April 25, 2018 – Do It Yourself – again I am at it.

         This Sunday’s paper had an advertisement that indicated, buy one cubic shelf, get the next half price.  I jumped at it.  I need more simple bookcases in this house in order to take care of the books I brought back from my Mom’s.  She left me her Berlin and surrounding town history books and that need their own special place.

         It rained yesterday heavy and I thought it was the best type of day to go shopping.  Easy finding parking places and easy locating the product and the cashier was very kind in confirming that I was going to be receiving the sales price advertised.  I always check before ringing up now – I never seem know when these sales start or end.

         I must admit, the boxes were heavy to maneuver from the shelf into the cart and then into my car, but I managed.

         I tackled one last evening.  Laid out the parts, counted the screws and followed the instructions.  Many times, I have put together furniture of this kind.  Just me, the hammer, a flat head screwdriver and a Philips head screwdriver was I needed. Usually I get out the power drill and make things easier, but last night I did it all by hand.  It felt more powerful to me that way.

These DIY projects always remind me of a house we bought years ago in this county and the riff I caused in the neighborhood on a few occasions.

         Our house on Trojan Lane had closets with no shelves above the rods. I was aghast that all that space was lost.  I asked my husband to get the proper tools out to cut boards and I measured all the closets and made my plans. I went to the lumber store and bought wood and the shelf brackets and anchor screws.  While my Hubby was at work, I started in on my project in the carport in view of all my new neighbors. [Hey, I was raised with two older brothers, I learned how to pound in nails building a tree fort when I was a kid.  I never considered it a “gender” skill.]

         My neighbors were curious when they drove home that evening as I was out in the car port actively cutting wood  – zing, zing, zing with the power saw.

         Of course, my new friend from across the street trotted over and asked what I was doing and I showed her.  I’d finished one closet and was working on the next one.

         Many of the men in the neighborhood were envious that I would do it myself – way before it was fashionable – this is back in the mid 1980s before the internet and YouTube DIY videos.

         The question that surprised me at the time was, “How’d you know how to do that?”  I was slow to answer not sure if he was asking how I learned how to use the equipment [Hubby showed me the power saw, making me put on eye safety glasses] or was he asking how I knew “How to make a shelf.” 

I had lived in a number of apartments and houses since leaving home, and I used many shelfs and I simply had taken notice of how they were constructed.

         I copied a shelf that could hold substantial weight.  When another one of the neighbor women asked to see what I was doing, I gladly trotted her through the house and showed her.  Her remark was, “None of my closets have shelves above the rod either, I’ll go talk to my husband.”

         A week or so later, rumors ran through the neighborhood and my next door neighbor’s husband came over while I was in the garden and casually mentioned, “You’ve done it now, half the men in the neighborhood have to figure out how to put shelves in their closets.  See what you started.”

         A few months later, I brought home a fresh Christmas tree on a Saturday afternoon. I hauled it out of the truck, and in the carport I took a hand saw and cut the stump fresh right where I wanted it because in the past my husband had trimmed off way too many limbs making it a “high wader” tree.

         Right in the middle of me cutting, my neighbor’s husband came up and said, “You are making us guys look bad.”

         I answered, “If you want it done the right, you do it yourself," adding "Merry Christmas" with a smile.

Then a few years later I was in the middle of painting the living room, actually the whole interior of the house, but I started in the living room.  I came out in the carport for a break with a paint brush in hand and an iced coffee in the other.  My next-door neighbor had just finished mowing his lawn and he was cleaning the mower deck. [He had the prettiest lawn in the neighborhood and he mowed religiously.]

“You painting?” he called.

“Yeah.”

“What you painting?”

“The living room.”

“Really, you paint? This I’ve gotta see.” He walked on over and was about to peer in the door when I invited him in for an up-close inspection.

He looked at is hard and long and rubbed his chin and then had to admit to me. “You really know how to paint, nice job.”  That was one of the nicest compliments I ever received because of who said it to me – one of them good ole boys who didn’t think women could do anything that men traditionally did. I always wondered what rock he had been under as most of the ladies in the neighborhood had excellent wallpapering skills.

You can’t say I didn’t keep things lively down on Trojan Lane when we lived there.  When I started one DIY job, often many neighbor’s husband’s had to follow suit or be nagged to death by their wives.

If you are a DIY lady – more power to you!

April 24, 2018 – Rain, weeds and a surprise visitor, little Raccoon.

         We’ve had drenching rains the last few days and now again today more rain.  When we walk on the lawn with the dog, Jack, the water squishes up and soaks our shoes and it squishes up between his toes. He is not happy.  I don’t blame him, it is wet and cold.  Nevertheless, I feel it is always better to have more rain than drought, yet, the weeds are getting ahead of me. 

On my to-do list for several days has been the eradication of the tall yellow weeds that have plagued my gardens for years. My next-door neighbor was lax on many occasions in not mowing his lawn for weeks on end.  His lawn would turn into a field of tall yellow dandelion type weeds.  They are false dandelions or a sow thistle or something I haven’t exactly identified.  Of course, the floating weed seeds take hold in the best of my gardens, those gardens where I have worked in compost and fertilizer.  They grow in the blink of an eye and are hard to hack out. 

It has been a year round battle depending on when they decide to take hold, growing from ample amounts of white puff of seed that floats around the neighborhood.  His weeks and weeks of not mowing created waves and waves of drifting puffs almost year round.  It is not a matter of pulling weeds once, it is a matter of pulling them continuously.

         Part of me had a dream of sneaking up there one night with 50 gallons of weed kill and spraying his entire lawn so that he had nothing to mow turning his lawn into a barren red clay desert. Then I’d wake up and realize – I was thinking like that because I’d just eradicated a wheel barrow full of weeds and had another wheel barrow full to pull out ahead of me.

And, part of me feels he had a vindictive streak and went out of his way to not mow his lawn so that the white seed puffs would float around to ruin everyone else’s lawns.  Whatever the reason was, it has worked out that way for many years.  Now that he is gone and his house is up for sale, maybe I can get his weeds out of my gardens in a season or two.

         Hopefully, when that neighbor’s house is sold, the new owners will be more diligent about mowing their lawn. Meanwhile, the attack of the tall yellow weeds is right up there on the to-do list when the rains stop.  At the bottom of this post are a few good websites where you can identify weeds if you are having a particular problem.  It is always nice to know what weed you are battling in order to win the war.

         Lastly, I had a startling surprise last evening.  We had just finished supper, and I was taking the dishes to the sink when I was suddenly eye-to-eye with a baby raccoon outside the double windows over my kitchen sink. 

He/she was clinging to the post holding up the bird feeder and leaned in to look at me for a moment.  I didn’t move wanting to look at the raccoon closer.  We were probably as close as 24 inches with just the pane of glass between us.

What a moment of sweetness for me to look at such a live portrait of such a cute animal. White whiskers, white frosted ears, leathery black paws, shiny coal black eyes and that unmistakable mask I observed in a few seconds. The word cute just does not capture how precious it looked. It was hungry and had been vacuuming out the sunflower seeds from the kitchen window feeder.  In a flash, it scampered away across the drive, stopped a moment to look back at me, then rumpled ran back to the wild property line.

Yes, every few days we are reminded that we do live in the country and the country is up-close and personal for us to enjoy.

Some good websites for weed identification.

Weedalert – by region – helpful pictures – larger group

http://www.weedalert.com/search-by-region-results.php?region=4

Most common weeds – Better Homes and Gardens

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/pests/insects-diseases-weeds/types-of-weeds/

Preen – common weeds by state.

https://www.preen.com/weeds/ga

April 23, 2018 – Second flush of mushrooms

         I am back again with pictures of the Baby Bella Crimini mushrooms I am growing in a box in my closet.  The box is manufactured by Mushroom Adventures and I spray the medium with water morning, noon and night and if I happen to be in the master closet and it looks dry, I give it another misting.

         These were the size of pencil erasers two evenings ago and then I kept an eye on them yesterday as they developed.  Today, I harvested them about 4:00 p.m. for an ingredient of our supper.

         I took hamburger and crumbed it in a bit of olive oil and butter and then sliced up the mushrooms and sautéed them together.  Simply served up with a sprinkle of sea salt and cracked black pepper.  We are eating simple and easy with a tossed salad on the side tonight.

When cooking with creminis or other related mushrooms, you’ll benefit from obtaining lots of B vitamins, phosphorus, selenium, copper, and even some fiber and protein too. Mushrooms are very low in fat and calories, in addition to both sugar and carbs. [https://draxe.com/cremini-mushrooms/]

         This time, my husband was more excited about them.  He was merely surprised how delicious they were the last time.

         Feed number two – box back in closet going for another flush and more scrumptiousness.

April 20, 2018 – Bletilla striata – often called ‘Hardy Orchid’

         Yesterday we had an air conditioner service man come by to see about a repair and on one side of my outside unit is a patch of Bletilla striata.  They have been there for years and years.  I hate to admit that when I planted them I put in six bulbs and they haven’t been divided in 18 years.  They have grown to fill the patch and every spring they are breathtaking.

         I have meant to divide them many times, yet I usually run out of steam.  I never did find out when is the proper time to lift and divide so, I was hesitant and used that as the excuse to do nothing.  Then, the next spring – they gave me a brilliant display and I pushed it from my mind again.

When service people walk on the rectangular patch in off-season, I have a poorer showing the following spring.  Additionally, our late frosts nip the tips of the pleated leaves and later they look like someone took a pair of pinking shears to them.  In the past, I have successfully warded off the frost by turning over a galvanized washtub over the plants that are up about 6 to 8 inches.  This works extremely well if  we know there is a pending freeze or frost.  Often we don’t know that.  Even if the leaves are nipped, you still get a lovely bloom.

Yesterday I had to sound the alarm to a horticultural friend – she is an expert and a treasure of a gardening friend.  She has always admired the Bletilla when they are in bloom and has mentioned often, “When you divide, could you give me some?”

Not knowing when the air conditioning man was coming back and the weather being fair, I started to dig them out.  OH MY!  What a project.  The six bulbs had turned into a solid mat of tubers.  Some had green stems and others had a concentric ring with brown rootlets.  They were not easily pried apart. Some of the plants were up 6 to 8 inches and a few had come into bloom. 

They had to be moved yesterday and immediately.  I chipped the bed out by shovelfuls and knocked off much of the soil and lined the bottom of two wheelbarrows which I covered with beach towels to keep the sun off them and rolled them into the shade.   Then I ended up with a 3-gallon plastic pot filled with additional tubers that did not have any green growth.  I gave away half of what I dug up and today, I dug in clumps all around the yard - in sun, in shade - all kinds of places.  Should be interesting next spring.

I am not sure if the tubers with no growth will eventually leaf out – I saved them. And potted them up – I am hoping for foliage. 

Below is a wonderful youtube site that shows you how to lift and divide and he suggests you keep all the bulbs, even the ones without sems as they will also come along.  So, we will see if that is correct.

\https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tExij9XX4Z8

Also See: ttps:/en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Bletilla&oldid=831944786

Happy gardening to you.

April 17, 2018 – Be your own Powder Puff Mechanic - or

How to stop a water leak in a Lincoln Towncar coming in through the air intake vent making your passenger floorboards wet.

         Yes, ladies out there, you too can become your own Powder Puff Mechanic.  For a few years, I have had this mysterious leak in my Lincoln Towncar.  Sometimes when it rains, I don’t get a drop, other times, I have to sop it up with a beach towel and then air the car out for days.

         On more than one occasion we have taken it to a garage and they have “supposedly” blown out some sort of vent or drainage tubes. Within a few rains I don’t see that they have done anything other than take my money and shove it in their pockets with a big smile.  I often have to revert to the beach towel soak up treatment or take an old shower curtain and toss it over the car and hold it down with magnets when I am expecting rain. [Poor little me doesn’t own a garage.]

         Last month I took it down to the Lincoln Dealership in a nearby city and left it overnight for them to fix it. The “water leak” man comes every few weeks, and I had made the appointment. They said they would call with an estimate.  When they called, they wanted between $2,600 to $2,800 to fix the leak. They thought it was a “whatever” leak and said they would need to pull the dashboard out.  I quickly said, “No thank you.”  I think they were shocked when I said no, and I immediately thought – they just want me to buy a new car – for that sort of ridiculous price.

         That afternoon I searched the web and found half a dozen you tube videos showing the process of how to fix it.  This is a common situation with the Lincoln Towncars.

Look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct8iNfEl2DI

It is one of many videos out there showing how the average mortal – or even a woman - can open up the hood of her car, take out the windshield grill, then the next plastic piece to get down into the car within a matter of minutes. 

I counted two screws for the grill, which were no longer there – must have been that dealership thinking they were going to make an easy $2,600 on me. Then two 5/8^th nut top screws and four 3/16 nut top screws to take the second piece of plastic off the air intake.  My husband was a dear and located the proper tools – they are called socket wrench screwdrivers  – pictured below.  When you have the right tools – everything is easier.

My rubber gasket had also disintegrated just like the video.  As instructed by the video, I took a putty knife and scraped the rest of it off; then took a razor blade scraper to get the residue off. I wiped it down with a paper towel and some rubbing alcohol. I had a copper scrubber pad, but didn’t need it. I did the same to the intake area – cleaned it up ready for the next step.

I obtained the rubber gasket suggested in the video and made a new gasket. You only need scissors for that and a gentle touch – measure before you cut – adding an inch and then when you get closer to getting to where it connects – you cut it exactly to meet.

Then basically, put it all back together in reverse order and screw them in with the socket wrench screw driver. Voilà, you are done.

Let me give you my very own Power Puff tip – be sure you are wearing pants with pockets which are easily accessible.  When you screw off the large bolts, put them immediately in one pant pocket and when you screw off the smaller ones, put them in the opposite pocket.  When you need to put them back on, you know exactly where they are – they are not lost, they are not on the engine, they have not fallen on the ground.  “Capisce?”

Now, let us see if it fixed the issue.  I can now dream of how I am going to spend that $2,600 on something – new wardrobe, trip to France. . . oh yeah, I didn’t have the $2,600 so I did it myself.  Also, I didn’t break any fingernails and my hands are actually clean enough I could fingertip a hoagie sandwich and not wince eating it.

My total cost $8.97 for the rubber gasket stuff, and time – less than an hour actually under the hood.  It took me longer to assemble the tools and put them back.

Hubby did help. He made me lunch before I started, he tried to talk me out of doing it. He then acquiesced and found the tools when I started to dig in his toolbox.  There must be something secret in there; he wanted me out of it immediately.  He dug out the right tools.  He also was an extra set of hands to pressure the plastic back where it was supposed to be so that I could get the nut top screws in. That was a good thing.

In the end when the job was done, I asked him to shut the hood.  He smiled and called me "my powder puff mechanic".

Moral of the story – if I can do it – so can you.

        

April 14, 2018 – Being defiant and finding a delightful surprise.

         Over the years, I have tried African violets in my home.  Most of the time I didn’t have the correct light or I had to give them away when we had a corporate move.  They like defused light and in the last few years, I had been on the “hunt” for a specimen.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t finding them in any of the local stores and when I did they looked half dead. I am not sure about you, but I don’t buy half-dead anything when it comes to plants.  I’m not “nurse Nancy” with new plants. I want the best that money can buy. 

Last fall when I was up in Massachusetts cleaning out my Mom’s house to get it on the market, A long-time friend of my Mom’s offered me a side plant of one of her African Violets.  I gladly took it because it looked healthy and the mother plant was blooming, a good sign.

         I shoved the newly potted African violet into a bag in the back seat of the car wrapped loosely with a t-shirt so that it wouldn’t get damaged on the two-day drive home.  When it arrived home I watered it from the bottom and put it in the front living room window and it looked like it was going to survive.

About  two weeks into it being in my care, the violet looked dusty to me. With skin-temperature water I sprayed all the leaves and soaked the soil throughly, then set it to drain for a few hours in a brighter spot.  Later I moved it back into the diffused light. Within a week it jumped to life. And, me all these years taking the advice of “Never wet the leaves of an African violet because you spot the leaves or rot the crown.”  HAH – just the opposite – it jumped to life and now when I do water it I use the same skin-temperature water spraying the leaves and set it out to dry, then move it back to the diffused light.  In a matter of days, what do I get?  Flower for me, the defiant one. I will do just the opposite of what all the gardening books tell you because I see results.

  

         We had several killing frosts this spring.  Half of my Hostas turned to mush – like a frozen head of lettuce – one day they look like beautiful curls of leaves coming up and the next day –slimy green mush like lettuce that was put in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. [Have you ever done that?  I did it once, hurrying to put away groceries before I caught the telephone.  I mistakenly  put the lettuce in the freezer and the ice cream in the refrigerator.  You can imagine the outcome.  No, this was not recent. This was when I was about thirty-five and trying to be super woman and do it tall. That was at a time when we didn’t have telemarketing telephone calls and you actually knew someone you wanted to speak to was on the other end of the line.  Can you remember those idyllic days before robocalls? I sure do.]

          Off point - back to the story.  Third year in a row on the frozen mush Hostas, second year in a row on the Bradford Pear blooms frozen and dropping and now the first year that my Bleeding hearts [Dicentra spectablis] were tall enough to get frozen to the ground.  Usually when they are 6 to 8 inches they can withstand a nip or even a short freeze, but this year, my bleeding hearts were in bloom a few days and the frost turned them limp and mangled.  A sad moment for me as I had dug them up under Daddy’s direction from his  garden years ago, the last summer he was alive.  He had gotten his original plant from his Mom’s garden some 65-plus years earlier.  So, it was disappointing that my “family heirloom plants” had been assassinated by the frost. 

But, surprise, surprise after two weeks of relatively warm nights I noticed yesterday that they had bounced back and are in bloom. 

Hurrah, for strong “family roots.”

        

April 13, 2018 – Recent wiregrass skirmish

         Wiregrass in the South is this gardener’s bane, nightmare, hardship, scourge, plague – I just can’t find the right words to cover all the emotions I have against wiregrass.

Stupid me, years ago [18 years in fact], when we couldn’t get a lawn to grow in the drought, I took the advice of a garden center owner and bought an expensive bag of Bermuda grass seed. She indicated a little bit goes a long way.  I splashed it around the front lawn, where we were having the most trouble and some in those other areas where the lawn was thin. 

Yes, we did get a cover of green, 

yet the consequences were unseen.

         Bermuda grass does make a nice lawn. It is drought resistant and the grass runs above ground and underground and it also self-seeds. However, like anything else growing when something is out of place, such as the grass growing into my front cobblestone walkway or my flower beds, it is a weed. 

I’ve sprayed it with everything available short of nuclear waste and wiregrass waltzes right through it.  I’ve used the lawn edger to cut it back from the sidewalk and the wiregrass turns down into the ground, goes deeper, runs underground, then pops up about one or two feet in the middle of a perennial flower bed, or under the cobblestone side walk in a thriving manner. What? We have weed barrier in place.  It doesn’t matter; it’s growing tips are like steel blades.  It will grow through anything: plastic, weed barrier, even concrete. I expect it is under my house and someday will grow through the floorboards.

         Years ago, when I created my raised vegetable garden near the kitchen at the back of the house out in the lawn, I sprayed off the grass. I set down weed barrier around the raised bed and then topped it with mulch for many years.  However, the mulch decided it wanted to grow luxurious weeds and I was tired of pulling weeds out of the mulch path and decided to replace with brick pavers in order to save my weeding time with actual vegetable gardens or flowers, not paths and sidewalks. 

Last year, I pulled up the mulch, pulled up the weed barrier and again carved out the weeds under it down bare red clay.  Then I put down 15-year landscape fabric and proceeded with my paved patio project.  I left pathways to the lawn to be completed this year. 

This year I will complete the two paths I’ve named Path A and Path B.  Path A, I hacked out the weeds even though I’d used pre-emergence on that section. I put down landscape fabric and placed in the pavers. I did that last week, with not much fanfare except I had a little muscle ache the next day from being out of practice.

B path is a different story.  I had to pull up the old mulch and weed barrier from that area I’d put down years ago to get to the bare ground to begin the project. SURPRISE.  I had a nightmare freeway of wiregrass embedded in the red clay. I tried scraping it out with my trusty DeWitt Hand hoe and got nowhere fast.

The soil was damp and the wiregrass was stuck solid.  Then I took the garden hose and hard-spray blasted the soil around the freeway network of wiregrass and another  SURPRISE.  I found it more serious than at first blush. I’d only seen the top half-inch of the tenacious wiregrass. A mat of blonde runners covered the soil in a 3-foot by 2-foot swath.  I sat sack on my heels and decided to re-group.

The next couple of days it rained, and I let nature expose even more of the white fibrous roots.  Then the sun baked the white fibrous roots and I thought that would improve the situation expecting to chip them out from the dry red clay.

I did chip it out – the hard way – half a day with a pickaxe. All during the chipping project, I am trying to find the right words to describe the situation to fellow gardeners who have tackled wiregrass in their gardens. 

“Wiregrass is like pulling barbwire from concrete.”

April 12, 2018 – Isaiah Hankel PhD – Book review

         Last week I ordered the book entitled The Science of Intelligent Achievement: How smart people focus, create and grow their way to success.  It arrived yesterday in the mail and since I have been retired I have designated Tuesday as my day to enjoy a book.  I mean – from cover to cover.  I keep my calendar clear of clutter that day and reading a book is my main goal on Tuesdays.

         I started a month or so ago and I find it so empowering and refreshing of spirit at the same time.  During all the years I worked, I never seemed to have enough quality time to read. And, I actually need quality time.  My reading comprehension skills have always been poor, so I actually read slow in order for the information to sink into my “thick skull” as my older brothers used to tease me when I was a kid.

         This slow “comprehension” has also made me the brunt of many a joke.  When someone tells a joke, most of the time it goes right over my head and at some places I worked it was more of a sport to tell me a joke and laugh at me not getting it until later – I had the “delayed reaction” that is so often highlighted in TV comedy shows.  But then, I also push that response a bit when it is a risqué joke, because ladies aren’t supposed to have their minds in the gutter. [Mom taught me that one and I still cling to it to protect my reputation, even though I am no longer that naïve.]

         The central theme of this book is – “teaching you the importance of taking ownership over my [your] life . . .” [page XXIX] my emphasis.

         To give you a taste of his book, below are a few lines from the chapter entitled: Why your entire life is your fault [both from page 50 – paperback version.]

“. . . You are responsible for your problems.  Your parents are not to blame.  Your negative friends are not to blame. You are responsible.  Your entire life is your fault.”

“Life is not what happens to you; it’s how you handle what happens to you.  . . .   Life will decide.  Sooner or later, you will be faced with a situation where no one can help you but yourself.”

         I did a quick read last night, but I will go back and reread each chapter to “fix my life”.  Yes, even my life needs some serious “fixing” and only I can make it happen.

         I highly recommend this book to you if you have family, friends, or your own children who get themselves into life’s messes. It might just be the key to get them to analyze how they created their own problem and how they can take specific steps to fix it.

         A large chunk of this book is about CREATIVE OWNERSHIP, a new term I had not been exposed to. There is a chapter on “Entre-Employee” and “Why Employers Want to Hire Entrepreneur’s.”  It leads into how you create for yourself a new income stream. 

         Additionally, at the end of each chapter is the bibliography of material so that anyone can go deeper into the subject matters.

         I highly recommend this book to you.  If you are floundering around in life or simply stuck and have this persistent “now what” do I do question coming to the surface, I believe you can get your bearings with this book. 

Isaiah Hankel PhD also has a website:

https://www.isaiahhankel.com

Lots to read at his website.

Check it out.

 April 11, 2018 – Drum roll please! Mushrooms

         The routine has been to spritz the box of mushrooms I have in my closet in the dark with water every morning and night and I got a surprise last night.  A box full of mushrooms ready to pick.  It was too late last night so first thing this morning, I brought the box out to the kitchen under the light and went to work harvesting.

         You gently grab hold of the cap and twist it gently to get the entire mushroom including the growing base out of the medium.  I started with the single ones first so that I could get a handle on the gentle twisting technique.  But, alas, I did snap one cap off and then had to twist out the base.  One isn’t bad since I haven’t done this in a while.

         The next step is to trim off the bottom of each, brush any medium that stuck to the caps or stems in their growing process and violá we are ready to have a lovely mushroom omelet for breakfast.

         When you slice them – they have this incredible “crunch” sound that you usually don’t get with store bought mushrooms.

         Now to mark the harvest amount on my calendar and see when the next flush comes.

         If this doesn’t spur you on to try this gardening project – I can’t imagine what will.  Again, these are crimini baby bella mushrooms.  These come from Mushroom Adventures. 

https://www.mushroomadventures.com/

                   YUM, YUM, smack my lips, YUM.

April 5, 2018 – I missed something this Easter

         I buffer the TV and newspaper news with reading the comics [or funnies as I often call them] every day.  It was my Mom’s habit to read them first and then move on to news, that is where I learned the habit.  She always touted that “Laughter was the best medicine” and would often cut out a clever comic or joke from the newspaper or the Reader’s Digest and slip it into her weekly letter to me.  I miss that.

I also used to have a friend who lived across the street from me, Geraldine, God rest her soul, she died too young.  She collected jokes and would trot across the street after work and jump into her comedian role.  She always had me in stiches.  If she couldn’t make you laugh – you were a sour puss or a dud.

Today I happened to pause a moment when I was reading the WIZARD OF ID.  The Wizard is applying for a dragon license and Henry, the dragon, has punched a hole through the roof of the application office.  That silly dragon always has such a cute expression.  The name made me pause. Henry!

It brought to mind the classic Easter 1950 comedy-drama movie starring  James Stewart as the wealthy drunk, Elwood P. Dowd who has a pooka named Harvey, an invisible rabbit as his friend. Henry – Harvey – the H sound reminded me.

Somehow, I didn’t happen to see the movie, HARVEY, during the Easter holiday and I thought it always came on.  I am simple; I never tire of it.  If you haven’t seen it, you will find some charm in it.  In fact, the more often you see it, the more charm you find in it as there is always a little bit you miss.  I can’t imagine any other actor pulling it off.  James Stewart is perfection in it.

Yes, I am a little kid, I’ve an explosion of white cardboard cutouts of rabbits multiplying along the window ledge of the front living room windows and a trio of rabbits on the front door.  Being a little kid – never gets old – you just call it “whimsy” when you get my age.

If you haven’t tried whimsy yet, do so, it will cheer you up and your neighbors will think you are a little bit cracked – you can tell when they stop and speak to you and have a gentle smile on their face.  They are actually hoping you do something a bit – off center – so they can have a laugh at you and share it with others.

Whimsy – I aim to please anyone – anytime.

Let’s all have bit more laughter in our life.

April 4, 2018 – Baby Bella Crimini

         I started my box of mushrooms from Mushroom Adventures about two weeks ago and the picture below isn’t much – but you can see I have pins about the diameter of a pencil eraser.

         I have it in my cool closet in the dark and twice a day – I spray it with water to keep it moist.

         You can see the grouping of white on the sides and a few groups in the southeast corner.  Things are progressing well.

         This is only an enticement – more to follow in a few days.  I can’t wait for a fresh mushroom and fresh spinach salad.  I’ll work on the lighting on the next one.  Until then – happy gardening – even it is in a closet.

April 3, 2018 – The keys on the red plaid ribbon.

One Friday afternoon in October of 2017, after ten days of cleaning out Mom and Dad’s house, my brother, Ken, and I walked through the empty house.  Our footsteps echoed as we meandered through the back bedrooms, and opened each closet door in turn and peered in to confirm we’d gotten everything out and they were clean.  The house was now empty and I left peppermint oil on cotton balls in every cabinet and closet and even tucked behind the curtains on the windowsills in every room to give the house a fresh smell.

Dad had built this house with the help of my two brothers when they were 4 and 8 years of age the year before I was born and I never knew any other house from the day I came home from the hospital until the day I went off to my first apartment. The diamond dust plaster walls were unblemished and the unmarked red oak hardwood floors actually reflected back a shine as I’d lovingly hand washed them on my hands and knees along with the baseboards.

We were selling it “as is” and had signed the MLS listing that morning.  The late afternoon sun was streaming into the kitchen through the sixteen-pane storm door and my brother gave me a one armed hug.  We were both exhausted. It had been much more work than we had anticipated and an emotional roller coaster of a journey to this point.

“I guess this is it,” my brother, Ken said.

“I suppose I should leave the keys for the realtor,” I said as I pulled them out of my pocket.  The red plaid taffeta ribbon was limp and matted from being shoved in my work pants pocket for the last few days.  I was about to hand them to him when my lower lip started to quiver and I hesitated as memories flooded over me.

“You don’t know the history behind these keys, do you?” I asked and tears started to well up.

Ken shrugged his shoulders, not sure.

“Mom and Dad gave me this key on my 16^th birthday, indicating I could start dating,” I said, now crying, “No, I really don’t want to give them up, I’d like to keep them.”

I think he knew what I meant.  There are just the two of us kids left. This had been our childhood home with more memories than we could think of at that moment.

“We’ve got other keys, I’ll give them Mom’s keys, she won’t need them,” he said.

We walked out to his truck and embraced. He left not able to say much.  I could feel what was probably in his heart.  My car was packed ready for my thousand mile drive home, but I lingered a while.  I leisurely strolled Daddy’s gardens, and admired the ancient stonewall that framed the yard from the road.

At last, I walked through the empty house once more and took in each feature of every room, including the rodeo embellished light fixture in the bedroom I had as a kid.  That had been the boys’ room until I arrived, and was never switched over to a girl’s motif. I glanced out the two bedroom windows at the same scenery as when I was a child to fix it forever in my mind. I opened and closed all the perfectly hung doors one more time. Dad would have loved it that they were still perfectly balanced in the house he had built for us. 

At the kitchen door, I swung around and took one last sweeping look of the bay window in the living room and the butcher block in the kitchen.  I pulled the door shut, keyed the dead bolt, and checked the doorknob to verify it was locked, and forever locked in my heart.