Yule Tide

Make Orwell Fiction Again

 

Amen

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER-July 2018

It seems of late I get on this blog mostly to apologize for not blogging… and here we go again. I didn’t realize it had been this long- 3 months! Shame on me. OK- excuse time. To start with, the old computer more or less died on me. Eventually, I had to break down and buy a new one. Buying it, even paying for it was by far the easy part. Getting things to work on it- not so easy. I HATE Windows10- apparently lots of people do- so Microsoft has a windows 7 look-alike program that can be installed to help old folks like me that hate Windows 8-10. Windows9 was SO BAD they never even sold it. Anyway, our local computer dude is a nice guy, BUT… he has worked on installing my old stuff from the old computer several times and just cannot get the photo download part of things to work. To be honest, I gave up on trying to get it to work. I have continued to take some pictures, but they won’t download… therefore I can’t post them on the blog. So, mostly I just haven’t tried in a month or so.

            Another thing is this computer is even slower than when I had dial-up. I refuse to use Google chrome and have my stuff put up in their cloud- I know it is far safer as it is. Actually, dial-up is even safer- but who can live without videos? Or watching Rachel Maddow? But I remember the days before anyone had a computer- or at least one at home, so I am grateful for what I have. As long as I can stay in touch with a few friends, I am grateful.

            Also, in truth, I have been super busy. On the other hand, I am getting so slow, maybe it just seems like I have been super busy. I dunno. That might be it. Also, when the weather gets hot like this and I can’t breathe real well, I get even slower! Lyme’s is not fun! Yet I know I am way better off than many other people, so I try not to whine or complain. It could be worse. I stay busy at the Train Station, and I make scenery modules for some very rich people who can afford to have their stuff made for them. I build their worlds, somebody else lays the track and wires it, they push a button and the train runs thru a copy of their farm and woods or little town. I don’t do cities. I hate cities. My idea of hell is it must be a city. I need my trees and gardens.

            I have been busy in the garden and it is doing well. I grow enough to eat and have some to share. I have a waiting list of folks who want to share- they know I don’t use any chemicals- pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers. I do a lot of companion gardening. It makes for a pretty garden!

            Speaking of pretty, my day-lilies have been magnificent this year, even if I have had to fence them in- the deer apparently got hungry after they sprayed the near-by farm land. So they ate some of my lilies and all of neighbor Frank’s expensive hostas! Hey! They knew better than to eat poisoned food.  

            Since I can’t show you MY favorite daylily, I will share a photo from the web. This is the lily that started my collection even tho I was unable to own one until last year. For starters, when I first saw it, it sold for $300. Then it went down to $250, $200, etc. I just looked it up- it is now down to $45 a plant. Mine was a gift given to me by some dear friends, local growers of daylilies. They still don’t have it for sale.  It has bloomed and bloomed this summer and has given me so much joy!

       

  What’s growing in your garden?

Winter or Spring?

It has been very confusing, the weather of late. We had March in February, February in March, and now we are back to March in April. This time last year I had my peas and onions in the ground already... currently the gardens are still covered for the winter. If it warms up this week, I have promised myself I would get them uncovered, mix in some pony poop, stir things up and let the weather start to warm the soil up- let the rain start to get the soil ready to receive seeds or plants... I am not sure how I am going to do things, yet. I have been super busy redoing the layouts at the Train Station, for one thing. Not having a working computer for several weeks slowed things down a lot, too.......
It kind of LOOKS like Spring out the window- but it sure doesn't feel like it. Then we have a day of 70 degrees and we think it is summer- strip down to T-shirts out in the sunshine and listen as the weatherman tells us that we might get snow in a day or 2. Really????? Oh, don't worry, just a dusting. I remember one of those dustings brought 14 inches of the white stuff... so we wait.
Meanwhile, the daffodils are blooming their little hearts out- speaking of hearts- the Bleeding Heart is actually in bloom! The winter jasmine is about finished and the late camellias have started, especially Pink Perfection and Red Emperor. The redbud is opening as I type this. There are cherry blossoms across the street. The Bradford pears are finished blooming, but there are little petals blowing in the wind from something...
The weeds have really taken over. They would have been pulled by now- but they weren't here in Feb when it was warm... they sure grew in March when it was cold. Whatever time I did have outside in March was spent cleaning up the branches and twigs that came down during one of our- too-many-to-count Nor'easters!
But, the grass (meaning weeds) have been cut once already. Gumballs scattered out of the way- I hate those things... and a couple wheelbarrow loads of chick grass and other such weeds have been removed. So- progress. Now I need to send off that order for some heirloom seeds. Gonna try to grow some Delicata squash this year. They are sooooooo sweet! We used to be able to get them in the store, but not anymore. I'll let you know how they turn out- or even IF they turn out.
Here is a peek at the blooms so far...

Red Emperor on the ground after another wind storm. sigh

the redbud

Forsythia in the fog. 
I hope Spring has spring at your place. (I am out of time- again.)

 

 

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

And the answer is - right here fighting with an old computer, a laptop (I hate laptops) and now a new computer that apparently is missing a program to let me download photos. The transfer menu came up but no place to transfer it and it decided to try to download 3,000+ photos- and quit after 170 of them... So, I guess another $150 or so to the computer dude to find out where everything is- or isn't.

Google fought with me insisting I change all my email addresses over to gmail... I eventually won that battle for now. But it would not let me into blogger for a couple weeks from the laptop or from this new thing. I could read your blogs, but not comment or post.
Sooooooo, having changed passwords on just about everything- AGAIN- I have everything working (I think) except getting any new photos on. They weren't that interesting anyway- mostly shots of all the trees that came down in the woods around my house... and a little cat that now follows me around when I am outside. Hoover is quite a little companion out in the yard - a squeaky little companion.

Anyway, I have tons of stuff to do- I don't really have the time to fight with the camera programs - the sun is shining, the wind is not too bad, and then there is the housework to do. I was not home yesterday except to grab a half a sandwich between visiting a friend in ICU and then going to a funeral. What a joyous day, eh? So, let me run (I wish!)
possum

WORK AT THE TRAIN STATION

Many of you hear me talking about 'working' at the Train Station. It seems I am there a lot, at least 3 days a week, and hours are spent on SPOTS stuff here at home. While most of the heavy duty construction projects are finished on the building, the layouts need frequent work, track maintenance, engine repairs, wiring repairs, and, of course, my department, scenery building and changes.
We recently changed officers and with a new president came major changes to the layouts. The biggest change was to the O scale track all of the elevated track was removed and as a result, the scenery on "the mountain" had to be changed. It has been a lot of work, but I am much happier with how it is going to look - I hated the farm on the mountain top.
Anyway, here are some of the folks doing their stuff... (I hope this works as I have been having serious computer problems, so I will see what I can get done while it is actually running! I can always edit it later.)
Work is also being done on the HO layout. HO stands for Half O, so these trains and buildings are half the size of the bigger layout, the Lionel size trains.

  

 

We also have a room designed for the youngest ones, a hands on, make your own layout, push, pull, and one little train that runs on batteries and seems to need work just about every week. Michael is our toy maker, The kids love to play with these trains.

We frequently have visitors from our local Community Services Group. Some of then run the trains, some just watch them run, some of the guys build tracks, some watch DVDs. We try to have something for everyone.

 

I will be back to add to this - if my computer will let me on... meanwhile, here is an over view of what we are doing most days. - OUT of time!

A LITTLE AFTER GROUNDHOG'S DAY

Here on the shore, we don’t have groundhogs or chipmunks, or any other burrowing mammals bigger than moles, voles, shrews and the like. If a critter were to dig down very far today, it would hit water. Our drainage ditches are still pretty full, and it hasn’t rained but a half an inch since the end of January. At our place up in PA (the Poconos) we have great groundhog habitat, rock fences, hillsides, lots of pasture land for critters to dig into or under. Down here in flat country, you dig a ways and you hit clay or shells – or water. So- no burrowing animals. Instead, we use our local possums for weather prognostication. The Onley Possum had a much better record of accuracy than that Yankeefied groundhog, Phil. The groundhog's seasonal forecasting accuracy is somewhat low. Phil's winter prognostications have been correct only 39% of the time. If my record were that bad, I’d change what seeing my shadow meant. See you shadow? Spring is right around the corner! And I’d be right 61% of the time! And so, the Onley Possum has a fine record. Even if we just waited to hear what Phil had to “say” and said the opposite – we’d be way ahead of the game.

            Anyway, this has been a rough winter for us down here, as I have heard many others say in other parts of this beautiful land we call home. We have had way more snow than usual, and temps dropping into the teens a few times. Not nice. And several days where it never got above freezing! Totally unappreciated!

If you know me at all, you know how I love flowers, and over the years I have turned my little corner of the shore into a strange little jungle where, if the weather cooperates, I can have some flowers blooming at some point –OK, not every day, but every week. Really! There is seldom a stretch of 2 or more weeks when I cannot find at least one camellia in bloom somewhere on my property between the middle of September until the merry month of May. OK, OK, so sometimes they are a little bruised or frost bitten, but still, to see a bright red bloom on a bush somewhere in the middle of winter, well, it just warms one’s heart.

 no, this is not Yule Tide- different red.

            I tried to take some pictures last week, but I am not walking well… I tried again today, but the pain made me come back inside. I really wanted to take pictures of my crocus… I do have one that peeked at me yesterday when the sun was shining, and I did NOT have my camera with me, but, camera in hand, I could not find it today and it hurt too much to walk around looking. And it was starting to drizzle. Hoover kept squeaking at me about the weather- she hates wind, snow, and rain, in that order, and I guess a rain drop hit her tiny nose and sent her into a squeaking panic. The squeaking continued all the way to the carport.

            So, there were a few Aunt Alice’s in bloom, now in a jar in the kitchen waiting to be put in a vase. The computer will not allow Aunt Alice to be a plural, so forgive the out of place possessive… but I will include a picture of

Debutante after the last cold night damaged all the blooms. Some of the buds might still open, but the ones that were opening when the temp dropped to 21 are brown and will eventually fall to the ground. Heartbreaking, isn’t it?

 The red bushes don’t look too bad. This is out my bedroom window. The white camellias are not too happy looking.

 

            The daffodils are thru the ground for the most part, and some have buds already.  

So, I missed Groundhog Day… but I have been extremely busy rebuilding the scenery at the Train Station and getting ready for Heritage Day the 24^th. I’ll try to show you what changes we are making there.

            Enjoy the few blooms in my yard. Hopefully I will have some daffodils to share soon.