Death to Punxsutawney Phil?

Should a groundhog living in Pennsylvania receive the death penalty for failing to predict correctly if winter would end early?

Back on February 2, I blogged about the quaint custom in the United States of Groundhog Day. This custom involves having a groundhog come out of its burrow (or being dragged out) on February 2, with live TV coverage, and seeing or not seeing its shadow. Seeing the shadow means six more weeks of winter.  Not seeing the shadow means a early spring.

Guess what happened this February 2?  The chief groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, didn't see his shadow.  Early spring.  Everyone cheered.

But now, we in the Northeast United States are undergoing a different kind of Groundhog Day - one like the famous 1993 comedy with Bill Murray, where a weatherman lives the same day - Groundhog Day- over and over.

February 2 should be cold and snowy.  March 22 should be spring.  But winter dies hard here in the Northeast U.S., and....day after day....we are having dreary weather with snow or snow showers.

Finally, someone in Ohio - which isn't technically in the Northeast but we can't get too technical - had enough.  He is calling for the death penalty for Punxsutawney Phil.  And now, this has gone viral.

Pictures of Punxsutawney Phil are also appearing on Facebook, "Wanted for Fraud".

Yes, we are frustrated.  But seriously - how many of us take this groundhog seriously?  Well, even websites such as EarthSky, which gets into astronomy and weather, does:  and their studies show that Phil is right only 39% of the time.

Yup.  A respected science website did a study on Phil.

So, this blogger living in upstate New York says:  Yes, I want to see the sun.  Yes, I don't want to see any more snow. Yes, I want to see the first spring bulbs blooming.  Yes, I have a sense of humor, but there seems to be a mean streak underlying this.  It's left the realm of "cute".  We have so many other things going on that should be dominating our news.  Not this.  Yet, I must ask:

Do you think Punxsutawney Phil should be executed?

A Local Business It Wrote Me a Letter

Readers of my blog are aware that my neighborhood of Westover, along with many others in New York State, flooded in September of 2011 thanks to Tropical Storm Lee (preceded by Tropical Storm Irene, which caused its own share of grief).  Many people in our neighborhood lost their homes and moved (I believe at least 50 houses are still vacant, although I may be off a little on that figure).  My spouse and I were fortunate - we only had several thousand dollars of damage.

Not only did my neighborhood lose residents - it lost a major employer (1300 employees - the vacant building is pictured in my blog post of yesterday) which, fortunately, relocated a few miles down the road - at least for now.  And, it lost other businesses. 

We may be ready to lose still another business.  While I was on vacation we received a letter.  It was from a business called The Pharmacy and the letter begins:

"Dear Neighbor,
My name is _______ and I am the owner of THE PHARMACY, located at the corner of ______ here in Westover.  We all know that our neighborhood was devastated by the flood of September 2011.  Many of our neighbor's homes and businesses were damaged.  Many of our neighbors have moved out of the area, and of the businesses that were able to re-open, some have since closed or struggle to remain open.  I am writing you this letter in hopes that you will stop by and support a small, local business in our neighborhood.  We are a family owned business that has been serving and supporting our community..."  The letter was signed by hand.

And here I've been, using a pharmacy in a local supermarket.  The supermarket is a NY owned chain, and their building barely escaped flooding. Their employees came into my neighborhood to help when the store closed for nearly 2 days. But still....  I talk about buying local and I never even thought of this business, which is closer to my house than the supermarket is! 

Why?  Because the supermarket pharmacy is open 7 days a week. The Pharmacy is only open Monday-Friday and I work Monday-Friday.  At one time they were closing at just about the time I got home.  Apparently they are now open slightly later at night.

They are even a compounding pharmacy and "work with your doctor or veterinarian..."And, I've had problems from time to time with the supermarket pharmacy's auto refill program.

I remember seeing the employees of The Pharmacy hard at work as soon as the streets they border were reopened to traffic, pulling their ruined inventory out of the building and working, hour after hour, to restore their building.  If you've never had to salvage things after a flood you are a fortunate person. It is dirty, sometimes dangerous work. Some businesses near The Pharmacy were closed for two or or months.  The Pharmacy, as I recall, opened about 10 days after the flood, because their customers needed them.

So...I am going to switch at least some of my prescriptions.  For weekend emergencies, I will still have the supermarket pharmacy or a CVS down the road.  If I leave the supermarket, they won't miss me, although I will feel a pang - their pharmacists have helped me from time to time.

This small business needs me.   I'm happy they reached out to me.

Now I'm wondering:  who are the other hurting businesses in Westover?

Spring Things - Snowy Start to Spring

I wish this was a picture of our first day of spring here in upstate New York.

(Shell bouquet, Sanibel Shell Show, Sanibel Island Florida, March 2013, courtesy of RamblinwithAM)

No such luck.

Instead, it was 27 degrees this morning (-2.7 Celsius) with a thin layer of new snow added to the snow we got yesterday.   Everyone here is so tired of winter. Spring is only a date on the calendar.

At the flood-ruined, vacant, former BAE building in Westover, near Johnson City, NY (one of the largest wood frame structures in our country) the Bradford Pear trees are bare, and will be for some weeks yet.

At my house, an early daffodil stands, ready to bloom, and perhaps just a little surprised.  It should be fine.

All is not lost.  Many bulbs still aren't up, but I found this patch of blooming crocuses on Saturday.

Spring will come.  We were spoiled by last year's incredibly mild winter.  But thankfully, we won't win the Golden Snowball award.   I say, let Syracuse have it (again).  We are sick of winter.

Let spring come!

She's a Rebel

I'm going to camp!  And once I'm there, I will be a rebel.

The camp is Camp NaNoWriMo and it only exists online, for authors and would be authors.  Camp opens April 1 for a month, and there is another session in August.

Yes, after having pounded/bled out a 50,000 plus "novel" (which most likely will never see the editor's pen, as it was more of a mental health exercise than anything else) back in November for National Novel Writing Month, I'm coming back for more punishment.

Heaven Help Me. 

But this time, I am going to be the rebel I wanted to be back in November.  For in the NaNoWriMo world, non fiction writers (including memoir writers) are considered "rebels". You're supposed to write fiction.  Indeed, a number of fiction works, including at least one that I've read, have come out of NaNoWriMo - 30 days of insanity during which you are supposed to write 50,000 words. Just pour them out.  Editing comes later.

There are certain "permitted" genres in NaNoWriMo. If you write outside the box, you are a rebel.

In contrast, Camp NaNoWriMo is a virtual camp.  You have "cabinmates" (you don't get to pick them, either, just like in regular camp, although you can invite other campers you know.  I chose not to because I didn't bother to find out if anyone I knew was participating.).  It's calm.  You get to choose the number of words you are striving towards.  I decided on 10,000.  You get support from your cabinmates.

And....you can write in any genre.  Even in the forbidden ones.

This time, I'm going to be a rebel.

I decided to write a memoir.  Not of my experiences in our area's major flood of 2011, which I used as background for the fictional memoir I wrote in NaNoWriMo 2012.  No, this time I'm planning to write a real memoir.

I grew up in the Bronx.  My neighborhood transformed from lower middle class to slum by the time I escaped. (It still is a slum).  And then, in my 30's,  I was a city gal who decided to move to rural Arkansas.  My spouse (then, and now) came along for the ride.  Ever wonder what happens when New York City collides with Arkansas?  Or maybe I'll spend most of my time in the Bronx.  I'm a "pantser" (meaning I don't do much, if any, planning) so we'll just have to see what flows out of the laptop.

I don't know that anyone would ever want to publish my memoir.  I haven't been on drugs.  I didn't grow up during a war.  I didn't fight in a war.  My parents didn't belong to a religious cult.  I didn't grow up with the Gypsies.  I've never been to Paris.  I've never battled cancer (and, may that continue). There isn't anything that special about me that would attract a publisher.

Or is there?

I really don't care.  After all, I'm a rebel!

Reminder: It's Still Winter

I got spoiled in my week in Florida, and my couple of days in Savannah.  I especially couldn't get over seeing houseplants (here in upstate New York) being used in landscaping - such as these kalanchoes in downtown Savannah, Georgia.

 I came home to cold and snow flurries, and tonight, winter decided to stop fooling around and return.

This morning, it was 17 degrees (-8 Celsius).  It hovered around the freezing point during the afternoon, and then the snow started.  Soon, it was accumulating, with everything getting that sugar-frosted look.

 Don't be fooled, though.  It may be pretty but it is unwelcome.  We are all grumbling about having to break out the ice scrapers and the boots again.  And, we are supposed to get a changeover to freezing rain sometime later tonight. 

Why couldn't this have happened while I was in Florida?

I hope it's the "last hurrah" of winter.

Florida is so far away......

Civil War Sunday - The Irish

Today is St. Patrick's Day.  This past two weeks, many cities in the United States have celebrated their Irish heritage with St. Patrick's Day parades and parties.  Binghamton, NY (near where I live) had its parade two Saturdays ago.  Savannah, Georgia (more on them in a moment) had its huge party yesterday (anyone there awake yet?).  And then, there are the multiple stories of Irish immigrants and the Civil War.

Notre Dame's footbal team is nicknamed "The Fighting Irish". But back in the Civil War, there was another kind of Fighting Irish. There were The First Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

There were the mostly Irish crew of the doomed Civil War confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.

There were the Irish who fought in the Civil War in the "Irish Brigade".

And, in a particularly ugly episode of the Civil War, were the New York Draft Riots of July, 1863 when members of the Irish population of New York City rioted first to oppose a Civil War draft, but then turned against black residents with some 120 deaths resulting.  I plan to blog about the draft riots of my native New York City this summer.

But now, back to Savannah for a moment.  Savannah has a rich Civil War heritage, and I will be sharing that with you at a later date.  For now, one sign of St. Patrick's Day in this city that hosts the 2nd largest St. Patrick's Day celebration after New York City:

Happy St. Patrick's Day to my readers.

Did you have Irish ancestors who fought in the Civil War?

Sustainable Saturday - Strawberry Onions and Cigars

Last Saturday, I had my first experience visiting a Florida farmer's market.

It was located in historic Ybor City, the "Latin Quarter" of Tampa, Florida (a city I lived in many years ago for a couple of years) I found a Saturday farmer's market unlike any I had ever visited.

Most of the booths at the Ybor City Saturday market were not selling produce.  That surprised me a little bit - if you go into supermarkets in March, you will find produce shelves stocked with (excellent) Florida grown summer squash, strawberries, juice oranges (a word on that a little later)  and even corn.  This visitor from upstate New York thought the market would be chock full of local produce.  It wasn't.  Instead, there were a lot of craft booths, and a touch (well, more than a touch) of local flavor.

One surprise was something called strawberry onions.

The vendor explained that these freshly dug sweet onions were grown at the edge of strawberry fields. (Plant City, a major strawberry growing area, is in the same county as Tampa). We purchased two onions.  If we had known they would survive five days in our car (they did) and if we had a larger cooler, I would have purchased this woman's entire stock.  They are fantastic!

What would a Florida farmers market be without citrus?  Well, here's a little secret that hasn't changed in the almost 40 years since I've lived in Florida.  The best citrus gets imported outside of Florida.  But I tasted these, and they were nice and sweet.

How about avocados? Or mangoes? (Confession: I like Haas avocados better.  Sorry, Florida.)

I was enjoying some iced Cuban coffee when I spied the booth that made this farmer's market different from any other one I had ever been to.

Cigars!

Ybor City was founded by people in the cigar business (and annexed by Tampa a couple of years later). So, although I have my own personal opinions about tobacco use, cigars do belong in this market in the context of history.

In the next few weeks, I'd like to show you some more of Ybor City, and Tampa.

What is the most surprising thing you have found at a farmer's market?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2013 - Spring Rewound

Welcome to Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, a meme brought to us on the 15th of each month by May Dream Gardens, a garden blog from Indiana.  On the 15th of each month, garden bloggers gather from all over the world to show what is blooming in their gardens, or (for those of us in cold climes), indoors.

Because I just returned from a two week vacation, I am going to bend the rules a little.  Well, a lot.  There is nothing blooming outside in my yard right now, but I just vacationed in three places where plenty of flowers were blooming.

Spouse and I traveled by car from our home in upstate NY to northern Virginia, then by Auto Train to central Florida, then by car to Sanibel Island, FL, then to the Tampa Bay area of Florida, then Savannah, Georgia, then home.  (if you are not familiar with the geography of the United States, a map might be helpful at this point.)

Florida has a hot, humid climate in the summer, but can be quite pleasant in the winter.  Many (not all) parts of Florida rarely get frosts.  Sanibel Island is a zone 10b, a winter pleasure to this zone 5a (Binghamton, NY area) gardener. In Savannah, a zone 8b clime, you can find palmettos, but also a lot of favorite flowers: azaleas, dogwoods: but with a Southern twist.

So, this is what our vacation looked like, as told by flowers as spring and summer rewound into winter:

Beach sunflowers in Sanibel, FL;

Bougainvilleas in St. Augustine, FL;

Azalea and redbud in front of Temple Mickve Israel in Savannah;

Daffodils blooming in front of the North Carolina welcome center (Southern border) on I-77 in North Carolina.

And my yard in upstate NY?  Taken this afternoon, all that is blooming is snow and sleet.

But come indoors.  Here is my "miracle" reblooming orchid, now up to five flowers!

My Christmas cactus flowers came and went while I was gone - the dried up remnants are on the plant. But my kalanchoe - just starting to bloom last month; now look at it! (this was a gift to a seriously ill neighbor, who gave it to me a couple of years ago - and it is thriving, at least until the whiteflies get to it).

And last but not least, the impatiens I made cuttings of in the fall have bloomed a couple of times, and are now loaded with buds.  These are precious plants since a terrible downy mildew is going around and striking commercial starters down - I have to think carefully about if I want to plant them outdoors come May.  Unfortunately they don't seem to do well indoors once spring comes - I'll have to see if these need to be moved outdoors.

Next month - hopefully we'll have spring here, too.

What's blooming in your garden/house?

Time (WABC #15)

(If you are here looking for my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post, it will be forthcoming later today. I'm still on vacation today and have the luxury of TIME...)

Day 15 and the final prompt in the 15 Day Winter Author Blog Challenge asks us....

What was your biggest takeaway from participating in the Winter Author Blog Challenge? What is your plan/strategy for integrating your social media platforms? What would you recommend to a new author who’s just getting started on social media?

My response is thanks to a blog challenge that asked us to examine various forms of social media: from the well known Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, You Tube to the less commonly known Quora, Four Square and others, and analyze how we could best use them in our writing/authoring/business worlds.

My biggest takeaway is: the true meaning of social media is to give us a means to connect with other people, to share our knowledge with them, to (in turn) drink in their knowledge - and again, to connect with people.  To this end, use the social media that "calls" to you, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever.

Everything else is just a distraction.

I've treasured this 15 day challenge (although I was on vacation for almost the entire 15 days) because I was able to reconnect with bloggers from the previous Author Blog Challenge and meet up with new bloggers.  I did that mainly by commenting on their blogs, and using the WABC Facebook page.

If I was giving advice to a new author who was just getting started on social media I would say this:  Don't do what I did four years ago, which was to think about a blog and then suddenly do it spur of the moment.  All my social media efforts surrounding my blog came later, so I have a mishmash of user names and a blogging platform I am not totally happy with. (It was there, it was free, and there was a small learning curve.)

But I ended up outgrowing it and would now have a nightmare in trying to move four years of blog posts and photographs.

My plans for integrating? I could use the excuse that this is not a business for me, and I work full time at another job (plus I'm a part time caregiver for an elderly in law and my developmentally disabled brother in law) - right now I don't have the luxury of TIME.  Or, I could find the time. I could examine how I fritter and waste the time in an offhand way, to paraphrase Pink Floyd's Time (oh,how I love this song....)

My suggestion:  Take your TIME.  Before you start out, TIME is your friend.

If you are starting out: please give it more thought than I did. Take your TIME to plan. Give your blog, your Twitter name, your other account names - the same name. (Thank you, Jo Michaels, for this suggestion).  Call it "your brand", if you will. 

Read up! There are many blogs which will help you "learn how to blog/learn how to write". Besides Jo Michaels above, could I recommend Merlene Fawdry, Robert Chazz Chute (an author who has a talent for titles that will amaze you), Tia Bach, and...well, there are so many others.  I don't have the room to list all of my mentors, those people who freely share their knowledge.

Use a platform you will not outgrow right away.  (How do you learn that? Join a challenge!) and find out...)

And, finally, join a challenge.  Join more than one!  You will get into the habit of daily blogging (a must, I feel, at least when you start out) and you will read other blogs, and comment on them - something I do not do enough of.  You will quickly see what works and what doesn't.  I would also suggest a November event, NaNoWriMo, where you will write 50,000 words in 30 days. It's crazy. It's insane. And it will amaze you with the support. (I'm thinking about Camp NaNoWriMo in April because I can actually write non-fiction, but haven't decided yet.)

Do not "fritter and waste the moments in an offhand way".  Don't wait until tomorrow.  Seize today!

Author Blog Challenge - A Flock of Seagull

I am pre-writing this post as I will be on the road today, returning to my home in upstate New York from a vacation in Florida and Georgia.

I was part of a 15 Day Author Blog Challenge during this time, but didn't have time for much participation.  But, I did learn some lessons.  One didn't come from the Challenge.

Yesterday a new Pope was elected.  Before that happened, a seagull that perched on the chimney where the ballot smoke would appear became famous.  The gull was caught on "camera" - the voting-smoke cam, to be exact.

Reporters speculated on the symbolism.  Fake Twitter accounts were set up.

And then, white smoke flowed out of the chimney, and the seagull was forgotten.  Old news.

How did this relate to the Author Blog Challenge?

The 15 Day Author Blog Challenge asked us to explore types of social media most of us we are familiar with:  Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, GoodReads, Pinterest - and less well known sites - FourSquare, Quora, and Ning, among others.

It could be because most of my life took place before the Internet came into its current state of being, but I find social media to be a huge time-suck.  In other words, there are only so many hours in a day, and using social media is like falling into a hole - a hole without a bottom.  

Authors can use social media - but, if they are not careful, social media will use them.

Anyone who uses social media for business (in my opinion) needs to be strong, needs to stay focused and to ignore (literary expression) the siren call of the Internet.  Authors need to weigh carefully the time spent vs. the return in time.

Some users hit the big time:  the founders of the Huffington Post and Boing Boing, the woman who founded the blog Bakerella,  and the people whose blogs have led to book contracts and even movies.  But for too many of us, we will never hit that big time. Not that we shouldn't try, but we should be aware of the risks.

I'm still trying to analyze how to use social media but, thanks to this Challenge, I now have the experiences of different authors and others to guide me.  Thank you, all participants in the WABC!

Social media is not "bad". But, it should just be another tool in the utility belt of the author.

Otherwise, authors may end up like a certain seagull living in the Vatican - finding that the world has moved on, and wondering what the heck happened.

Have you had success with your writing or business, and use of social media?

Winter Wednesday - Filling in a Hole

In 2006, I rode the Auto Train for the first time. I traveled with my family from northern Virginia to just north of Orlando, Florida one August.  (I've made this train trip south three times now, the most recent trip being a week and a half ago.) 

I've never slept well on the Auto Train, and something happened on that first trip that has become a tradition.

I woke up from a fitful sleep to realize we were traveling through a city.  We were passing under an Interstate, and some large billboards were visible.  One billboard, lit up, advertised "The Crab Shack. Tybee Island."

I didn't have Internet access and had never heard of Tybee Island. But I researched it as soon as I could and found it was an island close to Savannah, Georgia.

The second trip, 2009.  I woke up from a fitful sleep, and as my spouse softly snored next to me, I peeked out of the window and saw - the very same sign.

It was a sign, that sign!  I was being told to eat at the Crab Shack.  We were supposed to drive through Savannah on the way home but had car trouble, and had to take the Auto Train home.  We swore we would visit Savannah and we did (two years ago) but we never got to eat at the Crab Shack.

This trip, earlier in March, we both woke up as we were traveling through Savannah, and my spouse spotted the sign even before I did.  Marveling at this huge (to our sleep-bleary eyes) sign, we decided that yes, we would go to the Crab Shack.  We would fill in this hole in our travels.

So yesterday, we filled in the hole.

From the outside, it looks like a "tourist trap".  But the food (noting I do not get compensated for this or any other review) was good.

Inside, I noticed the restaurant had open walls to the outside - with only a screen between diners and the great outdoors.  If only I could live in a place like that, said my winter-starved inner voice.

Not so fast, said reality, as I saw movement outside the screened in wall.  Can you see what I saw?

After lunch we went outside, to see some of the 78 alligators the Crab Shack owns. These are all domestic, as in "born in captivity".  The Shack does not tolerate any abuse of the gators by customers, but they were easily accessible (if someone dared) and I hope they have good lives.

Up close, they almost look fake - but they certainly were not fake.

So ends my vacation.  Today, I head back home to the Northland, the cold, and - maybe in a few days - maybe even another snowstorm.

This is my last Winter Wednesday post until next December.  Next week begins my Spring Things feature.

The Exercisers Sleep Tonight

A water aerobics aqua exercise class at the local Y.  Forgot the term "water aerobics" is out.  Aqua exercise is in.

The instructor puts on music.  Usually, she uses something modern, at a low volume.  However, tonight, she puts on a CD of "oldies".  Oldies, as in do-wop and rock of the 50's and early 60's.  And, she puts it on loud enough to listen to.

She has the attention of everyone in the pool, especially the pool, as "Rock Around the Clock" echoes off the walls of the pool area.


Next comes Lloyd Price's (You've Got) Personality.

The senior start to sing the chorus.  "Personality"...."Personality", as they exercise.  Soon, even the younger exercisers are chanting "Personality....Personality...."

  Tequila!

Tutti Frutti comes next.  Who says seniors can't rock out?

And for the grand finale,

Through the natatorium, echoes "a whim a weh, a whim a weh....." as we all join in singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens.

Good Reading on GoodReads

It is Day 11 of the 15 day Author Blog Challenge. Since I must prewrite this on day10, you will be reading my day 10 post on day 11- a day late. Confused yet?

On Day 10 of the Author Blog Challenge the prompt was:
Are you on GoodReads? It seems a pretty obvious place for authors to hang out, yet I’m not sure authors are using it to quite the maximal benefit. If you are on GoodReads, how often do you visit/use the site? How often do you update your reading list? What other kinds of things do you post? Are you finding yourself using it the way social media was intended: to create a community? If you are NOT on GoodReads, have you made a deliberate choice to skip it? What other mechanisms do you utilize for meeting other readers/writers/authors? How else could you begin to create your very own community?

I am on GoodReads.  But, I rarely update.

Why?

I like to browse around in my local library.  Most of what I read is books in the new book (new to the library, that is) shelves that catch my eye.  Sometimes I'll devour the book in a couple of sittings.  Sometimes it will sit for most of the three week period my library allows you to take books out for, and then "suddenly" I'll get an urge to read it. Sometimes, time's up and I haven't even cracked the book.  Back to the library it goes.

Other times, I read 3 or 4 books at the same time.

So, enough times, by the time I think about getting onto GoodReads, I'm done.  So, unless I have a lot of spare time, I don't update my statuses.

And then, I just don't have the normal, everyday statuses, and GoodReads doesn't have anything for me to explain my true statuses with.

For example, the books on my current profile:

Want to read:  The Bird, by Jo Michaels.  I won this in a contest Jo put on (thanks, Jo!), and last Saturday, planned to read it on the Auto Train.  But when I opened my Kindle app on my iPhone in the train station The Bird had flown! Seriously, the Kindle app had updated and the book (which I KNOW FOR A FACT WAS THERE) is now missing.  So seems to be the email where Jo sent me the file.  Sigh.....no status button for "book mysteriously disappeared from my Kindle and it isn't listed on my Kindle page on Amazon, either.  Too embarrassed to contact author because it would show what a cheapskate I am since I really should buy it from her."

Reading:  Outpost, by Ann Aguirre. It is a great book, but I had to return it before I was done, and haven't found it since.  There is no button for "I had to return it to the library before I could finish it." (same thing with another book, The Age of Miracles...which, by the way, would deserve 10 stars if I could give that many.)

Another "currently reading" book, The Help - I gave up on months ago and have no intention of ever going back to it. But, I can't figure out how to delete it.

Finally there is no status button for "I get most of my books from the library because my husband will divorce me if I bring in one more book into the house, thereby causing the house to collapse into itself due to all the weight of the 1,249,556 books I already own, including the Edgar Rice Burroughs books my Mom bought me in 1963 when I had a broken leg, that would crumble into dust if I look at them but I can't bear to get rid of those remnants of my childhood."

So...that's my GoodReads story.

What's yours?

Civil War Sunday - Led Zepplin and the Civil War

I admit....this one is offbeat. 

 
What does a former British rock group that formed in 1968 and disbanded many years ago have to do with the U.S. Civil War?

Two weeks ago, when I was researching my Civil War Sunday blog post, I visited a couple of newspaper and magazine websites and read some Civil War related articles.

Have you ever noticed what happens when someone writes an article about the United States Civil War (or any other subject), posts it online and allows comments on the article?

Allowing people to comment on newspaper and magazine articles online is a form of social media I could normally do without.  It's one I find distracting and not as successful as some other social media ideas.  For some reason, when people comment on articles, it very quickly degrades into a middle school type of insult/discussion with little substance.  In my opinion, who needs it?  (In rare instances, you do find clever discussions.)

When you read the comments on Civil War articles, it quickly becomes obvious that we, the American people, are still fighting the Civil War that officially ended in 1865.  Usually, within 5 or 6 coments, the posting people, North vs. South, are going at it with a ferocity that makes you wonder if this war, 152 years old in our hearts and minds, will ever end.

But this time, in one of the comment sections, there was a difference.

I don't remember how, but in the midst of Civil War cyber battle someone mentioned the former rock group Led Zepplin.  Suddenly, tone of the entire discussion changed.  Everyone propelled themselves back into the present when we live in (one would hope) a united country.  Suddenly, the contestants in the commenting battle were talking about the Kennedy Honors tribute to Led Zepplin in December of 2012.  These honors, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, were attended by many celebrities, including the President of the United States and his wife.

Every one of the battlers united in their love of Led Zepplin.  They were all fans of this former rock group.  They had all listened to the concert honoring them.  They commented on how the members of the group, up in the audience, got teary eyed over the performance of their music by other famous musicians.  They marveled at the President, who did everything short of getting up and dancing to one of their songs.

Eventually, the commenters returned to battling over a war that's been over on paper for 148 years.  But for a few minutes, the Civil War was forgotten.  They were united.

Do you ever read the comments under online newspaper and magazine articles? Do you think it is a practice that adds value to any article?

Sustainable Saturday - ECHO ECHO

So many people in our world hungry...sick...what can be done to improve these lives?

Every state in our United States has an Extension Service.  To quote from the national website:

"These offices are staffed by one or more experts who provide useful, practical, and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers, and others in rural areas and communities of all sizes."

Extension services are normally headquartered in a "land grant" college.  For example, in my native New York State, we have the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service. 

But what happens when you go overseas, especially into countries that are commonly called "third world nations"?  What agency acts as their extension service?

Earlier this week, while in North Ft. Myers, FL, my spouse and I visited the ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) demonstration farms. They style themselves as being an "extension service to the world". While a Christian organization, they serve all peoples regardless of religious belief.  They bring agricultural knowledge to poor countries to help them fight hunger and disease, and work with appropriate technologies - those that can be built with native materials or other materials abundant in the area - that are both ingenious and sustainable.

ECHO trains volunteers and then the volunteers go forth (privately funded) to help the world.

While the tropical demonstration farms left me sorry I can not grow avocados and mangoes in upstate New York, it was the urban demonstration farm that especially caught my eye.

These are mustard greens.  They are being grown in raised beds, with a mulch of used carpet (hidden under the grass/hay mulch).  Note the barrels that act as part of a drip irrigation system, and also tires (in the background) being used as planters.

Don't have much ground?  No problem.  Here, bags of compost/manure are being readied as a type of "grow bag".

In this area of the demonstration "wick garden", the mustard greens are being grown with a carpet mulch covered in corn cobs.  To quote from ECHO's literature on wick gardening:

"The wick garden was developed to enable people to have exceptionally shallow bed gardens without the need to water several times each day..You are most likely to think of a candle or lantern when you think of a wick, where kerosene or melted wax are pulled by capillary action up the wick from the pool of liquid below. 
Water is likewise moved by capillary action if a cloth or fiber wick is placed in it.
The wick for the garden can be any kind of cloth.  For example the wick might be an old blanket, pieces cut from old clothing, a piece of carpet or a special fabric made for this purpose that is used in greenhouses to keep the soil in small pots moist until they are ready for sale. "

Nothing fancy, nothing expensive - but it works.

The man who led our tour was originally from the Philippines. He was a retired surgeon, and was following his passion and religious beliefs in his retirement.  His name is Vic, and I want to thank Vic for the wealth of information he gave us on our tour.

There was a lot more to ECHO than the urban garden and I will be blogging more about the other demonstration gardens at a later time.

Sanibel Shell Show Part 2

Today, I reluctantly (read: kicking and screaming) leave Sanibel Island. I look forward to meeting a relative and a fellow blogger in another part of Florida, but am so sorry to leave the place I call "paradise".

It is sobering to realize that the last time I was in Sanibel, I was still using a film camera.  Film, as in "that stuff you use to have to load into cameras and then send away to get developed." More recently, you could take it to a store for 1 hour developing but you had to be so careful about the pictures you took, because film cost money. And developing cost money!  Sometimes, the film (which had to be loaded into the camera) didn't work right, either.

Once again, nostalgia isn't all it is cracked up to be.  Why did I cling to film so long? 

The Sanibel Shell Show, on Sanibel Island in Florida, continues today and tomorrow.  What seemed like thousands of people crowded into a small community center to view gems of shell art - all taking pictures as fast as they could.  If some of these pictures seem blurry, please know I had a lot of competition.

This exhibit was one of my favorites.  It was called "An Ostrich Easter Egg" and it was said to be inspired by Fabergé.

This is another view of the exquisite lid.

This is another one of the shell bouquets I admired so much.

Not all the exhibits were serious.  An artist from Brooklyn displayed this pirate statue.

Does your area have a special art form you are proud of?

Sanibel Shell Show Part 1

It took four years, but we finally made it back to Sanibel Island, Florida, land of some of the best shelling in the world.  Everyone has their vision of paradise.

Sanibel is my vision of paradise.  At least, Sanibel in March.  It's been a cool March in Florida this year but I don't care - there is green, and there is no snow. 

July would be a different story. 

Many other people agree with me about the vision of paradise.  Especially if you love sea shells.

Once a year, on the first weekend in March, shell artists from all over the world gather to display their art in a juried art show.

Amateurs and professionals compete in their own categories.

The amazing part is - it only costs $5 to get in. The admission is good for all three days of the festival, and they even give you a small baggie of shells as a "thank you" for attending.  Best of all, the ticket also gives you admission to a shell museum.

There is an outdoor shell show that benefits the community, and that part is free of charge.  There is a live shell exhibit run by 6th graders of the local school, and also educational displays.

This is some of what you will see for your $5.00.  If you are within driving distance of Sanibel, the show continues tomorrow and Saturday.

Is Sanibel worth traveling 1300 miles to see?  Yes it is, for a lot of reasons - and the Shell Show is a bonus.

Several artists competed in creating shell plants.  This is a shell carnivorous plant.  Don't touch!

This orchid is safe from my orchid black thumb.

And finally, an award winning centerpiece, made with natural material and broken crockery.  I wonder what story the crockery has to tell.  Was it salvaged?

A special catagory was an art form called the "sailor's valentine". I will blog more about that later this month, as it deserves its own series of posts.

Tomorrow - more highlights of the Sanibel Shell Show.

Winter Wednesday - We Came From the Land of Ice and Snow

Blue skies? Sunshine?  Could I be blogging from my home in upstate New York?

I'm not.  I am in warm, sunny, Florida. (Although this morning, a cold front is coming through and it is cloudy and windy.) Warm, as in yesterday's high of 70. (21 degrees Celsius). I am soaking in every last one of those little degrees.  Not one will escape.

It is GREEN outside, as in actual, growing plants, blooming.  Birds are singing.  Insects are chirping. Did I mention that there are flowers outside?

The winter storm that is hitting the mid-Atlantic right now with up to two feet of snow expected in areas came through about 20 minutes ago with a whimper of wind and a sprinkle of shower.

Let me show you some of the flowers near where I am staying:

Bird of Paradise flower. (this plant is related to the banana, by the way).  The plant, by the way, is named after a son of a Russian Czar.

I am not 100% positive, but I think this is a spider lily.

Coral Bean (a native; picture taken at a native plant nursery).

And finally, the beach sunflower (Helianthus debilis), which is commonly found on the edge of - well, beaches.  It is useful for dune stabilization, besides being pretty.

It's wonderful to be able to blog about flowers at the beginning of March!  Next Wednesday, if I can get ID's, I will post some pictures of Florida wildflowers.

And in case you are ready to throw darts at my picture, oh northern friends - we are expected to have near record cold tonight, with a low of 43 degrees.

Is it warm where you are?  Or are you still firmly in winter's embrace? (alas, I will be returning next week to upstate's grey skies and snow after this winter's break.)

Pining for Pinning - Winter Author Blog Challenge #5

I am up before dawn, this 5th day of the 15 Day Winter Author Blog Challenge.  Instead of heading to Pinterest, I am blogging about it today.  Our prompt is:

One of the newest and fastest growing social media platforms is Pinterest? Have you jumped onboard? What kinds of images do (or could) you post that are related to your book or the topic of your book? What other kinds of images do you post? Are you linking each post back to your blog, website, or Amazon page? IF YOU’RE NOT USING Pinterest, what’s holding you back? Take a look at book marketer extraordinaire John Kremer’s Pinterest Boards. After perusing them, how MIGHT you use Pinterest to brand yourself and your book? Is it something you’re considering?

I love Pinterest. Why?

I am a visual person.  Photography is an important part of my telling of the story of my life.  So, when Pinterest came along, it was a natural for me to join. (Here is my Pinterest home page).  Pinterest is where my blogging and my "me" intersect.

First, some quick terminology for Pinterest newbies.  "Boards" are the places where you put visual images.  You can organize them however you want. I have boards for gardening, the United States Civil War, crocheting, wildflowers, birds, autism, sunsets, books I feel are worth reading, and favorite recipes.

"Pinning" is the art of capturing a visual image with a Pinterest tool, and placing it on one of your boards.

You can search, and can follow one board, or all boards, of a given person whose pins you like. You can put up your own pins, repin, like a pin, and comment on someone's pin.

Pinterest is ideal for planning weddings (visual!), planning dinner (visual!), selling crafts (visual!) and yes, branding your books (visual! Why else would books have cover art?).  But, so far, I have not used the power of Pinterest to promote my blog the way I should.

I pin photos from my blog, but they are not organized in one area. My photos are all original work: flowers, other nature photos, gardening, Civil War related, farmers market related. Photos here and there of my crochet projects.  And, when I travel, sunsets.

 I have a "Blogging" board but I do not have pinning buttons on my blog, because (as of now) my blogging platform and Pinterest do not seem to "play together well". When I see Pin share buttons on Wordpress, I get frustrated that I can't have those, too.  Meantime, my blog does not have a clear pinning policy posted.  Oops! (I will need to change that).

I can easily get lost on Pinterest, which is another problem for me. I try to verify images I use, and that is time consuming.  Many people will pin photos from Google or Bing searches, for example, which I refuse to do.  If an image comes from a blog, I check the blog to make sure the blogger is allowing pinning.   Authors should be concerned that images that belong to them might be pinned without permission or full credit.  Photographers already have that problem, big time.

Not much content?  Don't pin regularly?  Don't bother.  Truthfully, I don't tend to follow people that just have 5 or 6 scattered pins on their entire account.  Pinning is something you either love or don't love.  There is no in between. It sounds harsh, but on Pinterest, you MUST be authentic.  You don't have to pin daily, but you do need to provide fresh content to your fans.

And please, don't spam! Spamming is ruining Pinterest, the same as it has ruined some other forms of social media.  Sad.

I also feel if an author doesn't share a bit of his or her interests on a board, people will lose interest right away.  Author A promoting books? Meh. (sorry.) Author A promoting book, posting favorite recipes, or showing us his/her hometown, or his/her hobbies?  A winner.  Guess whose boards I will be following?

Do you use Pinterest?  I look forward to exploring some of your boards.

Across the Universe (Sort of)

Tonight, where we are vacationing, people gathered and watched the sun setting.

It is so different here from where I live in upstate New York.  It is still winter here, but the skies are so blue.  It is a blue that hurts the eyes but makes my winter-weary spirit sour. There is green everywhere. Flowers are blooming. (More than flowers are blooming - which will mean a post about that later in the week.)

We watched the sun go down.  I took this picture at the very moment the sun disappeared along the horizon, as waves crashed in.

All things come to an end.

Later we looked at the stars.  We have so much ambient light where we live.  Here, we looked up at the stars and saw them, so bright.  We even saw the Milky Way.  We identified Orion, Cassiopeia, and other constellations.

There is a tradition among some peoples that when someone dies, the spirit of that person takes his or place in the stars.

If that is true, I know one of the new stars tonight.  Early this morning, my friend's mother, the woman I blogged about Saturday, took her last journey and crossed over to the place we will all go to eventually.  She was 94.


Her story is over, and I bid her farewell.

Author Blog Challenge #4 - Why I Can't Link on LinkedIn

Welcome to Day 4 of the 15 Day Blog Challenge for Authors.  I am writing two posts today, one for the challenge and one because - well, you'll see it when I post it.  And, concerning the post I will be making later tonight, I want to thank everyone who commented, or otherwise contacted me, concerning my Saturday post.  The blogging community is wonderful! 

Meanwhile, today's prompt is, in part:

"Are you using LinkedIn to promote yourself as an author? Does your professional profile include or feature your writing? What is the best connection you’ve made through your involvement on LinkedIn? With whom would you still like to connect? Might LinkedIn be a good vehicle for making such a connection? What is your biggest question, frustration, or suggestion regarding LinkedIn?"

This one is hard.

I am on LinkedIn, but my career is not connected at all with my blogging.  So, no, I do not promote myself as an author on LinkedIn - nor do I mention my blogging.  For reasons I will not go into here,  I do not discuss my job on social media. My LinkedIn account is only for people I connect with due to my day career.

It's not that what I do for a living is such a deep dark secret (nor am I in the witness protection program, nor do I work for the FBI, the IRS or the CIA.  No, nothing that fascinating/exciting/dangerous!)It's just how I have to manage things for right now.

So, what happens if I do become an author one day?  I don't know if I can have two separate LinkedIn profiles.  That might be one frustration.   Because, I wouldn't mind connecting with other writers.  I just don't know how to go about it on LinkedIn.

So, I will not be including a link to my LinkedIn profile here.  And, unless you are in my field...I regretfully will not connect with you on LinkedIn.

As for who I would love to connect in on LinkedIn: if I ever become an author I have a long list:  Harry Turtledove, for starters.

Wouldn't it be so wonderful if some of my favorite authors considered me "equal" enough to connect with on LinkedIn?  Here are some others I would love to LinkedIn with:
 Scott Westerfeld.  
Jonathan Maberry.
And, Susan Beth Pfeffer.

And, of course, all my readers, because you are the best.

I'm just sorry I can't do it yet.  Unless you know how I can have two profiles!

Civil War Sunday - What If Social Media Had Existed During the Civil War?

I love historical "what if modern ___ was around during (some other point in history)" as long as they are done well.  They help people grow in their understanding and love of history if they can frame something that happened in another time and place within the context of their own lives and culture.  As long as it is done with accuracy, I think there is a place for something like what I am about to describe.

Yesterday and today, in the 15 Day Author Blog Challenge I am participating in, the prompts involved if we, as bloggers, have a Facebook fan page for our blog and if we tweet.  (I'll answer that for this blog at the end of this post.)

So I got to thinking:  what if social media had been around during the United States Civil War?

Various satirists have done article or books on the subject of "what would have happened if Facebook had been around for _____" 

So, I thought about it some more.  Had anyone actually set up parody or serious "what if" accounts on the real Facebook or Twitter for Civil War historical figures?

Apparently, there is at least one Twitter account for the Confederate General Robert E. Lee (not kept up for very long) and one for Union General U.S. Grant, which is being kept up.  Robert E. Lee has a Facebook "public figure" page, which is not the same as a "fan page" (I don't think, anyway).  The links earlier in this paragraph are what I found out in a brief search.  You may discover something unique (or not) if you look - who knows!

As far as my own Facebook and Twitter accounts for this blog,if you are interested:

RamblinWithAM has a Facebook Fan Page.  I use it mainly to post links to my blog (not every day, but usually) and I also post articles or posts from other blogs that fit into some of the themes I discuss in my blogs - farmers markets, local food, gardening, the Civl War, and autism, for example.  I find I am using Facebook less and less - and I use it mainly to keep in touch with far flung relatives plus some game playing.  It excels at visual content. 

I have a Twitter account under @RamblinGarden.  I do not automatically follow back anyone who follows me, nor do I expect anyone I follow to follow me back.  I use Twitter mainly as a way to keep track of breaking news, which I have found it excels at. I usually tweet my daily blog posts and also retweet tweets that interest me.

It would have been interesting to know if any actual Civil War figures would have utilized Facebook or Twitter (or You Tube, as another example of social media) if they had been around 152 years ago.  Do you have any opinions about that?

Unplugged - Winter Author Blog Challenge #2

I am pre-writing this post because I am going to be out of the house before sunrise.

Today I embark on a journey.   I leave on a vacation just as my best friend's mother enters the last part of her journey on Earth.  She is under hospice care.  My friend, meantime can't be with her because her husband was just diagnosed with cancer.  The first indication of his cancer came 2 1/2 weeks after her oncologist told my friend of 50 years that she was in remission from her cancer.  Her mother lives a couple of hours from her.

And now, I am leaving her, because for part of my trip, I will probably be out of email and cell phone range.

Thanks to social media, we take being connected for granted.

On Facebook, we can share (if we want) the most minute details of our lives.  Of course, most of us don't - thank heavens.

On Twitter, if my phone was near a tower, I could tweet my entire journey.  But again, too much information?

Sometimes, quantity just isn't quality.

Why now, of all times, am I unplugging myself?

On my blog, though, I can reveal my feelings.  My writing isn't transitory, the way it would be on Facebook or Twitter.  Because my friend reads my blog, she will know that I will be thinking of her for the entire journey.  It will be like writing an electronic letter to my friend.

Her Mom was like a mother to me at times after my Mom died, back when I was 12 years old.  In those days, telephones weren't mobile.  Mail meant you wrote a letter and your recipient got it several days later.  Twitter was something certain birds did.  Facebook was....well, its founder hadn't been born yet.

Sometimes, we just don't know what the future will bring.  The situation is what it is.  We both will make the best of it.  My friend's husband's cancer was caught early, which is something all of us are grateful for.  There is one good thing in this story.

We may be apart in distance when her mother's journey is completed, but we will be together in spirit.