Mom and Me

Mother's Day tends to be a little bittersweet for me.  My Mom died when I was 12 years old.  I do not have many photos or other keepsakes of her. 

Recently I took a picture of a photo taken by someone of my Mom and me (with other students) at an elementary school event. 

My Mom loved the smell of lilacs.  In her honor, I present a little bouquet of our lilacs that my spouse picked for me today.

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers, be they mothers who gave birth, mothers who adopted, mothers of children who have passed on, and women who never raised children but nurtured, educated and/or and cared for the children of others.

Sustainable Saturday Spring at the Frog Pond

No, today's post is not about a pond that frogs live in, as much as I love the sound of spring peepers.

One of the things I enjoy about living in the Binghamton, New York area is that you aren't all that far (by car) from beautiful rural scenery and various farms.  Please come along with me on a little local adventure.

In late April, I traveled from Harpursville, New York (home of Animal Adventure Park, where a webcam trained on a pregnant giraffe named April went viral during the winter) about 15 miles to Bainbridge, New York.  There are two places near Bainbridge I will go to:  Pine Ridge Grocery, an Amish-style bulk grocery which is a wonderful adventure in grocery shopping, and Frog Pond Farms.

(If you are in the area next Saturday, Pine Ridge is having its annual Customer Appreciation Day, and you will have a good time there.)

Frog Pond can be extremely crowded (I don't recommend going there on weekends) but it can be a fun place for a family outing.  There are farm animals (if you are into that), lots of produce, and the best part - you can eat any fresh produce they sell, as long as you eat it on the premises.  So, if your child is hungry, you can head towards some fruit, and it is fine with the owners.

The greenhouse was full of early spring plants

So if you see some strawberries, for example, you can sample before you buy.  The day I was there, I did just that (and, I bought some delicious strawberries from North Carolina. Ours won't be ready for another month).

Local Maple Products

I will caution you - the produce is not always local, especially in the springtime, and you have to be careful about what you buy.  But there also some incredible bargains to be had.

There's one more attraction - the owner, who checks you out in an auctioneer-like sing song, totalling up your purchase entirely in his head.  I should have recorded him.

If you plan to visit this part of upstate New York to see April the Giraffe, this is only about a 15 or so minute drive from the Harpursville area.

Here are some more posts about Frog Pond:
The Mental Math auctioneer
The Chia Plant
Fall at Frog Pond

If you are planning to visit April the Giraffe and are interested in any other attractions around Binghamton, New York, please mention it in the comments and I'll see what I can do.

Sneaking in Spring #SkywatchFriday

It's Friday, meaning it's time to look at the sky.

We are in full beautiful spring bloom here in the Binghamton, New York area.  I couldn't pass the opportunity by to show more of the beauty of this area, but it was time to look at the sky.

What to do?

I decided to try to combine spring and Skywatch.  The sky is in all these pictures, but I'm sneaking in spring.

Lilacs and clouds, May 10.

Pink dogwood and clouds.

Dramatic clouds.

And, okay, okay.  A sunrise, May 4.

Happy SkywatchFriday - join other bloggers in looking up at the sky.

After the Storm #ThursdayTreeLove

Welcome to #ThursdayTreeLove, a meme started by blogger Parul Thakur of Happiness and Food.

What could be happier than a blooming tree?

Take, for example, this beautiful dogwood, in full bloom here in the Binghamton area of upstate New York, contrasted against a red maple.

Or this tree, in full bloom, on our Vestal, New York Rail Trail.

But, into a tree's life some rain must fall.  Sometimes, too much rain falls.  Way too much rain falls.  Wind blows.   This (after cleanup) is what I saw on the same Vestal Rail Trail on May 6.

Every life comes to an end.  And, after a storm on May 1, many tree lives ended here.

Alas.

Let us pay tribute to these trees, who have given their all.  They were shade.  Some were beautiful flower bearers.  And now, they will serve a final use in the scheme of Nature.

Have you hugged a tree today?

Will May Showers Bring April Followers?

It's Wednesday.  Normally I would have a Spring Things post.

I would post beautiful flowers now blooming where I live in upstate New York, such as these dogwood blooms.

Not today.

I am taking my normal Spring Things post and turning it into still another post about April the Giraffe.

Yes, that April, the giraffe who gave birth live on a webcam on April 15, as over a million people worldwide watched. 

Animal Adventure Park, where April, Oliver (her mate) and Taj (her baby) live, is about 30 minutes from where I live. It's located in a rural area near Harpursville, New York. And this week has not been a good week weatherwise for our part of upstate New York.  So this post is a little about local pride.

I want people to visit this area.  Heaven knows, we could use some influx of tourism dollars.  Face it, when you think of where to vacation, Harpursville is not on the top of anyone's bucket list.  Neither is where I work, Binghamton.

At this point, you are asking yourself one of three questions:
1. Has the author of this blog lost it?
2. Who cares?  Why would someone waste hours watching a giraffe pace back and forth?
3. I love April! What's going on?


A bad storm last Monday didn't make life easy, but life went on.  Thousands were without power, many trees were down.  Friday, another event.  Thousands without power (some the same people who were without power from Monday to Wednesday, or even longer).  There was some flooding. Animal Adventure is safe, but the torrential rains (more rain over the weekend) has not made it easy for them, as they struggle to open on time - May 13.

So, about that webcam everyone watched: The webcam is no longer on 24/7; it is on between 4pm and 8pm Eastern Daylight Time every Tuesday.

You can access an archive through April's website.

For me, and many others, watching April is like watching an aquarium or a fire burning.  So relaxing.  The cares of the world melt away.  Threats of nuclear war and other man made disasters are far away for a few moments.

But four hours a week (no, I don't watch it continuously) weren't enough for me.  Animal Adventure Park isn't open yet, so I knew I couldn't get in, but my spouse and I could still drive past it.  So we did, and here are my pictures taken April 29.

Here is the road (Martin Road, in Harpursville, New York) that leads to April's home.

First glimpse of the property.

The sign (sorry, I could have used a zoom but I was using my iPhone SE).

Closer....and you can vaguely see a lot of construction behind that fence.  This was made possible by the attention (and money) from the months that April was a viral celebrity.

Ah, if only I could have seen through that fence.

So no, I didn't see April.  In fact, I didn't see anyone.  I wonder if they were on their lunch break on that beautiful Friday afternoon.

I will leave you with one more picture of a dogwood taken yesterday.  This particular blog post doesn't begin to show the beauty of upstate New York.  So I have a question:

Are you an April fan?  Are you thinking about visiting Harpursville, New York to see April and her family?  If you are, do you want to find out more about the Binghamton area?  Let me know in the comments, and I'll be happy to blog more about what you might be interested in.

Instagram - Yea or Nay?

This weekend, partially on a whim, and partially because I've been intrigued about this particular app, I joined Instagram.

For my user name, I wanted to use RamblinGarden, which is my Twitter handle, but Instagram wouldn't accept it.  I do want to keep my ramblin' "brand name" in some way.  So, for now, it's under my real name. I don't even know if I should change it, as I am not sure I want to promote my blog there.

I'm a newbie, and fumbling my way around. I am not totally encouraged by this post by a blogger, Shirley Corder, whose blog I was introduced to right before the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  However, I took the leap, based on some feedback from my Facebook friends.

So far, the people I am following are mostly Facebook friends - a lot of them are on Instagram, too (some, I suspect, are to follow grandchildren).  This isn't a total surprise as Facebook owns Instagram.

I don't take (many) selfies.  I don't have a cute dog or cat.  (I don't HAVE a dog or cat.).  I am not pleased by the fact that you can't turn off videos (not a good thing when you are not on wi fi) only slow them down.  I certainly won't be opening the app during my lunch hour at work.  I rarely take pictures of my food, except for one of my rare recipe blog posts.  I'm somewhat private about my family.  So, should I even be on there?

I'll try not to be too disappointed by all the commercial content.  In fact, one of the first things that greeted me upon joining was a video posted by my credit union.  Ugh.  On the other hand, I quickly found, and liked, NatGeo.

But, if you follow me, you may find pictures like this, from a May 8 walk through the west side of Binghamton, New York (once I have time to upload them):

Creeping phlox (one of many I've taken, and I won't bore you further).

A young dogwood against a red maple tree

Cherry blossoms.

I do love flowers.  Can you tell?

I'll just have to see how it goes.  If you enjoy the pictures on my blog, you are welcome to follow me at alana_mautone. (I have to find some way to get a "follow me on Instagram" for my sidebar, too.)

For now, a few short questions for you, my dear readers:  are you on Instagram?  If so, what have your experiences been?


Do you still use it, or was it too disappointing?

And, what was your best resource for getting up to speed (which I don't have much time to devote to)?

Thank you for your time!

Traveling Through Time- Music Monday #AtoZChallenge

If you are looking for my Blogging from A to Z reflections post, click here.

Otherwise, welcome to my usual Music Mondays post.

My Blogging from A to Z "S" post about the 1960's duo Simon and  Garfunkel was so popular with my readers that I have decided to use Simon and Garfunkel songs starting with the letter T as the topic for today's Music Monday posts.

Just listening to these songs makes me travel through time and space to my teenage years spent in a housing project in the Bronx.

Hence....

The Sounds of Silence.

This is the original version - the hit single came from another album called "The Sounds of Silence". More recently, this song was covered with great success by a hard rock group called Disturbed.

The Only Living Boy in New York is a song perhaps not well known, but I love the harmonies in it and the parts recorded in an echo chamber.  The song foreshadows their 1970 breakup.

One more song - a hit, The Boxer. 

Memories of my childhood in the Bronx, brought back to me by music.

I am linking today with Cathy at Curious as a Cathy as Mewsicians Celebrate their birthdays.
Come join the fun with your music post!

A to Z Challenge Reflections

Another April gone. 

Another A to Z Challenge completed, and it is time to reflect on this challenge.   If you survived it too, congratulations!  If you didn't - well, you tried!

 It was my third, and it was organized just a little differently than previous challenges.  I want to thank everyone who read my blog during the month of April, both long time readers, and new.  I hope you will stick with me.

It's been an exhausting month. 

My theme was Traveling Through Time and Space.

Like reflections on the still water of a stream, my thoughts have completed their journey, and are back home.

Here are some of the new blogs I encountered during the month long journey:

Write to Inspire - Shirley Corder blogged an entire month on How To Build a Better Blog.  It was an excellent series.

Hilary Melton-Butcher at Positive Letters - Inspirational Stories.  Rare breeds of animals are of great interest to me, as a former "homesteader".

Nilanjana Bose at Madly-In-Verse with a beautiful series on the Arab culture.

And there were the old favorites.  I don't feel I want to name any of them, because that means I have left some out.  And, I didn't get to everyone I wanted to.  I ignored some of my old favorites, because life intruded, as it has a habit of doing.

Now, briefly, responding to some concerns of the organizers:

We went "list-free" this year.  I do think that was, to use a cliche, a double-edged sword.  I didn't have to click on links where people had given up, or had them there just to have people click on them.  But, on the other hand, it was hard to keep track of blogs and if I had visited them.  Also, because of the time-zone difference, living on the side of the world that reaches a day later than others, it seemed I was always late to the party by the time I dropped off my link.

I also felt there was too much emphasis on social media.  Not all bloggers are comfortable on Facebook or Twitter.  And, as for Instagram, I just joined it last night (more out of curiosity than anything else).  I always liked A to Z because it was not social media dependent - you had a list of participants and you clicked on their link to get to their blog.  Now, it seems like a lot of the action has moved to social media, and it saddens me.

I do understand, though, why the moderators (there are several, they all work hard and they all deserve our thanks) had to do this.

So.  Will I do A to Z again next year?   Maybe. There is something addictive about blogging about a topic that starts with A, then running through the entire alphabet. I admire those who pick a hard theme.

And now, back to my normal daily blogging schedule, with a new "Music Monday" tomorrow.

Local Saturday - Farmers Market Food for Thought

I love spring farmer's markets.  But sometimes, besides selling you food, they provide food for thought.

Last Saturday, at the indoor Broome County Farmers Market in upstate New York, ramps were for sale.  Three years ago I had blogged about wild ramps and the fact that their increasing popularity was depleting wild supplies.  Their popularity has not abated, and I do like them. 

In all fairness, I don't know if these were wild or not.  We did buy some sorrel from the same vendor, one we sometimes buy from, and used it to make a delicious cold eastern European soup called schav. (note, we don't use this same recipe and don't put potato in ours.)

Also for sale were wild fiddleheads.  Perhaps I haven't eaten them correctly prepared, but I don't like them, and I passed them up, too.  You do have to be careful foraging and preparing them-more "food for thought" as these can be overharvested, too..

This is truly local food.

It's wonderful to know that the earth is coming alive here in upstate New York, although we have had some nasty weather recently, and it isn't over for us yet.

Has spring come to where you live yet?

Over the Rainbow #SkywatchFriday

Tuesday, the phone rang.  While spouse spoke to his cousin, I noticed an unusual glow outside.  I ran outside, in my bare feet.

The evening before, we had a fierce thunderstorm and a possible microburst where I live in upstate New York.  Thousands were left without power, and hundreds of trees came down.  We were under a state of emergency for the next two days, with roads blocked and many people left without power or water.


In the east, this is what greeted me.

I started to move to my right, to capture more of the rainbow.

Then, I looked behind me.

This is what I saw.

A couple of minutes, and a few feet forward, this was the view.

I only captured a fraction of what I saw that magical May 2.


Please join other bloggers at Skywatch Friday and check out the skies all over the world.

May The Fourth Be With You

If you have been anywhere near the Internet recently, you know there is a meme based on the famous Star War quote "May the Force be with you".  I have many friends who love puns, but I am terrible (in a non-punny way) at making them up.

For this May 4, I am thinking of force, but not the Force of Star Wars fame.  Instead, I'm thinking of the forces of nature.

Flooding.  Tornadoes.  And for us in the Binghamton, New York area, wind and rain.

Thousands without power.  Hundreds and hundreds of trees down, including at least twelve in our jewel of a park, Otsiningo Park.

Our state of emergency from Monday was lifted yesterday afternoon but thousands were still without power, including co workers who had had no electricity or water since the storm Monday evening.

Neighbors came together to help neighbors.

More and more, we get these (for us) unusual storms.  And I am grateful that, this time, it wasn't a flood.

We learned one important lesson  We had a plan for flood (since we were in one in 2011 but nothing for this type of disaster.  We were fortunate that neither we nor my brother in law lost power, and that the brother in law was available to help my mother in law and my disabled brother in law, "B" when they lost power (their power is back).  My spouse was at his job, meantime, doing hard physical labor as a result of how the business he works for was impacted by the storm.

We weren't adequately prepared.  Neither were, I suspect, a lot of people.  Are you prepared for a disaster? I can see a blog post for the future.

Will we learn our lesson for next time?

In honor of all our downed trees, I link to #ThursdayTreeLove

Treasure your trees, as they may be gone tomorrow.

While we continue to recover locally, a picture from April 29 of a beautiful redbud branch in bloom.

Join other bloggers at #ThursdayTreeLove and love a tree today.

May the Force be with us all.

Spring Things - The Calm and the Storm

This is the severe weather season. 

Parts of the United States are flooding, including portions of a state I used to live in, Arkansas.

Meanwhile, on Monday, an area near where I live in upstate New York was hit by a possible tornado (this is still being investigated). While our county was not in the tornado area, my spouse (a weather enthusiast) thinks we may have been hit by a couple of microbursts.

There were downed trees everywhere, many lost power (fortunately, we didn't).  My spouse peeked out the door just in time to see part of our neighbor's gutter sailing by.  Co-workers had other stories.

My mother in law is still without power and probably won't have power until tonight.

And yet, earlier on Monday,  it was so beautiful.


Monday (May 1) was such a pretty spring day in upstate New York.  I took a number of pictures, and decided to make a collage. I had never used the collage making function of one of my iPhone software programs.

Here is my first collage, for your enjoyment.  Some of the pictures were taken in downtown Binghamton and others in a residential neighborhood.

Enjoy the calm before the storm.

I may try this again for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (May 15) but perhaps I should practice more first.

Falls Prevention

A couple of years ago, I blogged a "Falling Friday" feature for several weeks, while (and after) I was taking a course designed to reduce falls.

Not this kind of fall

At 64, I've already fallen several times.  I wanted so to prevent any further falls.

My mother in law, in her late 80's, has fallen a number of times, too.  Her last fall lead to some two months of physical therapy.

My heart sinks every time I hear of a senior falling.

Today, I found out someone I know had a death in her family late last week.  Her relative, 93, was active, still playing golf and still enjoying life - until he fell down a flight of stairs and broke his neck.

You don't have to be old to have this happen to you.  Someone I went to high school with lost his son a couple of years ago in a freak fall.  The son left a wife and two children, one then unborn.

I was just thinking about how I was starting to slack off on the exercises I was taught in this class.  But then I remember how I couldn't even balance several steps on an imaginary tightrope without having to grab a support.


My posts two years ago discussed what I had learned, and showed some of the exercises, which can be viewed on You Tube (filmed by professionals).

I'm thinking of reposting some of these posts.  Here are a couple of my past "falling" posts:
The Non Persistance of Vision
Falling Risk
The Return (last year, when I thought about starting the feature up.  It didn't last long.)

Time for some reflection?

What do you think?  Is falls prevention a topic you are interested in?

Music Monday - May Flowers

Today, I want to thank my readers for stopping by during the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. At the same time, I want to welcome you to the month of May.

April showers have done their work!

But first, some songs about  flowers.

The Doors - Hyacinth House.

Talking Heads - (Nothing but) Flowers

And now, my thank you video for you.  I hope you enjoy some of my front yard.  Spring is such a wonderful time in upstate New York.  It's about 1 1/2 minutes, and I promise not to sing.

Cherry tree in my front yard

And here's a May flower for you from my yard for May Day.

Starting today, I return to my normal, daily, blogging schedule.  Join me daily for anything that inspires me - Wednesdays are a seasonal post, Saturdays I post something local, and Mondays are devoted to music.

Thank you again for visiting!

Zooming #AtoZChallenge

It's the last day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and a rare required Sunday post.

And, on this last day of the Challenge, I have a request of Mother Nature:

SLOW DOWN!

March 15

Barely six weeks ago, we had a record snowstorm, with some of us getting three feet of snow.

March 27, Binghamton, NY

The snow melted off, and crocuses and snowdrops appeared.

Binghamton again.

First irises, April 2.

My first daffodils.

Weeping cherry, downtown Binghamton, April 12. (A reader in India asked me "why weeping?" Because the branches point down, like the tree is unhappy and weeping.)

Forsythia, West Side of Binghamton

Forsythia, April 17

Downtown Binghamton again, New York (courtesy of my guest photographer) 4-27-17

Magnolia Broome County Courthouse by Guest Photographer 4-27-17

My Dead Nettle 4-27-17

And now, everything seems to be blooming at once.

Please stop zooming, spring.  Stop long enough for us to appreciate it!

Thank you.

And now, we are at the end of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for another year.

Yearning and Yellow #AtoZChallenge

What is nostalgia?  One definition I found (Wikipedia) says:

"The term nostalgia describes a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations."

 Or, you could say, it is Yearning for the past.

As we age, we find ourselves slipping into nostalgia more and more.  I recently, in writing another post for this challenge, thought about encyclopedias. Some years ago,  I was part of a conversation that turned to encyclopedias.  Remember encyclopedias?

Door to door salesmen (in those days, mainly "men") and supermarkets sold them.  Now, you can't even give them away, even to a library book sale.  Our local library will not accept them as sales donations.

As a 20-something participant in the conversation listened in amazement, the others in the conversations (mostly people in their 50's) talked about parents scrimping and saving so we could have a set in our homes.  By the time they were paid off, (even before that!) they were obsolete.  Then, our parents would have to buy yearbook supplements so they would be up to date. Until the next year.  And then they would have to buy another yearbook.


The 20-something mused "And now we have the Internet."

It isn't just encyclopedias that are items of nostalgia now.  Nostalgia includes steel soda cans that had to be opened using church keys (those keys, not to be confused with keys to houses of worship, still exist, but the steel beverage cans don't - at least, here in the United States), candy or bubble gum cigarettes, glasses whose lenses were glass (thank heavens we have moved past those), telephone party lines, rotary phones, S&H Green Stamps, and other items of  my childhood.  I'm sure, depending on when and where you grew up, you can name totally different items.

As we grow older, these exist only in our memories, in a haze of nostalgia and yearning for the past.

Speaking of yearning, I want to treat you to some spring flower pictures from my yard  These flowers bloom for only a few days, and then we will have only our memories until they return next year.

Daffodils grow really well in this area.

I have several varieties.

This daffodil came with the house when we bought it 30 years ago, and it still comes up each year (but now, only a couple bloom.  There is too much shade where they are now.)

Barrenwort.

Tulips in our lawn.

Traveling through Time and Space with the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  Come back tomorrow, for Zee End!