Today Gary and I have been married for thirty-nine years. Marriage is a serious, often stressful relationship and it requires a lot of patience, work, and oh, yes, love. It can also be enjoyable, comforting, supportive, enlightening, entertaining, and just plain fun! I thank God each and every day for giving me such a good friend.
I am almost certain I am the only person you know who not only HAS rabbit photos from 1964, but who can also find them in less than five minutes. Lol Gary has been telling me about the rabbits that greet him when he comes home late at night, but yesterday at about 8pm I finally saw one. My first bunny sighting of the spring! I can’t wait to see them in the daylight and take photos.
I’ve always loved rabbits and we’ve always had them around. My father raised them for meat and for sale for years. I know, I know. Rabbit meat is not my favorite either. The French sing the praises of rabbit meat, and though we have French ancestors, I guess I don’t have enough French blood to appreciate that particular delicacy. But I have to confess to eating it many times. When you are poor and it is on the table you don’t question.
When I was in the seventh grade I used rabbits for my science fair project. I don’t remember the premise but it had something to do with rabbit production and feed. Hence the rabbit photos from 1964. I took photos of some of the parents and I also a few grainy photos of babies, which I obtained by gently lifting the lid off the nest box and taking a quick shot before the mom protested. I had one of those little Brownie cameras with the viewer in the top. It had a built-in flash that was so bright I’m surprised many of the bunnies didn’t go blind that spring!
I was able to take some wonderful rabbit photos last year! The rabbits became accustomed to my presence in the yard and let me get within a few feet of them. One followed me on my morning walks. Several invaded the garden each evening. I’m hoping to see “Jack” the one with the torn ear again this year.
Yes, I’m strange. I’ve never denied it.
Have a great day!
That’s a big number. I went through my “source file” yesterday where I keep the images from my camera so I can go back and create different projects. They are stored in their original format and I have to resize everything to about 1800 pixel width for prints, 800 for my blog, 600 for Find A Grave, 400 for the Caddo website, etc. I don’t know a lot about the details and the whys and such. I just do what works. However, I do know that I don’t need to store 1,320 images of flowers and 1,280 images of birds. Especially since I store images in twelve other categories. Yes, I plan to get a flash drive- is that the correct term for the little sticks?- and store some of these files. Poor computer will start having a meltdown soon if I don’t. And I’ve been deleting duplicates, less than wonderful shots, etc. Eliminated 400 last night.
When I tell Gary things like the previous info, he always laughs and says, “Remember when you were afraid to use that camera?” Yes…
This is the last week of March! How did that happen!?! LOL This spring is flying by and I don’t even have my vegetable garden ready to plant. It is very small so I dig it the old fashioned way- shovel and hoe. I don’t have a tiller, nor do I really need one. Just need a little more time and warm weather. A little rain wouldn’t hurt either.
My yard still has that “raw” look of early spring. Lots of things coming up and little leaves on the trees. Daffodils in all stages of bloom, tulips here and there, and snapdragons about to pop open. The early daisies have begun to open in earnest. The spirea is almost ready for a photo. I hope those of you in snow country will soon see some green!!
Have a safe day!
I’m a lazy gardener, and sometimes a handicapped one as well. My back, knees, and ankles aren’t as good as they were in years past, so I don’t do a lot of “bend over” weeding, I can’t kneel, and I can’t lift much. Not a big deal…just something to consider when I’m planning and planting. There was a time when I had a dozen large flower beds and a huge vegetable garden and I spent at least a couple of hours a day working outside. I also maintained several flowerbeds downtown. Those days are gone forever, but my love of gardening has not changed, so my habits must.
The first thing I had to change was my attitude about weeds and grass. I don’t have to remove every weed and blade of stray grass, especially from perennial beds. My flowers will tolerate a little companionship. I have all summer to weed and mulch. And sometimes tall weeds are easier to remove than little ones! Lol
I also had to stop adding to my work each season. Instead of creating more flowerbeds, I’m just stuffing the ones I already have with perennials that thrive on their own. If someone tells me they have an “aggressive” plant that spreads quickly and blooms profusely, I want a start of it…two if you don’t mind. If a plant is drought and heat tolerant, so much the better!
I don’t tackle big jobs anymore. When I was younger I had to complete a task at once and see the results. I might work on a new flowerbed all day if that was what it took to get it done. Now I do a little at a time and know when to quit. If it takes me a week to plant the vegetable garden, then it takes me a week. So what? Yesterday I had three things I wanted to do and only did two of them. I was contemplating the third and knew that my back just wasn’t capable of lasting another minute. So the little bushes I was going to plant will wait on the patio until I’m ready.
So if you are a big fan of pristine, weed-free flower beds and pretty edging and perfect pathways, go visit someone else. However, if you can tolerate a less-than-perfect garden that includes a few weeds and a gardener who likes to sit and sip lemonade, then come on up the hill for a visit!
Oh, by the way, I had my first “wind injury” yesterday! I was going through the gate when a wind gust slammed it against me and the latch gouged a hole in my arm. Only in Oklahoma!
I’ve completed some new photo albums and I’m working on one more. See Just Tulips, Just Daffodils, and Cardinals in the left column. Will have Feathered Friends ready soon. Later of course, I hope to have new bunny, raccoon, and squirrel photos. Who knows what else the summer will bring?
Have a wonderful, warm, and lazy day!
My plan this weekend is to step away from genealogy for a while and do some photo projects I’ve been thinking about. One of the things I’ll be doing is creating new albums on my blog. This morning I started with “Just Tulips, 2011”. I’ll add a daffodils album, put some new photos in the cardinal album and create a couple of other new albums. Enjoy!
I am a great admirer of the work of local photographer Shireen Wright. I was challenged recently by her impressive black and white photos to try a few of my own. While they are nowhere near the caliber of hers, I am encouraged by the results and plan to experiment with more. I’m not taking them in black and white, but simply looking for subjects and lighting that are suitable to convert to black and white when I use Photoshop. This forces me to look more at shapes, angles, shadows, etc.
We are coming to the end of a good week of spring. It has been warm-cold-warm-cold-hot, breezy, blustery, and hold-on-to-your-car-door windy, but hey, that’s Oklahoma! I’ll keep it! I have already packed away the electric blanket. This weekend I plan to tempt fate by packing my sweaters. Yes, I’ll leave the sweatshirts hanging- I’m not crazy! Well...maybe not. Lol
Have a great day!
We’re pausing for a “commercial break” this morning. I'm also including some photos I took yesterday, but don't get lost in the glory of spring and ignore the message. LOL
The Caddo Education Foundation was formed quite a few years ago and is a group near and dear to my heart for several reasons. I received a small scholarship from them when I decided to return to school. It wasn’t the amount of money that was important, although the check helped pay for those shiny new text books with the price tags that almost made me faint. It was the “pat on the back”, the support, the encouragement, and the enthusiasm of the group that I appreciated. That check said, “We believe in you. We know you can do this!” I think I was their first older, “returning” student to receive help and I was thrilled that they had even considered me.
I also remember joining the group in the late nineties and helping to choose other scholarship recipients. It was an honor to read their qualifications and essays and to know that Caddo had produced such worthy students.
The Education Foundation continues to give scholarships to Caddo graduates each year, and like any such group, they need a little help.
Caddo Alumni can donate to the Foundation to assure that future students continue to have opportunities for a better life.
Anyone can donate in someone’s memory. That could be for one of your ancestors who was a Caddo graduate, or just a family memory who believed in supporting education.
You can donate money instead of buying flowers for a funeral. Someone did that when my mother died and a letter was sent to our family to let us know who had made the donation. Our family cherishes the memory that we were part of a scholarship given out that year.
This year the group plans to award 11 scholarships. Two are funded by the Amanda Whorton Scholarship fund, and one by the Gena Stanley Scholarship fund, which the Choctaw Nation started.
You can make donations to Caddo Education Foundation P O Box 82, Caddo, OK, 74729 or mail them to Shamrock Bank P O Box 108, Caddo. If you are a local bank customer just stop by and tell them you want to make a donation. They will be happy to take care of it. And let me just say a word about donations. If you feel that you don’t have much money to spare just think of $5 multiplied by 100 people who also don’t have much money to spare. You aren’t doing this alone, and together we can make a big difference!
The Education Foundation will be having a meeting next month to discuss scholarships, funding, and future plans. If you have a junior or senior in school, you need to be there. If you are interested in education, you need to be there. The meeting will be April 4th at 7:00 in the school cafeteria. I’ll save you a seat!!
My colleagues and I were discussing children’s games and playground equipment and activities yesterday because of the news coverage of Caddo’s new playground equipment, generously donated recently by a grandparent. We all agreed that children’s games are a bit “dull” these days, compared to our own childhood activities. Even though both of the other kindergarten teachers are young enough to be my daughters, playgrounds have changed tremendously even since their time at school. And my playground time was in the dark ages! Lol
I haven’t seen a child play marbles or jacks in twenty years. In fact, most of my students cannot identify or explain either game. On the J page of an older phonics lesson there is a “jack” and I always have to explain to my class what it is.
Jacks have been played for hundreds of years, first with small stones, then with other objects until the standard six-tipped metal jack was devised. Of course now the games pieces are available in plastic, but I’m not sure who plays with them. And it’s a shame, because jacks were always great for hand-eye coordination. I spent many a happy hour sitting on the ground with friends and playing "double bounces," "pigs in the pen," "over the fence," "eggs in the basket" "flying Dutchman," and "around the world”.
I didn’t play marbles much. That was the boy’s game and there were often heated competitions both at school and at our house after school. Boys collected marbles, trades marbles, and coveted marbles that were known to be great “shooters”.
As I got older and it wasn’t “cool” to sit on the ground at recess, I began to play hopscotch. I excelled at throwing a little chain into the square to mark my spot. I wasn’t bad at hopping either in my younger thinner days. And hopscotch is a little better known and even played by some school children today. It seems to be more popular at eastern schools or city schools where there is still blacktop and cement.
The aforementioned games, and jump rope, another popular activity of my childhood, required one of two things that hardly exist on playgrounds anymore: dirt or blacktop. For safety reasons most playgrounds are now grass or a “safety surface”- rubber matting, pebbles, mulch, or sand. And because of the expense of safety surfaces, especially the rubber ones, they are used only under slides, swings, climbing equipment, etc. You don’t see vast expanses of flat surfacing, perfect for hopscotch, jump rope or other games, except on older playgrounds that have not been “improved”.
Safety issues have changed much of the playground. Some schools don’t even have swings anymore because they have been deemed the most dangerous item in the metal jungle. I understand some parks have been forced to remove them because insurance companies will no longer cover them. Yet, the swing is a like a baby toy when compared to some of the contraptions that used to exist. When I think back to the playground equipment of my youth it is a wonder that I am alive to type this!
Anyone remember the maypole? It was a tall metal pole with two to four long chains that extended from a revolving top. At the ends of the chains were metal loops. The object was to hold the loop and run, run, run until the thing was spinning so hard that it lifted you off the ground. Better with four players, especially if you could avoid hitting each other and getting tangled up.
How about the seesaw or teeter-totter? And I’m not talking about those wimpy things you see on swing sets. I’m talking about those great twelve footers that could lift you high enough off the ground to make you lose your lunch! I haven’t seen one of those in about thirty years. It was in an old public park where we stopped with the kids while on vacation.
Slides have also changed dramatically. There are height requirements and landing surface regulations and most are now plastic instead of metal to prevent burns.
I nearly lost part of my tongue once while playing on the “monkey bars”. Fell smack down to the pavement and gave it a good bite. Yes, I was back to give it another try the next week. Jungle gyms and monkey bars and pyramids and all sorts of metal climbing mazes were once standards on playgrounds.
So, too, were merry-go-rounds. Oh, I miss those most of all! Who doesn’t remember spinning round and round, faster and faster? Or hanging precariously off the edge, or standing up without holding on, or dragging one foot through water or mud, or letting your long hair glide along the dirt? And it was always great if you could get a bigger kid or an adult to push!
How many black eyes and sprained fingers did you get playing tether ball? I may hold the record! I finally stopped playing because I just wasn’t good at it. But it was a thrill to watch two good players.
You may recall that I attended more than a dozen schools as a child so I was privileged to use a variety of playgrounds. I recall one that had a huge green wooden wall used specifically for that most feared and dreaded game of all- dodge ball. I had a college professor who swore that if we ever let our students play dodge ball she would track us down! I’m not sure she ever explained what she would do to us, but she was “preaching to the choir” here. I hated dodge ball with a passion!
It was ironic that during free choice time yesterday my students also had a discussion of games. One of my boys mentioned getting a new game during spring break and casually asked if anyone else had a WII. Hands shot up all over the room and students eagerly chimed in with the games they had and their favorites and who played them at their house. Changing times indeed.
On the one hand I applaud our efforts to make playgrounds safer places for our children. Many children were injured and maimed and even killed by the old playground equipment. Much of it needed to be removed.
But sometimes on warm spring days I wonder what my students would do if we had a merry-go-round.
I think I would be tempted to join them in whirling round and round and round…
Take some time to play today…safely.
What is an Okie gardener supposed to when her flowers are beautiful but the wind is blowing 20mph? She stands patiently and waits for the 5 seconds when the wind is calmer and snaps a photo to share with her friends. And she hopes that the friends don’t mind that the photos aren’t breathtakingly sharp or wonderful.
I was just so determined to share the different colors and shapes with all of you who are still stuck in the snow! And it didn’t hurt that a sweet little cardinal decided to be cooperative for a moment or two.
Enjoy!
I feel as though I have emerged out of a cave this weekend! I have spent hours putting the finishing touches on my new book and I’m happy to say that “Fat Men and Fabulous Ladies, The Founding Families of Caddo, Oklahoma, vol. 1” is sitting on my desk waiting to go to the indexer. I always forget how much time and effort it takes to double check the spelling, line spacing, page numbering, format, type face, etc. and then print out a copy and put it in a binder. And yes, I’m sure there are still mistakes to be found by a reader. But I’m still very happy with the book. It has some great information and fascinating stories for family historians and genealogists. Don’t miss the story of how three Caddo families are related to a famous outlaw! No, I won’t tell. Buy a book! Lol And by the way, the book profits do not all go to me. I split them with the genealogy library- my primary information source, support group, and inspiration. (Yes, there will be a vol. 2.) And lest you think I’m crazy or being disrespectful to our ancestors, the inspiration for my book and it’s title came from this photo.
I didn’t even go outside much yesterday since the wind was blowing at about 30mph. I have new tulips and the yard was filled with birds. Just wasn’t a good photo day!
Gary asked me yesterday if I had a good break and I answered quickly and positively. This has been a good break and I think one reason for that is that I didn’t plan a list of household chores to accomplish. I am tired of wasting my break with “spring cleaning”! It can wait until summer! Lol So just a hint- don’t plan a visit until about June unless you want to see a dirty house.
Still eating my veggies, and a little fish once a week. I have found that I need to watch my intake of cheese, salad dressing, and sour cream. All fattening additions to a meal! Note to daughter who is cringing and laughing at the same time- yes, condiments are my downfall! I need to eat my veggies without embellishment. (But fake meat still tastes better with a little BBQ sauce!)
I had a bad dream last night, one I’ve had before, and it caused me to lay awake thinking for a bit. Dreams are strange compilations of fact and fiction, hopes and fears. Our mind works in mysterious ways for sure.
The grass is turning a brighter shade of green by the minute and I swear I can see it growing. Gary will have to give that new mower a serious workout soon. He says he will show me how to operate it, but if I learn how to drive it, doesn’t that just obligate me to help him? I’m thinking ignorance would be bliss, and a whole lot less work.
Back to school today. I’m excited to get back to my students and my regular routine, yet I know that we are counting down to the last day now. So much to accomplish, so little time! And this has truly been a great class. I will miss having them around.
Hope today is just the beginning of a wonderful week!
I'm a retired kindergarten teacher and author with three children and three grandchildren.
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