is?!?! Yup, you got it the daughter of the “dipstick”. Thirteen weeks of attending practices and games trying to bite my tounge as dipstick rants and raves at her rug rats, UGGGGH. Looks like I’ll be upping my high blood pressure medication in anticipation...

Water, Water, Water.

Q: How can I grow my onions sweet rather than strong and spicy?

A: If your onions are too strong and spicy, you haven't watered them enough. Don't be fooled by healthy-looking green stalks. The stalks will be green even if the onions are too dry. The secret to sweeter onions is water, water, water.

Courtesy of The Old Farmer's Almanac

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Sunday, April 05, 2009

The 70's

I installed a second banister going to the basement for a friend of my folks. It was a nice little project that didn't take too long and it came out pretty nice if I dare to tout my own horn. The home owner was very pleased, plus it's now safer for her to climb up and down the stair.

Her basement is full of stuff that has been collected over the years, just like my folks. Many of the items are older, for example here are some pictures I took of a vintage Playboy collection from the early 70's -

-


Notice the famous Farrah Fawcett issue, just to the left of the issue with the loooooooooong legs!!

There may have been some 'reading' during my coffee breaks, you know for banister installation ideas of course...