Between a rock and... a potato? by KimB

I'm a city kid. My family came from farming backgrounds and I like to pretend I'm a “country girl” but really I'm just a city kid from the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Like the story Game of Thrones, I “know nothing John Snow”, about gardening. Everything I've learned has been from books or by trial and error. I have had some pretty good luck with all that book learning for growing things, except for one: I cannot grow potatoes (hangs head in embarrassment).

The long epic story of potato growing attempts came from years back, when I watched a TV gardening program, that showed “how easy” it was to grow them in a container.

“OK,” I thought. “That's the ticket. I'm growin' some spuds!”

Well, years later and my spud growing attempts have never been all that good. Yet, I keep trying. I go for the challenge now. Hope is a marvelous thing.

I've tried a number of techniques over the years, based on tips from other gardeners who claim they get huge spuds. I think these stories of “giant spuds” must be akin to the “giant fish that got away” stories that fishermen tell. Yet, I duly note down new ideas or things to do to help with the taters. Nothing much has mattered so far.

I recently, asked a friend from Belarus, how do they grow potatoes there.  Everyone knows they grow loads of potatoes in that part of the world and her family has a small farm where potato growing is a necessity for food.

We went down the list of things I was doing. Dirt – yes. Potatoes for planting – yes. Fertilizer (organic) – yes. Water – yes. It didn't seem there was much I was missing, except the output part: actually getting more potatoes than I started with.

So, we moved along from the growing part to the harvesting part. For the biggest ones, harvest when the plants die back - check. Small ones you can get when the potatoes bloom - check.

After that she was stumped. “That's all there is to it.” she told me.

I said, “There must be something else? Something that I'm not getting right? I plant them, fert them, care for them and water them. There's something not right. If I were living in Belarus, I would have starved by now!”

Then after a pause, she said, “Well, you don't have to water them too much.” LIGHT BULB!

After a quick review of my watering routines, she determined that I was giving them too much water. Of course, I was pretty sure this really wasn't the problem but I agreed to cut off the water to see what happened.

Soon the plants died. Great! Or maybe not... Just dried old sticks in a pot. How attractive.

On a whim, I stuck my hand into the dried out compost left in the pot, just to test. The first thing I felt was this large rock. I wiggled my fingers around this rock, it was pretty good size rock. I couldn't figure out how a “rock” got into one of my planting containers. Did someone throw a rock in when I wasn't looking? How could a rock get in here? I wiggled my fingers around the rock to remove it from my pot. I was pretty annoyed that someone, some how, had put a huge rock in my pot.

After a good yank, I got the rock out.... I nearly fell over in shock with what I had in my hand: A potato! A REAL potato! And there was not just one, but a lot of potatoes! And more and more potatoes kept coming out of the container!

Addendum:
It tasted WONDERFUL. Just nuked with a bit of butter. And, I have another container of potatoes that I'm looking forward to rock hunting in.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.]



Potato Harvest May 2013

Sewing Machine Woes Update

My trials and tribulations with my sewing machine continues.

I anticipated sewing with my new $80 machine with the re-designed spool spindle sans frustration, but it wasn't long before I was spending more time 'fixing' the machine to sew than I actually sewed.

The project of sewing diamonds together to form 8 pointed stars should have gone smoothly, but I had to re- thread the machine as each diamond was joined.

At first, I thought adjusting the various dials according to the manual was the solution, but, alas, that was not the answer. Perhaps a burr on an internal casting either cut or broke the thread every time I re-positioned a diamond to sew on another.

What to do Percy? What to do?

I liked the machine and thought an exchange at the store might be in order. What were the odds of an identical machine having the same problem? While pondering this question, a friend, who restores and sells Singer Featherlight machines, offered to sell me a Singer 301A for a reasonable price.

No need to ask What to do, Percy? What to do? Before he could change his mind, I accepted his offer.

This machine is the best sewing machine ever made and I”m lucky to have one. It only sews a straight seam, no zig zag stitches and it lacks an automatic needle threader, but for my quilting purposes I couldn't ask for a better machine.

I'll find out if my sewing woes are over when I get the machine and start sewing.



Singer 301a Sewing Machine

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

Kim

A picture is worth a thousand words... I wish there were a thousand bites to share.



Mini Zucchini

Sewing Machine Woes

My sewing machine broke, but I didn't realize it was broken. I thought a thread jam was the reason it wouldn't sew, but after cleaning the bobbin race, it was obvious something was wrong, possibly broken.

I hoped what ever the cause, it could be repaired, but the clerk at the repair shop said that labor and the replacement part would cost more than a new sewing machine and suggested I just buy another machine.

A new machine similar to my broken one was $74 at Walmart and the bill at the repair shop would have been $100. The decision to buy new was a no brainer.

After diligently comparing the stats of the various machines, I chose a later model of the same brand as my old one, and was a happy camper as I looked forward to working on my latest sewing project.

New features in design promised ease of sewing, but the 'updated' changes in the design of the bobbin race were too radical for me. It was frustrating and I longed for the old style. After researching sewing machines online, I found one, but it too had 'updated' the spindle for holding a spool of thread.

I finally resigned myself to acceptance of the world wide penchant for changing what works to what 'modern' technology calls progress. I returned the $74 sewing machine and purchased the $80 model I had seen on the net.

I'm back sewing on my project, and so far, so good. The sewing is going smoothly and the machine is enough like my favorite old fashioned style that I can cope with the spool holder as needed. I don't see the reason for having changed it, but I suppose beginner seamstresses will think it the best style, never having known the best, original design that never failed until some bright person thought a change was necessary.



Sewing Machine Bobbins

 

Othello the Fine Fellow by KimB

Othello is nearing 2 years old now. We got him from the local shelter a year ago and he's a wonderful but quirky addition to the house.

He is really attached to Allen and follows behind as Allen does chores. He likes to keep an eye on things to make sure everything is "just so".

He has a play toy that he carries around and brings to Allen when he wants to play chase. When he was younger, Othello did all the chasing but now, he runs just a short way then stops to wait for Allen to come and pick up the toy to toss again. I think, he wants Allen to have "fun" chasing the toy too.

He loves to run up the stairs with me in the morning to my computer room. He has a cat tree with a box on the top that sits under a window. In the mornings, I pick him up to put him in the box and we snuggle together looking for the morning birds flitting outside the window.

He's learned to sleep on our new recliners. At first, he was a bit scared of the motor sounds, even though they are quiet. I think he was perplexed by the movement more than the sound though.

Like most cats he loves snoozing in the sun and we learned he likes bath towels so snuggle up in. So, we put one on each recliner so he can have his "blankies" as he moves from chair to chair.

Like our previous kitty, Zazu, he's learned all the places the sun hits and he heads there for long naps. Like her, he knows what time the sun will be at the top of the stairs and when it is at the bottom. He even knows when it is time to move to the recliners for optimal sun bathing.

His quirkiness shows up from time to time by getting into "attack mode". It seems to overcome him occasionally. He gets a hard look in his eye and fixates on something: usually Allen. In a flash it's a hard grab with all 4 paws and enough teeth to make sure you know, "I've got you!!!" He's very strong and you can hardly unwind him. Allen has a rattle-bottle nearby in case of "pending attack". We've learned to short circuit most of these episodes but once in a while he gets through. When Allen spots him starting to have "that look", he scolds Othello and the episode often passes with a hop into his lap and a snuggle and head rub.

While we still miss our Zazu, Othello has brought a lot of joy and a fair amount of mischief to our house. We wouldn't want it any other way.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.]

Othello the Fine Fellow
2 years old

The Big Six O

A few days ago I started wondering how we determined that sixty minutes made an hour. Why wasn't the number fifty or seventy chosen? We could have chosen any number, so how did it happen that it was 60? When we learned to count why did we pass ten and chose a higher number?

Our lives are divided into segments determined by hour units of 60 minutes each, which in turn measure 60 seconds. Our circadian sleep rhythms adjust to 'daylight saving' in springtime by moving the hands of the clock forward an hour and in the fall by moving the hands of the clock back an hour.

Our activities are determined by the 24 hours of clock time. Jobs are measured by hours spent at work. We plan school semesters around calendar days of 24 hours. Television programing is scheduled in hours of clock time.

My knowledge of math is shallow at best, but at some time in my past, I learned that zero did not exist in ancient numbering systems, but does that fact have anything to do with The Big Six O? It's a mystery to me. So... I did what computer users do...I went to the internet to search for the answer. I googled.

There are bones and other artifacts with cuts in them suggesting tally marks that date back to 30,000 BC, but the beginning of counting is speculative. The invention of number forms occurred in India and transmitted thru Arab cultures into Europe.

The Babylonian numbering system started about 1800 BC but it was developed from the much older Sumerian civilization. Babylonians used only two symbols representing the number one and number ten. They did not have a zero.

They used two ones for 2, three ones for 3, four ones for 4, etc. They could use these two symbols to count to 59 but the number 60 looked like the number 10. The Babylonians never had a symbol for zero, but they used the idea of zero by leaving a blank area or space or a small wedged apostrophe between number characters. Using only two symbols, Babylonians could represent any whole number, however big.

Babylonian numerals

We use nine characters, plus the symbol for zero. We do not have a symbol for ten. They developed a positional system listing numbers in columns with the power of 60 rather than ten like we use. Base 60 is a very good system. Many numbers will divide into it, 2 3 4 5 6 10 12 15 20 30. We use base 60 for hours, minutes, degrees in a circle, etc.

Phoenicians who originally used cuneiform script later invented the alphabet which is the basis of our modern alphabet.

Our modern numbers derive from the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The designs of the numbers have changed over time to the ones we currently use.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

0 (zero)

Window Washers

What a wonderful surprise patients at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee got when three window washers, dressed in Spider Man costumes, waved to them while washing windows.

The men spent four hours waving and shooting silly sting at the children as they cleaned the windows on each floor of the building. Smiling children waved back; the distraction a momentary forgetfulness of their problems and illnesses.

A similar event took place at the Children's Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida when Spider Men window washers made several trips from the top to the bottom of the high rise building waving to patients as they worked. What a lovely gesture bringing smiles to patients and staff alike.

Patients in Pittsburgh were barely awake one morning when Spider Men window washers, rappelling down the facades of the building from roof tops 12 stories high, started waving to those inside.

Super hero window cleaners deserve a medal for bringing a little fun and pleasure into the lives of sick children.



Spidermen suiting up

Spiderman on the Job

The "New" have arrived! by KimB

Our new Bodie Power Rocker Recliners have arrived and we've been giving them a good workout.

We bought the rechargeable batteries, 1 for each chair.  The batteries are about the size of a 1lb block of butter. The charge lasts about 2 weeks and it takes 4-5 hours to recharge. The battery has a cord that you plug into wall outlet so you can use the chair while it's recharging. The batteries have a LED light that changes to green when the battery is fully charged.

The batteries also make a "beep" when they get low on power so you know to plug them in.

The first time though, I thought it was a smoke detector low battery warning beep! We were running around the house trying to spot the failing smoke detector. We couldn't figure out why the smoke detector was going off as we had recently changed all the batteries.  We figured it might be a bad battery, so we ran around looking and listening. When we couldn't find which one was failing, we went to sit in our new chairs and the "smoke detector" went off every time we sat down.

Pretty soon, we figured out: It's coming from the CHAIRS! Allen and I, both had a great laugh about it.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.]



Allen in his chair

At the AT&T by Richard

Frances and I went on Feb.7th to the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Golf Tournament, in beautiful Carmel.

We were in luck, because it didn't rain, but it was cold. The sun felt good when the clouds passed by.

We set up our chairs on the 3rd green, all wrapped up and watched all the players go by.

We enjoyed hot coffee and lunch and left for home about 2 o'clock. On the way home we stopped at the In & Out for a great hamburger and more coffee.

It was a long day and we were glad to be home in our warm house with our dogs.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]



AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

A. Nonymus

Houston Garden Report - #1
The First Day of Spring – March 21, 2013

How-dee from H- Town! Well it's that time again!!

I've been putting in this years attempt at a garden – again... I'm reminded of the classic definition or 'insanity' … repeating the same actions... but expecting different results.. [lol].

I had been planning to give another try at a garden this season – and in recent days, whilst pondering 'n cogitatin' on it as the weather got nice, I got a bit of a shove when I found 44 miniature roses in 4” pots on clearance .. and after a bit o hagglin' got 'em all for $25!! … the basic garden I had seen in my near future, had jumped out and grabbed me, moving near future to right NOW!! Hopefully, this future, doesn’t put me in the 'past-ure' [wink]...

I gathered the roses up, and got'em home. This greatly accelerated and necessitated the need to rapidly dust off the sundry accoutrement and remnants of our previous years container gardens, and I quickly lined out a revised battle plan of attack. The small container garden of veggies would now encompass color and flowers !!

This was quite a push, as my gardens have a mixed history - with some having been very nice and productive – and others … well, not so much.. see previous comment on 'insanity' [wink].

Now the flowers are an exciting new feature this season … and hopefully will add a nice bit of color and character to our usual cast of veggie suspects – tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cukes, herbs etc.

This year we are also toying with onions, garlic, and I'm quite excited about experimenting with fingerling potatoes. I received a wonderful selection of fantastic fingerlings donated by my Chef friend; lovely yellows, red, orange, black & blue skins – and about the size of extra large eggs. I found some great videos on YouTube on ways to grow fingerlings in burlap bags – perfect for small / container gardens.. I'll add the links below. I've also put in some Idaho baking russets from the store that had sprouted – separated in an old bin. It will be interesting to see what turns out.

I'm going with a nice simple and basic herb bed – the traditional basics – Cilantro, Basil, Mint, and Spearmint – with onions, and garlic in the separate potato bin.

We're trying out a “Topsy-Turvey “ tomato kit - you know the one on late nite infomercials. It's a hanging upside down earth filled bag, planted with a nice hardy cherry tomato, which is already thriving and has many tiny flowers. This bit of fun seems quite promising. My gardening friend had one last year, and marveled & bragged at the results. So we're enjoying the promise of a long season of cherry tomatoes.. and hopefully won't have to fend off the birds, possums, and various critters that may be laying in wait for those most delicious morsels of goodness.

Another first: We are trying to grow some items from seed. I've never done well at germinating / sprouting, but the feed n supply guy said they are almost foolproof ...usually [wink]. From seed we are going for – cukes, Asian small eggplant, and 2 exotic bushing squash.

There is a nice variety of peppers from starter plants; Mammoth jalapeno, Bell – red n yellow, banana, gypsy, jalapeno, salad cherry peppers, and one volunteer hot jalapeno that survived from last year.

Keeping the lineup simple in the tomato department – cherry [hanging basket], grape, Big Boy, Lemon Boy [yellow]...

Gardening tips
New information to me, and worthy of experimentation...

Just learned about growing potatoes in a burlap bag … wonderful stuff, and excited to give it a go... see the links.

Another green thumbed friend suggested I add Epsom Salts and a multivitamin tab in each pot as cheap fertilizer. She swears this is like magic! Apparently, the Epsom Salts are especially good for roses, tomatoes, and peppers, but makes all plants lusher and greener. My friend insists that the yield and quality was amazing and I was highly encouraged to pursue this. After Googling this, it seems to have merit and the folk lore has been around for years with good scientific and anecdotal results. Use the cheapest products, which is usually available at the 99 cent store.

So now we're off to the races... the garden is pretty much in place – Here are some photos, and a few links that I found with great information on growing potatoes , the basic 411 on Epsom salts, and using human multivitamins for the plants.

That’s about it for now... I'm reminded that a battle plan is only effective until the first shot is fired, then gets tossed immediately out the window [wink] ... hopefully we will not have too many curves in the road. The regular problems are planned for – as best as possible – the heat, drought, mosquitoes, bugz n critters... oh and laziness – rofl!

Ciao for niao – H-Town signing off until next time.

Links:

[Editor's note: Some of these sites have mandatory preview ads or other merchandising on their sites. Please exercise good computing practices when visiting any of these links.]

Videos:
Potatoes in a bag.
Fingerling Potatoes
Epsom Salt as enhancer for color and yield

Blog:
Multi-Vitamins as enhancement

[Editor's note: This story was written by A. Nonymus.]



Container Row



Tomatoes Roses Peppers Cucumbers

Herb Box

Ski videos

There are some extraordinary ski and snow boarding videos on the internet. I never get tired of watching the expert twists and turns with the magnificent spray of powder snow as a skier swerves to change direction or come to a sudden stop.

I marvel at a skier's ability to keep their balance as they glide down steep mountain slopes. To successfully fly thru the air when taking one jump after another is a skill that looks effortlessly, but it requires perseverance and courage to master.

It's one thing to ski down a hill or mountain with a ski on each foot, but some do it on one board ! As if that isn't accomplishment enough, they also take jumps to become air born so they can do somersaults and all manner of maneuvers in the air before landing upright. That is really pushing the limits!

One of the web sites with ski videos is that of Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort in Whistler, BC Canada. You can tool around their site and see other interesting things like different web cams and info about snowfall etc.

Whistler Blackcomb video The Wonder Reels: Episode 4 - The Deep is an astounding video showing two skiers on a mountain run, one is on a snowboard.



So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

Kim

The race is ON! Spring has sprung and the race to the first tomatoes is going at full speed.

I bought some more seeds that are special for container gardening and also some unusual seeds to try out. I bought some miniature eggplant, miniature bell peppers (yellow and red). I also bought some seeds for tomatoes that are red, orange or black. Plans are for more container zucchini and cucumbers too.

The miniature watermelons were not successful last year so I'm skipping those.

I've already planted multi-colored carrots and the seedlings have started to popping up. The taters are LOOOKING GOOOOOD after the winter too. I'm making notes to myself, to give them lots of fertilizer this year. I even got some fish emulsion liquid for later on.

I've started some of the more delicate seeds indoors using some plastic cold drink cups. First, I used an ice pick to punch some holes in the bottom for drainage.  I found that the ice pick holes are too small for the water to escape well, so I used some pruning shears to clip out a small triangle in the bottom on both sides of the cup.  You can just get the shears to catch on the bottom edge and it makes a good enough hole for the water to drain.

[note: The cut actually forms a diamond; the section on the side is a triangle and there is a matching triangle on the bottom of the cup from the snips.]

I wanted a gentle method of watering them. So, I took a plastic water bottle and punched 4 ice pick holes near the top to use. A gentle squeeze on the bottle and just enough water comes out.

Seedling Cups

Watering Bottle

Spell Checkers by KimB

I cannot type.

I cannot type fast.

I cannot type without making errors.

In the online games I play, we call this "typonese". It comes from a) not knowing how to spell and b) from trying to type a lot of information in a short time to another player. Most players understand whatever it is you are typing just the same.

Spell checkers help but sometimes you have the problem that if you don't know how to spell it to start with you can't find the correct word to use.

Google has started to add a dictionary to search results. I guess they figured out that a lot of people like me, use Google as a dictionary, just to find the correct spelling of a word.

Spell checkers are like GPS systems, they can only take you places you already know about. It's hard to get a GPS to show you the directions for: I-Want-To-Go-That-A-Way. With spell checkers it's hard to get them to show you: How-Do-You-Spell-The-I-Dunno-How-To-Spell-It-Word.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.] 

The Spell Chequer Poem

Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss Steaks I can knot sea.

Eye strike the quays and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am write oar wrong
It tells me straight a weigh.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your shore real glad two no.
Its vary polished in its weigh.
My chequer tolled me sew.

A chequer is a bless thing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right all stiles of righting,
And aides me when eye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The chequer pours o'er every word
Two cheque sum spelling rule.

The original version of this poem was written by Jerrold H. Zar in 1992. An unsophisticated spell checker will find little or no fault with this poem because it checks words in isolation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_checker

Six Word Stories

Narrating a story in six words never occurred to me but since reading that Ernest Hemingway is credited with the following 'For sale, Baby shoes, Never worn', I've been playing with words and creating my own six word stories.

Composing a meaningful story with such brevity is quite an amazing challenge!

Obviously I've come late to the table because when I googled for examples, I discovered many web sites posting six word stories the public at large submits.

Six word stories reminds me of writing newspaper headlines for my High school journalism class and my attempts at composing English Haiku with seven vowels.

Here are two of my six word stories:

• Ransom asked, Paid, Dog back home.
• Phone call, Winner notification, Wrong number.

OK, so they're not terrific...... lets see what YOU can do.....

For some really great ones, check out the following web site: Six Word Stories

I think you will be amazed.

Six Word Story E Hemingway

Birch Trees

Our sunny winter days hint of spring but the trees beyond the parking lot are still leafless. Rising high above surrounding buildings, they look like thin black pencil streaks; their hard edged silhouettes contrasting sharply against the pale blue winter sky.

Appraising the unbroken line of the tree trunks, I suddenly realized that I hadn't seen a birch tree in a long, long time. Where had all the white birches gone?

As a child, they were as familiar to me as oak and black walnut trees. In those far away days, many groupings of two and three birches graced the lawns of neighbors and dotted the countryside. Seeing bits of white bark, loosened from the trunk and hanging in tatters, was as familiar a sight to me as seeing robins hopping across lawns, hunting worms a few feet from passersby.

I grew up knowing Indians used birch bark to make canoes, but just how a canoe was made was a mystery. I never asked and I am not certain anyone would have been able to tell me if I had asked. Now the 'how' no longer remains a mystery. The following fabulous YouTube tells and shows all!

Building a Birch Bark Canoe

Out with the old... by KimB

Allen and I have decided to dump our old leather sectional in favor of a new pair of reclining chairs.

We've had our couch for 20+ years and it's in need of repair. The seats need to be replaced and per some estimates the cost of repairing the couch is very near the price of a fancy new chair. So we decided to go "lookabout" to see what's available.

We went to Sears but they had sold out every chair they had. The place was a zoo and the sales person could barely be bothered to talk to us. So we headed off to a locally owned, more upscale furniture store in town, called Gary O's Furniture Store.

We had a very nice and knowledgeable young man, show us all the ins and outs of the chairs available. There were a lot of choices and options!

The first thing we discovered was that a manually reclined chair was not going to work. Allen couldn't push hard enough to get it into lying down mode and couldn't push the foot rest down to get it back upright. A surprise fact of old age: we are not as strong as we once were. We remembered Allen's mother, Shirley, couldn't recline her chair either and regularly tipped it over trying to get it to lie flat.

So, we revised our view and looked at power operated chairs. Almost every chair is available with a power option, so it was down to basics again. Comfort, usability, size, shape and fit.

Just like Goldilocks and the three bears, some were too hard, some were too soft, some were too small, some were too big. But just like her, in the end we found one that was "just right". We opted for a Bodie Power Rocker Recliner in dark brown leather.

The power option allows us to recline to any angle we want. The leather will be easy to care for and durable. Cloth would have been shredded quickly by the cat, Othello, even though we keep his claws trimmed short. The pillows on the back are very comfortable and are soft enough to adjust to your back when you move the recliner to any position. The arms are just right for us shorties, with nice soft arm pillows for support. There is an optional rechargeable battery that you can get, so that you don't have to have the power cord crossing the floor.

We gave it a good test run and Allen nearly fell asleep in it while at the store.

Our chairs will take about 6-8 weeks to come in, as they are made to order. We are already looking forward to sitting in them and watching all the upcoming episodes of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB.]

Bodie Power Rocker Recliner

So How Does YOUR Garden Grow?

MrsB

This is the first plant actually grown from the many avocado seeds I germinate in glasses of water. It developed twin seedlings and I wonder if any of the seeds that are beginning to root will double.



Avocado Plant

Avocado Plant

Top Secret ?

While I was watching and listening to a YouTube video of bagpipes playing Auld Lang Syne, the words, 'Top Secret' on the right side of the screen caught my eye.

Never having seen anything on YouTube called 'Top Secret', I was curious. After watching a video called Top Secret Drum Corp, I read about them on a wiki page.

Its a 25 member, non-military precision drumming corp called, 'Top Secret Drum Corp'. They are based in Basel, Switzerland. After a performance in Edinburgh in 2009, their fame has increased with performances in Europe, United States and Australia. A movie is currently being made about them.

Although they follow some aspects of traditional drumming corps, they play at a faster rate and are more playful and humorous than military drummers and they come up with new routines. Some have incorporated fireworks and strobe lights.

The drummers and color guard members are highly dedicated drummers with diverse day jobs as bankers, civil servants and factory workers and give their free time to practice every day of the year. The nature of the work is demanding and membership frequently changes.

There are other YouTube videos of the group including one in 2012. The following is the one at Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2009

Top Secret Drum Corps

Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!



Hourglass

Goodbye 2012

Hello 2013

Happy Winter Holidays

Happy Winter Holidays

Pieter Brueghel the Elder

  'The Hunters in the Snow' 1565



Utagawa Hiroshige

'Night Snow at Kambara' 1833



Ivan Shishkin

'In the Wild North' 1891



Vincent van Gogh

'Landscape in Snow' 1888



Edvard Munch

'New Snow on the Lane' 1906



Claude Monet

'Snow at Argenteuil' 1875

Theater: A Christmas Carol by Richard

Frances and I enjoyed the performance of Charles Dickens', A Christmas Carol at the San Jose Rep. It is a beautifully story about Christmas during the 18th century, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the textile industries; when children labored long hours under poor working conditions.

The cast with their costumes, the music and the dancing was wonderful to watch. It reminded me of the Christmases we all shared years ago back in Iowa Falls.

We are about ready for Christmas at home now. The tree is decorated, the outside lights are up and we are all most done shopping, thank goodness!

We are going to our daughter's house for Christmas Eve dinner, for which we will bring Dungeness crabs and French bread. On Christmas Day, after church, we will prepare a late breakfast for everyone at our house where the grandsons and family will open all the gifts. After everything is unwrapped and the excitement dies down, I will tidy up and take my afternoon nap. That evening, we will have Christmas Day dinner at their house.

After all the hustle and bustle of Christmas events, we will head off to our place in Morro Bay for New Years and a well deserved rest.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]



Dungeness Crab

Fibonacci

I discovered Fibonacci today. I have to admit that I was flabbergasted at the discovery.

For some period of time, when I groaned about loosing a particular game of chess, my son often suggested it was because I used "The Fibonacci".  Thinking the word was my son's made up slang word, it seemed applicable to winning or losing chess games so I added it to my vocabulary and blame many of my losses on "Fibonacci".

You can imagine my astonishment when I came across the word Fibonacci while surfing the Internet. I googled for it and voilà!

In mathematics Fibonacci numbers or Fibonacci sequence are numbers in the following integer sequence, 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144

The first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence is 0 and 1, (alternatively, 1and1). Each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5 etc.

The sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci.

In my art studies, I learned about the Golden Ratio or golden mean which is believed to be the most pleasing and beautiful shape. It is found in many places including geometry, art and architecture such as the Parthenon. Using 'rule of thirds' divide a line into two parts so that the longer part divided by the smaller part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part you will have the golden ratio.



Golden Ratio

What does this have to do with Fibonacci numbers? I never knew about them and their special relationship to the golden ratio.

The symbol of golden ratio uses the Greek letter 'phi' which is a special number equal to 1.618. The ratio of any two successive numbers is close to the golden ratio.

Fibonacci sequence numbers appear in nature and biological settings such as branches of trees, leaf and petal placement such as pine cones, pineapples, broccoli florets and sunflower seeds which arrange themselves in spirals.

Until recently it was believed the beautiful chambered nautilus was an example of golden ratio, but recent scientific study shows the spiral of the nautilus doesn't have the true spiral shape based on the golden ratio.

The following shows how Fibonacci numbers look if tiled in squares and in spirals.

Fibonacci numbers tiled in squares

Fibonacci numbers tiled in spirals

The tiling is made of squares whose sides are successive Fibonacci numbers in length. A spiral is created by circular arcs connecting to opposite corners of squares.

What a delight to find new information to add to what I already knew. And to top it off, I can now use the word 'fibonacci' as having two meanings, my own personal slang word and one mathematical.

Theater: Freud's Last Session by Richard

Frances and I enjoyed the play, Freud's Last Session, which was performed at the San Jose Repertory Theater.

The location was London England and the timing is when England entered the World War ll.

The stage was Freud's home office,which was decorated with a large desk, bookcase, chairs, lamps and windows leading to a balcony and the lighting was perfect. The sound affects of air raid sirens and airplanes seemed real.

The cast Sigmund Freud played by Michael Flynn and C.S. Lewis played by Benjamin Evett, and the conversion between the two was incredible.  I found my self so interested in the subjects discussed about life, death and god that it held my attention for the whole play.

Frances and I discussed how much we enjoyed the play while driving home.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]



Freud's Last Session Poster

A Morning in December

The house was bustling with activity. As usual on a weekend morning we children were scattered through out the rooms, upstairs and down. It was cold outside, snow glistened in the bright sun light; the sky cloudless. As we each went about our own private pursuits, the cozy atmosphere was enhanced with the odors emanating from the kitchen where Mom was cooking and baking. At mid-morning a quietness had settled over the house; muted noises from the kitchen and radio were the only persistent sounds. When someone rang the door bell around 11 o'clock, the loud, jangling ring pierced our ears so forcefully that we all ran toward the door to see who it was and why. Ordinarily, a person would have just opened the door and stepped inside, rarely would anyone have rung the door bell.

Mom reached the door first. I noticed that she was wearing an apron which she had not taken time to remove before answering the door. It took a moment to recognize the caller who was wearing hunting clothes and holding out two pheasants for Mom to take. In a breathless voice he said something to the effect that he was in a terrible hurry and couldn't stay. He, his father and brother had been out hunting and on the way to our house with the two pheasants, they heard on the radio that Japan had attacked. We were speechless! To our questions of 'where?', he said he didn't know. The radio announcer only knew it was near Hawaii, some place called Pearl Harbor.

As we closed the door after him we were so stunned we just stood there for a moment, Mom with the pheasants hanging from her hands, Dad staring at the door and the rest of us not moving or saying a word. Dad immediately tuned the radio to a news station. After taking the pheasants to the kitchen, we all gathered around the radio. Since it was breaking news, reports were lacking in detail. None of us had ever heard of Pearl Harbor. Hawaii was an island, but where exactly?

Dad got out some maps and an atlas. Living in the middle of the United States, in the middle of the agricultural state of Iowa, the distant island of Hawaii was foreign to us. It was difficult to comprehend that we had been bombed by Japan. News of war and attacks that we knew about took place in Europe where the Germans and Italians were invading neighboring countries.

The Japanese attack was sudden, but the realization of how it would change our lives came slowly. Our way of life and that of the country would never be the same; the directions we took, for better or worse, were results of Japan's decision to bomb the U.S.

Mason City, Iowa Newspaper
Announcement of War on Japan Dec 8, 1941
after bombing of Pearl Harbor

Spelling

I can't spell worth a darn! I blame it on the silent letters we have in English. Thank heavens we have spell checkers on our computers. Why do we have so many silent 'haches', 'esses' and 'dubbyas' ?



CNR C0d3s

I always have to look in the dictionary for the correct spelling of words like rhyme and rhythm. Besides learning how a word is spelled, you also have to learn how to pronounce it. And we also contend with words being spelled differently but pronounced alike.

Sometimes we change our minds and switch from silent to pronounced letters. Not many years ago the 't' in often was silent, but today its pronounced. All the letters in the English alphabet can be silent and one can find many sites on the internet listing examples from a to z.

Txt messaging, called, txtese is a spelling shortcut. Simple and to the point. I think I discovered it back in the third grade. At last! I finally get to use it in my old age when I txt my sister.

Txt C0d3s

The Recipe Box: Meatballs and Grape Jelly

Meatballs and Grape Jelly

From the recipe box of MrsB

My sister had never heard of a meatballs and grape jelly recipe. I had learned of the recipe many years ago from Aunt Elizabeth when Adeline and I attended the birthday party Elizabeth had for cousin Paul's 40th birthday. The meatballs, plus other goodies were served buffet style and were so delicious I asked for the recipe. Its a simple and easy recipe.

1 12oz jar barbecue sauce

or

1 12 oz jar of chili sauce

1 12 oz jar of grape jelly

1 16 oz pkg frozen meat balls

1. Combine one of the sauces and grape jelly and bring to a low simmer.
2. When jelly is melted, add thawed meatballs and simmer for another 8-10 minutes.
3. Meat balls can be served from a crock pot on low temperature.

I personally prefer using barbecue sauce



Meatballs with Grape Jelly

Ripping

If I had a nickel for every knit stitch I have ripped out, I'd be richer than Bill Gates.

Its impossible to estimate the yardage of knitted yarn that I've ripped, but it would easily reach to and from Mars several times over. Probably enough to have wrapped Mars in knitting yarn for NASA's Rover to have had a soft landing.

Why do I rip? Good question. I can't help myself.

I often knit an item like a baby blanket or afghan making up a design as I knit. Consequently, I have no idea what the finished item will look like until the knitting is far enough along to see the developing pattern. Occasionally I have to rip out a part of the design to try another idea or color, but usually, I have to rip because I made a mistake and noticed it many knitting hours later.

One reason I make these mistakes is because I watch TV when I knit. Generally the TV program is just background noise, but now and then I stop counting stitches and pay attention to the TV screen. I have become adept at momentarily holding the needles with only half a stitch made until ready to finish it when my attention is redirected to knitting. My fingers are nimble enough for these stops and starts, but my brain must skip a neuron or two, and I blithely continue knitting until a BIG error is discovered.

What to do, Percy? What to do?

There aren't many choices, quit and toss, or correct and finish. I choose to correct, but I moan and groan all the way to the finish line then swear off knitting. But not many days go by before I begin thinking of a new design to knit, and pick up the needles again.



Ball of Yarn

Twins

Twins

Babies are precious and
beyond price
When they come paired
It's twice as nice.

Twins that are born
A girl and a boy
Bring double the pleasure
And double the joy.


Marion Bigelow August 2012

Function Beat Dead Horse by KimB

Some programmer humor for election day ...

Function Beat Dead Horse (horse)

while(horse.State == dead)
{
     beat();
}

Reading

I have learned how to download library books to my HP Touchpad. Choosing a book and having it available to read in a matter of seconds is truly amazing!

I enjoy reading and usually have several books on hand so as soon as I finish reading one, I can begin reading another.  Physically holding a book, turning the pages, placing a book mark and flipping thru photos is part of my enjoyment when reading, consequently, I never thought I would like reading an ebook.

Surprise! Surprise!

I not only enjoy reading electronic books on a device, browsing the list of books at the library while sitting in a comfy chair at home is also a pleasure. Choosing the type and size of the font, turning pages with the lightest of touches, and not having to worry about returning books when due, has made me an ebook convert.

I'm not ready to give up owning real books though. I will still visit the library and browse the sale table for goodies the librarian weeds from the shelves.



eBook

Morro Bay by Richard

We have had our summer home in Morro Bay for 35 years and have made many trips there during this time. It all begins with preparation: checking the items and things we need, then packing for the trip. As we load the car, our two dogs know it's time to leave.

Leaving Santa Clara, we take local freeways until we turn south on Highway 101, which is also now a great freeway. A few years ago it was a mixture of two, three and four lane highways which required slowing down and went through the center of all the small cities on the way.

The road south, through the Santa Clara Valley, is busy with traffic in both directions and with each passing year it increases. The Santa Clara Valley has many interesting places to see and we have been to most of them. Ahead we encounter rolling hills as we near the Hollister turn off until we enter the Salinas area. Here we stop for lunch and a short break as we stretch our legs.

Back on the road again, it takes us through the vast Salinas Valley, which produces much of the country's fresh produce. As we continue south, we pass thousands of acres growing huge amounts of different vegetables.

There are two mountain ranges, one on the east side of this vast valley and one the other on the west side. As the road moves more to the right, it begins to rise and we can see more of the valley. After about 50 miles, we enter King City and head for Starbucks for a coffee and a short break. The dogs also get a chance to stretch too.

Continuing south, the road rises up into the rolling hills leaving the valley behind and looking ahead all we can see are enormous vineyards, stretching for as for as the eye can see. Moving on, we approach Camp Roberts, which has two garrisons, the right side was the training site for thousands of solders during World War Two but now is used by the National Guard. The left side is the Armor Garrison. The next major city is Paso Robles, which also has several small vineyards and produces fine wines that many come to see taste and buy.

From Paso Robles we turn right on State Highway 46, going west up over the coastal mountain range down to State Highway 1, turning left and following the road along the Pacific Ocean on our right, into beautiful Morro Bay. Reaching our home I unload the car and help put things away. I then take my afternoon rest.

The trip is 185 miles from door to door and it takes us about three and a half hours. Through the years we have enjoyed our place in Morro Bay, and we would not trade anything for time we have had together there. Time is passing by too fast, so France and I will keep the summer home for as long as possible.

[Editor's note: This story was written by Richard]




Morro Bay