19
04, 2023
17
04, 2023
Have you adjusted?
Our spring Daylight Savings Time switches have been around since 1918. I’ve been doing the spring forward, fall back ritual my entire life.
You’d think I’d be adjusted. Right?
Wrong.
I find myself waking up an hour too early with the spring DST switch and an hour too late with the fall change back. My body clock isn’t fooled. It knows when it’s really 5 a.m.
When I was younger, I didn’t pay much attention to the time changes except for the task of changing all the clocks, especially the kitchen clock hanging high above the back porch door. Changing it was my special task.
I remember my daddy holding the kitchen stool, his hands steading me as I climbed up to reach the clock. I remember how the accumulated greasy dust clung to my fingertips and how we’d always wipe off the circular edge before we rehung it. I remember climbing down from the chair and standing beside him looking up.
“Done for this time,” he’d say and lift the chair back to its place in the corner of the kitchen.
From there, we’d move to adjust the windup Big Ben bedside alarm clocks and clock radios.
Next, we sat at the dining table and changed his Timex watch, the one with the genuine leather band. His eyes weren’t as sharp as mine so he’d undo the treasured timepiece from his wrist and hand it to me. He trusted me to move the hands ahead or back, but he never to do the winding.
Lastly, we’d set Mother’s gold bracelet Longines. Her prized possession. It always felt like such a giant responsibility. The watch ran on a battery so we didn’t have to wind it but twice a year we did have to change the time.
Eventually, glowing red or white digits replaced pointy black analog hour and minute hands. Watching the numbers spin around and applying the exact amount of pressure so I didn’t go too far and have to start over was (is) a challenge.
I can still hear Daddy saying, “Slow down.”
Those memories of helping Daddy are the best part of the DST changes for me. I miss that ritual. Adjusting to all the time switches, not so much.
It’ll be time for the reset fall back change again before I’ve settled into the new daylight time.
14
04, 2023
Field Trip Fun
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Last month my principal asked me to go with the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades on their field trip. They went to the Museum of the American GI and Veteran’s Park. To be perfectly honest, I was not excited at first.
I was looking forward to the time at school without them. However, this seemed to be another example of “other duties as assigned” and I decided to make the best of it.
The museum was actually fascinating. I learned many things and my group of students was able to complete all the questions on the assignment we were given. It was a beautiful day so being outside at the park was nice. There were statues for each of the wars fought and my group wanted to take silly pictures at each of them. We had a lot of fun.
My favorite part of the day, though, was the last activity. We visited a different part of the park which included a music section.
I don’t know who had more fun – me or the students.
I can’t wait to go back and take my grandsons! I may even go by myself.
I am a music teacher, after all.
I can play whatever musical instrument I want – even if it is in a park!
10
04, 2023
Why Wear Easter Bonnets?
I saw no Easter bonnets at my church on Easter Sunday. I wasn’t surprised. The tradition of wearing any hat much less Easter bonnets seems to have all but disappeared in today’s culture.
Once upon a time, it was very important to have not only a new bonnet but a new outfit for Easter Sunday too. I’m guessing many of us have pictures like this buried in old photo albums.
The practice of new finery for Easter Sunday originated in the early church. Converts wore white garments on Sunday to identify themselves with Christ. The white symbolized purity and newness of life and became a powerful and tangible way to signify the life-altering spiritual transformation that had taken place.
In the 19th Century, there was even an Easter parade in New York City from St. Patrick’s Cathedral down Fifth Avenue. An after-church cultural event primarily for the well-to-do who decked out in new and fashionable clothing, and strolled from their own church to others to see and be seen.
The official parade’s popularity declined significantly as people came to view the frolic in finery as an ostentatious display of wealth and beauty.
Irving Berlin’s 1948 song “In Your Easter Bonnet” from the movie Easter Parade renewed the popularity of wearing an Easter bonnet. That’s why so many of us have pictures like the one above of me, my sister, and my brother posed outside my grandmother’s house on an Easter Sunday morning after church.
Although the parade falderal of bygone days is no longer, you might see some Easter parade strollers if you’re in New York City some Easter Sunday.
Check out these fabulous Easter bonnets from the 2018 New York Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival on 5th Avenue, Manhattan near St.Patrick’s Cathedral.
7
04, 2023
Guess What We Found!
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
My 5th and 6th grade class had earned their free time so we went outside. The girls headed for the swings while the boys grabbed a football. Within a few minutes, the boys came running over saying “There’s a baby raccoon!”
Being an experienced teacher, I didn’t necessarily believe them at once. However, upon further inspection, there was indeed a baby raccoon.
Its eyes were not open but it was still alive. I sent one of the students to the office for reinforcements.
In all my various encounters with animals, I have never run across a raccoon but I knew enough to stay back and keep anyone from touching it.
I texted Rachel who happened to be at recess with her class. She called and suggested we contact Texas Parks and Wildlife to see if there was a small animal rehabilitator nearby. She texted me the number which I sent to the school office.
Meanwhile, the principal came out and got a shovel and bucket and moved the little fellow out of the sun. By the time I checked on him at the end of class, he had perked up a bit.
The woman from the wildlife rehab center came and picked him up. I have not followed up to see how he is. I like to believe he is happily growing and preparing to return to the wild.
5
04, 2023
3
04, 2023
Hand-me-ups
Growing up hand-me-downs and mended defined most of our clothing.
There were everyday school clothes, play clothes, and Sunday/dress-up clothes. You didn’t wear a Sunday outfit to school unless it was a special occasion and you never ever wore your good things to play in.
Dresses, jeans, shorts, and shoes were passed between siblings and cousins, and friends. We’ve carried that tradition down, always passing good clothing and stuff we can’t use on to friends and family.
Whenever our family gets together these days, we still exchange what we call the “obligatory bag.” Inside can be clothing, shoes, magazines, food, or any manner of re-useable household items to pass along.
In a recent exchange, my youngest daughter passed on some sneakers for me.
I have to smile. As the youngest child, she wasn’t always excited about her hand-me-down, homemade wardrobe. She rarely got brand-new, store-bought things. Now she’s carrying on the tradition in reverse—hand-me-ups.
I love my “new” bright pink sneakers.
31
03, 2023
Between the Fences
A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Our neighbors, who also have chickens and ducks, have a privacy fence. It was erected by the previous owners when their real estate agent convinced them no one would buy a house next to chickens. Obviously, this was not true.
Anyway, chickens have regularly gotten themselves caught between the two fences. I have, on several occasions, climbed between the fences to rescue them. After getting multiple scratches and tearing several pairs of pants, I stopped retrieving chickens.
They got themselves into that spot. They could get themselves back out.
Recently, Beekeeper Brian discovered a collection of eggs between the fences. I thought perhaps my wayward, nameless chicken had laid them. But that was not the case. It was one of the neighbor’s ducks.
I heard the kids outside one afternoon and hollered over the fence to tell them about the eggs. Being smaller and more agile than me, they were able to retrieve them.
I guess we won’t have ducklings living between the fences.
29
03, 2023
An Irish Toast to end the month of March
A house in Dingle where we walked along the beach.
27
03, 2023
The Garden
Gardens are gifts to ourselves and wildlife. The once sadly neglected gardens at our home are once again a place of refuge for humans as well as animals and birds. It’s taken time, back-breaking labor, and lots of patience.
The previous owners hadn’t been able to keep things up, but since our house was a designated Certified Habitat for Wildlife, the beginnings were there. Over the last six years, we’ve trimmed, removed dead trees, cleared brush gone wild, planted, and watered until we had a garden and could sit on the porch and enjoy the view.
There were times of throwing our hands in the air and shouting what’s the point? We wrestled with hoses and tripped over shovels. Our backs hurt. Our shoulders ached.
But we persevered.
What began as pitiful patches of sickly grass, haggard shrubs, sad old crepe myrtles, a neglected dogwood, and a sad tulip magnolia, returned to life. The birds and butterflies came back. Our backyard became a busy wildlife place again.
Then Mother Nature stuck with four days of below-freezing temperatures and crippled our efforts. Our garden sanctuary was once again dead and desolate.
Ugly brown foliage was all we saw from the porch swing. The creek fountain sprung a leak. The birdbaths were abandoned. Gone was the respite of sitting on the porch.
Spring-like weather finally arrived but the yard wasn’t the same. Missing the birds and the blooms, we started over.
We found the pond leaks and sealed them. The fountain flows again. Water trickles over the creek bed into the pond. A helper cleared the frostbitten plants and weeds, removed dead shrubs, and dug holes for new shrubbery, then spread mulch. College boy neighbors, on spring break and needing cash, cleared the roof and raked debris into thirteen bags.
Weeks later zinnia and marigold seeds are sprouting. Four o’clocks and Cardinal plants are popping up in the dirt behind the patio and fountain. The Angel Trumpet has new growth and the freshly planted Arbor Day seedlings have tiny leaves. Our sanctuary’s begun to emerge again.
Soon we can sit on the porch swing and watch butterflies and hummingbirds feasting on blooms. Birds will bathe in the tricking pond again.
I can’t wait. Come on warm weather.