Shovel this...

To encourage and foster a love of gardening, Lorne bough Lucy a present. 

He even personalized it.

  

Yeah, I got one too. Lucky me!

Benefits of Blogging

There are many benefits to blogging. Just Google benefits to blogging and pages of articles and information is at your fingertips. Most of them have to do with business, marketing, and promotion. In a way, that's true for writers' too. Aren't we trying to market ourselves?

Dictionary.com defines blog as follows:  A Website containing a writer's [or group of writers'] own experiences, observations, opinions etc., and often having images and links to other websites.

At first, I had a hard time believing what I have to say is of any importance. I started my blog as a diary-like log of my experiences with our move to Texas and the adventures we have here. It is a creative outlet; one that makes me think, draw upon things I've learned, and lets me sprinkle in a little humor on top--or at least I try to.

But according to a feature story on UT Austin's website titled Writing to Heal there are health benefits too.

In the article, Vive' Griffith highlights Dr. James Pennebaker's, a professor at UT Austin, ideas on the benefits of writing.

Making a story out of a messy, complicated experience may make the experience more manageable. Linguistically, Pennebaker looks for words that are associated with more complex thinking, including certain propositions such as "except," "without" and "exclude" and casual words such as "cause," "effect" and "rationale." An increase in these types of words over the writing process suggests that the experience is becoming clearer and more narrative. 

So, why do I blog the mundane narrative events in my life? Maybe it's to make sense out of complicated experiences and make them more manageable. Or maybe because I'm a narcissistic writer with a story to tell anyone foolish enough to happen upon my entries. Or maybe I use the blog as space to upload photos and crap so I have more room on my computer's hard drive.

To quote Tootsie Pop's 1970's How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Center of A Tootsie Pop commercial, "The world may never know."

Ice, Ice Baby

Here in Texas there are free standing ice vendors, and since we don't have an ice maker, we visit this one frequently.

On Veterans Day, I went to purchase ice and the owner of the vending machine had set the machine to give free ice in honor of what the day means to him. I was taken back and humbled by his financial sacrifice, so I called the owner to say thank you for my ice. I wasn't a veteran, as I'm sure many other potential customers weren't either. It made me wonder what can I do to let our military know I'm grateful too.

Onion Breath

Onions and garlic raised, square-foot-garden-bed.

 The onion, garlic harvest.

Baby onions in a sweet brine. First time we've (meaning Lorne) canned them. 

Fruits of Our (Lorne's) Labor

Amazingly, the fifteen inches of rain that us Dallas Texans have endured during the month of May, hasn't drowned out our little garden. Our cucumber plants produced enough to can two jars of dill pickles.




Cucumbers are growing up the trellis.
Jalapeno, habanero, and ghost peppers in front.

Dill Pickles 

Sweet and Spicy made special for Lorne's Uncle Doug's birthday.

Eat Crow

On one of the few rain free days last month, I ran to the store for some groceries. On my way out, I picked up a hungry hitchhiker. Look to the left side of the cart. 

The bird is a Grackle. The whistle sound they make is alarming and annoying, but I got used to it. I wasn't expecting one to hop in my grocery cart and start pecking at my grocery bags. 

  Grackle whistle courtesy of YouTube.

Moving to the Country, Gonna Eat Me A Lot of Peaches

I know that's not what the Presidents of the United States meant in the lyrics of their song Peaches, but it's relevant in my case.

For an early Mother's Day present, Lorne bought me a peach tree. Unfortunately, our little tree looks a little sad.

At first, we blamed all the rain we had last month. 

HA! Upon further inspection we found this:

Buggs & Co. have been snacking.

 My tree doctor skills. 

Hope it helps.  If not... relocation is the key. 

 

We've caught and released seven so far. We would have released eight, but the little bugger tried to escape and lost his head. I decided it better not to add that photo after the Armadillo blog incident of 2014.

LGBTQ

I saw this report on PBS. It supports what so many LGBT individuals have been saying for the past forever. That homosexuality is not a choice.

Over the years bipolar disorder has been studied and given legitimacy as a proven mental struggle and brain dysfunction. How lucky I am to be able to live in a more excepting society than had I been born fifty years earlier. Before mood swings were blamed on PMS, or nationality stereotypes, or whatever. I hope gender-identity continues to be studied, understood, and given the respect and acceptance it deserves.

I'm not saying LGBTQ's are mentally ill. I'm saying their feelings and behaviors are biological, and studies like these are important for everyone.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/biology-gender-identity-children/

The Decomposer Part One: Fallow

I just finished a book sci-fi novel titled Fallow by C. Sonberg Larson.

It is the first book in The Decomposer series. Here is a brief summary: 

Jonathan Thornton Flynn owns a billion-dollar diamond corporation, has a strong marriage, and two children. He's at the top of the proverbial 'food chain' of human society. A backfired scheme costs Johnny the person he loves most, and he decides to end things once and for all. His plan goes off without a hitch... until Auster finds him. Now Johnny has a new body, a new life, and a new purpose, whether he likes it or not. Johnny struggles to discover who, or what, he is now, and why Auster brought him back. 

If you are a fan of the supernatural, dark humor, an a great story line, I would recommend this book.