Dear Husband is watching a program on MSNBC called the Ultimate Explorer. The program is discussing the rangers and climbers at Denali in Alaska. I looked up in time, the first time, to see a helicopter carrying off the splayed, frozen bodies of climbers, who were stranded and died.
Fretting
This has turned out to be a very frustrating day.
I got a later start than usual, and worked in the garden. With rain coming in, we pulled the tarp with the herb cuttings to the compost pile, and covered two bales of straw, and then I came in for the afternoon.
I have numerous quilting projects underway, and I’ve been trying to finish some of them before starting new projects. I managed to get a twin-sized signature quilt top finished today. I pieced the back, too. Now all I have to do is pack the top, back and batting and mail them off to the ladies who will machine quilt them for me. Perhaps I’ll have a special Christmas present for my mother if they finish in time.
Alfalfa
I have a friend in the Fort Worth area who is a superb gardener. She’s always researching ways to have healthier soil and stronger plants. We’ve had many a conversation about the use of compost. She feels that it should be incorporated into the top three inches of so of the soil to make the best use in feeding plants organicallybecause the plants feed mostly in those three inches.
I’ve read somewhere that double digging is the best way to prepare a new garden, adding compost in as we turn that soil. My friend is trying to persuade me not to disturb the soil, but to add compost on top.
She has also taught me about corn gluten meal, and alfalfa.
It seems that if you put alfalfa on your iris in the fall you’ll have huge numbers of blooms in the spring. You can use pellets, meal, or hay to achieve this. I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know in the spring how it turned out.
If you’ve tried this, I’d like to hear from you.
The aftermath
After waiting for FOURTEEN YEARS, we finally had our first trick or treaters. Four boys came to the front door. I’d say they were in a range between nine and fourteen. They were dressed as bums or mimes, and carried pillowcases to hold the candy. DH actually had them come into the house. The only thing we forgot to do was to take their picture!
Mother slept through the whole thing.
No eggs, no tricks that we have found yet, and nobody was hurt.
Did you know…..?
that director Jane Campion is one of only two women who have been nominated for an Oscar for directing, and that no woman has ever won? Whatever happened to the PHI ratio here?
You may know Campion’s work: Sweetie, The Piano, Portrait of a Lady, and Holy Smoke.
She has another film coming out called “In the Cut.” It’s loosely based on Susanna Moore’s 1995 novel of the same name.
Relationships
I was recently reading about a woman who had been married for thirty-five years to a man who abused her. He broke her arm, her shoulder, her jaw and a couple of ribs.
I’ve read enough psychology to understand that there is a dynamic in that relationship that keeps her in place. But for the life of me I can’t understand why you would make excuses for, and stay with, a man who HURTS you!! I know that she believes she deserves this treatment, and that it’s HER fault he does these things, but what I can’t understand is why she didn’t get out after the first instance of abuse.She must have been trained as a kid that she was worthless to have lasted so long in a dreadful situation like this. I wonder if counseling is of any use at this point?
I know that when you are alone with a man who is in a rage, it’s not worth fighting back. I also know that many women put up with an attack to divert the man from hurting their children. But, once the attack is over, all you have to do is bid your time and walk away. Why are we not teaching our children to do that?
I have on-line friends in similar situations, and I do everything I can to encourage them to GET OUT!! I’m surprised that women’s groups haven’t been more successful in helping women out of these situations, or even better, putting an end to the attacks. I think that penalties for crimes against women are woefully light. If we could change the legislation, perhaps men would think first before they strike.
Have you ever helped someone put an end to abuse?
Music
Everybody has music they love. Some blogs have “currently listening to” sidebars, and others discuss the merits of their favorites. For the most part, what they have in common from my point of view is that I don’t recognize a word of what they are talking about.
How could I be a trained musician, and have gotten so far removed from pop music?? I can’t figure it out. What I find is that I recognize some music here and there, but I’ve missed most of the hits of the nineties, and I have NO idea who is popular in the new millennium.
The Da Vinci Code-Fibonacci sequence
Have you ever heard of the Fibonacci sequence? This is the sequence:
1 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 8 – 13 – 21
It is a progression in which each term is equal to the sum of the two preceeding terms.
Dan Brown uses this sequence as part of the clues left behind by Jacques Sauniere, the murdered curator. Sauniere raised his granddaughter, coaching her in endless puzzles. As an adult she became a cryptographer. When presented with the numbers in a scrambled form, she recognizes the sequence, and understands that it is part of a message.
The Da Vinci Code – PHI
I know, I’ve been talking about this book for the last week. It’s absolutely engrossing. I love mysteries, and this one keeps you turning the pages right to the end.
Robert Langdon is a Harvard symbologist on business in Paris. Sophie Neveu is a young cryptologist who works for the French police. Sophie’s grandfather, Jacques Sauniere, is the curator of the Louvre. The story opens with Sauniere being stalked and shot in the museum. In his last moments, he leaves clues for his granddaughter and Langdon to solve, to prevent the loss of the secret of the Priory of Sion.
The author, Dan Brown, has done an incredible job of fashioning a work of fiction based on fact. It’s difficult occasionally to tell the dividing line between the two, and that sent me surfing the Internet for information. The page before the Prologue states that “All descriptions of artwork, architechture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” It also confirms that the Priory of Sion, a secret society founded in 1099 is a real organization, and that Opus Dei, is truly a Catholic sect with headquarters in New York City.
This ‘n’ That
This morning when I was out, I saw a headline in the Chicago Sun-Times which said something to the effect that if you want your child to read better, turn off the T.V. BRAVO!! Talk to your children. Have them read to you. Discuss what you’ve read. Limit the amount of time your children get to watch T.V. and you will have healthier, smarter children!