DNA Update

I received an email that Ancestry is using a new algorithm they consider more precise for DNA results. Mine did change some. The improbable Caucasus and Eastern European have been completely removed.

They lowered the British component by 10% to 63%. The Western European which was only 9% has been refined to 21% Germanic. Yes! The German ancestry in my family has been confirmed thru extensive genealogic research by my mother's cousin. I was disappointed in my initial results that showed a vague 9% Western European.

The Dutch still doesn't show. Instead I have this Scandinavian component which has now been increased and broken down to 13% Norwegian, 3% Swedish (which didn't show up last time). As I explained in my earlier post, the history of migration that came with my results did mention a large Norwegian influx into the Netherlands prior to my ancestors coming to the United States. Apparently, my father's ancestors married into some of these migrant families. 

Ancestry states that they will continue to refine results for individuals as the science changes. At least I feel like I got more for my fee than when I received the initial results since there is more specificity. 

Autumn Prelude

We are on the "good" side of Hurricane Florence. She is blocking hot steamy weather from streaming into our area. We are hot in the 80's but dry air. There is a slight breeze as well. As long as I stay out of the sun, it is pretty pleasant. But I did turn the air conditioner on this afternoon after several days of open-window fresh air. 

 The leaves continue to lose chlorophyll so that colors are appearing. Our decorative pear trees have their hard little fruits now. These are actually eaten by the deer in the coldest snowiest days of winter.

Like everything else at Costco, the mums they sell are huge.

 I have moved the geraniums under the lobelia/verbena hanging basket. I think I will probably get rid of the basket next week. My knockout roses are putting out new blooms now, too.

I had to put something away on the high closet shelf. As long as I had the step stool there, I dragged down my "wreath" for the front door.

While I was at Fort Wayne Wednesday, I did some shopping. The hot dog and soda for $1.63 including tax at Costco, was a good deal for lunch. I brought a rotisserie chicken home for supper. We are still eating that. I tried some scalloped potatoes. I bought Boudin sour dough bread. The bread made good grilled cheese sandwiches. Tomorrow we will use it for BLT sandwiches. I tucked some frozen quiche into my insulated bag. Too hot to bake now, but in a few weeks we will see if we like those.

I am stocking up on things on sale at my grocery store, too. I haven't had the Marie Callendar streusel pumpkin pie before.

Though the zucchini don't look great in the stores, I bought two to grate and freeze so I can bake zucchini bread this fall and winter.

I have deactivated my Trunk Club account. I found a nice top at Macy's which I hope to wear Wednesday when I preside over the Winona Literary Club opening meeting for 2018-2019.

This morning my husband had an errand in Silver Lake. After breakfast and this stop, we went to Maple Lane Bakery in Claypool. The little strawberry/rhubarb pie should be just the right size for us for a couple of days. The 9-inch pies are too big.

I picked up my September Bloom of the Month Thursday.

 Starting to look forward to the coming autumnal equinox. 

Second Thoughts

While my DiGiorno pizza is baking, I went out and started cutting off most of the branches of the lambsquarters. I learned it will wilt when the frost comes so won't provide a perch for the birds. The main reason to cut it back (and down later this fall) is that I read a single bush can produce 50,000 seeds. Yikes! The propagation is only thru the seeds. 

I did leave the main stalk and a few smaller sections of flowers. I am curious to see what the seeds look like and if the birds really do eat them. But the lambsquarters is going down.

An interesting tidbit totally unrelated. The Grace Village choir has been invited to sing a number at the Schuler wedding on November 15th. This is my backdoor neighbor who is marrying a lady who works at the lobby desk in Independent Living. They both lost spouses to Alzheimer's. The choir did sing at a funeral a few years ago, but a wedding is a first.

Lambsquarters

Eureka! I think I found the name of Big Weed. It appears to be lambsquarters.
The leaves, the height, the "flowers", the purple striped stem seem to line up with the images and information I have found. 

Some people eat the early leaves the same as spinach. According to one site, chickens love to eat this plant. So, if I cut it down and more come next year, I just need to have some chickens to get rid of it. LOL. 

I think I may leave it through the winter. Birds supposedly like its seeds, and a few of my smaller birds have already used it as a perch before launching off for the bird feeder. However, I am not crazy about having a whole plot of lambsquarters so I will see how much it seeds new plants. Those will appear next spring. Probably will cut it down next spring and weed out the new growth.

Farmers don't like it because it is a host for various viruses that attack their crops. Other than that, it is apparently an OK plant.

Big Weed

The shrub (now over 6 feet high!) I thought might be Rose of Sharon is definitely not. It has a feathery appearance on the ends of the stems now. When I looked closely this morning, it looked like teensy pale yellow flowers were developing. Maybe when more color appears, I will be able to identify it, but it looks like my husband was correct; it is probably a weed of some sort.

It looks a little like goldenrod. However when I looked at pictures of goldenrod on the internet, the leaves are totally different in appearance. Then I began to worry it might be ragweed. Some internet sites compare ragweed to goldenrod because people seem to be confused. The feathery stuff does look like ragweed some, but again the leaves are all wrong. 

Here are the leaves and the plant a few months ago.

This is what it looks like now. It is raining so I took the photos thru the screened window.

If it is a type of ragweed, I need to cut it down very soon before it spreads pollen. I am allergic to ragweed. I've never seen what I thought was ragweed get this tall, but who knows. Any ideas?

Trunk Club Round 2

My fall "trunk" of curated clothes arrived yesterday. I had hoped to end up with an autumn/winter skirt. That didn't happen. I liked the selections better this time, but again fit was a problem.

I had reviewed the trunk and edited out several items; after that review, the stylist replaces the edits. There is no second edit; I saw the items coming and knew there were several that would be rejected by me.

The striped top was added after the edit. I didn't even open it up because stripes across a well-endowed bosom look crappy. The skirt I had hopes for, but it was a pale gray rather than the cream color I thought the photo showed. It was called "wet cement" so I guess I should have realized it would be more gray toned. A black skirt with tiers of ruffles also not my style.

The colors were more to my taste this time: purples, pinks, navy, neutrals. The lilac jacket fit like a tent. Huge! The sleeves came past my middle knuckles. The black jacket was too tight and strained across the back. The "tweedy" skirt was several inches too large in the waist.

Two of the blouses fit well, but the material was very thin, almost see-thru. The pinkish floral blouse fit well, but had big puffy shoulders. The main killer was the teensy loop to put the back button through. Impossible for me to do myself. 

I toyed with keeping the pink knit top, but I have a pink sweater top that is a purer unmuddied pink and goes better with my skin tone. The charcoal pants I really liked. The color and fabric were just what I was looking for. It was a little big in the waist. At first, I thought I would move the bar of the fastener over a bit. Alas, the fastener parts are not sewn in but grommeted in somehow. However, I decided to keep the pants.

I packed up the clothes except the charcoal trousers last night. This afternoon I took the trunk to Staples and used the free return label.
Most of these clothes are more expensive than what I have been spending on my wardrobe. I don't plan to ask for another trunk. I do feel more comfortable about looking in the stores at items pricier than what I did in the past. I'm not sorry I experimented with Trunk Club. Probably if I did a few more trunks, the selections would meet my preferences better, but there is never any guarantee in fitting well, and that is essential to keeping the clothes.

The Cow Shed

When my husband visited the Cow Shed in Nappanee about a month ago, he noticed the book shop. He didn't bother to check on the pricing, but he noticed they had used Christian fiction books.

Today I drove there to see if they had some books I was looking to buy. Some friendly advice: don't go when it is 90 degrees outside like today. The Cow Shed has no air conditioning. The fans helped some, but in the books area, there was no breeze. I was soon sweating.

This building is just west of the famous Amish Acres on Highway 6. It sells crafts, decorative items, books, antiques, jewelry.

I was here for the book stock. 

Before heading up Highway 15 in Warsaw to my turnoff for Nappanee, I stopped at the public library to drop off book donations. Last week I did a major weeding of the non-fiction shelves of Grace Village Library.

These six bags were today's load, but last week I had almost this many I dropped off as well.
At the Cow Shed, I bought 5 books, 3 which filled in my series gaps. They were priced between $2.99 and $3.79. I also bought one of Karon's Mitford series books in large print. We have several of this series in large print, but not this title. We have them all in regular print though. 

When I left the Cow Shed, I headed east on Highway 6 to Coppes Commons. There is an Amish grocery store, fabric store, Christian book/gift store, deli, coffee drinks, baked goods, antique store, and a museum about Hoosier cabinets which were originally made in this building. Ah, sweet air conditioning. After browsing the baked goods and the antique store, I returned to the book store where I had seen a small display of sales books near the entrance. I bought Colleen Coble's Where Shadows Meet for $5. This is a new 2018 book. I think I will read it before cataloging it and putting it in the Grace Village hall display. 

Because the library received a generous gift of $200, I should be able to buy the series gaps books on my list. I bought Patterson's and Clinton's The President Is Missing for myself. My husband is reading it now; once he is done, I will donate it to the library. I haven't read any Patterson, so I don't know if this is representative of his writing. It is a pretty good suspenseful read.