Went out on Saturday morning and discovered that two of my iris’ are gone! Not eaten by some little critter, but gone – as in pulled up and removed. I water these things every day so I know it happened between 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.
One was a brand new Red Raptor (the deepest reddish purple you can get without it actually being black) and a lovely shade of orange call Savanna Sunset, which I planted last year. Both of these are colors that are outside the iris norm and that I really loved.
It was quite disheartening and I feel like I’ve joined the ranks for crime victims in the Twin Cities. Obviously this isn’t on the level of car theft or having your house broken into, but it still makes me a little sad. At least both of them were just past their bloom glory for the season.
All of our car talk the other day struck a nerve here.
YA loves cars. She has always had all the cars in the neighborhood memorized and can tell you the make of any car she sees as we’re driving down the street. I wondered if she might go into some kind of automotive engineering but she never seemed interested in that route.
When it was time for her to purchase her first car, she did a lot of research. Unfortunately the first car we went to look at turned out to be one of those cars that was totaled out by an insurance company and fixed up by a third party. As these cars are generally not insurable and YA needed my name on the loan paperwork, I was able to put my foot down easily on this.
The second car was at a dealership and didn’t start. I would have left right then – what kind dealership doesn’t even run down to check that the car will start before an appointment? But she pleaded with me so we looked another car on the lot. It didn’t look to me like the kind of thing she would like but she REALLY wanted a car. The salesman then tried to convince her (while I sitting right there) that leasing a new car would be good. Her eyes got that kind of glazed-over look. I squashed this idea as well as telling the sales guy that he was out of line. But she REALLY wanted a car, so ended up buying one that had fairly low mileage and pretty good price. I told the sales guy that if he was even thinking of telling her it was pre-owned by a little old grandma, to think again.
This was the car that got sideswiped and totaled out two years later. Back down to a different dealership. This car turned out to be a stick, which was why it had been sitting on the lot for a while; the website didn’t say it was a manual so everybody who came to see it passed on it. I suggested to her that if the dealership couldn’t be bothered to fix the listing online, maybe they weren’t to be overly trusted. But she REALLY wanted a car so she signed on the dotted line. Luckily she learned to drive in Civetta, my Honda Civic, which had been a stick.
She’s whined about this car for a bit over the last few years and in the past month or so had set out a timeline (about 8 months from now) for looking for a new car.
Fast forward to last week. I got some frantic texts – she had locked herself out of her car at the station/carwash down the street. Apparently she got out of the car to pay for the carwash and the door swung shut. I know you’re thinking, how did it get locked? Well, if the car is RUNNING when you get out to pay for the carwash……. I drove down with her spare key, but of course it didn’t work. It took about 20 minutes and $80 to get somebody there to break into her car (AAA had a 2-hour wait). As I was driving home I thought to myself “that’s the nail in the coffin for that car.”
And I was correct. A couple of days ater, she took off at lunch with a “I’m going to look at a car” called over her shoulder. I thought to myself “she’s going to buy a car today”. Luckily the days of my having to go with her are over. I was correct again – she bought a car. A new car. Honda (I can’t remember the make) with some kind of hatch back and I think it’s a hybrid as well. Won’t know for sure until the end of June when she picks it up. She’s done the math and says she can afford it, although she did sheepishly say she should probably cut back on some of her clothing/shoe purchases for a while. Good thing she’s living rent-free with mom!
There’s been A LOT of car talk the last few days – I’m just grinning it and bearing it – hopefully it will die down for a bit soon. At least until it gets closer to the car’s arrival!
We took the grill out on Monday and fired it up! For many years, when YA was younger, we had an old kinda-grill that we inherited when I bought the house. It looked like it had been cobbled together from parts found in the garage and was so rickety that I wasn’t sure I could get it to the boulevard to give away before it collapsed. I felt a little guilty that somebody stopped and took it before I’d even had a chance to go in the house and make a “FREE” sign.
Our second grill was a little hibachi-type thing, but we didn’t use it much. Let’s face it, spending 30-40 minutes coaxing charcoal to just the right stage so you can heat up a veggie burger for a minute.
I finally caved and got a gas grill when YA was about 12 – got it using award credits at work. Then I splurged to get a little wheeled cart that it sits on; it was a little too big to lug around. Last year we switched from the little canisters to a big one. It works much better and saves a lot of gas.
So to celebrate Memorial Day we did grilled corn on the cob and veggie brats with all the fixins. It was a perfect day for grilling and eating at our outdoor table! And so much nicer to just turn on the gas for 10 minutes and then turn it off!
We have finally identified the bird living in the birdhouse – it’s a house wren! It took a while because she (I have no clue but I like to think of her as a her) hangs around near the birdhouse but is a little skittish about going in and out while we’re in the yard. I’m also not a whizz where bird identification is concerned.
She sings like crazy. I’m not sure how birds do it; I’d need throat lozenges every night if I gave out as much as they do. On Saturday, I was lounging about in the backyard and I thought I’d doublecheck my identification, just to make sure. She was hanging about, singing her little heart out so I figured comparing her birdsong to bird calls on the internet would be interesting. I opened the first website I found and hit play.
Her reaction was immediate. She lit off her branch and came straight at me. She didn’t get too close for comfort, but it was definitely a warning. No other house wrens allowed in her yard. I did it again on Sunday to see if it had just been a fluke. No fluke. She definitely did not want any competition and came at me again. No more bird calls off the internet for me!
I do most of my “library-ing” at the Washburn Library. It’s just 2 blocks away and it would be a lie if I said it was on the list of considerations when I bought this house. I’m probably there twice a week.
Last week I needed a copy of something right away (for my other book club) and the closest copy was at the Southdale location. At Southdale, all the library action begins on the second floor and as I came up the steps and rounded the corner, I encountered this table:
Apparently May is National Cheese month. Who knew? Anyway, it looks like they do a tally like this every month. You choose a little paper slip and put it in the cylinder of your choice. Not sure why they do this, but seemed like a bit of harmless fun.
I voted for Paneer because I love the underdog.
Did you have a favorite childhood cartoon? Or we can discuss cheese!
Another week of life being relentless… I’m tired and I can’t keep two coherent thoughts together so this week’s blog will be basic highlights and a bunch of photos.
*I did finish planting corn. Except for about 2 acres that are wet. But I’ll get to them soon.
*Working on planting soybeans. Hoping to finish on Saturday.
*The college show opened on Wednesday and the paint was dry and it’s a good show. The set isn’t my best, but it works.
*We’ve had 4 sandhill cranes hanging around.
*The lilacs are looking – and smelling – so good!
*Every morning, I let Humphry out, and Bailey comes in to get a morning greeting and some attention for a minute. Then she’s happy to go back out.
*For the first time ever, I kinda got tired of music in the tractors. I listened to podcasts: Moth Radio hour, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, and my frequent standby: Light Talk. (Imagine the Car Talk guys, doing a show about lighting).
*Kelly and I picked up some very large limestone rocks using an old thing called a ‘Slip Scraper’ or ‘Buck Scraper’. Clyde, you ever use one of these? This has been behind the shed for years. It’s missing some handles, but we made it work carrying rocks.
*The coop applied fertilizer for soybeans.
*Next week is all about lighting the next show in my schedule.
*My last day at the college for this academic year is May 31. I probably won’t have all my work done; I may have to stop in the next week just to finish what I don’t get done this week.
But then, THEN, the pace will slow down and I can start working on my new shed space.
Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day weekend!
Here are photos:
Planting CornTracks in the DirtTractor BuddyViewViewViewMinnesota RockKelly with RocksBuck ScraperLoaded Buck ScraperGoofballCoop SpreaderLoading SeedAnother Tractor BuddySeed Camera View
Planting corn, the tracks in the dirt, my tractor buddies one day, my view from the tractor front and back, a rock shaped like Minnesota (that was really heavy!), Kelly and her second load of rocks, the “buck scraper”, A goofball, the coop’s fertilizer spreader, loading soybean seed from the trailer, Another tractor buddy, and the camera’s showing the seed in the drill.
Where and what was the best burger you ever had?
(The first time I had a ‘blue Burger’ ((blue cheese on a burger)) was at a bowling alley and it was FANTASTIC and none have compared to that one.)
Now that the weather is nicer, YA’s inner-pyromaniac has emerged for the summer.
Years ago I inherited a backyard fire pit from a friend. At this point I think the rust is the only thing holding it together but it has provided many years of enjoyable backyard conflagrations. YA is good at sweeping the yard for twigs and branches that she piles up in the very back of the yard; she is always on the lookout for kindling. She is the initiator of 98% of our backyard infernos and is generally in charge of any arranging and poking that is needed.
It doesn’t take long after the first couple of the seasons blazes that she asks about graham crackers and chocolates. We always have marshmallows (Trader Joe’s – vegetarian). I knew this was coming so I had already stocked up; we were able to have our first s’mores of the season that day! We even used the s’mores trays that I bought at the state fair a few years ago. These are clearly unnecessary toys but I love them anyway.
We have a gas stove; we could easily have s’mores all year long, but we never make them except over the fire in the back yard. I suspect that the sunshine, the smoke from the fire, the joy of finally being outside after a long winter contribute to why having summer s’mores is just the best way to go.
Doing some errands last week – had been raining all day. Waiting for the left-turn arrow at an intersection, I noticed that on the berm between the street and the parking lot, the automatic sprinklers had turned on.
Thinking of all the technology we have these days (people on the moon, 3-d printing, chatbots, apps that can track your heartrate – the list goes on and one), why can’t they program automatic sprinklers to know when it’s raining?
Ever heard of a Da Vinci Glow? I hadn’t… even with my dad’s interest is all thing astronomical!
It’s a real thing… It’s happens around sunset when a crescent moon is on the horizon, but the outline of a full moon is visible. It’s called a DaVinci Glow because… wait for it… Leonardo was the one to hypothesize why it occurs.
The glow is caused by light reflecting off the Earth onto the moon. Sounds weird, right. Earthshine is light emitted by the Earth after the sun has gone down. Because Earthshine is actually brighter than moonlight, the reflection “fills in” the crescent.
Although Da Vinci Glow is not rare, there are a few requirements. It’s easier to see when there is a waxing or waning crescent during clear skies. The fly in the ointment is that enough of the Earth needs to have cloud-cover to get the best view. Apparently Earthshine is reflected more by the clouds of our planet than by the land or water.
Since we have a waxing moon starting later this week, we’ll have the best chance of seeing the Da Vinci Glow this month!
Have you ever noticed this phenomenon? Anything else in the night sky interest you these days?
Last week when I stopped at the library, I noticed a basket on the little table inside the door, filled with bookmarks. A sign on the basket said “A Year’s Worth of Bookmakrs. Please take one.” Turns out it was a collection of all the bookmarks found in returned books over the last year. Apparently they do this every year; I must have just missed it before.
There were a good 40 bookmarks in the basket and I was tempted to look through them all to see if any of them were mine. I expect with the number of library books I borrow that one or two bookmarks might have found their way to the library!
I have a cannister on my dresser that is filled with my bookmarks. I will always pick up a bookmark if one is being offered. (Ask Chris, I have several of his!) One of my latest favorites is a cutout of Smokey the Bear that I got at the state fair last year.
You’d think that with at least 25 bookmarks in my cannister that I wouldn’t need to take another one from the library basket. Well, you’d be wrong, I flipped through them all and picked out a striking one from a publisher with brightly colored book spines on it!
Do you have bookmarks? Do you have a place to keep your bookmarks?
