Anniversary coming soon

OR SOCKET /Shock it to me! Many Americans remember Judy Carne and others saying “sock it to me” on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In between 1968 and 1973, I do remember both front-running presidential candidates in 1968 were invited to make cameo appearances on the show just before the general election. Richard Nixon accepted and deadpanned, "Sock it to me?" on camera. 'Hubert Humphrey' declined. Also, it was because of Nixon's appearance, that many credited Laugh-In with helping Nixon get elected to the presidency. Doing a bit of research I learned some possible origins if the phrase SOCK IT TO ME! A book about the American Civil War, published in 1866, which contains this line: “Now then, tell General Emory if they attack him again to go after them, and to follow them up, and to sock it to them, and to give them the devil”. The phrase to give someone sock, to give someone a thrashing. These date back to the late seventeenth century in Britain, and were presumably carried to the USA by emigrants. This past weekend my Sweetie asked what we should do this year for our Anniversary. A get Away or something he queried and what would you like as a gift? Yikes it is almost August where has my summer gone? May began Sarah’s Pond then the day before my Birthday [June 13] the roofers arrive, July 13 the Gutter crew arrives, July 23 the painters arrived. All I would want is to have all the major projects FINISHED. To sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, then I could sit and looking into my Sweeties eyes savoring the thirty-six years of knowing him. Not much to ask is it? Perhaps, a card or better yet several cards in hidden locations, dinner here without PEOPLE around! The ceramic light sockets in two ceiling lights/fans need replaced…[one in each] I will even help! See I did think of something I needed and it will benefit everyone.

See I have already studied up on this!

A fly by?

Blue Scarlet Dragonfly - Crocothemis nigrifrons FAMILY LIBELLULIDAE - Skimmers

Check these pictures: The Libellulidae family of dragonflies covers the skimmers that do not fit into either the emerald or cruiser families.

A dasher it seems to be:

Both male blue dashers and male pondhawks have blue abdomens. The picture on the left shows a dragonfly with a blue abdomen. Which is it, a dasher or pondhawk? Knowing that pondhawks also have a green nose and thorax eliminates them from consideration. Knowing that the male blue dasher has a white nose and yellow stripes on the thorax suggests that the dragonfly in the picture is a male blue dasher.

Do you know Watt?

Or Sunday morning musings! Neat things we learn in the average day of stuff. Here it is and it works! Spray a LIGHT coat of PAM® Cooking Spray, regular flavor, [no need to use the EVOO or the garlic scented] ;) on the metal end of the light bulb. Wipe it with a paper towel before inserting. This allows it to screw in easier PLUS, it will minimize any tendency for the light bulb, the metal part, to become likely to become stuck in removing it. The moisture in humid areas, such as the kitchen and the bathroom are more likely locations for this to happen. Broken Light Bulb Removal: Use a small potato. Make sure light switch is turned off. Place potato against broken light base and unscrew counterclockwise. It really works! Remember to turn electricity off! Also throw the potato away. ***A watt is a unit of power equal to one joule of energy per second. The watt was named for the Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt (1736-1819). WAVE. A wave is an energy-carrying disturbance that moves through space. Some examples of waves are waves in water, sound waves, and light waves.

Call me a Flower

The joys of being able to walk to your garden and pick the produce at its peak then prepare it. It just does not get much better than that. I do not remember where I got this particular recipe but it is a good one. I did make modifications and there are so noted. CRISPY CAULIFLOWER WITH OLIVES, CAPERS AND PARSLEY

INGREDIENTS 2 tablespoons finely chopped Kalamata olives (about 6) or other brine-cured black olives. [I use the regular black ones cause I love them]

2 teaspoons drained capers, finely chopped

1-tablespoon red-wine vinegar

3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups 1-inch cauliflower flowerets (about 1 head)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley [I used my red basil, it added a different flavor and the color was good as well] METHOD

In a small bowl stir together olives, capers, vinegar, and 2 tablespoons oil. In a large non-stick skillet heat remaining tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook cauliflower, covered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.

Uncover skillet and sauté cauliflower until tender and browned, 5 to 10 minutes more.

In a large non-stick skillet heat remaining tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook cauliflower, covered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.

Uncover skillet and sauté cauliflower until tender and browned, 5 to 10 minutes more. Transfer cauliflower to a bowl and toss with olive mixture and parsley.

Season cauliflower with salt and pepper. The caramelized cauliflower, which is great on it's own, is enhanced nicely by the addition of the salty olives, the pungent capers, the freshness of the parsley, and the tang of the vinegar.

This might be the perfect way to eat cauliflower.

Soon

What is soon? Is it always linear? Soon is a measurement of time. What time? What measurement? Whose time and measurement? Why is it that soon seems like folded fingers…as in they all fit neatly in most instances. If that is true then when does soon get to be later? Is later a fracture waiting to heal? Is it like this? “The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. “Aesop Possibly so and quite possibly this is the stress I have allowed myself to be caught up in. At any Hoot, I have re taken control. We have been under construction since the end of May. The roofer should be gone TOTALLY by Friday. Remember the light wells have to be finished. The painters have begun their cosmetic reconstruction of the house. First the Astringent ~ Then the facial masque possibly a facial nip and tuck here and there. Then the magic begins, the reclaiming of the guts. Yup guts, as clean your fingers to the bone, have that vacuum suck every last bit of plaster dust, debris and other icky stuff. I think I will so enjoy, and so NEED the re painting of our bedroom and bathroom. I feel quite sure once the workers are outta here I will flourish in my quest. I have a secret bottle of special perfume… 15-30 percent essential oil, [In my case since there has been only one female here since the end of May, I need estrogen oils. Might have to up it to 40%] See a totally on any given day here 8 men. Weekends two to three! 70-85 percent alcohol, and the remainder or at least 5 percent water. [Well this is not a party, so why not rubbing alcohol.[ Drop that down to 15% add 40% of water, good for you] the remaining 5%? My creativity? Or is that BS, as in Be Specific? HA! I am finally seeing the trees in the forest. That’s a good thing Right? Does this relate to? Can’t see the forest for the trees? An expression used of someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole: “The congressman became so involved in the wording of his bill that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees; he did not realize that the bill could never pass.” So it is and so it will be, I am already contemplating the Canada project…and that is for September. HA

Bits and pieces of Flora to focus upon

Fog or Cloud?

I have surfaced and still feel in a fog or the clouds! Almost 700 pages and the last ten or so chapters I felt I was reading with speeds analogous to the Shinkansen.*** see note Thanks to my Sweetie, who only harrassed me occassionally, the queries being , “How is Harry now?” To eldest son just smiling, while youngest son is finishing the book. I shall lend my book to eldest son as he got half way through before youngest son returned home work. I will re read the last few chapters again for sure…possibly the entire book. For now I am content KNOWING how it ended! ***Note: The Tokaido Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka, was inaugurated in the year 1964 as the first shinkansen line and the world's first high speed train. In 1964 the trains already run with speeds of about 200 km/h. Nowadays they reach speeds of over 300 km/h.

What fun I had riding that!

Contemplations for the weekend!

My Sweetie and I sat in the new Gazebo that I gotten for him July 1 we gazed at new Vistas, I got this for him to use in the Patio area he and our sons are building. Meanwhile we just put it up because …[Gazebo]! The evening before as we sat and gazed at our veggie garden we saw Mom and Dad Bluebird feeding their wee ones. I thought gee whiz I should have the camera. I opted not to get it and just sit and enjoy. Sometimes that is the best thing to do, to focus on the larger picture, so to speak. [Pun not intended, but it works HA] Last evening the nesting box was quiet. There was a temptation to peer closely into the box. We wandered into the orchard and found that the Pitiful Peach had dropped its PIT. Ummmmmm ya think Mom and Dad Bluebird shared that with their young? Sure hope so in a way, for sure the peach was too high for the deer. We have ascertained that another Peach tree will definitely have to be cut down. We have pruned judiciously every year and it is obvious that we can do no more. However or the brighter side, it will smell good in the fireplace this winter. So back to the temporary location of the Gazebo, my Sweetie said, “Ya know I sorta like this location.” as he smiled widely. It is sweet actually as we have had to take all the porch furniture off the porches and decks to get ready for the outside painters… Amazing how things evolve. Projects for this weekend??? Well HELLO ~~ July 21, 2007 the last Harry Potter Book will be available one minute past midnight …No I will NOT drive to be there to be first in line…I will wait until at least 10 am! Then before I open the book I will make my Sweetie an awesome Breakfast…THEN? HA, a race to read the book and NOT skip to the last Chapter. Today someone tried to tempt me, to tell me what had been said on a public syndicated radio program. Cindy offered to tell and to her credit asked if I wanted to know. “NOOOOOOooooooooooo” says I!

Pond Reflections

The pitiful peach

The pits Not needing too much crème Peaches and Crème James and the Giant Peach? It is quiet on this Monday AM... my Sweetie announced to me his distraught ness over the Peach plague. Now that I am awake I will venture out before the roofers return to put the second layer of MUD on the light wells. I feel sure the spring freeze had a bit to do with the decline of this tree as well as weeks with little rain. We did purchase another one for our wee Orchard. But it could be most peach trees sold by nurseries are grafted cultivars. The trees are prone to a disease called leaf curl, which usually does not directly affect the fruit but does reduce the crop yield by partially defoliating the tree. The fruit is very susceptible to brown rot.

Ponderings on a Sunny Sunday July Morning

OR ~~ BING BING [ not Bling Bling] and Hello Granny Smith ~~ Creativity spawns a mess while the messes soon become a work of art. So what does this have to do with the price of Tea or actually my life? The roofers as you are aware are almost finished. MESS! Making the light wells for the skylights a MESS, cutting out old dry wall adding new and sanding and mudding, MESS. Then this week the outside Painters arrive. Having to move temporarily out of our bedroom and into another area, chaos. Seeing these place in a new light became Symbiotic. [Greek sumbi sis, companionship, from sumbioun, to live together, from sumbios, living together: sun-, syn- + bios, life; see gwei- in Indo-European roots.] For the last @ four years I have wanted to paint our bedroom and bathroom. There have been color chips on the wall to get a sense of what color scheme to use. When it was determined we would have skylights that put another LIGHT on the subject, so to speak. Off to the local Lowe’s, Home Depot and the like to gather more paint schemes.

I had asked my dear friend Linda, West Virginia Watercolor Society, a watercolor artist, to come over and PICK her brain for ideas of the ultimate color scheme for the rooms. I had looked at all the paint samples taped all over both rooms in various lights, and one in particular appealed to me more than the others. Before Linda and I looked at these she gave me an original painting of hers. Title of the painting is “Autumn Joy” I gasped not only at the beauty of her work, which is a given, but the color scheme…just think about the color of a ripe Bing Cherry and a Granny Smith apples are a light speckled green in color, though some may have a pink blush.

“WOW”, I uttered, of my Goodness this is to far out I thought, scary in that the color chips I liked the best were embodied in this painting. I told her about this and then dragged her with the painting in hand and said, “LOOK, is that not the freakiest thing?” We looked at each other and smiled, because this has happened between us before in other areas. So is born the color scheme and needless to say the painting I was given will be the focal point as one enters our bedroom. To add to my excitement, our eldest daughter and our son-in-law have moved into their first home. They too are decorating. She sends me pictures of possibles for their home and I send paint samples and lamp ideas etc. I even have the new rugs for the bedroom ready, oh this so much fun! What fun this MESS is becoming. This morning as I took pictures of my outside wonders I began seeing so clearly the colors I see daily and how they influenced my choices for the LATEST project. Enjoy! A. A. Milne: One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. Henry David Thoreau: The world is but a canvas to the imagination.

Nietzsche: You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

It’s Friday the 13th and ~~

My mind is in the GUTTER… HA HA: Here we go again Not: A Gutter, similar to typography, is the space in between printed postage stamps. When stamps are printed on large sheets of paper that will be guillotined into smaller sheets along the gutter it will not exist on the finished sheet of stamps. Some sheets are specifically designed where two panes of stamps are separated by a gutter still in the finished sheet and gutters may, or may not, have some printing in the gutter. Not: Street gutter, a depression which runs alongside a city street and diverts water off of the street and into a storm drain Street gutter, a depression which runs alongside a city street and diverts water off of the street and into a storm drain And for sure not: Gutter may also mean: In bowling, the gutters are grooves on either side of a lane into which the ball may roll In editorial design, the gutter is the line where two pages come together in a two-page spread In typography, the gutter is the space between columns of printed text In comics, the gutter is the space between the panels of a strip In internet forums, the gutter is a specialized section where few to none of a forum's general rules apply A ghetto or impoverished area of a city BUT: A rain gutter (also known as eavestrough, guttering or just gutter) is a narrow channel, or trough, forming the component of a roof system which collects and diverts rainwater shed by the roof. In many buildings, the purpose of this diversion is to prevent drips off the roof edges. Aside all of the various puns that have Run through my mind I will LEAF you with this!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY To our youngest Son!

A Harry Wednesday

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) This is the fifth installment of the Harry Potter movie series ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Then to WAIT until July 21 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," coming out July 21. As always, the cover was designed by illustrator Mary GrandPre

The British actress revels in the role of sadistic sorceress [Helena Bonham Carter ]Bellatrix Lestrange — fanatical follower of evil Lord Voldemort — in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth film adapted from J.K. Rowling's wizarding saga. The movie was Fabulous!

ONE LITTLE SPECKLED FROG

While there was ONLY one frog this song HOPPED into my mind. Enjoy!

Think I shall call it LOTUS…[get it Tene?]

One little speckled frog,

sitting on a speckled log

Eating a most delicious fly (ya, ya, ya, ya, ya-ya)

One jumped into the pool

Where it was nice and cool

Then there were no little speckled frogs

Beyond the Pagoda

Past the Lilacs Gazing into secluded vistas across the “Dreen”