“Peg, what are you watching these days?”
I’m so glad you asked! After finishing
Bones, we watched several movies in a row. A couple of them were really good
and I’d recommend them. My Spy and Griffin & Phoenix are two that come to
mind. After that we watched five seasons of a British Crime drama called DCI
Banks. Sometimes it was hard to understand the dialog because of the accent but
it didn’t deter us from watching it. Now we’re watching a Canadian drama series
called Heartland. When I was cruising for something new to watch and saw
Heartland, I remember my mother telling me it was something she liked to watch.
Nine seasons are free with your Prime membership. And it’s really good. We end
up watching at least three episodes every day.
“What are you reading?”
Another great question! I’ve been getting my
books from the library lately. It’s not that I don’t like physical books, I do.
But it’s easier to read on my iPad at night rather than have a light on and
bother Mike. Not to mention that it has the capability of defining a word for
me with just the touch of a finger. Words like nefarious, reticence, limned,
remuda, innocuous. Words we don’t use often in casual conversation. How easy
(and convenient) is that! I belong to two online libraries; our local one and a
larger one out of Philadelphia. Anyone who lives in Pennsylvania is eligible
for a free card at the Philly library and they have a much larger selection of
online books.
I found myself between books this week. I’d
finished one and the one I had on hold wasn’t ready yet. Depending on how many
people are in queue ahead of you determines how long you have to wait for a book.
What to read next? I mused. Then I remembered a conversation I
had with my siblings early last month.
“I finished Clan of the Cave Bear series and
took a couple of days to see what I wanted to read next. I decided on
Brotherhood of War series by W.E.B. Griffin. I read till 4 this morning,” my
handsome brother David said.
“Is this your second time reading Clan of
the Cave Bear?” I wanted to know. “If you're liking Brotherhood of War so much,
I'll have to check it out. Right now, I'm reading Irene Hannon.”
“I read Clan of the Cave Bear 3,4,5 times,”
David said. “I’ll let it rest for a year or more and then reread it. This is
the 3rd or 4th time for the Brotherhood of War series. I like to reread some
books.”
Patti, my beautiful older sister replied, “I’ve
read all of W. E. B. Griffin books.”
They must be good, I thought and checked out this W.E.B.
Griffin. He’s kinda famous and I’ve never heard of him.
William Edmund Butterworth III (November 10,
1929 – February 12, 2019), better known by his pen name W. E. B. Griffin, was
an American writer of military and detective fiction with 59 novels in seven
series published under that name. 21 of those books were co-written with his
son, William E Butterworth IV. He also published under 11 other pseudonyms and
three versions of his real name (W. E. Butterworth, William E. Butterworth, and
William E. Butterworth III), Wikipedia
says and lists all of his works.
I searched the online library and they had
50 of his books. The first in the series Brotherhood of War was available and I
borrowed it.
I kinda sorta knew that this book wasn’t
going to be my cup of tea.
Sorry David.
Right off the bat the author starts talking
military talk. PzKwIV tanks. M4A2 Sherman’s. A lot of what I read was sentences
like this: He was dressed in olive-drab shirt and trousers, with a yellow
piece of parachute silk wrapped around his neck as foulard. He carried a World
War 1 Colt New Service .45 ACP revolver in an old-fashioned cavalry-style
holster (one with a swivel, so the holster would hang straight down even when
mounted).
The guard at the door to the CP carried a
Thompson .45 caliber submachine gun.
Okay. Maybe describing the accouterments of
war in such detail is essential to the novel — and trust me, he did a lot of it
— but I don’t have a background in the military like David does and found
it…boring.
“Peg, you should give it a chance!” you say.
I did. I gave it 28 pages. How many pages
should you give a book before you decide to read it or give it up? A good question
and one I Googled.
If you’re fifty years of age or younger,
give a book fifty pages. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even
shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you
should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.
Well, some days I feel like I’m 72 but
according to this formula I quit eleven pages too soon.
Unlike my handsome brother, I seldom read
books a second time. Not that I didn’t enjoy them, more like there’s so much
else out there to read!
I went with David’s other favorite. Clan of
the Cave Bear. It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve read the series so I
borrowed that — and read more than 60 pages that first night. It was after
midnight when I quit; eyes so dry and blurry I couldn’t read any more. And I’m
really enjoying reading it again.
Mike and I have been playing with the same
deck of Skip-Bo cards for more than a year — two, maybe three even! We’ve
played with this particular deck for a long time and we play, on average, three
games a day. One after each of our meals. Since Patti gave me Momma’s deck when
she passed, we finally decided it was time to trash the old ones. I don’t think
we’ll ever tire of playing this game.
“Peg, what’re the stats?” you wanna know.
Since I’ve been tracking wins and losses
almost two years ago, we’ve played 1,978 games. Mike wins the most and has won
1,352 of them. He’s pretty lucky. After all, he has me, doesn’t he?
Oh! Speaking of Mike and lucky…
“Peg, look at this.” Mike was at my computer
and I was washing dishes.
I dried my hands and went to look — and had
to look twice!
We’re just gonna slip a little bad news right in here before we go on with my week.
“What’s going on, Peg?”
Last weekend, Saturday I think, I noticed I
hadn’t seen one of our cats for a while. It was very unusual for Anon not to be
around. She’s Smudge’s mother, our gray and white feral female. Anon never went
far and was always on the kitchen patio for breakfast. At the end of the day,
as I crawled in bed, I asked Mike, “When was the last time you saw Anon?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“She wasn’t at breakfast this morning and I
haven’t seen her all day.”
“Do you think she’s stuck in the
garage?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know.” I couldn’t see any reason
she would be. There’s a cat door. And if she’d’ve been stuck she’d’ve meowed
and I’d’ve heard her.
I know right! That’s a lot of triple
contractions! Not legal, but it’s kinda the way I talk.
I should’ve known better than to bring
something like that up at night. Mike got out of bed and checked the garage.
She wasn’t there. He went out front and called her. He went out back and
called. Then, just for good measure, he went out front again. No Anon. But I
did have a worried Mike all night.
The next morning, no Anon.
Later, in the afternoon, while out gathering
milkweed for my caterpillars, I got a whiff of dead. I searched the bank from the
yard side and didn’t see anything. I went in and got Mike and we took the golf
cart down the road side of the bank and found her. I’m guessing she was hit by
a car. If an animal had killed her she’d’ve been at least partially eaten and
she was quite whole and quite skun up. All the hair was missing from her back
quarter.
So, our tribe is down by another member this
year. First Molly, then Ginger, and now Anon.
Sigh.
But at least I’ve got this handsome guy to
lavish my love on and play fetch with.
Tiger is about four months old now and old
enough to be neutered. We went through our local cat rescue to have it done.
They only charge fifty buck-a-roos whereas the vet charges almost two hundred
clams!
We had to have Tiger in Meshoppen by 8:30
Tuesday morning. Mike makes me crazy sometimes.
“What time do you want to leave by?” I asked
him.
“7:30?”
“An hour! We can be in Tunkhannock in 25
minutes.” Meshoppen is about halfway to Tunkhannock.
“How about a quarter to eight?”
“I was thinking eight o’clock.”
In the end we left a little before eight.
Tiger rides well as long as we let him ride in Ginger’s car seat and not
confine him to the carrier.
When it came time to pick him up, we left
even earlier. “Maybe she’ll be back early and we can get home in time to watch
the evening news,” Mike said.
I didn’t argue.
We were there really early. There was one
other car waiting and she’s one of the workers at the shelter. We parked and
took to watching traffic pass by on the busy Route 6.
Pretty soon another car rolled in. The guy
got out and was talking with the lady.
“Do you think it’s her husband?” we
speculated.
“I don’t know,” I said and snapped a
picture.
I zoomed in and had to laugh. “I don’t know what he’s telling her but she’s not buying it!” I turned the camera around and showed Mike.
On the way home Tiger rode in the center cat
seat. I reached over and stroked his face. He closed his eyes and rested his
head in my hand.
“He probably didn’t rest at all,” I said. “Can
you image being in that car with all those meowing cats?” I felt sorry for
Paula. “But maybe she’s used to it.”
Going up a hill we pass this guy. Living here, in this part of the country, with so much well drilling going on, we see some interesting cargo being transported.
“How many axles were on that truck?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know.”
Mike wanted to see the truck again so we pulled over at the gas station once we got back into town.
Tiger was quiet the rest of that night but
the next day he was back to his old self, pestering his older brother Smudge.
Another day we were stopped at the end of our road when this passes us by.
I’ve been making face masks. I couldn’t find any elastic for the ear pieces at the stores but I was able to order a hundred-yard roll on Amazon and got it in three days. Now I’m all set. I’ve got plenty of material. Plenty of elastic. Plenty of coffee filters to put between the fabric. Plenty of time — if I don’t work on my other craft projects. The next thing I’ll have to get is another pack of needles. Sometimes, when I’m zigzagging across the nose wire, I’ll hit the wire. I’m not doing too bad though. I’ve only done it twice. But I only had a four-pack of needles. So, I’ll have to get more of those and more thread. I don’t even try to match colors. Black goes with everything. And all of the masks are reversible. It’s like getting two masks in one.
Mike is still working on the kitchen patio. His back can’t take too much at a time so he takes lots of breaks to rest. And I encourage that. We’re not on anyone’s payroll or timetable. It’ll get done when it gets done. And I think it’s looking fabulous!
And that’s pretty much all the news from my
corner of the world. But it’s not the end of pictures. How about some bugs
first, then we’ll do wildflowers.
This guy, with a pretty orange and black
underwing is called — what else! — an Underwing Moth.
I was trying really hard to get a picture of
him for you but he was really wiggly. As soon as I let the pressure off — poof!
— he was gone in a cloud of moth feathers.
I found this moth on a milkweed leaf. I don’t know what he is and I haven’t spent much time looking for his name either. There are so many moths out there I could search for hours and never find him. But he’s interesting looking, isn’t he.
Now this one I did post on the bug page on Facebook. For one very good reason. I thought he was a little walking stick but he flew! Do walking sticks fly? I didn’t think so but it turns out there are a few who do. This guy, however, is not a walking stick. He’s a Thread-legged bug, one of the assassin bugs. He’s got front legs like a praying mantis and can grasp his food while he consumes it.
Speaking of praying mantises!
I found three of them in my milkweed patch.
They’re waiting for a Monarch to land to lay her eggs then he’ll nab her.
I’ve never seen this one before and was surprised to learn it’s a vetch. I guess I shouldn’t be since the leaves do remind me of Crown Vetch. This is Cow Vetch. It’s in the pea family and is mostly used for fodder or ground cover.
We were out for a golf cart ride on our dirt
back roads when we cross the bridge across our pretty little creek.
“Did you see that purple flower?” he asked and
I had to smile.
“No.
“I don’t know.”
Since he spotted a flower for me, I couldn’t
very well not take its picture. Some of you may recognize the Morning Glory also
called Creeping Jenny and Field Bindweed.
The powdered root and whole flowering plant
are used for treating fever, urinary tract problems, constipation, and for
increasing bile production.
The flowers and young shoots can be eaten.
A green inch worm on Evening Primrose.
I was looking at this pretty statue of a dog
in someone’s yard, thinking how life-like it looked. Then his head moved.
I laughed.
“What?” Mike asked.
Mike looked and the dog’s head followed as
we went past.
“How’d they get the head to move like that?”
he joked.
Once I download the pictures to my ‘puter I
can see he has a shock collar on. That explains why he didn’t even bother with
us.
A couple of pictures of the Walker Farm.
“What are those things on the fence?” I asked.
“They’re to tighten the wires,” Mike answered.
“See? There’s one of every wire.”
“I guess I didn’t know they left them on the
wire.”
This is Gray Dogwood. The nectar and pollen
of the flowers attract a wide variety of insects. The leaves are eaten by many
moth caterpillars. The berries are eaten by all kinds of critters. Bears,
skunks, and squirrels to name a few. The dense thickets provide nesting sites
and cover for birds.
Gray Dogwood has a few medicinal uses. It
was used as a wash for cuts, toothaches, and hemorrhoids.
The Indians smoked shredded bark for ceremonial purposes.
“We should get one of those old windows or a
door,” I said hopefully.
“Uh, no,” Mike was quick to say. “You just
can’t go in there and take stuff.”
“Why not? No one cares about it.”
“It’s not safe,” he pointed out.
“Hey! I think that was Turtlehead. Back up,
would ya?”
Mike is a good husband and backed up for me.
It is Turtlehead! I was lucky to have
spotted the solitary plant.
Turtlehead,
also called Balmony, Shellflower, Snakehead, Snakemouth, Turtlebloom,
Bitterweed, Fishhead, and Fishmouth, is very bitter so it’s not edible but it
has many uses in holistic medicine.
As we go on down the road I
start to spot more and more Turtlehead. We’re passing through the Sate Game
Lands and there’s a big long stretch of Turtlehead.
“If I’d’ve known there was
going to be more, I wouldn’t’ve made you back up!”
The beavers have dammed up the culvert
again. I wonder how long it’ll be till the game wardens bust it apart again.
Deptford Pink with the pretty orange of Spotted Jewelweed in the background. I’m not sure what the other purple flower is.
I’ve never seen this one before either. This is Common Snowberry.
Brooms were made out of the branches and the
twigs were hollowed out to make pipe stems.
In folk medicine the berries were rubbed on
the skin for burns, rashes, and sores.
A decoction of the roots and stems was used
in the treatment of the inability to urinate, venereal diseases, tuberculosis,
and the fevers associated with teething sickness. A tea made from the roots was
as used to clear up afterbirth.
Moth Mullein. It comes in yellow or white like this one.
And this is the Virgin’s Bower after it’s gone to seed. Kinda pretty, ain’t it.
I went to put letters in the mailbox and see my Kipps going down the road on their morning walk.
I love the Kipps.
“HEY KIPPS!” I yell.
They turned and waved.
Who knew there were so many kinds of dogwood!
This is the Silky Dogwood. It’s uses are
very similar to the Gray Dogwood.
“Whoa! Peg! Wait just a minute!” you say. “You
haven’t told us how your Monarchs are doing this week!”
That’s right. I didn’t.
Okay.
So, I had this female born first. She has a
bad spot on her wing.
I thought she was just missing a little
color but it’s slightly deformed too. It didn’t stop her from flying though.
Later in the week I had another female.
The butterflies usually emerge
in the early part of the day. I guess that gives their wings a chance to dry. I’ll
check the butterfly house three, four, six times during the morning. This one
was born after I’d stopped checking as often and by the time I saw her she was
fully dry and rarin to go. I couldn’t get a hold of her so this picture, as she
took her maiden flight, is the only one I have of her.
I say her but I can’t tell for sure which sex it is.
Right now, I have two caterpillars left and
seven chrysalises.
And now, let’s call this one done!
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