Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Install Failed

‎INSTALLING SPRING...


████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░


33% Complete. Install delayed....please wait.
...Installation failed. Please try again.


Yesterday was beautiful, so I thought it would be safe to try to reinstall Spring. But, I was mistaken. The install failed. Our local weatherman is predicting one last dose of Winter, with another light dusting of snow due before tax day. Hopefully spring can be safely installed soon.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Old Red Barn

Last Thursday we visited with some dear friends who recently rented a house in the country. I snapped the following shots while standing beside their garage.

This pastorial scene is part of the property owned by their landlord and just a short distance across the yard. It is located in Warren County just outside the small town of Treloar, Missouri. The Katy trail runs just a short distance from that road in the background going up the hill.

I can't wait to get permisson to go exploring inside this old barn, I can already imagine the photos that I will be able to take.

I really like this cupola that sits on top of the barn, and regret that the weathervane did not show up in my shot.

I am linking this post to Barn Charm, Ruby Tuesday and Rednesday

Barn Charm is a Monday meme hosted by Tricia.
To check out those charming barns posted by others visit Bluff Area Daily.


Mary at "Work of the Poet" hosts Ruby Tuesday. Rednesday is a Wednesday meme hosted by Sue at "It's a Very Cherry World." Both memes are dedicated to the color red. To join the fun or just check out what Red others are excited to share visit Mary and her friends at Ruby Tuesdayand Sue and her friends fromRednesday


Saturday, March 26, 2011

Not again





The above photos could easily be from the group I posted last week, or the week before or even last month. But, they were taken out my front window just a few minutes ago. Yes, it is March 26th and it has been snowing for several hours with a prediction of three to five inches by nightfall.

Will this winter never end? Will my blooming daffodils survive all this snow and ice?

I hope the weather in your part of the country is much sunnier. As for me I going to spend the day buried in my electric blanket floating between a good book and crying over some shappy old movie.

ADDITION TO PREVIOUS POST

It is now four thirty in the afternoon and the prediction of three to five inches of snow has been exceded. The following shots (taken a few minutes ago) show the accumulation of snow on my patio table and a rule to verify the amount at six inches with no sign of any letup. All my beautiful blooming spring bulbs are now hidden under the drifts the old north wind is depositing around the yard.

There are only two good things to say about today's weather, one is the belief that lots of snow produces a winning Cardinal baseball season. The other is the luck of having the first nine hours of the English mini series "The Jewell in the Crown" to watch instead of braving the blizzard.



Thursday, March 24, 2011

Drowning in Paper

It’s Thursday. One of the best days of the week, for those of us who like to contribute to a meme. But, it is always tough deciding which to pick from the many that call Thursday home. One of the first memes I discovered in my early days of blogging was “Theme Thursday.” I loved the themes chosen each week and met some great folks. But, over time, I began to feel out of place among those who participated. There was no reason. No one suggested I didn’t belong. It was just my insecurity coming to the forefront. Theme Thursday is a meme where talented writers and poets have found a home.
I am not a writer though I once had aspirations in that direction. I am not a poet and could never be, my head just doesn’t work that way. Some have told me I am the modern version of the old tribal storyteller. But, in reality, I am just an old retired lady with a camera who likes to post pictures and the story behind them.
While I had stopped posting to Theme Thursday I continued to lurk because I enjoy reading what others contribute. When I discovered the theme this week is paper I knew I had to contribute. Paper is something that has been the bane of my existence for over half a century.
Of the things that annoy me, paper has to be at the top of the list. My hatred for paper began back in my elementary school days when my Mother spent more time trying to find every way possible to keep her growing brood of children not only busy but financially productive.
The first day of school vacation back in 1956 my Mother announced that the oldest boys were going to start playing a new game. She produced a large stack of “Grit” newspapers and said the boys were going to have a contest each week to see who could sell the most papers. The paper sold for ten cents and the boy who sold the most each week would get a quarter for his very own. Mom sent the two oldest boys out on their bikes to the most distant parts of town and the others were assigned streets within walking distance of our house. So the summer became a competition and one long argument over who put the most money in the old coffee can.
The next week, Mom announced that the girls and younger boys were going to start taking one of the red wagons she had borrowed and go to all the houses on the paper routes collecting the used newspapers for recycling. One Sunday evening each month we tied them into bundles and stacked them in our wagons and hauled them a quarter mile to the industrial park, where we stacked the bundles on a scale normally meant for trucks. The papers were sold by the pound and we had to have them on the scales before the place opened on Monday otherwise we could not get them weighed. The older boys would camp out with the papers and bring Mom the money on Monday morning. Mom put the money in the coffee can. She said that can was going to pay for a new pair of shoes for each of us when school started. It did too, with some to spare. In fact, we got to vote on how to spend the money left over. We got a new Monopoly game with it.
Our paper business was too successful, however, so Mom did not let it end with the start of school. This little venture continued until we moved to a larger house in the country several years later. After the move Mom continued to have the boys out selling the papers but the recycling stopped. As a result the left over newspapers began to pile up all over the house.
Back then we would burn our trash, but, Mom would not let us burn the papers. By then she had another idea for how to use them. That was the summer she had all of us, and all the kids in the 4-H club she started making paper mache items. Which resulted in tiny shreds of paper and glue being tracked all through the house that was my responsibility to clean up.
As the oldest of the thirteen children, most of the kitchen duties fell to me. It was impossible to set a table or clean the kitchen without having to deal with piles of castoff paper left behind by family members. It seemed like every piece of mail or schoolwork that came in the house ended up on the kitchen table.
After I married the handle on all the paper never improved. My first husband could not read so every piece of paper that came in the house landed in a pile for me to deal with. At the time I was working as an accounting and payroll clerk for a CPA and before long I was drowning in stacks of work papers combined with the mail, bills, school work, insurance forms, and you name it that collected on my desk.
After I got a computer I told my mother my goal was to have that machine give me a paper free household. I went to paperless billing and paid my bills on line. Use of a debit card let me stop writing checks. My books, newspapers and magazines are now on an e-reader. I was almost there. Then, I married the Old Salt and found he would have no part of living in my paperless world. Now the sacrifice I have to make for having this wonderful loving man in my life is stepping over stacks of books and magazines piled beside the bed, hauling bags of used papers to the recycle bin and dealing with piles of unopened mail and other papers he likes to leave all over the house.
I once heard that everything in life comes full circle. If paper is any evidence, that statement is certainly true. I am back where I started, drowning in paper.
Now just because photos are my thing, I will leave you with shots of some old paper we found on the coffee table in the office of our investment banker.
P.S. The Old Salt says he doesn't like to leave stuff all over the house; it just happens.




I am linking this post to Theme Thursday.
To visit the entries of others click here.


Xanthic Photos

Jenny over at Alphabe Thursday has set a very difficult task for us today. Her letter for this week is "X". Not the easiest letter to work with. Of course, those easy X words that always show up in children's books on the ABC's are the first to come to mind. You know the ones I mean, X-ray and Xylophone. But, I'm afraid I have not been photographing many of those lately.

So I had to do what I always do when in a pickle. I asked the Old Salt for some suggestions. He did not disappoint me. The first word out of his mouth was Xanthic and my trusty Webster dictionary told me that was a word I could work with.

So I have a question for you. How many xanthic items could you find in a brief walk around your house? I came up with quite a few and here are some of them.

the view from my front yard

a print hanging on my dining room wall

The headboard of our bed

The picture over our sofa in the living room

our sick kitty looking out our front door

Have you figured out yet what xanthic means. Well, xanthic according to my old Webster dictionary means:

Tending toward a yellow color, or to one of those colors, green being excepted, in which yellow is a constituent, as scarlet, orange, etc.

So I will leave you with this wish, " I hope you have a lot of sunny, warm and cheerful yellow in your life."


I am linking this post to Alphabe Thursday.

Jenny Matlock

To check out the other participants take on the letter of the week visit Jenny Matlock and her friends by clicking on the icon above.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sisters in Red

Yesterday turned out to be one of those days that is full of surprises. A doctors appointment took the Old Salt and me into the city. Anytime we have to make that long trip we try to complete as many other errands as possible while we are there, it saves both gas money and travel time. First, the weather was beautiful so we had a lovely lunch at a sidewalk cafe. Then during a stop at the shopping mall we happen to meet two Nuns all dressed in red near the parking lot.


I am a life long Catholic, but, I do not recall ever seeing Nuns dressed in red before, so we stopped to talk with them. I learned that the Sisters were members of the Redemptoristine Order and part of a small group of Cloistered Nuns, who live a contemplative monastic life in the small town of Ligouri, Missouri. The red color of their habits represents the Blood of Christ and the medal of the Risen Redeemer represents Christ’s redeeming love.

The younger Nun was from the Phillippines. The Old Salt lived in the PI for six years in his early days in the navy, so he had a good time brushing up his rusty Tagalog during his conversation with her.

I took the following photo from the Sisters website.
You can learn more about the Red Nuns by visiting their website. Just click here.

I am linking this post to Ruby Tuesday and Rednesday.

Mary at "Work of the Poet" hosts Ruby Tuesday. Rednesday is a Wednesday meme hosted by Sue at "It's a Very Cherry World." Both memes are dedicated to the color red. To join the fun or just check out what Red others are excited to share visit Mary and her friends at Ruby Tuesdayand Sue and her friends fromRednesday

Monday, March 21, 2011

Leave it to Mother Nature

It seems the older I get the less I'm surprised by what happens in my world. But, this year's weather has certainly been an exception to that rule.

One week ago I posted the following photo, just minutes out of my camera, on a post that can be found here.


Less than twenty-four hours later, I stepped outside my door to the sound of melting snow dripping in rain gutters and pouring through the downspouts of the homes on my block. There were large patches of green showing where the sun hit the ground.

Almost as if overnight trees began budding, Daffodils and Crocuses popped up. Today, on a trip into the city, I was delighted to see areas where Weeping Willows had leafed into a bright chartreuse against the dark bark of the bare trees behind them.
Flowering shrubs with varying amounts of blooms were scattered along the roadsides and neighborhoods I passed through.




Leave it to Mother Nature and the Good Lord to surprise and amaze me every time.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Signs, Windows and the letter W

I may be reaching here, and a stretch of the imagination may be necessary but I am going to go for a triple header this week. I hope to connect Jenny's letter "W" theme at Alphbe Thursday with Lesley's meme on signs and Mary's meme on Window Views. You will have to be the judge of whether I succeed.

Lets start with a couple of "W" words. Window and Wayne.

We were putting groceries in our car at the supermarket when a truck pulled up beside us. I noticed the decal on the truck's window and the letter W popped into my mind. I grabbed my camera and snapped this shot of John Wayne. OK, the window view is a little sketchy since it is of the head rest in the truck but it is a window view. Then, I remembered taking another photo of a window featuring John Wayne the last time I visited my brother.

We went to an antique shop near my brother's house and found the parking lot full, so we parked on the street in front of an old house. I was surprised to see John Wayne looking at me as I got out of the car, so of course, I took the picture.

This next shot is where I link up the sign meme with the letter W and the window views. This shot of a sign in a restaurant window gives us the W words window and Whiteboy and a sign that is very out of place for the area where it was taken,
After crossing the salt flats in Utah we pulled into the first gas station we found hoping to find a car wash for all that salt. Instead, we found an empty building with the above sign in the window. I found the sign rather interesting for several reasons. One being the Budweiser logo since we live in the home area of Anheuser Busch and the other was the inappropriate name of the restaurant. I found it hard to believe that BBQ would be the first choice of folks who had just traveled across the salt flats.

I am linking this post to the Thursday memes Alphabe Thursday,
Signs, Signs and Window Views.

Jenny Matlock
To check out the other participants take on the letter of the week visit Jenny Matlock and her friends by clicking on the icon above.

Signs, Signs is hosted by Lesley of Southern Ontario, discovered . To check out what interesting signs others have posted this week click here.


To join the fun or just visit everyone else's great windows and doors post visit our host Mary t at Window Views.


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Fresh Paint

Every time the Old Salt and I visit our doctor we try to avoid the highway traffic by going the back way. Just down the street from the doctor's building is a large field with an old barn. It was old and weathered with the door hanging on one hinge. The building listed to one side.

On a recent trip we discovered someone had done some repairs to the old structure and given it a bright new coat of Red paint. The door was still not square and the list was there but you couldn't miss noticing the changes in the old place.

Since this old barn has been incorporated in the city limits of Union, Missouri, I wonder if the city requested the improvements because the old barn had become an eyesore. Regardless, I'm delighted to see the barn has a face lift.

I am linking this post to Barn Charm, Ruby Tuesday and Rednesday.

Tricia at Bluff Area Daily host Barn Charm. To join the fun by posting your old barn photos or to just enjoy the photos taken by others visit Bluff Area Daily.


Mary at "Work of the Poet" hosts Ruby Tuesday. Rednesday is a Wednesday meme hosted by Sue at "It's a Very Cherry World." Both memes are dedicated to the color red. To join the fun or just check out what Red others are excited to share visit Mary and her friends at Ruby Tuesdayand Sue and her friends from Rednesday




Monday, March 14, 2011

daffodils in the snow

I can't begin to explain how fed up I am with the weather this winter. I have been praying for an early spring for a month now. Today, I thought my prayers had been answered.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperature was so nice I only needed a light sweater to take my camera for a walk around the yard.



I was delighted to find I had daffodils sprouting with some ready to bud,



and crocuses that were about ready to open up.

Then tonight, (early today, actually) I opened the back door to let the cat out and discovered


hugh, fat, fluffy snow flakes falling from the sky.

This shot will show you the tulips poking their heads up under the front overhang inches from the snow that is starting to cover the yard. The thermometer on the back fence tells me the temperature has dropped over twenty degree in the last few hours.

Will this darn winter never go away? Will all of my hard work getting these bulbs in the ground be ruined by this darn snow? Will spring ever get here?

UPDATE:

It is now about eight hours since the above photos were taken and the snow is still falling. . Everything is covered in about two inches of white. The city snow plows just went down our street. No children have passed in front of our house on their way to the school down the block and the latest weather report says to expect about three more inches of snow before evening. Following are a couple shots only mintues old taken out our front door.



Thursday, March 10, 2011

Victuals, Viand or Vittles.

Occasionally, the differences in our upbringing have the Old Salt and me at odds over some point of etiquette; but, the difference in our education and practical experience have us at odds far more often. Our most recent disagreement occured over the use of a word. In fact it was over a word for this weeks "V" word for Alphabe Thursday.

I asked the Old Salt to suggest some words starting with the letter "V" that he thought I might have a photo to match. He began naming words; victory, visceral, vendor, veneer, victual,------------stop I said, what is that. I do not know that word. He explained the definition and I said "oh, you mean vittles." He quickly started in on how vittles is the incorrect spelling of the word victuals (hey, grab a dictionary of you don't believe him). It is usually misspelled this way because vittles is the phonetic pronunciation. Todays miscommunication got started however because hubby claims to speak what he calls standard english while I speak something called Ozarkian or Missourian. But, I believe it is the old tomato/tomahto potato/patahto thing. I think he speaks with an accent and I don't. To give you an example. The Old Salt says bagg-el and I say bay-gul but we both eat a bagel.

To make matters worse he proceeded to tell me that I could just use the word Viand because it has the same meaning. So regardless of how you spell it, or pronounce it my "V" word for this week boils down to just plain old eats, bread, chow, grub, or food.


Oh, did I forget to mention that during one of the many chapters of my life I used to be a caterer and restauranteur.

I am linking this post to Alphabe Thursday.

Jenny Matlock

To check out the other participants take on the letter of the week visit Jenny Matlock and her friends by clicking on the icon above.