Xanadu

 I can hear Olivia Newton-John with the Electric Light Orchestra singing Xanadu as I read the word. It turns out there was a movie that was made with Olivia Newton-John titled Xanadu. 

Xanadu represents paradise or a place of contentment and perfection. 

My front yard is my Xanadu. I've had part of field in front of my house mowed. I've got a mess of volunteer Peach trees and they are loaded.  Walking between the trees, I feel a peace. 

I looked up Paradise on Google. The results were interesting. I'd expound but POV affects how you see different terms. Funny how we all have connotations that would be offensive to someone else. 

Some were oxymorons.

I think of my brother's quote, "Whatever floats your boat.".  I don't know if I believe in heaven per se. I remember a friend saying when he was a kid he thought heaven with streets of Gold sounded like a terrifying place. 

With age, you can have pretty lofty opinions much like being a teenager. One opinion I have is that your disadvantages are your advantages. There are only somethings you can only understand by being in that position of discrimination. Mind you, I am not interested in learning anything more in life. I just know the hard parts in life have seasoned me. 

I'm grateful for what I do have. I am humble enough to know I have a lot of advantages. And if the car cranks when I get in it; I've got a good car. 

Olivia Newton-John singing Xanadu

I'd share a picture

But how can you take a picture of a soft breeze

The scent of flowers blooming and hay being mowed.

Sunlight dappled on the ground by fluffy clouds moving above

The crunch of the grass beneath your shoes

A bird skiffing across the ground to capture a bug

The sound of bees buzzing

Your body being tired from coaxing a garden to life

A dog follows you unbothered by the gnats

Stepping out of the shade into the golden glow of the evening sun

The smell of rain coming.

Wildflowers

Fleabain

False Foxglove

Mullein which was imported to North America for medicinal purposes.

Mullein up close

Passion flower

Spiderwort

I asked an aunt if she had any pets. She said she only owned what the man upstairs sent to visit. There were many, many birds who visited her garden. In the evening she often saw a rabbit or two.

This year, I am planting some serious flowers, marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers in my vegetable garden. I like zinnias. Sunflowers are beautiful. You can eat the seed but I leave them for the birds. Marigolds are pretty little yellow and orange flowers on a plant that wards off insects. I am planting Marigolds around my tomatoes big time. Sunflowers act as a nice little heat shield to prolong the life of my tomatoes. I don't think anything can get squash and cucumber though the heat of summer will end them by June. 

I plant enough for the animals. But the deer can be ever so greedy.

This year, I had peach blossoms galore. The peach trees I have are all volunteers which were probably planted by the deer. Those trees are loaded. I am going to knock some fruit off one tree in hopes of getting a few peaches of a decent size.

Usually I enjoy the flowers that the man upstairs send. I prefer the native varieties. I understand the honeysuckle of my youth is actually the very invasive Japanese honeysuckle. Japanese honeysuckle can easily grow sixty feet up into a tree. The plentiful dark blue berries are apparently tasty fruit the birds eat and distribute.

Native honeysuckle are the ubiquitous trumpet flower that blooms profusely all summer. 

There is a similar vine to the trumpet flower but you get little tiny white flowers and then luscious little berries. But don't eat them. A few will not hurt you but the oxalic acid they contain is poisonous to humans but not to birds. A pepper vine can grow so heavy and thick they will pull a tree down. I allowed a vine to grow up in a volunteer persimmon tree. The vine broke the tree and the tree is apparently dead. 

My Cat Cheshire on the roof amidst Sycamore leaves emerging on a nearby tree.

Dandelions

Invasive Privet in full bloom

Japanese Honeysuckle growing on Privet.

Privet can be very pretty and has a lovely smell. It is a shame it is so invasive.

 

Vicarious

 Vicarious means to live through someone else's life, a movie scene, story.

Vicarious is also the name brand to one Artificial Intelligence company. 

We've all heard the meme where someone says that they want artificial intelligence to do the drudgery type work not the art and literature they long to create. There are rules to literature and language that AI can easily learn and repeat. I haven't read enough AI to have an opinion of it's value. I know that it can process an incredible amount of information.

I see AI like when they broke up the phone monopoly in the United States. It was not that great. We all complained.. Then because we had so many phone companies; it enabled mobile phones to be cheaper and more available. I suspect AI will enhance our lives. I don't know that I will live long enough to witness it. We are really on the cusp of social media's maturing. Social Media has a long way to go. 

I remember in the early 90s, I was not going to bother with a computer. I took a college course and needed to use a computer. I bought a computer. I found myself on the internet via America Online. I tried other companies because there was a toy like dimension to exploring the internet.. I had no business to do on the computer. I cautiously entered chat rooms where the depth of conversation rarely went deeper than I am cooking a frozen pizza.  

One big problem with social media is that it has an algorithm going that encourages you to stay too long. And it is all about making money. Sort of like there are no clocks and that sound that permeates at a casino to keep people playing longer. And it is changing society. 

Today I was told that a young journeyman plumber was told to empty the water lines using the outside faucets. The master plumber wondered why it was taking him a while so he went down stairs to check on the journeyman. And today's lesson was you can release water on the grass, on the pavement, on the shrubbery. You do not have to catch it in a bucket. Experience is only learned through reality. 

The inclination to participate in an online conversation versus looking at your surroundings or making small talk with the company you keep.is a challenge. 

I've started leaving my phone in the car when we go to a restaurant. 

Every evening of my life, I have sat down and read. Vicarious is how I spent my evenings. And yes, I carry a book in my purse at all times. I'm always reading at least two books. One book will usually win out and be read more. 

 

Unusual or Ubiquitous

 Fish or Fowl

Apples and Oranges

I am at a blank

With nothing to say

So I will share a few pictures.

Brilliant Sky in the evening, rural Peach County, GA USA

Saint Marys River, Saint Simons Island, Georgia, USA

Flock of migrating redwing blackbirds in a Sorgham Field, Peach County, GA USA

Tornadoes: Everything you should know about Tornadoes but really did not care.

 So I am posting pictures from several years back of damage done by wind shears that were close to being a tornado. We have tornados in the spring when our climate is changing from winter to summer. It is when a cold front comes rumbling through. There are sections of the lower midwest which are known as "tornado alley" in that they get quite a few tornados. We get tornados but not as many as these folks get. Nonetheless, the ones we get can be quite damaging and life threatening. 

One tornado ripped through an area called Sandy Point in the county next to me. The only person thrown from his house was a man who was very drunk at the time. He had no injuries. He was just tossed from his house to the woods behind his home.

I had a neighbor call me about the tornado in Fort Valley. I was on my cellphone walking my dogs and told her there was no tornados, no rain, somebody was mixed up. There was a tornado about four miles as the crow flies. It completely demolished a bank and only the vault was left standing. That system just whizzed beside the calm overcast sky over my home.

Another nearby tornado blew a woman's home off it's foundation. I understand she broke her ankles which I am sure was very painful. She sat in her bathtub during the storm for safety. The bathtub was tossed with the home. I noticed she did not rebuild. 

As you can tell a lot of damage occurs from the felling of large trees due to high winds and saturated soils.

Stories

 I made a run to the dollar tree. I did not want to pull anything out and get started on any project inside my home. It was too hot to garden. Getting out of the car, I need to find the restroom.. The seeds they had were just some generic flower seeds that I already had. I wanted watermelon seeds. .So I am prowling the store to find something to buy. I used their restroom.

I could use a bucket. Meh, the bucket they had was $5 and a loser of a bucket. I don't want an oval bucket with sharp points on the two ends. I think I will look for more seeds. Surely they would have more than the paltry offering in their gardening area. They have a small section of books. 

So I give the excuse in my mind to look over the books to see what get sold at the General Dollar Store. This from a woman who is going to the huge used book sale to buy books I may never read. I mean if I read non-stop for the rest of my life, I still would not finish my tbr pile.

And I spy a book by Louise Erdrich named Future Home of the Living God. I've wanted to read one of Louise Erdrich books. She has written so many. I inspected the book on Amazon and couldn't find it. Then I googled it. I could just read the dang book. Anyway, I bought it for $3. 

I have a feeling the novel is going to be like a play like Kenny Leon would pick for the Alliance Theatre. The plays could be a bit tedious and intense and dang if you did not think of the play for days even years afterward. My favorite play was Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel. Later a movie was made from the play. I've seen the movie several times.  

There is a blog that is telling a story that I plan to read in it's entirety.  Actually there are several blogs having a serialized story as their A to Z blog. The one I know I will read is https://dbmcnicol.com. I've made my own spreadsheet of the blogs listed for A to Z and writing a crib note about each one. I want to visit all of the blogs. I'm not doing a very good job. 

I'm one to read several blog posts of any blog on one day and move on to another blog to read the next night. I've somehow become a lurker with blogs.. And you know, some blogs don't have a place to comment. Or I have become too dumb to figure out how to comment. Sometimes the link to comment is a little sneaky. I sent a message to https://dacairns.com.au/blog/f/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-r D A Cairns in I never figured out how to comment. 

You're probably wondering where I am going with this post. Well I am too.

I was going to write about Jack tales with the letter J and I found I already had a J written. So I would tell the Jack tales in a post about stories. My dad's name was Jack. So it all made sense. Maybe. I warned in my theme reveal there would be some rambling.

Well I'll give you a few more blogs I think you will enjoy.

Elephant's child posts beautiful pictures and offers a link up to other who post photos. I enjoy her photos of Australia with the brilliantly colorful birds. https://myjustsostory.blogspot.com This blogger is very kind with visiting and commenting. I read her comment on another blog and was touched with her kindness and observation of a detail. 

Debby is my sister from California. We aren't actually sisters but I enjoy her blogs. She had one called Have a Cup of Coffee with me or a similar title. Then she got attacked by trolls. And went to two of her other blogs. For A to Z, Debby is posting on her genealogy blog.I like history especially little real stories. I found myself getting worked up over how a 2nd great grandfather did my 2nd great grandmother dirty. That is two of the sixteen great grandparents mind you. Carrying 1/16 of their genetic material theoretically is not an especially close relation. Debby's blog is https://rooted-by-blood-and-dna.blogspot.com/

Another blogger lives in Hawaii and we are both retired teachers. So that makes us cousins. Her husband was in the military and they are a well traveled couple due to his career and their obvious love of travel. https://travelerswife.blogspot.com/

Carla Jones Gowan has been kind enough to visit my blog during A to Z. She is a lovely writer and I have enjoyed reading about her travels with her son in Chile and Peru. I love South America. I could easily move to a slow boat to China. Except they would not let me have my dogs and some imperial cats that own me. I went to Peru once and that is where I learned if I ever go to another country, I would like to return to South America. https://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com

I'm always flattered when a real writer visits my blog. Two of them have had interesting A to Z blogs about villains and the like. One is erinpenn.com. Another one is https://illusionsofchaos.blogspot.com I don't think illusions of chaos has been by but I have enjoyed their posts. 

This blog is not doing A to Z but I love the slice of life in her posts. http://scarymarythehamsterlady.blogspot.com 

Well the font has changed on it's on. I guess that means this post is long enough. 

And I got an Elmore Leonard book to read. 

Cedar Creek between Irwin and Wilcox County Georgia USA

Royalty

 As an  American, the British royalty is not my business.

Why do Amerians like the British royalty? For me it is that it still exists. I love a bit of history. 

I am clearly descended from the British Isles based on my DNA  The story was one of my grandfather was German. In the 1940 census, he is recorded as being born in Germany. Dna linked me to his youngest sister Minnie who married a Revels. My grandfather served in the Spanish American War and was an ambulance driver in World War I. When my brother enlisted, our grandfather's military record was viewed by my brother and father. 

My father was a World War II veteran. My father got separated from his unit and was part of British Army for awhile. 

What I learned was my grandfather had colonial roots just like my other three grandparents. There was some German but it was several generations back. The native American in my family probably came from this grandfather in that I think one of his great grandmothers was either a Lumbee or Cherokee. Most likely, she was Lumbee. This so called German grandfather was mostly English.

Although I consider myself American and definitely not English. I suspect the fact that I am a lifelong Anglophile has a lot to do with my ancestry. My mother toured England with the Methodist church. She said it seemed so familiar although it was definitely a different country. The sight that amused her the most was the man carrying a butchered pig across his back in a market. 

If I were English, I would not be a royalist. The entire class system in England is quite tragic to me. I say that as a hypocrite of course. We have a class system in the United States which has benefited me. The chief benefit is I have a college education which was not considered important for many of my classmates when I graduated high school. 

I'm writing this as the whole saga of Princess Catherine has not unfolded. The worst part of royalty is it is not everyone's damn business what sort of surgery she has had. It is that Sword of Pericles which is the greatest burden of the Royal family. .

During King Charles coronation, it was amusing how they reported what lip readers saw people saying. I've bought the book "Spare" by Prince Harry. I haven't read it. So many books, so little time. I'm proud of Harry and Meghan building their own life. The British tabloid press is merciless. It takes a lot of guts to walk away from a untenable situation. 

I imagine King Charles and Prince Harry have the same relationship father and sons have all over the world. Dad wants Harry to live his life a particular way and Harry sees a different path that Dad may or may not understand.

My dad's mom wanted him to keep his civilian job on RAFB and move back to some of her property and farm. My father did not think it was a good idea. Dad worked side jobs as a car mechanic to bring a little extra home.  As my dad got older, he realized his mom's idea was not that bad. 

My dad wanted me to be a dentist. I knew it was going to be slim chance that I got in Dental College. I was never able to tell him I was pursuing a difficult career choice. When I entered college, the auditorium that held 300 was packed with pre-med, pre-dental majors. I was standing on the back wall. Of all those young people, 8 of us graduated with the degree. Three were admitted to Med School. 

I would have liked to have been a doctor. Frankly, I did not have the sophistication. My people skills would have made me a great doctor. My ability to empathize with people would have destroyed me with having to accept, deliver and witness what could not be changed. Teaching was a more suitable career although I was a square peg in a round hole my entire career. 

So yes, I do have a lot of sympathy for people living in a gilded cage. It is hard enough to navigate life but it is too hard to have your life torn to bits and examined and then opinionated about by whoever can write the jolliest garbage.  

I really don't think I would enjoy living the life they have. 

Quixotic

 Quixotic is something that is idealistic to the point it is impractical. 

Somebody must have been talking about me 

I washed cat food cans out. The cans are made of aluminum. I have been doing this for years.I put the aluminum cat food cans with the aluminum soda cans and take them to the recycling center. The man working there told me they throw them away. They only take soda cans.

So once again, I have been good for nothing. 

I decided, I will still wash the cans and keep the soda cans and periodically sell my cans at the recycler. It will not be a King's ransom. But it will pay my gas for the stop. I'll do this when I go to that part of town. My developmental disabled brother is so excited. I'm going to let him keep the money. He likes to get the "loot" as he calls the money.

Sometimes I see where someone has washed a waxed paper container that once held ice cream which I know has to go in the garbage. All that effort for nothing, I feel their pain. I put my waxed paper in my burn pile. I live in the country and I do periodic burns. 

Life is good. I got first world problems. I can see where someone will mine landfills one day for the metals.

Recycle Reduce Reuse

Politics

Politics make me think of the aftermath of the Civil War.

I had family on both sides of the Civil War. It is with a bit of irony that Georgia actually voted against seceding but after the big planters met in the capital which was Milledgeville at the time, the decision to secede from the Union was made.

The aftermath of the civil war in the South was like the American Depression of the thirties only magnified. Because of the inherent poverty in the South, the American Depression was most intensely felt in the Southeast.

Union Soldiers walked home heros. Confederate soldiers came home defeated to farms and homes burned and looted. Many were grievously injured which affected their ability to work.  

Like all young men, my older brother discussed with my dad about the Vietnam War. My dad was against the Vietnam War. When I was in elementary school, I was embarrassed by my dad's opinion. We went on vacation to Jekyll Island when I was around 13. Dad was in the parking lot talking about how we had no business in Vietnam. The man who dad had just met was solemnly agreeing.

My dad told my brother, you don't ever want to lose a war. That pain from a 100 years earlier lived on with my father. Or could it have been earlier. I have traced one line of my father back to a foot soldier named FitzStephen who came as a soldier for William the Conqueror in 1066. My father has humble roots but he came from generations of soldiers. 

My brother volunteered to join the army and survived the Vietnam War. My brother served in an unpopular war. My dad served in World War II which Americans felt proud. Hitler's Germany murdered 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews for his cruel ideology.

Slavery was abolished due to the Civil War.. African Americans did not really get their due until the 1960s when Civil Rights Laws were enacted. There are some good benefits to wars. There is also a lot of misery and destruction with war.

My grandfather was a Spanish American War and a World War I veteran and is buried in the original Marietta National Cemetery. The land was donated by a Henry Cole in 1866 to bury the 10,000 Union Soldiers who died during Sherman's march to the sea. There are 17,000 people buried there today. Henry Cole was an Atlanta merchant who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War.

I plan to have the ashes of my dad, mom, developmentally delayed brother, sister who had mental illness and my Vietnam era brother interred at the cemetery. I am not eligible to be interred there but I am going to ask for my ashes to be scattered on their graves. 

I don't care how anyone votes. 

The moment you exclude anyone from being your friend because they have different politics from you; you have crossed the line..  

We all have feet of clay, 

I'm not afraid of whoever is elected. Bossing Americans around is like herding cats. We will be what we are. And I will vote and I will volunteer to take anyone to the polls who needs a ride. I'm ridin with Biden. If you are Trump's number One MAGA fan, get in the car. We all need to vote and be able to have an opinion. 

Otherwise we have already lost a much bigger war. And you never want to lose a war. .

Opossum

 Around 10 PM, the visitors begin. This is an average looking opossum. I do have one that is quite young and handsome. Another one is really big and ugly. They sort of have a peace made with the cats. The cats leave them alone and they leave the cats alone.

Nightmarchers

 All of the islands of Hawaii have the legend of night marchers. The Nightmarchers are the souls of dead warriors who may be escorted by past Kings of the Hawaiian Islands or of one the six Gods themselves. If you happen upon Nightmarchers, you should lie prone upon the ground with your face down in humility in their presence. Frankly, I would probably pass out in fear to be confronted by an army of apparitions.

If you were blood kin to one of the warriors, they would give the order to pass over their family member. Looking directly into the eyes of the marchers would result in a disastrous death to the onlooker soon after. 

The largest island of the Hawaii is the island of Hawaii. You usually take a tour from Hilo to the Volcanic National Park and of course the topic of  Nightmarchers was part of the tour.. The people who live on the island would hike at night across the volcanic lava fields. A red glow gives  warning that the lava flow is not so safe. 

One of the many lessons I learned from my eighth grade students was that scientist did get samples of lava from these lava flows. When asked, I said there was nothing that could hold that hot stuff. And I was corrected. 

The neatest thing I visited on the island of Hawaii were the lava tunnels. The molten lava continued to flow as the outer layer had long hardened. In the ensuing years ferns, fern trees and all sorts of plants had grown over and around the tunnel we walked through. It was a marvelous. There were also lava tunnels along the shoreline where periodically the salt water would spew.

 

Lava Field: Wikimedia Commons: Bob Linsdell

Mental Illness

 I had a beautiful sister who suffered from schizophrenia. What she suffered more from was the ignorance about and the shame of mental illness.

I went to Writer's Police Academy last year. I actually enjoy learning about police work and I do enjoy hearing men and women who work in the field give their experiences and opinions. Occasionally, I get ideas for characters. Sometimes these characters are not based on law enforcement but more the idiosyncrasies of the average person I meet at these events. One time I saw a woman look at me and start scribbling feverishly. Whether it was me or just inspiration had struck her; I knew I was not alone.

What moved me the most was how people constantly referred to criminals as mentally ill. There was a point that I stood and told them that mentally ill people were no more likely to commit a crime than any other person. 

Mentally ill people face enough stigma without writers encouraging those beliefs. In 20 or 50 years, we may see where books, movies, personalities are not considered acceptable in how they deal with people who have had mental illness.

When I taught school, my co workers were always amazed when I accurately predicted low IQ versus a learning disability or bad behavior versus a behavior disorder. I never shared that I had a developmentally disabled brother and a mentally ill sister. Let's face it, the stigma is there. Most people are very gracious but you have politics no matter where you work. I did not want to give someone ammunition to use against me. Familiarity can breed contempt.

There is a whole category of criminal behavior with people who have antisocial personality disorder. There are so many different sorts of mental illness that are not antisocial personality disorder. There are so many criminals who commit crimes who do not have antisocial personality disorder.

Some mental illnesses are more popular than others. Depression is common. Frankly, I have mild depression and have had it my entire life. My depression is not suicidal ideation. It is more like I don't feel like I can do something like change the oil in my riding mower. I have to will myself to go ahead and just do it. I do it. It wasn't that bad.

I always resisted taking medication and I don't know why. So many became prozac salespeople after taking the medication about thirty years ago. I have had a  lot of stress taking care of a sister who had a stroke. She has mild cognitive impairment and it is aggravating as heck. As my doctor told me, people with dementia are more critical of the people they are close to. I now take Wellbutrin. It was a good idea.

I have not been that serious working on a memoir about my life with my sister. The purpose would be to educate people. First my parents then myself sacrificed a lot to give her a decent life. I'm not a saint. I remember when she first moved in my home. One thing that aggravated me the most was her complaining that I got rid of her mattresses, and the mattresses on my bed hurt her back. I was sleeping on a sofa so she could have my bed. I seethed inside about this inconsiderate baloney. 

Before my sister passed, she had become a helpmate to me in running my household of people and animals. One day we were in the car together. She had been to the doctor and we were laughing and considering a stop at a store for a bit of retail therapy. And we looked at each other with the realisation. WE needed to get home to take care of the three people we cared for. It is not the most glamorous life. But my sister did get the satisfaction of being a responsible caregiver. 

I recognized she was dealing with a loss of autonomy. In the United States, the system is set up where it is much easier to live under a bridge with no income than get help for mental illness. 

Are you meshuggah, Are you crazy, or My life with a homicidal maniac are all possible sarcastic titles for my memoir.  If the book could dispel some stigma of mental illness, I would be content. 

I have published nothing. If I write fiction, my pen name will be Willie Maude which was a popular name 100 years ago in Georgia. But the memoir will be by Ann Bennett. I don't want to perpetuate that shame. There used to be shame about a cancer diagnosis in that there was no treatment. With treatments continually being developed for mental illness, hopefully the shame will be lessened like it was for cancer victims. 

Lazy

Is it leisure or lazy? 

I did well to have a few posts written early. Now, I am feeling the pressure. My response to pressure is the urge to procrastinate. 

Pictures are always a good save. 

It is a misty day here. I work very hard some days, and I am not talking about writing. It is busting through so many accumulated items. I have a rental car this week and I plan to drive up to my brother's house that I have of yet to get ready to sell. I will carry a bathroom cabinet removed from a bathroom I'm having remodeled. I plan to paint the cabinet and replace the collapsing cabinet in my brother's basement bathroom. 

The reason I have a rental car is I had a car accident about three weeks ago. It has been a humiliating burden. I need to do so much and it has been a hassle. It has been humiliating in that I am the cause of the accident. I hit an expensive Porsche to boot. 

My small garden in the field in front of my house. I need to put many buckets around the garden to water plants when it gets very dry which it will at the end of May. I plan to mow a bit more and put up a dog kennel with a roof to escape the heat this summer and store a few tools and most importantly my chairs and a small portable table. I hope to write a bit out there.

I took this picture to show my apple blossoms. Apples have a hard time in our hot climate. Blight gets the  trees. I remember reading about a fruit called a quince. I found that quince is incredibly susceptible to blight like the pear and apple trees are. The remedy for blight is to cut off the affected portion.

This is my lilac bush. It smells so good. Not one single dog was there when I first took a picture then six showed up. I think I've got some attention hogs.

Lilacs are not native but they are more importantly not invasive. 

Kauai

 Kauai is called the Garden Island of Hawaii. Over 70 movies have been filmed on Kauai. On a tour bus, the tour guide would slow the bus down and point to many scenic areas where movies had been filmed. What I  remember most Waimea Canyon. 

OKJaquar Wikimedia Commons

Like all the Hawaiian Islands there were a lot of wild Chickens. The joke is what is more tender after being boiled, a rock or one of these chickens. These pictures of wild Chickens were taken in Fitzgerald, GA. The people in Fitzgerald either love them or hate them. They do not live outside of town. Too many animals think they make a nice meal.

Kauai does not have mongooses. The mongoose was introduced to the Hawaiian islands to eat mice in the the sugar plantations. Like a lot of introductions of exotic species, the mongooses have been a problem and did not cure the rat problem.

Jessamine

 One of my favorite native plants is Carolina Jessamine. It generously grows everywhere around me. I love the bright yellow blooms which look like Honeysuckle. 

One thing everyone needs to be cautious is that this plant is poisonous. It is not like Honeysuckle in that it's sap is poisonous. It can kill a small child or animal. The sap can be an irritant to your skin. One aspect of the alkaloid nature of the plant is that it is poisonous to the honeybee but not to the native bees. We forget that honeybees were introduced to North America. 

The blooms are just beautiful and short-lived. Every year Jessamine is a harbinger of spring. I have seen Jessamine in full bloom in January. This year, they bloomed in mid-March. We had a good winter this year. There weren't enough hard freezes but the ones we had were at the right time. Sometimes a hard freeze happens towards the end of March which hurts the peach crops. 

Isak Nygaard and the International City

 My hometown is Warner Robins, Georgia, USA. One way or the other, we all reflect Robins Air Force Base and we call ourselves The International City. So many service people have met their spouses in different countries or faraway states, We have had a lot of fascinating cultures that entered our lives. So many service members decided to stay in Warner Robins when they retired. Some military installations transfered people from Mobile, AL, San Antonio TX, and other Air Force Bases.

We are having my high school class of 1974 Fiftieth reunion this next September. Surprisingly with such a diverse group of classmates; we have reached a consensus on what is most important. One group is wanting to create a visitor's pack for those who come from out of town. 

One item that they want to include are Nygaard's Bakery cookies. My mind went to whether we could bake some because the cookies are quite expensive for that many people. We lived in a military town where people came and went. All of us when we turned 18, thought we were supposed to start moving around the world. So there are going to be a lot of out of towners.

The two cookies are finger nut cookies and the ever famous flower cookie. I did a google search about the cookies. In a long ago article, I remember reading that origin of the flower cookie was an adaptation of a popular jewish cookie in Isak Nygaard's home country of Norway..

In a later article, Isak Nygaard's oldest daughter states the origin of the recipe is lost in time. I suspect like many cooks and bakers, Mr Nygaard tweaked recipes to get what he wanted. My mother had at one time a few recipes of his. Nygaard measured ingredients by weight versus volume. Volume errors can cause errors in large quantities. The other item was a high quality margarine which was Fleishmans.

Isak Nygaard was born in Stavenger, Norway in 1909. He was a member of the Norwegian Armed Forces as a young adult. He moved to New York City with his brother and worked at a Larsen's bakery. In the 1930's Nygaard went to Germany to learn about cooking where he grew uneasy with the direction Germany was taking. He came back to the United States and joined the American Army and was with Patton's unit during World War II. After World War II, he met and married Bernice from Alamo, GA. They moved to Warner Robins. 

From Mr. Nygaard's life experiences, he probably came across so much information about all sorts of things. The Nygaard's had a keen appreciation of education. His four children went to college and have had accomplished careers. I remember the AAUW barrell to collect books in his bakery. Nygaard was a smart man and his cookies were probably a pretty fine tuned creation.

Being a cook, I can guess some of his secrets. He made Danish pastries. The dough is ordinary yeast dough which has had a lot and I mean a lot of butter mixed into the dough. The butter is added after you make the dough and let it rise the first time. Then you kneed the butter into the dough.

The nut cookie is basically the recipe for wedding cookies, Mexican cookies or whatever name you have read for the confectionary sugar coated nut cookie. The trick to this cookie is not to overbake it. People think you have to brown the cookie which entirely ruins this cookie. You cook the cookie until done but not brown. Instead of coating with confectionary sugar, You pipe colorful icing down the cookie.

The flower cookie is a bit of a mystery. I remember reading in an old newspaper article that it was created from a little Jewish cookie. So I googled Norwegian Jewish cookies to try to get a recipe. Jodekager is what popped up repeatedly. Jodekager is a type of icebox cookie. When I found recipes, I noticed they all used weights versus volume to cook them. This is a link to a blog giving the recipe for Jodekager. 

To address the elephant in the room is the name of the cookie which literally translates to Jewish cookie. The Sephardic Jews who settled in Denmark in the early 1600 as they were pushed out Spain introduced these cookies to the Danish people.. The popular cookie was named for the people that made them. 

I googled whether the name was offensive and I found this article in The Times of Israel which states that the Jodekager is something that is a small joy associated with the Jewish people.  Importantly, the Sephardic Jews were treated as equals in Danish society. 

My guesses about the change in recipe is that the cookie is lightly cooked. The recipe is a Spritz cookie with three major changes. Only the egg white is used. The egg yolk would make the cookie yellow. Either a clear imitation vanilla flavor, or almond flavor, or lemon flavor is added. Butter and margarine is not used, a vegetable shortening is used to keep the cookie white. (This supports the Sephardic version in that the cookie originally had olive oil as the fat.) The flowers have a smudge of colorful icing with a green icing leaf. 

Without a little flavoring, I suspect the cookie is not too good without some sort of flavoring agent. To prevent breakage, they need to be cooked on parchment paper. I think about all those cooks in the 1600's cooking up a storm with no parchment paper. .

Fortunately, I have come to my senses. There is no way I am going to cook a mess of cookies. I would regret the weight gain from sampling my progress, I want to enjoy the reunion and not work myself to death. Plus, the recipe was sold to the current owner. I'll just be satisfied I can make an egg mcmuffin every bit as good as McDonalds.

Southern Living's IceBox Cookie Recipe

Betty Crocker Spritz Cookie Recipe

Hawaii

 Hawaii was a special holiday for me. The first time I went to Hawaii, I enjoyed the trip and seeing everything. My earlier vacation a year before was Alaska and I was comparing the islands to Alaska. My second trip to Hawaii was a nightmare in that some of the things that happened was totally outside of Hawaii's control. I had a good time and good memories that far outweighed the disasters. I fell in love with Hawaii. 

Part of the old Dole Pineapple plantation tour

In my opinion, a great way to explore the Hawaiian Islands is a combination of a Cruise and a hotel stay. For both of my vacations, we went to O'ahu and stayed for several days before we boarded a cruise ship which sailed to Maui, the big island Hawaii, and Kauai. Not everyone is keen on a cruise but it does allow you to travel to all the islands. Each island definitely has it's own personality. 

O'ahu is where Honolulu is located with the famous Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head area. The traffic is mindbending in Honolulu during the day. We rented a car and drove all over the island which feels wild for those of us from the mainland. I got excited with unlimited mileage and I guess mentally ready for a 500 mile road trip to discover that O'ahu is 44 miles(71km) long, 30 miles(48km) across with 227 miles (365km) of shoreline. 

Being from a rural area, the first thing we did was drive away from the city. There is no telling what sort of nightlife is in Honolulu. When we got back to the hotel, we went to bed. If I did not have such frail people traveling with me, I would have ridden the bus all over the island. I did ride the bus some when I was picking up or dropping off a rental car. There is a certain bit of absurdity that we stopped at Walmart and K-Mart while visiting the islands.

What is unique about Hawaii is that the locals really seem interested and protective of the tourists. One time when I was on the bus, the doors opened for some people to load up. I'm standing there looking out the window not paying any attention to anything and a college student who is sitting taps me on the shoulder. He wants me to sit in his seat. I say I'm fine. He is insistent I move to the seat. Sitting in the seat, the bus starts up. The college student is standing there reading his book. I gaze at the new passengers. One is a man who is obviously strung out on some sort of narcotic. 

We went to the Highway Inn which is a restaurant in Waipahu, O'ahu, Hawaii, US. I had watched Guy Fieri visit the restaurant on Diners and Dives on the Food Network. He made it look so good.

Our dinner had pipikaula which is a dried marrinated beef. It was good. I'm not a big meat eater so I don't get too enthusiastic about any meat. The pork lau lau was good. It was pork belly (we call it fat back meat) and butterfish wrapped in lu'au and ti leaves. We liked the lu'au leaves. Lu'au leaves have their own flavor much like collards, turnip or mustard leaves have. Poi is made from powdered taro root. We did not like it. I can see where it is a comfort food for those who were raised eating it. I come from a part of the world where we eat foods that people who come from other parts of the country or world do not want to even try.  So I don't want to insult Poi. But it is an acquired taste. There was a nice serving of rice. 

 Like everyone, I like the foods I am accustomed to eating. We eat a lot vegetables that are not so common in other parts of the United States. We stopped one time to get lunch and I was so excited. We were going to get potato salad and macaroni salad with our sandwiches. That is when I got the Hawaiian specialty of potato, macaroni salad. It was mashed potatoes with macaroni, mayo, pickle relish. It was still pretty good although it was not what I expected. 

We stopped at a house under construction that was built on a bluff. You had a great view of Honolulu. If it wasn't so hard to get your dogs into Hawai'i, I might be living there. You feel at home in Hawaii. One tour guide on the big island in Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii, US lamented that so many tourist and rich people have moved there that their children have a hard time being able to afford to live there. 

If you love to people watch, you are truly in paradise. We stopped at one beach and the young woman who had left the beach and was entering the parking lot stood at the end of the trail and just beamed with pleasure from the fun she had had. 

Across from the hotel where we stayed, a young man worked a coffee stand. He was a local and obviously enjoyed talking to people who came from all over. We talked spam which is a dubious spiced ham in a can which people associated with the United States and live in Pacific Islands eat. Spam is well liked where I grew up. I remember eating cooked spam with sliced tomatoes on a sandwich. My dad particularly liked Spam. He was first diagnosed with congestive heart failure after eating an entire can of the salty meat along with saltine crackers for lunch the day before. He would take a sister of mine to hair shows and a can of spam was packed to help stave off the hungries.  

I realize there are a bunch of letters I can knock off with my Hawai'i adventures. So stay tuned, I'll continue this drivel and a few facts in future posts. 

Get out of here

 There are phrases I don't use but I love them. I love it when someone says, "Get out of here." when they hear something surprising. 

I am not a cool person. I've never been cool. I am so nerdy that I have been asked if I was high in college when I wasn't.. 

It was more nerves. I constantly used to fidget when talking to people I was so uncomfortable. I remember being nervous about my neck twitching in that I felt I could not move my head from nervousness. 

There where several sources where my incredibly shyness was rooted. One was from teasing when I was kid in school. When the Colombine shooting happened, my evening students said they were made fun of. I told my students, that was not why. We all get made fun of. They all had that knowing look and shook their heads in that they agreed with my statement. The only thing surprising was I thought that many of my students were the ones who dished it out.

The biggest contributor was probably my parents. I had wonderful parents who were both incredibly shy people. What a family tradition. They say you get your culture from your mother.

My mother had two incredibly social siblings. The other two siblings were like her in that they were quiet people. One of the social siblings died of probably an aortic aneurism. His heart supposedly burst. In retrospect, this uncle had a drinking problem.. He had a weak heart and had had polio as a child. He died quite young in that he just shy of his 44th birthday in 1983.

The other sibling that was outgoing developed a hesitance to go out to eat in public places in her seventies. She passed at 80 and it was almost like she decided to die. The day before, my cousin said people were lined up outside her tiny apartment. She had something to give to each person and told them all goodbye. That night she went into a coma and by daybreak she was gone. 

Long story short, living with my mother, I understood so much about myself. You learn so much at your mother's knee.  I will climb a tree to avoid an argument which was so true for my mother. I will sometimes just pay for something that I am disatisfied with just to get it behind me. The first time I did it in front of my mom, I was expecting her to tell me to speak up and complain. She was so relieved I did it. Peace is a wonderful thing. 

I'm not milquetoast though. I just pick my battles. 

One time I shared with my mom that I always have felt on the outside looking in. Mom felt bad. She thought I had got those feelings from her. No matter how old you get, mom is ready to take your burdens. 

There is a special closoeness you get with an elderly parent. I had the chance to meet with a friend before her mother passed. She was frazzled with frustration. From experience, I knew her mother was leaving this world. But when it is happening to your mother and you, you are so in the moment. You are blind. 

I ordered an incredibly expensive mattress to prevent bedsores the month my mother passed.. A mattress that Amazon took back. I ordered the mattress before I brought mom home from the hospital at the end of November. I crunched numbers and was gearing up mentally to run a top notch nursing home room in my home. I figured mom wanted to be in her home. Nursing homes cost about $9000 a month. My friend Ron's mom lasted five years with severe dementia. 

 I never took it out of the box. There was some sort of fluke where I could not cancel the order and I had to wait about 5 weeks before it was delivered. I called Amazon in the middle of the night about the second week of December disturbed I could not cancel the order. The young woman on the other end was a saint. I was mourning the realization that my mom was leaving this world. Whether I was able to return the mattress was not the real issue. 

The mattress made it to my house about a week after my mom passed on December 22. In 25 days, I went from promising mom that she would not have to go back to the hospital to hospice to hectic days and it was over. 

My friend had taken her mom to a doctor about getting a hip replacement about two weeks before she passed.

One of the funnier things that happened during one of my mother's hospital stays during November. She had a bruise on her leg. I asked her about the bruise. My mom looks at me serious and says, "You got to fight these people in here." If you knew what a lady my mom was to become a slugger at 92. 

Get out of here indeed. 

Flycatcher

 The Eastern Phoebe pair are back. This pair of flycatchers come in the early spring. I enjoy their adeptness at catching flies. I feed cats and quite a few opossums on my back porch. 

The Eastern Phoebe always move their young chicks before a big storm. The cats are obviously in a sheltered spot to avoid the storm. The nest has been there for about five years. I pressure wash the siding but work around the nest. We can coexist. I'm one to always feel a bit privileged to have a wild animal guest. I do think the birds recognize me. 

The first year, I was so impressed with the bird swooping across the canned catfood to grab a fly and the cat could only watch in that it happened so quickly. I have a fence post that the bird likes to perch on and catch flies. I've seen the pair but it is my understanding that the female will chase the male off. Even though they mate for life, they are independent birds who live solitary lives with only their mate.

The Eastern Phoebe is a small bird that does live close to humans in that they like to build their nest in sheltered areas like under the eave of my house.. That portion around my house is really overgrown. But I will wait until the family moves along. I had planned to do that this winter but waiting later is a win-win for the birds. 

Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons