Cedar Waxwing Migration

Every year about this time we get a visit from a flock, or flocks, of Cedar Waxwings on their way to their spring and summer homes as far north as Canada. They like our pond. These are beautiful birds with their "Lone Ranger" masks lined with white, the bright yellow tips of their tails and the red tip of their wings that's the source of their name. The swept back crest on their heads and the very smooth gray backs and yellowish underparts finishes off their distinctive markings. They come in flocks and it's impressive to see 20 or 30 of these in the trees swooping down in little groups to the pond. A harbinger of Spring!

The Backyard

Lot's of work on the backyard this "Spring". The right side of the picture is an extension of the Pond Garden all the way to the house. We have very little "full sun" space and this will give us an area where we can plant more flowers! We also added more plants around the pond that will finish it off. They don't show well in the picture because they're still too small - but they're very nice and unusual plants. After a couple weeks work here I'm about ready to move around to the front of the house.

The Last Orange Trail Update!

This should be the last update because the trail is finally finished. The extended part goes almost to the very back of the property and parts of it were difficult - the first areas where we had to use a chain saw ("we" = I got Aaron's help). All the signs and markers are up, a bridge repair completed and another small footbridge added. The deer love the trail! Every day you see new tracks and often right down the center of the trail. They are using it to move around. There's most always the owl (s?) in one area and woodpeckers in another. Note to Bev - the perfect place has been found and it's there!

A Package From Jacob's Creek Vineyards

Bambi asked so here's my little story. Jacob's Creek wines are made in Australia and they do come from a place called Jacob's Creek. When I decided that I wanted to name our creek "Jacob's Creek" I emailed the company asking them if they could send me a couple pieces of their advertising material and briefly explained to them that I wanted to use them to make a couple signs for our own creek and I told them the reason.

It took a few days for them to reply and in the reply they told me that they weren't able to send printed advertising materials to individuals but they were sending me something that they hoped I'd be able to use. Another couple weeks went by and one day, as I was walking out to the mailbox, a FedEx Ground truck pulled in to deliver a package. When I got in the house and opened it, I found three very nice golf shirts with the Jacob Creek logo on them, a black BBQ apron with a photo of the vineyard and the 'Jacob's Creek' roadsign on it (the photo is the pocket). There was also a little box that contained the wine bottle opener in the picture above. I've greatly enjoyed this little tool and I can open a bottle of wine with it just like the most accomplished sommelier!

I think that was "above and beyond" for those folks and I'm going to keep drinking their wines!

The First Time I Saw This Wine on the Store Shelf

. . . several years ago, I thought of Jacob so we decided to try it - "Jacob's Creek Shiraz"! It was a good wine and we've been drinking it often since then. More recently the name took on another meaning and I decided to name the creek across our property "Jacob's Creek". So, after talking to Bambi, here it is. You cross it twice when you walk the 'Orange Trail'. (Ask me about what happened when I sent an email to the Jacob's Creek Winery.)

I Think I've Said It Before -

. . . but Glynda is getting the baking of croissants to a state of perfection. This one was as flaky on the inside as it is golden crusted on the outside!

(If ever a group of SPOTS was returning from a walk on the Orange Trail, they could probably stop by here and get a "second breakfast" of croissants like these served with coffee or mimosas!)

Compost,compost, compost - mulch, mulch, mulch

The necessities for a good garden! And this is what I've got for now. The mulch comes at the best price. Call the electric company and they'll bring it to you for free. Sometimes you have to wait a bit but mine was there the next day. (It comes from clearing right of ways.) The compost is $42 a truckload. I'll need another one or two loads. It's a nice drive to Big Sandy and it's about the best compost around.

We're Still SIx Weeks Away From 'Last Frost'

And I'm really getting itchy to get in the garden (flower & vegetable). Aaron and I have already put in a sprinkler system for the veggie garden. Through the Master Gardeners group I found that I can get free mulch (tree clippings) from the electric company trimming of trees along power lines. They dropped off a huge pile last week and that needs to be spread around. I can fill up the back of my Ranger with compost from a company in Big Sandy (20-25 miles down the road) for $42. That will happen Monday latest. So the process now is getting beds, soil, etc. ready for later. (The Master Gardener classes are adding to the to-do list - for here as well as volunteer projects, one happening later today.) Even now though, in my "greenhouse" we have this very nice blossom. It's a Kalanchoe Blossfeldiana and it's from a plant Glynda got at Nanny's funeral. (I'm keeping more info about our gardening on another blog I've created mainly for keeping records and photos for us. There is a link to this in the list to the right.)

Another Genealogical Bit of Information!

We've had this picture for many years. It was drawn by my grandfather Charles Walmsley Flanders. The picture was framed and recently the glass was broken. In taking the glass off, we found that the picture was dated as well as signed. He drew this in March, 1907 - 102 years ago and he would have been thirteen at that time - looking much like he does in the picture below. (Reminder of the double-click for the larger picture.) The composition is familiar to me and, I think, not because I've seen this all my life but because it's probably a copy of another sketch or painting.

(Here's the name and date from the lower left corner of the picture.)

The Hobbit movie

We just finished watching "The Lord of the Rings" again. Aaron hadn't seen it before and we've got that condition remedied now. Of course that brought to mind the Hobbit movie that's been discussed for several years now. Here's the latest I can find - the information is from this month:

"It's now official: The Lord of the Rings screenwriting team of Peter Jackson (pictured), Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will join The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro to pen the screenplay for the two planned Hobbit movies. Sources tell EW.com that the scribes' deals are all complete and they have already begun writing. (With shooting scheduled to begin Fall 2009, at the earliest, in New Zealand, the quartet better get busy!) The Hobbit will center on Frodo's uncle, Bilbo Baggins, and his initial discovery of the immensely-powerful ring. New Line and MGM plan to release the two films Christmas 2011 and Christmas 2012".

An additional page says that "Supposedly, according to Jackson and company, The Hobbit, itself, will be one movie, ending with the battle of five armies. The second movie will fill up the space between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and probably introduce, or flesh out the story of some of the LOTR's principal characters, like Legolas, Aragorn, Gimili, etc., and touch on Sauron's rise to power, after his imprisonment, and escape in the Hobbit."

So it looks like about 35 months before we see the movie! Just like the others, it will be worth the wait and, just like the others, we plan to see them on opening days with Donna. She just doesn't know that yet.

OMG - Two consecutive "cat" posts!

I've taken over the nook for a few months to start some seeds and cuttings. The black across the top of this picture is the top of a flourescent light fixture (it's actually white). Pancho loves lying in the sun in the nook anyway but he really likes the light for the same reason the plants do - it's on sixteen hours a day. Just to the right you can see an empty seed tray barely hanging on. Pancho moved it to make his place. He spends a lot of time here now and in a day or two I'll need to fill up that empty seed tray and he and I will have to have a serious discussion.

Leona

Isn't she sweeeet! We've often had an outside feral cat here through the years. They came. They went. But right now we have four. First one that showed up was "Spats", named so because, although he's black, the tops of his feet are white. Then came "Bob", named for the condition of his tail - although the bobbed tail looks like it came from an accident - not a particularly pretty thing. Then came "Leo". His name was suggested because of his big cat markings but maybe it should have been "Tiger"? Last came one that has markings a lot like Pancho. Because of that, Aaron named him "PJ" - short for "Pancho Junior".

So where did Leona come from? It was a reconsideration of the probable sex of Leo. She's the one that's becoming tame - waiting to be fed breakfast when I feed the birds in the morning. She's also learning that she's safe even when we're on the deck and that coming when she hears us can be a good thing that leads to food. The picture was taken this afternoon when Aaron and I were sitting on the deck enjoying the weather.

(Any resemblence of this post to any of my sibling is purely coincidental and should be ignored. There should be no future references of this post within two paragraphs of any word that refers to my sister!)

Adam Methuselah Soloman Samson Washington Lafeyette Ator

Bambi was wondering what the "S.S.W.L." in the previous post on Ator names stood for. I really had no hope of finding that out but a "cut and paste" search on Google turned up one hit - and that one hit did explain it!

"Notes for Adam Methuselah S.S.W.L. ATOR:Complete name: Adam Methuselah Soloman Samson Washington Lafeyette Ator Adam signed his name, "A. M. S. S. W. L. Ator"His father said that A. M. S. S. W. L. "Is the largest boy Ihave raised . . . He is very antic, very stout"

Some More Genealogy - This Time - The Ators

Suzie gave me a name this morning that got me past a roadblock on Meree's side of the family and I've been working on that most of the day. If you're like me you always thought that Herb's middle name "Quick" was a little unusual. The Ators (who have been in the Mineral Wells area since the mid-1800's) have a lot of unusual names in the family. Here, for grins, are some of the best ones (year is the birth year):

1812 - MATHIAS DOUT ATOR
1839 - WARTHADEUS ATOR
1842 - PHARAOH THOMAS ATOR
1849 - GENERAL JOHN ZACHARY TAYLOR ATOR
1851 - OREGON ATOR
1858 - PARROTT ATOR
1859 - PRINCE ATOR
1860 - TENNESSEE WILSON ATOR
1864 - TEXAS ATOR
1868 - NAPOLEON BONAPART ATOR
1870 - MARYLAND E. ATOR
1872 - CALIFORNIA ATOR
1874 - SUSANA MEXICO ATOR
1876 - ARIZONA ATOR
1887 - ADAM METHUSELAH S.S.W.L. ATOR
1889 - SULAR DEXTER ATOR
1891 - SULAR HINDMAN ATOR
1895 - JUST PAT ATOR
1898 - KLONDIKE D. ATOR

Back to "school"

This is an active group of people! At the Texas Master Gardeners Conference last year they were awarded three state prizes (a first, second & third for "medium size" county groups) one for their newsletter, one for a project that got kids involved in a landscaping project at the city park and I belive the third was for the Earthkind Rose Trial Garden in Mineola - only the second trial garden in the state. The county agent is responsible for the organization of the group and he tells us that the Wood county group is well known thoughout the state and beyond. There are between 50 and 60 members plus 20 in the class I'm in. I'll be attending a total of 50 hours in class and will be working 50 hours on Wood County Master Gardeners projects scattered throughout Wood county by the end of April. Upon completion of that, I'll receive the designation of Texas Certified Master Gardener. (Additional classes and volunteer hours will be required after that to maintain the certification.) I'm really enjoying it! But there's a lot to learn!

Here's a link to the website. You might want to look at the links on the Wildscape Garden-Mineola Nature Preserve, the Earthkind Rose Trial, and the Arboretum & Botanical Garden of Quitman. The Earthkind Rose Trial project will be over this year but the other two are major ongoing projects.