Journal: Father's Day, Flower Count, Block Tally, & Other Importances

 

This is a paper wasp on a Stella D’Oro daylily.

A cousin asked, “How can you get close enough to get a photo like that?  I would be afraid of being stung.”

“The wasps and bees are busy collecting pollen or getting a drink from a water droplet,” I told her.  “If I move slowly, they stay put.  I have a 90mm macro lens that works well for closeups.  I usually use a 300mm zoom lens for butterflies, though, as they’re much more skittish.  I’ve never been stung while taking photos.”

Somebody asked me how many different flowers I have, so I tallied them up.  I have a lot, but not too huge of a variety, as I have done a lot of dividing and transplanting.  That’s okay, because a big bunch of same-color lilies, for instance, makes a bigger splash than a solitary lily, or a chrysanthemum, or a columbine, etc.  Almost all of these flowers were given to me.

Okay... let’s add them up:  1. daylilies; 2. Asiatic lilies; 3. old-fashioned roses; 4. Wild Prairie roses; 5. Lily-of-the-Valley; 6. Autumn Joy sedum; 7. large-leaf hostas with big white flowers; 8. white-edged-leaf hostas with lavender flowers; 9. lavender clematis; 10. Fireworks clematis; 11. purple iris; 12. tall bearded iris in multiple colors; 13. peonies, white and pink; 14. trumpet vine; 15. Sweet Autumn clematis; 16. blossoming chokecherry; 17. begonias; 18. tulips; 19. tall lavender phlox; 20. honeysuckle; 21. hollyhocks; 22. Double Knock-Out roses; 23. chrysanthemum; 24. daffodils; 25. crocus; 26. Glories-of-the-Snow; 27. striped squill.

I almost forgot about those last four, as they bloomed early in the spring.  I also let the milkweed grow and blossom for the Monarch butterflies.  I used to have quite a few annuals in pots on the porch, but our porch faces north, and when storms come through, it hits that side of the house hard as the winds come swooping over the hill to our north.  I got tired of running outside in a thunderstorm to try to save all the potted plants.  I used to have African violets in the house, but they croaked when we were gone on a trip too long.

Our supper last Monday evening was El Monterey frozen, then oven-baked, burritos with shredded Monterey Jack, sour cream, and picanté sauce, kiwi-strawberry juice, and rice pudding.

Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m., it was 69°.  The high would be 81° that sunny day.  I cleaned the kitchen, paid a few bills, and then spent the next 7 ½ hours making blocks for the Crinoline Ladies quilt.

I paused in the late afternoon to put venison, potatoes, carrots, and onions into the Instant Pot, and to husk some fresh corn on the cob.  I added peaches and tapioca, and that was supper.

Here are some pictures Hannah took while walking with her Australian shepherds along the dike Tuesday evening.  Willow (right) posed nicely; but when she called Chimera’s name, he got up and came toward her, thus enlarging his schnozz.  😆

When I went out to get the bird feeders just after sunset, there were more Little Brown bats flying around out there than I’ve ever seen here.  They’re curious things, and they kept swooping at my head to see what I was doing.

I am quite subject to suggestions.  I hear someone on a video mention ‘Gingersnaps’, and I’m immediately looking for a list of ‘best gingersnaps’, and ordering some.  They arrived Tuesday.

Mmmmm, good.  The brand I got:  Archway.

I was afraid they’d be too crunchy for Larry, as his dentures are sometimes troublesome; but he really likes them, and often dunks them in his coffee.

I got several blocks cut and pieced that day.  I might’ve gotten more done, if not for all the fun and interesting conversations with kids, grandkids, and kuzzins.  ☺️

Wednesday morning, it was 79° by 10:30 a.m.  The high would be 82° on that sunny, windy day.  I blow-dried and curled my hair while sipping this Tiramisu cold-brew coffee that I don’t quite like.  Let’s add more water!

That last statement reminded me of Bialosky Bear making cookies.  “It needs more honey!”  >>stir stir stir stir... taste... <<  “Still needs more honey!”  ((repeat several times))  “Hey?!  Where did all the batter go?!”

I cleaned the kitchen, and then went upstairs to see how many blocks I could complete before our midweek church service that evening.

That afternoon, I was discussing restaurants, particularly those offering Japanese cuisine, with Levi, who likes that kind of food.

He then sent a picture of Aaron in some type of... hatch? 

“Can you guess what we were doing?” he asked.

I tried:  “Fixing an underground water main in the middle of Toledo?”

I was wrong.

Aaron, it seems, was entering a submarine through the top hatch.  They had toured the submarine at the Freedom Park Navy Museum in Omaha a couple of weeks ago, on an excursion they made especially for Levi’s birthday.

“But I made a really good guess!” I told Levi.

In addition to the submarine, there’s a Navy minesweeper at that park/museum, near the river.  Admission is completely free, though donations are gratefully accepted to help maintain the historic ships.

About the time we headed to church, a big tornado outbreak was occurring in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.  It was still going on when we got home that night.  Several places were hit hard, with numerous homes destroyed.

Thursday, the high would be 79°.  It was a sunny, pretty day.  I ate breakfast – one of Larry’s scrumptious waffles – and headed upstairs to my quilting studio.

A friend sent me an article about the Northern Lights, complete with scientific explanations – and some of my favorite Bible verses, such as this one:  “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”  Psalm 19:1

Finally, finally, scientists who once said the Aurora Borealis makes no noise are admitting that, in fact, they do! 

I know they do, because when Mama and Daddy and I saw them up north near Grand Prairie, right on the southern boundaries of the Northwest Territories, we heard crackling and popping and rumbling, like a combination of very loud static electricity and distant rolling thunder.  The Lights rolled down out of the skies like enormous, brilliant curtains.  It was around 11:00 p.m., and there were no other vehicles on the road, hadn’t been any for hours.  Daddy pulled onto the shoulder, turned off the vehicle, and we all got out and just stood there looking up at the sky in total awe for around 30 minutes.  I was about 11 years old.

Thursday evening, we had Detroit Supreme pizza from Motor City Pizza Co. for supper.  Here’s the description from the back of the box:  “Detroit-style deep dish pizza came to be when an innovative chef baked a pizza in an automotive parts tray used on the assembly line (it’s the Motor City, after all).  The high sides gave Detroit-style pizza its signature thick, airy, buttery flavored crust with crunchy, caramelized edges, and the cheesy, crave-able corners Detroiters love.”

We’re not Detroiters, but we loved it, too.  Mmmm, mmm.  Delicious.

A friend was telling me about teaching a friend of ours to say “Lamborghini” and “Popocatepetl” when he was just 18 months or so.  He’s all grown up now, with children of his own.

“Lamborghini and Popocatepetl!” I exclaimed, laughing. 

And here I’ve been all proud of myself for teaching my little nephew Kelvin to say “Mine!” when he was a mere six months old.  I would’ve been seven years old then. 

He was sitting on our couch.  I’d hand him a toy, and then, just as he’d almost get his hands on it, I’d pull it away and say, “Miiiine!”  I knew to only do that a couple of times before I let the baby have the toy, and then I’d say, “Hey!  That was MINE!” 

That little baby was laughing so hard, he could barely sit up straight.  And then all of a sudden, he took a big breath, grinned right into my face and exclaimed, “Miiiiine!!!”

I thought he was the cleverest little genius ever.

Not sure my sister appreciated me teaching him that, though.  But the baby knew it was a game.

I loved him so much.  Still do, as a matter of fact.

Friday was grandson Nathanael’s 20^th birthday.  I sent him an animated picture of a goat blowing half a dozen party whistles at once, and a YouTube video of various giraffes with party hats and sunglasses on, having all sorts of birthday cakes and cupcakes, with accompanying fireworks and the Happy Birthday song.

I spent an hour and a half working in the flower gardens that morning.  Now the gardens in the front look nice – or at least they did; hours of rain the next evening and night made a whole lot of weeds spring right back up again.

It was nice outside – in the mid to high 60s, partly sunny, with a healthy crop of mosquitoes, oodles of Little Brown bats working hard through the night notwithstanding.

When I came indoors at 9:30 a.m., it was 69°, and getting ready to rain.  I showered, dried and curled my hair, ate breakfast, and headed upstairs to my sewing room.

I was speeding up!  It only took 15 minutes to cut the pieces for a block, and 55 minutes to sew it together.  Two or three days earlier, it was taking 25 minutes to cut the pieces and an hour and 15 minutes to sew them together.

By evening, I had 26 blocks done – I’d reached the halfway point.  

It rained all through the night, most of Saturday, and didn’t stop until early Sunday morning.  NWS issued an areal flood watch.

I cut my hair Saturday morning.  Shorter hair cuts down on drying/curling time by ten minutes each morning for a month or two.

I continued piecing blocks for the Crinoline Ladies quilt that day.  I was running low on the shimmery white background fabric, Michael Miller Fairy Frost.  I’d ordered more several days earlier – and wound up with some that has a lot more silver in it than mine does.  When I look up the identifying name and number printed on the selvage, I get a variety of colors, all in the ‘Fairy Frost’ line.  There seems to be no particular identification for each individual color, though the seller described this silvery stuff as ‘shimmery’.  Well, mine is ‘shimmery’, too, but not ‘silvery’.  There are several different ‘white’ varieties.  I tried again with fabric that a seller described as ‘pearlized’.  In fact, I ordered a piece from three different sellers, as no single seller had more than a yard.  The shipping costs have now made the cost of this quilt shoot right up.

I looked at tracking, and saw that one piece of yardage should be arriving that day; it was already marked ‘Out for Delivery’.  If ‘pearlized’ wasn’t right, I’d try the one someone describes as ‘snowy’.  Michael Miller Fabrics needs to assign specific numbers to every individual color in each of their fabric lines!

I ordered some raw honey from The Prairie River Honey Farm for a friend.  The Honey Farm is located in a pretty place beside the Loup River about 20 miles north of Grand Island, 95 miles to our west.  Raw honey often has slightly different flavors throughout the year, especially here where there is such a different variety of wildflowers on the prairies through the different seasons.

The honey sounded so good in the description, I couldn’t help myself:  I ordered some for us, too.

The fabric and the honey arrived at the same time Saturday.

The fabric was indeed the right color, which meant that the other two orders would be correct also.

However, the honey is not right.  Instead of a pound of honey, they sent a pound of bee pollen granules!  Knowing the bee pollen was quite a bit pricier than the honey, I checked the receipt.  I’d been charged for honey, which I had ordered through Amazon.

I wrote to tell them, saying I would like to keep the bee pollen granules and just pay for them.  I then reordered the honey I’d wanted in the first place. 

They have not answered yet. 

That evening, Hannah brought us a pan of custard, warm from the oven; and while she was here, Victoria brought a pan of caramel pecan rolls, also still warm from the oven.

Those were for Father’s Day – and I got to share them!  Mmmm.

When I quit sewing that night, I had finished the 30^th block.  22 more to go!

Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m., it was 61°.  The high would be 67°.  As I put a few curls in my hair, I read messages and posts and listened to the news, which included a new description of the ‘pink planet’, GJ 504 b.  Scientists have decided that the clouds around this planet are salty.  The James Webb Telescope is an amazing tool that has provided previously-unimaginable information.

Caleb and Maria gave Larry some lemon curd cheesecake cupcakes after church.  Another Father's Day gift he shared with me.  They were scrumptious.

There was a pair of Summer Tanagers in our front yard when we got home!  We have never seen these birds around our home before.  The male is a brilliant red; the female is a more subdued yellow.  I saw a male Summer Tanager fly into one of our Douglas firs a few minutes ago. 

Photo of the red male tanager is from All About Birds.  Photo of the yellow female is from Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

As we were getting ready for our evening service that evening, I heard a ‘ka-bonk’.  I stood still and listened, then looked out a few windows; but I saw and heard nothing for a couple of minutes.

Then a loud screeching began, and I feared a neighbor cat had grabbed a bird.  I quickly stepped out the front door – and discovered a very young squirrel that had evidently fallen from the eaves, landed on the big box for packages on the front porch, and was now screaming his cute little head off. 

It wasn’t long before his mother was in the eaves scolding away.  She scrambled down the log wall, ran back and forth on the porch, climbed pell-mell up the wall again, and sat atop the porch light chattering away.  The baby went on shrieking, and I feared his leg was injured.  He did not seem capable of climbing back up the wall.

We had to leave for church then, so we exited the house with care, not wishing to a) step on a baby squirrel, or b) get leaped on by an angry mama squirrel.

After the service, we picked up a small grocery order at Walmart.  There were newly-fledged mourning doves all over the place there at the grocery-pick-up side of Walmart, where there are numerous Blue spruce trees, and fields and pastures beyond the trees.  Adult doves were stepping through the grasses hunting down insects for their hungry young’ns.

As we drove along our lane toward our driveway, lightning bugs twinkled amongst the trees.

Gathering up our paraphernalia, we headed for the house.  It was getting dark, but I was pretty sure I could see that baby squirrel behind the box on the porch. 

Larry changed clothes, put on a pair of gloves, and scooted the black box away from the wall. 

Sure enough, the squirrel pup was still there.  He carefully picked it up, and the poor little thing curled up in his gloves all cozy and cuddly.  Larry carried it down the steps and set it down on the sidewalk, so we could determine if it had hurt its hind leg as I thought it might’ve done. 

It stayed put, all in a small huddle.  I thought, Yep, it must be injured.  (Photo from City Wildlife .org.)

Larry came back up on the porch and scooted the big box back against the wall.  The loud scraping noise scared the baby squirrel, and it went running lickety-split to hide under the BMW.  It didn’t look like it was limping at all; I think it’s all right.  Hopefully, its mother will find it.

Andrew and Hester gave us double chocolate chip banana muffins last night.

Do we look skinny, or something?!

The Wild Prairie roses have buds all over them.  When they open, they will be the lighter pink of the petal tips on this bud.

Once again, there were many tornado warnings across the country last night, the majority of which were in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Kansas.

It was 67° this morning at 11:00 a.m., on the way up to 73° on this mostly cloudy day.  I cleaned the kitchen and did a couple of loads of laundry.

The other two packages of background fabric arrived, one a day ahead of time.  As expected, they were the right color.  I now have enough background fabric to finish the quilt.

A couple of years ago, I had a package coming from California, and needed it on a certain date.  It had plenty of time to get here.  It would not get here in time.

It landed in Omaha within a day or two – and then it went to New York State!  After cooling its heels there for three or four days (probably touring the Statue of Liberty and The Metropolitan Museum of Art), it slooowly headed back west, as if every sorting/delivery person who came upon it spent several hours just scratching his or her head over it.  It got alllll the way back to Des Moines – then headed back east to Columbus, Ohio, instead of Columbus, Nebraska.  

It was stuck there for several days, with no tracking info available.  It probably trotted through the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, whataya bet?

Next, I discovered it had landed in Kansas City.  It took another day to make it to Omaha.  Hope was just tentatively raising its fragile head when that package went to Denver.

From there, it suddenly kicked in the afterburner and, in ‘only’ 12 hours, it went to Omaha, then Norfolk (45 miles to our north), then to Columbus (7 miles to our east), and finally to my front porch.  The box looked like it had been through the Second Boer War.

This evening, Victoria sent pictures of the Winnie-the-Pooh bookends I gave her for Christmas, which she has now placed in the baby’s nursery.  They used to be mine when I was little.  I was so pleased with them.  My mother got them for me around the same time she got me the original set of Winnie-the-Pooh books.

“Why do they have a plug in the bottom of them?” Victoria asked me.

“To allow them to be weighted,” I told her.  “You can use sand, gravel, or metal BBs/pellets.”

“Ahh,” said she.  “I was looking for salt and pepper holes in confusion. 😂”

“If you use sand or gravel,” I added, “you can get small packets of it already cleaned.  Before filling them, make sure the rubber plugs haven’t gotten brittle.”

“I think I probably won’t do that,” Victoria decided, “because I don’t need them heavy.  They’re not going to be actually holding books up.”

She then sent pictures of the baby outfit she knitted a month or two ago, saying, “I put on the buttons finally.  I don’t like doing it, so I procrastinated and started another project instead.  😆  There are 14 buttons in all.”

Here’s the project Victoria started because she didn’t want to sew on buttons:  a scrap blanket.  “I have a lot of little balls of yarn to use up,” she said.

She then sent a picture of Kurt sweeping the kitchen floor, with little Arnold behind him mopping away with a toy mop.

“Looks like you’ve got all the menfolk well trained,” I remarked.

“Funnily enough, I didn’t say a thing!” she laughed.  “I think he tracked in some mud with his work clothes earlier, and is cleaning it up.  😄”

“Your father just did that, too,” I told her, “after first acting astonished that he could’ve possibly been the culprit.”

After supper, I made us both some of the tea Victoria gave me for Mother’s Day – Toffee Chocolate Hazelnut.  Yummy.

In the Reader’s Digest a few years ago there was a story about a husband who would have his morning coffee – instant Kava – while he read the news each morning.  He’d put a spoonful of Kava into his cup, pick up his spoon, and start stirring.

“Tinka-tinka-tinka-tink—” while he read the news.  On and on and on...

One morning his wife had had enough.  She hopped up, grabbed his cup out from under him, poured the coffee into her blender, turned it on high for a few seconds, poured the coffee back into the cup, and ker-plunked it back in front of her husband.

“There,” she said.  “It’s stirred.”

Whataya know! – tomorrow is National Detroit-Style Pizza Day!  Annnnd... I just happen to have some in my freezer.  😋

Bedtime!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,