Choice Morsels

Today's Mama Kat prompt to share about, "a time I was sent to the Principals Office." Frankly, I wasn't the sort of child that ever did anything required me being sent Principal's Office.  But I do recall in first grade   having some highly imaginative classmates who instilled an abject fear in me about anyone getting sent to the "Principal's Office." They swore up and down that the Principal had a "paddling machine" hidden in his office, a machine with multiple arms, each loaded with a wooden paddle.   I was too naive not to believe every tall tale these girls spun and the very prospect of being sent to the "THE Principals Office" now terrified me. Later, when I was in 5th and 6th grade, the Principal's office also became the "school library" and I often went there to check out a book.  They had a long wooden shelf unit along one wall loaded with books we could sign-out, including the whole hard-back Blac

This morning I spent a couple hours updating search tags for my various Zazzle products in my store. Those are what help shoppers find what their looking for.  Better tags = more views. Then lunch, then outside to work. My veggie garden has turned into a sea of Marigolds: You can see a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly enjoying them. I planted for the sake of the tomatoes that drowned in too much rain, but the Marigolds live on. Their roots are supposed to kill off nematodes in the soil, so it could be a good thing. I'll pull them up after frost. This Weeks Project: Enlarging the Back Bed This bed is in the back corner of my yard. It's under trees and I've left it a sort of natural, woodsy state. It's full of vinca & liriope ground covers, daffidils, day lilies and shrubs here and there. A good fringe of grass was growing along it's border, crawling into this bed, while on the other side, was a huge bare spot. Typical. I decided to simply enlarge

For Mama Kat today, I thought I'd journey down memory lane reminiscing about favorite candy from my childhood in the 60's and 70's.  The Zero Bar Whenever I see a Zero Bar, the first thing I remember is eating them at the public pool in Martinsville, Indiana. The snack bar there sold them and Mother splurged to buy us all one after swimming. Zero bars area combo of peanut & almond nougat coated in white chocolate fudge. It has remained in production since then, though ownership of the brand has transitioned many times. It's currently produced by Hershey, Inc and are still on store shelves here and there. 100 Grand Bar This classic bar (pronounced "hundred thousand dollar bar) is a fond memory. It was a caramel filled bar with a coating of crispies and milk chocolate. Originally introduced in 1966 by Nestle, it was on the store candy shelves until the mid-80's. We had a local gas & grocery store with a cafe just a few miles from our house

The Old Trellis It held up many years, but termites got the better of it and recent wind gusts simply toppled it flat, even snapping off the climbing rose's gnarled stem that was above soil level. It's on the table here, because I need to finish removing the coated rose wire from it. The New Trellis: Classic fan shape in black metal with nice large spaces to make tying rose stems easy. This view is the northwest corner of my house, which tends to get gusts from passing rain storms. The trellis has lines & stakes on front & back to assure it will stay upright. The rose could use a fresh start. It should spring fresh growth up over winter. I added rose fertilizer and some fresh soil to it. I've read an article here and there on the health benefits of gardening, which includes all lawn care, flower beds, veggie gardens large or small and even container gardening on a balcony or patio, so here's a general list: 1)  It's an opportunity fo

The Mama Kat writing challenge today was to share, "an elementary school memory." For me, elementary school was 1st through 6th grade held in building in the middle of farm fields. It was rural Indiana. It was also the 1960's. There were no television in the classrooms. (Computers smaller then the size of a room didn't exist yet.) So on days when it wasn't nice enough to play outside, we had to play games inside, so I remember games so old-fashioned, I wonder if modern kids have ever played them! I recall in 3rd grade playing "Upset the Fruit Basket." For this game, the teacher stopped at each desk, whispered a name of a fruit to each student, then one student stood by the teacher, the odd-man out, their desk unavailable for use, all waiting in eager readiness for their fruit to be called. Indoors, the game worked very much like musical chairs. After a potent pause, the teacher would suddenly call "grapes" and all the "grape&q

Just to let you know, Hurricane Irma had no effect on the whole western end of Florida Panhandle where I live.  The weather was beautiful for the most part--and cold! Temps dropped to 62 F with a feel of 52 F!  It was chilly, but fantastic!   On Monday, we only experienced light showers and gusts of wind. Unless you live here, I suppose it's hard to grasp how big Florida is. The the north border runs under most of Alabama and all of Georgia. That's TWO states! That's a lot of square miles! So, when the media said, "Irma was approaching the Panhandle," they really ought to have been more specific to say it was the Eastern Panhandle, at the curve point, that was being approached. The media's lack of geographical clarity on this point certainly caused those living far away who love us unnecessary worry. ***** Today's photogenic garden moment is a Giant Swallowtail visiting one of my Zinnias! I planted a Rue shrub on purpose for these, since

I was very touched when I read this inspiring story on Good News Network: This elderly gentlemen, Lawrence Silk, served 3 different tours of duty in Vietnam. Now 84 in a memory care home with dementia, he wakes up everyday haunted by a need to do his duty and ship back out for war and is constantly upset his care-givers won't let him go. His family reached out through social media for a military official to visit their father and give him some kind of commemoration for his past service to try and put their Dad's worries to rest. Air Force Lt. Colonel LaFrazia, who served in Mr. Silks same Vietnam squadron, heard this and offered to visit Lawrence. He gave him a Certificate of Appreciation from the Air Force, a USAF Civil Engineering Badge and also Challenge coins from Prime Beef and Red Horse units for his service as a combat engineer in order to reassure him his duty was finished and his service honorable. Col. LaFrazia givng Lawrence his Certificate of Appreci

Today's Mama Kat prompt this weeks said,  "Did you Garden this year? Share  the fruits of your labor." It's been a terrible year for gardening. Far too wet.  Despite that, one Bell pepper in my veggie bed managed to survive and not just survive, it thrived. We were out of town for two weeks recently and when we came back---ta-da, it was loaded with green peppers!  Not a bit of labor went into it aside from planting it. That's the beauty of peppers. On Another Note... Today was the first Thursday of the month lunch out for my Yoga fitness class. Six of us went today, all of us between the ages of 50 and 75. Two of the ladies are retired nurses and I used to be a Air Force medic, so we started trading amusing medical stories, particularly about baby births. There's always funny stories about baby deliveries. Our Yoga instructor talked about her second child being a full-breech and that she elected to have him by Cesarean.  I to

September is Dragonfly season in North Florida! They're flying about everywhere! Good news is they're predators to other flying insects, like mosquitoes so you want them around! A Dragonfly Close-Up This fellow happen to perch on an onion blade in a container garden on the patio just outside my sliding glass door, a few feet away. I caught this shot right through the glass, which is amazing since the glass wasn't crystal clean or anything. This is a young male Slaty Skimmer.   Here's a couple photos from the wedding we attended in New Jersey in August: It was an outdoor wedding and Sunflowers were the bride's flower of choice. She purchased them from local farms and arranged simple stems of one or two in glass vases everywhere. She also picked seasonal road side wild flowers to put in other vases. Very rustic. Probably the most creative, colorful wedding flowers I've ever seen used! The Bride and Groom: Chris & Kayla Chris is a