We Have Aliens in the Garden

One May day Jack strolled into the kitchen and announced "Joann, you have aliens in the garden and they are blooming." What? There are aliens in the garden? Well, I have to see this. Where are they? So we went to the arbor and swing in our garden and Jack pointed out these purple globe blooms in the bed in front of the arbor. "Jack, those are not aliens like ET but alliums. Alliums! They are in the onion family and I planted them in my lily bed to have something in bloom before the lilies start to bloom in June. And since they are in the onion family the deer that stop by for a nibble take one whiff of the alliums and leave this flower bed alone. Obviously the deer don't care for ET and his friends. And I just wish that ET and his alien friends would stick around all summer so that the deer would not return to eat my daylilies in June and July. ET, don't phone home and don't go home!

Wacky Weather Events

We are getting soaked here in Northern Virginia. Lots of rain coming down and last night we were under a tornado watch. Luckily nothing bad happened. But last week guess what? Northern Virginia had an earthquake! Not serious enough to cause damage but serious enough for people to notice their house shaking after a loud boom sounded. The epic center for the earthquake they said was on Holborn Ave. in Annandale, VA. I know Holborn Ave well. Used to go down it to get to the central office for FCPS School Librarians and Media Personnel. And now they are saying that the tragedy in Myanmar (Burma) will be worse than the tsuname event of the other year. Can you even imagine 100,000 people getting wiped out from a storm? And because of lack of clean water and food they are predicting in today 's Washington Post that up to 400,000 additional people could die. Can you imagine what it would be like if 500,000 people in a section of the United States were lost from a storm. I can't.

Books Read in April

The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown*

Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky****

The Jeweler's Mark*, by Vincent Lash

Saving Fish From Drowning, by Amy Tan*****

Only four books read this month. To be truly honest----three and half books read this month. I still have some pages to go in the Amy Tan book.

Amy Tan is fast becoming one of my very favorite authors. Love this Amy Tan book: Saving Fish From Drowning. How much do I love it? So much so that I'm sitting reading this book when I should be doing some re-arranging of perennials in my garden. This book reads a bit like an Anne Tyler eccentric novel. It is also a bit like The Lovely Bones in that the book's narrator is deceased and looking back at what has happened since she died. Here is a quote from Chapter One when Bibi Chen, the deceased murdered? narrator of the book is discussing her open casket viewing: "A shiny silver scarf was wrapped into a puffy bow around my lacerated neck. I looked like a turkey with aluminum foil, about to be put in the oven." Oh, and did I mention that the book is about Bibi's travel circle carrying on after her death by going on with a planned trip to China and Burma? So it is a travel adventure told by the deceased Bibi who had planned the trip. And so reading the book you are on The Road to Burma. (By the way, Burma is now called Myanmar and has been in the news because of that devastating cyclone that killed over 22,000 people.) Well, The Road to Burma soon becomes the trip from hell. Lots of interesting characters and lots of amusing incidents. I can't tell you the ending because I'm not there yet.

My Great Niece is Graduating

My great niece is graduating May 25, 2008 from Russia Local High School in Russia, Ohio. Jack and I want to send our congratulations to this outstanding student who has a 4.0 grade average and is quite the basketball player. We hope everyone attending the graduation party at the Catholic War Veterans Hall in Russia has a great time. You all will be in our thoughts here in Virginia.

I Want To Hold Your Hands

Our grandson, Jack Aidan, has learned a new trick. If you hold his hands he can move his legs and walk with you. Last week he and Grandpa were high stepping around the kitchen table and the kitchen island. He knew he had done something outstanding because he flashed us this big grin. But has he taken to crawling on all fours? No, not yet. He may walk before he crawls I think because he likes to stand on his own tiny two feet.

Click on the photos to see my little walking man up close.

The Run for the Roses 2008

I spent three summers in Lexington, KY where I was attending the University of Kentucky to take library science courses. It was while there that I became fascinated with the bluegrass state. A Kentucky tour guide in 1972 at the Mary Todd Lincoln home in Lexington commented that Kentucky is a man's dream state because it produces everything a man would like: beautiful women, fast racehorses, dark tobacco and good bourbon. Well, every year at the Kentucky Derby you can see all four of these Kentucky virtues? in abundance. I watched the derby yesterday on TV and saw Big Brown win the derby and Eight Bells break down. I learned shortly after the race that Eight Bells had been euthanized. Today I'm reading in the online papers that racehorses are becoming more and more vulnurable to injuries because of the inbreeding. One article claimed that all the horses in yesterday's race could trace their linage to the winning racehorse, Northern Dancer, 1960. I wonder how they could incorporate new bloodlines into this sport.

Meanwhile, back here in Virginia on the first Saturday in May we have something called The Gold Cup. It is old fashioned horse racing on turf with fence jumps thrown in for good measure. This event is always held in The Plains, VA. Several of my neighbors attended the races there yesterday. I know horse racing is controversial and that some say it should be outlawed. I don't think it should be outlawed but it does need to be regulated better. I think both the horses and the jockeys have a very hard life riding to win. The good days come when they both are put out to pasture to enjoy the retirement years. And that's what I enjoy seeing whenever we get a chance to drive around Lexington, KY: magnificent horses enjoying the bluegrass pastures on the beautiful horse farms. Here are my questions for you. Do you think Big Brown could become a Triple Crown winner? And are you old enough to remember Secretariat, The Triple Crown Horse?

The Kentucky Derby Is Here Once Again

Once a year Jack and I have a mint julep. We sip our mint julep while watching The Kentucky Derby. Last year I believe Queen Elizabeth was in attendance at the derby. I always get a kick out of the ladies in the wide brimmed hats and the men in suits and ties. Of course there is a different look in the infield where the college students hang out in shorts and t-shirts and act like they are at a Friday night fraternity party. I always wonder about who is having more fun at the event. And I always wonder about how much money is dropped at the betting windows. For me the best part is watching the parade of horses and the University of Louisville college band play My Old Kentucky Home.

We Have Baby Birds !

We have baby birds on the front door of our house. When Jack and I took off last week for Atlanta we had two blue eggs in the nest. I thought that they were purple finch eggs but now that the eggs have hatched I can tell that they are little baby house sparrows. I know it is hard to see. In the last photo you can see the eye of one of the baby sparrows. The wreath on the back door is getting some bird activity too. Today I saw purple finches flying in and out of the wreath. I think that they are trying to decide if they want to build a nest in the wreath. Last year the purple finches used this wreath and we had four baby purple finches in May. Maybe they will do the same thing this year. All I've got to say is that I need to be careful now and not slam the house doors.

On May 3rd we noticed that our baby birds in the nest in the wreath had flown away. This all happened within a matter of days!

Home Sweet Home

We made it home to our front door late yesterday afternoon. The drive back was not fun. It rained heavily both Sunday and Monday so driving was difficult. It feels good to be back home. I checked my gardens and Jack checked the lawn and we both decided that that today will be a gardening day.

Groom's Army Audit Friends

My husband Jack was one of eight Army Audit alumnus who traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to witness Tom McKinney give up his bachelorhood at age 65 to Sandy McTheney. Both Tom and Sandy retired from the federal government after over thirty years of service and they met each other at the NARFE convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. NARFE stands for the National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees. Tom graduated from Youngstown University in Ohio and in his early career days was an Army Auditor in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Jack and I both knew Tom when he was an army auditor in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1970's. Jack and I both enjoyed sharing this special event in Tom's life and getting reacquainted with all these army audit alumni.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

The Wedding Day

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner - P F Changs

I Remember the Smith Plantation Tour Guide

We met the sweetest tour guide at Smith Plantation. She was one of the unfortunate natives of New Orleans who was forced to evacuate and relocate to the state of Georgia. This lady's home was near Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans so when the levees broke after Hurricane Katrina hit the water rose to the twelve foot level in her home and stayed like that for over two months. Naturally everything she had was ruined including an antique melodian? (small organ) that she had had insured for $35,0000 on a separate insurance rider. Well, she got nothing from the insurance company because they claimed that the insurance coverage was only for water damage from the roof down not from water rising up from the ground from the broken levees. She pointed this out to us as she showed us in one room of the house a melodian that was not as old and not as valuable as hers has been. She said that she had place valuables on top of tables and covered them with antique quilts but the water rose so fast and so high that everything downstairs was under water and everything upstairs was ruined by mildew. And then to make a very bad situation worse her home was broken into and ransacked three times during this two month period. Looters took architectural elements, doorknobs, chandeliers, etc. What a nightmare for this woman! In this woman's opinion, New Orleans will never return to its former days of glory. It will be like a modern day Pompeii---a city lost to the elements. In comparison she noted that Atlanta recovered rather quickly from General Sherman's destroy and burn policy as he marched across Georgia from Atlanta to the sea. She told us that she is now recovering her life in Atlanta and will never return to New Orleans. So sad. But what a show of fortitude and perseverance.
I just had to blog about her. And this was her advice for everyone: read the fine print of all your insurance policies. What you think may be covered may not actually be covered even though you are paying dearly for insurance. And quite naturally she does not have a high opinion of President Bush and his slow reaction to this disaster. Oh, and I also learned this from her talk. She told us that General Sherman took 600 women from around Roswell, GA as prisoners of war and had them put in a prisoner of war camp in the state of Kentucky. This tour guide like the tour guides at the other two antebellum halls did not have a good opinion of "that ruthless Sherman" and they all used the expression "The War of Northern Agression" when refering to the Civil War. And they all spit out the word yankees. I didn't dare comment that I was born a yankee in Ohio.

Friday Sightseeing in Atlanta

Today the weather was again in the 80's and we spent the day touring three antebellum plantation homes including Bulloch Hall where President Teddy Roosevelt's Father married Mittie Bulloch. Barrington Hall had large columns on three sides and lots of boxwoods. Smith Plantation was fully furnished with the original period pieces. While waiting for the tour guide at Smith we discovered a cute little lizard on one of the white columns and lots of purple iris in bloom.We ate lunch outside at the Fickle Pickle in downtown Roswell where we enjoyed fried green tomato sandwiches. Very Good.

Smith Plantation, 1845