The Flower of the Family

My father used to have a joke he liked to tell. He would say that I was "the flower of the family -- the bloomin' idiot."

My family was exceptionally intelligent, except the baby of the family -- me -- lagged far behind them. In my family, the intellect was the be-all, end-all. My siblings had extraordinary intelligence, as did my parents, especially in the areas of mathematics and music. I have no real talent for either one, although I tried very hard to do well in those subjects and please my loved ones. But I never pleased them!

I do feel I have a special gift, however: I am transported by beauty. Sometimes I feel like my heart will burst when I see certain flowers or hillsides or paintings; or the way the light goes through a vase at sundown or a leaf at sunrise, or through Champie the Chiweenie's ears anytime, making him look like a dog with bright pink petals growing from his head. Note to Champie: You are a handsome, handsome lad, my fat and faithful friend, and you wear those petals well.

Here are a few more "purloined pictures" (thank you, Joanne from Cup on the Bus) from the little park I "accidentally" found myself in after accidentally scaling a rock wall (at MY age!) and accidentally avoiding detection by sneaking about. I was NOT the only one to enter this off-limits park, however; a well-known ne'er-do-well character wearing a black mask (over its eyes, not its nose and mouth) was there before me! Yes, the paths were covered with paw prints of raccoons! 

Hope you enjoy. Three kinds of crabapples and some other pretty plants like quince and redbuds were also blooming. Some are not in sharp focus; I was too busy trying to sneak to concentrate.

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Free "Spring Springing" Cross Stitch Chart!

Here is a little free chart (see link below with color charts, symbol charts, and key) with two versions based on both my Jumping for Joy design and a good friend's primitive bunnies (used with permission) that she stitched long ago. I hope you will enjoy stitching it, if cross stitching be your hobby! It is easy enough for a beginner to stitch, too, for those who may be interested in taking up cross stitching. I am unhappy with the date, as I noticed it is off-center. "Free, and worth every penny," as we say. I flipped the top flower motif for an alternate version. The alternate version just has the color stitches shown, not a symbol chart also. I have run out of time because Spring Break is over for our school, so it's early bed and back to work tomorrow. Out of time to play, BOO! 

Use this LINK <--- so that you get the PDF of this chart. It's stored on Google Drive and that is as safe as things get on the internet!

I hope you all have a great Monday and a great Holy Week. We had a fantastic Palm Sunday Mass, very moving. Our priest, several of the Knights of the Altar (altar boys and girls), and deacons put on a spoken-word play. Our priest has a really great voice.

I did something naughty today. I snuck into a closed park to take photos of the crabapple blooming there. This is an open-air park few visit that has been closed for over a year, due to "COVID." The lure of the spring blooms was too much. I had to miss them last year. Even if a person lives to be 100, that's just 100 times to see crabapple blossoms. This photo shows the old and the new: Last year's shriveled crabapples, and this year's promise.

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Lilac-Violet Cactus Welcomes Spring in the Desert

 

Before showing off the "unicorn cactus" as I like to call it, here is my favorite kitchen decoration. These little chalkware chickens are always on display. The hen was painted by my son while I painted the rooster, when he was very little. I love children's artwork and handwork. Their creations are so open, so fresh! 

I had to mail some seeds that I sold, so I stopped by the landscaping at City Hall, which is downtown like the post office. Spring arrived within a week: Trees that were bare last week are fuzzed with green this week.  Ice plants have dozens of blooms and have plumped up. The agaves (above) are stretching out. I think the center of the agave looks like a little dolphin face. And the prickly pears are barnacled with buds.

I am very partial to these lilac-hued cactus, called Santa Rita prickly pears. They are a very unusual spot of pastel color in the landscape. In winter and early spring they are lilac and purple with aqua; by late spring and summer they will turn more a pastel blue gray.  In the landscape, they are striking. I wasn't the only one taking photos of them; in nearby Old Mesilla, tourists had phones in hand, taking photo after photo of the violet-hued prickly pears that line the famed La Posta restaurant's parking area.

I know many of you are still awaiting spring to truly show herself! But when it is over 100 degrees here (37 C), you will be having the last laugh as everything dries up in the heat!

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Your Favorite Smell, Garden Surprises, Desert SNOW in March and Printable Spring Tags!

Well dearies, here we have some free digital speckled spring tags to download and print out. I was thinking of speckled eggs, and flowers, and decided to combine the two. As always, please use the link, because Blogger compresses and resizes images posted and then they don't print properly. TO GET A GOOD LOOK at the tags to see if you want to download them, RIGHT CLICK and choose "Open link in new tab" and that will make the little magnifier appear.

You can download from Google Drive (safe) from this LINK <-----

Amazingly, it snowed today here in the desert -- on our mountaintops. It sprinkled some cold rain on the foothills and in our valley, the Mesilla Valley, where the Rio Grande is and where the chiles, onions, cotton, and pecans grow.

 

The mountains are the Organ Mountains, so called because the tall granite outcroppings (locally called "the needles") looked like organ pipes to some, probably homesick settlers who had left such heavy instruments behind. I can't really imagine the grit that the people had who moved here, the ganas, as they say in Mexico. All these g-words, basically meaning the desert pioneers had guts.

Update on my community garden plot: Whoever had this plot before was a blue-ribbon gardener. I thought I was going to have to amend the soil and dig a lot to prepare the bed. But no! My very first shovelful of soil showed that not only was it already amended, but it was PLANTED! With strange bulbs, pushing up to the surface! And the bed has different mints including apple mint, big mounds of what turned out to be the best-smelling lemongrass ever, other herbs yet to be figured out, and I don't even know what-all. Some heirloom tomatoes, too.

I gingerly poked in a few seeds of sunflowers along the western side of the plot, for shade. And put in a few pumpkin seeds (bush pumpkins) and some Korean Melon seeds that were given to me by a fantastic gardener in a seed club we're in. But I didn't dare dig anything. I just made little holes with a stick.

Those with mint-phobia, don't worry. In the desert, mint cannot take over your beds. They are limited by the extreme dryness and easy to keep in bounds with watering methods.

I am most excited about the lemongrass. I haven't grown it before. I gave it a good haircut and the little blades are already coming up from the roots. I think it's one of my new favorite smells!

What is your favorite smell? Does it vary by season, as mine do? 

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Flowers You Can Eat

When I visit other blogs, my mind buzzes with ideas for posts. So many memories are recalled, or ideas are sparked, when reading about the lives or thinking about the thoughts of others. Today I saw so many words of wisdom, whimsy, and wit! Maybe that's what the "www" in the blog addresses meant today. Even when the subject matter was weighty, the thoughts sparkled. I even did some screenshots because some of the posts were very valuable, I felt, containing memories of the past, or strategies for improving one's life, by quieting and decluttering the mind.

Nature certainly helps me readjust my attitude. 

If you look at the photo above, in the upper right you can see a bit of my car. I just HAD to have that color, "Black Cherry Pearl." Umm-hmmm, really smart choice for a car in the desert...nope...

At the end of our block in Texas, a house had an absolutely fluorescent pink redbud. Our cattycorner neighbor had a very old, very tired redbud, too, but it had a darker tinge to its blossoms. I should have asked for a twig from that hot-pink redbud, and propagated it.

Here I have found several little "wild" redbuds, at a small medical center. Did you know that redbuds are also called "Pea Pod" trees? Their flowers are edible, as are their "pea pods" and the seeds inside. 

I think the flowers would look pretty in a salad! Or atop some guacamole. 

I have noticed that with most "edible" flowers, you would not want to have seconds...maybe they are acquired tastes...nasturtiums and violets included, although I used to love "sugaring" violets and putting them on cakes. Oxalis (rabbit grass) flowers are delightful, if you love sour things!

But...it is Spring Break here, and so the school is shut, and I am busy having the old-lady version of a slumber party. My slumber party involves actual slumbering! I stay up late to catch up on the blogs and search for new ones, look at stitching and crafting videos on YouTube, and make myself a cup of decaf coffee to enjoy. Then I stitch while "watching" some British mystery or documentary about ancient times, or read a favorite book. I am re-reading "A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece." I am sure someone would want to "cancel" Miss Breece today, and her book would have never been written. But I love it, not only for the lore, but because it is exceedingly interesting, especially when paired with the copious footnotes her great-neice included in the book. What an incredible saga of an older lady in the frozen frontier!

As the clock ticks on, I almost feel giddy that I can read as much as I want! When I get sleepy during my "slumber party," I doze a bit, then awaken and read some more, or even stitch a bit more, then snooze again. It is so delightful to know I can sleep and awaken naturally, with no intrusive alarm.

Do you have your alarm set to a pleasant sound, or to something that will startle you awake? I have a sweet alarm of twittering birds. 

As always, thank'ee for stopping by.

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Early Spring Blossoms Abounding

I am somber today, thinking of several new blog friends who are undergoing trials and tribulations. They are good people, and it seems so unfair that they have these burdens on them. But it is as St. Paul said: "Who can know the mind of God?" 

Some bloggers are also right in the danger area of the bad storms and tornadoes we are having. "Tornado Alley" has shifted since I was young; many in Eastern states have been in peril.

Back in autumn, I predicted a severe spring, with winter hanging on. The signs were there.

My mind is all over the place in this post. Just a little tired, I guess.

In gardening news: The bottlebrush trees that I thought were dead have poked up some little new branches from the roots. In fact, it seems all of the plants I thought were gone, are not. I gave the courtyard a good soaking when I got home from work.

The strangest garden happening is that the winecup is putting up yellow buds. These are deep magenta blooms, thus the name, winecup! What is happening, with these yellow-petalled buds? The leaves are deep green!

I hope that near or far, these blooms bring a little bit of sweetness to your day.

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Free Printable "Love, the Easter Bunny" Tags

Maybe someone with a little one could use a tag or two "from" the Easter Bunny. 

I am from a very large family. There were so many children that each child was able to dye only one or two eggs each. It was so disappointing if you created a "bomb" egg. That's the dull army-green/gray egg you get if you put the egg into too many colors of dye.

As always, remember that Google Blogger compresses large files, causing them to print the wrong size or too grainy. Use this LINK <--- to download the original-sized file from the Google cloud.

Thank'ee for stopping by.

Kind regards,

Olde Dame Holly

Happy St. Paddy's Day

When St. Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland, I think I know where they went...

These signs are prevalent in our parks and museum areas! This one is in front of a playground.

We always must "watch where you step" here, especially in spring when the warmth enlivens the snakes. One county over is the rattlesnake-bite capital of the world, and we have plenty here, too. Of course, they are just living their little snakey lives, so I wish them no harm!

Happy St. Pat's Day! I will wear green today for sure, begorrah! 

An Unusual Perk and Fabric Names

Oh dear, posting from home when I have a new job. I woke up sick and I am never sick with colds! Very odd! I suspect too much stress in a row, or something that is more dust-related than germ-related, because I do always get puny when we have big dust storms. I'm hoping if I rest all day I will be able to go in tomorrow. 

One of the parents at the school where I'm now working does something very nice for the students and staff. Every two weeks, he has a semi drive up to deliver big USDA "Farmers to Families" food boxes. When I interviewed, it was "box day" and they insisted I take one of the boxes home. 

It was so heavy someone carried it to my car for me.

Inside the box was a half-gallon of milk, a bag of apples, a bag of oranges, a sack of potatoes (notice some things we say are in bags and some in sacks and actually it all looks like plastic bags!), four big containers of sour cream, two big onions, a 2-pound brick of American cheese, and a five-pound bag of cooked chicken fajita strips. It all comes frozen solid, so that it will last the day before dismissal.

Well, I'm not proud, so I was happy to get this food box! I have already had a sandwich of the fajita meat and some apples. This is going to save me some  money, always good when one is on a budget. 

And speaking of sacks and bags, I would love to see more foods packaged in actual cloth bags, and see the rise of needlework again! Instead of buying dish towels, the cloth bags could be cut up and made into them. Ditto for coasters, hot pads, soap bags, braided cloth strips for rope, and more! But I think that's just a dream in this modern world. I doubt the tenets of the old home-ec classes or the modern "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra will get much traction in the age of Walmart and Dollar Tree, and the age where homemaking has been made very difficult to choose as a career, not that I don't appreciate those stores. 

While I'm just resting today, I am going to try to make a hot-pad from a cloth sack I saved from some Christmas cookies. The cookies came in a little cloth sack, very nice heavy cotton, almost "cotton duck." Anyone else remember the names of fabrics? Satin, sateen, duck, canvas, gingham, dotted Swiss, batiste, was there hopsack? My memory is going, anyone have more?

Spring Zephers in Weather and Work

First off, I finally finished stitching up a "mirror image" of my "Jumpin' for Joy" cross stitch chart, using  an alternate "colorway," as they say. Of course, I finished it as...another pincushion! I backed it with a woven gingham, in small black and tan checks. I don't think I'll do that again because gingham has too much "give" and it made it cattywampus. 

That sprig of juniper behind the pinkeep is from the church. The new growth froze and dried out, giving it a unique chartreuse color. The other dry sprigs I have are much darker.

Today we had dust storms all day, with winds gusting to 50 mph, and all our warm temps went *poof*, with the low nearly freezing.

But the breeze blew in some changes. I didn't like my new job. At all. I resigned Friday morning, made some calls, had an interview at a nice school at 4:30, and was offered a teaching job on the spot, second grade. But I don't want to teach again. Not this semester, anyway. I had heard the secretary was leaving. I want to be the school secretary. I start on Monday!

Half the pay, but twice the fun! 

We went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate, and since our town just went into the "yellow" zone, we could eat inside. But outside, there are several dozen purple-leafed plums blooming so I took some more photos. I'm afraid the wind is whipping off many of the petals and soon they will be bare.

Hoping all my blog buddies are doing well this weekend.

Quick Like A Bunny: Hello SpRiNg

How quickly it is happening, earlier than last year despite the harsh winter storms most of the country experienced!

Already the iris at the Gadsden Museum in "Old Mesilla" are blooming! 

Just a "quick like a bunny" hello. Oh, full time work is tough on this old bird. Dear, dear. The co-workers (61 of them) are lovely, but the work itself, oh it is awful. The nature of it is awful. They cannot keep anyone in this position, and I can see why. I will just say I have to deal with human misery every moment of the workday. And see terrible, terrible photos of injuries, hear the cries of mothers and grandmothers daily, over Zoom and speakerphones, of all things. Not a single duty is as described. Maybe if they told the nature of the job, no one would take it. 

But, onward. I had a college roommate who would say, "Onward and upward!" She thought it hilarious, I took it at face value. Onward in life, and upward towards Heaven, hopefully! 

Hope to stop by the blogs tonight. I have been coming home, skipping dinner, cleaning up, trying to play with the animals for a few minutes, and then to bed. I am exhausted by 8 p.m.! These old bones.

Kind regards,

Holly, The Merry Olde Dame