Offline and Out of Pocket

It has been difficult to post anything new, especially photos, since our #1 Mac decided to crash on Feb. 20. I am borrowing one of the student newspaper computers to access my blogs, and I haven't yet tried to upload pictures yet. Either we will get our Mac fixed, or buy a new laptop instead of upgrading the old one. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, we are looking forward to a warm and sunny weekend here in the heartland. I'll post more soon. On our older computer, we do have e-mail access so feel free to comment, or use the e-mail link in my profile and we'll respond. For a really good read, go to Cousin Debbie's blog (Debide's View, link at right) for a touching and hilarious account of how she and Mike met and decided to get married back in 1972. Happy 9th "First Date" anniversary to them! And to everyone else, a happy leap year. Is anyone doing anything special for Sadie Hawkins Day?

Catching Up: Be My Valentine

Each month this year, I am trying to gather a seasonal display for the mantel out of our various brick a brac or photos or family treasures. In January I had a blue and white theme, but forgot to take a picture before I put it away. For Valentine's Day, I got out many vintage family photos of lovers: Norm's parents, my parents, some of our great-grandparents, our wedding photo and a memorable photo of our boys, Matt and Doug.

My parents' hand- colored wedding portrait always adorned the dresser in their room and I treasure this original. The small colored photo at the lower right is of mother's grandfather and grandmother, Jesse and Emma. I hope to include their story in a family memoir some day. I have a letter Emma wrote to Jesse before they were married in 1891, bemoaning their separation. By the end of that year they were married, probably against the wishes of Emma's parents, since they exchanged vows before a justice of the peace in Memphis, across the river from their Arkansas home town.


At far left we have either a 50th or 60th wedding anniversary photo of Norm's parents. Their wedding picture, a black and white snapshot taken on a prairie homestead, is in an album somewhere. I need to get it out and scan it for the collection.

Anyway, here's to folks in love, past and present, and a belated Happy Valentine's Day. I promise to stay more up to date in the future.

Catching Up: Record Snow

January ended with a record snow for the date. Between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning we got almost 8 inches of fluffy white stuff. It didn't cling picturesquely to trees and branches, for which we were thankful. We wanted the power to stay on, and it did.


Norm had tried to keep up with the snow as it fell on Thursday, but it piled up anyway, and drifted with the wind. So he and our neighbor attacked the driveway on Friday morning. I watched from the window upstairs.


The snow also coated the frame of our porch furniture as it drifted on to the porch.












Inside the upstairs sewing room, a geranium left from last summer blooms bravely as the rubber tree unfurls yet another leaf. We have had about the "normal" amount of snow for this winter, which means more than we have had for several years. And the groundhog saw his shadow on Feb. 2, a day after this scene, so winter is supposed to linger for a while.

Catching Up: Birthday

For the last three weeks I seem to have been busy with other things, or else not quite ready to write. I apologize for the silence and hope readers haven't lost patience with me! The night after my birthday, we had a full moon that just after sunset seemed caught in the branches of the backyard maple.

On my birthday, I woke up to find out that I was having a virtual birthday party. Norm had e-mailed my entire address book, I think, inviting people to send me electronic greetings. He forwarded all of the e-mails to my in-box and I also received several neat e-cards as well. All of them were so creative and wonderful. A special greeting came from Sam, the grand-dog, in Florida, who persuaded his people to send me a picture of him with his favorite toy.

Also waiting for me was one of the biggest bouquets of mums and daisies I had ever seen. These flowers were bionic, too. Some of them stayed fresh all the way to Valentine's day!

In addition to the virtual birthday party, there was an actual one as well. With Duncan Hines's help, Norm baked a scrumptious devil's food cake topped with caramel icing and yes...some of Maxine and Roy's Texas Pecans. He invited our friends Mike and Sandy and our neighbor Barb to share the calories! Yum.

Here is the party mastermind cutting the cake for our guests. I think this has to be the very best birthday I have ever had. Thank you to everyone who wrote or called. And above all, thanks to Norm, who really does know how to organize a party!

Pre Birthday Celebration

On Sunday, January 20, Norm and I went on a little pre-birthday trip to the tropics. We visited the Missouri Botanical Garden after church and headed for the Climatron, a greenhouse in a geodesic dome that is a great place to go when the low last night was a bone chilling 6 degrees.




The Garden has collected plants from all over the world and the Climatron presents them in natural settings. Several waterfalls add to the humidity of this verdant paradise.


No this isn't my grandmother but this woman in the red coat certainly reminds me of her. This is what 65 looks like when you are dressed for the outside chill and suddenly find yourself in the tropics.









A year ago the Garden had an exhibit by the glass artist Dale Chihluly and these flamingos were added to the Climatron where they patrol one of the ponds.








Whenever we visit the Climatron in winter I look for these and I always find them. They are close relatives of
Mom Linville's amaryllis. They are native to Brazil. I always feel like I'm greeted by a family member when I see them, warm and bright on a cold winter day.




Another January treat is a visit to the Garden's Linnaean House, the oldest greenhouse west of the Mississippi River, built by Henry Shaw in the 19th century. It houses a collection of camellia plants that start to bloom this time of year.



Inside the greenhouse it is bright on the coldest day of the year, but this is a cooler spot than the Climatron. Many semi tropical plants grow here in addition to the lovely camellias.









This was a lovely way to celebrate my birthday. But there was more to come that I didn't know about. I'll tell about that in the next installment!