Flower of the Week – Blue Something Or Another

Dear Mom,

When I first started planting flowers and plants in the backyard, I tagged them all with these cute little metal tags similar to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, only mine weren’t quite as fancy as theirs. I also drew my own little maps of where each flower and plant resided, like a blueprint of the backyard only mine were pretty cheesy since I can’t draw. That worked well for the first few years and then I became overwhelmed. It still didn’t help me with remembering the names of the plants and flowers, although I can rattle off a few. Very few.

This Blue Something is one of those I can’t remember and my tags have long since faded or are totally gone. Now I just enjoy the flowers and forget who resides where, if they make it, what plant replaced it. I no longer dig out the drawings and add to or take away.

Here’s the Blue Something in the yard.

And another shot in the vase, but outside.

Oh, and the vase came from Jessica when she was over in Thailand for school some years ago. This vase may have come from Vietnam.

More Postcards

Dear Mom,

Not only am I receiving postcards through postcrossing, but a few smart folks are sending me postcards when they travel or just because.

This first card is from Amsterdam (Holland) – the area of the Netherlands confuses me most which I need to study and educate myself on geography.

I received another card from my friend Maya in Indonesia. I met her through postcrossing, but we send other cards to each other outside of postcrossing. It’s fun getting to know about her and where she lives. She blogs about all her postcards too.

Then I received a postcard all the way from South Africa from Victoria. She and her partner rode on the elephants!

Rita, who I featured today on my food blog traveled with her dad and siblings to see my son Casey in California. They stopped along the way and she sent me the Annie Oakley card from Flagstaff, Arizona where Rita informed me she wants to live some day and that Annie Oakley is one of her heroes. It says: Annie Oakley 1860-1926, Nicknamed “Little Miss Sure Shot”, Annie traveled many years with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Her accuracy with rifle and pistol astounded thousands who flocked to see the show. She once shot a cigarette from the mouth of Kaiser Wilhem of Germany.

Then she sent me a postcard from Bryce, Utah showing a Jicarilla Maiden (Apache) and it states: The typical Jicarilla woman’s dress consists of a beaded deerskin cape, a broad belt of black leather, a deerskin shirt, and the hair fastened at each side with a large knot of yarn or cloth. Photo by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.

Not long after, I received this postcard from my friend Sue in Japan. I’m pretending that it is her cat and my cat getting together for a chat.

Okay, that’s my post on postcards.

Oh and the stamps from the Netherlands, South Africa and Indonesia:

Flower of the Week - Yarrow

Dear Mom,

For you and all—another flower from my garden—yarrow. The botanical name is: Achillea millefolium. Apparently this plant has herbal medicinal purposes as well. But that’s not why I grow it. I see something I like and plant it in the ground. Usually.

I love the feathery, almost fern like leaves on this flower.

Here are some shots outside in my backyard.

The black eyed susan’s are starting to crowd out the yarrow in this one spot, but I like the mixture of the two. Why not?

Oh and I found out from your oldest daughter Suzanne that daisies were your favorite flower. Suzanne asked me if I knew that and well… I didn’t. She said they are her’s too because they were your favorite. I don’t ever remember daisies in our yard, so I would have guessed roses were your favorite. Learn something new every day.

Writing and Cats

Dear Mom,

Trying to write, but I guess the cats missed me since I was gone all day yesterday. Sibling Day—at least that’s what we siblings call it. All four of your kids (Suzanne, Warren, Ruth and myself) get together once a year—just the four of us—and spend the day with one another.

I wrote about it on our ‘sibling blog’ (siblingdays.blogspot.com) also called Delights and Disasters of the Day. We didn’t start documenting it from the first year—what we had christened Sibling Day—when we made plans to do it every year. It started when Suzanne invited us to the ballgame. That was our unofficial, official first Sibling Day. I have it written down somewhere when and where we went every year since. Maybe it’s on the blog.

At any rate, it’s hard to write with cats sitting on your lap!

Book Blurb Friday #20

It’s Book Blurb Friday #20. Hosted by Lisa of Writing in the Buff. Head to Lisa Ricard Claro’s blog for BBF directions. Write a book blurb jacket in 150 words based on the photo—this one provided by her daughter, Christina Claro.

Now can I just mention that Lisa's directions say, "Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book." I'm sure that I haven't written a blurb so enticing yet, but it is all in good fun.

Since I’m a sucker for bridges, I had to go ahead and play/write this one.

In 99 words…
The Other Side

Obermoeller knew she could make it to the other side. It was just a matter of time. It had been 13 years since her first love drowned while saving her life. He heaved her up onto the bank of the Spring River and when she turned around, he was gone. Vanished. They never found his body. Obermoeller spent the last 13 years in Spring River’s County Jail for a crime she never committed. Find out the compelling story of Obermoeller’s quest in finding the painful truth of her first and only love once she heads to the other side.

The Flower of the Week - Ms. Daisy

Dear Mom,

This is for you and all my friends, family, fellow bloggers and blogger followers—daisies from my garden.

Flower arranger I am not, but they’re still pretty darn cute. Ole Smeagol had to get in the picture.

After some of the daisies wilted, I rearranged and here they are again.

Here's some shots in their natural environment in my backyard.

Any daisy stories comes to mind? When you were a kid, did you pluck the petals one by one saying, “he loves, he loves me not,” to be surprised at the end with disappointment or joy? Do they remind you of summer rain? Or grandma’s house?

My Two Nieces - Amy and Victoria

Dear Mom,

Your two granddaughters—my two nieces—are grown women now. You never did get to see them, did you?

Warren’s daughter, Amy is a counselor at an elementary school in the Montgomery City, Missouri area.


Suzanne’s daughter, Victoria is an Assistant Professor of Music at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I find it interesting that they both are in school environments. To me, they’re both as different as night and day. Amy lives in the country and Victoria in the city. Although I could see either of them living the other way, I don’t think they’d be as content. They both have the sweetest disposition. I suppose that is a prerequisite when dealing with children or young adults in a school setting. Anyone having the good fortune to be around these ladies are darn lucky, if you ask me.

I recently came across some old memorabilia from them when they were really little. The letter is from Amy and the drawing is from Victoria. Are they the cutest things ever?

Who could tell from the things they did when they were little how they’d grow up to become who they are—you just never know. They are strong women and you’d be as proud of them as I am. I’m happy that I’m their Aunt Lynn.

Book Blurb Friday #19

It’s Book Blurb Friday #19. Hosted by Lisa of Writing in the Buff. Head to Lisa Ricard Claro’s blog for BBF directions. Write a book blurb jacket in 150 words based on the photo. Yours truly provided this photo. I’ve been out of the Book Blurb Friday meme for a while, but had to give this one a shot, after all this photo is one of my favorites.

And in 102 words… unless you add the review: 124

Ole TypeO

Obermoeller remembered the day she chucked Ole TypeO—what she named that beast back in the day when she was known as the fastest typist in the West… and without errors.

All but that one error in Obermoeller’s past, and her son demanded to know after he hauled out the wretched typewriter from the attic. “Why did you stop writing?” Obermoeller shook, then collapsed into a coma. How could her son have known what memory lived beneath those keys? Would Obermoeller wake up? Would her son find out the truth or would it remain stuck as the keys in Ole TypeO?

“Aww shoot, this here book Ole TypeO is a fast read even though you want to linger around, by golly." -John Wayne

Postcard from Sweden

Dear Mom,

Here’s another one of my postcards—this one from Sweden. And it has a recipe on it. I was told to translate this language via Google translator and voila—here’s the recipe too!

The only thing, reindeer is not something I can find around here, but I may try it with a piece of beef, what do you think?

And you can see the stamps on the side with the recipe instructions.

Here’s what the recipe translated to be although I don't know that all of it translated properly.

The recipe directions on the back (after translation):

Brown the one half of the butter in a skillet. Add to otinat reindeer (or algskav). Share probes with fork and let it be evenly browned. Being shifted to the plate. Peel and slice the onion as Brown in the remaining butter. Accomplished sponge (can also be mushrooms or funnel chanterelle mushrooms), cut into pieces. Let the mixture simmer a few minutes so the liquid boils up. Mix renskavet. Season with salt and pepper. Hall on cremem fraiche flavored with chili sauce. Boil a few minutes and serve straight from the pan with, for example, pressed potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

From the front of the card (after translation):

Gold pan
1 packet of reindeer
2 tablespoons butter
2 yellow onions
about 200 g chanterelles
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper
2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons chili sauce

I plan to make this dish substituting the deer with another meat. I'll post it some time on my Lynn, What's for Dinner? blog. Until then, enjoy the postcard!