Thursday, March 29, 2018

Come Through the Gate


Spring waits . . . unfurling
Fragrant daffodils to preen
In the morning sun . . .


Old crooked pear tree
Shimmers pearly blossoms. . .
Hums a tune of bees. . .

And new blooms proclaim
Victory on a backdrop
Of Winter's leavings.




Sunday, March 25, 2018

Here's the Answer to Thoughts and Prayers!


Bravo to all the folks who marched yesterday or otherwise made their voices heard in the ongoing battle against the giant that is the NRA and all the politicians it controls (HERE's a list.)

Thousands turned out all over the country  --- 8oo,ooo in DC by one count. POTUS had fled to his safe place in Mar-a-Lago and his motorcade conveniently took an alternate route so he wouldn't have to see the protesters in West Palm.

But there's a reckoning coming. 

Those young people weren't just marching -- they were also encouraging their peers to register to vote. (See the story HERE.)

Getty images
Politicians dancing to NRA's seductive tune should  be shaking in their boots -- a Youth Tsunami is on the way. 

Gephart inages




Saturday, March 24, 2018

And the Spring Cleaning Begins . . .




Even though there's still snow in the shady places, it's feeling like Spring and that urge to clean has come upon me. I know, I should fight that urge, but we'll be having house guests next week and the fact is it needs doing -- out of the way places are teeming  with cobwebs, dog hair, cat hair, and dust, plus the bodies of many, many defunct ladybugs -- are everywhere.

I devoted yesterday to the bedroom -- which tends to get short shrift when we clean and vacuum the other parts of the house -- off went all the bed clothes for a wash, out went the pillows, the quilt, the light blanket, and the duvet to air in the sun. 

John obliged by turning the mattress and I moved on to the most challenging part of the operation -- putting the clean duvet cover -- about twenty pounds of flannel -- back on the duvet.


Over the years I've found a way that works for me -- lay the duvet on the bed, turn the cover inside out, put a hand in to one of the top corners then grab the corresponding duvet corner and attempt to slip the cover on. Repeat with other top corner and, unless you panic and think you've got it all wrong (as I sometimes do,) the cover will slide over the duvet most satisfactorily. 

Then, of course, you're supposed to pick it all up and give it a shake to distribute the duvet within the cover but it would take a taller and stronger person than I to do it with my duvet combo ( did I mention the cover weighs forty pounds? At least. Plus, by this point, there's usually a cat or two sitting on the nice clean cover and it would be unkind to disturb them.)

But, looking for a video to describe my method, I found this --
the California Roll method HERE. It looks much easier -- probably any of you with duvets and covers already know about it.