Iris Progression

 

A friend gave me a stem of iris buds and blooms a week ago. I have never tried putting iris in vases; I do not have enough of them to use that way anyway. She was leaving for the weekend, and she said you might as well enjoy it since I will not be home.

In the photo above, I have already snipped off the two spent blooms that were open when she gave the stem to me. They lasted a day and a half. But it had lots of buds, and you can see that another one had opened fully and one part way.

Above the two are still fully opened but drooping a bit and a different bud has opened.

I snipped off a wilted bloom; but on the right you can see one bud left.

The final flower opened today. That means I had blooms for one whole week. 

This afternoon I bought a little bouquet at Walmart. I have been feeling a bit down this week. Flower therapy for sure.

Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits and Farmers Market

In trying to restore some missing photos, I guess Blogger made this a new post. This trip was taken in the summer of 2014. My apologies for the re-posting showing up on the wrong date.

Besides visiting with family in Whittier and helping my mom with some work projects, my husband and I drove to two spots in Los Angeles during our California trip in July: La Brea Tar Pits and Farmers Market.

I visited both of these spots in the 1950s. I don’t remember much of the tar pits (a school outing), but I have memories of my Girl Scout troop going to the Farmers Market. We went in spring and many of the girls bought baby chicks. I doubt they received a warm welcome from parents when we returned home. I preferred to spend my money on yummy goodies to devour.

 

La Brea Tar Pits have been excavated since the early 1900s. The remains of animals found in the pits date back millions of years. The pits have mostly dried up with the trapped creatures embedded. There are tar seeps still on the grounds.

A quarry that was excavated in the 1800s is now a “lake” that churns and bubbles with asphalt and methane gas. It gives a good idea of what earlier pits might have been. You can stir some of the goo in the museum which makes you realize how thick and heavy it really is. The staff meticulously sort the remains excavated at the active digging sites, from insect legs to mastodon skulls. You can watch them behind plexiglass in the museum. They use microscopes to distinguish plant parts from insect parts, etc.

The grounds of the tar pits and excavations are free to view; Page Museum has a fee. There is an additional fee to see the movie about the Ice Age. Ice Age fossils dominate the museum display. Ancient camels, bisons, dire wolves, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, wooly mammoths, mastodons are plentiful both in fossil form and in reproductions.

 

 

 

The Farmers Market in Los Angeles was established in 1934 and has operated continuously in that spot for 80 years, except for a short time in World War II when it housed military offices.

It is a short drive from the La Brea Tar Pits. We ate lunch at DuPar’s restaurant, an enclosed building, but the market itself has stalls with open-air seating for many food establishments. If you park in the designated Farmers Market parking, you can have a restaurant or vendor validate your parking which gives you 2 free hours. If you park in the next-door Grove lots, there will be no free time or reductions even if you utilize the Farmers Market. The Grove is an unenclosed mall of popular companies like Banana Republic, See’s Candy, The Gap, Container Store, etc. built around a classically-inspired movie theater. We walked a short way thru it, but didn’t really shop.

The Grove

Farmers Market stalls

We did enjoy some locally made Bennett’s ice cream after strolling thru the market.

People who live in this part of LA do shop regularly for produce, meats, ethnic or exotic foods and specialty products. It is of course also a tourist attraction and was very busy on a Friday.

Dragon fruit for sale at stall

 

This outing was enjoyable and gave my sister and her husband a break from their Indiana relatives.

 

Cheddar Pinks, Frass Mystery

 

The cheddar pinks are opening a bit earlier this year than last year. My neighbors' peonies also seem to be slightly ahead in maturation though they have not bloomed yet.

Last Friday evening (May 1st) as I headed down the hall to my bedroom, something next to the bookcase in the hall caught my eye. It looked like a pile of dirt though I guess the proper name is frass. 

We waited until the next morning to take everything off of the bookcase.

I guess now is a good time to sort through and discard/donate items before lugging them from the den back to the bookcase.

What we found when we moved the bookcase out of the corner where it has stood for over 14 years was more frass.

We notified our maintenance department. We were told they would come look at it, possibly spray, then we would be put on the list for when the contracted pest control company comes again the end of May. So far (Wednesday), no maintenance personnel has shown up.

 We finally called the pest control company ourselves. That means we would be paying for the house call. We had noticed some damage on the back side of the bookcase next to the infested wall. We were concerned.

The lady on the phone asked us to send photos to them. On the return call this morning, she said they felt the frass was just from ordinary ants and that the "scooping out" of the bookcase wood was probably done at another time. She said to just clean up the frass and spray with ordinary ant spray which we did after lunch today. No charge for the advice.

 I will sort through the books tonight because tomorrow my housecleaner comes and it would be good to have the cedar chest in the den cleaned off.

 

 

In the Details

 Last Monday when I arrived home from Bible study group, I noticed I only had one earring. I looked in the collar of my coat (it was a very cold morning) which I had pulled up around my face, but I found nothing. 

Monday afternoon I had choir practice and thus returned to the main building. I went a little early so I could retrace my morning steps. Looked in the coatroom, walked outside and looked around the spot where I had parked, looked at the lobby carpet. Again nothing. They were an older pair so I just accepted I would no longer be wearing them. I felt a little sad though because they had been a gift from my husband. 

Yesterday afternoon as I placed my Bible in my zippered carrying case getting ready for today's gathering, I noticed a glint of metal. There was the earring. It probably got caught on the strap of my nametag as I took it off over my head; I also store the lanyard nametag in a pocket of that case. 

I had taken the Bible out last Monday afternoon to work on the new study questions. It wasn't until I stopped looking, that God restored my missing item to me. He knows the details of our lives, not just the big things. I thanked Him for this loving gesture.