IT'S NOW OFFICIALLY SPRING!!!

For weeks its been feeling like spring where I live.  I'm so glad its now officially here.
   Yesterday (3-21) while I was taking my son to his piano lesson, it was so hot in the car I had to turn on the air conditioning. Outside temperature was 82 degrees with 40% humidity, inside the car it was registering 86 degrees but felt hotter. When I turned on the A/C my son teased me, by  saying aren't you going to complain about turning the air conditioner on in winter - like you always do.  I said 'no' because its not winter anymore, IT'S OFFICIALLY SPRING.  He said 'no' that I was wrong that it wasn't until tomorrow. I informed him he was wrong, and that its today.  We went back and forth a little bit about it and finally he said 'prove it'.  I told him I would when we got home.
  When we got home I went and got an egg from the egg carton and said to my son.  'Remember last fall on Sept. 22, when at dinner, I told you guys about how you would know it was the equinox because on the equinox an egg would stand up and you didn't believe me?  He said no - so I showed him this picture to remind him.

Sept 22, 2010 Fall Equinox

  He now remembered.  It all started with a post Lockwood had posted at Outside the Interzone
that is was the fall equinox where the days are equal lengths. Here's more of what Wikipedia has to say about the Equinox   I think it was from Lockwood or someone else blog where they bet people that they can make an egg that is still raw to stand up on this day.  We tried it and my family was amazed that it worked.

  Getting back to now, we got a raw egg out and decided to try it again.  And guess what!  It  actually did stand up again.  I was surprised because I thought it might be too late for it to do it, since the equinox was officially at 23:21 March 20.  So we took a couple more pictures.

Vernal equinox 3-21-2011

Spring Equinox (3-21-2011 at 6:09 pm -CST)

Vernal equinox, looking down at the egg from directly above (3-21-2011)

Vernal equinox : 3-21-2011 @ 6:09 pm CST

    My son was not impressed that the egg stood up again.  He said, 'I bet it's just a trick and the egg can stand up like that all the time'.  I was like lets wait and see.  So this morning we tried to get the exact same  egg to stand up again. And guess what - we couldn't get it to do it.
Here's the pictures to prove it:

Trying to stand an egg up on March 22, 2011

March 22, 2011 at 7:35 am CST

As much as we tried we couldn't get the egg to stand up again.  It really did prove my point that the equinox is over and we are now into Spring and not winter.  

Seeing this egg makes me think of the Easter Bunny and dying eggs  -- another sure sign that it is Spring time.

In the mean time, I'm hungry.  I think I'll have some scrambled eggs for breakfast.

No place like home

I went to a conference  in Woodworth, LA, at a place that was located in Alexander State Forest..  It was an all day event.  The surrounding were lovely and I really liked the pavilion where we spent a lot of our time.

Here are a couple of photos of what I was looking at most of the day.

Bayou Clear, Woodworth, LA

This area of the state has some of the more rugged terrain in it.  Don't you just love our mountains hills.  (I like to muse on geology but as you can see, unless I ponder upon recent deposition I don't have much to think upon unless I get some well logs to look at.)

 I thought it was so neat to see the cloud centered in the half circle.  By the time I got my camera out it had moved on a bit but I thought it was still a fun picture to take.

  Even though I had a good time, it was a long day and I was happy to get home.  I knew I was almost home when I turned onto our street and saw the sign below.

One of the things I love about my neighborhood is how friendly everyone is.  I knew I was going to like living in the place when we first started to look in the area because of these two signs that were up at the ends of our street and subdivision. 

Welcome home on the Bayou

Now whenever I travel I always look for one of these signs to know that I'm within walking distance of my home. Like I said in this post title:  There's no place like home.

Spring Walk - 2 weeks later

The other day I went walking and took some pictures and shared them here at this blog.  It's two weeks later and I have some new and different stuff to share.

Forsythia

Dogwood blossoms

Azaleas

 Just wait a week or two and the Azaleas will really be out if full bloom.  I can hardly wait, because they are some of my favorite plants.

Irises

Dogwood blossoms

I think Lady Banks Roses?

Narcissus

Hyacinths

Wisteria

Wisteria

Irises

Violets

Lily of Valley

Tulips

 The flowers sure did make it feel like spring was definitely here.  But there were other signs that made me feel for sure Spring was here and it was going to stay.  For one was seeing this robin's egg fallen from a nest.

Robin's egg, fallen from nest

 And geese sitting on their eggs trying to hatch them.

Another thing is seeing lawn mowers like this out. 

But the thing that really got to me more than anything was getting in my car yesterday and having the out side temperature being 86 degrees.  I'm just not ready to have that type of heat yet.


Thank you for looking

Book: 'Assassination Vacation'

The other night, on the news they were saying that there was a new recording of the time when Ronald Regan had an assassination attempt on his life when he was shot by John Hinckley.  That reminded me of a book that I had read last summer called 'Assassination Vacation' by Sarah Vowell. (2005), Simon & Schuster paperback.  It is/was a New York Times Bestseller. I'm in a book club and it was picked for the summer as a light fun read.  If it wasn't for my book club, I seriously doubted that I would have ever picked this book to read.  But then as I read it I really got into it.
  When I started to read it I was about to take a vacation, with my husband, to Nashville TN. In the book she briefly mentions Andrew Jackson.  So when I got to Nashville I just had to see the Hermitage.  Then as I read the book, it excited me because it was mentioning some places that I actually had been too and have photos of.
Here are a couple of photo's of the Hermitage and the surrounding area:

The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, Nashville TN (taken 7-14-2010)

Andrew Jackson's tomb at the Hermitage (taken 7-14-2010)

Black Eyed Susans a the Hertimage (takes 7-14-2010)

Black-eyed Susans

Crepe Myrtle (7-14-2010)

Aster's?

I found the flowers in the gardens that Rachel had started were very beautiful and enjoyed them as I walked around.

  Getting back to the book, 'Assassination Vacation' is about this girl that decides to spend her vacations studying the different assassination of the Four Presidents that were shot and killed. Andrew Jackson was like I said briefly mentioned because he was in some duels in his lifetime and was almost assassinated and thus the reason for the mention in the book.
    In the book she only really studies three of the four assassinated Presidents since the last one is Kennedy and so much is already known about that assassination.  In the book she researches:  Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, and William McKinley.

    The book is written in the first person, so you never really know if this is an autobiography or if it is considered a work of fiction.  I liked the way the book was written because it was witty and easy to read.  What excited me so much was the fact that I had visited a lot of the places she had mentioned in the book.  And the one thing that did disappoint me was there were no photo's in it, thus giving it a fiction feel to it.
  One of the things that struck me was when we were discussing this book was to find out how many people thought that most of the Presidents were buried in Arlington Cemetery like JFK was. That idea had never crossed my mind since I grew up visiting Garfield's tomb in Cleveland Ohio and McKinleys in Canton, Ohio.
My friends were surprised that I had actually visited some of these places too like the girl in the book. Most of them had never considered visiting a tomb like that before they read the book.
   Because there were no photo's in the book I decided to bring some of my own. I was glad I had brought some pictures with me so that they could see these places for themselves.  So here's some of the stuff I shared with my friends:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Tomb

and Memorial

Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC (taken 10-21-06)

Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC (taken 10-21-06)

the reflecting pond in front of Lincoln memorial, Washington DC (10-21-06)

World War II memorial (taken 10-21-06)

     This was also mentioned in the book.
 

World War II memorial, for the state of Louisiana (10-21-06)

JAMES A GARFIELD Tomb
Lakeview Cemetery

The reason I have photos of the Lake View Cemetery is two fold  When I was going to school in the area sometimes my geology classes would go there to study all the different types of rocks that the monuments were made of. And we would also study the Allegany formation which out cropped there.
The other reason is my older brother is buried there.

Garfield's Tomb, Lake View Cemetery

Enterance to Lake View Cemetery

Red Maple in fall, Lake View Cemetery

the meditation area at Lake View Cemetery

Not Garfield's tomb but someone else that is pretty famous.  If I'm not mistaken I think this is John D Rockefeller's tomb

Back side of Garfield's tomb.

WILLIAM MCKINLEY TOMB
 I thought I had some but don't even though I have visited the place more than once.  It's not too far from the Football Hall of fame, which is another popular place to visit while in Canton Ohio.


I must conclude if you ever have a chance to go visit these places, please do they are fascinating spots with a lot of information connected with them.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY TO YOU

Today is St. Patrick's day and since my maiden name starts with an O' guess what?  I'm Irish! and as Irish I like to celebrate with corn beef, cabbage potatoes and of course beer. To get in the mood I took some pictures of three leaf clover - growing in my garden.  It seems that's all I'm good at growing these days but that's okay with me since I like them.
So here's  a couple of pictures of three leaf clover.

three leaf clover

three leaf clover (3-17-2011)

three leaf clover

three leaf clover (3-17-2011)

Being Irish, we had alcohol in the house.  I always loved this saying that my parents had by the drinks.
An Old Irish Toast
May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you are dead.

When I was growing up there was this saying that was by the door as we left.  I looked at it every day and thought I knew it but then when I tried to write it down I had trouble, I think this is it.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you
And the wind always be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your head
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.


3-18-11
I realized I didn't put in a scale so you can see how well I can grow clover.
Here's what you normally see in the yards in my neighborhood.

And here's mine.

Three leaf clover

See I told you I could grow clover.

3-20-11
While I was walking I came across this unique clover and picked it so I could share it with others too.

 To me it looked like there were three hearts on it and that was why it was so special.