20 points

20 points here! 

Yesterday was my birthday, so I guess, according to this chart, I’m showing my age… but I’m not going to share 😊

Here’s a clue: I’m a Baby Boomer—the only generation in human history to have experienced a fully analog childhood and a fully digital adulthood.

We grew up without the internet, smartphones, or social media, and then watched the world transform into one where those things became part of everyday life. No other generation will ever cross that particular bridge again.

• The first time I used a fax machine was during my first real job after college.
• Rotary phones…the first phone number I remember was when we lived in Owensboro, Kentucky. 683-0669 or MU (Murray) 3-0669.
• I still use my AOL address. 
• I have a film camera but haven't used it for a long time. 
• I send postcards to my grandchildren and friends when traveling. 
• When I was pregnant with our first child, Todd and I had gone to my parents' house for Sunday dinner and I didn't feel well. I laid on my brother's waterbed while they enjoyed a nice steak dinner. We went home and about seven hours later our son was born.
• The car dealers still put a paper mat on the front seat floors when I take my car in for a service. Restaurants also used paper mats.
• I still enjoying flipping through a dictionary.
• VCRs...I think we got one in the early '90s when we had a house full of kids. My girls wore out their Beauty and the Beast video cassette.
• I wish I still had my typewriter. They're making a comeback.
• I use a checkbook on occasion. To show you how much we use it, our current checkbook register dates back to 2020. 
• I still write in cursive but print a lot, too. Schools stopped teaching cursive around 2010. I disagree with the powers that be who made that decision but hey, it's a digital world now so I guess I'm one of those cranky ladies just showing my age.

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

There's that quote..."Not all who wander are lost," and that's me. There are those times, though...

Alex the farm's bug-ologist, is a very talented young man. He taught himself to crochet and this is his current project. It's going to be a cover for his bed.

The sunflowers are slowly dying so I'm taking photos everytime I'm at the farm.  I love the flecks of yellow in the center of the flower and in the second, of course the bee and then the sun illuminating the furry stem.

The City of Kettering has started a food compost drop-off. I keep a little 1.3 gallon compost bucket by the kitchen sink and it fills up quickly! I do keep a larger bucket in the garage to maintain a once-a-week drop-off.

Another sign of fall...the arrival of pumpkins at the farm. These are the "Instagram" pumpkins; the everyday orange pumpkins will arrive soon.

Last Friday was Dayton's Greek Festival and we got our fill of gyros, dolmades, spanakopita, and loukoumades. We took a tour of the beautiful church. I wasn't in the best spot to take a photo of the main dome, thus the decapitation of Christ the Pantocrator.

And lastly, this guy and his watchful eye stand at a major intersection in town. I wish he could ticket all the red light runners!

more farm insects

I've posted a lot of photos of the bees and butterflies on the zinnias and sunflowers at the farm. They're so pretty. There are other insects, too...spiders!

This vertical line in the orb web is a "trashline" created by a trashline orb-weaver spider. These spiders build a vertical line of discarded prey remains, molt skins, and plant bits through the center of their web. The clustered, lumpy pieces along the string also frequently include the spider's own egg sacs. The line helps hide the spider from predators by breaking up its silhouette or making it look like a piece of drifting trash.

Well, hello! No itsy-bitsy spider here!

The other day, Alex, our resident bug-ologist, said, “Hey! Come over and look at this. Wanna see a wolf spider?”

“Ummmmm…sure. Why not?”

This guy was camping out in one of the tomato trays. Sure glad I wasn’t the one emptying that tray!

As creepy as they may look, wolf spiders are actually good to have around. They eat roaches, crickets, flies, ants, and plenty of other insects. Wolf spiders hunt on the ground rather than spinning webs and are wonderful OUTDOOR neighbors!

monday's mulling: clash of the seasons and other thoughts

Welp… it’s already happening. It’s the second week of September, and here comes Christmas!

I needed some wrapping paper for a shower gift, and this is what greeted me at the Hallmark store: a mingling of Christmas and Halloween. Red and green mixing with orange, black, and gold. Quite the color combination. And FYI, Christmas is only 103 days away.

The Halloween/Christmas combo was the first thing that caught my eye. Then I headed to the wrapping paper section in search of something suitable for a bridal shower. Wrapping paper and ribbon used to cover a good portion of the walls, but that’s no longer the case. I wasn’t impressed with the wedding paper selections, so I chose a fun, colorful design instead.

The ribbon selection was even more scarce, but I managed to find a combination that would work. This was a bridal shower and ribbons are needed for the practice bouquet at the wedding rehearsal - and to keep up with the superstition of breaking ribbons while opening gifts to predict how many children will be in the couple’s future. (She broke three and one of them was my sabotaged ribbon 😁).

 

simple, yet profound

Twenty-five years ago, my friend Patricia Saxton created this digital illustration, NINE, in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

I love how her minimalist depiction of the World Trade Center Twin Towers transforms them  into the number 11 - a simple yet powerful visual connection to that day and all that it came to represent. At the base of the Towers, a blooming lotus flower offers a gentle, delicate contrast to the devastation: a symbol of peace, remembrance, resilience, and renewal.

Art has a unique way of helping us hold what words sometimes cannot. It gives shape to grief, creates space for reflection, and allows us to remember while also imagining hope. In moments of profound loss, creating and experiencing art can be a form of healing - a way to honor what was lost, process what we carry, and find beauty and meaning even in the aftermath of tragedy.

From darkness, something can still bloom.

 

busy bumblebees

I watched a bumblebee flit around the pot of petunias, searching for the last bits of pollen. It took a deep dive into one of the trumpet-shaped blooms, then wiggled its way back out and flew on to the next flower. It was a peaceful few minutes watching its flight from bloom to bloom.

 

The bee is an insect admired for its industriousness, its economy and its way of working for the common good.  ~ Charles Darwin

the friday feed: 9/11...25 years ago

“Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?” It's one of those moments in time that I will not forget.

And how does this “Friday Feed” post have anything to do with food?

On September 11, 2001, I was a couple of weeks into my student teaching - the final requirement for completing my Master’s in Education. My teaching mentor and I had left the classroom for our lunch break and had just sat down in the teachers’ lunchroom when another teacher wheeled a television into the room and said, “You all have to watch this.”

We watched in disbelief as the news showed the two hijacked airplanes crash into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.

There we were, gathered around a television in the teachers’ lunchroom, witnessing a horrific attack on American soil. We talked with one another about whether we should tell our students what was happening or continue with the school day as if nothing had happened. We ultimately decided not to tell them immediately. The teachers agreed that we should maintain the daily routine and leave it to the parents to explain the attack to their children in words they felt were appropriate.

When we returned to the classroom, we followed our normal routine as best we could. Before long, parents began arriving at the school to take their children home. By the end of the day, only a few students remained in the classroom. At that point, we told them what had happened and explained that, when they got home, their parents would talk with them about it in their own way.

Looking back on that day, that teachers’ lunchroom became more than a place to eat. It became a place where we could pause, process the unimaginable, and lean on one another. Before we could help our students, we needed those few moments together to understand what was happening and decide how best to protect their sense of safety and normalcy.

And perhaps that is where the food connection comes in. Food is often about more than what is on the plate. A meal brings people together, creates a place for conversation, provides comfort, and gives us a moment to pause when life feels overwhelming.

On that September day, there wasn’t much eating happening in the teachers’ lunchroom. But there was something just as important: people gathered around a table, trying to make sense of a world that had suddenly changed.

Twenty-five years later, I still remember exactly where I was.