Sprang

The days are glorious. It got to 84 degrees today and I seriously thought about turning on the air conditioner, but just kept the doors and windows open instead. 

Here is a tip for new gardeners out there - for what it's worth.  Some wild things need to stay wild.  Case in point, these woodland violets I transplanted a few years ago.  Though they have no scent, I thought they were pretty and put them around my goldfish pond.  They have taken over.  Spread everywhere; in cracks, beds, even around shrubs. Can't even kill them out.  That also happened with a wild rose that grows around here.  I transplanted one in my flower beds and they multiplied exponentially.  It took a few years to rid my flower beds of them.  

Stay wild and enjoy spring.  It's my favorite season.

MOTHER NATURE

Whether on the farm or the beach, I always look down; forever searching for treasures. Some of the things I gather are nests, many different kinds of bones and rock, leaves, shells, insects, eggs and feathers, jewelry and coins, arrowheads, driftwood and other flotsam and jetsam. Too many things to list.
 I picked up this large wasps' nest and left it sitting around, then came upon this piece of coral. I was surprised and awed by the similarities of the two. One made by an insect on land and the other made in the sea by a totally different marine creature. Pretty cool, huh?

I do use my treasured finds from time to time as inspiration.  I did a pencil drawing of this large wasps' nest when it was still attached to the limb and the larger paper part of the nest.  

Death and Taxes

No beautiful spring buds today.  I have to get my taxes ready for the CPA who does our federal and state income taxes.  We have to pay a certified public accountant to prepare our taxes at great expense because of the incredulous book-sized form required to be filled out to submit said taxes (and the tax code changes every year).

We are not in the upper 1%, but we pay out the wazoo.  In the USA, we are taxed on everything; food, income, and on and on.   Though we paid taxes on income earned our entire working life, now we have to pay taxes again on the piddly social security income we receive as well as retirement benefits. Yes, taxed again.

I could go on and on.  There is no way out of it, except for all the losers and dead beats that get away with not paying; the running underclass they are called (I didn't even mention corporate America). If we did it, we'd be jailed immediately or liens attached to our homes and bank accounts and property sold at auction. What is to become of us poor taxpayers?  It's all political and that system is broken too. Taxes have probably been the downfall of all those ancient civilizations we wonder what happened to. And, yes, there really is a death tax and everything else related to that sad occurrence. What is next?  A wind tax, sun and cloud tax?  They are probably already trying to figure out a new birth tax.

Faithless Love

One of my favorite songs from way back in the 70's, written by J.D. Souther.  He has a wonderful voice and wrote many hits for stars including the Eagles, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. I think Linda's version was the most famous.  I found this cover by Bernadette Peters and thought it beautiful.  I still love J.D.'s version best, just his voice and acoustic guitar, but couldn't figure out how to get it on this post too.  It's on youtube or it can be purchased on itunes. 

Literary Minutia

Maybe I should title this daily minutiae.  I have nothing to do today.  It is cold and muddy outside with freezing temps and a wintry mix coming in tomorrow and the next day.  I dislike going outside in this kind of weather.  

So, my day will consist of a little reading, the telly and bathing the dogs in the shower with me.  That's it.  

I have been reading this winter.  In between the Outlander series, which my sister and niece insisted I read, I read a book my son gave me for Christmas.  I had always wondered who Evangeline was (and after reading am still wondering how she became so famous) except for the fact Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this epic poem about her.

To get to the point of the post, in Evangeline, Longfellow used the word susurrus.  I had to look it up.  I noticed the word again in the Outlander series.  The author has used it 3 (now 5) times in four books of the series.  Who uses that word?  I thought there was no way it was a coincidence and finally in the fourth book of the series, the author wrote a line, "Longfellow couldn't have described it better." Touche.

Well, there are my bits of minutiae for the day.  I don't think you can use the word susurrus in winter.  There will be no whispering, murmuring nor rustling sounds outside here today, or if a tree falls in the forest...

My epitaph  ~  She Thought Too Much