I'd Love to Try 'Em

Photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org/  Thanks, Jon!

Today, the last day of March, is NATIONAL CLAMS ON A HALF SHELL DAY. I’ve never had clams on a half shell, and I’d love to educate my palate by trying them. But since I can’t think of any restaurant in town that serves this dish, I borrowed a luscious-looking photo from Jon. These are Baked Clams with champagne sauce and pancetta. I can almost taste them!

I Am In Control

I may not be in control of my studio, but rest assured, Beary is!

 I AM IN CONTROL DAY

          First, a little history: In 1981, on this day, President Ronald Reagan (who had just been in office a little over two months) was wounded by deranged gunman John Hinckley, Jr. in assassination attempt as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel after a luncheon speaking engagement. He was rushed to the George Washington University Hospital for surgery to remove of a bullet in his lung. In the chaos that followed Secretary of State Alexander Haig, in a press briefing at the White House, stated: “As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the Vice President [George H.W. Bush, who was in-flight aboard Air Force Two, from Texas] and in close touch with him.” His words “I AM IN CONTROL” was taken out of context and made a big deal of by the public and press.     

          So today is now known as I AM IN CONTROL DAY.  The questions for you and me are: What is out of control in MY life? And what can I do to BE in control today? And let’s take it even further and remember that we’re in control every day from here on out.

Hope

Tiny detail in one of the walls at the Dickeyville Grotto in SW Wisconsin

Hope is that thing with feathers 

that perches in the soul 

and sings the tune without the words 

and never stops... at all.  

~Emily Dickinson~

Celebrate - Every Day!

I was just looking on the Internet at all the goofy and not-so-goofy things that people celebrate.  It seems like someone is celebrating something every day of the year.  And really --- that's how it should be!

Today is Something On a Stick Day.  Now when I think of something on a stick, I think of State Fair food, like corn dogs, alligator-on-a-stick and deep-fried Twinkie-on-a-stick.  Other foods that come to mind are popsicles and caramel apples.  Gee, I'd love to celebrate this day with good old shish-kabobs, but my husband will be working late and I don't know how to work the gas grill.

I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something (anything!) on a stick so I could join the celebration. And then I remembered!  Out in the woods this winter, I'd found several lost items along the trails and hung them up on sticks.  So I traipsed out there with my camera, which is quite a hike now that the underbrush is leafed out, and I took pictures of those two things on a stick.  I even took pictures of the beautiful greening trails.

Got home and excitedly opened my camera to take out the card: NO CARD!!! Dammitall!  How many times has this happened to me?  I should remember to put the card back in the camera just as soon as I off-load my pix!

Well, I'm not going back out there. It's too hot and sticky and I've had my exercise for the day, thank you. If those items are still on their sticks next year on Something On a Stick Day, fine.  For this year, I have a photo from my files I can use:

LET'S CELEBRATE

MOTH ON A BROOMSTICK!

Here is a website to check out if you want to see some of the unusual things people are celebrating on a stick:

 http://somethingonastick.com/

I loved "Snowman on a Stick!" And don't miss "Tax Return on Fire on a Stick."

New Painting - Sunset Series

"Sunset #1" acrylic 7"x14"

I've begun a new series of sunset paintings.  I love the endless variations of sunsets, but photographing them can be tricky.  Getting the right exposure from the camera is usually disappointing.  The photo rarely comes out as dazzling as the actual scene was. The painter is able to enrich the colors to a closer approximation of what was observed in nature.

This small painting is based on a sunset seen from my backyard. I've decided to make these small studies: 7"x14".  I love to paint large, but find the pricing larger paintings is usually beyond the budget of many potential collectors.  I'm planning a series of six different sunsets of this size, which will encompass a wide range of landscape settings.

M-m-m! Morels!

It's that time of the year again. Time to go mushroom hunting! Spring is about two weeks early this year, and already people are finding the "little grays." I plan to go out this afternoon and try to find me some. The morel pictured is one of the larger, yellow ones that I found last year. They come later in the season and are much easier to find.


In a good year, we've found grocery sacks full and have gone in to town to a store parking lot, set the bags of surplus mushrooms on the tailgate of our truck and sold out literally in minutes (before the store even knows you're out there). We almost always have enough to dry and they are yummy later in soups and casseroles.  But the best way to eat them is fresh: floured and sauteed in butter.  Can't get enough of them!


For some reason, the past two or three years they've been scarce. Maybe the weather conditions haven't been right. Here's hoping for a bumper crop of the magnificent munchables!

I Almost Cut It Down!

This lilac bush has been in our back yard since we moved here almost 24 years ago.  It was never more than a stick and never had more than one blossom on it. This winter, when we cut down the two old trees next to the house, it must have opened up a whole new world of sunshine for the puny little bush. This spring it actually looks healthy and at last, it has some decent blooms on it.  I guess all it needed was a little more sunshine. And to think, I almost cut it down!

A Sunny Spring Day

Science has never drummed up 

quite as effective a tranquilizing agent 

as a sunny spring day. 

~W. Earl Hall

For Shame!

Country Club Road, Jacksonville, IL

And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can 

and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, 

and this was good because Man could then 

take his automobile and buy all his food in one place 

and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator 

and throw away that which had no further use.  

And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags 

and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles 

and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, 

and Man shook his head and cried:  

"Look at this Godawful mess!"  

~Art Buchwald, 1970

            This, my friends, is what I saw when I took a scenic drive on the first morning of spring along the eastern edge of Lake Mauvaiseterre.  

            Country Club Road serenely winds its way along the lakeshore and its woodsy backwaters. Closer to town are the magnificent homes of Jacksonville's wealthier citizens, with immaculately cared-for lawns and the beautiful greens of the Jacksonville Country Club. But just down the road to the south is one of the city's most disgusting, unofficial and illegal landfills --- where the dregs of the human race dump their refuse along the road in the ditches.

           The City of Jacksonville (or the County of Morgan, whichever is responsible for the maintenance of this road) must be proud of the "scenic beauty" of this stretch of roadway, because any time I've ever driven through here, this is what I've observed. Might they not invest in some surveillance cameras to conceal in the trees to catch these lawbreakers in action? Taxpayer money that is (occasionally?) invested in cleaning up the mess might be better spent in preventing it in the first place.

A Get Well Card for Ed

This Redbud's for You, Ed ---Get well soon!

On the morning of the First Day of Spring, our good friend Ed, who's my age, went out to his garden to plant some potatoes and had a heart attack instead.

Details have been sketchy for the past two days. He had what the doctor's call "The Widow Maker," with 100% blockage of the main artery. They had to use the paddles on him six times to bring him back, and then rush him by helicopter to a hospital in south St. Louis.

Ed and his wife Deb have been our best friends forever. I've known them for over 30 years and my husband for even longer. We've had so many good times with them, and we hope to have many more!

Our love and prayers go out to Ed, Debbie, their children Josh and Jessie and the grandkiddies.

HANG IN THERE, MAN! 

WE LOVE YA!

The Purpose of Life...

 

“The purpose of life is not to be happy.

It is to be useful,

to be honorable,

to be compassionate,

to have it make some difference

that you have lived and lived well.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome Spring with Open Arms!

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, 

the word equinox is derived 

from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” 

The spring and fall equinoxes are the only dates 

with equal daylight and dark 

as the Sun crosses the celestial equator.

BROUGHT TO YOU

BY MOTHER NATURE!

Mid-March Sunset

I wish I had a better view of the sunset from where I live. Usually by the time I notice a particularly beautiful one, there's not enough time to get in the car and drive to a better location. But here it is, looking out my back door.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

photo courtesy http://pdphoto.org   Thanks, Jon!

"There is a waterfall...

that all my childhood counted dear."

~William Butler Yeats

The waterfalls at Glencar Lough in County Leitrim, Ireland.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

A Long Day Ahead

          This is going to be a long day for me. I go into the hospital this evening for a sleep study. I think I might have fibromyalgia, but this is a preliminary test to rule out sleep apnea. Whatever I have, I've had it for many, many years (just thinking it's the aches and pains of aging) and it has impacted my life severely. It's just getting worse, so I have to find out what's wrong and get my life back on track.
          I just wrote a lengthy essay on my condition, but failed to save it and lost it when I pressed the wrong button on the computer. I'm too weary to try to remember it and write it all again. This is how I am from relentless insomnia, all-over body pain, stiffness and chronic fatigue. I'm running on empty. I need to find out what's wrong, so I can get back to a half-way normal life.
          I don't see how they expect me to sleep in a hospital, when I can't even sleep in my own bed.  I guess I'm going to find out. The worse part is, I can't have any naps today, and even at 9:28 in the morning, that bed looks mighty inviting.

PRODUCT REVIEW

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!

MAGIC MESH

(as seen on TV)
"hands-free screen door"
Only $19.95 
          --- BUT WAIT!
Call NOW &  we'll send you not one, but TWO* Magic Mesh!!!
(*You just pay separate Shipping & Handling)
But first, let me set the stage:
Our sliding glass patio door is 35 years old. The screen was trashed when we bought the house 24 years ago, so we removed it and never got around to replacing/repairing it (if that's even possible). All these years we've sweltered in the spring with the door shut, when we might have enjoyed cool southerly breezes. The door itself barely runs along its track. It takes the strength of Hercules to open and close the damn thing. Periodically my clever husband will lube it with Pam (yes, Pam!), so it has a gunky build-up in the tracks.
          We're not ready to replace the door. We have a few more years until we can access our retirement savings, and we don't know if we want to build on a room to This Old Shack or go back into debt and build a new house out in the woods. In the meantime, it seems silly to install a new door. (It seemed silly until today!)
          When we saw the ad for the amazing Magic Mesh Hands-Free Screen Door on TV, it sure looked like a miracle product. Keep Fresh Air In and Bugs Out! Great for Pets Too! Installs in Seconds!
          But I refuse to buy products I see on TV. Once they get your phone number, you've established yourself as their customer and they can call you any time and probably sell your number to anyone they want. So there goes the good-old DO NOT CALL list. But these miracle gadgets routinely show up in Walmart and other stores (you just don't get two for the price of one), so I waited and sure enough, Walmart got them in.
          So I plunked down my 20 bucks and we were ready! Installs in seconds? Fergitaboudit! 60 seconds times 45 minutes is more like it. First we had to figure out the directions and then adapt them to our particular door. You have a dozen Velcro strips. That's 24 pieces of stubborn backing paper to peel off (a good 10-15 minutes of frustration there). 
          We finally got it up. There are gaps were it fits up to the door frame. We had to affix it on one side to the stationary glass panel of the door, so there's a gap from the door frame at the top corner that a robin could fly through. To have it fit right, with no gaps, you'd need a solid strip of Velcro on all three sides. Of course the bottom is left hanging free, and the magnets don't always line up right when it closes (more gaps there).  With a breeze blowing in, it usually doesn't close all the way at the bottom. How long do you suppose it'll take for our outdoor cat to figure that out?
           Beary, our dog (seen above modeling his new portal) just loves it.  He's been running in and out like it's a new toy. Sometimes it closes right; more often it has gaps.
          So, anyway, the wasps, buffalo gnats, Asian ladybugs, and mosquitoes will be able to come and go as they please. If we're lucky, we may have a week or two before they come out in full force. Then we'll rip the stupid thing down and chuck it in the trashcan. And be back to square one.
          That expensive patio door replacement is looking better than ever at this point.

Breakfast is Served

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking 

if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.  

~Voltaire

 And there's nothing I like better than French Toast for breakfast!

Daffy for Spring

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...

~William Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," 1804

Spring Forward

The first day of spring was once the time 

for taking the young virgins into the fields, 

there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. 

Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead 

and change the oil in the crankcase. 

 ~E.B. White, "Hot Weather," One Man's Meat, 1944

No, it's not spring yet, but did you remember to set your clocks ahead an hour this weekend? It's another windy day in central Illinois, with these fluffy clouds scampering across the blue sky and sunshine to bring a smile. Today the brisk prairie wind ripped my fishing cap off my head in the grocery store's parking lot and had me scampering to chase it down. I'm sure I was quite a sight with my long hair about to blow off my head and my shopping cart carrying on its merry way without me!

Living with Nature

A log-end wall in a home I visited on Grand Lake in Minnesota.

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries 

of the earth are never alone or weary of life.  

~Rachel Carson~

If Only...

When I look at Beary's baby pictures now, 

I can't help but think: 

if only puppies and kittens and babies 

could stay little a little bit longer than they do!

Nature's Child

I know it's a tad-bit early, but mushroom season 

is just around the corner and I can almost smell them! 

Here's an old photo from 23 years ago, 

when we first moved onto our little piece of Paradise.  

It was our son's first spring, and we had 

a bumper crop of morels out in the woods.

In Memoriam

EVELYN PRATHER

1925-2012

I received word today of the passing of a very dear old friend who was buried yesterday. I'll never forget her or the several years I lived across the street from her in Chillicothe, thirty years ago. We enjoyed spending time together birdwatching, taking nature hikes at the Marshall County Conservation Area, planning and working on Claud-Elen Days, and gardening in her big backyard. Evelyn taught me how to can tomatoes and other vegetables we grew together, and we had lots of fun making ice candles and watching her mother, Grammy Goforth, (visiting from Arizona) put on her clown costume and makeup to entertain senior citizens.


Although distance and time separated us, we still kept in touch with Christmas and birthday cards and letters, which we signed "Best Friends Forever." Her genuine warmth and kindness, her laughter and joyous spirit will live on in my heart and my memory.


A couple of weeks ago I was blessed to receive a phone call from her. I'll always cherish that chance to talk with her and hear her voice for one last time.  Although she was old enough to be my mother, and for a time she might have been my mother-in law, she was more like a big sister to me and we'll be...

"BEST FRIENDS FOREVER"

Big Air

Here is a photo of our son a few years back, when he used to race motocross. He's taking a jump in our backyard pasture, which used to be his practice track. He raced from age 12 until recently, broke many bones and gave his mother many a gray hair.

A Blustery Blue Day

No pictures today...I'm feeling blue. It's about 70 degrees out, but the wind is roaring so fiercely, I'm afraid to be outside for fear of falling limbs crashing down on me. You would seriously need a construction worker's hard hat to be out on a day like today. Not pleasant!

I makes me think about all those people who lost their homes (and some, their lives) in this past weekend's tornado outbreak down south. A couple Christmases ago we rented a cabin in southern Illinois, and the only town of any size where we could get some food on Christmas Eve, to fix for Christmas dinner, was Harrison, Illinois. It's hard to imagine that the town basically no longer exists anymore.  And Branson, Missouri, where we vacationed several times, was hit really hard too.

Feeder Frenzy

Does anyone know what the big bird on left of the feeder is?

I seemed to have lost my bird book....

The snow was here this morning and gone by afternoon.

At Play in the Snow

My dog, Beary, is happy it snowed today!  There are still a few more weeks of winter left --- so enjoy it while you can.

Such Agreeable Friends

Alpacas at a street fair inn Hannibal, Missouri

Animals are such agreeable friends - 

they ask no questions, 

they pass no criticisms.  

~George Eliot~

New Gravel

We had a load of gravel delivered today. Money well spent. 

Rich spread it with the tractor and it sure makes the home place 

look nice for spring!

Good Food from the Forest

We made venison jerky yesterday.  

Take my word for it: it tastes better than it looks, 

but you need strong choppers!