When Dennis admits to being barraged by mosquitoes I know they are bad as they generally don’t like how he tastes, or perhaps the blood type hat he has does not appeal to them. Mosquitoes love my “type O.” I filled all the bird and kitty dishes with fresh water this morning singled handed as the other hand was busy brushing off stinging mosquitoes. I don’t think using both hands would have done the trick. I use the full coating of bug spray for those times when I am going to be outside for several hours. Short trips for outdoor necessities . . . result in welts.
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Noreen
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Noreen
Priceless!
A great friendship that grew out of
a career of working with taxes.A trip for an hour to the northeast today for a lunch date with a dear friend. Doreen and I were first acquainted when she worked in the Nicollet County Assessor’s Office and I worked in the Watonwan County Assessor’s Office. As years went on, ironically we both were appointed to the post of County Assessor within months of each other in 1988.
Getting together for business meetings could have been very dry and dull if it were not for the point that we shared a love of gardening. We would sit among the group and when the meetings were adjourned the majority of those attending would head for the bar for Happy Hour. Doreen and I would seek out a nursery or green house and poke our fingers into pots of soil that were growing flowers.
As decades went by we also got together when we could have the entire day to chat, try different places for lunch, pull out photos of families and fill our trunks with new plants for each of us to take home and add to our gardens. We didn’t always collect plants. This pictured concrete goose that graces one of my flower gardens came from one of those road trips. Every fall when Dennis grunts as he tucks the goose into the potting shed he can’t believe that Doreen and her van were able to trundle this heavy item to St. James.I have been retired for five years and Doreen has a date set in late 2015 for her retirement. Though she has that date in mind she also knows if push comes to shove she has the option of leaving sooner. I have to catch myself as to not embellish retirement too much as I know when her time is on the schedule it can seem like a lifetime away.
Ironically, we both have young grandchildren and there is nothing to keep us from sharing their antics or adventures. Our lunch visits will continue as we squeak them in with busy schedules. Friendships either grow or they die, Doreen and I will nurture our friendship for continued growth, but that is not to say that all the plants that we purchased over the years have been quite so lucky. But . . . we know where we can always find more.
P.S. Doreen had sent me materials and instructions for knitting so I could teach Megan. I did take my knitting along to allow Doreen to know I am working on even tension and stitches. I may frame this first project and call it abstract art as so far each row takes on its own look.
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Noreen
Fleeting Thoughts:
I realize that the huge amount of rain has caused displacement. I cannot believe that ants have no other option other than coming into my home.
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Noreen
It was a good workout. The French Lilacs that are on the north side of our front door are enjoyed in the early spring. They usually bloom before we need to have the air conditioning on, and their fragrance floats through the home via open windows.
Over the last ten years the bushes had become a bit willy from trimming them back. One branch gets cut off and three branches sprout from the trim. By the time Dennis got home from morning rounds, the two French Lilacs were trimmed down to two six-inch mounds of “wannabes.”
With all the rains that we have had I was not worried about taking them down that far. That’s what gardening is all about . . . wait and see.
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Noreen
The Beast Turns into the Beauty
A while back I was enjoying one of the first spring flowers and that being tulips. Tulips appear as if of wax with the delicate shapes, but just as the shapes are delicate, so is their lasting power when they come up against the wild spring winds. At that time the cactus was getting the short end of the stick in the compliment department. In time the tulip’s greenery near the cactus dies back until the next year.
In time the beast becomes a beauty.
Beating all odds the Prickly Pear Cactus that looks as if it is dead when the snow melts does rebound and flourish. It is the only cactus that can survive the freezing winters of Minnesota. I have had several stems that have broken off of the parent plant due to the weight of it hanging at odd angles. After having stuck them in some soil near by they root themselves and take off as if they have been there from the start. The joy of the Prickly Pear is when they become the beauty of their domain. The yellow blooms are intricate and I am here to tell you my photo is not giving them due diligence. Just as other blooms, the staying power is never long enough for my liking. There have been as many as eight buds showing, but unfortunately they don’t open in unison. Having them open here and there does prolong the enjoyment of the color.
This would be a great plant to protect against home invasion under house windows. You may not realize that your hand has brushed too closely, but immediately a tweezers is sought for relief. I can not imagine coming in contact with an entire stem. As the photo reveals, a few little weeds are allowed to live another day until some heavy canvas gloves are donned. It all makes for the wonders of gardening and the enjoyment of having dirty fingernails and weary backs. I love it.
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Noreen
It was a road trip day several hours to the north for a bridal shower. As I had spent my quarter getting to the event I could not pass up making as many stops as possible on the way home for brief visits here and there.
As I drove It was heartbreaking to see the hundreds of acres of cropland under water after a week of torrential rains. I now know why farmers do not feel the need to visit casinos. Each day from the the time the seed goes into the soil to the day it is harvested the gamble for a successful year is in the hands of God and Mother Nature.
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Noreen
Today the sun shone and it was a welcomed site. We still have one weather system brewing to the southwest of us for tonight but hopefully it will just evaporate. It is a good thing that Dennis has rocks jutting over the rim of the Koi pond. The rocks kept the Koi from floating out of their pond as yesterday it ran over big time. Being wet and muddy is still a darn site better than being beaten and bruised by high winds. Life on Stauffer is still the most sought after place in St. James.
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Noreen
Oh! I Have That
Webster’s dictionary defines tenacity as: determination, perseverance, resolve.
Yes, I have that. I am here to tell you . . . I have tenacity. That is not to say that it is always a positive attribute. In the negative vein you may have heard it referred to as someone that just doesn’t know when to stay down when being hit down over and over.
I relate to the positives that can be attributed to tenacity. Does tenacity come naturally to us? I don’t think so. I believe it comes from the history of events in our lives. At times when I am standing in front of my mirror and I give pause as to the direction my decisions are taking me, I don’t see my own reflection but the reflection of my parents looking back at me.
Raymond and Lena (pregnant with Noreen)
and 5 year old Elvera in the middle.As teenagers my parents started their family working as hired farm hands. The quality of their lives was totally dependent upon someone else. My sister Elvera was born into the hired farm hand life. By the time I came along, six years later, Raymond and Lena were renting their own farm acres and working long hours with less than optimum farm equipment. I doubt there was much down time or “me” time for my parents. Three years later Calvin joined the family with two sisters to help tend his needs as Mom was never far from Dad’s elbow with cattle chores or field chores. By the time my brother Michael took his first steps we had relocated to a farm to rent that had running water in the house via a cistern. It was a joy working the pump as water came forth for bathing and cooking. To move this aspect of the story along, by the time I was in second grade I was attending rural Renville County District 34 school. I left home each morning with lunch for noon time in a syrup pail that my mom had prepared from the home of a 160 acre farm my Dad and Mom had bought. Again, there was never a doubt as to where Mom spent most of her time: it was at Dad’s side to make this farm the best it could be. When I see my Mom and Dad’s reflection looking back at me from my bathroom mirror I see tenacity.
Oh, yes, in my life I have made lots of choices. Some were good, some were excellent . . . and some were less than good. After the dust has settled over decisions, tenacity has either kicked in for shear survival or it was just the normal course of events for me. Tenacity is a part of who I am, knowing full well it may annoy those around me. Both of my children have brought me to task, each with their own experience with their Mom. That’s okay with me and I take no offense of their feelings. I have taken steps to squelch my enthusiasm when it is their very own tenacity that will serve them well. It really doesn’t hurt very much to sit on my hands for a period of time. What’s the worse that can happen other than over time you loose the feeling when they fall asleep?
I know that at my beautiful age of 70 I have a great life that is due in large part to my tenacity. I do not have it in me to stay down but to seek out a way to achieve the task at hand with a positive outcome. I don’t expect others to have my drive. It’s my drive from my life‘s experiences. I accept rather than expect.
With all this being said, the task I have at hand is calling on all the tenacity I have within me. My wonderful friend, Doreen, in reading my blog, sent me a package in the mail that reeked of a challenge.
Doreen had read that my granddaughter, Megan, had ask me if I could teach her how to knit. I had to decline as crocheting has been my usual way to play with yarn and thread. I am here to tell you that progress is slow coming. The hands want to go to muscle memory and hold the yarn and needles as crocheting does. The first several workouts brought about very sore shoulders. The longer I worked at it I was scrunching up my entire body and before long the knitting needles were up at chin level. I have the time, and more important, I have the desire to achieve the semblance of a knitted item no matter how small or how many errors it may contain. Doreen and I are meeting for lunch next week and I so want to have some progress to take to “show and tell.” I will keep you posted on my progress as my tenacity is in full gear.In life, please give and have no memory of it, or take and remember it always.
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Noreen
Not much new here on Stauffer Ave. today. We did take a drive to check out water puddles in the area. Hopefully after this week the summer weather will be kind.
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Noreen
We have taken the six inches of rain within the last three days in stride. Oh, so fortunate that we did not get the high-damaging winds that many areas not far from us did. I willingly will sweep up muck and mud off the patios. A few fans moving air in the garage porch will dry that nylon carpeting out in due time.
The thunder rumbled from three in the afternoon until well after midnight with intermittent lightning. Weather systems keep me humble and very thankful when the first light of dawn allows me to see that our home has been spared from harm. Stauffer Avenue sends up “Thanks be to God.”
