artic freeze and never say never

some old sayings are just old sayings, but some old sayings have some truth. red sky at night sailor's delight~
red sky at morning sailor's take warning.

after this hazy red prairie sunrise, we have had, it seems like, ages of cold, snow, and no sun. i had to go out and buy a parka so i wouldn't freeze on the two block walk to work.

for a person who needs the sun to be cheery it is dreadful.

i said i was never going to retire where it was cold....so what did i do... i bought a house 100 miles farther north than i live now that generates it own little storms and weather patterns. .... just north of the black hills.

isolation

where? a warm pot of chocolate in a french window? a forgotten crock in a miner's cabin? too white..the clues ambiguous..the window rain scared. the frame metal so not old... a new alone pot
but on the inside i know there are kids making there hands as nimble as possible polishing holes in fishing weights...piece work.
hopefully it is an electric kettle for warm tea to cheer the task in a room with metal air

view point

if i have my camera with me, i am more likely to see the beauty around me and also the details of the ordinary. one evening as i was walking to the cafeteria ...with my camera... i saw the sunlight reflecting through the wings of a small crowd of insects. they would have probably been unnoticable if the light had been different. the LIGHT makes many things beautiful and many things seeable.

design crash

when two strong personalities get together, well, there is some adjusting to do. like opposites on the color wheel...for example. red and green. my sister has beautiful green glasses...a lot of them. i have dark red plates plus some blue things and cream, and yellow. so the the question is can they go together.. i think so, if those strong colors can make it together, so can we.

i found this pressed glass pitcher at pier one . it has no handle only the the pinched top which works and just a little tiny pour spout. it goes with the glasses. sort of ... same color only they are plain.

black and white

who can resist the rays of warm sun on cold day espescially when your owner keeps the house in the 60's. and if there is someone else in the basket even if it is really only big enough for one fat cat, well, somehow you can sort of fit in with your friend.

what to do with stuff in small space

just stopped in builder's warehouse to pick up plastic to cover windows. they had a little display of unfinished furniture in the very front. something new for them. anyway,, there was a cart like the small one pictured here with a side addition that was a cupboard with a door. i like that it is on wheels. i thought it might fit at the end of our island in the kitchen. kind of hard to remember the space. it is 14 inches deep, 30 inches wide and 34 inches tall. could use it to hold kitchen linen and little used utensils. could even roll it in the closet. well maybe.

wallpaper

well i just spent an hour looking for a border pattern because i clickedon the first selection after a google search. if i had read just a little farther i would have seen the home of the wall paper company and that it had super advanced search. after clickling on that i found the pattern in two seconds. i am thinking i could convince my sister to put the border up someplace in our house. not sure where. but it reminds me of pine ridge where she used to live and to the hills around where we live now. well, she lives and i will in a little while. the link is in the link box if you want to see what it looks like.

growing things

it is hard to think about growing things when it is cold and dreary outside. at least until the spring catalogs come. our resident home gardner has plowed all his garden plots and they are now covered with blown in leaves. the farm fields have been chiseled down to just dirt, not sure why, seems a little stubble would keep the dirt from blowing away. but in any case the fields are being covered with cow pow to meld in the ground over the winter. the new house has two new trees...a locust which will grow tall and because it has small leaves will give filtered light and won't leave much to rake up...especially if the wind keeps blowing like it has when i have been there. we could have picked a house that had a big cottonwood in the yard shading the deck. but my sister and i thought it was too old and would soon be causing problems....like falling into the house. our other little tree is a nannyberry. our great grandmother was called nanny by her kids and grandkids and great grandkids so we thought that was appropriate. i think we can make jam from the berries if the birds don't get to them first. now we just have to work on grass and those other little plants that will make the yard cosy. a little grape vine would be nice for jelly. and maybe a chokecherry or two for jelly. roses for fragrance. every house needs roses. gardening will keep us busy and young for the rest of our lives.

birds & berries

cool dusky air settled over the campus today. everybody seemed a little sluggish and unperky, except the birds. they were swooping all over the campus as i walked out of the cafeteria. birds mostly are silent during the middle of the day, but these were chirpping here and there as they swarmed from one tree to the next. maybe it was the chill signaling that they needed to be packing up and leaving. one funny shaped juniper that had been topped out by lightning and now has two tops and is filled with clusters of frosty blue berries. after standing still under the tree for awhile, i could see that the branches were filled with young robins, their breasts just turning to rust, gobbling up berry after berry. there was such a glut to choose from they would pick the best from one bunch and then flit to another to rob that bunch of the prime berries. they were either chirpping from just being happy or maybe the berries had ripened a little bit beyond perfection.

water

if you look closely you can see the green grass floating around the lighthouse in the middle of the plates which matches the green glasses. every since my sister visited her son in maryland and witnessed pony penning, she has been pining for the sea.

there is something about the smell of salt in the air and the feel of water settled in space, and the sound of lapping water against the shore that calls to the soul. evolutionists would say it is the cradle calling us home. maybe. but is only soothing when not storming. tourists probably remember the gentle waters and sweet sun. most are not around when the tropical storms whip in. so in the middle of the prairie - which some say--probably true--was once a sea, my sister's house is inhabitated by shells, lighthouses in various guises, and other things nautical; but not fish. she doesn't like fish. i however like their looks, colors, designs, and i have to admit, how some of them taste. they are designed so beautifully. on the other hand she is a swimmer, once she belonged to a sync swim team. but i am afraid to be in over my neck. we will have to make some comprimises when we live together, but that is just like all people living in the same space. i will probably have to keep my fish in my room. i will have to try and convince her to eat fish as it is better than chicken and beef in a thousand ways.

paradoxically, people who have lived on the prairie--true prairies--most of their life, make very good sailors. they are used to waves (of grain) and wind and being able to see for miles. the life on the ocean is more like life on the praririe than moving to anyother part of the country. where you live also influences how you look at things in your life. being able to look forever helps you see the the overall picture, you become less focused on minutuia. well, maybe that is a bit much, it doesn't matter where you grow up if you grow up poor and with second stuff--you want all the minutuia you can get---stuff and more stuff. but that is another whole discussion.

waterpark fun without water

when i was young a long time ago i went to a small school in a small town. shop was downstairs (really a half basement similar to the one in the picture), the first floor was four rooms -> 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8. Then the 9-12 was the next floor up and a half floor up was a little castle like turrent where the principal lived. Outside of a boy who was sweet on my sister (5 years old in first grade) running down the picnic table at the end of the year celebration, i remember sliding down the fire escape once a year for fire drill. of course back then we girls had to wear dresses. i remember somebody sort of waxing it before the drill so we could actually slide down and the teachers at the bottom to catch us smaller ones. it was quite a trip trying to get down and your dress down too.

i am not sure if they still use this one. it looks well kept, but if there was a real fire would someone have to run around to the back of the school to unlock the grate? not a problem if it is a drill because you can do it ahead of time. maybe they have a kick release so the first one down can push it open. or perhaps it is just there for reunions so the old folks can slide down and remember trying to either keep your dress down or sneak a peak at the girls coming down.

the last time i took a trip down one gas was 16 cents a gallon. entertainment is lot pricier now!

outside

hopefully, we will have grass next spring. we plan to put rose bushes in front of the porch. easy to care for ones with great fragrance. probably reds and pinks.


there are two steps up to the deck/porch. the inspector said not to put anything on the wood until next fall. guess the wood has to season. there is no step into the house. just right for two old ladies. :)



the two chairs on the deck are my sister's. my two are still in nebraska in the back yard next to the fire pit. you can see a little bird house sitting on the railing. in the back is part of the landscape we see. deer still come out there to graze. i don't know how long that will last when the rest of the houses are built.

getting comfy for a good read

above left is the chair that once belonged to my great grandmother, nanny. my sister own's it now (i have nanny lapel watch) and had it recovered in a whitesh tapestry that is called snowflake.

to the far right is the chair that i saw in the second had store, although i am pretty sure it is an overstock from somewhere. i laughed at it when i first saw it, but then sat in it and it is perfect for watching tv or reading a book. comfy first class. besides it has funky legs and above all it is GREEN!


this is the free green couch that goes with t he navy blue color scheme for our new house. notice the little kitty scratches right under the curl of the arms. it is chunky and comfy. just in case you didn't notice the glasses on the table are green, the receipe on the bookcase is framed in green and the plates on the table have green grass growing around the lighthouse.

we found the bar stools at Martha's place. the end tables are on loan from my nephew.

house chairs

So I get easily distracted. My sister gave away her nice walnut table and chairs because of the memories associated with set. With no money to really buy a new one, her son offered her a "classic" from the 50's. Well, the chairs were from the fifties. The chair on the right shows original condition. The grease was so thick on the plastic you could cook fries for a year. ugh. The padding was so old that it was like sitting on the wood. There was no way I was going to sit on that even for a minute. So I bought some padding, vynal, and tacks at wally world and spent a day and a half redoing the chairs. Probably should have thrown them out and just bought folding chairs. Would have been less time intense and probably a little cheaper.



The bookcase behind the chair is my sister's ex. It is on loan for the occupancy of the house. Notice that it has a drawer in the bottom which mine does not.

We bought some black folding chairs at Martha's place to fill out the set. We had eight people around the table and two sitting on bar stools at the center counter for our first meal. I made colcannon and my sister made a lentil loaf.

more trains at gibbon

the cat cranes arrived on a big truck. it didn't take them long to be on the ground crunching over piles of coal and debris in preparation to lift cars out of the way. i wasn't able to stay and watch as i have a job. as i was talking pictures all sorts of vehicles and equipment arrived including a semi loaded with concret ties. in a couple of days i will go and take some pictures of the repair.

even though the train crashed, hundreds go by every day without incident and so i am thinking of traveling west to reno during spring break to visit my family. i think i was on a train when i was about three or four, but at sixty-four i cannot remember the experience. i think the prices are a little less than air and it takes longer, but i think i would like to experience a train ride before too much more of my life goes by.

emily and nina

i met two nice, well one nice cat and one wild cat during my stay in illinois. emily decided that my suitcase was a good place to sleep, rest, and check out the world. she is a nice gray and orange tabby who has been trained to stay off counters, but likes to be in the bathroom when someone is taking a shower, sort of like dennis. she had a little kid's canvas chair bought for her, but didn't seem to like it. it has since been taken over by the little squirt--nina. nina's pupils are never tiny.... it is like she is on a permanent adrenaline rush. once when she was chasing emily she jumped staight up in the air from the floor onto the couch. her feet are pretty big so she might turn out to be bigger than emily. her tail is in a constant fluff. i am not sure it can lay down. neither are real snugglers to strangers. i think only sam, who is has his own issues is that friendly to strangers.

big crunch

it didn't happen close to campus or i am sure we would have heard and felt it. twenty seven cars crushed into each other destroying cars, dumping coal, closing a side road, and attracting sightseers. by the time i arrived they were busy fixing things. you can see the cat picking up wheels and moving them off the track. while i was taking pictures two cranes on cat treads arrived to pick up cars at either end and move them around. by the time i got back from a visit to my son and daughter-in-law in illinois--5 days later--only 6 cars, empty, were left. new track had been laid and most of the coal hauled away.

what people think we are

it is interesting to here what people think about you. most of it is based on bits and pieces of what they think they know. once i was deemed unfit to teach in the church school because the people of the church did not see my children with me in church not understanding that they were always with their dad on that day because he always worked on sundays. i had a cousin who was a minister's wife who people thought spent all their money on clothes,but she had excellent taste and was a great seamtress. currently my peers think i know a lot more about computers than they do only because i helped them find lost files a few times---they couldn't find their draft mail, or had changed the home view of their grade program ---and i just called someone to find out how to print report cards from our networked data base, something last years registrar couldn't figure out. it doesn't take computer know how to pick up a phone and ask for directions. i just wrote them down. and it worked. in another environment i would certainly not be considered expert in any fashion whatsoever. i miss the college town. hopefully when i move to belle there will be enough intellectual stimulation in rapid where the school of mines resides. it actually has a world wide reputation, so i would expect the town to be more interesting than being in the middle of the cornfield. maybe i need to look deeper.

soft touch

i ran into town the other day to deposit my check--i miss direct deposit--when a train came to a halt in the main part of town. i could see that some switching of cars was going on so when i could i drove to a crossing--which was blocked by the train, of course,-- and watched the engineers at work. it was a short train of cars to be deposited here and there pulled by two engines and as far as i could tell run by two engineers. one of the engines was number 813 which i have seen go by often. both the engineers where out walking and switching the tracks. as i watched they deposited one grain car by an elevator i thought no one used and then remotely backed up the forward part of the train to the detached back of the train. i waited for the crunch of the couplings, but none came. the engineer with his remote backed up the two engines and about ten cars so sweetly that there was not a sound above that of the engines as the train was rejoined. they walked back to the engines, each getting in there own, the train starting just as the forward engineer stepped aboard. no sound of jerking cars crunched the air waves as they slipped on to the next site. not everyone is so skilled as i am often awakened at night by the patterned staccato of cars being jerked one after the other forward.

sweet summer nights

last evening i rode the yellow bus into town with chattering teens. the windows were down and the warm air blew nicely through the bus. the teens had were in a party mood and had prepared with baths, clean duds, and maybe a few with a bit too much deoderant or perfume. but no cow smell for this group. a few were brave enough to sit as couples in the front of the bus. :)

as i snaped pictures at the mini-gulf course, some tried to hide, others kept checking the results and asked for retakes until they look perfect in their overly critical eyes. but the air was the same summer air that i remmebered as a teen. it was the air of wandering through the neighborhood, looking for friends, for hanging out, for driving to the a & w for a rootbeer float. nobody should be in school yet, air.