My Busy Day

Since I'm not at Tamara's this week I'm getting all kinds of things done around home. I had promised myself that I was going to get my garage empty again so that I could put my car back in there. The car has been parked in the driveway ever since I emptied out 303 this spring. Yesterday I had cleaned up the little garden by my back porch so today I "replanted" all my glass bottles as well as some colorful flowers. The rooster was very interested in my gardening. I had been wanting to move my mailbox to my own property, and Eric (the new owner of 303) was very upset because the mailman kept driving over the new driveway they had put in so he wanted to move his mail box also. I was very glad for his help. I called the postoffice and found out we could put them closer to the road than they had been so the postman won't have to drive over the lawn to get to them. That was my busy day.

What happened?

Okay, now we need advice. Did Elmo swallow Samantha feet first, or is Samantha wearing an Elmo costume? I was taking pictures of Luke Michael with his new Christmas gift. (Because his initials are LMO Alex's friends nick-named him Elmo) Since there is a delay once I click the camera I kept taking pictures and then couldn't stop laughing when I finally downloaded the pictures onto the computer and could really look at them and saw this one.

Christmas Eve Afternoon

Oh Christmas Tree???????

Now for the Christmas tree. Although it really isn't a tree, it's a bush. I remember one year Aunt Tina decorated a small tree for Dr. Markwald's family. They had never had one because they were Jewish. I guess she just felt that since everyone else had one they should too so she delivered it completely decorated to their front door and called it a Hanukkah bush. Actually I decorated my "tree" on the first day of Hanukkah, so who knows. The straw star on the top I've used for years. I got it from the Swedish family that I stayed with in the summer of 1963. The feathers are from all over. Some from England and Holland, some from Granville, but most from around here. I have an owl feather and a red hawk feather among them. I bought the bush last Christmas with the intent of planting it in the yard after the holidays. I just couldn't decide where I wanted it so I brought it back inside. It is sitting on a bar stool which is covered with a piece of Christmas fabric.

It's Beginning To Look........

I've made stollen and Leibkeuken to give to the neighbors, but I wanted to make something for the girls I work with at the coffee shop. Cindy and Inga inspired me with their lollipops. I have even more admiration for them now that I have tried it. I will never do it again without molds. What I wanted to make was sea turtle lollipops so I tried making a mold out of aluminium foil, and then I decided to just try using plastic cookie cutters, so I gouged out a place for the stick. I went out and bought a candy thermometer, which I broke while cleaning it. I now understand why they compare making hard candy to making glass. I thought I had ruined my favorite sauce pan, it was coated with hard green candy and looked like glass. Thankfully a good soak in the sink took care of it. I have some very strange shaped lollipops but hopefully the girls at the coffee shop will appreciate the humor, and the effort. I had thought of throwing it all out, but decided against it. I keep meaning to put a picture of my Christmas tree on my blog, maybe tomorrow. At the moment I just needed to tell Cindy and Inga that I really appreciate their handiwork.

My New Alarm Clock

Meet Charlie. At least that is how I think of him. About a year ago a couple of roosters, each with a couple of hens started wandering around the neighborhood. No one seems to know where they came from. When the people were working on the house next door they started feeding this fellow, but they are not there all the time so when I'm home he tends to hang out around my house. One day I threw him a few sunflower seeds, so now when I'm in the house he spends most of his time looking in the screen door on my back porch. The other rooster is still around because when he crows Charlie jumps up on my porch railing and answers him. This afternoon a woman walked by talking on her cell phone and I could hear her saying, "can you hear that? he's sitting on some lady's back porch crowing." Actually he doesn't wake me up in the morning, and I kind of like having him around, but I have heard others in the neighborhood complaining.

Chrismtas Lights

Well, I have finally got my lights up!!!! NOT! We drove to this house last night to show Luke Michael the lights. He was speachless, it was like Christmas light over load. The man has signs up answering questions that I'm sure everyone is asking. There are 100,000, plus 110,000 lights (not sure why he puts it that way, maybe he started years ago with 100,000). It takes his entire 3 week vacation to put everything up and that is with help. His electric bill is $800. That in itself is one good reason not to have such a light display. As you can guess there is a tremendous amount of traffic, (I'm glad I'm not a neighbor, but I guess by now they are used to it since he has done it for a lot of years. It is quite amazing when you see it.

Running of the Santas

In Spain they have the running of the bulls. In New Smyrna they have the running of the Santas. If I had know that it was one block I would have run myself, instead I tried to get pictures. It was too dark to get the hoards running from the beach to Cooper Street. The run was in aid of Toys for Tots. You could dress in any Christmas theme. A lot of people just added a Santa hat and ran, but as you can see others got rather creative.

Sinter Klaus

Well, some of you have seen this already, but Bill kindly took the bar on my screen door out of the picture and I can't figure out how to edit so I've just deleted the page and am doing it over, using the picture that Bill fixed. It looks much better. Just got back from the Christmas parade, but that will be for another blog.

Another Biology Lesson

Alex and Samantha are off to school, Luke Michael is still sleeping and I'm here with my blog. Wasn't sure what to blog about so I went through my pictures and came up with my picture of a horseshoe crab. When I looked it up online it doesn't mention Florida as a place where they are found, but in April they mate in the river and quite often we find them on the beach when turtle season begins in May. Unlike their name suggests, they are not related to crabs. They are distant relatives to spiders, and one of the oldest classes of marine anthropods. Anthropod means having jointed feet. Horseshoe crabs are often refered to as living fossils since they have changed very little int he last 445 million years. In certain areas of the world they are actually on the endangered species list. They also have the ability to regrow lost limbs just as star fish do.

Future Athlete

We thought Luke Michael was going to be a baseball player since he is always practicing his pitching form by copying Alex, but he seems to be pretty good with a basketball also. He drags around his basketball hoop with him from room to room. He likes to have an audience. When he makes a basket he turns around and claps and says "yaaaaaa" until everyone else present applauds too. He's pretty good at kicking around a soccer ball too so I'm sure he will have his choice of sports when he is older.

We've had some cool dry air lately and I love what it did to Luke Michaels hair as he reached the bottom of the plastic slide. The big kids are home from school this week so maybe I can get some pictures of them for my blog.

Giant Fungus

Well, somebody has to update their blog, it's very quiet in the blogosphire lately. Anyway, if I wait too long I'll forget how to do it and have to figure it out all over again. Last week on our walk to the library for story hour we saw these huge mushroom in the park. Actually there were three of them but one was rotting already. At first I wasn't sure what it was laying there in the grass so I put Luke Michael in the stroller and we walked on. He loves to run on the paths as we cross the park to get to the library. We have to cross the railroad tracks before we get there so I always take the stroller along. We got lucky last week because we had to wait for TWO trains and one was a veeeeerrrrrry long freight train. It even made us late for story time.

Oma's Bed

The computer room at Tamara's is also my bed room when I'm there. I was sleeping on a blow up mattress but several weeks ago LD went out and bought a bed for that room. It is refered to as "Oma's bed", but as you can see it is a very popular place. Luke Michael had put himself "night, night" with his teddy bear that I made him for his first birthday. Another day when I arrived all three were on the bed. Sharing is good.

Just to go along with Tamara's blog, the last time we went to the park Luke Michael wanted to swing in the big boy swing. Of course after awhile he wanted to get in the baby swing again so I could sit in the big swing and swing back and forth with him. For some reason he thinks this is hilarious.

Dragon Fly

The other day when Luke Michael and I were at the play ground there were hundreds of dragon flys buzzing around . I decided to try and take a picture and actually took several but only one came out looking like a dragon fly, so I thought I would share it. Of course if I had a fancy camera with a telephoto lens it would be clearer, but I probably wouldn't be able to operate such a camera. We are enjoying some cooler weather here. It's only in the sixties during the day and actually got down to the low 40's at night. I just hope it doesn't freeze while I'm at Tamara's because I'm worried about my pineapple plants.

REMEMBERING OANE

At the Park

The weather here is really nice. Not too hot, so this morning Luke Michael and I walked to the park. Well, he rode in the stroller but he runs enough at the park to give him plenty of exercise. He likes the biggest slide there is. There is also a little wooden path that goes out over the lake and he enjoyed running back and forth on that. When he was swinging he wanted me to sit in the big swing and he laughed and laughed when we swang back and forth together. I don't have a picture of that unfortunatly. It's a nice little park and we are usually there alone. It's about a ten minute walk from the house so it is just right. We always take cookies and juice to snack on on the way home.

Pineapple Plants

Having run out of blog ideas I've decided to show you a picture of my pineapple plants. Before I went north for the summer I had brought home the tops of some pineapples that we had used at work. I think I might have even saved one that Carl had used in one of his famous fruit salads when he and Kirsten were here. Anyway, I stuck them out in the garden by the back door and didn't think anything would happen, but when I got back from Granville I had these very healthy looking plants. I've just been reading about pineapples and in order to produce another pineapple like the ones you find in the store the plant will get about 6 feet high and 6 feet wide. I think I may have them planted too close. It also takes several years, so we'll see what happens.

Free Beer!

Just so you know what you are missing, all you beer drinkers at our family gathering in Granville. They are having a four day festival on Flagler Ave. this week end, and you even get to keep the glass. I don't really drink beer but was thinking of you all. I didn't think I should drink a beer and then do a turtle talk and then drive to Orlando, so I just took the free glass. But I did think of you all.

Do you know where your goat is?

Here is the promised picture of Binky on the slide. It was obviously not taken at the same time the one in the previous blog was since the slide has been turned around. Binky was Edward's goat so he was probably at least 3 or 4 years old by the time he got her. Maybe even older. Edward would have been six when we moved to Granville and I don't remember if Binky moved with us or not. I think there are even movies of Binky going down the slide, probably with Edward in hot persuit.

This picture is for all of you who were at the corn roast in Granville this summer. Bill has a picture of Will sitting on top of the slide in the back yard. He estimated that the slide was about 55 years old. Try 62. This picture was taken when Edward was about a year old, so 1946, Bill and I are also in the picture. We were still living in Pleasant Valley and the slide was probably new. They sure don't make them like that any more. The only thing wrong with the slide is that the legs at the bottom are missing so the slide itself sits on the ground. I seem to remember that those legs got damaged, probably while we still lived in Pleasant Valley by someone plowing snow. So that would have been before 1952. Once we moved to Granville the slide was always in the back yard and there was no snow plowing done there. Wonder who made that red slippery slide? This one would make a good advertisement for the company.

Gone Fishin'

Well, I haven't gone fishing, but I rode my bike up the beach to the inlet this morning and the jetty was as full of fishermen as I've ever seen it. The weather is beautiful and I guess the fishing was good, although I didn't see anyone catching anything. Not even the pelican who was sitting there waiting for something to show up. Sorry Cap, I didn't see anyone fishing in the surf from the beach this morning or I would have taken that picture too.

The Water Tower

Not only have we sold Mother and Dad's house next door to mine, but they are building a new firehouse and are planning to sell the property in back of me. There is a monumont right next to my property to the members of the Ground Observer Corp who watched for enemy planes and submarines during World War II. I'm hoping that they are not planning to move this monument since it gives me a little protection. I'm sure the reason the monument is there is because there used to be a water tower right next to the firehouse and I'm sure they used it when they were looking for planes and submarines. However, I have yet to find anyone in New Smyrna Beach who remembers the water tower. After going through a lot of Aunt Ginnies old pictures I finally found a couple. The first one was taken in 1954 and has Mom Pratt standing by 301 South Pine Street. The other was taken in 1973 when they were taking the tower down. On Friday I'm going to take these pictures and have copies made from them to donate to the museum. I'm trying to quietly build my case if they ever decide to move the monument. Kay and I visited Aunt Ginnie in 1962 and they were repairing the water tower. The men up there doing the repairs kept singing "everybody's going out and having fun, I'm a fool for staying home and having none." I can't believe we didn't take any pictures then since we were very interested in those young men up there working and singing.

Todays endangered species lesson

This morning I biked to the boardwalk again. There are lots of gopher tortoise living in the dunes there. First I came to a burrow so I took a picture of it wishing that I could get a picture of a tortoise. I went a little further and there was one sunning himself in front of his burrow. Gopher tortoise have recently been put on the threatened species list. There burrows can be up to 40 feet in length and up to 10 feet deep, and offer refuge to 360 animal species, including the indigo snake, pine snake, gopher frog, Florida mouse, burrowing owl, and so on. They are thought to live 40-60 years. You can find out more by googling gopher tortoise.

Second blog of the day

Just needed to show you how I kept myself busy this afternoon. The bougainvillea (yes I looked up the spelling) bush had gotten out of control even though I had cut it back the first week I was back. It also hangs over the neighbors half of the yard and was attacking my screens and leaning on my roof. I always end up with a lot of scratches but I won't bother to show you those.

Well, I seemed to be having an "emo" week (see Cindy's blog),as well as an Elmo week (which is rather fun). Anyway, I actually slept without the air on last night and it was so nice this morning I decided to get on my bike and ride the two and a half miles to the board walk. Then I walked the mile and a half around the park and rode my bike home. It was great. I don't like the picture of me, but I havne't tried that taking a picture of yourself thing because I didn't think my arms were long enough but I climbed the tower on the board walk and wanted a picture of myself with the lighthouse in the background, so even though I don't look good, I did what I had wanted to do so there it is

Books are our friends

This morning Luke Michael and I took a trip to Borders bookstore. All the books he pulled out were about Elmo, the first one was a book he already has at home. His initials are LMO and Alex's friends nicknamed him Elmo when he was still tiny. Of course what he enjoyed most was the spaciousness of the place and the fact that he could run. Luckily we were the only ones in the childrens section so he could run all he wanted to. He does love to sit down and have you read him a story when he has gotten rid of some of his energy.

Since I forgot my camera yesterday when Luke Michael and I went on adventures I've decided to copy Karl and use an "oldy but goody" picture. Just incase anyone was wondering what speedos looked like in the good old days. This is a picture of my grandfather Pratt back in the 1930's or 40's ready for a swim. The picture was taken in Royalston, Massachusetts.

For Kirsten and Carl

Yesterday as I drove across the north causeway I noticed this founders day sign. It made me think of Kirsten and Carl. In the neighborhood they live in they don't have house numbers, but each house has a name. When they bought their house they didn't really like the old name so after much thought and after a visit to New Smyrna where they ran into someone who was really into the history of our city they decided to give it the old name of "Smyrnea". You don't see that in print very often so this morning I got on my bike and rode over the bridge and down the causeway and took a picture of the sign. The other picture is the plaque that Kirsten and Carl had made for their house in England, which for awhile they kept beside the old name so that the postman could get used to the new name.