Change of plans

I was going to put up the other flowers that I took photos of at the Lilac farm. . . instead I want to tell you about my day. I will do the other flowers tomorrow.

Found out I m third in line for an apartment with the housing authority today. That means almost nothing. Someone has to either die or move before two people ahead of me can get an apartment there and then me. I am not counting on that happening in the next two weeks.

Since there is nothing that I can do about it and the weather was going to be really nice -- got up to 81 today -- I came prepared with my digital camera. First stop, the park downtown. . . hoping to find squirrels and get some photos of them, I brought old bread to share. None appeared and I finally gave up and left. Before I left the park, I made a round of the flower beds and found a few roses and other plants to pacify me.









Tomorrow, I will write about the flowers I found on my walk around town today. There were lots of Iris, Rhododendrons and Roses besides a few others. I took over a hundred photos but will just share a few here.

My lilac farm trip. . .

Saturday morning a group of ladies from my church went to the Hulda Klager Lilac gardens in Woodland, Washington. I had been there just once before Saturday. In anticipation of some more great lilac photos, I could hardly wait to get there. Now in the next sentence, you would not expect me to exclaim, "What a big disappointment!" . . . but it was. The late frost we had this spring ruined the budding progress of many of the bushes. I found it hard to believe they still charged the two dollar entance fee. . .




There were a few lilacs untouched by the frost and I did get some photos.













Although the photos are a variety of lilacs, they were not in abundance like in previous visits. If not for the other flowers, including this Wisteria Tree hanging over the gazebo, I would have been truly disappointed in my photo excursion Saturday. I will add more photos tomorrow of other flowers spotted during our visit to the lilac gardens.

;

In Honor of Mother's Day on Sunday. . .

I wrote this essay a few years ago and had it on a website of my essays. . . My Mom died when she was 80 and I miss her a lot. I am so glad she was my Mom and I couldn't imagine growing up with any other. OK, here's a bit of her wisdom:



Buried Treasures In the Garden

I think I was already an adult when I finally realizd the whole truth about the money we kids found in our garden every summer . . .

Let me back up . . . I lived in the city of Pocatello (in southeastern Idaho) while growing up. My parents owned three lots and two of them were garden areas. We kids thought of ourselves as a "poor" family. There were 7 kids in our family and we all had to help out with the garden work each summer. Mom and us kids spent many long hours out there and then just as long a time, doing the canning but in the long run, we got to eat all that fresh produce and home canned garden goodies so I guess it was worth it even though we didn't appreciate the fact at the time. I remember I had to wash all the bottles because I had small hands . . .

I think we all hated for summer to come since we knew our friends would be off playing with other friends or doing fun things like going swimming at the YMCA or just hanging around -- something kids do best. We knew that we would be stuck helping out in the garden AGAIN!

Well, Mom knew we would rather be somewhere else and she tried her best to make up for it. One way she did this was to treat us all to ice cream cones from the corner A & W Root Beer stand restaurant. In those days, a cone was a nickel for a small soft serve and a dime for a large one. She would give a couple of us a silver dollar and have us bring back 4-6 ice cream cones - depending on how many were working that day. (Sometimes one of us would be babysitting for 25 cents an hour for a family we knew in the neighborhood.) It was always a double treat for the "runners" for the ice cream cones -- we got out of planting/weeding/watering for 10-15 minutes and got to actually LEAVE THE PROPERTY! This was a BIG time treat for us who were "almost slave labor!"

When we returned, Mom would give everyone a cone and she would place the change from the dollar in her shirt pocket and keep working. She never had a cone with us while gardening. We sat down and licked very slowly, trying to make the time go by faster but on those long summer days, that sun just never wanted to go to bed!

Every summer , it was the same thing . . . we worked in the garden and Mom treated us to an ice cream cone. But, one summer, something changed our whole attitude about working in the garden. We could hardly wait 'til the manure was spread and the garden was tilled.

You see, we found buried treasure and we were sure there was more "where that came from." No one really said it outloud . . . at first it was just a coin or two but when we found money EVERY summer, we knew we were really the lucky ones . . . and it was always in a different place that we found coins. Our whole garden must have been a robbers's hideaway!

We didn't get an allowance in those days -- "found money" was a godsend to us. It could buy lots of penny candy . . . I especially liked those cinnamon bears that were 2 for a penny and that chocolate licorice . . . so I was an eager beaver to beat my twin sister to finding the coins in the dirt . . . no one worked harder than me!

I will never understand how my Mom could keep such a straight face each time we found money in the garden BUT now that I am a Mom myself, I understand her wise ways. She knew exactly where that money came from the first time she treated us to an ice cream cone and put the change in her pocket. . . you see, it fell out of her pocket and got buried 'til the next summer when we were making rows again.

She could have told us and spoiled our fun of looking for "buried treasure" while doing our work in the garden but she was smart -- she knew about incentives and what a small price to pay for our eagerness in helping maintain the family food supply.

Today, some might think my Mom was too hard on us but they would be wrong. She was planting more than garden seeds. She planted love, strenghth to pursue a goal and unity. No, the treasure was not in the coins, ice cream treat or even the wonderful produce we grew but in the love of a wise woman called my MOM.

search . . . flag. . . next. . .

I decided to explore from my blog so I saw those words in my title above and clicked on "next." I was feeling brave. . . I posted on someone's blog that I had never explored before -- I had only gone to blogs that a friend recommended on their site. . . AND NOW I KNOW WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was watching the blog addy fill up and take me to the site when I noticed the words "possible porn" in the addy. . . good grief! You never saw anyone click off Safari faster than lightning. I don't think I will do anymore clicking on that "next" button!

Maybe I will try the search button and put in a topic I am interested in. . . after all, someone (Judy) found me to relay the message that they had also attended the Medford Bell Choir Festival last weekend. Of course, they are also an employee of Google so maybe they didn't use any search. . . I will never know because I went to their site and it is all google blog stuff. . .

Maybe "this" old lady will get adventuresome and find some blogs with like interests soon . . . maybe, just maybe.

Postscript:

sigh . . . the search button only searches your personal blog. That's not what I wanted to accomplish -- I already know what I posted yesterday!

Well . . . we survived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The past three days were supposed to be a wonderful experience for those of us attending the last bell Choir Conference in Medford, Oregon. The lady in charge of it had been doing it for 26 years and she was retiring as a director of it. She was not retiring from playing bells. . . there just weren't going to be any more conferences in Medford.

Bell choirs from Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Idaho attended -- 500 of us this year! In the past, when I have attended ( three other years), there has been just over 300 in attendance from three states. It was truly an inspiring conference and a wonderful way to celebrate the last "Rogue Valley Handbell Festival" in Medford, Oregon. A new director has stepped forward and will be taking over but at the request of the first director, they have changed the name of the Conference Festival. I can't remember what but we are glad it will continue. Our church has players that haven't been doing it long so we are called the Tins, along with a few hundred other players from other churches. It's just as exciting for us tho so we keep on trying to get better.

Ok. Here's the story of our adventures. . .

Just three of our players from our church attended this year. One was the director of our bell choir. I rode to Medford with her. The other lady went with her husband. We needed two cars becaue we had all those bells and one table with pads and coverings with table drapes and our banner stand to take besides our luggage for three days. AND you know how hard it is for us ladies to pack a small bag for three days --might as well be going for a week since we wouldn't need any more things!



Finally, we headed south across the Columbia River on the I-205 for our 5 hour drive. The weather was perfect, after so much rain here the past week. Yes there were some rain clouds and we did hit a few showers but nothing to worry about. In fact, we saw a rainbow prism reflecting out of a cloud and I actually got out my digital camera to take a photo from inside the car through the windshield. I didn't know if it would turn out but I tried. Now home and seeing the photo, it didn't show us the prism as well as we saw it through the windshield.

As you can see now that I have the photos loaded, the color of the rainbow did not show up well. . . but those vertical lines in the middle of the clouds were a pale red, blue and yellow and it was certainly unusual to see for us.

We made it to Medford in good time and without too much rain, stopping only at Wendy's for lunch. Arriving at our destination, where the sun was shining brightly and we had nothing to do for an hour an a half, I almost went on my "hike for Iris then." Instead we just settled in and visited with the other group for a bit. Then we decided to get a snack from WINCO instead of going out to eat dinner. I found some delicious jumbo strawberries for $1.29 a carton! They were great! Our room had a microwave and refrigerator in it so we also bought some croissant sandwiches to nuke.

Then, it was time to go to the high school to set up our table and bells and meet some others we knew were attending. Then we met the 6 guest music directors and practiced our songs for the first time --all 500 strong! I wish I had thought to sneak off and take a photo from the balcony . . . guess it will just be one of those photos in my memory. There wee some presentations to the director of the concert who had been doing it for 26 years. . . the guest directors had emailed each other and written/composed a song we played for her. It was 6 pages long! They all signed the first page and framed it. Then they gave her a copy of the whole song in a nice album. We thought maybe that was it but we were surprised later. You see they had to do something to reveal this song to her since it was not in the program and we were playing it! Her own choir that she directed at home had to be sneaky and practice it without her before we came to the conference.

After the practice and presentations, we were invited for punch and cake to honor her. We quickly had some drinks and got out of there since we had an early morning to prepare for a big day. Not all the people traveled as far as we did . . . a few traveled further tho.



Saturday morning was finally here, along with my planned hike. Liz slept another hour while I walked. I began my trek at this park that has a trail around it. I had to cross a river to get to the park walking trail and this waterfall greeted me as I crossed over the bridge.






I headed first for the skateboarding ramps enclosure. No, I was not taking up a new sport at my age. . . the outside edge of the fencing around it usually has some gorgeous Iris in several colors. I love to take photos of them. What a disappointment to see only one plant in bloom. But it was a beauty! I saw a few other flowers and took a photos of them too.



I continued my hike on their trail and around the Bear Creek Park area
where I also saw this leaning tree trunk that I think is so unusual because the trunk is growing sideways but the branches are growing up:






Just before the end of my trail walking, I saw a sign for the park:


Shortly after that, I was at the end where I had to return to regular streets to get back to the hotel in time so I walked through a bit of the city of Medford that I call hotel alley and fast food row. . . Not anticipating any more flowers to photograph, I put my camera in my bag. God had a little suprise for me -- maybe to make up for the disappointment of a single Iris where usually many are in bloom. . .

In front of a hotel. . . MORE IRIS IN BLOOM!!!!!!!!!







There was one more and I took a photo f it even tho it was not open. . . but it was black!


Soooooo, my little hike turned out better than I first thought after seeing just one Iris in bloom. I got back to the hotel and roommate was ready to head for bell conference in a few minutes so changed hiking shoes and got ready. It would be a long day of workshops and practice, practice, practice with the whole group. All the guest conductors were very patient with us and we sounded pretty darn good. AND all that was that was just before lunch!

They served us a wonderful vegetable soup with mini hamburger balls in it. I ahd never had hamburger in soup before and it turned out to be quite a delicious soup. We also ahd a salad bar and I had a BIG plateful of various goodies and a glass of lemonade. They outdid themselves in the luncheon this year. Ü

Following lunch break, there was a hand bell concert put on by a few really good players from various towns. The program was excellent. We had some wonderful, experienced bell players amongst us!

Then it was back to more practice and another workshop to learn about bell playing. At 4:00 PM we had our final rehearsal with all the bell choirs in attendance. It sounded pretty darn good. We left to get a bite to eat before the concert at 8:00PM knowing we would be hungry if we didn't. You always play better on a full stomach! Following dinner, we went back to hotel and changed to our black pants and concert shirts.

The concert went well. Many relatives and townspeople came and filled the grandstands and balcony. The concert went well and we got lots of applause. In the middle, they made another presentation to the director for 26 years. . . she got a Memory Book and a plaque. We had all signed pages of the Memory book an they planned to add photos from the last gathering when they got developed.

Then it was time to put our bells away in their carrying cases and breakdown our table, followed by hauling them out and packing cars. We had a busy day and were getting tired and looked forward to a good sleep before heading home after a church service the following day. It wasn't meant to be-- not for Liz and I anyway.

We got back to the hotel after stopping at WINCO for a few snacks for traveling the next day and were surprised when my bed was not made fully and the toilet was plugged. Trip to the office told us they had no one to come fix our toilet. We had paid for two days and they didn't have anyone to help us out. We tried plunging it with a weird plunger they gave us but it did nothing. They had only one room available with a single bed to change to. We asked if we couldn't sleep where we were and shower in the other room. Of course they said no because then we would have two rooms. I told them I would bring them the key after we used the bathroom and I showered and pick it up again in the morning. They said no, we couldn't have two rooms because they were sure to get another customer in the middle of the night and they would need that room.

Can you believe it? Now if we had changed rooms, the "new" middle of night customer couldn't use our room since they had plumbing problems and it wouldn't be cleaned after us because no maids were on duty then. They didn't care. We got our money refunded and packed up and left after reserving another hotel in Grant's Pass, a half hour away but heading towards home. Poor Liz was so tired. Before we left we went back to WINCO and used their facilities. lol

We had to trudge up a flight of stairs with our baggage at the new hotel. Liz went right to sleep and I got my shower and waited for my hair to dry some before I could curl it for church in a few hours. They only had one service at 10:00 AM so we did get to sleep in a bit and had time for breakfast at McDonald's too. We still had 40 minutes before church services so we parked in the church lot and went for a walk. I could not believe it but I left my camera in the car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so mad because we saw roses and iris and Rhodies and more. When we got to church, the bulletin had a note about someone going into the hospital and Liz knew them from a previous school where she taught. Small world! While she was visiting with them, I found some lilacs in the church yard:


When we were finally ready to leave, Liz told me she would drive me around where we walked and i got some photos after all.
In Grants Pass.









When we arrived in Vancouver around 4:00 PM we unloaded the bells at the church and headed home. It was good to be back. To top it off, the weather was also beautiful here! Now we have a break in playing bells until fall. . . but a couple of us are going to go over to church and practice on our own IF we can find some time this summer.

Is this May 2nd or December 2nd????????

The heavy rain wasn't enough bad weather for us this morning so God provided us with big hailstones that covered the sidewalks and my patio deck. I thought spring had arrived a month ago and we were well on our way to summer here. I sure was wrong. If I can't have snow, I want spring or summer. The weatherman just says it is "crazy weather." It went down to 48 degrees in the middle of the afternoon! Crazy? NO! Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!

Changes. . .

My physical world is made of changes. Why not my blog world? THUS, I decided to choose a different template for my "Postcards From Paulie" blog. Blue has always been one of my favorite colors--coupled with brown. I love the ocean too and that made the blue choice a good one. My old blog was mostly brown. It was okay but I just thought a change would be nice. I kinda like the columns on the right. . .

A few rambling thoughts. . .

I am so tired from moving. . . No, I haven't moved out of my duplex. . . just from a small storage unit to a bigger one. Thank goodness they were about 20 feet apart! The nice lady at the office even offered to help me move 4 bigger things. Thank goodness! I will get rid of a few big thing in another week or so when a new K teacher comes for my library stands and a shelf unit. I also re-located something I am giving granddaughter who is going to teach grades 4,5 6 in a Lutheran School. She will have 16 students. I already gave her 12 big boxes of good stuff.

During the first two weeks of May, I hope to haul most of my stuff to storage in case I can't find a place to live. I have now stacked it so I know what is where in case I need something. I sure do hurt tho and can hardly wait until I take my shower tonight, a nice long one.

My friend's Mom had a stroke and can't use the note cards I was making for her to give her Mom. I guess I will give them to a friend who helped me when I really needed it.

My daughter in law's parents own a vacuum and sewing machine repair shop. They have offered to fix my vacuum free. I am so happy about that. I hope it is fixable.

I still haven't found affordable housing to move to and I am giving notice for here tomorrow for the end of the month. I can't afford it any longer.

One nice thing about today. . . it didn't rain as news predicted. That made the moving job possible.

Been awhile. . .

I found a neat site by way of another blogger, jennymcb. I really enjoy going there and experimenting. But the first photo I tried to use for image mosaic was very unusual. At first I thought they had altered my pink tulip photo because to the left of the flower there appeared a MAN IN A BOWLER HAT.

This is the original:



This is the mosaic they made out of my photo. CAN YOU SEE THE MAN IN THE BOWLER HAT THAT I DID NOT SEE BEFORE IN THE ORIGINAL PHOTO? Now that I look at the original, I can see it there also.

This is the mosaic:



Do you see the man in the bowler hat on the left? It is just the bedding of the garden where I took the photo. Crazy huh? I never noticed it with original photo before the mosaic and now I can see it clearly.

Got a lead for a new job today

Friend called me with the news of a preschool job at a Lutheran church. Think it is only part time but I will check it out. We will see what happens with it this week. Maybe something good. Maybe it is a blessing that I haven't given everything away yet?????

What a disappointment!

People kept telling me the weatherman is not always right but I didn't agree. . . well not until today. I have been planning since last week-- when it rained every day except Monday -- to go on a long hike with my camera in tow TODAY. All the weathermen predicted this would be the only dry day this week. I was going to get in my hike TODAY!

I stayed up late last night/early this morning working on a project for a friend so I slept in and left just before lunch. REMEMBER, it was going to be a nice day. As I walked out the front door, I wondered where the sun was hiding behind the multitude of clouds. I didn't worry a whole lot tho because the weatherman said it would be dry. . . I could walk on an overcast day. No problem for me! Nosiree! I had layered my clothing, had my Crystal Light bottle and my camera. . . what else did I need?

But first, I had to make a bus trip to the Post Office downtown, then catch another bus to north of town and finally, walk the Salmoncreek Trail by Klineline Pond, going west to Felida. I would walk, take photos and enjoy a trip I hadn't made since last year. Our city has wonderfully maintained, wide walking/biking trails. When I got to the end, I would catch a bus back to town and go home with my precious photos. . .

Yeah, sure! I got to the Post Office and it was sprinkling -- remember I did not bring my umbrella on the supposedly sunny day they had forcast. At the PO, I discovered I did not have the address to send my mailing off. As I left the building, it was raining pretty good and I was mad that I couldn't follow my plans for a nice long hike. I told myself that the park was just 5 blocks away and I could go there to take photos of tulips with raindrops on them. That pacified me while walking in the rain and geting soaked!

I lucked out as there were many colors of tulips in bloom since a week ago when I saw only one patch of them. I think I got some great photos and I look forward to when the rest bloom. That park is so different from what it was 22 years ago when I first moved here. That remidns me. . . the Saturday Market should be opening there soon . . . and the summer evening concerts in the park. I love to be there when the bell tower rings and the little characters come out of the tower and tell the story of the native Indians in the area meeting Lewis and Clark. Another great thing about the park is that you can take your laptop there and get on the internet wireless! I have yet to do that but look forward to trying it oneday.

Here's a few of my favorite photos from a rainy Monday:

Look what I saw this morning!

The pink tulips near my home are almost ready to open up! I am so excited!!!!!!!! To view bigger to see raindrops, click on photo.

As you can see, it has been raining a lot. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry------ so I am going for a long walk. I will go downtown, first to the park where many other tulips are also probably blooming by now . Then I will catch a bus to Klineline and walk the Salmoncreek trail to Felida. Getting out has helped me. All this rain can get really depressing. I can hardly wait!

Sharing is completely diffferent than giving things away. . .

Having always been one to be willing to share, I loaned out my teaching "goodies" to anyone that needed them. Now that I have started downsizing my collection of resources, I have been feeling down myself. I gave my grandaughter 6 big boxes of teacher resource books last week. I was happy to share since she is going to be a teacher soon. But I miss having those things on the shelves -- I had 10 bookcases filled with teacher things, including storybooks. ( I didn't give my books away yet.)

Today I gave away three piecees of furniture, a standing fan, two wooden bookcases, a framed picture and my big Clifford stuffed animal. Learned of a refugee from Africa who is living in Portland with his wife, Mother and 7 children ages 9 months to 16) . He wants to be a Lutheran Pastor and is taking classes along with working a minimum wage job. I wish I had more to share with them. . .

It wasn't too hard -- or so I thought -- to give away my three cabinets that could be used for bedside stands/living room end tables for lamps, etc and holding things on their shelves. After all, this family had no furniture and were sleeping on the floor. I was planning to take them over to the Goodwill truck anyway. . . and I know my things will be used well in this family's apartment. It was hard to gve up my two beautiful folding bookcases --but I do have 8 more just like them!

Funny how we get attached to material things. I know they went to a good home and it makes my heart glad to share them.

Now if I can just get the rest of my stuff sorted so I can move. I need sunshine! These rainy days are not productive to getting anything accomplished. . . I am looking forward to Monday when the rain stops. . . then I can go for a long walk again. I sure enjoyed my two long walks last week. I think I will ride the bus to Klineline Pond and walk the path to Felida and catch the bus home. I hope there are some interesting things to photograph along the way. That always gets me out of my slump. Ü

Why I hate rain. . .

Other than clearing the sky of smog and nourishing the plants and trees on the ground, I see no reason to have rain. In fact I hate rain so much that I wish it would rain only when I am sleeping at night. (Now if it were snowing, that's a whole different matter. I can play in the snow AND I love to shovel sidewalks AND build snowmen AND take photos AND. . . see what I mean?)

OK, the only way to feel at peace with this is to find some photos that show the beauty of rain. . I know I have some somewhere. . .here are two from this month:






These are from other rainy days walking around with my camera:

The Forgotten Penguins. . .

When I lost my job, I forgot about these paintings for awhile. Looking for something else in my iPhoto collection, I ran across them again and thought they were just too precious to not post and write about my little artists. I taught the 4 year olds class and some of my artists turned 5 this fall. They loved to paint. Sometimes I suggested something like the penguin theme and these are a few of them. They had nothing to look at -- just reminders from the books I had read or the penguin games they played. I think they did pretty good!

It isn't easy giving up something you like. . .

I am addicted to Pepsi. . . well, if Cream Soda didn't cost more, I would be addicted to it instead. I like a cold drink year round. Oh, yes, I like a cup of hot tea or cocoa but it isn't convenient like a bottle of soda from the cold refrigerator! I would drink water but I don't like the taste of it from my faucet. . .

A few years back, I had bottled water delivered to my home and it was reasonably priced. Then I moved and it wasn't convenient to order it any longer so I stopped. Then, I got a duplex where I could have it delivered and checked into getting it again. The price had really gone up! I couldn't believe it. My neighbor who had been getting it (from my previous company) for a few years was still paying the price I used to. I found out I was now considered a new customer because I had stopped it for awhile and I would have to pay new customer prices!!!!!! I refuse to have to pay an increase when some are still getting it as the previous price. So that left out that option.

I looked and looked at Walmart tonight and decided on Crystal Light rasberry lemonade. . . it has a good flavor. I bought the packets so I could carry it with me and make some in a bottle for my hikes. We will see. . .

I also bought some pistachios. . . there is a notation on the container. . . "heart healthy" and good fiber. hehehehehehe

Maybe I can make it after all with Crystal Light . . . and pistachios!