"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." Robert Herrick

"Gather ye rose-buds while ye may." Robert Herrick

Hello Friends!

Friends, Romans, countrymen...y'all. Foodies, gardeners, artists and collectors - let's gather together to share and possibly learn a thing or two in the mix.

Donna Baker

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Portlandia | Microhouse | IFC


  Portlandia is such a funny program; skits with many famous actors and comedians and produced by Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live fame.  Makes me want to go to Portland, OR.

The tiny house movement is sweeping the nation and I can tell you, I'd last a day in one.  It would be fun for a playhouse for the grand children, but not my style.  The bigger the better for me.

Portlandia always makes me laugh, but then again, I have kind of a strange since of humor.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

More Birds


I ordered this on etsy.  It was described as a dove.  Huh?  Be that as it may, I found something new and fun to do.  It is an app on the iphone called Waterlogue and you can purchase it for 99 cents.  I haven't gotten to experiment much with it, but I think it is going to be interesting. Everyone will become an artist with the click of a button.


This is the bird photo with Waterlogue.  I'm sure there are many things one can do with it, but as for me, I haven't a clue.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Something Nice About Winter


I promised this year I would not complain about old man winter.  I could go on and on about it negatively, but what is one to do except move to Hawaii.  There is an inch of ice on the ground and now, more inches of snow on top of it.  So, I'll say something nice about it.  

I do so love birds.  They are eating me out of house and home this winter.  I feed them sunflower hearts as there is no mess leftover nor uneaten seeds.  At one point, I counted 20 cardinals on my little apple tree.  It was a beautiful sight.  They would not cooperate for a photo though so I had to shoot what I could with my phone.  One can't be too stealthy with birds and I'm not going outside to get a good shot.  The males are all challenging each other while the females wait patiently for the orioles and chickadees to drop food from the feeders.  What else is there to do on a day like this?  It's definitely a day for bird watching.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Hallelujah


Hallelujah - my reading list came back, knock on wood.  My blog has been so messed up for the past month and a half.  I left the farm to attend the birth of my third grandchild and when I came back it was fixed - hallelujah was the first thing that came to mind.  

The helpers at google/chrome/blogger had me stand on my head, juggling behind my back with my legs doing an Irish jig, all while clicking on every button on my computer.  We are talking literally hours and weeks of trying to get the kinks out.  Of course, it was me and my computer that was at fault due to my inexperience (technical idiot) and add-ons and filters in the ether out there in cyberspace.  For example, it took me hours to find out that the reload button was the same exact thing as refresh, which they kept telling me to do.  What and where are add-ons, filters, print screens - more hours.  I had to read tons and tons of technical stuff. The whole experience was stressful to put it nicely.  I couldn't work on it at night or I'd be up all night thinking about it.

Well, lo and behold, one morning, ping, there it all was.  Nothing they told me to do fixed it.  It just righted itself, uh huh.

I used to listen to Loudan Wainwright III (Dead Skunk In The Middle Of The Road) in the 80's and now his son, Rufus, is singing too.  This is my favorite version of the Leonard Cohen song Hallelujah.  Some like Jeff Buckley's version better (and I used to also listen to his father, Tim Buckley, in the 80's).  K.D. Lang also does a beautiful rendition.  Look up Rufus Wainwright on youtube.  He performs with many other famous musicians.  Just love his voice.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Penny Lane


What is love?  Why, it's Penny Lane.  I have a new grand child.  She is an exact replica of her Dad at this stage.  And she is so loved.


My son says he and Penny couldn't stop crying at her birth.  Her Dad, Parker, and her mother, Katie, are so in love with her.


At 7.8 lbs, with a head full of black hair, she is perfection.  Mewls like a little kitten.  She is two days old now.  Meanwhile back, I had to return home to the farm, but I told her Dad this morning to give her a kiss for me.  Seems like only yesterday...


PS ~ And I've been singing Penny Lane for two days straight.


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

New Read


I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  With all of the error messages I am receiving and no reading list for the past month, I am hoping I can still publish a new post on this blog.  I fully expect to wake up one morning and find that my blog doesn't exist.  
I did find a new book to read and will begin it tonight. I'll let you know if I think it's worth the money.

PS ~ I'm about half way through the book and I can tell you that the two protagonists are train wrecks.  I guess it is good if you go by the standards of money made and No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.  I didn't know about this when I bought it.  Saw the author on TV this morning and she said this was her fourth novel.  She wanted it to be in the vein of Hitchcock.  All I'm going to say is to each his own... and I'm not going to go by the NY Times bestseller list any time soon.

PS ~ I wish I had my money back.