There's still life left in the old man yet.

Yes I am still here, and feeling fine, right outside my windows nature paints a picture. And what a picture, there for me to feast my eyes on is the Bluest Lake you can imagine, under the Bluest sky.
In spite of having lived here for 10 months now we have not, until yesterday, bought a boat. It's a long story and one that I won't bore you with now, but it involves a builder who stole a considereable sum of money from us, bad timing with building the house - the economy that leaves us with no buyer for our previous house, even though we have cut it's price almost in half - and on and on - - - . But yesterday we finally broke down and bought not one, but two, bright yellow Kayaks, from Dicks, dear Dicks, they had a 50% off sale on some of their Kayaks, Wow, thats almost half price isn't it? Our friends Margaret and Edward are coming to visit us from England for 3 weeks and it just doesn't seem fair to have this beautiful Lake to explore and no boat to explore with! Dicks also had folding chairs at two for $12. As luck would have it one of our chairs broke yesterday, while watching the grandsons playing baseball (They won - again!), so we decided to invest in some chairs. No doubt Margaret & Ed will be coming to watch some top class American baseball - our grandsons are 8 and 9 years old - so we went all out and got two chairs for them to use and as we needed another one and one was $9.99 we decided to go for broke and get the two for $12.00! Now we are all set to sit.
I went out in one of the Kayaks this morning and it worked just fine, the first time that I have seen the house from so far out on the Lake, except this winter when the Lake froze over and we were able to not only walk all over the Lake but also build a fire on it! A nice big fire that did not burn through the ice. In fact a lot of people built fires, and rode their bikes, and skated, and played ice hockey.
Well it's time to prepare for our visitors, bye for now, or as we used to say in England - just practising for our visitors - "Ta ta for now."

David, XXX

Blue.

Blue. No, not Old Blue Eyes, although I am old and I do have blue eyes. (A beautiful young girl with beautiful brown eyes once told me that I had 'the most beautiful blue eyes') No, I am referring to Blue skies, Blue water, Blue birds and Blue flowers. I arrived home at 5 o'clock today and as usual went straight to the windows to look out at The Lake. And what did I see? I saw the most amazing Blue water reflecting the Bluest sky you ever could imagine and in the big green maple tree were no less than 5 BlueJays. I went outside, to enjoy it all the more and walked across, well not exactly a carpet, but through quite a lot of tiny Blue flowers. Blue is my favorite color - except when there are a lot of Yellow flowers! I was about to say that there are no yellow skies, yellow water and yellow birds, but I had no sooner thought it than I realized that there are indeed yellow birds. We see then flitting aorund here quite often, they are finches, the American Goldfinch to be precise. And a lot of birds have yellow legs too. Trees, well in the fall there are more yellow trees than you can count. That just leaves yellow water. Sounds gross doesn't it, reminds me of the old saying "Never eat yellow snow!" Hmm yellow water, got it, this morning I saw pink water, the pink morning sky was reflected in The Lake, so it follows that when we get a yellow sky reflected in The Lake I'll have my yellow water, and sure enough we had one of the most wonderful sunsets ever (Each one is more wonderful than the last, and when you get old you'll notice it more and more too. The older you get the more you realize the fewer of them there will be. So that helps to sharpen your senses and helps you notice them.) It was a golden sky and the water was a golden color, but I'll take it, gold is yellow right? Yellow gold. Golden yellow hair. Golden skin.
But I digress, as my Golden Girl tells me quite often. Maybe that is why I like Yellow, or Gold so much, because of My Golden Girl Julia, that is what I used to call her when she had golden hair, gold, suntanned skin and her favorite colors to wear were golds, yellows, tans, coppers, browns, all the colors of Fall. Or the Colors of Julia. Now I am Silver, but Julia is still My Gold.
Anyway, The Lake and everything around it was Blue today.
Let me just emphasize here that does not include my mood, which is good - whatever color that is!
Love and kisses to everyone today, Teach Tolerance. David XXX

Selfless behaviour.

- in the animal world. I would have pooh poohed this story if someone had told it to me, but I have just witnessed this selfless act with my own eyes, played out right before me, just yards away from where I sit and observe the Birds of The Lake.
First let me set up the scenario.
This beautiful, approximately 50 acre Lake, with it's miniature Bays and Inlets, an Outlet to The Chesapeake Bay and yes its very own Island, sits just 100 feet from our bedroom windows. The ten, floor to ceiling windows give an unparalleled view of The Lake and its inhabitants. My beautiful wife Julia and I spend many happy hours watching the Lake and it's denizens.
Two of those denizens are a pair of nesting Mute Swans, their nest, resembling a huge volcano of twigs, grasses, leaves, branches and other debris, sits magnificently on the Island, with the female positioned beautifully on her eggs. Meanwhile, the very aggressive Mr Swan patrols The Lake searching for dangers. These perils to his future issue, are apparently everywhere on The Lake, because he can be seen at almost any time pursuing such risky hazards as a pair of ducks, Bill the canoeist, Herb in his Kayak, a pair of Canada Geese with their own three Goslings to take care of and, not to my mind, but apparently to his mind, other Lake occupants that jeopardize his offspring.
Today it is raining, a nice soft much needed rain for the seeds that I have just planted, not good weather for working in the garden, but The Lake's water birds see no discomfit in it, in fact they revel in it. There are a plethora of birds out there today, from a very bedraggled looking Harry The Heron, to a trio of male Mallards (No doubt their mates are seated on their future offspring too) and four Canada Geese.
The drama that is taking place right now before our astonished eyes involves the Canada Geese. Our neighbors lawn slopes gently down to The Lakes edge, giving easy access to their grass by all the Birds of The Lake and enjoyed most often by the Canada Geese. There are two pairs of Geese on The Lake right now, one pair as I mentioned earlier has 3 delightful babies, the other pair are "childless", but the pair without babies seem to stay fairly close to the Geese with the babes. All seven geese - the four adults and the three Goslings - are on the lawn right now, the two groups separated by maybe 50 feet. They are all plodding around, poking their beaks into weeds and under logs and nibbling at the grass, the parents watching their progeny carefully and seemingly proudly. Suddenly, they start to honk, all heads are up and looking out at The Lake. Following their anxious gazes we see the male Swan approaching. The geese honk louder and get closer to the little balls of feathers who still don't sense any danger. The Swan moves relentlessly closer, I get my shoes ready in case I have to intervene on behalf of the helpless chicks. The Swan has reached the shoreline, I've never seen him come up onto the land to chase the Geese before and he doesn't this time either. Instead, he stands uncomfortably close, in the shallow water, alternately preening himself and eating the underwater weeds. When he moves closer to land the Geese become even more agitated and the childless pair take the initiative and move towards the Swan, putting themselves between the family and the Swan. Now this is no silly little gesture, because the Swan killed one of the Geese last year and one of this pair has a badly twisted leg that it hops about on, possibly the result of another run in with the attacking Swan. Suddenly one of the Geese goes into the water, not attacking the Swan - he wouldn't stand a chance - but seemingly to draw him away from the others. The Swan takes the bait and terrifyingly begins to chase the foolishly brave Goose. And it is terrifying, if I were smaller than the Swan I cannot imagine putting myself at the receiving end of his anger. And believe me, he is angry, the Goose swims away from the Swan as fast as he can, the Swan swims after him, the Goose swims faster, the Swan starts flapping his wings and running across the water. The six or seven foot wingspan of the Swan is scary even to me (I think I would run if he chased me!) but the sound of the wings and the huge feet crashing against the water, the loud grunting, and the long neck extended way out is dreadful indeed. Finally, with the Swan getting too close the Goose takes off, the Swan takes off too and continues the chase, but the Goose no doubt helped by his fear, gains on the Swan and eventually the Swan lands on the water, now well away from the baby geese. He does not head back that way, not for now anyway. In my mind this was an act of heroism in the animal world.

Enjoy your day, love, David XXX

To read more of my stories about The Lake, and other things, please go to my Blog at www.davidthesilverfox.blogspot.com

Puddles

Every path has a puddle. Into every life some rain must fall. But this is ridiculous, We're walking around in waders and rain gear all the time! And wearing a lifejacket. When will it end?

The Night Herons are back.

Yes the Night Herons that we saw on our pier yesterday were back this evening, two of them, Julia thinks it is a male and a female, but I'm not sure, it was getting dark so I couldn't see them very clearly. I hope to see them tomorrow before it gets too dark. I'll let you know.

Tax Changes.

My understanding of the proposed Obama tax changes are that 91% of us will pay less taxes, 1% will pay more taxes - but that is only the people making over $250,000 a year, and they will only go back to what they were paying before the Bush Administration cut their taxes. (Why did he cut their taxes and not ours?) The other 8% will be paying the same.
This is good because I will be paying less! Even better is that the Obama Administration intends going after those who are evading taxes. (Not avoiding - evading.) Avoiding is legal, even encouraged - it is OK to change things around in your financial life to avoid taxes. It is evading taxes that is frowned upon. There are a lot of people who have set up tax havens in places like The Cayman Islands for the express purpose of evading taxes. This is cheating. Or to put it another way, it is stealing. Stealing from you and me, because if they don't pay the taxes they should be paying, you and I have to pay more to make up for what they are not paying. This I don't like. A lot of people may say "Right on" or "Way to go", hold onto your money, don't give it to Uncle Sam. But they might not say the same thing if they realized that same person has his hand in their pocket - you are paying more taxes because he is paying less! How do you feel about that? Especially as most of these tax cheats are making millions. You, maybe like me are struggling along on $50,000 a year while John Smith is making $4,000,000 a year and because he doesn't want to pay taxes you have to pay more! Does that seem fair to you? It certainly doesn't to me! Tell me what you think. Do you think he should pay less because he is rich? Remember a few years ago some people were saying "Greed is good", well we are not saying it now, greed has almost destroyed us. (I think rich people should pay more taxes not less. The chances are if you are making millions you are making them at the expense of others. A lot of people work hard for $20 an hour, how can someone work a thousand times harder than that? Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfey for example each make around $120 million a year, do you think they work 3,000 times harder than the guy who makes $20 an hour? Yep that's right $120,000,000 a year is about $60,000 an hour. I'm sure they pay their taxes, but there are others out there that make similar amounts and pay hardly any taxes, so you pay them for them! Even Warren Buffet says that the rich should pay more taxes! He said that he legally pays less taxes than his secretary! He also said that it is wrong, but if he is legally able to do that - well. I think he makes up for it by giving huge amounts to charity - he recently gave $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation! But there are other greedy ones out there who are shielding their wealth in tax havens while you pay their taxes. As you can probably tell I'm upset about that and hope that Obama can get them to pay Their Fair Share. Don't you?

Sunshine.

Sunshine, that would be my daughter Sarah, and also my wife Julia. Sarah also means Princess. So on those days that the sun does not shine I have my wife and daughter, so every one of my days is full of sunshine! What more could any guy want? Life is good.

Update on the Harry/Julia Controversy.

I am informed by My Julia that the Heron is called Harry not Julia, she is my one and only Julia. I don't think that she wants to be supplanted by a Heron. So it shall be, the Heron is hereby relegated to his former name of Harry thus it shall always be.

QED.

New Bird on the Block.

We were enjoying our new deck last evening, the sun was doing its wonderful evening thing as it sank slowly into the trees on the other side of The Lake. The sky was turning its usual mix of golds and yellows, ho hum, prior to turning to red and then purple and every other imaginable as well as unimaginable color. When all of a sudden a new bird landed on the pier. We watched, fascinated, there were already a plethora of birds on, in and around The Lake, but this was definitely a new one. He looked a bit like a Heron, but not the Great Blue Heron, with it's long legs, neck and bill. Instead this guy was smaller, chunkier, with shorter legs and a fatter neck, but still very heronesque looking. a quick trip to our Bird Bible - Birds of North America - revealed it to be a Black Crowned Night Heron. Scientific name, Nycticorax nycticorax, and confirmed our observation that he had a heavy body, short thick neck and short legs. (Well short for a Heron I guess, they still looked pretty long to me, not quite Betty Grable legs maybe, but quite presentable) his size was listed as 20" long with a 44" wingspan, quite a bit smaller than the 38" tall and 70" wingspan of the Great Blue, but again a very respectable size for a bird. By the time we got back from the book and trained our binoculars back on our new visitor, he had been joined by another Black Crowned Night Heron. Yes there were now two on our pier, in our 10 months here we had not to our knowledge seen even one before. These both appeared to be female, but who knows there might be a male out there somewhere. We can only hope.
I have always found size, in birds, to be interesting. Here at The Lake we have birds that range in size from the tiny Wren to the Great Blue Heron, the Swan and the Bald Eagle, quite a range of sizes, but out there in the rest of the World, bird sizes range even more, from the Bee Hummingbird at about 2" long and less than 1/10 of an ounce to the Wandering Albatross at 25 pounds or more and an 11 foot wingspan. If we were to go back thousands or millions of years we would have found even bigger birds, but maybe not smaller.
Today promises to be another beautiful day on The Lake, already the sun has lit up the trees on the other side with its unearthly morning rays and Harry the Heron has found his place on our pier. His stance is one of eerie beauty, he (she? Because with the long neck, long legs and beautifully slim body Harry is certainly more evocative of a female.) reminds me of someone, and I am trying to remember who. I'm running some long legged, long necked film stars through my mind but can come up with none more beautiful than my very own Julia. So should I rename Harry, Julia? Would she be flattered? I hope so and I think so. Julia it is. Well Julia just took off and flew to one of her favorite hunting grounds for breakfast about 200 feet to the left of the pier. Some unfortunate minnow or sunfish is about to become breakfast for Julia.
Meanwhile back at Sunset Cottage it is time for me to take my Julia her morning cup of tea, after which she will serve me up a nice breakfast, not a Minnow or Sunfish I hope.
Have a wonderful day,

Love David XXX

That Would Be Me.

Husband of Julia, Father of Sarah, Grandfather of Bradley, Zachary and Jonny, Son of Percy and Joan, Brother of Mary, Brother-in-law of Tony, Uncle of Lucy and David, wow I don't even know how the say the rest - Great Uncle, Grandson etc. Friend of ...gosh how could I name them all? What a lucky son of a gun I am!

David.

Bias.

We all have it, and if you don't think you do, well lets face it, you are biased.
One of Murphy's laws states that, "Enough research will confirm your theory." OK. so I made that up. But it works for me.
You , or I, might give more weight to some evidence, or ignore other evidence, if we are embarrassed about it, or if we are stubborn, or for religious reasons, or superstitions, or traditions, or different views of the world or some other ideology. Or maybe you just don't like to admit making a mistake. I've met people like that! And so have you, we all have.
I might have a bias based on geography - I'm from the UK. "The UK can do, and never did do, any wrong."
We will point out any details that support our theory and ignore any that are contrary to it.
It's hard to be impartial. My Grandfather was on jury duty once, I'd hate to have had him on my jury, he said, "I could see as soon as they brought him in that he was guilty."
Tolstoy cleverly said, "The most difficult subjects can be explained to even to most slow witted man if he has not formed any idea on that already, but the simplest thing cannot be explained to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already without a shadow of a doubt what is laid before him."
I think we have a "gatekeeper" in our minds, this gatekeeper lets in beliefs and facts that we already agree with and shuts out those we don't.
An example - Hostile Media, you hear about it all the time, you expect the media to be hostile to your view, and it is, no matter what side you are on, if anything differs to your views, they are hostile.
A Republican will be biased toward a Conservative view, a Democrat will be be biased toward a Liberal view. And never the twain shall meet.
Or how about the placebo effect, if you have a smart doctor who acts as though the treatment he is giving you will work, it probably will. On the other hand if your doctor says "Try this, it might work, if it doesn't we'll try something else." Guess what, it likely won't work!
Bias, unfortunately we have to live with it, it is in all of us. Some more than others, it goes without saying that we should try to reduce those biases, and at least TRY to listen to the other persons point of view. Well that's my opinion anyway!
David, I love you anyway. XXX (But then I'm biased because you are lovable - because you read my blog)

Back to "If a man is tired of The Lake he is tired of life."

I have talked about the weather of The Lake including the sunsets going from yellow to gold to red to purple. I have also touched on the wildlife - mostly the birds, from the Eagle and the Ospreys to the Geese, the Swans and the various Ducks. Now I'd like to just mention another aspect of The Lake that makes it unforgettable and impossible to tire of, the fish. But first, Ratty the Muskrat gets a mention. Ratty comes out of The Lake from time to time, and when he is out he likes to wander around on the lawn near the water, chewing and poking around in the grass. He looks like a little Beaver and is in fact in the same family. It is a pleasure indeed to watch him. (Or her?) But back to the fish, I guess a list of the fish that I have caught in The Lake would be the first order of business, and here it is, the most common is the White Perch, but I have also caught Yellow Perch, Catfish, Carp, Sunnies, Minnows and even a Bluefish once. A new fish has just appeared on the scene - The Shad, I'm pretty sure that they are Shad, I have looked them up on the Internet and they look just like the pictures, so I'm pretty sure they are Shad. As The Shad is almost extinct on the East Coast I have put them all back (I have caught three so far) so maybe they will make a comeback, we can only hope. the only other catch from The Lake that I can think of now and one of the most important, is The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab! Yum!

Happy Mothers Day, Love David XXX

Rain.

Yep, it rained again today, I think that is either the 10th or 11th straight day with rain. Did the Earth turn on it's axis? Have we changed positions with the UK? We just had someone here from the UK, she said that the weather in the UK has been great this year, day after day of sun, and it has rained every day since she has been here (for a week and a half.) She goes back in a week and says she can't wait to get back to warm days and sunshine!
Something is wrong somewhere, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Global Repositioning?

Confused Dave

Guns

Wow, surely you are not going to critisize guns are you?
Am I?
Well, I just saw this story that said that over 250 CHILDREN have been shot in Chicago this year. That is just children and just Chicago and just this year!!!
Tell me again why it is so important for there to be so many guns?
And why do children have to have them?
I know "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," and all that BS! But it would be a heck of a lot harder to kill people if there wern't so many guns. It would be especially hard for kids to kill other kids without a gun to do it. I know, I know, it's our right. What does it matter if a few kids die, as long as we can have our guns?

Terrorists

This post may be disliked by some, but it is not intended as a criticism, more like an observation.
Terrorists are financed in large part by Americans and Europeans. Huh? Yes terrorists are financed by illegal drug production & sales and as the US probably buys more illegal drugs than anyone - terrorists are financed in large part by Americans, much of it by teenagers. The drug money buys weapons and pays the terrorists. This amounts to substantial financial support.
The same thing goes - to a greater or lesser extent - for anyone who uses oil! And by our unwillingness to be in any way inconvenienced in the slightest. That's all of us. That is because oil revenues support regimes that hate us, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria and to a lesser extent Russia. The only thing we can do to mitigate this danger is use less oil.
So when you decide to buy that bigger house or bigger car or make an unecessary trip or leave the engine running or turn the heat up or turn the A/C down, remember the extra gun or ammunition or bomb that extra oil revenue will buy the terrorist who has someone we love in their sights!
Yes, it's nasty, but think about it, it's also true isn't it? I'm not the nasty one here, just because I'm saying something you don't like - they are - and it IS in our power to cut them off from at least some of their revenue.

The now Unpopular Dave. (But think again about what I said, it is true, and it is possible for us to hit them where it can stop them, in their bank accounts.)

I Love You, David XXX

Bumper Stickers.

Bumper Stickers, remember them? I saw one the other day and realized that they are virtually extinct! When was the last time you saw a bumper sticker? Some people used to have their bumpers virtually covered with stickers. Now it is a rarity to see one.

When a man is tired of London - - -

Yesterday, I gave a description of 24 hours weather on the Lake. Today I would like to tell you why "When a man is tired of The Lake he is tired of life." This time I will tell you about the wildlife - and I don't mean parties! I saw Harry The Heron on our pier with a HUGE fish in his beak. I mean it was huge, I don't know how he was even holding it and there was obviously no way that he was going to be able to eat it. After a while he took off, the fish was so heavy that he could hardly fly, just barely keeping himself above the water. He landed a couple of hundred feet away in the shallow water and stood there for a while. And stood, and stood. I was watching with another man and we disscussed what was going on in his mind. First, it was very apparent to us that he would be unable to swallow such a huge fish, we decided that having caught it he was reluctant to let it go, maybe he was waiting for it to die when he would TRY to eat it. Eventually he did try, and tried and tried, and then Wow, he swallowed it, he really did, we could see it in his throat, his whole throat was bulging out, he just stood there looking real stupid and real funny with this huge throat. slowly it went down and then it was gone, he had swallowed the whole thing! We could not believe it even though we had seen it with our own eyes.
Next, there are the little Diver Ducks, the cutest little things. Then there are the Osprey, the Sea Gulls, the Canada Geese - who have just yesterday had three little babies! We saw them proudly watching three little balls of fluff bouncing around on the lawn. And of course don't forget the Swans, I guess we'll soon have little Goslings. Then there is the Alligator - no just kidding, no Alligators.
Untill tomorrow, David.

An Amazing Moon . . .

I was going to tell you about this amazing sight, but then I got to thinking about the weather and sights of the last 24 hours or so. You may have heard that saying of Samuel Johnson, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." Well I could say the same thing about The Lake. Yesterday dawned dark, cloudy and brooding. Today the sun is already up and bright, it is obviously going to be a beautiful day. Yesterday it rained, and what a rain, we had 3 inches of rain within a couple of hours, at times I could not see the Lake, sometimes it was so loud it was almost deafening, all the time it was at least distracting. Our bedroom looks out over the Lake, we have ten floor to ceiling windows, it is better than living in front of a huge movie screen. As I sat there I had intended reading a book, but instead I could not take my eyes off of the Lake. The rain was pelting down, and then it was softer, there were patterns on the water surface, then there would be a load roar as a heavy squall would dump itself onto the surface of the water and then against the windows. Then the sun came out.
Earlier - just before the rain started I had put down some grass seed on some bald areas of the "lawn" and covered it with straw. When I went out to check after the rain I could not find a single seed, and most of the straw had washed away too! Then it rained again. Then the sun came out again. At the end of the day Sunset Cottage lived up to its name with another wonderful sunset. By now the Lake was like a sheet of glass.
Then came what I had intended telling you about when I started, The Moon. I awoke at 3.30am and the Lake was lit up almost like day with a huge very bright full moon, there was a "pathway" of silver right across the Lake up to our pier. I went and got our camera, but it is one of those digital things and all I could get was a little dot of white and a thin line of white, nothing. Sometimes the new digital age doesn't live up to its reputation. Oh for my old camera, I could have taken some wonderful shots. I fell asleep and then woke up again at 4.30am, now the moon was very low, just a few degrees above the Lake. It was huge and red and this time there was a red "pathway" across the Lake. I watched fascinated as it dropped further and became a very very large red ball, then I fell asleep again.
Now I have to get going or I am going to be late for work. I just wanted to tell you about that.
Bye Love David XXX

A little fun thing -

When Julia and I went up the Empire State Building in New York, New York, I took a couple of sheets of paper with me and folded up a few paper airplanes. They flew rather well! Sometimes I wonder if they are still up there riding the updrafts.

More rain

This is Maryland, for the first three months of this year we had the least amount of rain in 138 years! Officially and undoubtedly a drought. Well today we are officially out of the drought. And there can be absolutely no doubt about this at all. I had to work outside to get some stuff done yesterday and got soaked. If anyone comes to visit us on The Lake today I think I will have to hand out Life Vests! And that won't be for going out on The Lake, it will just be for walking around in our yard! It has been raining almost non stop for 3 days now and the forecast is for rain on and off for the next 15 days - unheard of -is this the US or the UK?

Rain rain PLEASE go away!

It is STILL raining here, and it is forecast to continue all week! My grandson Bradley says it is going to continue for TWO weeks, I don't think I believe him, BUT I just checked the forecast and he MAY be right, it is indeed calling for very cloudy, rainy weather for the next 15 days!!!! Have we changed places on the globe with the UK? It is just unbelievable that could happen, it is very unusual for rain to continue for more than a day or two here. I need to get outside and clear up the mess out there from the winter. With Spring/Summer about to arrive I want to get rid of the dead things, a pile of dead branches by my outside fire pit, building materials for the deck, the lawn needs mowing - the grass is as high as a miniature elephants legs. A clear up is definitely needed of all the winter debris. Well time to get out the raingear I suppose, being a Brit I should be able to handle working in the rain. As I used to say to my employees when they didn't want to work in the rain, "You're not made of sugar, it won't dissolve you, get on with it. If we didn't work in the rain in the UK we would never have worked!"
So I gotta go and work in the rain now I guess.
David.

Rain rain go away,

Yes, it is still raining here, the contractors came to finish off the deck, but after a couple of hours of working in a steady downpour they gave up and went home.
As the old childhood nursery rhyme says ; -
Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.

(When they have finished the deck would be nice!)

David.

I need a lawnmower.

I am in need of a used push motor mower, so if anyone knows of one in this area available for a good price, please let me know about it. Requirements are that it be working, inexpensive, not self propelled and have a grass collecting bag.

Appreciate it, thank you.

Going Around in Circles.

The Ducks that is! Looking out the window this rainy morning I see a bunch of Ducks in the water just outside of our windows who are literally "Swimming around in Circles!" Why is that I wonder? I don't have an answer, do you? Maybe they are more like us than we realize!

Just a thought, David.

My friends Bill & Jane are heading out today - -

Today, they leave Baltimore, City of Ravens and Orioles, and head first to Detroit, City of Industrial Ruins, then to Amsterdam, City of Bars - and other stuff, finally arriving in London, City of Everything. You name it, London has it, everything - Shopping, such as you have never seen anywhere else, try Harrods for any kind of food, I would bet they even have Elephant steaks. Afternoon Tea. Restaurants with every imaginable cuisine. Shows, the best, we saw The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, The Woman in Black and The Mouse Trap during a 4 day visit. Awesome Transportation - Big Red London Buses, London Taxis, The Underground. Truly as Samuel Johnson once said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life."
I am sure that William & Jane will have a wonderful time, I even wonder if they will want to return to us in Baltimore. Now there is something new for me to worry about! (I am the World's Champion Worrier.)

David

No Ordinary Girl,

That would be Julia of course!
No Ordinary Deck, that would be our new deck, which I hope you will visit soon, it is even better than we had hoped for.
No Ordinary Lake, if you have read any of my past Blogs you already know this to be true. If you haven't read them, please go on and read an assortment and get a feel for The Lake and the Birds and Animals of The Lake.
No Ordinary House, in spite of still being unfinished, this is definitely No Ordinary House, please come and see us and see it for yourself, we'd love to show it to you.
No Ordinary Guy, well THAT is debatable. Feel free to leave a Comment on me!

Leaving a comment is easy.

If you would like to leave a comment on one of my posts it is easy to do. Go to the word 'comments' just at the end/under the Post and click on it. Type your comment in the empty box. Click on the box under and a drop down list appears, select and click on Google if you have a Google Account, if you don't have a Google Account or don't know, select Anonymous. (If you select Anonymous please leave your name in your comment so I know who you are.) Then click Post Comment. It should go, occasionally it will say 'try again', if it does just click Post Comment again and it should go.

Thank you. David

The Eagle has landed . .

. . . a Carp! Yes you read it right, the Bald Headed Eagle that occasionally graces us with it's presence landed a Carp, a big one. I checked it out after he had finished eating and it was 26 inches long. There did not seem to be much point in weighing it because some of the fish was gone - including "The good bits", - ask the Eagle what the good bits were! It is amazing that a bird was able to catch a huge fish like that, drag it struggling, I'm sure it struggled, up out of the water, and carry it to land. Onto my lawn to be precise, where it "had its way with it". When he had finished, an Osprey had a go at it, and then the Buzzards moved in to finish off the remains. Whatever was left disappeared overnight. I later located the remains - by smell - they had been dragged under my shed, presumably by a Raccoon or a Possum. A perfect example of the drama of "The Circle of Life." right here in my own backyard.

Conservatives/Liberals

I'm reluctant to do this post, and I should take time to think about it and develop it, but I'm not a Conservative, although I am in some ways, we all are. My Conservative genes say "Don't do it", but my Liberal genes tell me "Do it.". Which will win? Bush once said "I'm a Conservative, but I'm not a nut about it." I've always liked that statement, one of the few things I've liked about George. If I think about it more, it implies that he thinks Conservatives, or at least some of them, are nuts!
It seems to me that Conservatives always expect disaster, but on the other hand Liberals always expect Nirvana. They can't both be right, in which case they must both be wrong!
I guess there is just no way to join them/us, "Never the twain shall meet", as someone once said, although I don't think he/she was referring to Conservatives and Liberals. But, if we/they don't meet or come to some understanding or agreement then I'm afraid that I fear for our survival.
Our/their differences are great, but if we don't close those gaps, they will only widen and we all know what happens to walls with cracks in them - they fall.
United we stand, divided we fall, then let us unite, join hands with your brother Conservative/Liberal, try to understand them. It is easy to exaggerate our differences - "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives think they deserve everything they've stolen.", "We can all be thankful for something, I'm thankful that I'm not a Liberal / Conservative.". Platitudes, smart sayings, but not at all helpful in cementing the cracks in our society.
I think that I have decided not to do this posting, it would be too divisive, the very thing that I am trying to avoid among us all. So I won't do it. Don't read it!

David, Love, XXX

Curiosity - Grandchildren, curiosity, your, and our, salvation.

Curiosity is one of the most important traits of a genius. I don’t think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Michaeangelo, Albert Einstein, William Weber, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman's adventures in particular came from his curiosity.
But why is curiosity so important? I'm going to list four reasons:-
a) It makes your mind active instead of passive.
Curious people always ask questions and look for answers in their minds. Their minds are always active. The mind is like a muscle which becomes stronger with use, the mental exercise caused by curiosity makes your mind stronger and stronger.
b) It makes your mind notice new ideas.
When you are curious about something, your mind expects and anticipates new ideas. When the ideas come they will be recognized. Without curiosity, the ideas may pass right in front of you and you may miss them because your mind is not prepared to recognize them. Just think of how many great ideas have been lost due to lack of curiosity?
c) It opens up new worlds and possibilities.
By being curious you will be able to see new worlds and possibilities which are normally not visible. They are hidden behind the surface of normal life, and it takes a curious mind to look beneath the surface and discover these new worlds and possibilities.
d) It brings excitement into your life.
The life of curious people is never boring. It’s never dull or routine. There are always new things that attract their attention, there are always new ‘toys’ to play with. Instead of being bored, curious people have an adventurous, more exciting life.
Now, knowing the importance of curiosity, here's how to develop it:
1. Keep an open mind. Wide open. Don't reject ideas. Don't be closed to anything.
You should be open to learn, and relearn. Some things you know and believe might be wrong, and you should be prepared to accept this possibility and change your mind.
This is essential if you are to have a curious mind. Be open to learn, and relearn. Some things you know and believe might be wrong, and you should be prepared to accept this possibility and be prepared to change your mind.
2. Don’t take things for granted.
If you just accept the world as it is without trying to dig deeper, you will lose your curiosity. Never take things for granted. Try to dig deeper beneath the surface of what is around you.
3. Ask questions relentlessly. Like you used to as a child.
A sure way to dig deeper beneath the surface is to ask questions: What is that? Why is it made that way? When was it made? Who invented it? Where does it come from? How does it work? What, why, when, who, where, and how are the best friends of curious people. I don't necessarily mean just ask people, do that too, but "ask" books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, libraries, the internet, any reliable residence of learning and information.
4. Don’t label something as boring. This is too common nowadays.
Whenever you label something as boring, you close one more door of possibilities. Curious people are unlikely to call something boring. Instead, they always see it as a door to an exciting new world. Even if they don’t yet have time to explore it, they will leave the door open to be visited later.
5. See learning as something fun.
If you see learning as a burden or a chore, you won't want to dig deeper into anything. That will just make the burden heavier. But if you think of learning as something fun, you will naturally want to dig deeper. So look at life through the glasses of fun and excitement and enjoy the learning process..
6. Read diverse kinds of things. Different, unusual, not what you "normally" read. Spread your self out - and your mind.
Don’t spend too much time on just one world; take a look at other worlds. It will introduce you to the possibilities and excitement of the other worlds which may spark your interest to explore them further. One easy way to do this is through reading diverse kinds of reading. Try to pick a book or magazine on a new subject and let it feed your mind with the excitement of a new world.
One more thing, don't just listen to "music" for hours on end, read, learn, enjoy life. Do something, anything, else.
Oh, yes and One More Thing, Remember I Love You. Grandy XXX

Liquid Sunshine.

We seem to have been getting a lot of this years rare commodity lately. The first three months of the year it was very rare, with a 138 year low, but although April appears to be making up for it, with almost double the normal amount, we are still low on liquid sunshine for the year. Enjoy it little flowers, as the heat of a Maryland summer approaches and threatens to dry and shrivel you up along with all of us. Maryland summer arrived last week when temperatures suddenly soared to 90 degrees for 3 days and we were all sweating and looking for summer clothes to put on. Julia started frantically putting winter clothes in boxes and asking me to bring down boxes of summer stuff. Now Maryland has done it to us again, from a high of 92 on Tuesday to a high of 58 on Wednesday, as usual we don't know what hit us. Julia has stopped putting winter away and doesn't know whether to get winter stuff out again or not! The contractors were shivering out there yesterday in their T shirts and shorts whereas only a day earlier they had been frantically downing Big Gulps loaded with ice, pouring ice water on towels wrapped around their heads and bemoaning the lack of sunburn lotion and their burned necks and shoulders. Ah, Maryland, yes this is Maryland, where, "If you don't like the weather, hang around for 15 minutes and it will change." is our Mantra.

Enjoy, David.

Whirled Peas!

With our new President making such a positive impression on Countries and Leaders around the World it seems to me that the time may be right to take advantage of this new found friendship and idealism for him to invite Representatives of every Country in the entire World to meet and try to work out some form of co-operation in at least a few of the problems common to the whole World. He could make some suggestions for discussion, such as Climate Change, Pollution, Energy Use, Etc, and invite the other Countries to make suggestions. Maybe a committee of a few representatives from each Continent could meet to select a list of things to discuss. Each Country could be invited to submit say 5 topics to be considered. Obviously only a limited number of topics could be discussed, there simply would not be enough time to discuss every subject put forward by every Country, but a number - say 20 or 50 - could be selected by the selection committee. (Surely many Countries would have the same choices.) So that there was at least a chance for every idea to be chosen, all of the subjects not chosen by the committee could be put in a barrel and 10 more pulled out at random - in front of witnesses - on TV. These 10 could then be added to the subjects already selected.
In this way every Country could join in with their ideas to solve or improve the Worlds problems. This would not mean that any ideas hammered out had to be put into effect, just that countries come together and pool their best ideas.
Some ideas may be so obvious or so good that they could be implemented right away by some people. Some countries might want to implement some of the ideas to solve their individual problems or combine and solve each others problems by working together. May be one country has something to dispose of and another country is looking for it. (A real simple example, I had 20 bags of cement that got wet and I needed to get rid of, how to get rid of 20 bags of cement? Take and put them in someones dumpster? I told everyone that I saw and lo and behold a neighbor had a hole that they needed to fill in. Two problems solved at once!) (One person has a huge pile of leaves he wants to get rid of, someone else wants something to make compost with for their garden. Instead of a trip to the dump for one person and a trip to get compost material for someone else, the two are combined and two problems solved.) Small examples of what can happen if we talk to each other. There is no reason this shouldn't happen on a global scale- if we would only talk to each other. Any success would get World Wide attention and encourage even more co-operation.

Just an idea from a simple man with Liberal ideas who thinks that simple ideas like Co-operation and Tolerance could go a long way to making this world a better place to live in, even if it were practised unilaterally. Good often rubs off on the people around you - ever noticed how you tend to go out of your way to see the girl or the guy who always smiles at you and says something nice and try to avoid the one who is always sulking and complaining?

Love from David.XXX

Good Morning Grey Day.

Yes it is a grey day here today. (Or should that be gray? When does one use Grey and when Gray, or are they totally interchangeable?) The Lake is very wet looking! In fact it has started to rain.
An update on the Birds of the Lake. The two Canada Geese continue to be highly visible, the big male Swan continues to chase them off almost continually. The Osprey are conspicuous by their absence. The egret(s) are still here, I am actually only seeing one but as there were two initially I am going to assume that the female is sitting on the nest somewhere. The ducks are here, but not as many as I have often seen, the Swan also chases them off, so maybe that is the reason. I expect things will return more to normal once the swan cygnets are born. I know where the Swans nest is now and if the rain stops Bradley and I could row down there to see it. Larry came today with the railings for the deck and they are installing them in the rain! Well the rain is welcomed by the garden anyway, the lawn, trees, bushes seeds and everything else will be happy to see it.
Time for breakfast. Bye. David.

Good Morning Sunshine.

Up early today as Bradley has to be at school by 7.00. Is it just me or does that seem rather early? I shouldn't complain though because I would probably advocate something like this if I had the choice, "To make them lazy teenagers see what the real world is going to be like when they have to go to work." Oh boy does that ever sound like my Grandparents! Now I KNOW I'm a Grandfather!
When I looked out at The Lake this morning I saw a very raw, grey sky and a slightly rippled grey Lake surface. Harry The Heron was standing just to the right of my pier - Harry is an early riser - and a 'piece of wood, that looked to be about 10' long' was floating the the left of the pier. Wait, it was floating very fast and within seconds had floated under the pier. It did not emerge from the other side, I think it must have been a Muskrat. I saw him last week swimming away from the pier, the last time I saw a Muskrat here was maybe 20 or 30 years ago when we used to come here with Sarah at weekends. I'm pretty sure it's not the same one! Well gotta go and get Bradley off to school.

Late post

I had to run that last post even tho it is late and I have to get up early to take Granson Bradley to school because I got so many e-mails asking me where my Blog for the day was.
I promise to try not to miss agin. I have some more news about The Lake but it will have to keep until tomorrow. Good nite everyone.

GPS

A very short Blog today, I worked all day and our Grandson Bradley is going to be staying with us for a week while Sarah, Roy, Zach and Jonny go to Disney World.
The GPS, how have I survived for 67 years without it? If you don't have one and have resisted getting one, as I did, thinking "I know how to read a map, I don't need that", well I am now officially a convert. It is not perfect, but like me, it is close! I have only had it for a couple of months but it may have paid for itself already in saved gas and saved time, by not being lost. Also you don't have to keep stopping to look at a map. Working in and around D.C. as I do now, there are not a lot of places to pull over! It will even direct you to the nearest Starbucks!
In short, the GPS is the best thing to come along since sliced bread.

Today dawned bright and clear.

I woke late today, it was past 6.00 and the sun was already up. The Lake was bathed in it's bright light and there were four ducks splashing and paddling around right in front of us. Most of the larger birds seem to have gone, I haven't seen an Osprey in a week or two and it's been at least a week since the last Great Blue Heron graced our pier or the waters around it. Where do they go? The Cormorants also seem to have abandoned us, I miss their little heads and necks moving around the Lake disappearing as they dive and reappearing 20 to 30 seconds later. Much nicer than the pop ups we get on our computers! I was concerned when there were so many of them that they would eat all of 'our' fish. But it would appear they know how it works better than we do. I was especially intrigued the way that a flock of them swimming on the Lake would usually all be facing the same way and would often almost all dive together, and the way at least one would stay up - a look out? Well at least the ducks are still here, and I did see one of the pair of Egrets yesterday. And of course the big male Swan is still patrolling. I must do some research and try to find out where the birds go, when the baby Swans will appear and a host of other things that I would like to know. Julia just wants to know when those baby Cygnets are going to be here.

Don't forget - -

The world is not just given to us by our Fathers, it is also borrowed from our Children. Would you cheat your Children? I thought not, I want to keep "our" World as nice as I can for my Children and Grandchildren. And hey, Grandchildren, that applies to you too! One day you will have Children and Grandchildren, make sure you leave the World in at least as good a condition as you found it. Start NOW!
Hows this for a thought - if you make the World better in one way, you make it better in every way. I bet you can think of a way to make the World better. Now all you have to do is do it!

The Greatest Show

Yes it's a great Show on The Lake again this morning, the blue sky and the white clouds and the peach and pink colors of the sunrise are all reflected in the not quite perfectly still water. There are some small ripples ruffling the surface.
But the Greatest Show was last night, we had the most fantastic lightening show I think I have ever seen in my life - and I am 67 years old (I know, I know, I don't look it do I?) - I watched sheets of lightening lighting up the sky over and over again. There were some 'lines' of light going from clouds to ground, or ground to clouds, whichever way it is they go, some of which were huge, but mostly it was sheets. There were even some lines of light that went horizontally. The really eerie thing about the show was - there was no sound! We never heard even a slight rumble, it was just light, like a TV show with the sound turned off. I watched for more than an hour before I fell asleep.

Just a thought

Here's a thought that just popped into my mind after hearing the latest news about President Obama's latest exploits. Apparently it's NOT OK to shake hands with your enemies, but it IS OK to Waterboard them!

The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is 150 years old today, Happy Birthday Suez. Groundbreaking ceremonies were on this day in 1859. I remember it well! Sometimes I feel that old, but not today, today I feel fine. Which is just as well because I have lots to do today. And I have to get on with it now, starting with a cup of tea for Julia . . . gotta go.

Reflections . . .

. . . . in The Lake, or is it on The Lake? Whatever, or Whichever, there it is, or they are. All over it. Perfect reflections, the reflections in my mirror aren't any more perfect. On the right side of The Lake is the reflection of my neighbors pier with his two white Adirondack chairs carefully placed on the end. If I look out again in a short while there's a good chance that I'll see my neighbor Bill sitting there, holding his coffee and possibly with his wife Janice sitting next to him. Right now without them the whole scene is repeated upside down in The Lake. I'm hoping that they arrive soon, while it is still too calm to believe because I want to see what they look like upside down, in pink, yep, in pink. Not only is the water completely still and unruffled it is pink, from the colors of the sunrise, there are no clouds either so the pink is not even interrupted by different colors as it often is. No it is a perfect sheet of pink. Soon, very soon, the ripples will appear and the scene will be lost. No, not lost, changed. Even now it is changing, no, not with ripples, except right in the center, where the big white male Swan is gliding across in a perfectly straight line. Where is he headed? I think I see, on the other side of the Lake are two Canada Geese. He is about to chase them off. This is a scene that is repeated over and over on a daily basis. We assume that the Swan has a nest, we don't know where yet, and he cannot stand having any big birds anywhere near it. Near it must mean anywhere on the Lake which is quite large at 40 or 50 acres, because he chases them off wherever they are. He must have already scared off the pair of Egrets that arrived at The Lake about two weeks ago, because we haven't seen them in several days, and there are hardly any Ducks left. But the Canada Geese persist and the reason for this is quite obvious to us, but not to the Swan. One of the Geese has a badly damaged leg, when they are on land he/she has to hop around with the afflicted leg bent up under it. They come up onto the lawn fairly often to eat the grass - sometimes I wonder if I will need to mow the lawn this year! - and of course they are quite safe from the Swan on the land as I have never seen the big bully come up onto the land. But it would seem that the two Geese are trapped here. Maybe the one with the injured leg cannot fly either, I've never seen them fly, and they say that these geese mate for life. As all the other Canada geese have long gone and these are the only two remaining we are thinking that the bad one cannot fly and it's spouse is staying with it. How touching is that?
Well the sun has done it's work, the ripples are appearing all over the Lake, Bill and Janice didn't come out with their early morning coffee today, but they will another day.

Getting up.

Someone who just lost his job and is busy trying to get back on his feet said - and I quote - "Its not how you fall down, it's how you get up".

I would add something to that, concerning the monster who just killed his wife, his 19 and his 11 year old daughters, and himself in a Towson hotel. I assume as he had "lost everything" he felt that he would be unable to continue to send his 19 year old to college, would be unable to send his 11 year old to college and his wife would have to "go without" . Well, I can almost , almost, but not quite, understand why he would kill himself, but not his family. I am SURE that his wife and daughters would rather be on welfare than dead! Here is where that person who just lost his job said it so well, "It's not how you fall down, but how you get up that counts." And any way, other than the way that man chose would be better, than the way he did choose. Get up in the best possible way, and that way is any other way than that man chose, I'm pretty sure that his wife and children would have helped him. Enough, I can't say any more, I am too upset.

Failure

Failure is not fatal. But, failure to change could be!

Smells.

This is a LONG posting - probably 10 times as long as any I have posted before! If you are new to my Blog you might want to skip this one and try a few of the shorter ones, this one covers a lot of my youth!!!!


“I’m smelling again Mum.” Announced my sister Mary. “Well, you’d better have a bath then.” Said my mother.

What my sister meant of course was that she was finally getting over a cold and could once again smell things, not that she herself was smelly.

This got me thinking about smells, especially the smells of my youth.

Unlike today (2009) when everything is wrapped and double wrapped or bottled and it is possible to go into a supermarket selling a thousand or five thousand different things and not be able to smell any of them, back then when you went into the local store there was a multitude of odors. There was the carbolic soap (yuck), the Imperial Leather soap (yum), or my mother’s favorites – Lily of the Valley, Evening in Paris or Lavender.

But there were more than perfumes and soaps to attack your senses. Vinegar for example was sold from a barrel with a tap. It’s sharp smell was almost like a mild smelling salts. Freshly baked bread was a lovely smell, along with butter and cheese that the shop owner would cut with a wire. I was always amazed at how close he could get to the weight he wanted. My mother would ask for a half pound, he’d pull the wire through a huge piece of yellow Cheddar Cheese, put it onto a piece of wax paper on the scale which would read 8 ½ oz or something so close, I didn’t know how he did it. Then he’d briskly announce the price – “10 pence ha’penny, or one and thrupence ha’penny, O.K?”

Most things were sold loose – sugar, flour, dried peas or beans, and he would weigh them out in a sort of scoop on the scale. Some of the ‘more modern’ scales had a face that showed the weight but the older ones still used weights, he would put an 8oz brass weight on one side and then pour the sugar or whatever into the scoop until they balanced. Often he would actually make a bag! A few quick folds of a sheet of paper and he had a bag in his hand, the sugar would be poured into the bag from the scoop and he would quickly fold the paper down all the way around to close it up. He didn’t even use sticky tape to close it, he’d just push the edges under each other and it was tight enough that you never worried about it spilling in your shopping bag. Your own shopping bag that was, you took your own bags with you. I don’t remember getting bags from the store to carry your purchases home. Everyone used his or her own bags. We often used string bags that my Grandmother, Little Nanny, had knitted or crocheted. They were great because they were lightweight and folded up to almost nothing. You could stuff one in a pocket or put several into another bag. They would conform to whatever you wanted to put into them. Basically they were holes surrounded with string! She would crochet them out of string, most were white, but one of my favorites was green. They were immensely strong, we’d often carry potatoes, onions, meat and all kinds of things weighing I’m sure as much as 50 lbs in one bag. There always seemed to be room for more, they just stretched and stretched.

But back to the smells, at home I remember the coal fire, bread toasting over the fire on a brass toasting fork that my father had made himself. Chestnuts and potatoes roasting in the ashes. We had a chimney sweep there once and I can remember the smell of the soot.

Kippers smelled good, although I didn’t like eating them because of all the bones. A small piece of kipper seemed to produce a huge plateful of bones.

Another vivid memory is the smell of French polish and Linseed Oil around my Grandfather who was a woodworker ‘extraordinaire’. I remember once that he refinished a table for a neighbor, she had left a cigarette – revolting habit – perched on the edge of an ashtray and it had fallen onto the table unnoticed and burned its whole length while laying there, resulting in a three inch long burn in their beautiful table. My Grandfather, Thomas Howard Nethercott, sanded the burn, feathering the edges out and then doing his magic, mixing and applying the French polish to a perfect match. Then, also being a crafty old man, he turned the table 180 degrees so that the repaired end was at the opposite end. When the amazed owners examined the table they were unable to find where the repair was! A perfect match. A crafty devil was my Granddad. I could tell you a few stories about him, if I had time, well maybe just a couple of quick ones. During the First World War he was in the trenches of France and he told me that his boots had worn out, or maybe they rotted out because the trenches were deep in water and mud and they were in them 24/7 as we would say nowadays. Then he told me that he had to kill 8 Germans before he found a pair of boots to fit him! And there was the time, after I had my appendix out at age 10, that he told me about when he had his appendix out – “With a rusty bayonet in the trenches.”

However his son once told me that when he was in Turkey, after the Gallipoli campaign – one of Winston Churchill’s deadly mistakes in judgment – he had actually given his spare pair of boots to a Turkish prisoner who had no boots. Aside to my Grandchildren here, please read about the First World War as well as the Second World War and don’t forget to read about Gallipoli – a particularly horrendous campaign. You need to know about all these mistakes. So that you don’t make the same mistakes that we made. Even tho’ we do of course keep making them, over and over and over, will we never learn? Unfortunately it is you young people who have to suffer because us older ones are unable to do our jobs. Because politicians can’t do their jobs (which is to get along with each other) our young men and women have to be maimed and die.

Enough of my soap boxing. Back to smells. Not too many memories of them right now. Oh yes, there’s the smell of the horse manure that we would rush out to scoop up when the milkman’s horse obliged close by. That delightful product would go onto my garden, which in turn reminds me of the smell of the cabbage that I grew in that garden. From there we go to smell of cabbage cooking in the kitchen. That in turn leads to the smell of the small shed/workshop that my father had just outside the kitchen door. In there was the smell of oil and petrol from the small motorcycle that he kept in there. Also in there was the wood sledge that he had made for me. We would take the sledge up onto the hill behind our house in Paulsgrove. Portsdown Hill, at 400 feet high was a perfect place for an exciting afternoon. I can still smell the hot, dry, dusty grass where our sled runs were. There were at least a dozen runs, varying from the mild ones, that were strictly “for the kids”, they became gradually steeper and steeper until we reached the steepest one that we called the Cresta Run. The Cresta Run was only for the bravest of us. This was the one we used – we being my friends Charles Tickner and Colin ? and of course Dad. My sister Mary was pretty adventurous at times but I’m not sure if she ever rode the Cresta Run.

Strangely enough I don’t remember the smell of freshly mown grass, surely one of the strongest and most wonderful smells. Although we did have a small lawn I don’t ever remember mowing it. Did we cut it with shears? I really don’t remember, would it smell the same?

We lived close to the sea, and many of my smell memories are of the sea. A few miles away on the south side of Portsmouth was the seaside area known as Southsea, a wonderful, wonderland of a beach. Not your boring old sand beach but a mixture of smooth stones, sand, rocks, seashells, stones with holes worn through them by the sea, sea weed, beautiful pieces of glass worn smooth by the waves and a host of other wonders, an absolute paradise for a small boy. And the smells, the salty air from the waves breaking onto the beach and the tangy smell of the seaweed which is still in my nose, its almost as if I were there right now. Even in the winter when we would go there the huge waves were like waves of the best smells that you can imagine as they crashed onto the stones dragging them this way and that in a cacophony of sound better than the best composer or orchestra could come up with. I could listen to it and inhale the odors for hours. In fact I used to take my daughter Sarah down there in her wheelchair in 1975 to eat lunch after the accident in which she broke both of her legs when she was 3 years old. I hope she can still remember those sad but exciting days.

As I said before, we lived close to the sea, if you went in almost any direction to the South, East or West you came to the sea and its wonderful smells and sounds. Different places had vastly different smells. To the West was Portchester Castle, surrounded on three sides by mud and the sea. Another wonderland for a small boy, Portchester Castle went back centuries, but when I was a small boy it was just another place that I took for granted. The vacation spot of Hayling Island was to the East with its half sand and half stone beaches. Even further to the East was Thorney Island with its old World War Two Airfield. Reed beds and salt marshes that were full of birds surrounded Thorney Island, but there were no beaches. The smells from the reeds was different again from all the other seaside smells. The airfield had old WWII planes parked there. I remember an old Lancaster Bomber, and there were others planes, but I don’t remember the smells of them.

Closer to our home at 109 Ludlow Road in Paulsgrove was Langston Harbour. The City Of Portsmouth was on Portsea Island. This Island was surrounded by the sea and mudflats, in fact at low tide it would have been possible, at least in theory to walk across, in actual fact you would have sunk in the mud and drowned. This did happen to one of my classmates, Barry Briggs, when I was about 9 years old. Stranded on the mudflats was a German submarine; you could see it when the tide was low. Another sight from my youth that I took for granted, it was just there, ‘the German submarine’; now of course I wish that I had known more of the circumstances surrounding it’s sinking. Did it sink or did it just become grounded when it tried to go through between Portsea Island and the mainland, or was it chased in there by the British Navy or towed in. I never knew and have never been able to find out.

The connection between the mudflats and the title of this story is the smell of the mudflats. Whereas the smell of the sea and the seashore has always been a delight to my senses I was never quite sure about the smell of those mudflats! Their smell was strong, very strong; I don’t think that I liked it, could it be because it reminded me of the demise of my classmate Barry? The thought of him drowning in that mud has always horrified me but I don’t think that is the reason for my dislike of it’s strong smell. Possibly it was because I found them unattractive. When the tide was low there were miles and miles of soft black mud, inaccessible, smelly, ugly. Anyway it certainly ranks among one of the smells of my youth. Definitely not one of my favorites, but one of the many.

The fourth direction from our house was North; to the North was the English Countryside. I have already mentioned Portsdown Hill and its memories of smells of hot summer days sledding down its slopes but once you were over the top of that 400 foot high hill and could no longer see the sea and the Islands of the south coast of England you descended into the true English countryside. Little lanes, tiny villages, hedgerows, farms, fields of corn, sheep and cows. When we were young my parents would often take my sister and I for a walk “Over the hill.” The ‘over the hill’ smells were many, is there room to list them all? Lets try to list just a few. Of course the farms supplied most of the more memorable ones, the cows and the sheep especially, there were a lot of sheep. As my good friend Larry Mossman commented once when we visited England with our wives in the 1990’s “England floats on sheep shit.” Some of the farmhouses had duck ponds, pooh did they pong! The fields provided more gentle smells, the smells of England’s lovely wild flowers, primroses, bluebells, cowslips, and a hundred more that I can see in my minds eye and smell in my minds nose! We would sometimes stop in a farmer’s field for a picnic, fields of corn, barley or beans. Other times we would explore a little village, walking around inside the cool church and being lifted up to look over garden walls at the cottage flower and vegetable gardens and once in a while if Dad was feeling flush stopping at a pub where he would have a half pint of beer and we would have a lemonade. There were the wild animals too; sometimes we’d see a fox, and once even a deer. But there were no smells that I can remember of the wild animals, except the dead ones. One of the birch woods that we would walk through had a gamekeeper’s house in it. Hanging all along the fence were rows of dead crows, foxes and other animals. We’d always hurry past that.

It sounds now as if we had a wonderful time on these walks, and I think we did but I often wonder if my parents thought we did. I can remember many of our ‘moans’, “Are we there yet?”, “Can I have a drink?”, “My feet hurt.”, “Can you carry me?”, “When are we going home?”, “How much further is it?”, “I’m tired.”, And so on!
But we did enjoy them, I don’t know how far we used to walk, several miles I’m sure, and we did walk. I suppose we got the bus back sometimes, but I don’t remember going on the bus much, I suspect we walked all the way most of the time. It certainly did us no harm.

What smells will my Grandchildren remember when they grow up? I hope some of them will be of the flowers from our garden at Dock Road, the Southern Magnolia, the Sassafras Trees, and the hundred other trees, flowers and bulbs that grow there. The smell of their dog probably and of their Camper by the river where they spend some of their weekends.

I hope they have as many happy ‘smelly’ memories of their youth as I do.


David.

A special Birthday breakfast, and card game, and dinner.

Yesterday, Wednesday, brought forth a birthday invitation for Julia, - and myself because I don't let any opportunities pass me by if I can possibly help it - for a birthday lunch, from our friends Jane & Bill Weber. Even more than this, when Julia was talking to Jane about the arrangements Julia explained that I would be going to the Doctors for some blood tests between 8.00 and 9.00 am, and could not have anything to eat first. Jane said well come over for breakfast straight from the Doctors. So began a delightful Wednesday. As usual with us, we were late getting there, I am sure that it has never happened to you, but sometimes I have to wait for my Doctor! So as it was past 10.00 o'clock already and Lunch time was fast approaching we all decided on a small breakfast of toast and coffee. Well of course the toast had to have butter and marmalade (British Marmalade from Fortnum And Masons yet!) And Jane decided that a cup of Yogurt each would go down well, they arrived loaded with raspberries and then some bowls of walnuts and sunflower seeds to put on it. And don't forget the fresh brewed coffee. I think it was a plot to beat us at cards which we played a few hands of after the sumptious breakfast. But if it was a plan, it backfired, because Julia won the card game and I came in a distant second - which doesn't say much for Jane and Bill's positions in the standings. Then again maybe it wasn't a plan to beat us. I think they may have let us win because we were their guests.
Dinner was at an Italian Restaurant in Severna Park called the Cafe Mezzanotte, and we had a wonderful lunch there. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. The food and service were both excellent and I reccomend it. After lunch we sat for an hour or two and completely solved the worlds problems, so don't worry, the World's wars and economic problems and worries are all behinds us now - if our plans can only be put into effect.
Jane had an appointment so we reluctantly had to leave and return home.
At home Larry and his new helper Mark had worked through the rain and got more of the deck completed.
In the evening we watched a DVD entitled 'Portrait of a Marriage', and went to bed at about midnight.

Morning has risen.

Last night we had another wonderful sunset, it is a pity we only get 365 of them a year. I try not to miss any of them. If I am out I try to get back in time to not miss it. This morning, if possible, the sunrise was even better. You may wonder how I can see both the sunset and the sunrise over The Lake. Well the sunrise is not actually over The Lake, but the effects are clearly there. The sun hits the trees on the other side of the Lake as it rises and makes a gradually widening and lengthening band as it rises higher. The effect is gradual but fast, the changes are much faster than the sunset, and if you avert your eyes for even a minute or two you can miss amazing things. This morning the smoothness of the Lake was blotched with a series of what appeared to be previously undiscovered Islands but which were in fact Islands of tree pollen floating on the Lake. Many of the trees must have dumped huge amounts of pollen over night, because I had not seen it before. Soon the Lake's surface began to form ripples and it was not long before the whole Lake was covered with small waves. This broke up the pollen and the "Islands" disappeared. Now the whole Lake is bright with sunshine - almost as bright as Julia's smile. Time to get coffee and the paper. David

Don't forget.

Don't Forget : - All of the chemicals that we use in our everyday lives in this area end up in Our Rivers, Our Bay or Our Groundwater. Everything! All of it! Especially all of us who live near the Bay and have septic systems or drain fields. All of you who live in the towns and cities that have sewage treatment plants, please remember that 2/3 of all the chemicals that go into that treatment plant come right out the other side! And the chemical industry is creating hundreds of new chemicals every year - there is no way that the EPA (EPA stands for Encouraging Pollution Agency) can test more than a few of these chemicals. Guess where those chemicals go when they come out of the "treatment" plant - right into our drinking water. After you use it again, putting into it all the chemicals of our 'modern' society, like toothpaste, bleach, bathroom cleaners, dishwasher powder, washing machine soap, Tylenol, toilet bowl cleaners, prescription medicines (All that stuff goes through you and goes into our water when it comes out of you) and thousands of the other chemicals that we put into our water every day, it goes through the "treatment plant " again and the cycle repeats itself, with more of that nasty stuff in your water each time!. You didn't think that they just disappeared did you? No, every time the water is used - and it is used over and over again, it gets another dose of those miracle chemicals that our wonderful society and our wonderful chemical manufacturers tell us we need thousands of times a day, in all the TV, radio, billboard and print ads that we see everywhere. (And we pay for - for every ad that is run WE pay for it! In the form of higher costs for the product!) Unfortunately the only thing that I can see to help ourselves is to try to limit the chemicals that we use. If we use 1/2 of the amount, we have half of those pollutants going into our (And our children's and grandchildren's) drinking water. Stands to reason, if you less of the nasty stuff, that's less of the nasty stuff that you have to ingest! Easy! No brainer! So, I use a quarter inch of toothpaste instead of 1 inch, half the dishwasher powder - try it, I don't see any difference, same with washing machine soap, etc, etc, etc, try to use 1/2 of everything, some things you don't need to use any of. Just use that universal old fashioned cleaner called - elbow grease, you'll feel healthier for it, as well as breathe easier, and drink cleaner water. Be happy, be less stressed, be less polluted, drink less chemicals, drink cleaner water. Be good. Love David XXX

The early morning mist.

This morning there is a heavy morning mist on the Lake on the other side this side there is none. In fact just like yesterday at this time the water is perfectly still, as still as I have ever seen it. The reflections of the trees are so perfect I think that I can see the leaves - or maybe I imagine I can. The mist is clearing already. If I had got up a half hour later I would not have know it had been there. As with yesterday the colors reflected in the water are many, but today they are the same colors as the sky, the pink of the sunrise and the blue of the sky, plus of course the colors of the clouds, whatever that is, it's hard to say what with the sky changing color all the time! The remains of the mist have retreated to a small area to the right far side of the Lake now and it looks like a new Island over there. A piece of wood is floating about 100 feet off of the pier, it looks to be about 10 feet lond and thin, possibly a branch or maybe a 2X4, if it were later in the year I would swim out and retrieve it, but April is still too cold for me to be swimming.
Well I gotta go, I have a Doctors appontment to have some blood taken. I had one last week but was so busy watching the Lake that I forgot and made ny coffee and drank it before I remembered the appointment, so they had to reschedule it as you are not allowed to have anything before blood work. So, just time for a s--t, shower and a shave and another look at the Lake before I leave.
Talk to you later, Love David.

The deck progresseth!

This morning dawned breathtakingly beautiful over the Lake. As it is on many mornings the water was like a mirror, not just smooth, but like silver, well not silver, pink, no not pink, blue, or was it white, or black or . . it's hard to tell. Lets just leave it at breathtaking. It was 5.58 am and as I stood there spellbound, still in my PJ's, a Great Blue Heron flapped lazily in and landed gracefully - well sort of gracefully, for a Great Blue Heron - on our pier. Not a minute later another landed next to the pier in the water, the first one saw him coming and turned his head sharply to watch, then he turned back to watching the water - for breakfast? The second Heron who had landed in the water, walked calmly under the pier (Heron number 1 had his back to Heron number 2 and so could not see him.)Suddenly I saw Heron number one lean way over the edge of the pier and dip his head way down so that he could look under the pier, he had heard the second Heron walking through the water. After a little confusing back and forth they both took off into the sunrise - if that wasn't something to see I don't know what is.
Those Herons are amazing, I'm not sure if they are graceful or awkward or what, sometimes they look as gracefull as a ballet dancer and then they look as gracefull as a new born colt - all legs, going every which way.
The header here says the deck progresseth and it does, the contractor - our friend Larry - arrived and started work. Once again his helper did not show and soon there was much phoneing going on. Later I found out that his helper was no longer his helper! Larry told him no workee, no payee. So Larry is now doing the deck himself.
Back to the more pleasant subject of Great Blue Herons and The Lake. Later on that morning as I sipped my coffee and read the paper, I saw a sudden movement out of the window, by the Lake. Looking out I saw a Heron running along the top of the bulkhead, which is about 8 or 10 inches wide, his wings were half out - for balance? - and his long legs looked like they were caught in an egg wisk. But what really caught my attention was my immediate impression that a small dinosaur was running along the top of my bulkhead! At first glance it looked exactly like one of the Raptors in Jurrasic Park. Soon it reached the end of the bulkhead, jumped down into the water and continued running, in the water, until it reached my neighbors house where it ran up onto the lawn and stopped. Then it just stood there completely still. Finally I got tired of watching and went back to my paper, when I looked up a few minutes later it had gone.
In the afternoon the stump grinder man arrived with his $54,000 machine - that surprised me too, until I got the bill for the stump grinding! He removed 5 stumps that I was afraid would put my mower out of action if I missed seeing one of them in the long grass. They had been cut off to only 3 or 4 inches high, which seems real nice at first, until you start mowing and can't see them. Last year I had hit one and it did the mower no good at all! In fact I need to get new blades, it bent them, I straightened them out somewhat but not completely. So it wobbles and shakes. A sixth stump, the biggest one, had been cut off to about about 18 inches high. I built my firepit around it and after burning several fires the stump has completely gone. I considered burning the other away in the same fashion but didn't want to have 5 more dead areas of lawn 8 feet in diameter dotted about over the lawn.