Happy Halloween Birthday

Happy Halloween Birthday to My Granny in Heaven!

It was cool to be a kid with a grandma
whose birthday was on Halloween.
But she made a big fuss about the Halloween part,
not her birthday part. She was selfless, that way.
She helped us cousins put together our costumes,
then sent us off to the Halloween parade
while she stayed home to welcome the trick-or-treaters.
I wish I had a picture of her to share...
She looked like a little old witch,
but she was 100% sweet, with a heart of gold.

During the Great Depression,
her house was well-known
to the vagabonds in Hobo Jungle,
down by the tracks
on the east end of town,
as a place to get a good, hot meal.

She never refused anyone help,
even though she had eleven children,
at least half of them still young enough
to be hungry mouths at home to feed.
Three of her boys were in the world wars.
That must have been hard on a mother.

She was strong, and dependable,
able to run a boarding home for the elderly,
cook three big meals a day, and
do the laundry in the shadowy basement on Mondays.
I loved to help her. Her hands smelled of bleach.

Through the years, I don't remember her getting out much.
(I guess I take after her in that way.)
She'd rather stay at home, busy.
There was always someone on hand who
she could send to the store down the street.
I can't remember her going to church, either,
but she loved Jesus and she lived her faith
in the way she cared for others.
While the rest went to church, she stayed at home
to prepare the traditional Sunday family feast,
(and who knew how many
of her children and grandchildren would show up?)
complete with three meats (chicken, beef, and ham),
homemade noodles, taters and gravy,
vegetables from Uncle Willie's garden,
and an assortment of desserts that boggled the mind.

As a child growing up during the fifties
in her big, old two-story house,
(at least part of the time, when my parents were
going through their many pre-divorce dramas),
I never thought to wonder where all the food came from.
I never thought about money at all.
"The Lord will provide," she always said
(and apparently He did). "It ain't no sin to be poor,
honey, but it's mighty inconvenient."

What I have wondered about, many times,
is how it felt to be born at the end of the 19th century
and live almost all the way through the 20th.
What amazing things she saw come into being!
What changes she lived through,
what history she witnessed!
What would she think of the world these days?
I miss her, but I'm glad she never had to experience
this old world in the sorry shape it's in now.

I'm thinking of this amazing, beloved woman
on this, the 122nd anniversary of her birth.

In Need of Love

Today is NATIONAL CAT DAY, founded in 2005, to remind people that approximately 4 million cats end up in shelters each year, with up to half of them eventually being euthanized. I adopted my two sister kittens from a friend.

If you’re thinking about getting yourself or your children a pet for Christmas, please consider adopting a cat or kitten from a shelter. Dogs are great, don’t get me wrong, but they’re a lot of work and need a lot of attention too. Most cats lead very simple lives, are quiet and affectionate, and clean. 

And please, if you do get a pet --- have it spayed or neutered as soon as possible. With so many unwanted, abandoned dogs and cats roaming around, we sure don’t want to add to their number, do we?

Beary Loves It Outside!

Beary is such a quiet dog when he's in the house. The perfect gentleman. But when we go outside, he's hyper and full of curiosity. He wants to go, go, GO! 

But I've found the perfect anchor for him. It's a very heavy stand that my son made several years back, when he was still motocross racing, to put his bikes up on when he worked on them. The legs are heavy iron, and the thick, wooden "seat" adds to the weight of the thing. With Beary tied to it, I can work in the garden or the greenhouse without worrying about him wandering off, and he can still enjoy playing with his ball and spending time in the fresh air and sunshine.

The Cabin at Lake Jacob

When my son was little, he and his Aunt Debbie built this tiny log cabin out of corn tassles. The rocks came from the southern shore of Lake Superior, brought back from one of my retreats. The shrubbery...well...a little PhotoShop on the jar of mums sitting behind the cabin.

I wish I could go to Lake Jacob and find my son and my sister there, in this little cabin, just as they were back then, twenty years ago.

I'd cook us up a fine kettle of ham hocks and beans, and a big pan of cornbread. Then we'd fish all afternoon on the rocks at the edge of the lake...

End of Summer Blues

Last spring my husband planted blue morning glories on both sides of this piece of fencing out by the garden. Mistake #1: He planted them too closely and didn't thin them. Soon the fence was covered by vines that just would not stop growing.  Mistake #2:  I found out that I watered them too much, which caused them to continue to vine out, but form few flowers. (I actually found the empty seed packet where I read this tip.) So I held back the water, and started getting a few more blooms.

Now autumn is flying by, and the morning glories have been a disappointment. We've already vowed to space them properly next year and not overwater. Recently we had a frost that killed many of the green leaves on the vines.  

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.

It was looking pretty sorry until yesterday, when I went out to the garden and was greeted by this amazing sight! All it took was a few warm days to coax this incredible abundance of blossoms!

Alas, tonight will be a killing frost, so I'm "singin' the blues."

My Multi-Ethnic Pasta Meal

Italian lasagna,

with breadsticks made from French bread,

and a fresh garden salad from our All-American greenhouse.

Life don't get much better than this!

Mangia!

Today is:

WORLD PASTA DAY 

and 

NATIONAL BREADSTICKS DAY.  

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

Guess what we’ll be having for supper tonight?

The Many Facets of CC

I love taking pictures, and so I brought together a bunch of my favorites and made a self-portrait of me with them. The self-portrait was time- consuming.  I dashed around in front of my camera, taking about a hundred shots of me with the candles, before I came up with a decent shot I could use.

This Looks Interesting!

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, 

if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, 

if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,

rejoice, for your soul is alive.  
~Eleonora Duse

The Seasons, They Go Round & Round...

Here we are, in the second autumn of our green-house. Lots of salad greens, spinach and onions. Delicious tender salads!  The tomatoes aren't doing so well though. A couple are dying, but we've had a lot of tomatoes from them anyway.

Now we look back at the things we did wrong in the garden, as well as our successes, and start making plans for Garden 2013.

Earth Laughs...

Earth laughs in flowers.  

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Whatsamaddawidja?

CC left me locked up in that red box all summer! That stupid red Wolverine Boot Box she's so proud of...she thinks it's the perfect home for me. Ha! CC, whatsamaddawidja anyway?

She finally let me out to play today, and I thought about running away. If I could just find a way to get to town.  I know Kathy would never treat me this way. But, as Cat Stevens sings, "ooooo, baby, baby --- it's a wild world! And it's hard to get by just upon a smile, girl..." 

Yeah, I guess the Boot Box is okay. At least it's clean and has that manly smell of leather that I love so well.

Hello, Kitty...Wherever You Are!

This is the story of sister-kittens. The fearless, affectionate one is Katmandu (Katty) and the shy, antisocial one was her split-faced, calico sister KittenYahoo (Kitty). They were adopted together, and life for the first three years was fairly normal for the two "outside" kitties. (We have an "indoor" dog.)

Then the sisters started fighting. Ugly, spiteful spats. And Kitty got tired of it and moved out. She's come back a couple times in the past several years, but Katty always chases her back into the woods. We haven't seen her for at least a year.  (When we first moved here, a neighbor's spayed female cat took up residence with us. It does happen that cats leave home for greener pastures, or whatever it is that felines hanker after.) I hope she found herself a good home.

And so, today, NATIONAL FERAL CAT DAY, I send out good vibes and love to KittenYahoo, my feral cat.

Happy Columbus Day

detail of Dickeyville Grotto, Dickeyville, Wisconsin

Another awesome example of American folk art that I’ve stumbled upon in my travels is the Dickeyville Grotto, on the grounds of Holy Ghost Church in Dickeyville, Wisconsin. Father Matthias Wernerus, pastor of the parish from 1918 to 1931 built this incredible grotto and shrines from 1925-1930. Objects from all over the world (colored glass, gems, bits of antique pottery and porcelain, stalagmites and stalactites, seas shells, starfish, etc.) encrust beautiful stone-and-mortar shrines --- a dazzling wonderland dedicated to the twin ideals of Love of God and Love of Country.

Patriotism Shrine, Dickeyville Grotto

While most of the exhibits are religious in nature, the Patriotism Shrine features depictions of Columbus, Washington, and Lincoln.

You Can Tell

You can tell when I'm sick. 

Just look at all the months 

I've had this DAILY blog.  

I faithfully posted 

daily 

from the day I started (12-1-2011) 

almost all the way through April. 

I got sick in February, 

was diagnosed 

and Rx-dosed March 1st. 

I was hopeful! 

Now I finally knew 

what was wrong with me. 

And I could get well.

Six months later,

I look at the list of months 

when I only posted half of the days

or less

and I think that tells the story.

Bad Luck?

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all...

~song from the old Hee Haw TV series

Superstition says that if you hang a horseshoe like this, 

all the good luck will pour out.

Smile!

Today was World Smile Day, in honor of the original, yellow Smiley Face created by Harvey Ball of Worcester, MA in 1963. I celebrated with smiles for my husband, and I colored this poster I downloaded from the Smile Day website.

World Animal Day

Today we celebrate ANIMALS!   

Beary, age 5 weeks

The Blessing of Pets and Animals is celebrated on the Feast Day of St. Francis, who loved all creatures, great and small.   

In many Catholic schools and churches today, parishioners will bring their pets to have them blessed by the priest.  I’d love to take my pets, but my Katty is hyper-nervous and yowls when she’s taken to the vet --- so I’m not going to put her through the stress of being in a mob of other cats, kids, and dogs.  And Beary, my German Shepherd, isn’t used to being around children and strangers, so I've blessed them myself here at home. 

Katmandu, age about 8 weeks

“Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. I ask you to bless Beary and Katty. By the power of your love, enable them to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.”

Oopsie

Nobody would know or even care, but TODAY is actually Balloon Day. I got my days mixed up.  AND I've looked high and low, and I just can't figure out where I put that 24-year-old balloon.

While searching for the balloon, I found some interesting books from my childhood, that I haven't seen since we moved here 24 years ago. I've been sorting and boxing up books that are scattered about the house today. Boxes are labeled My Library (books I've read and want to keep), TBR, and Giveaway (I'll probably drop them off at the Goodwill store). Some of these books I haven't even seen for about 20 years! 

And then I came across a stack of booklets I bought when I was a kid. I must have been about 12, because that's when an older teenage friend of the family got drafted and sent to Vietnam. Before he left, he gave his old horse to me and my sister. Big mistake! Queenie had been rode hard by a teenage boy who knew how to handle her. For two little girls with almost no riding experience, she was downright mean and dangerous. :o( A real disappointment!
 

To learn more about horses, we answered an ad we'd read in Western Horseman magazine for a course in Horse Training from the Beery School of Horsemanship, of Pleasant Hill, Ohio. When they sent back info, the course cost a lot of money --- something like $25, if my memory serves me well (which it usually doesn't), a lot of money for two kids in the '60s who only made $1 an hour babysitting and $1 a week allowance.

We had to really badger our mom to loan us the money, but we did get the booklets. Along with the basic horse training set, they included three other sets of booklets: Saddle Horse Instructions (about English-style riding), How to Ride and Train the Western Horse, and Home Course in Animal Breeding. I really loved these booklets and learned alot about riding from them. Oh, and the course in animal breeding was my introduction to the topic of sex, with its crudely drawn pictures of the reproductive organs of horses, cows and pigs and it's descriptions of animals breeding, with forbidden words like vag*** and pen** (we CAN say those words now, right?) LOL! 

Professor Jesse Beery (1861-1945)  was a true pioneer in the field of horse training.  For 16 years he toured the country, demonstrating his training skills at county fairs and expositions. Then in 1905, when he realized he was becoming overwhelmed with demands for his performances, he went back home to Pleasant Hill, Ohio and began a very successful mail-order course in horsemanship.

His first edition of the booklets came out around 1908-1909, with reprintings in the 1940s, 1960s (mine), and 1970s. I searched on-line and discovered that these books are indeed rare and collectible.  The 8 book basic  set I have is selling for $125 in excellent condition.  The Saddle Horse set is worth $65 and the breeding course is $50. The complete 30 book set  is worth $300 in excellent condition. Mine is in very good, used condition with a few stains, and two books missing from the Western set. But I found out I can sell the ones I do have, individually, for from $10-$25 each.


It's really good to find this "blast from the past." Now I need to decide if I want to sell them or not…

 

Call the Guinness People!

Today was BALLOONS AROUND THE WORLD DAY.  It's a day to celebrate balloon art, especially that made by twisting balloons into animals, cartoon characters, etc. (There must be a celebration for every day of the year!) 

Since I can’t do any of that, I’ll show you a photo of what must be the oldest Mylar balloon on the planet.  This little, air-filled balloon was given to us by my youngest sister, Teri, when we brought home our new-born adopted son --- 24 YEARS AGO!

NOTE: I put the balloon away for safe-keeping and now I can't remember where I put the dang thing! Hopefully I can locate it tomorrow and add the photo then.

Mums

For me, mums have always been a waste of money. They're so lovely (and expensive) in the stores in the fall, and I'm always tempted to buy a few and plant them.  But they always suffer winter-kill. Then somebody told me potted mums are only meant to be potted plants anyway.

Last fall, when we built our new greenhouse, my husband bought 3 potted mums. He wasn't planning to plant them in the ground. He just wanted some color for the greenhouse. Winter came (the mildest winter I can remember in my lifetime) and the mums appeared to have died off. But when they started showing green leaves in the spring, I thought what the heck, I'm going to plant them outside.  I coddled them through the heat and drought of the WORST summer I can remember in my lifetime and --- Voila! Beautiful mums this fall.

Eat Your Veggies!

Today is WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY!

Here's what I had for lunch: brown and wild rice with carrots, peas, and corn. Needs no high-cal sauces --- the vegetables give the rice a delicate, delectable sweetness.

I'm not an "official" vegetarian, but I only rarely eat meat. I do have to cook it for my "meat-and-potatoes" guy every day, though.  If I had it my way, we'd both be real vegetarians.  It's good for people, animals, and life on this planet.  

Come on everybody! 

Celebrate some vegetables today!

A Prayer Request

I'm back... I took a two week break from the Internet to get my head straightened out. I would like to return with a special prayer request, but it's not for me.  It came in an email and I think it's important enough to put on my blog:

I have a prayer request. There's a lady I've known forever. She's very sick. On top of that, she's being abused by those to whom she has given everything..... Lies about her abound, and seem to come from all sides. Just breaks my heart. Seems there's nothing I can do alone but maybe, if we join in and lift her up together, we can heal her. 

She's well over 230 years old, but way too young to die. Her name is 'America'... And I love her and have always been proud of her. Please take time to say a prayer for her - even if it's a short, simple prayer like, "Lord, please heal our land. Amen."
Thanks!