A Living Tribute

We were told on Tuesday, by a grandson of one of our former Presidents, that his grandfather (who has been in hospice care for around a year and a half) has only days or weeks left. We are getting other messages about his health, but it's good to pay tribute while a great man is still alive.

This is a post I wrote on President Jimmy Carter in 2010, when I visited his birthplace in Georgia.  Now, Mr. Carter is 99. He is our longest lived ex- President.  He was a good man.

Mr. Carter still lives outside Americus, Georgia in a modest house on a family compound. He has been in hospice care for the past 15 months. He taught Sunday school until 2020, when he had to stop during the pandemic.  He worked with Habitat for Humanity for years, having helped build thousands of houses.

He has beat the odds (so to speak), before. In 2015, President Carter was treated for melanoma that spread into his brain. His family also has an extensive history of pancreatic cancer, the cancer that Jeopardy host Alex Trebek bravely battled before his death in 2020.

Whether or not you supported Jimmy Carter when he was President, I think you would admit that he's had quite a life of accomplishment after leaving office in 1981.  Here are some fun facts about him.

Here's my 2010 post. I've reposted it a number of times and I would like to pay tribute to him one last time.

They called him....

The Peanut President

Jimmy Carter has always fascinated me.  He came seemingly out of nowhere, seemed to have what it took to be President, but once he got into office he never succeeded.  Yet, in private life, he has succeeded beyond what may have been his wildest dreams.

What in his upbringing, what in his childhood values, what in his education made this man?

And why has this area of Georgia grown organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and others?  What here was so special?

We are visiting the Americus/Plains area to find out. In this blog entry I am concentrating on Jimmy Carter the man.

This is the house that Jimmy Carter grew up in.

Jimmy Carter grew up outside of Plains, GA in a solidly middle class family.  The actual town, which no longer exists, was called Archery.  The realities of rural life in those days created a childhood of lots of hard physical labor.  His father, loving as he was, did not believe in keeping anything on the farm that did not "pay its own way".   And this was hard farming, although the Carters were rich enough to have tenant farmers.  Still, Jimmy worked side by side with area black farmers, performing distasteful chores such as "mopping cotton".

"Miss Lillian", Jimmy's mother, was a nurse who did not turn anyone away, black or white.

Jimmy's father encouraged Jimmy to work and play alongside of the local black farmers.

The Carters grew cotton, peanuts, and sugar cane.  Student farmers still raise these crops at the homestead today.  They kept goats for meat, and mules to plow the fields.

In this windmill, is the germ of using "alternate energy".  There is nothing new about windpower.

The Plains High School the Carters attended has been closed (as part of consolidating various school districts).  This is a classroom set up the way it would have looked for Jimmy Carter in the 7th grade. Like so many famous people, Jimmy Carter credits a high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, as another great influence on his life.  In 1940 Eleanor Roosevelt invited her to the White House to honor her. 

 This is the outside of the high school.

Plains was the "Big City" for Jimmy Carter.  This is what it looked like in 2010:

Jimmy Carter lives just outside of Plains today, and when he is in town, teaches Sunday School at his church.  This is Jimmy Carter's "Church Home".

When we had first planned our trip, Mr. Carter was not supposed to be in town but this has since changed. We weren't able to change our plans but it certainly would have been interesting.

END OF 2010 POST.     Back to the present.

We never did return to the Plains, Georgia area.

So, Mr. Carter - may you have a pain free transition into wherever we go at the end of our times on Earth, whether it is soon or still to come later.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day May 2024 #WordlessWednesday

Another year has passed, and it's time for a May Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  It's also time for Wordless Wednesday.

Every 15th of the month, flower gardeners from all over the world gather, thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and celebrate what is blooming in their houses and yards.  In my zone 6a garden, May gives us so much to celebrate. 

Finally, I have so many flowers that I can't begin to show you all of them.  These pictures were taken yesterday on a sunny day. Today, it's raining.

Itoh peonies.

Last of our tulips.

First time for us - ice plant.

My mothers day gift - a geranium basket and the one flower blooming.  It's full of buds.

We normally make our own baskets, but Home Depot did a good job with these wave pansies.  Too bad they won't last much past the beginning of summer.

Last of the lilacs.  Our white and light purple ones are past peak.  We share this bush with our next door neighbor.

Million bells.

Ornamental strawberry.  We have ones with pink blooms and one with red, in a large hanging basket that we overwinter in our garage.

Euphorbia polychroma.

I love variegated leaves and I present to you these geraniums.  Not shown, a variegated nutmeg scented geranium.

Let's switch to the back yard.

In our shady back our red trillium and a baby (barely visible).  The blue flower is from a brunnera.  The trillium flower has never fully opened - I think we've had this plant for 10 years (we bought it at a Cornell Cooperative plant sale in Ithaca, New York) and I don't know how old it was when we bought it.

We planted this paw paw tree from a pit in 2014 (the pit was from a 2013 fruit). 

It flowered for the first time last year.  It won't produce fruit because we don't have another tree, alas.

Woodland phlox, which we bought this spring from a native plants nursery near Ithaca, New York.

The Jack Frost brunnera is in its last blooming days but we have so much of it now and it even makes a good cut flower for a smallish vase. 

Last but not least, at the base of the paw paw, this white bleeding heart.

That will do it for this month, as I join with Sandee at Comedy Plus for her Wordless Wednesday.

Joining today with Carol at May Dreams Gardens for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

May We Celebrate May Farmers Market Visit

It's time for our local farmers market to move outdoors.  Let's celebrate this market from last Saturday with:

The first asparagus of the season.

Hanging baskets

 Rhubarb.  I'm not a lover of it.  Apparently, at least here I'm a minority opinion.

Spring garlic 

Finally, bidding bye to mushrooms.  This grower only grows it in the winter and first part of spring.

Recreation Park Bandstand, Binghamton, New York

Our county has four farmers markets, one of which is year round.  They have been instituting some nice programs in the last couple of years, including a monthly giveaway of $15 coupons to military veterans.  This year we are getting, for the first time in years, a Sunday market in the Binghamton park that was the setting (not filmed there, but the inspiration for, the Twilight Zone episode Walking Distance.

Does your area have a farmers market?

Let's Hear it for the Music Title Girls #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday, it's the day after Mother's Day in the United States, and, everywhere, it's time for music!

Let's introduce the Music Moves me bloggers:  We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please! Otherwise, your post may be removed, or may  be labeled "No Music".)   Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and, last but not least, me.

Every other week, we have a theme.  On alternate weeks, we can blog on any music theme we want.  Today is a free day, where we can blog about whatever music we want.  This week, we are free to blog about anything music, and I am choosing the theme of Girl/Women's Names.  I have a feeling some other of our bloggers will chose the theme of mothers, and I think this theme, in a way complements that.

I thought of this when this first song became an earworm out of nowhere, because I hadn't even heard the song recently.  Here are the Four Tops and their 1967 hit Bernadette. 

Next, artist Dion DiMucci, like me, grew up in the Bronx (a borough of New York City). This song, from 1963, was co written by Dion (whose uses his first name as his stage name.).  He is backed up by the Del-Satins.

Bonus track:  Dion also recorded this in Italian  Just between you and me I like the Italian better.  Let's enjoy a little Battle of the Languages.

I absolutely loved this song the moment it came out in August of 1973.  I associate it with riding home on the New York City subway from my summer job downtown on those hot August afternoons, before what was my subway line was air conditioned.  Here are the Rolling Stones and Angie.

Next, here is Creedence Clearwater Revival's Suzie Q. Settle in, because I've chosen the long version.  This is a cover of a Dale Hawkins song from 1957 and has been covered by many artists since.

Finally, ending this with a 25 second song which isn't about a girl but rather, a Queen.  The Beatles and "Her Majesty" from the Abbey Road album were rumored to have upset the late Queen Elizabeth II but I have read that this wasn't the case - she was amused. After all, she ended up knighting Sir Paul! This is also considered one of the first hidden tracks - it wasn't listed on the album song list.

And that's a royal wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me. 

Mothers, Lilacs, and Shadows #ShadowshotSunday

Today, May 11, is Mother's Day in the United States.

It's somewhat a tradition for me to blog about lilacs and roses (or even lilacs and geraniums) on Mother's Day.  It's also Shadowshot Sunday, brought to us by Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures, and today's photo is of a red azalea I saw yesterday while out walking.

But wait, there's more.  Permit me a walk down Memory Lane.

There are the lilacs in my yard, which share a common border with two neighbors.

When the lilacs bloom, I think of my mother, who passed away in the mid 1960's.  We did not have any lilacs in our yard.  In fact, we did not have a yard.  I grew up in a small apartment in a Bronx (part of New York City) city housing project.

My Mom did what she could.  She grew red geraniums on our most sunny windowsill, and snake plants on another windowsill.

Mom loved a talcum powder called Lilacs and Roses. This was made by a company called Lander, whose address is given as New York City but it's possible some of their products were manufactured in Binghamton, New York, where I worked for many years.  

So we were so happy when we bought a house back in the 1980's here in the Triple Cities of the Southern Tier of New York.  The yard, we discovered, had two lilacs.  This is one of them.  It's so tall now you would need a ladder to cut most of the flowers.  

The neighbors in this house when we moved in next door are both deceased now; one of their daughters now lives in the house after years of it being a rental.  I love that the house is still in their family.

The other neighbor's white lilac has expanded into our yard.  We don't mind at all.

And we planted the light purple lilac above ourselves.  

These are flowers that bring back memories for me.  I owe a lot to my mother, who died when I was 12, and to those in my life that became substitute mother, especially two of my aunts and the mother of my best friend.  May they all rest in peace and I can only hope they are in a place full of flowers and sunshine.

I recognize that today isn't a happy day for all women.  Not all of us knew our Moms at all. Not all of us knew our Moms for that long.  Not all of us had good Moms.  Some of us are young mothers totally exhausted from the duties that come with babies and young children. Some of us struggle to keep our families together.  Today should honor all of us.  

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, no matter your situation today.

The Fleeting Flowers of Spring

The next Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, which will be Wednesday, May 15, invites us to show the flowers blooming in our houses and yards.  But spring has been advancing so rapidly that I have flowers from just last week that are dwindling or no longer with us.  Today, I pay tribute to them.

These were taken May 4, and I decided to feature them on my blog as an early Mothers Day gift to my blog readers who are mothers, or are devoted to children in their lives in a motherly way.  Let's enjoy these today, and tell them "see you next year".

Yellow dead nettle.

Crabapple.

Pink bleeding heart (this needs to be moved to a better location).

 Wood poppy (purchased at Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson).

Finally, from May 8, the last of my tulips.

 Time seems to go faster and faster.  Tomorrow, my Mother's Day post and Shadowshot Sunday, brought to us by Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures.  If you have any shadow shots, why not join us today or tomorrow?

Wednesday, my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post.

Spring Season Sky Selection #SkywatchFriday

It's a spring Friday here in the Southern Tier of New York.  Let's celebrate by watching the sky with pictures taken in the last couple of weeks.  I love how the sky changes from day to day.

April 20, yellow and red dogwood twigs.  You only see this color before the bushes leaf out.

Of course, I'm going to sneak some flowering trees in, like this tree from May 4.

Or this cherry from May 1.  You can barely see the sky but that blue counts as sky, right?

OK, I hear you.  More sky, less flowers.  This is West Middle School in Binghamton, New York, where Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame went to school.

A sky from April 30.

Finally, the drama of May 6. We are fortunate - no great damage from wind, no tornadoes like more unfortunate parts of the United States.

Stay safe, dear readers!

Joining Yogi and other skywatchers from around the world for #SkywatchFriday.

Pink and White Parade #ThursdayTreelove

This past two or three weeks, our spring trees in the Binghamton, New York area showed off their blooms for us.  Here are some of the highlights.

West Middle School (the junior high that one Rod Serling attended) April 25.

Flowering cherry Binghamton May 1.

Pink dogwood Vestal Rail Trail May 2. (This tree is planted in memory of a young woman who died years ago from cancer.)

Flowering Kwansan cherry tree last week (they are dropping their pedals now).
 

My crabapple May 3 (its flowers are gone now, too). 

Finally, a white tree (apple?) in bloom on the Vestal Rail Trail May 4.  Such sweet memories, as we move on to lilacs and other spring delights.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove with my pink and white tree flower parade.

Red Admirals #WordlessWednesday

Saturday, spouse and I visited a combination gift/grocery store that has been open seasonally for many years in Maine, New York.  In the spring, they have a temporary greenhouse with plastic sides they sell plants from.

 There were several butterflies in there that I think were trying to get out - red admiral butterflies (Vanessa atananta - I love that name).  One posed for me against the plastic.

Another nearby one was fluttering wildly against the plastic.  I felt for it.  I didn't want to hurt it so I put my finger near it, hoping it would see it as a safe haven.  Then I would have walked with it outside.

It didn't get on my finger but it did settle on a beam and it let me take its picture.

I had to go.  I hope they found their way out.

These are American Red Admiral butterflies, incidentally, and you can find out more about them here. Some years they are common, and I'm suspecting this will be one of those years.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.