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Last week we spent four days and four nights in Arkansas, at a vacation home that belongs to a good friend. We decided on Hardy as our destination because it was half way between two counties where I wanted to do some ancestor research, and it had its own attractions as well. The last day we were there, we just explored the town and also sat outside and drank in the wonderful silences and sounds of the north Arkansas woods. Twilight found us on the front deck.
At one point, the silence was shattered by a call that had to belong to a wood pecker, although it was different than those at home. In a few minutes, this fellow, a Pileated Woodpecker, flew out of the woods and started climbing up this snag across the road.
You may or may not be able to make out the red crest, but the silhouette is unmis- takable. He or she is almost as big as a crow. After a while it called again and flew off into the woods. This sighting was a first for me, although I've heard these calling in the woods before. An entry for the Birding Life List. We saw other wildlife on this trip, including four deer crossing the road to the house right at dusk one evening as we returned from visiting an internet hot spot in town.
All the comforts of home and then some were provided in the home our friends' family has had in Cherokee Village for many years. The place is well loved. Electricity, propane and running water insured that we weren't roughing it. We fixed two suppers and all of our breakfasts here. The front deck was great for sitting in the evenings, and a swing at the back of the carport was a great spot to savor morning coffee and listen to more bird songs. Thank you, thank you, Jacque and Martha!
Downtown Hardy has a main street that is also the highway, and one block is lined with very quaint art and craft shops, some places to eat and get ice cream, and this little park dedicated to a person who helped get the entire zone on the National Register of Historic Places. Hardy is situated on the Spring River (which issues forth at Mammoth Spring, some 16 miles to the north) and was an early trading center after the railroad came through. It's still a nice place to spend a spring or fall weekend.
The only thing the house lacked was Internet access, and actually that was A Good Thing. It made the time there more relaxing. As we came back each day from our various forays into county court houses or country cemeteries in search of clues about the great grandparents, we usually stopped at a place called Words & After Words, a book store, cafe and internet hot spot. Yes, we browsed the (well stocked, indie) book store and I came away with some books. One night as we had some appetizers and coffee we became part of the audience for a live streaming broadcast of an interview with two old-time mountain musicians and we heard some good local music. If you are ever in Hardy, this is the place to be. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and after 7 p.m. many nights for music, including a weekly open mic night.
Separate posts will be dedicated to our adventures in Randolph and Fulton counties, and the triumphs and frustrations of genealogy research on the ground (or as Norm will say, on a ladder.)
This afternoon we were sitting on the front porch, basking in the unseason- ably cool breeze (it was 72 for a high and it could be 50 or a little below tonight) when the lawn chair I was sitting in broke. Rather, a pin that held the legs and arms to the frame did. I'm not sure how old the chair is--we bought them the summer after we moved here in 2001, I think. Plain old metal fatigue. It must be some kind of omen when the lawn chair breaks, like summer is ending. Cool weather kind of reinforces that idea, so before August is just a memory, here are some photos of other flowers that we enjoyed in the back yard.
These pom-shaped composites bear seeds that the gold finches like, and I think that's why Lois and Bob planted them. Most of the garden we inherited from them was old-fashioned, or prairie plants, or varieties that would attract butterflies or birds. Speaking of butterflies, the Monarchs seem to be either hatching or arriving. We have seen several floating lazily around the neighborhood lately, and one followed me home at noon when I returned from Tai Chi practice on campus.
The phlox we inherited is very old fashioned, and unfor- tunately it seems to be host to some kind of virus that stunts a lot of the plants before they can bloom. We have pulled up the affected ones, and a few, such as these in the side border, have continued to bloom.
Just before the chair broke this afternoon, I was wondering where August had gone. The days, weeks, months and years seem to be speeding up on me, and yet when I look at what I've accomplished, I don't see a whole lot. Perhaps I've spent too much time "wool-gathering" as my mother used to call my day dreaming habit. But it's hard not to stop and savor these waning days of summer. Soon enough it will be time to rake the leaves and check the supply of snow melt. I can wait for that.
The blogging silence this week is because we are spending a few days in Arkansas, looking up some family history and just enjoying a slower paced atmosphere. We have been to an internet hotspot for lunch so we could check our e-mail, and we have also used a library computer for that purpose, so we have been somewhat in touch back home. This is our anniversary and birthday week for Norm, so we are just unplugging for the time being. Will have a trip diary and lots of photos to post after we get back home.
Here is the answer to the question, why do we bother to garden? Raspberries (the ever bearing, or spring- and -fall kind) are now at their peak in the back yard. A ripe raspberry from the yard has a taste like no other. And we owe these to a dear elder of the Maplewood church who gave us four plants from his patch maybe 20 years ago. For a few weeks we can feast on vanilla ice cream topped with raspberries and Missouri peaches, or breakfast waffles topped with raspberries. We will share them and also freeze a few so we can savor the taste of summer when the days grow short and the winds turn cold.
If raspberries are our perennial crop, tomatoes are the annual crop. We get 4 plants from Thies Farm every spring and place them somewhere in the back border where they will get at least a few hours of sun a day. Jet Star is the variety we have raised for years: they are medium in size, very solid and flavorful. They also resist several wilts and diseases. They are no match for squirrels, though, and we usually find half eaten ones around the base of the trees. This year we think we have found a squirrel solution. Ever since Norm moved the hummingbird feeder to the middle of the tomato patch, the tomatoes have stayed on the vine and ripened without blemish. The hummers are starting to migrate now--lots of aerial skirmishes over territory. We just hope a few stay around until we have picked most of our crop!
We take our extra tomatoes to church and let anyone who doesn't have access to home grown goodness take what they would like. Often the older people will take just one, and their faces light up with anticipation, remembering the taste from the days when they, too, were blessed to have a garden.
In addition to playing with baby Korey on Saturday, we also got custody of Ava the golden doodle for this week, while Barb is in New York on business. This photo actually dates to July, when Matt and Doug were in town for a short visit. Matt got Ava to pose for him while he tried out his new digital SLR. (Click on the photo to enlarge it. I uploaded it small to save MB in my photo account.) This week we are coaching Ava on some obedience skills that Barb has started, and we are also hoping to surprise Barb with a new trick or two when she comes home on Friday. Clue: Ava appears to be a southpaw, but I think most dogs are.
Yesterday we had a lot of rain, 1.3 inches and counting in two cloudbursts. I drove around one in the morning for a routine medical checkup, and we just sat sullenly at home during the second one, although it finally let up so we could go to...wait for it...WATER Exercise! Today was Car Day. We had a diagnostics, oil change, and required safety and emissions inspections done on Gracie the Van. We bought Gracie two years ago, on August 14, 2007. Doesn't seem that long ago. Anyway, Gracie passed and after I stood in line for a while at the License Office, we have new plates good until 2011. We have a couple of driving trips planned, so it was good to get this done before the old ones expired at the end of the month. (My checkup went fine, too. I have better bone density than a 25-year-old. Maybe I should forget about dieting and keep on eating cheese, drinking milk and snacking on ice cream after all! But exercise, especially walking, gets a lot of the credit, too.)
Tomorrow I have a computer class at St. Louis County Library HQ in using Footnote and HeritageQuest, two programs that help you trace your ancestors. Last Thursday I went to one about Ancestry's library edition. All of these programs are available through the county library for free (our tax dollars at work, and we approve), so I'm taking the classes so I can use them more effectively. Last week I was surprised to find out that my paternal grandfather doesn't show up in the 1930 census! That was a shock, since I already have an idea of where he and his wife, as well as my father and his siblings, were living at the time. But the teacher explained that if no one was home when the census taker came, sometimes they weren't counted as there wasn't a coordinated plan to go back. I found my maternal grandparents and my mother, though, just where I thought they would be. Now my challenge is to find people in earlier years, and track their migrations from state to state, starting with 1790.
Tomorrow we are supposed to have another Big Rain, but we'll see. I'll check in with a storm and library update, as well as some new yard pictures. Signs of early fall are starting to appear!
This past weekend, our friends Mike and Sandy enjoyed a visit from their daughter Heather and grandson #3, little Korey, who was born a month early back in May. Now three months old, he seems to have caught up pretty well! His main task, as Sandy said, on this visit was learning to laugh. His aunt, cousins, and grandparents saw to it that he got plenty of things to laugh at as well as lots of TLC.
We were lucky enough to be invited to join in the general hilarity on Saturday afternoon. Norm got to play with Korey after he took a little nap. Korey seems to have discovered what a camera is for, and someone has also told him he is photogenic!
I got the honor of giving Korey his bottle, and as soon as he finished it he snuggled into my shoulder for a nap. Even with all of the attention and being passed hand to hand by so many new people, he didn't fuss at all. He's a real people person. Maybe he has a career in public life ahead of him?
It's a rare day when these sisters can get together; even rarer when the picture includes all of Mike and Sandy's grandsons. Heather holds Korey, and Wayne and Joe pose with mom Jennie. As honorary aunt and uncle, we enjoyed seeing everyone for a couple of hours that afternoon. Heather and Korey went home to Chicago today, and we are all counting the days until we can see this charming little guy again.
For a while I had a link to a site where you could vote for your favorite Farmers Market, but the results are in, so I've removed it. My market (Ferguson Farmers Market) finished just out of the top 20. If you'd like to see the winners' page, it can be found here: http://action.farmland.org/site/PageNavigator/Americas-Favorite-Farmers-Markets/top_farmers_markets
Look for other interactive features that strike my fancy in the future! In the meantime, consider visiting The Hunger Site and its associated sites: Breast Cancer, Literacy, Child Health, Animal Rescue, Rainforest--you can access them through the button for The Hunger Site in the right-hand column. I try to click every day. Please join me!
When mid-August rolls around, I tell myself, the Home Stories anniversary is probably about now. Well, I finally got around to checking and this blog turned three years old either on August 11 (the calendar date) or yesterday, the second Friday of the month (the weekly date.) So, for those who started reading on Friday, August 11, 2006 and are still around, Thank You. Here's a link to the post that started it all: http://judiandnorm.blogspot.com/2006/08/just-little-late.html
Sometimes I wonder if the blog has run its course, and then I get an e-mail from a friend whom I haven't seen in 48 years although we shared some significant time in junior high hallways or at church or at Girl Scout Camp. She has followed a link to the blog after finding my profile on my high school class reunion page, or LinkedIn, or somewhere. And so I guess I'll try to keep it up a while longer, as long as readers are out there. If any of you regulars have suggestions for topics or questions about what I've written (or not written), feel free to post them in the comments or send them privately to my email address. It's in my blogger profile.
It's been a while since I singled out a milestone visitor from my SiteMeter report. Often it's someone across the ocean just searching for some term like "dog stories" or something like that. Tonight's visitor #4500 is from St. Charles, Missouri, runs WinXP and uses IE 8.0 as a browser. The visitor knows the blog address and wasn't surfing. And I have No Idea who you are. But thanks for stopping by!
At last report (Wednesday night), Joe wrote on their Care Pages site that Elaine had come through her surgery well and the doctors were optimistic about the outcome. We know they were worried about side effects from anesthesia, so we continue to pray for her recovery.
No, not the zinnias. They are doing just fine since we brought them home and planted them in the wall garden out front to fill in, now that other flowers have faded in the heat. But some family are definitely in our prayers:
- Kay and Don have become (as of July 27) foster parents of 4 young people in their community, on rather short notice. As everyone scrambles to get ready for school, we are thinking very good thoughts and praying for a good start for Theresia, Christine, Kimberly and Christopher. The three girls are teens; Christopher is 9. Kay and Don are, well, not as young as they used to be. We admire their faith and courage, and are humbled by their generosity. Even more amazing, I'm impressed that with all of this domestic adjustment going on, Don and Kay both still check this blog almost every morning as they always do, and Kay takes time to leave comments.
- Elaine, wife of the Linville sibs' cousin, Joe, will have cancer surgery in Tulsa tomorrow. She has completed chemotherapy and the hope is that this surgery will remove the remaining cancer. Our prayers are for the wisdom and skill of her surgeons and medical personnel, and for a successful outcome.
July is lily month, and before we forget the coolness of that stretch of time, here are some of our amazing lilies this year. And I have to add that we didn't plant any of them, although we have moved them around the yard the last couple of years. This gold lily above started out in one place by the drive. Now we have some back by the lilac, out in front, and in the side yard lily bed as well. Do the birds carry the seeds? No telling, but these last a long time, over a month from when they start to their final bud. Right now this one has two or three flowers left.
A day lily type that is taller than usual, and yellow with an orange blush, was found growing behind the garage after we moved here in 2001. We thought it deserved a better view so we put some in the "new" lily bed next to our neighbor's driveway on the north side of the house. These guys last a long time, too. They start blooming in July after the plain orange day lilies are finished, and they just keep on.
Old fashioned tiger lilies are always striking, and ours just multiply like rabbits. (Come to think of it, we have seen rabbits on that side of the yard.) When we moved in, a few stalks leaned on the fence next to the neighbor's driveway. They must thrive in shade, the deep shade of the maple. We haven't moved them and now the patch is about 5 feet long and a couple of feet wide.
The tigers insist on peeking over the fence into Mr. Guy's yard, but they also help frame a view of ours that we don't often see: from the outside looking in. Bob and Lois, who lived here before us, probably planted all of these flowers. Because lilies live a long time, they are here for us to enjoy and maybe even for whoever follows us here to enjoy as well. Everyone who gardens hopes the next occupant will cherish the plants, although we know they may be moved or sited differently. Everyone has preferences. Sadly, sometimes a long-tended garden is destroyed; the people who bought our old house in Ferguson seemed to like the plants when they bought it, but I can't even bring myself to drive by there any more: the redbud tree is cut down; the roses are gone, the iris are gone, the japonica I transplanted from my parents' yard is gone... the loss is endless. I know I had a similar feeling of loss when I saw that the people who bought my mother's house in Tulsa had removed the three Paul Scarlet climbing rose bushes Norm and I had found in a catalog and planted especially for her. Certainly as gardeners we always hope some of our planting will survive us, but it helps to have a thick skin and not depend on mere landscape for our immortality.
This evening I fixed supper that included potato salad and fresh green beans, both made from ingredients from our local farmers market. I few nights ago I froze some contents for peach pies, made with wonderful Calhoun County peaches bought at the farmers market. To one I added blueberries (which are plentiful and inexpensive at the supermarkets right now) and to the other I added some raspberries (these are store bought but ours are starting to bear—Norm picked 4 berries this morning, and two small tomatoes!
The pies are simple; for each pie, to 3 large sliced peaches and 1 cup of other fruit (blue berries, rasp- berries, etc.) you add 1Tb of lemon juice, ¼ cup of cornstarch, ¾ cup of sugar (or sucralose if you want it to be sugar free) plus ¼ tsp of cinnamon and ½ tsp of nutmeg. Mix it all together and pour it into a pie pan that you have lined with plastic wrap. Fold the plastic wrap over and freeze; then slide the “pie fillings” into zipper freezer bags. When it’s cool enough to light the oven to bake a pie, make a 2-crust recipe (or buy your favorite prepared kind), plop in the frozen filling, cut steam slits in the top crust and crimp the edges, and bake the pie at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes, then at 375 F for an additional 30 to 35 minutes. Like all fruit pies, it is done when the juice starts to boil out of the slits, so make sure you have a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie to catch the drip. This recipe can be used for any fruit pie and its so handy, when company comes or the need for a carry-in dinner arises, to have the ingredients waiting in the freezer. I’ve kept frozen pie fixings for a year and they were delicious.
Tomorrow we will have corn on the cob, and tomato salad, both--you guessed it--from the farmers market. Most of the food is organic and all of it is grown within 100 miles and harvested within 24 hours of sale. It is delicious, and it is inexpensive. Right now there is a contest sponsored by the American Farmland Trust to choose a favorite farmers' market. I voted for ours, the Ferguson Farmers Market. You can vote too, for your favorite market (and if you don't have a favorite, you might vote for Ferguson....) by clicking on the button at the top of the rail to the right. For a while, it will be there, just above the quilt gallery. Meanwhile, bon apetit and all that.
This is the season when all the Farmers Markets are bursting with local goodies, but we are eagerly watching the only two crops we are growing this year (with the exception of some herbs). The raspberries are starting to be laden with clusters of berries while the bees stay busy pollinating more and more flowers. Soon we hope to have some ripe ones to photograph (and eat!)
Our four tomato plants (Jet Star, tried and true and virus resistant) had a slow start in the cool, wet spring, but they all have many clusters of expanding green fruit. Any day now, one of them might start to turn and we can pick it before the squirrels do. Meanwhile, everyone at the Ferguson Market on Saturday had plenty of tomatoes so I stocked up to make fresh salsa as well as Greek salad.
Today was the last day of our low impact aerobics class until after Labor Day. This group has been together for several years although newcomers are always welcomed and made to feel at home. It's a community, really, of people with few other connections to each other, but who extend sympathy with loss and think good thoughts for health concerns and celebrate milestones. We are inspired by our 61-year old leader who some time back set a goal of running a marathon in every state and she now has only 5 left to go, including Maine, New Hampshire, California, and the grand finale next summer in Fairbanks, Alaska. Would you believe, some of the group is talking about making a road trip to cheer her on! Thanks, Rae, for your example and instruction. Go, Girl!
Speaking of connections, today I got an e-mail from a long-lost friend from Junior High and Girl Scout days. She saw my address in a group e-mail to our Will Rogers High School Class of 1961 about a pre-reunion meeting. Jan lives in the Hill Country of Texas now and I am so excited to think that we may get to meet again in 2011. Meanwhile, as she says, e-mail does make the world go 'round. That and blogging. She says she already has checked Home Stories out. Here's looking at ya, found friend!
Back in July, I noted that the color of one of our Caladiums reminded me of the Surprise Lilies, and I noted that they should be appearing any day. A couple of days after that post on July 18, the first few bare stalks appeared in the border by our north fence! They have been in glorious bloom now for about a week. Some creature stepped on a couple of stalks, breaking them off at the base, so I brought them in and they are still blooming in a vase on the windowsill that has the hummingbird feeder. I don't know if the lilies attract more hummingbirds or not, but the little winged jet fighters are defending their territory more fiercely than ever.
We had a busy week as Norm was preparing his sermon for today, and I finally got back into the sewing room and started to work on some more Gypsy bags and a small quilt I'm going to try to finish for the Flower Valley Quilt Guild's biennial show in September. On Friday we helped prepare the church newsletter for mailing (we hope it shows up in mailboxes soon) and that night we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant with our friends the Dixons, and then plotted how many of our hostas we could move to their front flower bed, since they have embarked on a modest landscaping project. Saturday morning I spent an hour volunteering at the Ferguson Farmers Market, counting the number of shoppers arriving. Click, click, click... it was the least I could do, take a shift, since doing a count was my suggestion when market director Kathy and I were talking about the market's attendance while we were exercising in the pool last week. When my shift was over we had counted almost 900 people, and there was still an hour to go. I had a great time and saw lots of folks I knew from UMSL, exercise, quilt guild and other connections.
We continue to enjoy our cooler summer (July had only 3 days above 90 degrees! Unheard of!) and our amazing flowers. What a gift this season has been. The dazzling blue flowers by our back door (photo above) are Plumbago, one of my new favorites. We got the last planter that Thies Farm had. This is also Peach Time. Every Saturday I bring another bag of them home from the Farmers Market. Tonight we had fresh peaches and vanilla ice cream. Yum. My goal is to freeze contents for several peach pies this week. Soon our garden raspberries will be ripe enough to pick, too. And our tomatoes are getting bigger. Norm moved one of the hummingbird feeders to the middle of the tomato patch. We thought we would see if the hummers would see an invading squirrel as a threat to their nectar supply (since they challenge all humans, cats and dogs who come into their sight) and see if the warrior threatening pose of the adult male ruby throats is enough to keep the squirrels away! We will report on this experiment later.....
Last week we spent four days and four nights in Arkansas, at a vacation home that belongs to a good friend. We decided on Hardy as our destination because it was half way between two counties where I wanted to do some ancestor research, and it had its own attractions as well. The last day we were there, we just explored the town and also sat outside and drank in the wonderful silences and sounds of the north Arkansas woods. Twilight found us on the front deck.
At one point, the silence was shattered by a call that had to belong to a wood pecker, although it was different than those at home. In a few minutes, this fellow, a Pileated Woodpecker, flew out of the woods and started climbing up this snag across the road.
You may or may not be able to make out the red crest, but the silhouette is unmis- takable. He or she is almost as big as a crow. After a while it called again and flew off into the woods. This sighting was a first for me, although I've heard these calling in the woods before. An entry for the Birding Life List. We saw other wildlife on this trip, including four deer crossing the road to the house right at dusk one evening as we returned from visiting an internet hot spot in town.
All the comforts of home and then some were provided in the home our friends' family has had in Cherokee Village for many years. The place is well loved. Electricity, propane and running water insured that we weren't roughing it. We fixed two suppers and all of our breakfasts here. The front deck was great for sitting in the evenings, and a swing at the back of the carport was a great spot to savor morning coffee and listen to more bird songs. Thank you, thank you, Jacque and Martha!
Downtown Hardy has a main street that is also the highway, and one block is lined with very quaint art and craft shops, some places to eat and get ice cream, and this little park dedicated to a person who helped get the entire zone on the National Register of Historic Places. Hardy is situated on the Spring River (which issues forth at Mammoth Spring, some 16 miles to the north) and was an early trading center after the railroad came through. It's still a nice place to spend a spring or fall weekend.
The only thing the house lacked was Internet access, and actually that was A Good Thing. It made the time there more relaxing. As we came back each day from our various forays into county court houses or country cemeteries in search of clues about the great grandparents, we usually stopped at a place called Words & After Words, a book store, cafe and internet hot spot. Yes, we browsed the (well stocked, indie) book store and I came away with some books. One night as we had some appetizers and coffee we became part of the audience for a live streaming broadcast of an interview with two old-time mountain musicians and we heard some good local music. If you are ever in Hardy, this is the place to be. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and after 7 p.m. many nights for music, including a weekly open mic night.
