Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 10

What to do on Easter

Take a drive to the Tall Grass Prairie!

You think?

We took a drive through the Tall Grass Prairie just north of Pahuska, Oklahoma. All these pictures were taken from the car. You want to take that last picture seriously. I couldn’t have out run a buffalo in my youth, there is no way I could do it now. It made for a pleasant drive though.

I don’t know…

If they will stay. Take a close look at the picture (Sorry sucky camera skills on the fly).

The red blob is a cardinal, but more importantly (in my mind) is the yellow blob…A GOLDFINCH. I’ve seen probably the same one on the feeder in the backyard also. I am hoping they are nesting somewhere in the vicinity as I’ve had multiple sightings and figure it is the same bird not multiple birds. Now if my cat will just leave them alone.

Still not April

But the flowers are still coming on.

You have to love quince for intense color.Of course forsythia is no ‘shrinking violet’ either.And pastels of white daffodils and pink hellebore.

I’ve spotted a violet or two in my yard, but their stems are so short that I’d rather leave them in the ground than try to bring them in. And for a dash of flying color I have gold finches at the feeders!

Not bad color considering the freezing temperatures last month. Of course all of these are early spring flowering plants coming up through the snow further north to flower, so they can take it and it hasn’t hurt them badly. What I’ll be waiting to see is how much I need to trim back my azaleas and if there will anything to bloom on them. I’m holding off as even the branches with browned leaves have some green. The same for my climbing roses, which are trying to bud out.

“April Showers…

Bring May Flowers” That may work for Illinois, but not Oklahoma. Here things get going earlier. Although we certainly could use some gentle rain.

My garden is on to the flowering stage of the bulbs and a few shrubs. Granted the freeze in February has taken a toll on the azaleas, quince and forsythia buds. I’m not sure what they will look like when they finally bloom. But the daffodils and my Stella magnolia seem unfazed. So…

In that last picture you can see the ‘shape’ of the azaleas on the left. They should be all green not mostly brown. I’ll hold off for a while and then ‘prune’ them. And as to the daffodils, it is so nice to have such healthy clumps that I can feel free to cut as many as I wish to bring inside. Spring Sunshine!

What do you read?

The Insecure Writers’ Support Group question of this month.

March 3 question – Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?
The awesome co-hosts for the March 3 posting of the IWSG are Sarah – The Faux Fountain Pen Jacqui Murray, Chemist Ken, Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and JQ Rose!

I used to read science fiction by the ton, but at some point I kind of petered out of it. Not sure why. Then one summer when I had run out of my sci-fi books when I was home visiting, I started reading my mother’s collection of romance books. Not my top genre but it kept me busy and I still buy some when shopping.

Now I tend to find an author (perhaps at the library) and then read everything of theirs that is available. I’ve run into a few favorite authors, Rhys Bowen’s “Her Royal Spyness” series would be one. The Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsay Davis is another series I’ve enjoyed (set in Rome circa 49AD give or take a few years on either side). Kerry Greenwood’s Phyrne Fisher murder mysteries which has a ‘variation’ on PBS was something I started reading before I saw it on TV. (Non-spoiler, the main character(s) is(are) the same(sort of) but the stories are very different in the two media.) And I’ve read Dame Agatha Christie’s works multiple times.

Looks like I would say ‘period mysteries’ are my preference, with a wide range of periods and places. I get to learn a little history and culture for each time and place with this kind of reading.

So many books so little time!

For a Short Month it always seems so Long

Why? Why, February? Is it SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) hitting with low daylight even as days get longer? Is it the forced time inside because the weather is either nasty wet/snowy or just plain cold? I don’t know, but it is a good thing February is a few days short of the other months because otherwise it would just be plain intolerable.

So some eye-candy.

My amaryllis hasn’t finished yet!Sorry the second one is a little blurry.

I meant to post this earlier, so now it is the BEGINNING of a new month. It’ll do.

Double Well!

I’m not sure why I’ve not written a post in…forever, but so it is.

What has happened since?

Not much. Of course the biggest news is the temperature drop across the country and being in the middle (of the USA) we are in the middle of the big freeze. I’ve had water running from two taps for days now. It seems like a lot of water down the drain, but still cheaper than burst pipes. We went out yesterday and I tell you, it was not pretty driving around. Sky was clear, but many roads were/are not. We live in a hilly area. All of Tulsa is hilly.

I hear you whispering, but don’t you live in Oklahoma? I though Oklahoma was FLAAAATTTTTT. Go west from here and it quickly becomes the flat prairie plains you are thinking of, but the eastern corner (Green Country) is the tail end of the Ozark Mountains and is quite hilly.

So mix hilly with iced over roads from melting snow and broken water mains and you have an ice rink from hell.

We were trying to get home yesterday the regular way and just could not get up Cinncinnati. We were less than 2 blocks from home and got stuck in the slippery snow. (It’s been so cold that any snow has just gotten greasy slippery.)

So after going nowhere, (forward or back), pushed back enough to get the car headed back down the hill and to the main streets that were clear and around the long way to come ‘down’ into the neighborhood from the north.

Our driveway is about a 45 degree incline (I kid you not) but it was a piece of cake because the wonderful husband shoveled it earlier, immediately after the snow stopped falling and if you do that the sun will do the rest to dry it off (sublimating not melting). So once we got to our street it was pretty easy to get parked in the driveway again. Aghhh.

So now he is saying, “Let’s take the dog to go play at Pooches.” No way. The roads aren’t any better. Probably more pipes have burst. (God, I’d hate to be a road worker in Tulsa right now, at least in the summer the water would feel good as you got wet.) I’m hunkering down and letting the taps drip/flow in the house to try to keep our pipes safe.

I got smart enough last night to catch some of that flowing/dripping in several pitchers. You never know if you might need some water. We seem to be lucky. Gas, Water and Electric are all functioning. We do have a ‘log’ fireplace in the back room with a plentiful supply of wood if push has to come to shove for heating, candles for lighting and books for entertainment if we are bored.

I know I’ve got it good. I worry about people I know, and those I don’t, in Texas. They are not set up for dealing with cold in a normal year and certainly not long term cold. Due to what appears to be legislative decisions they are being screwed. Except El Paso…must be some really smart people in El Paso.

So if you don’t have to go out, don’t. If you don’t have heat, water, electric (UTILITIES) time to get to a warming station.

And today was supposed to be my first COVID shot…oh well, they will be rescheduling I sure.

Good example of the shape of the local side roads. Yep, hunker down time.

Well…

My computer monitor decided to ‘die’ so as it is all a one piece unit with the computer it is at the ‘fix-it’ store for a few days. Love technology until it turns around decides to be difficult. I’m trying (succeeding?) to write this from my husband’s computer. We shall see.

Of course I’m a Day Late,

Insecure Writer’s Support Group has a writing prompt for the first Wednesday of the month. Note this is not the first Wednesday…it is Thursday. Okay, here it is…

February 3 question – Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

Perhaps my blog doesn’t reach far as I don’t feel like I’ve made a lot (any) new friends with my blog.This could be that I just don’t write things with which people wish to connect. Then again most of the people I do connect with are friends I made in real life from living in various places around the world. Between the blog and Facebook I find I am able to continue those friendships even though I (and they) have moved from where we first met. And for that I am grateful.

Click the highlighted words at the beginning to see other writers’ responses to the prompt.

Ground Hog Day…Again

In the movie Ground Hog Day…Bill Murray’s character keeps reliving February 1st. Well it only seems appropriate to ‘relive’ last year’s Ground Hog Post. It follows.

“Yes, I’m a day early, but is it see the shadow and six more weeks of winter, or not see the shadow means six more weeks of winter? Honestly, I don’t think it matters either way, six more weeks of winter.

Growing up in Northern Illinois, February was the LONNNNNGGGGGGEEEEEEESSSSSSTTTTTT month. I appear to be susceptible to SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Lack of daylight drives me into ‘cabin fever’. I was never into outdoor winter sports. I think I might have had frost-bitten toes early in childhood, so I just don’t like being out in the cold. And being inside is crazy making. Not that I didn’t have things I could do, I just couldn’t focus on doing them. Enough, winter needs to end. Spring, Summer and Fall are my seasons!

So Ground Hog Day…the movie…also has a connection to my hometown. Not Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where the movie ‘supposedly’ takes place, but Woodstock, Illinois where they shot the movie. I was not at home anymore when the cast and crew descended on Woodstock and when the movie came out. My dad said everyone in town went to see the movie twice. Once to see what local people and places they could identify in the movie and the second time to see the movie. (Sorry Bill Murray)

I know what Dad meant. I didn’t recognize faces, but oh the places, starting with the Woodstock Square, a park in the dead center of town that has one-way traffic around it, which through various high school classes over the years was where you went to drive your car around and around and be seen. (Small town what can I say.) This is the location of the ‘festival’ in the movie. Next the ‘hotel’ that the weather casters were staying at in the movie is actually the Opera House, built with Carnegie money. Yes, that Carnegie, he donated money to build such structures (and libraries) across the US. The front is impressive and makes a good looking ‘hotel’. I actually ‘trod’ the boards in two different productions there, both during high school years, so I can put my name up there with other famous people who have, including Orson Welles, who attended the Todd School for Boys (aka delinquents) in Woodstock and took part in plays there.

Then there is the café, which now is a real café but was a general type store at the time and the movie theater down the street and finally the Bed and Breakfast, that Bill Murray’s character stayed at. It was a block over from my Grandparents house. I went to high school with the kids that grew up in that house. So like Groundhog Day, it is ‘Deja vu…all over again.’

Here’s to hoping the groundhog sees/doesn’t see his shadow. Which ever one it is that will give us less than six more weeks of winter.”