SPRING 2020 FIRST BLOOMS

BEAUTY is needed to encourage my spirits to stay high.  Admiring IRISES is one way I stay alive.  We made our first trip to the KSU Gardens this past week-end.  Wore mask and took pictures looking like masked bandits sneaking about stealing pics of their beautiful IRISES.  As quickly as the Irises vanish, one must be rather quick capturing their eloquence standing tall reaching for the sunlight.

After the wind we had this morning, these beauties may already be knocked down.  The area had 90 mile an hour winds and hail.  So if the wind didn't knock them over, the hail may have beat them to death.  I am so glad we made our first journey to the Gardens when it was a beautiful day with sunshine.  

Today would have been a mistake.  Tornado weather in tornado alley.

I am so very happy with how these pictures turned out.  The lighting was superb at 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening.  No wind.  Pleasant temperature.

After we toured the Iris Garden, we looked at some of their Peonies.  Took a drive in our old neighborhood where we lived back in 2005.  Drove to our new community and went through the Park.  Evening was refreshing and I needed to get out.  

Blessings to you,
d

  

 IMMORTALITY

Tall Bearded Iris (Rebloomer)

 CHARGER

 LEMON POP

Intermediate Bearded Iris

 KAMATA NISHIKI

Tree Peony

 KOKAMON Tree Peony

FIRE CHIEF

The first Irises to bloom that we saw this year were:

Tiffany's Prayer

 Eagle's Flight

Honet Glazed

Doodle Strudel

Miss Nellie

Wine and Roses

Storm Warning

Immortality

Charger

Solid Gold

Ozark Rebounder

Oh SO Cool

Istanbul

Spirit of Memphis

Ziggy

Royal Satin

Carol Ellen Ramsey

Elfin Shadows

Thimble

Cleared For Take Off

Ocelot

Happy Song

Garnet Slippers

Lemon Pop

Elainealope

Batik

Jesse Song

Wabash

Vanity

Splashacata

Wintry Sky

Cozy Stitch

Going Dutch

Fire Chief

First Peonies in bloom were:
Scarlet O'Hara
Coral Sunset
Hakuo Jishi
Pink Hawaiian Coral
Kamat Nishiki
Kokamon

DINING ON THE PRAIRIE Chili

A hardy bowl of chili hits the spot all year long.

Served with crackers and a drink.

Warms the tummy and soul.

Even in the month of May.  Some days are still chilly.

Today is one of those chilly days with a rainstorm taking place.

Not too hot or spicy,

d

George W. Bush's powerful message of hope during the coronavirus pandemic

BREAKFAST ON THE PRAIRIE Toast and Fried Egg

A great way to start out the day,

d

DINING ON THE PRAIRIE Casserole and Green Beans

Good 'ole HOME COOKIN'

Don't forget yo' greens,

d

HOT WITH MADNESS

SHARING MEALS THIS MONTH. Virtual style.  Here we are the first day of MAY.  I will praise the LORD, we are in May.  I chose to be peaceful and appreciative that I am at HOME.  Thinking I will share meals on my blog during the month of MAY.  This will play out.

BUT FIRST.....

One of my son's was laid off during the month of April and was blessed to get a job two weeks later.  Thank you, LORD.  Today the phone rang and my other son let me know that he was laid off this morning. This made me hurt.  SIGH.  Both sons have been hit with a lay off.  Praying for my children. Praying for my grandchildren.  Praying for my husband and praying for me. Praying for loved ones and those hurting.  Praying.

I decided to stay off of FACEBOOK so much.  It's an addiction that I have to break myself from.  Pretty pictures and sweet sayings will be the norm.  I will stay away from the political arena as it is hot with madness.  Quietly I will be still.

Beautiful May Day and flowers to enjoy here in bogland.  I'd like to walk through a lush garden and admire the green.  For now, my French doors that lead to the screened in porch will be my haven to take in and be refreshed.  Sign and take a deep breath.  I will rejoice that I have this. Hubby is by my side asleep in his recliner.  He is tired on this cloudy grey day as he had been pulling weeds in our flowerbeds.

The quiet is infiltrating the house.  I can hear birds chirping outside.  Love the sound.  We live close to the businesses downtown.  We're on the edge of these businesses.  Not too far from the post office.  Need stamps as I have a handful of cards to mail today.  I can't do much of anything right now as my energy level is low.  Sad.  I keep pushing as I want to keep busy and writing is one way I can do this.

I need to order some flowers for my MOM.  I missed her birthday and Mother's Day is coming so together I can make the flowers be for her as a belated birthday gift and a early Mother's Day gift.  Will miss the rush on the flowers for Mother's Day.

One of the joys of LIFE to me are flowers.  They are what speaks volumes to me giving me enjoyment.  God bless us one and all.

The first meal to be shared is one of my favorites!  It will be: Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread.  I LOVE ketchup so I loved it up with some.  

Blessed with May Meals,

d

2020 PROM

My lovely Granddaughter is amongst the 2020 High School Seniors that are locked down this Spring.  No Prom and no walking across a stage to collect that coveted diploma after years of being in school.  This is so different.  

Disappointed, yes.  All the pep talk about reasons to look toward the positive seem shallow when going through this.  Perhaps with some time, the pandemic will not hurt as badly.  Perhaps the positives will outweigh the negative.  Perhaps.  Safe at HOME.  

She is wearing her 2020 Prom dress in this image and posing as a photographer snapped away.  Make-up and hair done.

Prom after all is a exercise in addressing a more formal event wearing formal attire to socialize, dine and a dance usually in ones junior and senior year of high school toward the end of the academic year.  Promenading or showing off oneself in lovely clothing and dressing up one's physique.  Displaying oneself when walking along.  Promenading.

Ones does have to have a DATE to do so.  All the preparations mean something.  The formality is a very good lesson in how to prepare for the future possibility of knowing some etiquette while going out for dinner and socializing.  Maybe even participating in some formal dancing.  ETIQUETTE.  A very civilized way to be formal and not so casual.    

More to LIFE then being casual.  

After having pictures, my Granddaughter returned HOME with her Mom to a Prom inside their HOME.  The Living room was decorated for a party.  They ate and danced.  Took some more pictures and enjoyed their time together as a family sheltering in place during this pandemic.

The entire family celebrated,
d

21 Forever Foods. . . and a few we wish would, too!

Let The Fresh Air In

THANKFUL FOR THE FRESH AIR and the sound of chirping birds drifting into the house making this place more peaceful and relaxed.  The birds are singing gentle melodies that satisfy my soul.  So comforting.  It's a very soothing gentle sound.  Where I sit in the living room I can see outside through the French doors.  A nice place to be.


Grey skies moved in as we had a gentle SPRING RAIN to water nature.  Some of our Irises have bloomed.  More to follow.  I am looking forward to the blooms.  Makes me smile and my heart sing.  Glorious time of year.   Weeds need pulled from the flowerbeds.  I think if we were to do the weed pulling in March, we'd be ahead of the April growth.  This past March was interrupted by the sheltering at HOME and to be truthful, I did not want to go outside very badly.  So the weeds grew and I stayed inside.  There's HOPE and the weeds will be pulled one at a time.  



TUESDAY NEWSPAPER awaits me in the mail.  There will be little news.  Most of my information is coming from the internet.  A few new magazines need me to thumb through them and ooh and awe at how pretty someones garden is, or admire the beautiful tablescape.  Not to mention how delicious the recipe turned out.  How clever of so and so.  Handy tips and hacks for making life more affordable.  

TODAY PLANS.  I trimmed my hair about an inch.  A dry cut since my hair is so curly.  Brushing my mop into a backwards ponytail hanging over my eyes, I rubber banded it at my forehead.  Took the pony tail and rubber banded again toward the tip.  Found my tiny scissors and snipped the end off about an inch.  Wallah.  She is trimmed.

I will continue to file receipts and do some book keeping.  One of these sweet days, I will be able to say the paperwork is finished.  Just not today.  More laundry to do.  The little wash machine that I hook up to the kitchen faucet is working out fine.  One little pile of laundry at a time.  Wash then rinse.  Stop.  Pause.  Allow the spin to run for only a minute.  Then stop and begin to hang articles on hanger to air dry.  After the machine is empty, I turn the spin back on to empty the machine.  If I let the machine do an entire cycle of spinning the articles come out of the machine way too wrinkled and I don't want to add ironing to my errands at the time.  

Exercising is happening as I move more.  Deep breathing involved.  I need to increase the activity.  Still my feet hurt way too much to walk.  Doing what I can.  Eat a salad and drink some filtered water.  Keep moving.  Stay calm and keep moving.  Keep moving.

I can almost forget the pandemic.  Friday to come, I'll be reading that the cases have spiked in Minnesota, Michigan and Virgina as many communities begin to reopen their stores.  These three states were encouraged by our President to protest their democratic governors lock downs.  These are what are called SWING STATES and if there is a surge of coronavirus cases, then it will give way to our President saying these governors did not know what they were doing.  Which will encourage others to vote the governors out and vote republican.  I don't pay much attention to how politics works, but I figured this one out on my own.  In a week and a half, Kansas will have a spike and Colorado as well as they had rallies to protest the lock downs.  Kansas has a democratic governor.  Colorado?  A democrat as well.      

My mind wonders.  

All in a days work.

d    

MONDAY

The end of the month is crawling along.  I have laundry to do for sure.  Paperwork to thin out and file.  A letter to write to my older brother who is in lockdown.  My thoughts are with those in lockdown.  My thoughts are about this pandemic and how things have changed.  The luxury to come and go as you please has vanished.  Not sure if it will return or not.  Just being real.

I must get out of my chair.

We had a decent week-end and I am ready for this week.  Hubby continued to bat-proof the carriage house.  He has completed this task.  Each year just about this time, the bats fly into the area looking for a place to roost in our carriage house.  It had an opened eave where they freely entered the carriage house to hang out and sleep.  Last year my Husband and our son placed wire around the carriage house eave to prevent the bats from entering through the eave.  Keep them out.  We had the carriage house professionally cleaned so we could move forward to creating a safer and cleaner space for a studio.


Last June is when we had a bat get into the house flying about causing me almost heart failure and I'm not joking.  I had a screaming fit as I was reclined in my chair.  With each attempt to get out of my chair, the bat would dodge at me.  Long story short, the bat was chased out into the screened in porch for the night and would be gone by morning.

Earlier in the day, my Husband had closed an entrance to under our house and we believe it was trapped in the crawled space looking for a way out coming through a vent in the house.  Welp, it managed to get out of the crawl space and get into the living room while I was on the computer late at night.  I saw this brown bat fluttering by the fireplace and I came unglued.

Hubby had gone to bed but I woke him with my screams that could have woke the dead.  My son was asleep as well.  Both came to my rescue as I screamed, "There's a bat!!!!!!"

The story ended well, but I have anxiety about bats getting into the house.    

Moving right along.  We oohed and awed at a couple of tiny irises that have bloomed.  They are early this year.  They may be tiny, but we sure enjoyed them.

I'll hook up the portable washing machine here in a little bit to get a load of shirts done.  I am confessing that I have fallen down on the job concerning laundry.  I cleaned one of the toilets early this morning. Disinfected the sink handles.  Will go through the lysol sprayed mail/. Our mail is sprayed and given a few days to set.  A cautionary measure we are taking at this time.  Say what you will.  We are being cautious.

This week the temps are to be SPRING LIKE in the high 70s so I will strive to get the laundry caught up with hanging shirts on hangers and placing them on a rack to air dry.  


Last Thursday, people from about the state of Kansas met up in TOPEKA to protest against the Kansas Governor for using guidelines to slow the spread of this dreaded virus.  I'm not sure how much good this did as I will not be surprised if the virus spikes this week due to the protesters ignoring the guidelines.  Few wore face masks and few social distanced 6 feet apart.  I watched online and saw many crowding together not wearing mask.  The ones carrying guns would be captured in still pictures.


The Thursday evening news did not show those who were hanging onto their semi automatic weapons.  It made me cringe to see some so heavily armed that I would not want to be around them.  Who are they anyways?

Why were they embellishing their weapons in army fatigues at a peaceful protest?  The WIBW news remained quiet as to what these people were doing.  Not an accurate account of the protest by the news.  I suppose it was to keep others from chiming in touting more weapons at the next protest in another state.

A false sense of security?

I don't think the guns will kill the virus.  

With this virus very much around...I don't want to go out.  Reopening businesses?  More people out amongst the public.  Makes me tired.

I have exhausted watching the CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE BRIEFINGS.  After last Thursday's disinfectant remarks and Friday's Presidential comments about being sarcastic to reporters, I am done.  It seems that the briefings will not be daily and I am not sure there will be anymore on the lines of the coronavirus.  Instead there will be briefings about the economy.  I seriously doubt I will be watching these.  My heart sinks when the President talks about television ratings being so high verses the pandemic information.

I was watching the briefings to be better informed as we do not have a pandemic every year.  This is like a very bad dream and I needed to be better informed.  I wanted to be better informed.  What I got was something else about healing our land leaving God out of this phrase.  Our people need healed and a virus to die off.    

I had wondered why there was such animosity between the President Trump and reporters.

I am having my second cup of coffee.  Better get that load of laundry started.  Making a grocery list out so I'll have to make a grocery run this week.  I want to try making a crock pot meal with chicken breasts and dressing.   Thought this one would be a great one, but I have to get some dressing mix. 

Making my weekly plans and it is relaxing to be at HOME,
d