Corn, Cantaloupes and Camaraderie

ABC Wednesday is featuring the letter "C" this week.  What lucky timing it turned out to be.  I had no idea when I left home on Saturday morning that my errand would be Chuck full of things begining with the letter "C."  Or that I would so quickly be needing all those "C" Words.   I had an appointment to meet a Cute lady at the farmer's market to pick up a Custom Crafted item I ordered several weeks ago. 

Chap with the Cold water Cooler and Cups

Our farmer's market is located under a large Canopy Cater-Cornered from the Catholic Church.  I Came before the market opened and the first thing I saw was the street littered with paper Cups.  Before I Could park my Car and Cross the street the young man in Charge of the water station, that was the final leg of a Charity run being held that morning, began Collecting them up.  I yelled: "wait, hold on-- I want to get a photo of those Cups."  The Chap was Cheerful about it and even offered to re-scatter the ones he had picked up before returning to his Cooler of Cold water.

Canned foods, Craft items, Clutch purses -- Custom orders welcome.

I went in search of the lady (top left in photo) with my Custom sign order.  After paying her in Cash I took my Camera and photographed the shots in these Collages.   

Please Click to enlarge for better viewing.

Wood Carvings, Laser Cut items, Crosses, Critters 

The farmer's market is open twice a week on Saturday morning and Wednesday evening.  Local farmers, Crafters and other vendors set up booths each week offering every kind of plant, food product and hand made item Conceivable.   

Spoon flowers, jewelry with Chains or Clasps,
hair ornaments and wreaths in every possible Color

 Hand made items included everything from Clothing and Cutting boards  to Wood Carvings.  

Cutting boards, Cupcakes, knitted Caps, Cantaloupes 

Food products Covered everything from home baked goods to Canned items.  There were jams. jellies, pickles, sauerkraut, salsa, relishes, yeast breads, quick breads and Cakes to Catalog a few. Some of the food vendors even offered Catering. 

I don't believe there was a single produce item missing from the selection at this week's farmer's market.  I purchased some fantastic tomatoes, Corn on the Cob, Cucumbers and even some Cilantro.  I saw Containers full of every possible vegetable, a variety of gourds and and several kinds of fruits including Peaches, grapes and berries. Melons included Casaba, Cantiloupes,  Honeydew, Watermelon and even some I Couldn't name.  

There were bedding plants, trees, herbs, spices, Cut flowers, homemade dog Cookies and Cat treats. I saw some hand made Lawn Chairs and purchased a bouquet of brightly Colored Zinnias in the photo below.  

By the time I was ready to leave, the farmers market was getting Crowded. There were people of all ages, Couples, families with Curious Children, even a group of Catholic Nuns. Old folks were sitting in Compatible silence watching all the Commotion from Comfortable benches. Friends and neighbors were Catching up after a Chaotic week.  As much as I liked the Camaraderie and excitement around me I had other Commitments needing my attention. But not before visiting what has to be the Cleanest pubic restrooms in town.  

How many "C" words were in your Weekend?

Linking to:

 ABC Wednesday 

Farm Fresh Friday 

Weekly Top Shot 

Municipal Pool Murals part 2

Last week I posted on Monday Murals the artwork I captured on the outside of the Municipal Pool building in Union, Missouri.  These murals have quite a history and that information along with my part one photos can be found by clicking here. 

 Below are the murals from inside the pool area.  

The entrance wall covered with divers and sea life.


As I reported last week all these murals were done by students
from Union High School

 A art contest was held and the winning students painted

  their design in the summer of 2010. 

It took a few shots to capture this huge whale that wrapped around two outside walls.  I wish I could have removed the trash can and other items for a cleaner shot.

Outside the entrance to the ladies dressing room

Outside the entrance to the mens dressing room. 

These murals wrapped around the windows of the concession stand.

There was one mural inside the building that was being hid by a door, I could not close, but I saw enough to know it was this Squid.  I was delighted when I found a banner of it hanging on one of the fences.  The words in the corner were another banner I captured on another fence.  

Linking to Monday Murals. 

Christian Bikers Rally

One Sunday in October of 2010 the street where I live was suddenly flooded with motorcycles and riders from the Patriot Guard and the Christian Motorcycle Club.  The post I did at that time can be found by clicking here.  Since that time I have run into several of the bikers I spoke to and photographed that day.  On one recent encounter I was given a flyer announcing the clubs upcoming rally.  So on Sunday, July first the Old Salt and I headed over to our county seat to attend the Rally.  Here are a few of the shots I took that day.  

Motorcycles of all ages, sizes and descriptions were 

lined up for viewing and judging.  

  There are only nine motorcycle officers in the state of Missouri.
This officer and one other are assigned to patrol the eastern part of the state which includes the St. Louis area and surrounding counties.  

There were a few bikes at the rally with for sale signs. 

 This biker has a constant companion 

 Free food, prizes and lots of live music were also part of the rally.

The Med Vac helicopter and its crew, above, were also on hand  

distributing literature on Motorcycle safety.  A short while later we learned it isn't the bikers that need this information.  When we left the rally we were behind one of the bikers who was going our way.  After several miles I ask the Old Salt to stop so I could photograph something I noticed.   About ten minutes later we were  sitting in a line of standstill traffic.  We finally got a few miles down the road and encounter a serious accident involving the biker we had been following.  A motorist making a left turn failed to see the motorcycle and pulled out hitting it.  The motorcycle became wedged under the car and bike and rider were dragged a shot distance. By the time we arrived on the site the biker was being treated in an ambulance awaiting for the above Med Vac chopper to arrive to airlift him into a city trauma center. We learned  from the story in the local newspaper that the biker was extremely lucky that day and was going to recover.  

I also photographed as many of the bearded bikers as I could and they are all included in the Beard Parade slideshow on my sidebar.

I have post a few other shots from this event on my Photo Blog they can be found by clicking the following links.  

Rally Judge

Old Indian 

 The post below contain photos taken while attending the rally but are not biker or motorcycle related 

Municipal Pool Murals part 1

Municipal Pool Murals part 2

Linking to:

 Sundays in My City 

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday 

Flowers for Beverly

Beverly over at "How Sweet the Sound" just had one of those decade birthdays.  To celebrate she has ask all those who participate in Pink Saturday to add some yellow to our posts this week.

Well, I have been saving just the right bouquets for her.  

I snapped these lovely daisies outside the Union, Missouri city pool when I photographed the murals I posted on the last Monday Murals.

Here is a long shot of that great flower bed. 

Beverly, perhaps you would rather have this giant rose for your yard

Or this huge medal posy 

Happy Belated  Birthday Beverly 

Linking to Pink Saturday 

Friday Fragments #208

Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments.  First, I want to thank all those who have stopped by or e-mailed with good wishes on my recent eye surgery.  You can get a full report by clicking here. 

I am holding the hose making this spray

We had record breaking temps again this week with a high of 107 degrees.  I have been watering two hours a day for months  and I am still loosing a few plants due to the heat.  Our governor has declared Missouri a disaster area and our local water department just announced we need to conserve water usage during the day.  We are on a well system and they aren't able to refill fast enough during peak hours due to increased need for water caused by the heat and drought.

I'm starting to get concerned about young people today.  Mostly because of the problems I see being caused by the lack of proper parenting.  Twice in the last week I have encountered a mobile television truck with a news team from one of the St. Louis stations in my small town.  This is a absolute first for me and I have lived here for over ten years.  Both situations that brought out these news teams had to do with adult carelessness and the terrible results of that carelessness.

photo taken from fox news
of the pool where the girl drown
News report by clicking here

Last Sunday morning two year old twins managed to escape from their home through an  unlocked door while their caregiver (the mother's boyfriend) napped on the sofa.  The children wandered down the street into a neighbor's yard where one of the twins drowned in an eighteen inch inflatable swimming pool that was left filled and uncovered in a unfenced yard.   Due to the carelessness of one set of adults and the neglect of another, a child died.

Photo from Stl Today.com
Crash site and victim
click here for news report  

Last night a thirteen year old girl and her eleven year old brother stole the family pick-up truck.  The girl drove the truck about ten miles into town.  She was spotted by a sheriff's deputy who suspected the driver was either overtired or drunk because the truck kept weaving and crossing the white lines.  The officer put on his lights and siren.  Instead of stopping, the truck sped up with the officer in pursuit.  The truck quickly reached the busiest four way intersection in town and hit a car stopped at the red light.  The driver of that car died this morning. She was a seventeen year old honor student on her way home from work.  She was also the mother of a one year old son.  Both children in the truck were injured.  Did I mention that this accident happened at midnight.  As yet no information has been released about why these children went on this joyride or where their parents were when they decided to leave home after eleven o'clock at night.  Regardless, I have to charge those parents with neglect for no other reason than their not securing the keys to the truck so the children could not get them.  

~Maxine~ You gotta love her.
But, this year I can't fault the kids
for staying indoors. 

 One of my southern cousins sent me this cartoon.
I wish I would have had it when I wrote this post about
 my problems with fresh brewed tea.
Click here for Hells Bells.  

Every neighborhood has one.

Linking to Friday Fragments 

Oh, the strides of Medical Science ....

I announced a few days ago that I was scheduled for cataract surgery. I want to thank everyone for all the comments and e-mails wishing me a speedy recovery.

The surgery went well but not without a few surprises. Currently, my regular glasses are useless and remembering to use the required eye drops every two hours has been a problem.  I was not unfamiliar with this procedure since my first husband had this surgery done about fifteen years ago. So, I thought I was well prepared for it.   I failed to take into account how far medical science has come since that time and that some doctors insist on doing things their way regardless of what they were told by the patient.

The first question I was asked was what kind of lens I wanted implanted. I did not expect to have a choice so I was caught off  guard. When I asked for clarification the technician working with me only said.  "Do you want to continue to wear glasses or do you want your prescription made into the transplanted lens."  I have since found out this was not the whole story and I was not given all the facts needed to make an educated decision. All I knew for certain was I did not want to stop wearing glasses and that was the answer I gave the tech.

  I had five reasons for wanting to keep my glasses:

1.  I have worn glasses for fifty years and feel very uncomfortable (even naked) when I go without them. 
2.  I have large protruding eyes and was continually being called "Pop-Eye" or "Bug Eyes" when I was young.  Once I got my glasses  that name calling ended because the glasses detracted from the actual look of my eyes. To this day every doctor that sees me wants to test me for thyroid problems because of my eye shape.   
3.  I have always felt my glasses also minimized the fullness of my very round face.
4. I like wearing the progressive lenses that change from clear to almost black after only a few minutes in the sun.  I can't stand having to continually switch between indoor and outdoor tints. 
5. Finally, as silly as it may seem, I feel more secure and confident when wearing my glasses.  In some ways I feel as if I am looking at the world through a tiny window and the world does not notice me watching them because of that window.  

   After getting home and doing some research I learned I actually had three choices:

1.  I could choose to implant a lens that contains my trifocal prescription so that after the surgery I would no longer need to wear glasses. 
2. I could choose to have my distant vision corrected and still need cheaters for reading. 
3.  The other choice would be to have a clear lens with no correction and continue to wear prescription glasses.   

Having to make a quick decision on the spot, without all the options explained correctly, I was concerned I may have made the wrong choice.  The Old Salt was convinced I should contact the doctors office and change my selection so that I would no longer need glasses because that was the choice he would want for himself.  After giving the issue some serious thought I decided to leave things the way they were. 

So you might understand my amazement when I returned to the doctors office yesterday for a post surgical check-up.  For fifty years everything without my glasses has been in a misty fog.  The doctor removed the eye patch and asked me to read the smallest line on his eye chart that I could make out on the mirror it was projected on.  I nailed the last line.  He then added several more lines and when I got to the bottom line I correctly read three of the five letters.   The doctor said " fantastic, one day post op and you got three letters on the 20/20 line."  That is when I learned the doctor had chosen to implant a lens with my distant vision prescription and that after my second eye is corrected I will only need reading glasses.

Currently, things are rather strange. Some things (like watching TV) I can do with no glasses, but still need them for the computer or reading.  But, my regular glasses don't help at all and wearing them even drives me a tad crazy.  I have been using a pair of the Old Salt's drugstore cheaters and they seem to do the best job at present.  Currently, I am right where I did not want to be.  Constantly having to but on or take off a pair of glasses depending on what I am doing.

At this point I am leaning toward getting a pair of glasses made I can put on first thing when I awake and not worry about again until I take them off at night.  I am not liking this only needing them part time mess. The cheaters are never handy when you need them and I will not resort to wearing them on a chain around my neck.  No way.  At the moment I want to go punch that doctor and yell "give me my old glasses back".   I guess this is one old lady that does not adapt well to change.  I have to keep reminding myself that I am only half way through the process and I need to have more patience.  When this is all over I'm sure I will adapt to whatever is required to get my normal life back on a clear track.

I can't tolerate long periods on the computer at present so it has taken me over twenty-four hours to finish writing this post.  During that time I went in hunt of a photo of the eye patch I had to wear at first and must continue to use at night for a while.  Not finding what I wanted on line I finally settled for the photo I posted above that the Old Salt took as soon as we got home from the surgery center.  I did however come across a post done by Jeanne of Ark Angle Quilts about her Cataract surgery.  She goes into more detail of her experience then I did and if the possibility of cataract surgery is in your future I would recommend  reading it.  It was a fairly actuate account of my my experience as well. Just click on Jeanne's post entitled "Cataracts Find the Baby Boomers." 


  

Fair Time

Next week the fair comes to town.  I'm not talking about one of those traveling outfits that sets up in a vacant field with carnival and amusement rides over a weekend.  I'm referring to what in many parts of the country would be called a county fair.  Here it is called a town and country fair and is organized by the Chamber of Commerce and put on by a committee of civic leaders. All proceeds go back into the community through assistance with various community projects.  This is a huge event and consistently one of the three largest fairs in the state. Yes, there is the traditional midway with games and rides, but, most visitors come from far and wide for the big name entertainment.   Our fair features livestock shows, tractor pulls, exhibition halls filled with exhibits ranging from 4-H projects, garden clubs, cooking contests and displays of artists and merchants.  Popular kids contests include bubble gum blowing and a greased pig catch.

This fair started in 1872 and disbanded in 1917. It was revived in 1929 and has been in the same location ever since.   For information on the

history of the fair click here.  

In the past several years, as many as 95,000 people have attended the five-day event.  As you can imagine; the crowds, traffic, noise, and who knows what coming from the fairgrounds can become an aggravation for folks who live nearby.  Every empty field for blocks is turned into parking lots and all streets circling the fairgrounds are closed to motorist so coming and going can be difficult.  As a result, some of the residents who live near the fairground plan their summer vacation  during fair week.   

I saw this sign at last year's fair.
 But, some version of it has been displayed in the same
spot for as long as I can remember.  

 I suspect that is what the family who live where I photographed  this sign do.  Knowing they can not stop fairgoers from using their property as a shortcut they hope to reduce the damage with the sign.  Hanging their sign is probably the last thing they do each year before leaving on vacation.

This is the fencing where this year's sign will hang. The arrow will point to a break in the fence just out of sight.  Beyond the trees in the  background is the field that will soon be bumper to bumper with vehicles causing many to walk through this side yard. These homeowners will not have to worry about their flowers this year, however, because they have already become a causality of our prolonged drought.

Linking to:

 Signs, Signs  

Friday Fences 

Here we go again

I hate to have to make this announcement but I will once again be taking a short break from blogging.  I am scheduled for cataract surgery on Wednesday 7/25 and unsure how much time will be needed before I can return to reading a computer screen.   I will be repeating this procedure on my other eye next month.   I have scheduled a few auto post and will catch up with everyone shortly if all goes well.

Municipal Pool Murals Part 1

On July First the Old Salt and I went to  a Christian Biker Rally and motorcycle show being held in the city park of our county seat.  The first thing I noticed when we got to the park was that the city pool had been given a frosting of murals since my last visit there several years ago.

I posted these closeup photos in the order they are shown in the above photo. This shot is the first and starts on the left front of the building and each following shot works it's way around to the end of the building on the right.

I spoke with the head of the parks department and learned that they were having such a problem with graffiti that he hoped painting murals on the building would deter the vandals.

With the approval of the city counsel, he consulted the art teachers at the local high school. They came up with a contest where students entered a drawing of a scene they would like to paint on the building with a aquatic or fun summer theme.

Once all the winners were chosen the project was done over the course of the summer of 2010.  Each student design had to fill a given amount of space on the building.  Each artist signed their section of the wall.

Rumor has it that these students took such pride in their part of the work that some of them started guarding the murals at night (at first) to prevent the graffiti artist from defacing their work.

These rumors also said there were some encounters and the students came away the victors. The word about the pool guards spread and there hasn't been any problems with graffiti since the students returned to school that fall.

The next summer another contest was held and the walls inside and outside the pool building were covered with murals.  I made a second trip to photograph those murals and I will be featuring them next week.  So, remember to come back for the rest of the student done artwork at the City of Union, Missouri Municipal Pool.  

Linking to Monday Murals.