Going to Scotland

Darce cashed in some of his frquent flier miles, so we're going to Scotland Oct 5-18! Our niece and her family live in Helensburgh, near Glasgow, so we'll stay with them. We're also making a side trip to Ireland Oct 10-13.

I knew my great-grandmother (Della - mom's dad's mom) was born in Ireland, but I wasn't sure where. I found them in MN censuses, but it only said Ireland as birthplace. Noodling around some of the genealogy chats, I saw a few postings about someone who turned out to be Della's aunt - her father's sister. I wrote to them, and voila - turns out he's my third cousin once removed! Della (called Delia there, plus Delia is a pet name for Bridget, which explains why some of the censuses sometimes said Bridget.)

Mom always called us Moi Cushle, which in Gaelic means "My Heart" - she said her dad had called her that. :-) I'll bet Della called Grandpa that, too. (He died before I was born.) I was pretty tickled when I figured out what it meant - it's a pretty nice thing to be called!

So, I know now that Great Grandma (who died in 1929, before Mom was born) was born in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, Ireland. They emigrated about 1873 :-) Another third cousin once removed owns a B and B in Knock, so we'll stay there a couple of nights, driving there from Dublin. It will be a lot of fun to meet them.

I also have ancestry from Scotland and England, but they came over in the 1600s and early 1700s, so it would be pretty difficult to find a relative. Or, maybe, pretty easy - but they'd probably be 15th cousins or something like that.

Sarah Palin vs The Librarian

This sums it up pretty well....

Jane Smiley on Sarah Palin:

Nothing to Offer

Last night, Sarah Palin got her once in a lifetime moment, the moment where she introduced herself to the nation at large. She had a choice about how to reveal herself. We all know she could easily become president, so we were looking to see what kind of person she is, and we saw it. She's mean and shallow and aggressive. She thinks being a leader is about tearing down your rivals. She lies about her own actions and she demeans the more generous actions of others. She goes for the easy laugh, but doesn't even make up her own jokes. If there's a low road, she will take it. If she can pander, she will do it. Her performance recapitulated her actions as mayor and governor in Alaska -- holding office, for her, is about keeping as much power as possible and using it for her own selfish ends. This woman is small small small. She demonstrated that with every word she spoke.

But she inspired the base of the Republican party, all those white folks visible in the audience in St. Paul, so they must have seen themselves in her. I often wonder how, after the Bush years, anyone could be a Republican. It's an ongoing mystery, but Sarah Palin demonstrates who they are. They are small small small. They are obsessed with power. Whatever they have, they want to be sure that they keep it. They don't mind if the pie is shrinking through their own actions -- they will just employ the police state to keep their portion and get more. All other factions of the Republican party -- all the ones who once had and still have any vestiges of kindness and morality and (God forbid) altruism -- have drifted away and only the narrowest are left -- the out and out racists, the sexual opportunists, like McCain, the operatives who do it for the money, and the knee-jerk haters, the folks who leave destruction all around themselves and never even say they're sorry. It's not that they don't believe in, say, global warming. It's that they don't care about any larger issues at all as long as they get theirs.

It's obvious to everyone that Sarah Palin's life is chaos. Her record as mayor and governor is chaotic and her personal life is chaotic. Could she have orchestrated and survived two years of campaigning for the presidency with the panache, the energy, the organization, and the personal growth that the Obamas have shown? Of course not. How the campaign goes is how the administration goes. Palin is showing stress, desperation, and vindictiveness already. And speaking of that -- Obama extended respect to her and she returned contempt. Is she a mean girl? Not as harmless as that. She's more a Lady MacBeth. She IS the Republican party. She shows as clearly as anyone ever that if we as voters embrace something small, we get what we deserve.

What would you eat??

I found this on my friend's blog (http://floatinglush.blogspot.com/) and thought it looked interesting. She's quite a bit braver than I am, but here goes....

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding ( I suppose I'll have to try this in the UK)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht I've had it but that doesn't mean I had to like it.
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari I make my husband eat the parts that LOOK like calamari. :-)
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes I don't eat raw tomatoes, although I do eat them cooked, sundried, etc.
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras Do you know what they do to make this???
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese tasted it to say I did.
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters My husband loves them, so if I don't eat them, it's more for him. I'm being very unselfish, aren't I??
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl I did live in San Francisco, after all.
33. Salted lassi I've had lassi but I don't know if it was salted.
34. Sauerkraut Even though I have German ancestry, I don't have to eat that stuff.
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects Does chocolate covered ants count?
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu Hey - one false move by the chef and you're dead. Nope!
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut Yuck - nasty.
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin I have no idea what this is.
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis We're going to Scotland in October, so I'd better not rule this out.
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini Took a bite to say I did, so I don't have to any more.
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Maybe when we're in London in Oct...)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare I took one bite once, but since I had a rabbit (Shilo) I won't again. Pets are not for eating!
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse see HARE
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab If my husband gets it ready for me....
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee I HATE coffee. Blech.
100. Snake I'm scared to death of snakes, but that doesn't mean I want to eat them.

I had to look up some of these to see what they were. I guess now that I look at it, I'm braver than I thought, but picky, too. Let's call it discerning, shall we??

This is really cool.

Wildlife

Not mine, unfortunately! I saw a fox on my street on the way home from work tonight - I was pretty excited. There's a small pond at the end of my street, about 3 blocks up from our house, down a small hill with lots of trees. S/he was sitting in the street. I saw something in my headlights and slowed down, and saw the fox! I'm thinking s/he was fairly young, because s/he wasn't very big. Hopefully s/he he won't sit in the street so much - someone might not be as careful as me!

When we lived in CA on the Oakland Navy Hospital Base (even though we were Air Force - long story) we fed a fox every evening for awhile. We were out in the front of our house, grilling, and had the cats (Allegro and Toccata at that time) out on leashes hanging out with us. We noticed that a little fox was sitting a few feet away, watching us. I put the cats inside, since they were curious, and went back outside. I opened up a couple cans of cat food and put them on a paper plate, and she thought that was pretty good. So every night for quite awhile, she'd come by for dinner - I bought canned dog food. If we were out, she'd be waiting for us. :-) We called her Zorro, which is Spanish for fox. Gorgeous creature!

Of course, we never tried to pet her, but she'd let us get fairly close and it was fun to watch her. She'd usually clean herself a little before sauntering down the street - almost as if she didn't want to eat and run. She limped a little, so I wondered if she had trouble catching anything while her foot hurt. After awhile we didn't see her as much, since I suppose her foot got better. She'd still drop by once inawhile for old times sake.

The bunnies and squirrels seem to be enjoying the garden - if I walk out there in the morning someone is usually there. I guess I'll have to spray some of the repellent and see what that does. I do like seeing them though - maybe I won't. We have one squirrel that likes to sit in the tree outside our bedroom (second floor) and laugh at the cats. The squirrel obviously knows they can't get out the window, and the cats do not appreciate that being rubbed in!

I like having critters around - I've always thought it was pretty arrogant for people to move into a wilder area and then complain that animals are around. They were there first - either leave their habitat alone or learn to live with them. It's not like we don't have plenty of places to live already!

Ready to Mulch...

I think. I still have 4 smaller, two toned hostas to plop somewhere, but overall I think I'm done - at least with the front bed...for now...lol. It looks so totally different from when I started it's hard to believe it's the same yard! If I have to work this hard every year, it's going to go back to weeds. I still have the tendinitis (that'll teach me to try to keep up with a 23 year old!) so hope that clears up. Fortunately, I'm ambidextrous!

Here's the view from the front, near the street:



Next year I most likely will move some of the front hostas further back, since they have gotten pretty big. Then the coral bells behind them will be more visible. I've used about 10 different coral bells so far in the bed (plus one the Peach Flambe, on the other side of the driveway, and another, Amethyst Mist, that I'm going to put beneath trees in the back yard.) I hope they all live, since I like the various colors and textures. I also have used campanula for some flowering, and impatiens and begonia. The begonias are mostly in pots in the front beds. I also used coleus in various spots, with mixed success.

I'll probably fool around more with the sides and back later - the south side gets more sun, so the plants on that side are doing better than the identical ones on the north side. If I get ambitious, I can move the north plants over and do something else on the side by the statue. If I don't get ambitious, it can wait until next year.

I have my favorite garden stores now, and will use them all again. Especially at sale time! I got a lot at Chaska Farm and Garden, Malmborgs, Tonkawood, and a little Farm and Garden Store called Marshall's in Eden Prairie. I also had good luck at one of the Linder's satellite stores. I was not impressed with Halla - didn't buy a thing. I ordered some perennials from Bluestone online, and nothing made it. Humbug. I'd rather buy local, anyway.

I didn't start out with a specific plan, other than the basic shape. I just bought things I liked, and thought would work, and then decided where to put them when I got them home. I just set pots around and moved them until I liked how it looked, then dug. Occasionally I had to shift a little because of all the tree roots - if I buy things next year, I'll buy them smaller so I don't have to try to dig such big holes!