Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 41

Happy May Day!

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather!  I looked out the backdoor towards the water fountain and there was an orange and black bird who flew up to a lower swaying branch of the oak tree.  An Oriole!  There are not any birds to confuse this one with unless you are trying to decide if it was an Eastern or Western variety.  Eastern oriole’s range includes the eastern half of Oklahoma.  The picture above is not mine, alas.  I was no where near any type of camera and frankly too stunned to react more than, ooh.

I might have seen orioles in the past, but any recollection was of something hiding in foliage and may it was and maybe it wasn’t.  This was less than five feet away with a definite, ‘yep, that’s an oriole’.  I can’t tell you how excited it was.  Or maybe, if you’re a birder, you know.  I don’t keep an official life list.  I have over the years kept a mental list of unusual birds I’ve seen, roadrunners in Texas when I was doing a bird study for my ecology class in college, whopping cranes – again Texas as they wintered in Aransas Pass area, sandhill cranes in Illinois/Wisconsin, Bald Eagles, first time in northern Wisconsin at a nesting site my uncle was checking on in his warden capacity and now every winter here in Tulsa and also in Tulsa along the Arkansas River pelicans, hoopee in Germany, and Greater Albatross in New Zealand.  So Happy May Day to me!

In Germany this is the day they put up the ‘Mai Baum’, literally May Tree which is usually a purchased pole, that looks like a telephone pole to which they hang a green wreath with streamers.  The last village we lived in Germany, the spot for the Mai Baum was across the street from our house.  The streamers one year were different ‘caution’ plastics, think police crime scene tapes.  These however were for gas, electric and whatever the villages got their hands on apparently, each a different color.

My mother’s family always had a tradition of clipping whatever flowers were available in the garden (Northern Illinois this time a year it might only be violets and lily of the valley) making a little nosegay or putting it in a container with some water, setting it on the ‘victim’s’ doorstep, ringing the bell and hiding.  The trick was to beat the others at ‘delivery’.  I remember going to my grandparents’ house with flowers, leaving them at the door and hiding around the corner.  An early memory.

My aunt thought she had my mother one year as she parked her car down the street, quietly walked up the drive and started to climb the back steps only to hear a voice from the glider next to the porch say, “And where do you think you’re going?”  Caught…red-handed.  Oh the ignominy!

Another year it was my aunt’s turn to get my mother (we are nothing if not competitive at this).  First both of them had gone a few days earlier to a swap meet event at the local fairgrounds, where my mother found my aunt digging through a tray of unremarkable glass pieces.  “What are you doing?” my mother asked.  Her sister replied, “There was a very nice cut glass dish in here a little while ago and I thought I might buy it, but it seems to be gone.”  My mother then pulled something from her purse and said, “This one?”  They laughed and my aunt commented that it was a ‘diamond in the dishwater’.  End of story?  No.  A few days later on May 1st, my mother managed, once again, to get to my aunt’s house first thing in the morning and left a package with her flowers and a note, “Handle with Care”.   Yes, she gifted the glass dish to my aunt with the flowers.   But wait, you said your aunt won this round?   Later that day my mother came home for lunch and found on her step the required flowers, a small ceramic rabbit and a wax candle and her note read, “Candle with Hare”.

If you ever want to start a nice family tradition, I highly recommend the one of a May Day Basket of flowers (it doesn’t have to be more than a few and home grown are best) delivered anonymously to the door of a loved one.   Happy May Day.

Changes in Writing

When I first started writing there wasn’t such a thing as Pinterest and all computers were stand alone. Yes, children, it isn’t a myth.  As I created worlds in my head such as Tienna’s World it was useful to look through magazines and such. Useful, but very limiting.

Now you can find almost anything you can dream up online which can be stimulating.

You can set up ‘mood’ boards on Pinterest with ideas for places, clothing, even what you think the characters’ faces and builds might look like.  You can fall down the Pinterest rabbit hole for hours if you are not careful.

If you are interested in my visions of the world ‘Dream Warrior’ Teryn lives in, use this link.

Yea for Goldfinches

Okay so it is not the best photography of the year, but it is the first time I’ve seen goldfinches on my feeders where I could get any kind of picture.  There was another male but he flew off before I could get the picture of all three.

I saw a male and female the other day on the backyard feeder.  I have known there were supposed to be goldfinches in the area, but all I have ever seen have been the house finch species.   I’ve put up my hummingbird feeders and hope I see evidence of them soon also.

A yes, now a female at the feeder and a male on a tree branch.  He just pushed her off.  Unfortunately the starlings have now arrived.  The two finches are back.  Okay enough running commentary.

I find bird feeders are great entertainment.    My parents’ kitchen had a wonderful picture window my dad had put in within a year of our moving into that house.  My dad also put up a feeder in the center of the small yard area outside of the backdoor/kitchen area.  We had a wonder full view of it.  After my grandmother suffered a stroke she came to live with us and she spent many a day enjoying the birds that came to the feeder, as did we all.  

My dad managed a baffle on the pole that kept the squirrels from climbing it (no mean feat).  Eventually one of the trees’ branches grew out far enough that the buggers (squirrels) started leaping from the end of the branch on to the top of the feeder.  Dad fixed that by driving nails through a thin board and placing the board with points up on top of the feeder.  That’s when my niece started calling him “Grandpa, The Impaler”.  Full disclosure – no squirrel was ever impaled.  They were too smart for that, but they also didn’t get at the feeder again.

Never saw any goldfinches there in Northern Illinois, although I’m sure they were in the area.  Perhaps at the niger seed feeders put up after I left home?

Are you a bird watcher?  What bird makes you happy to have seen?

 

I have to add this.  I am not the only bird watcher in the house.  

On the Fly

A chance to be a citizen scientist.

The Annenberg Learner Journey North site collects information from ordinary people about migrations of animals throughout North America.  This includes Mexico, USA and Canada…you know like NORTH AMERICA.

These three are the ones I try to report back on.  They (Journey North) allow you to follow migrations based on the data people have turned in.  You can even look at specific locations and see what information has been submitted.

According to them I should be seeing all three of the above.  I have only seen the robins, but then they pretty much wintered here.  However about January/February the robins and cedar wax wings descend on the holly tree at my front door and clean it out of holly berries.  I do report that.

I haven’t seen the monarchs although they are supposed to have been here.  I don’t know what they could be eating and/or laying eggs on as my milkweed plants are barely pushing up through the ground, 10 centimeters at most and we had a smattering of snow April 7th and cold April 14th and finally rain this past weekend.  Today is one of the warmer days we’ve had.

I’ve put out my hummingbird feeder by the kitchen window.  Haven’t seen anyone there yet.  Usually I will see ruby throated hummingbirds, house finches and downy woodpeckers at the hummingbird feeder.  I keep other feeders up year round.  Squirrels love that…grr.

If you have an interest in wildlife, I suggest you take a look at the Annenberg site and help add to the knowledge base with your observations.  Often people feel like they can’t help wildlife or scientists…this is a way you can help both and it only takes a little of your time.

 

“Don’t give up the day job.”

One of my father’s favorite sayings.  It seems appropriate today.

Going into the Antiques Roadshow we knew we were not going to find we had a nest egg for retirement in some item.  None of our things are that outstandingly special.  Except to us, of course.   And that is as it should be.

One thing that happens when things are seen on AR (at least in my opinion) is that everyone that has one like it comes out of the woodwork and the market is ‘flooded’ with that same object and the price goes down.   This always makes me think of one of the early advertisements for AR where an Indian throw is being valued and they cut to various people watching the show and everyone is trying to guess the value.  When the appraiser gives the value the final cut is to an older couple sitting in arm chairs and they turn and look at each other and look at the same blanket draped over the back of one of their chairs…and cut.

So did we get our appraisals?  Check

Were they about what we thought?  Check

Did we get to see the personalities?  Check

Were the appraisers just as nice in real life as they appear on television?  Check 

Are we going to retire and live on the money?   Nope.

Everyone was amazingly kind.  I can’t imagine how they will feel by the end of the day.  Would have liked to have drinks with them.  Thanks Antiques Roadshow for coming to Tulsa, practically across the street from our house. (I mean it literally)

And thanks, Don, for lugging the rocking chair around today.  You are a sweetheart.

Any rate, we got in and out before the rains came and now can say,

“Got to Antiques Roadshow?  Check!”

 

‘The bags are packed, we’re ready to go…’

Tomorrow Antiques Road Show visits Tulsa and we have a pair of Willy Wonka Golden tickets.  We’ve been trying to decide what to take since the tickets arrived in the mail.  Each person (ticket) get to bring 2 items for appraisal.  What would you take?

My mom and dad both collected items of interest.  There is one story of my mom cleaning things out of the attic and leaving them on the second story hall and telling my dad to bring them on down to ‘go out’.  He went up and looked at her selection, took the items back to the attic and brought down his selection of what should ‘go out’.  My mom went up and looked at what he had selected and hauled it back to the attic.  Between the two of them they couldn’t get rid of anything and they BOTH collected, different things, but interesting things.

My mom always said the only way the house would be cleared out was a fire or an estate sale.  The fire was a close call a couple of times with a chimney that needed relining, but it was an estate sale in the end.  My husband and I went to be an extra pair of hands and eyes, so it happened I was behind two ladies in the kitchen discussing all that they had seen (and I don’t think they had made it to the yard and the two different garages yet).  “This can’t all be from one estate,” stated one.   “Oh, yes it is,” I chimed in.  “They both collected things.”  And grew up during the Depression I could have added.

So we got tickets to the RoadShow.  WooHoo!  But what to take?

Item One – Above is a rocking chair that my parents gave me.  I’m pretty sure it is Arts and Crafts/Mission style.  So what’s so special?  Family Heirloom?  No, don’t know where my mother found it.  What you can’t tell from the pictures is it pretty short (low).  You can see that there are no arms, which is unique, but makes sense if you know that there is a pull-out, pivot drawer under the seat that has pegs for spools of thread and such.   It’s a sewing chair.  Can’t be too many of those out there, can there?

Item Two – a book on the Doolittle Tokyo raid.  Nothing much in itself, except I’m related to Jimmy Doolittle (of the Tokyo raid) and my aunt had the book sent to one of the Tokyo Raiders get-togethers where each of the raiders present including Jimmy signed it.  He added, “From one Doolittle to another.”

Item Three – Miscellaneous jewelry from my family.  Not sure what I’m looking for with this, just information.

Item Four – Don’s grandfather and then father ran a dairy in Muskogee, Oklahoma until the 1960’s.  We have a collection of glass milk bottles (in three sizes) with the dairy logo, and also window placards from different stages of the dairy and picture of his grandfather with the dairy truck.  They wouldn’t be worth much in another part of the country, but they are important locally in this part of Oklahoma and part of his family history.

So tomorrow should be an informative day.

If you had the chance, what would you take to Antiques RoadShow?

 

Remember the Cold as Blazes?

Now we’ve got the heat off and I’m seriously contemplating turning on the AC.  That old joke…”If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes.”

Today the windows and doors (with screens) were open.  I wore a sweater this morning thinking I would need it.  I’ve been a tad too warm all day long.  I’ve nothing against a warm day, but it does make me wonder two things. 1) how long with the spring flowers last at this temperature? 2) how warm is it going to be this summer if this is spring?

Meanwhile we haven’t had much rain and that is showing up in Oklahoma with wildfires mostly in the western part of the state.  Those getting spring snows they don’t want in the upper Midwest, just send that on down to us, please.  And you know it is bad when the Cubs are ‘snowed out’.

And just because we need a picture or two.

 

 

 

 

Shall we call them before and after?

 

 

The Isle of Dogs (Movie)

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The Isle of Dogs – We just got back from watching this. If you have lived in Japan any length of time this feels so right. The taiko drums that open and run through the sound track are so effective.   Okay, just had to say this.

 

 

Cold as Blazes

How does that even make sense?   But it has been cold this weekend.  The neighbors covered their azaleas again.  Mine are on their own.  We did get close to freezing, but I think we stayed right above.  Saturday the temperatures were in the 40’s all day, the low and the high!  

Not sure I’m going to get the other pictures to upload.  Grr.  They were spirea (bridal wreath), Angelique tulips, more of the azaleas and the mess of plants I have inside on the desk from the plant sale this weekend.  It was just too cold to leave them outside.  The peonies are still swelling, so I am assuming the cold didn’t ‘nip them in the bud’ quite literally.  Also there was going to be a picture from my new kitchen window of a day time view of the back yard.  Another time.

Friday –

That was the week that was…

Teachers look like they will go back to classes…I think they should maintain the walkout, but they have to do what they think is right.  Seems to be a lot of support for those holding posters at the corner of 41st and Yale.

The weather is up and down.  We had snow last Saturday and it is currently 71 o F at 8:30pm.  Tomorrow morning will be close to freezing.

Flowers are coming on.  I will have to take pictures tomorrow as I don’t have anything newer than the last post.   But columbine, tulips, dogwood, and azaleas are blooming.  My peonies got through the frost and the buds are starting to grow.  I love spring.  (I repeat myself., but it can’t be said enough.)

We have had the window over the sink replaced.  This shows current state.  Only thing left is for a glass shelf to be placed somewhere slightly above center.  This is my ‘greenhouse’.  Well, maybe I’ll have to show you another time as my camera and computer are not co-operating.

Tomorrow is the spring plant sale at the Tulsa Garden Center….guess where I’ll be.