View from the docks, at Mystic Seaport, Mystic CT

I think my daughter enjoyed our day here as much as I did. It's a pay-to-get-in stretch of riverbank set up with representative businesses and housing portraying an eighteenth century seaport village. Each house and business has one or two docents to explain what they are doing, and what place their counterparts would have had in the seaport village. I love seeing how people lived and worked in the past, and how their societies worked for them.

Whaling Weapons 

rope

I was intrigued by the way these ropes are coiled. Notice, if you unhook the topmost loop, you can grab a big handful of coils...

safe in port 

rigging of a Whaling ship 

rope spinning building

This is the longest building at the seaport - the ropes are stretched out before they are spooled or coiled. When they are spinning the spooled cords that you see, one person held the hemp wool, and walked backwards as the other person spun the cord on a very large spinning wheel. They said the walking person averaged 8 miles a day!

Making Rope for the Ships

spinner head

spinning rope for the ships 

Live Oak Log  

Weekend Blogging

This weekend, and the coming week, we will have daughters visiting (one each), and I won't have much time on the computer. I posted lots of pictures for your enjoyment, and I know I'm overdue for a couple of rants. However, the rants will have to wait, the girls are coming! See you next week.

daylillies 

cone flower 

Poppy with bees 

~ 

My garden is really exploding with blooms! This strange looking flower is called Cleome, and in the heat of the sun the open petals curl right up, leaving just the crown of yet to open petals. It keeps growing up and up, ending only at frost. It is nominally an annual, but it reseeds vigorously, so put it where it can keep regrowing for years, or you'll be weeding the seedlings out forever!

Dragon art blogging 

Laurel's Squash Delight

Chop onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchni, and summer squash; saute until soft.

Add your favorite spaghetti sauce (my favorite is Classico - all of their sauces are excellent, and they come in ball jars, which I save).

Cook a pound of any pasta, and add about 1/3 of the cooked pasta to the veggies. Garnish with pignolia (pine) nuts, and fresh-chopped or dried parsley.
Yummmm!! Save the rest of the pasta for your favorite pasta salad, later in the week.

A peaceful spot

I pass this spot every day on my way to work. It's nice to know that peaceful places like this exist.

Dragon Art Blogging 

Water Hyacynth

This is the first time that we've managed to get one of these to bloom - our pond is in the shade.

Coreopsis

This is a very pretty coreopsis - some people call them Tickseed. Usually they are variations of yellow, are drought resistant and love full sun - just what I need!

Grocery Store

Ok, lets forget about Evor Lrac and the lil' monkey for now. I just got back from the grocery store, and I can't believe these ignorant teenage baggers! I was checking out, and trying to get the last of my groceries on the belt ; and when I looked down at the bagger she was double bagging my stuff with plastic bags! Ugh, I hate plastic bags - so polluting, and so ubiquitous!


I hurried down to her, apologised for not letting her know that I want all paper, no plastic. I started taking the stuff out of one of the plastic bags, and she did the same. We were putting all my stuff in paper, when she balled up a couple of the plastic bags, and announced that she was going to throw them all away - she could not be bothered with holding them to the side, and using them for someone else!!!


I grabbed the remaining ones that were around the bagging place, and stuffed them in my paper bag, with the comment: "Well at least I recycle them!"


She didn't like that, and was sullen and shut down after that. I looked at my bill, which was almost $300.00, and I wonder: what other store would treat someone who is dropping 300 bucks like that? That kid should be kissing my butt, and I helped her do her job!


I'm sure she doesn't know about, or care about the big pile of floating garbage that's out in the middle of the pacific ocean. It's as big as Texas! (sorry - no link, I saw that on a science channel program). Most of it's been traced to land based garbage sources. Like the neighbor I used to have in LA, who would bring her dog to our lawn to do his doodie. I caught her doing that one morning, and said really loud, thru the window: "Look, kids - that's the lady who brings her dog to crap on your playground!"


The next time she came by, she had a plastic baggie, and she picked up the shi*, and then turned around and threw it - with the baggie - down the storm drain! (illegal)

Unbelievable! If it doesn't get caught and cause a blockage in a pump somewhere between Beverlywood and the ocean at Santa Monica, where the storm drains expell their load right near the beach, then you have a lump of dog do, and a plastic bag floating in the Pacific!


jeeeze.........

Sunday jokester

A friend of mine sent me this...
This is cute! and funny!

You may not know that many non-living things have a gender. For example: 1) Ziploc Bags -- They are Male: they hold everything in, but you can see right through them. 2) Copiers -- They are Female: once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed. 3) Tire -- Male: it goes bald and it's often over-inflated. 4) Hot Air Balloon -- Male: to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part. 5) Sponges -- Female: they're soft, squeezable, retain water, and soak up everything in their path. 6) Web Page -- Female: it's always getting hit on. 7) Subway -- Male: it uses the same old lines to pick up people. 8) Hourglass -- Female: over time, the weight shifts to the bottom. 9) Hammer -- Male: it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around. 10) Remote Control -- Female...... Ha! You thought it'd be male! But consider this -- it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.

poetry afternoon

My little sister does poetry. If you are into it, go check it out!

dragon

dragon art!

Energy Independence

I just read an article published in President Bush Sr.'s term called Energy Farming In America By Lynn Osburn. It lays out a complete analysis, with the pros, cons, and difficulties of transforming our energy economy from non-renewable over to renewable.

Needless to say, the time frames discussed in the article are from the 1989 perspective, and saw the change-over as possible by the yr 2000. That pretty much tells me that we could have it up and running by 2010 -2015 if we really pushed hard, and fully funded the enterprise.

The money is there, Bush Jr. has earmarked billions of dollars in our energy bill, for the oil companies to search for new sources of petroleum. I say the new sources should be renewable, and they should be based here in the United States, to fully employ American workers.

As a republican ad campaign of a few years ago informed us "It's our money, not the IRS's", ...and not the oligarchie's. We should get to say where it's spent.

Would you rather open our treasury to the pillaging of the big oil companies, or would you invest in oil independence, while simultaneously reducing CO2 emmissions?



I for one, value independence and meeting our problems head on, over war and pillage any day.

Water Pond

View from the deck


About five years ago, I bought a pond kit, on impulse. It consisted of a large piece of purple plastic, and a pump. When my husband looked at what it had, and did a little research, it developed into the project that you see here.

It turns out that he's been into fish since Jr High school, so he had a much more detailed knowledge of what was required. He insisted on getting a larger pond insert, to avoid problems with leaks, and because it will last much longer. he dug a ditch to pipe the water to the basement for warming in the winter, and to get the filter where he can service it more easily. We use an old swimming pool filter, with foam inserts top & bottom, and a bunch of pvc pipe pieces in between to give beneficient bacteria a surface to grow on.

When he had the plumbing in, he asked me - "Would you rather have a waterfall, or a stream?" I said I'd rather have both! (I'm so greedy.) So, we have the little waterfall coming out of the rocks into a little filtering pool, and then down the stream into the main pond. The purple plastic ended up doubled, and under the stream. When it goes, it will be replaced with black! It's so difficult to hide the purple color.

We restocked the pond with ten cent feeder goldfish last year, after a crane decided to dine on all our fish. This year they are all getting huge! We took the supports from a little tent, and arched them over the pond, and threw a black net over all, to keep out the cranes & racoons & foxes. The chipmunks have taken over the little area, along with squirrels. The birds come down to bathe in the stream.

The rocks came from a friend's property, a rock wall that he wanted removed. We took it apart in about 20 trips in the pickup. Y'know what, rocks weigh 2 tons!! It took most of a summer to get them all and place them.

pond right

My current, tho long term project is to extend the rocks all the way out into the lawn area. I plan to drop that rock down into the lawn this weekend.