GET BACK ~~ WAYBACK WEDNESDAY ~~ PARTING SHOT

GET BACK

During these unsettling times, it is a good idea to return to what we love, to give us solace in times of trouble. That means getting back to nature, for me. I trust that everyone is holing up at home and staying apart from others to hopefully defeat this virus. Linda and I have been staying at home except for taking walks around the neighborhood, which the Health District has said is okay to do as long as you keep a safe distance, and they even encourage it for our physical and mental health. We also took a walk at the Tahoma Cemetery, because we figured no one there would bother us. We did see a funeral taking place (this was about a week ago before they were banned) but we came nowhere near it and we were in fact on the opposite end of the cemetery. We got in a good walk and I also managed to get a few pictures and video to share.

Canada Geese

We walked to the far end of the cemetery to check out the Japanese Garden to see if any progress had been made on it.  The last time we visited this monument was in December and it was covered with snow. The area was still the same and no new work had been done, which wasn't surprising for this time of year. I was able to get a picture and a short video of the monument, though, so you can at least see it this time. If you want to read the inscription on the monument, pause the video and you might be able to see it.

As usual, there were a lot of Canada Geese hanging around and chasing each other through the headstones. We were actually able to get pretty close to them as they seemed to ignore us for the most part. A couple of them did get quite vocal in my video, but I don't know if it was because of us or because they were involved in a mating ritual.

There was one couple that had parked themselves beside a grave, possibly enjoying the shade (although it was rather chilly so that made no sense). One goose, I am thinking it was the male, was opening and closing his mouth which made him look like he was talking to the other goose, presumably his mate. Check it out in the video below, it gave me a chuckle.

There's not much going on around the house so I snapped this picture of some of our beautiful daffodils that are currently blooming. Fanti and Mingo, our two resident flamingos, are standing guard over them to make sure no one bothers them.

I spied a definite sign of Spring in the front yard...an American Robin perched in our Thundercloud Plum tree.

Way back on March 9th we had what they call the "Worm Moon," so named because it is the first full moon in March and is supposedly when the ground begins to thaw and the earthworms come out. Well, I didn't see any worms that night but I did see the Moon. I managed to get a picture of it, although it is somewhat small because I don't have that big of a zoom lens on my camcorder. At least you can tell what it is (sorta).

Worm Moon

WAYBACK WEDNESDAY

I am continuing my project with transferring pictures off of disks onto our desktop. This comes in handy for those days (like today) when I don't have very many current pictures or video to share. So without further ado, here are some pictures from wayback in 2004-2005.

In this picture below I am standing at the kitchen sink. Notice the bright yellow walls. We had lots of color on the walls in our house in Lumberton, and the kitchen was especially bright and cheerful. The chili pepper curtains were made for me by my dear friend Sheila, and I absolutely loved them! She was such a good seamstress (probably still is). The dark green and mustard-yellow backsplash was put up by none other than myself and Linda. We did as much of the renovation to this house as we possibly could ourselves, and I was so proud of all of our efforts. And we could not have done any of it without the help of our good friends Mike and Scott. They were invaluable! Love you guys!

This picture below is of Linda and Emily in our dining area. Look how young they both are! Oh my, it doesn't seem like it was that many years ago. But time marches on.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl is asleep on the bed right now, so she is losing her spot in this week's blog to her big sister, Precious Baby, in keeping with the wayback theme. And also, you snooze, you lose.

That's all for this week, my friends. Please hang in there and continue to practice "social distancing" so we can eventually get rid of this pestilence. Join me back here again next week and I will once again report on how things are going in these parts.

JUST ANOTHER WAYBACK WEDNESDAY

Since we are all practicing "social distancing" (frankly, I've been doing it since I retired), I haven't been able to go out anywhere to get some good pictures. So I am going to be sharing some more beautiful pictures of our yard back in Lumberton. I think everyone could use some nice flower and critter pictures right about now.

One of my favorite plants that we grew was Coreopsis (also known as Tickseed). It had such a bright and cheerful flower, and we anxiously awaited its arrival in the spring. We tried to have a variety of colors in our yard, but I do believe the yellow flowers were always my favorites.

Coreopsis

It was an ongoing struggle for us to grow anything in Lumberton because we were surrounded by hundred-years-old oak trees. So our yard did not get much sun. Some of our flowers did not do as well as they should have due to being in shade most of the day. Whenever I would sit outside and watch the birds, I would always look up to see the canopy of oak tree branches above me. There were usually birds and squirrels all over these trees, so I was thankful that we had them for that reason, even though they blocked out the sun.

Still, we did manage to have some real beauties in our yard, like this aptly named Beautyberry Bush (Callicarpa) below. I remember that the Mockingbirds used to love to eat these berries in the spring, as soon as they popped out on the bush. I just love the contrast of color between the leaves and the berries.

Beautyberry bush

Another one of my favorites was the plant that Linda and I affectionately named "Wolfie." It was Euphorbia Wulfenii (article here) and it had almost fluorescent flowers on it. I also liked to say that it was our Alien plant because it looked kind of weird.

Euphorbia Wulfenii plant

We seemed to have somewhat more luck growing bushes than we did flowering plants. We usually got our plants and bushes from Plant Delights Nursery (website here) in Raleigh, or Niche Gardens in Chapel Hill. Sadly, I just discovered that Niche Gardens went out of business last summer. It was a wonderful place to find native plants and I am sure it is greatly missed. Below are some of the bushes we grew in our yard.

Lady Banks climbing rose bush

Sweet Shrub bush (also known as
Carolina Allspice)

My mother's rose bush...this is the one that we
brought some cuttings with us to Yakima

Azalea bush

We always had an abundance of critters in our yard...birds, squirrels, butterflies, dragonflies, praying mantises, cicadas, toads, and the occasional bunny.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Painted Lady butterfly

Little Yellow butterfly 

Dragonfly

Monarch butterfly

Toad (taking a dip)

Baby Mourning Dove

Praying Mantis

Cicada

Red-Banded Hairstreak butterfly

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Baltimore Oriole 

Squirrel!

Red-Bellied Woodpecker (aka "the King")

Stella, the bunny

UPDATE ON SPRING

Linda and I have been walking around the park, but have been making sure to keep our distance from the few people who are there. The weather here has been crazy...after the warmest February that we have ever seen since we moved here, March came in to remind us that Spring is definitely NOT here yet. Last week we had some frigid weather, with lows down into the teens and daytime highs around freezing. Still, we suited up to be able to get out of the house.

Scary!

I was reluctant to go outside wearing my balaclava (face mask) since so many robbers and thieves use those nowadays. But comfort won out over reluctance and I wore it a couple of days when the wind was blowing. This is the only way I can go for a walk around here when it is cold.

PARTING SHOT

Since it was Wayback Wednesday again, it is only fitting that we let little Precious Baby (Peeber) have her time in the spotlight, posthumously. Here she is napping on her cat tree, and also looking so cute that you just have to understand why we named her Precious Baby.

Peeber

Precious Baby

That's all for this week, my friends. Join me again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!
(Wash your hands!)

ARE WE THERE YET? ~~ UPDATE ON THE POND ~~ PUZZLE UPDATE ~~ PARTING SHOT

ARE WE THERE YET?

We all know that when it comes time for Daylight Savings Time to end, Spring can't be too far behind. Our optimism is reflected in the fact that we got a new flag for our front yard, and it excels in expressing our hopes.

A harbinger

Other signs of Spring are evident in our yard. Besides the crocuses that are coming up, we also have some remnants of my greens garden appearing. These are welcome in that they are actually something that we can consume right now, although not on a large scale. The parsley, pictured below, has been green all winter. I have already harvested some of it a few times to go in my cooking.

Cook's delight

We also have some kale that has hung in there all winter. To me, this looks like a small palm tree of some kind. This is very much in keeping with Yakima's nickname as "the Palm Springs of Washington."  LOL

Our favorite leafy green

And every year we are heartened by the blooming of our lovely daffodils. Although, this year I'm afraid they may suffer some freeze damage next week if our temperatures dip down into the teens, as predicted.

UPDATE ON THE POND

Since we have been having spring-like weather, we decided to go to Randall Park Sunday and check on the ducks and geese. The last time we went there with a bag of cracked corn, our offering was not as popular as it had been in the colder weather, so we didn't take any this time. When we arrived at the park the ducks did not even come running up to greet us for several minutes.

I am always amazed at how many different species of ducks there are at this park. It seems like every so often when we go, there are some new residents that we have not seen before. There was one in particular that I noticed, and I will post some video of that one a little further down on the blog. These familiar faces in the video below came to greet us after we had gotten out of the truck.

A lone male Mallard duck came very close up to me, I guess he was checking to make sure I didn't have any corn for him. Next we ran into a group of American Wigeons who were grazing in the grass (can you dig it?). Some of the Wigeons were a bit different from the others, with iridescent green on their heads. I zoomed in on one little guy to get some good video to help me identify him, and when I got home I looked it up. I found out that the reason for the partially green head is because those ducks are breeding males. After we left the Wigeon group, we were besieged by what I like to call the Brown Gang. This is the group of domesticated ducks that we saw last time we were at the park. After the noisy BBJ's (big brown jobs), we encountered another duck that we have seen quite often. Upon looking this one up, the only thing I could find was that it is a Black and White Domestic Duck. I think he should be named Black & White Quacker. Finally, the video above ends with a group of Mallards, both male and female.

The ducks were not wary of us at all, maybe we have been going enough that they are used to us. Whatever the reason, I am usually able to get some good closeup pictures of them.

The female duck in the top picture looks like a Mallard, but she does have some extra white feathers on her, so I am guessing that she is either a hybrid or else is slightly leucistic, (pronounced loo-sis-tic) which means she has a partial loss of pigmentation in the feathers. Leucism causes the bird to have white or patchy pale feathers over various parts of their body, but it does not effect their eyes. The entire bird can be white, but it would not have the pink eyes characteristic of albino birds. Leucism is also evident in other wildlife, not just birds. That cute fellow in the bottom picture is a regular male Mallard, and he posed so pretty for me I just had to get his picture.

Linda and I soon left the open meadow area of the park and walked over to the pond. There was a large group of Canada geese sitting on the pond, just quietly watching as if they were "Geese at the Opera." A group of four ducks were swimming back and forth, with one guy who just couldn't seem to keep up. Two members of the Brown Gang were engaging in a courtship ritual when they were interrupted by a mass arrival of Wigeons and Mallards.

Halfway across the pond is a small island that the ducks like to get on to rest without being disturbed by us pesky humans. There was a solitary Canada goose standing guard on a log, casually scanning the area from time to time. If he didn't have such a black neck and head, he would be perfectly camouflaged.

Sentinel

At the other end of the pond I spotted a new resident calmly swimming around. I don't think we have seen this fellow before, so I got some good video (below) of him, including a fantastic view of his magnificent white butt. This was the one thing about this guy that made me notice him. When we got home and looked at the video, Linda and I were both puzzled as to whether this was a goose or a large duck. Upon using my best friend Google, I found that this is a Greylag Goose, which is commonly found in the United Kingdom (article here). Every now and then a vagrant is found in North America (click here for an article about a sighting in Rhode Island). Judging by the great number of domestic ducks at Randall pond, it is possible that this was an escapee from a domestic situation.

Soon it was time to be leaving the park until next time, so after a brisk walk around the pathway, we made like these two geese and departed.

PUZZLE UPDATE

Sometimes when we puzzle in the afternoons, it is the coziest spot in the house. The whole family has to get in on the act and that includes little Summer Girl, who tries her best to "help." Most of the time, her idea of helping is to swipe at our hands when we go for a puzzle piece.

Summer Girl helping

PARTING SHOT

Not only does Summer Girl know how to puzzle, apparently she knows how to read, too!

That's all for this week, my friends. Join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!

THE CIRCLE GAME ~~ SPRING IS APPROACHING YAKIMA ~~ PARTING SHOT

THE CIRCLE GAME

This past Saturday marked the wedding anniversary of Linda's parents. James Ballard and Margaret Mann were married in England on February 29, 1944. He was an American soldier in WWII and she was the daughter of the local dairyman. This past Saturday was also the day that mom's ashes went home, accompanied by dad's ashes. Wendy & Robin, Linda's sister and brother-in-law, traveled recently to England to the little town of Bovey Tracey with some of mom's and dad's combined ashes. At a graveside ceremony the ashes were interred in mom's native soil, on the grounds of the same church where they had been married 76 years ago on that day. Finally, their life together has come full circle. Also in attendance at the ceremony were Margaret's younger brother, Arthur Mann, and a host of other relatives from nearby towns in England.

Church of St. Peter, St. Paul and
St. Thomas of Canterbury
in Bovey Tracey

Jim & Margaret's Wedding Day

I used to love to sit with Linda's dad at his dining room table back in Carpinteria and listen to the tales of his time in England during the war. He was a very good storyteller, and luckily I managed to catch a few of his stories on video. He once told me the story about how he met Linda's mom, but unfortunately, that is one story I didn't get to record. But I still have it in my memory... well anyway, at least some of it has stayed there.

Wendy has been sending us pictures and video from Bovey Tracey, and I almost feel like I've been there. Here are a few of her pictures from in and around the town.

The town cemetery is a short ways down from the church where mom's and dad's ashes were put to rest. Wendy sent us a picture of the grave of Margaret Mann's parents, Linda's grandparents, who are buried there.

Grave of William and Nancy Mann

Wendy and Robin took a side trip to Plymouth, which is a little over a half-hour away from Bovey. They visited the Plymouth Distillery (website here), where they make our favorite libation, gin. This distillery was established in 1793, so it has been in business for a long time. You can see the tall spire in the background of this picture, which has "Plymouth Gin" painted on it.

Plymouth Distillery

This is a good spot to showcase our favorite drink, shown below in the new glass that Linda purchased the other day. It is the iconic Gin and Tonic. Read all about the history of this most "British" drink by clicking here.

Linda's new G&T glass

I am always amazed at how people manage to drive around in Britain. The roads are so narrow that it is scary! I would get claustrophobia driving on this street below.

Here are some more scenes from Plymouth.

We have so enjoyed getting these pictures and I am happy that Wendy agreed for me to share them with you. This one below, that was taken at a nearby dog park, gave us a chuckle.

SPRING IS APPROACHING YAKIMA

It is hard to believe that a year ago we had loads of snow on the ground, and this year we have none. But as evidenced by these pictures below, it seems that Spring is almost upon us.

Picture taken by Linda
with her iPad

Exact same flower picture taken
with my camera

Look at the difference between the two pictures above. Both taken at almost the same time of day (it varied by a few minutes), and of the same flower. I think both of them are pretty, and I guess it just shows you that there is more than one way to look at things.

PARTING SHOT

I leave you today with this very short video of Summer Girl, who found a small tumbleweed to play with while she was outside enjoying the sun.

You may be able to see a small cloud of dust waft off of her at the very beginning when she shakes. Thus her nickname "Pigpen."


That's all for this week, my friends. Join me again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!