Jul 17, 2013

serendipity strikes again

all they had were the really big watermelons, not the small sweet ones, but we figured it would be ok for the party.
 but then we didn't get to go to the party!
 plus it was hot hot hot
 thank goodness for the world wide web, the information highway, the 'net.
i discovered a new fabulous hot weather cooling beverage...fill the blender with watermelon, mince up some mint (rampant in our back yard), and when it's all a liquid, chill it.
it looks so pretty in a glass with a sprig of mint.
deeelicious, plus i filled several quart jars and froze them for winter.
watermelon mint ice cubes would be good too!

Jul 15, 2013

the silver apples of the moon

why don't i have a label "songs stuck in my head?" 
i could do a whole blog of them, of interest only to me, but then so is this blog. i really do it cause i like to type.
anyway, i refrained from saying "he caught a little silver trout" in my previous post, but the song is still stuck in my head (the version someone put to music).
tho i am old with wandering through hollow lands and hilly lands
has anyone done this in second life?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxIroakIXto

Jul 14, 2013

sunday morning before the heat settles in

he caught a fish just as i walked by! 
i've walked around the 3 or 4 blocks of this village for years; always something to see in this town of 600 people in 42 sq miles.
this morning it was a crew of parents behind the school working on the new greenhouse and pavillion, and
a big crowd (25 cars!) at the church, i could hear singing.
along the brook by the falls no kids were swimming yet; the fire chief's truck was parked nearby.
uh-oh, 
but then i saw him up the hill a bit holding a fishing rod.
i waved but he was intent as his rod bent.  i watched to see what he'd snagged.
he pulled in a 6 or 7 inch silvery fish -- couldn't see for sure, but it had to be a trout!

Jul 13, 2013

in which i make it stop raining

weeks and weeks ago it got rainy a bit almost every day and my shoes would be soaked after a bit of gardening.
then it got rainier, raining some every day, sometimes really really hard.
and HOT too.  the humidity was around 90 to 93%.
how hot was it?  this hot

i've never found rainboots in narrow sizes, but i was desperate and ordered some i found online because people in the comments said they had a narrow fit.

they were due to arrive on Friday.
NOW it will stop raining, i told everyone. because I ORDERED BOOTS.
probably have a draught!

meanwhile it rained even more. and harder.
then FLOOD WATCHES.
and i got stranded in Windsor due to flooded and washed out roads one night and had to call some folks i know and ask to sleep on their floor!

friday came, no boots, flooding getting worse, i realize the email said the NEXT friday.  
don't worry i told everyone, my boots will be here next friday.

by wednesday i was sleeping with essentials all packed and the car facing out right by the road. everything was soaking, the river was roaring and roaring, thunder and lightening were added to the mix.  
more storms moving in for thursday.
a mushroom grew on our doormat!
 but thursday came and YAY the next batch of storms had veered north.  AND MY BOOTS ARRIVED!

aren't they adorable?  no more rain in the forecast.  but SHHHHHH!!! i am sending them back...way to wide to stay on, even with thick socks!  don't tell.
i love them but they won't stay on

Jul 12, 2013

trying out firestorm

taking firestorm out for a test drive -- toady's class sounded like a good way to do it!  
and it was a fun class, lots of tinies there, making a little spaceship that follows you around.
not only that, but another tiny can sit on it and have a ride!

everything in firestorm was right where i looked for it, so they really did make it like phoenix.  it was fun to be back in one of toady's classes.  she is amazingly good at working with a bunch of exuberant unruly tinies!
toady looks scary but she's a good teacher!!

we play with our spaceships after they're all done



































i do get the feeling that firestorm's perspective is a little strange -- everything looks further away sooner if that makes any sense.  maybe it's a setting somewhere. i'd like my view to be flattened in a bit, less depth.

Jul 10, 2013

phoenix to firestorm -- i did it

second life is so off my radar these days, i seldom give it a thought except to go in once a month and pay mudpie's houseboat rent and check on lucy's property.

i noticed a sort of urgent message from Phoenix.
apparently it is now imperative to migrate to the Firestorm viewer.
i've been meaning to for a couple of years, but keep thinking "why not just give up on the whole second life thing?"

yes, why not?  i guess i had so much fun there for 4 or 5 years, it's hard to cut my ties.  nostalgia for a virtual world,  now so changed as to be barely interesting at all.

anyway, i did the surprisingly painless upgrade.  it seems while i've been procrastinating, so have many others, and Firestorm just worked harder and harder to make a version more like Phoenix, just for us diehards.

everything seems to work except lucy's grass and money pile are white instead of green! (click pictures to see them really big!)
where's the grass?  and the money pile isn't green either

the other colors seem ok -- nice that the ugly across the way is gone


all is well in haven shire at mudpie's houseboat
and there are some new businesses in the neighborhood