Yesterday and today

So, yesterday Fonda and I went out to some yard sales and other cool places...

at the first stop, we saw this car, and I thought "cool!, I gotta get a photo" and guess what? I had my camera : )

After that, we went across the river to some other places  - we went to the Castle Hayne-area and on the way, we saw this sign:  and so, we stopped, it was really a yard sale in the grassy area of a bar...there is the Honda in the middle (the only car with working A/C at this time...and it was in the 90s...A/C is a big bonus)

Last night when I was heading to bed, Franklynn decided that he could fit into the box...it actually had the top of the catnip baggie in it...he really doesn't fit, but he thought he did : )

Then today...I *finally* got to work on/finish this quilt.  Mom made the first row of kitties (at least the backs and bodies) and I made the rest - this has been a LONG time in the making.  I just finished the borders (paper-pieced, like the backs and tails of each cat) and I think I need to add another border, because the saw-tooth border is so stretchy, I think it will be pulled weird when it is quilted...I have mixed feelings about the two different colors in the body of the quilt, but it is what I had to do...I ran out of the white-on-white I wanted to use for the main body...then I thought I would have enough for the borders...sigh...I didn't, but it worked out OK. And, if you look really closely, you will see that one of the cats is a Manx...I have *no idea* where the tail is... I will just echo the secondary color with a narrow border all around the outside...Now, I have to figure out how to quilt it...This might be a hand-quilted one - there are instruction for some of the quilting...I might follow instructions, who knows : )...More later, Peace.

Random pictures and thoughts

So, there is this store... and I thought it was weird that there was a woman riding a shrimp... I have no idea if it is a good store or not, but the sign is fun : )

 

This is not a good picture, but this is our 2nd most recent day lily - I got it from a school sale this year - the students do all the planting and the tending and this one is especially pretty - there is another more recent one that is supposed to be "peach" color and then there is our original lily that is a "butterpat" a pale yellow...I plan to share a chunk of it to the school-people.  They said I could pick up some milkweed at some point...and a piece of the tickseed coreopsis, too  : )

This is our hydrangea that I got in Greenville, NC as a fragment (read branch) and this is the first time it has bloomed in about 3 years!  I am so proud that I haven't managed to kill it yet : )

 This is the little boy-kitty (Bjorn/Mr. Jingles/Toby) - he is taking advantage of the coolness of a damp bird bath that we moved off of the middle the bit that sits on top of the septic tank - at the moment, the end is signified by our bird feeder and will be replaced by this stupid bird bath when we leave.  That is our garden at the end of the walk - this is taken out the back door.  To the left is our fringe tree with some purple cone flowers sharing the bucket with a few daffodils, too.

And last, but not least - this is Franklynn (our bully-boy) - he is sitting there being *very* patient waiting for supper - he was looking at Sera, who had just come in to mew at us because it is almost time for supper...

More later...Peace.

and more garden...

 so...of course i "found" two more tomatoes - actually it is my bosses fault...she brought in some baby plants that she couldn't plant at home so now we have a total of four tomato plants...they are still not my favorite, but you would never know it by looking at my garden...and the little orange-booger on the left who likes to sit in the middle of everything...

 the beans are doing great! - can't wait to get some beans - there are 5+ plants here maybe a total of 10 plants.  i can't convince myself to "cull" them...so there are way too many there : )

 the carrots are looking a bit sparse, but i need to cull them a bit and the add some more seeds

 the lettuce that is starting to get in the groove.

the cherry tomatoes are happy ^^^ looks like hundreds are coming on ha, ha...the other tomatoes (back right) are looking happy too, with 3+ coming on - all are green and really looking happy and will probably all become ripe at the same time.

 and then...there is this guy ^^^ (juvenile copperhead-snake) showing up under the day lily - freaked fonda out and bothered me on the second day - haven't seen him since, but i am surely going to be looking a bit closer before i put my feet down off the steps and anywhere in the garden.  i guess these guys have a reputation for striking, but not necessarily injecting venom when they strike - this guy shook his tail at me - very obvious, if you are not deaf...he was very beautiful...

 and last night sera decided to "knead" my foot/slipper and then take a nap.  the litter-box behind her is actually our recycle bin in the craft room...she is a sweet cat.

i'm a winner!!!

so...i was nominated (by me) for the "Excellence in Teaching Award (Adjunct) for 2015."  This is a peer-elected award and there was a full-time and an adjunct award.  Voting was open to all the faculty and staff to vote.  long story short...i won the adjunct award!!!!

 what i didn't know was that it came with a monetary award as well! they gave me a check for $100.00!  yay me!  I am a lucky girl!

this is my school-bestie - zenda ^^ is a good egg : )  she was awarded the excellence in teaching award (adjunct) two years ago and she is the one who got the full-time biology position this spring...as i said, i am sad that i didn't get it, but i am glad *she* did : ) 

this is ben - he is with me as being an adjunct ^^ he is a history major and is struggling, too...we will persevere because we have grit!  (per the graduation speaker).  we had fun and i got to see so many of my students graduate and getting ready to head out into the next chapter of their lives...bitter-sweet : )

peace

photos that go with the last post

 the fringe tree - fringing - it is done now, alas, but we did see a juvenile anole on it today : ) - it was shedding and about half the size of an adult.

the new re-blooming lily, it is red with a yellow throat - more sometime soon

 the first bloom of coreopsis this year - this i one i bought to support the students at UNC-Pembrook last year (i think it is a "mouse ear")

this is the second and third coreopsis bloom, different plant - same origin, this is a native of NC. and the flower is about 3 feet tall.

 this is our second strawberry of the season with another one coming on next to it and a third one on the other side of the plant - taken yesterday

 the "Hawaii 5.0" plant it is very compact and much more blue than it looks in the photo - very sweet plant.


 

our garden on 4/27/14 just after planting the cherry tomato on the left

our garden today 5/4/14 with beans in the center and right, a single nasturtium on the center, left that you really can't see yet and carrots, on the right edge, spinach closest, right holes, and lettuce on the far edge...tomatoes at rear - the cherry on the right and the "regular" on the left.  The diagonal line is the shadow of an overhead line.

two and a half baby bean-plants : )  showing the "seed-leaves" or cotyledons (the part we eat when we eat the bean) : ) they will fall off soon because the true-leaves take over with photosynthesis...(the ones shown at the top of the photo, that look like bean-leaves)...

webster stood on my leg for quite a while to get these foot print impressions!

the sunset across the highway on friday, 5/2/14...pretty with the church steeple in the front.

franklynn taking a nap yesterday- if it fits, it ships : )  just kidding...we think it was a bit hot for him, but i am not 100% sure about that...

peace for now, enjoy the pictures : )

end of the semester

wow, this has been an amazing semester...from ice to really hot and some scary weather near-by (knock wood, not here)...and some beautiful flowers so far this spring.  the fringe tree (genus: Chionanthus) is fringing : )  we bought a new re-blooming daylily - it is red and very pretty and flowering as we speak.  I also acquired some cinder blocks from the property and then we bought some topsoil and mulch and now we have a garden that hopefully will be producing: carrots, beans, nasturtium, lettuce, spinach, and "big boy" and "super sweet" (cherry) tomatoes (yuck, but my sweety likes them, so...).  the neighbor has managed to acquire a new kitten : /  we are not happy, but we can do nothing but encourage her to get it neutered sooner rather than later.  we are not happy, because she does not seem to be concerned with them until she wants them and then if they can't be found, there is some, apparently minor, concern, but she made 0 arrangements for them over the winter, so we had 2 1/2-kitties for the winter...when the temps dropped below 32*F.  I guess we may be a bit over-protective, but I just can't stand the idea that we could help and didn't. the cats didn't choose to be outside-only cats...AND they are trying to eat my birds : /  I want to discourage that, but I am not sure how to do so, beyond keeping them inside.

photos will follow sometime after I replace the laptop that failed on sunday...it is now Tuesday, and I am *really* missing it...I am amazed at how dependent we become on technology.  oh, did I mention that I am teaching an online class?  yeah, that makes it really frustrating to try to communicate when there is limited access...I am currently typing from school and I have to go to work in a few minutes...I keep breathing, applying to jobs, and try to keep myself busy and off the streets : )

peace.

snow days

hello all, we had some "snow" here...in reality it was more like 2 days of ice - sleet and freezing rain, and now I know the difference (thank you fonda, for getting me to look it up)...


we ended up with campus closed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...and Friday morning, but that was not really a big deal for me, as there are no lab classes on Friday.  on Monday afternoon, school was announced to be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Early College High School students (all the K-12 schools in Brunswick County)...we were supposed to have a test on Tuesday - grrrr...oh, well.  so BCC ended up closed as well and then I went out to clean off the car on Wednesday - not too bad, but very cold, so...it took about 20 minutes to clear my car of all the ice - car on and me actively scraping the ice (about 1/2 - 3/4 inch with some "snow" between the layers).  it was thicker on the ground - and it was THICK! when I step on the ice and it doesn't even "think" about cracking, it was thick...and to add to that: it was COLD! especially for *here* but the cats were inside and we had enough propane and we took advantage of Monday to do our (regular, I swear!) grocery shopping.  so because the car was clear, it allowed me to go out on Saturday to the local coffee shop and get coffee and grade some labs that I had been procrastinating in grading...


the students were not happy to come back to the exam, but they (mostly) did OK, at least the ones that took it yesterday - we shall see about the ones that took it today...and I will post about that later. 


that being said, we may be heading up to ohio again soon, fonda's sister is not doing well and is currently in the hospital -  stage IV lung cancer.  we found out about it on NYEve, and didn't realize how far along she was in the illness...no one knew until she called cathy in the middle of the night and was "talking crazy" - apparently she is having some "sundowner" kind of dementia and wakes up not knowing where she is and is not cooperating/combative (in the hospital) and so she has been restrained and then not known why...it is not a good situation, and we are just having to wait and see....no fun...


enough for now - and the battery of my laptop is about 20%, so I need to finish up and power-down.  peace to you-all.