Wednesday, April 28, 2021

A rainy day Hodgepodge

 

 It seems like a very long time since I've been able to participate in the Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.  On an impulse I checked out today's questions and you know what?  I think I can do this.

1. What are some memories you associate with spring? 

For early spring it would be maple sugaring.   My aunt always brought our cousins up to visit the family farm sometime during the sugaring season.  I'm pretty sure the photo below is from one of those springtime visits.  Other springtime memories might include dressing up for Easter and one year, as a teen, I remember our youth group went to the woods to gather mayflowers (trailing arbutus) which we then packaged up and took to senior citizens in our church.



Easter 1955?

2. April showers bring May flowers...was that saying proven true where you live? Snapdragons, anemones, carnations, lilacs, sweet peas, tulips, lily of the valley, orchids, roses, gardenias...which one on that list is your favorite May bloom? 

We are having a showery April day today, but really we haven't had a lot of rain lately and we really need it.   So far the only flowers I've been seeing are forsythia, daffodils and a few tulips.  Of the flowers on that list, my favorite would be lilacs.

3. What are your top three distractions and how do you deal with them? 

Let's see.  Blogging might be one.  I often deal with it by starting a draft post to get some of my thoughts "on paper" so to speak, and then I can return to the business at hand.  Checking email could be another, especially on my tablet.  I've taken to keeping it in Do Not Disturb mode which really makes a huge difference in how often I pick it up.  Just random thoughts in the course of trying to do something else can distract me.  My way of dealing with these is just to jot them down and revisit them later.

4. Do you eat beef? In the course of a week, how often is beef on the menu? A hamburger, steak, prime rib, or a roast beef dinner...which beef entree would you choose and yes you have to choose. Unless you're a vegan, and then you may pass. 

We don't buy beef and it's not something I usually cook and serve.  However we do eat beef occasionally, at someone else's home or when eating out.  Of the entrees mentioned here I would  pick a hamburger.

Or, even better, this Cheeseburger Meat Loaf Sub

5. In what way were you creative during the month of April?

Hmmm ...  I feel as if I was creative very little during the month of April.  There's been a little cross-stitch, a little crochet, and some thinking about sewing projects, but very little has actually been done.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's a bit drizzly here today, hence the name of my Hodgepodge post.  (We do need the rain; fire danger has been very high here with the snow gone, little precipitation, and recent high winds.  Heavier rain is predicted for the night.  It should all make a difference to our fire danger.)  My friend and I got several miles in on our walk and only got a little bit wet.  Mr. T is out cutting a few boards in the garage in hopes that the weather clears a bit and he can finish his outhouse project at the camp.  Yesterday, he and our grandson Sam got most of the outhouse built.  They need to add a few more boards and make a door.  It's a blessing having a capable teen living next door when one is renovating an old place.  Sam has helped with carpentry and electrical wiring so far.    And below you see him and his dad  last summer, working on putting new flooring in place in the camp kitchen, which they did as a surprise for Mr. T.

 
So there you have it ... a rainy day Hodgepodge.

6 comments:

  1. Fun photos of the carpenters. :-) I have been in some "new" style outhouses. I have been surprised at how nice an outhouse can be.

    My grandpa told me a story about a time he and a friend used an outhouse. When his friend came out of the outhouse, a black widow spider was on his back.

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    1. Oh, that's a scary story about the black widow spider! I don't think we have them here in NH, but we do have the brown recluse spider which has a pretty scary bite. And we have those huge wood spiders and wolf spiders, which I fervently hope will stay out of our outhouse!

      The nicest outhouse I've used is a large airy one by a lake with a solar powered composting toilet.

      We do have an Incinolet toilet inside our camp and that works really well, but we are building an outhouse (to replace an old one) for daytime use.

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  2. How great to have a capable crew of family members to help with outdoor and indoor projects.
    When we lived in Indonesia, we had an outhouse. My children thought it was normal.

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  3. How lucky you have handy family! I don't have that luxury but they have other talents. The problem is distance. I enjoyed reading your HodgePodge answers.💖

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  4. We had two beautiful lilac trees in our back garden in England. I'd love to grow them here, but don't see them around so think maybe this isn't the right climate for them. I absolutely loved the way they perfumed the air. Enjoy your rainy day. We've had a few too many so are glad to see the sunshine for a bit.

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  5. I really miss having lilacs. That was my mother's favorite flower and when we moved to Florida from PA she was SO disappointed to find out they wouldn't grow here. We had lilacs shipped in for her funeral bouquet, which was in May. I just wish she was there to see them. I wonder if she knew from heaven. We had an outhouse in PA, and that is all I knew until I was 5. Then we moved to Florida and had real plumbing. It's okay for a camp, but I sure wouldn't want to live that way all the time. I make too many nighttime trips to the bathroom. I hope you got a good rain today. I love a good rainy day too. Enjoy your springtime. We are almost into summer here... Bye for now.

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