SPRING!

We’re coming into Honeysuckle Week - absolutely the best smelling 10 days of the year (so.. I stretched the week a little). Spring has been and is - happening with a particular gusto this year. I guess a near perfect combination of mild winter, plenty of water & an early warm snap.

Way too bad we can’t smell the photo. I’ve got a bushel sized ball of Honeysuckle on a low tree branch near my driveway. It is easy to pull the branch down a bit and stick my face in it. Zowie! I get a few hits a day (while they last).

After that warm snap, the weather un-snapped right back to cool - then waves off and on. I like a long cool spring. Here is a photo of a late February snow on deck - it makes a neat pattern on the chicken wire strung over my Tulsi pots. (keeps the local critters from eating the seeds/sprouts). They’re doing well this year - 15 pots of Tulsi (link here). I like to give ‘em away.
Big Medicine.

My GP, Dr. Aruwani, always gets the first batch. He is Pakistani and they revere the plant as an embodiment of Shiva. Last year I had a minor setback and had to do a re-start on my plants and the crop was a bit late. When I delivered - the Dr. said his wife was asking "Vere iz dot Toolsi guy diz year?"


My wooded acres of bare trees seemed to leaf out in a single day. I’ve totally lost my back yard sky view to green. I don’t mind a bit. At night, if I want stars, I’ll leave the deck and go up front for the Milky Way - no imposition at all.

I noticed in past springs that the first wave of green growing things is in the 2-3 inch range. The tiniest whites, yellows, blues and my favs - the Grape Hyacinths pop up out of the cold dirt. Yeah!

Also the tiniest bugs begin to creep. Plants first makes sense, the emerging 6-leggers need something to eat.

Best guess is the natural wisdom in starting close to the ground is they are less likely to get blown away with the final playouts of winter bluster if they are not too tall and exposed. Even if they get squashed by snow - it will melt into the water they absolutely need.

The second wave of growing things is about twice that height and comes a few weeks later than the first - the weather is a bit warmer and a bit less risky. Two or three weeks after the second spurt and any height is OK and everything gets to competitive growing - full tilt. Sunlight & relative warmth becomes a sure thing. Them that track the sun know it is back, so off we go!!

Around this point in development, the 6-leggers have crept out, begun their assault and eaten a lot of whatever (plants or each other) so, one morning on the drive to work I see a jillion tiny spider tents scattered evenly through the grass and weeds. Mile after mile, they are all kind of "lit up" by the diffusion of the early morning light.

Little white triangles evenly scattered on every patch of ground I drove by. I'm sure this went on for many square miles over all the mountains. Let’s see now - @10 of these installations every square yard, I venture a rigorous guess at half a gazillion webs in the county. Double that for actual residents - there are usually a pair of spiders occupying the nests.

Obviously, it is the 8-leggers turn to fatten up. It’s a good thing critters at that scale have many offspring. The area is loaded with webs. I like these guys and the logic of tent/web construction (form follows function) gives some limited insight as to the purpose & lifestyle of these tiny trappers.

Most of the webs in my yard have double bottoms - a space beneath, separating the upper "catch" portion from a kind of lower floor - where the pair of spiders hang out & wait. I wonder, does she eat him after he has been useful? Several species do. Several others specie hang around to be the coming brood’s first meal - quite a sacrifice.


I have a particular fondness for Dogwood trees especially in bloom. I like their skinniness and the flowers are lovely. I get a graceful "Japanese Woodcut" feeling from looking at them.

The real white ones seem to glow in the dark - they reflect any tiny amount of light and are really neat in the moonlight. Too bad a night shot is beyond my current photographic capabilities but I did find one on-line photo that shows what I’m talking about.

I did get some daytime shots of a few trees on the upper driveway that were in spectacular bloom before they quit showing off and got back to work greening up.



#1 Son Ben in CA sent me a great Christmas present - a LEGO Yellow Submarine. I love it. Watched the colorful package live in the fambly room near the TV for months - saving & savoring the future assembly.

When I got home from the hip job in February, I passed a few minutes each day (prolonging the fun) turning the numbered wordless pages in the instruction book (99 pages) and assembling.

The illustrations of the parts and pieces were color true and though some took a good look to discover the differences from the previous picture, they were perfectly sequenced. The circles & arrows etc. made the chore easy for anybody anywhere in the world! Sign language instruction - Amazing.

It was big fun - a really satisfying project. Reminded me of putting together plastic model kits with "Airplane Glue" in my pre-misspent youth.

My brother and I created plenty of models from gray plastic kits - planes, ships and later on (when war machines became a stale market) cars. We also made lots of models out of left over "parts" that were not intended by the manufacturer to be bonded together - they turned out to be nifty spaceships, robots, monsters etc.

I eventually finished my Yellow Submarine and took it to the office where I can appreciate it 5 days a week.

Here are a few shots of the Sub, the Lads & JH Boob (the Nowhere Man) - a very thoughtful gift from my dear son (will be 40 this birthday)
(How did THAT happen so fast?)*


I grocery shop a few times a week. I don’t keep much on hand - let them do the storage. (this won’t work in "hard times" but for now...).

I do most of my food shopping at "Ingles" - a SE grocery chain that is expanding their presence in our area - putting up a massive building complex on the main highway. Progress I guess. It’s a good store, clean & well stocked - typical idyllic American Grocery.

There is pretty serious vendor competition for shelf space in any grocery. Even more so for the limited space available in the frozen food aisles. We have two long frozen food lockers at my local Ingles. I don’t pay much attention to the pre-prepared stuff and haven’t eaten a packaged microwave dinner since my GI surgeries in 2013.

But cruising through the aisle a few weeks ago and my eye was arrested by some of the worst display packaging in my visual history.

I "get" the intention. These were pre-prepared "Healthy" meals in colorful packaging and I understand that if you show the potential buyer what they are actually buying it is more "honest" than a painting or photo picture of the contents.

To this end, the cardboard packages had a blank window cut out of the center so you could see the frozen meal sealed in plastic - ready to nuke.

Again, a commendable idea. However, the actual results made me laugh out loud and I even found the store manager Mark and commented that it was the worst packaging I had ever seen. Here are a few shots.

Tell me it doesn’t look like frozen packaged puke. Several varieties.


My opinion is often way off but I’ll risk a bold statement - If they don’t change the packaging they will go out of business. See for yourself. aarrghh!

I didn’t have a pressing subject this issue so I gleaned topics from my camera, figuring if I took a photo it must have held some interest.

Can’t remember the particular day but I was feeling kind of smiley so I took a "selfie" - an attempt to preserve the good attitude.

Looking back at the photo I can’t help but think "That’s me in there." I don’t feel that gray & wrinkly but I sure look it! How did THAT happen so fast?*

Not too bad though. I’m pretty happy with life at this point and I can outright bless all the folks that helped get me here - helpers and abusers alike - all contributed to this point in time - thanx all Y’all.

I've had some lovely reunions and fine new meetings since the last epistle.
"It" is going well.
I’m happily going out to smell the air.

Big Love to All