The yard had gotten to the point that it no longer just looked "winter straggley" (is that a word?)













Don't know if you can see the difference or not, but we cranked up the riding mower and weed-eater. I made a day of mowing and "whacking" - with proper eye and ear protection, of course! Now the place is getting that "cared for" look again.

I spoke at "career day" at the local school...talked all about careers in aviation. Here I am handing out some "freebies" that some of my suppliers donated for the occasion. Just some pens, pads of paper and ear plugs. It was a nice bunch of 8th graders (not my kiddo's school). Although one of the kids did stick the ear plugs up his nose - it was actually quite funny....

Spent most of the day there - I've never said the same thing over and over so many times!! I couldn't keep track of what I'd said to each group (there were 10 different groups). My voice was going south by the end of the day!

This photo is kindof weird, but I wanted to share this ridiculously easy dish that was super tasty. Yesterday, I was heating up the oven to bake some salmon - and I decided that I should just fill up the oven with dishes to take advantage of the heat that I was paying for.....so I whipped up a quick green bean casserole and seasoned some chicken tenders (to be used later as topping on Ceasar salad...) I had space for one more dish. I was going to steam some frozen broccoli to serve with the salmon- so I decided that maybe I could pop it in the oven also and not end up watching a pot on the stove.

All I did was take about 1/2 cup of parmesean cheese (maybe T can substitute?) and tossed it with the almost thawed broccoli. Put that in a covered pyrex dish and baked for about 45 min. Seemed too long, but the pieces stayed firm - just really sweet tasting - like a roasted onion, I guess. Yum!

The weather has been so nice, I had to do some "patio gardening". I just retrieved all my hanging baskets from the shed and filled them with petunias, violas and some carnations. I've never grown carnations, so we'll have to see how they turn out.


This shot is of my watering jug - I love the color of the water when I add MiracleGro - looks like the cool blueberry koolaid I used to make for the kids.

More nature photos....
This is a pear tree we planted about 3 years ago. It's coming along nicely - the blossoms are very pretty.


My "thrift" is staying colorful...it will be this way thru the summer unless it gets really, really dry (and I forget to water it!)


And finally, another of my "mystery" bulbs. I don't recall planting it - but it sure is pretty!

My sister has been putting photos of her hairdo on her blog...so here goes. Since I spend literally 1 minute on my hair, it's not much of a "do".

Richard is working at Food Lion this evening, and Robert has gone with his school's Jazz Band to Virginia for a competition this weekend. We're heading out for a Japanese steakhouse meal this evening with a group of friends to celebrate two birthdays. They're both local people, born on the same year and same day (yesterday). Pretty neat.

Later

I can't believe the daffodils that I posted days and days ago are still beautiful! I seem to recall in past years, daffodils were a pretty quick bloom and shrivel....oh well, I'll take it!


Somehow, I convinced Princess to stay still for a moment...aren't those cute puppy-dog eyes? (And grey like the rest of us!)


We had a huge rain event today - if the cold front we're getting now was about 10 hours quicker- we'd be having 20 inches of March snow like we did about 10 years ago.


I may have mentioned that Richard ran off in a ditch last weekend. Messed up the front of his Explorer. It appears to have bent the axle slightly, so he's not driving it right now....



I can't believe it, but I convinced him to pose for the camera for about 2 seconds...I snapped it quick so he wouldn't change his mind!!

Love, K

This post could rightly be posted on Hall of Flowers!! It's absolutely beautiful here!

I finally got around to planting the bulbs that Mom gave me last fall (I think). They were in good shape - everything looked healthy and still "alive". This is a gladiolus bulb (note the gardening gloves given to me by a certain sister.) I ended up planting them in a row at the border of the garden. Last year, I had some in my flower bed and they just didn't fit in - just too big and lanky.

Now these bulbs - I don't exactly remember what they are!! I assume they are daffodils of some nature. If that's the case, I probably missed a bloom for this year - but you never know!




And lastly, Denise had given me some hardy hibiscus plants several years ago. They too, were too tall for the other flowers in my flower bed. They are lovely, but 6' tall. Also, they don't bloom until late summer, so you've got all this foliage for a long time with nothing "pretty". So, I dug up all the tubers/roots that I could find and transplanted them near the glads. I suspect I'll be digging up hibiscus plants for a few years. I suspect I didn't get all the roots and the term "hardy" means hardy-har-har if you think you can kill me!

I suspect my arms may be sore tomorrow - I don't think I've used a shovel in 4 months!

Later

I can't believe how pretty the daffodils are staying. They're usually blooming for about a week and then gone...but this year, we've been enjoying them for 2 months!












I was talking to Granny yesterday telling her that I had some bulbs getting ready to bloom and I didn't remember what they were! Here is a photo of what they look like just prior to bloom. Really much "fatter" than normal daffodils. I thought maybe they were tulips, but it's too early for tulips...













The mystery is solved, however. They are just some very pretty bi-color daffodils. I don't remember planting them.....

OK, so I did absolutely NOTHING of interest this weekend....

Here's something kind of neat - this is a coffee bean plant (tree). We recieved it in a box with a shipment from a vendor several years ago. It was in one of those tiny little 2 inch pots and wasn't more than a couple of inches tall. They must be pretty hardy since it survived the shipment.

Well, Bobbi, my longtime employee and resident plant "wizard" took care of it all these years, transplanting it to larger containers as it grew. This year is the first year that we've had BEANS grow!!

There's only 10 or so beans - hopefully enough to make a ceremonial cup of coffee. We'll have to read up on the process via the internet to make sure we get it right!!

Here's Robert on his way to his Eagle Scout Board of Review last night. Amazing what a Boy Scout uniform looks like starched and pressed!

His Board of Review went well and he is now officially an Eagle Scout! We'll have to plan his award ceremony - he doesn't actually get his patch until the ceremony. I think I count 12 years in Scouting! He's had many good times there.

OK, here's the rest of it...that's hard to believe you can zoom in that far....

Mom's No-Bake Cookies are also a longtime favorite of mine!! Obviously, from the condition of my cookbook from the N&S Mills River Community Club!



Isn't it amazing that we keep coming back to the same recipes for 30 (Yikes!) years!


Yup, I need to work on that binding!

I made the local "Lifestyles" front page!! A reporter and photographer came out to the airport the other day to do research for an article. I was a little surprized that they picked my photo for the front (not my best photo, I assure you)....I got a couple of extra copies.....

Rainy day....lazy, really. I finally finished my "Uncas Metcalfe" book. It's been a difficult read for me. Not a long book, just not that interesting. I've got a habit of forcing myself to finish a book if I start it. This one, I would read for a few minutes and just want to put it down. Really, just a rather depressing story about a sourpuss old man. Well written, though. Oh well, just goes to show that YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S TITLE!!

Now I'm into the water-bourne world of PI!

Nothing new to report from Lake Wobegon South!

On her blog, Teresa posted a photo of some ugly vinyl flooring they found while doing some renovations. It does resemble the flooring that was all over our house in New Hill. We replaced most of it during our renovations. Since it was actually in good shape, we left it in place in the laundry room. UGLY!

Here is the only picture I know to exist of that old flooring - boy those are the days - I actually had a cat!!!












Here is Teresa's floor in case you're not looking at her blog....what were we thinking back in the 70's???

The only thing I've done worth note in the past few days is sell one of our rental airplanes. It was just an extra plane that we didn't need anymore and now was a good time to sell it. I advertised it on the internet and it was sold within a few days. A nice fellow from Prescott,Arizona flew into RDU on Sunday to pick the plane up and fly it home. He ended up having to stay the night with us, so we dragged him along to our Kiwanis "Ham and Egg Dinner" on Sunday. Kindof strange to have someone you don't know staying with you, but there really aren't any hotels close by. We didn't really spend much time with him because he had flown the "red eye" from Phoenix overnite and he was pretty tired!

Since I don't have anything else to report, I thought I'd snap some close up photos with my new camera. Spring is just around the corner!! 60+ degrees today - yey!!

Wow - amazing what you can do when your sister holds you by the hand!! Thanks for the help with the format - I think I need to sign up for a html class!!

I had forgotten to post a photo of a really lovely gift that Granny gave me at Christmas. She and her girls had gotten into quilting and applique. It's amazing what you can do with different colors of cloth. This photo really doesn't do it justice.



I'm still recovering from my cold - this one's been hard to beat! And it's COLD here....looking forward to warm weather!

The plans for our 25th anniversary trip are moving forward - I'm trying to put together a rough itenerary for 15 days in northern Calif. So far it's as follows:

Reno
Carson City, ghost towns, etc.
Lake Tahoe
Yosemite
Sequoia's (Kingsland)
over to west coast
up Highway 1, Big Sur
San Francisco
Nappa Valley, Sonoma
back to Reno

We're just renting a car and driving from Reno. (We're flying the airlines, not our own plane - it would cost several thousand dollars in fuel....would be fun, but not that much fun!) Sharon and Buddy love San Francisco, so they may join us for that part of the trip.

Later!!

I got my Valentines roses a day early - so I took them to work with me for more enjoyment!

It's kindof cold and dreary here today. I had laryngitis yesterday leftover from a cold/sinus thing last week. Everyone was thrilled :-) I'd never had it where I could not speak AT ALL - just a soft whisper. Then towards evening, my voice kindof started getting louder. Now this morning, I just sound like I'm recovering from a cold. Weird.