Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Hey, Everybody, I'm Back !

Well, we're about to see if Diane, the new hard drive and Demon Blogger are compatible and cooperating today. I don't have many of my pictures on this computer yet, so I stole...I mean, borrowed, some images from Yahoo for this post. What with working on setting up the new hard drive and doing some major overhauling here at home, I haven't had much time for blogging. I did get some closets cleaned out and got rid of A TON of stuff, but I still have my outside utility room to go through. I have saved boxes of school papers, awards, choir and band concert programs, cards, etc.........LOTS of etc. let me tell you! I've already gone through a lot of stuff from the inside closets, but I have more outside to go through and sort, keep and discard. There will be much discarding yet to do. I (make that Jessica) already threw out a pile of junk almost head high from the inside closets, and there's a lot more stuff in the outside utility room than there was in the closets......*Sigh*........Jessica and I planned a day to do all of the closets and the outside utility room, but the weather geeks were predicting rain that day, and it DID look like it might open up and pour down at any time, all day long, so we decided just to work on the inside that day. A lot of that stuff out there is pure-dee ol' junk, but some of it is good junk that I still want and use, so I didn't want to take a chance of it getting ruined. So now we have to try to plan a day to work on the outside utility room. I am sure glad we got the closets done. Thanks to Jessica it only took about 5 hours. If I had done it all myself, it would have literally taken 2 days, and I would probably be down for a couple of days with my arthritis.


I want to take just a moment to remember my Mama's birthday today. She would have been 77 years old today. I miss her every day, and I can't wait to see her again.

I love you, Mama. Happy birthday.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I mentioned to a blogger friend that I would try to get some pictures of the countryside here, and some of the fields and just the general area. I haven't had a chance to do that yet, but as I was riding in the car today, I was looking out the window along the railroad, and I noticed all the wildflowers and blooming weeds. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing some of our common wildflowers and weeds.

Bitterweed, there to the left, is called that because it has a caustic, bitter smell, but also because when milk cows eat it, it makes t
heir milk bitter to drink. If you ever smell it, you'll never forget it. It smells kind of like a really strong marigold, if that makes sense to anyone besides me.

Another o
ne we see quite a lot of on the railroad is mullein, there to the right. This picture doesn't do it justice, because it often gets even taller, and it has bright yellow blooms all along that flower spike. The leaves have fine down on them, soft and hairy. It used to be used for medicinal purposes years ago, but I have no idea what in particular it was used to treat.

The one to the left is thistle. It is a stickery weed, about 2-3 feet high, and it is a
fairly recent newcomer to this area. It is a nuisance weed, and very difficult to kill once it gets established. Birds like finches and cardinals love the seeds, though. It's pretty, but painful to tangle with.

That's joepye weed to the right. There are some cultivated varieties, but it grows wild here. This one has a reddish tint, but the true purple ones are my favorites. They get really tall, too, about 3-5 feet.

Those are wild asters there to the left. They range in color from deep purple to all shades of pink. I remember taking Mama a many a bouquet of wild asters, dandelions, bitterweed, and the next two wildflowers.

The pretty yellow one to the right is evening primrose. It grows low on the ground, and it grows wild in fence rows and the edges of fields, pastures and such.

The pink one to the left is Missouri Primrose, one of my very favorite wildflowers, and it was also one of my Mama's favorites. The picture doesn't really do it justice. In the early morning light a group of these is breathtaking, and they like bad, infertile ground. These are often seen in burned off areas, or around old houses and barns. They are very delicate, but at the same time very hardy once established.

Another common wildflower is Queen Anne's Lace, or as we call it in my family, chigger weed. It grows all along the roadsides here, in great drifting clouds of white.

And for my last weed 0' the day, elderberries grow with wild abandon along the railroad and fencerows. They have creamy white flower clusters, a lot like Queen Anne's Lace, and then the purple-black berries follow in late summer and fall. I have several recipes for elderberries, but I have never picked any to make jelly or anything with them so far. I do want to try them, though.


Okay, I think I've bored everyone enough for this post. Hopefully I will have something more interesting to post next time. I'm still working on getting my digital camera to work on this computer, but maybe that will be resolved by the next time I post.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week! :-)

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I promise it does work with photos. I think the program that came up when I used it was FinePix - whatever was on the harddrive from the factory. I didnt load anything else, but your digital likely came with a CD that you might need to load also.

Glad to hear it's coming along - every day a little bit more progress, soon you'll be all set up. xooxox

boomama said...

You have been BUSY. I love cleaning out closets - makes me feel so productive. And I'm amazed at how you know all you do about your surroundings...I recognized all of the flowers, but only knew the name for one (Queen Anne's Lace, which I love).

You're funny AND educational, wrapped up in one convenient blog. :-)

momteacherfriend said...

Thanks for the words of wisdom on my blog.
I have some pictures of rice fields from when I visited if you would like them I can email them to you.
Miss Sue makes Elderberry jam, I told her to check out the railroad when the time comes. It really does grow with wild abandon there.

Cleaning progress....WooHoo...It feels good.

Brenda said...

I love wildflowers - thanks for posting the pics! When you get busy, you get BUSY. I do love a clean closet, but I'm not real fond of the process. Around here, that's a daunting task.

That picture of your mom looks just like you describe her. I can't wait to meet her! Thank you for sharing your memories of her with us.

Carole Burant said...

So glad to see you up and running again...love reading your posts:-) Cleaning closets is always a chore but I do like it when I find things in there I didn't know I had or forgotten I had! lol A very Happy Birthday to your dear mom, God Bless her...I know you miss her like I miss my dad! You have quite a variety of wildflowers around your area...some are quite lovely!! I loved reading all the info on them. Take care:-)

Dick said...

The photos look good. I'd say you have the camera & computer working fine together. You will enjoy that larger hard drive.

Andre said...

Hey Ladi Di,

From the looks of it, you've been quite the busy bee. But, I suppose that I'm not suprised by that. I mean, you ARE one of the most prolific writers in the entire BLOG-isphere.

If you're having picture posting problems (says Peter Piper...) have you ever thought about using Picasa? It's a photo imaging software compatible with Blogger. Whenever I have problems uploading pics (pretty frequently with Blogger), it's a pretty good source for me.

Just a thought...

Susie said...

Hi Diane,
So glad you're up and running and I bet you are too! Loved looking at all the flowers, most of which I really don't know (or see here)
Cleaning and organizing is a big job, but it does feel grea to get it done!
:-)

Susie said...

Sorry,
I forgot to say Happy Birthday to your Mom! My Mom's was at the end of May very close to the anniversary of her death and Mother's Day.

Naturegirl said...

I loved your tour of the wildflowers in your part of the world! The primrose both,the queen annes lace, and elderberry I am familiar with. I want to thank you for visiting my bench and caring for my garden while I was away! So you want me to post more
racoons..hummm Happy B.Day to your mom
way up high!!

Toni said...

I love the flower pictures and information about them. I'm a country girl and know all those flowers -- but most of the time I can't remember what they're called. No matter how many times I'm told. Drives me crazy. Glad you're not like that.

Barb said...

Welcome back. We surely missed you.

And thanks for the beautiful flowers. Made me remember there are things far prettier than sitting in front of either my Mom's crashing computer (we're going shopping for a new one next week) or my perfectly fine but neglected computer. I needed the breath of almost fresh air.

And happy birthday to your mama. She's smiling on you for that sweet tribute.

owlhaven said...

You've been busy!!

Mary

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Goodness, you have been busy. I don't know that I would have had the patience to do anything else, other than get the computer running exactly how I wanted it, before staring the cleaning. Good on you for being able to do that. This darn computer is so distracting, it taunts me, it calls me over to it when I should be doing other stuff.
Congratulations on getting it working.
Happy Birthday memories for your mum.
Have a great day.
Take care, Meow

Anonymous said...

D\happy birthday grandma,it sounds like youve been very busy..lucis hand looks alot better now after two shots of antibotics and she has to take a big bottle of them,we love you and miss you all very much cant wait to see you all very soon love dean dean

RennyBA said...

First of all, how nice of you to honor your mom!
Thanks for sharing your country side as I love to see nature all over the world. I'm gone for Golf in the Nordic, quite different from your part of the world, but beautiful too (at least in my eyes:-)

zztop357 said...

hey girl,i think mullen was used for charmin moments.and elder berries make a very good wine too.
i'm glad your up and running again,i missed you.
happy birthday mama,i miss you everyday.i'll see you again soon,i hope;)
i hate cleaning closets.i know i gotta do it soon though,i'm out of room again.
love you sister

Anonymous said...

hi,
oh boy zztopper finely put sum tiping on yur paper. i surely have missed you and her to. who is that yung gurl that is using my name and hollering about her baby! I wunder if zztopper wud make me sum elderberry wine? maybe if she drunk enough she wuld like me more, du yu thank so? and i am hapy that you got yur "hard drive" going, whatever that thang is. i got to go now and check on my still so thank you fer leting me tipe on your paper.

Anonymous said...

hi its me again,
i furgot to say happy birthday to Mama Lou. I surely do miss her, god I do, and probably always will. I knowed her fer a purty long time and really respected and liked her. you culd talk to her and she would do something that
most folks have forgotten how to do and that is to "listen" and give you advise and most of the time it was gud advise. so happy birthday moma lou and i will see you agin someday. thanks fer leting me tipe on your paper.