Sunday, April 21, 2013

Making myself useful...

As I've mentioned, I'm currently staying with people, so I'm doing my bestest to be a good houseguest. This means I've washed more dishes than Ive ever wanted in many life, Ive mowed a 1 acre lawn. Twice. Ans today I took all the screens out of the windows and replaced them with new screen.

Ive also got my eye on a piece of the landscape that's itching for improvement. I'll take before and after pics, of course.

Regardless, Ive been a little to preoccupied to blog, but I'll try a little harder...

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

At the flea...

Some wonderful things in the flea this week... first up... an antique kerosene stove...
a bargain at 225 dollars...

Then we have a pair of wagon wheels for 90 bucks...


And finally, a prewar Stella guitar, also 225.

We're having a whole lot od fun showing this stuff around...

Friday, April 05, 2013


Its been a dreary and chilly couple of days here, but the sun is shining today, and that's always good.  It looks like my hosts may be taking a bit of a road trip this weekend, and it will be nice to have some time on my  own, with the dogs and cats of course.  I'm used to being on my own, and constantly having others around is a bit of a trial, no matter how much you like them. 

The garden is doing its thing,  Today I found a tomato plant to rescue.  My host had planted some early ones, and the frost got them, so he'd pulled them up... turned out that the leaves may have gotten frostbit, but the stems and roots are still alive and they've resprouted in the compost pile.  I'm going to see if I can nurse it back by planting it in the small area behind the garage that I've managed to claim for my plants that I rescued from the old house. 

I may be down, but claude's home for wayward plants has officially reopened! 

Monday, April 01, 2013

Mental health day

And a great mental health day it was. The sun was shining, but it wasn't to hot, a rarity in this state, the cardinals, the bluebirds, mocking birds were all flying and singing, I even saw a road runner and heard his rattling call. Even the vultures were flying over head, and as distasteful as their dining habits are, it's fantastic to watch them glide in circles. As the sun set, I heard coyotes calling, and of course I waited for Bob to show up. No sooner did he show his face than a shooting star streaked across Orion.

It's been a good day, and I am grateful
posted from Bloggeroid

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

First Harvest!

One of advantages of staying in the country is that I get to work in a real garden.

The first harvest of three year, planted long before the last frost date, back in February - radishes...
With apologies to those of you grappling with snow...



The first of the leaf lettuce is also coming in, so it's steak and salad for dinner tonight. Wheee haw!

And despite myself, I had to post another Orchid pic..


Have a good one.

Monday, March 25, 2013

And so we carry on...

Spent the weekend doing a temp job. I was an usher at the Fort Worth Kennel Club dog show. Fun enough, I suppose, if you can call standing in one spot for 8 hour days fun.

Dogs were fun. Their owners... not so much... but they're under a lot of stress so I'll be generous.

It was at the Will Rogers complex, which is a huge and rather confusing place, and was also hosting a flea market, a dance competition and an art show at the same time, so a big part of being an usher was telling lost people where they needed to be.

The second day of the show I spent in the toy breeds arena, which is really the sheep barn for the stock shows. The problem with that is that all the show people move the animals in carriers which they roll around on carts, and being a stock barn, the floors aren't really even... nothing like looking up and seeing an out of control cart full of pug dogs barreling towards you.

Hope everyone is having a great week...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

howdy!

 I can hear you sighing now.... you're all saying to yourselves, "he's not going to go blathering along about that (expletive of your choice deleted) orchid again is he?  Should I even bother reading?"

Nope.  But I haven't been writing too much lately.  More accurately, I haven't been writing much at all... really, it's more like I haven't been writing.  Life is a little trying at the moment.  And by a little trying, I think I should probably just admit that it sucks.  Big time.  Not going into the gory details, really, I'll spare you. 

Besides, I think I should probably focus on the good parts. 

Some Pollyanna wanna be recently told me that "Life  is best when you follow your guiding star."

Don't you just hate people like that?  They descend from their little pink, sparkly clouds, drop some idiot platitude, smile beatifically, then float away like a particularly vacuous soap bubble, thinking they've done you some great good by dispensing the wisdom of the ages.

There's one lady at church who does this a lot.  Her favorite line is... "Just remember, wherever you are, you're exactly where God wants you to be."  I'm always tempted to throw a pillowcase over her head, drive her down town, and set her free to explain to the vagrants under the highway why God wants them to be living under the interstate.

But, I guess I was down enough, I decided to give the old guiding star a shot.  Looked everywhere, in the closet, the garage... couldn't find no star.  Finally, I slapped myself on the head, went out side and looked at the sky... and there's a whole bunch of stars out there.  I thought about it... I decided not to go with one of the famous stars.  Certainly not the brightest ones out there... after all, they're probably busy.  I mean, they're probably working with hundreds of people, maybe thousands.  And nothing too obvious, like the middle of Orion's belt, or the tip of the big dipper... instead I used Orion to line up another star... not too big, not too flashy, but a nice respectable star, and I introduced myself.

Of course, I felt silly.  It was silly.  Lets face it though.  sometimes being silly is the best medicine.  Really, a little bit of fun escapism, that has absolutely no purpose other than getting you off of the blue mean dreads that make up the rest of your life, is good for you, provided there's no drugs involved. 

So, I sat in the yard and had a chat with the star.  Now, he has a name of course.  I'm sure that the scientist have a string of numbers to identify him, and for all I know he has his own name in some incomprehensible and unpronounceable interstellar dialect that I'll never grasp.  But I don't know it.  So, with his permission of course, I know I had his permission because he gave me an approving twinkle, I call him Bob.

No relation to Little Goth Bob, whom some of  you may remember, and is sitting in my room seething with jealousy.

Now, you can call it fantasy, you can call it meditation, you can call the men with the coats,  All I know is that after my little chat with Bob, I felt much better.  Now, I can't say Bob is my
 guiding star, that position is still in the interview phase, but ole Bob is a good guy and he's definitely on the short list. 

and there we are.
 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Orchid gone haywire

Ok. Probably the last Orchid post.



But I did find these at a rummage sale today...


That's a Ken doll and an allan doll, circa 1960. And those ate their original clothes. Nat bad huh? Straight top the flea...

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

It's about time...

And here's the bloom.


Monday, March 04, 2013

Orchid update

Well, I haven't been blogging much lately, primarily because nothing much had been happening lately.



But, the Orchid is finally opening a bud, so I figured I'd show you that...