Springing Along

I've been watching a flock of Cedar Waxwings all day. They are a sure sign of spring. They come in winter too so the last statement may not mean anything at all. They've been here off and on all day and have only visited under one tree so I'm sure to see this flock for awhile yet. This photo is from the morning but I got more just a few minutes ago. I'll see them tomorrow.

I'm back with more photos and another step and a half completed on the stained glass window I am constructing for a restaurant. I foiled today which means that I applied 3/16 inch copper foil to each cut out and ground piece of glass. The next step, rubbing the foil on very securely, or burnishing, can be done in front of the TV.



The last photo shows the tray I burnished while watching Oprah. I stuck a few finished pieces onto the pattern to show what I'll do tomorrow morning when getting ready to solder. My kids liked helping with this part when they were small. It is like playing with a jigsaw puzzle.



I'm still working on CD's. Here are a couple more songs included in a different one from yesterday's. Are You Alright is by Lucinda Williams and Where True Love Grows is by Cat Stevens. I have more interesting songs on the CD's but have to choose ones for here that have not been here before. Not always an easy job.

March Madness

Music is definitely on my mind today. I heard an old Don Gibson song yesterday by M Ward and Lucinda Williams that I can't get out of my head. If I do manage to get it out of my head other country songs from that same late 60's era pop in and I'm stuck again. Lets have and old-time music party. When I say old time I mean only the song itself. There are modern covers which I love too. Perhaps if I listen to every one of these songs a couple of times over, they will make room for something new tomorrow. My mom would love this bunch of songs. Every one of them remind me of her.Ready?

• Oh, Lonesome Me - M Ward and Lucinda Williams
• I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Johnny Cash and Nick Cave
• I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams
• Sea Of Heartbreak - Gray Sky Girls
• Sea of Heartbreak - Johnny Cash
• He'll Have to Go - Jim Reeves
• He'll Have to Go - Ry Cooder
• Walkin' After Midnight - Patsy Cline
• Crazy - Patsy Cline

I'm sure I have another version of Sea of Heartbreak but can't find it. I have another Oh Lonesome Me as well. On my walk today I was singing aloud walking down the road. Glad it's winter and car windows are up and I don't have neighbours.

Time For Music

Blueberry Field In Autumn

My favorite part of August is fresh blueberries. They are my very favorite fruit or berry. I have access to both wild and high-bush blueberries and am eating a box of high-bush per day. Yum, yum!

I hung some clothes on the line about an hour ago and my ankles got eaten badly by mosquitoes. I didn't feel the little pests at the time but they're itching mightily right now.

This has to be a short post. I still have much to do before work. There is time for music though. A friend was telling me how much he is enjoying a cd I made for him a while back. His favorits songs on it are Get Right With God by Lucinda Williams and Cumbia En Do Menor by Lito Barrientos Y Su Orchesta. A couple more from the cd, entitled Dancing Feet, are Fiesta En Mi Corozon and Yes We Can Can by the Pointer Sisters.

Mojo

We've had a really lovely day today, partly pearly clouds, partly blue skies. I went walking and it was marvelous, filling me with a great energy but tiring me at the same time. I swear walking is like medicine.

The photo is of the pond today. Three weeks ago it was a huge solid sheet of skating ice. Here it is from that day. Today there are two pairs of ducks in it, happy to have some water to swim in. The pond is different every day of the year and that's why I love it so. The sky is like that too, though it can change by the moment.

One of the really, really essential songs is the version of Joy by Bettye LaVette. It was my favorite song of '05 or '06, whenever it came out. Lucinda Williams' version is still there and so is Ruthie Fosters' though it is a different song, same name. Since I get another how about Got My Mojo Workin' by Clarence Gatemouth Brown.

It's very strange. I am on song 100 on Page One today after it being 500 songs for so long. At least it's all (kind of) still working. It's the only reason I'm here.

Movin' On, Travelin' Light

Raccoon Paw Print

Today is a bit calmer and nothing terrible has happened. I found out that my EGR valve was stuck closed on my car. It's been acting up for a couple of years but hasn't caused problems. It is very expensive to have replaced so they just removed it for me. It is a necessity to own a car if you live in rural PEI as there is no bus system but it surely is a huge expense.

I should be out mowing between the rains but maybe tomorrow........manana. It is supposed to be cludy and showery most of the week. We take what we can get when there as long as there is no chance of snow.

Speaking of snow....check out this link of a frozen building.

For today I've chosen some traveling music. Long Ride Home is a song I really like of Patty Griffin's. Here is a live version. Fabulous song! I've got Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams. Funny that I had her up just a couple of days ago and now again.

Joy in a Beautiful World

I'm still putting flowers in vases. I went walking and when I came back went for another walk, this time with scissors. Lupin season is upon us and I needed a couple more vases done. I got some yesterday when I was driving and came upon a really nice field of them. Here are some photos of last year's: I always do a vase for outside. They are so pretty up close. I also cut some wild carrot, columbine and more lily of the valley for more vases. There now isn't a bare spot in the house to place another vase.

I wanted to save today's photo to show one of the same view as yesterday's but later in the day. Thunderstorms continued all around and didn't touch us. The sky was incredible all day and I got some pretty awesome photos. It's cloudy today but warm. The sun has come out since I sat here.

Music: If you've read this blog for a while you know I love Bettye Lavette's version of the song Joy. Here is Lucinda Williams'. It seems like a good song for today with endorphins flowing from walking and flower arranging. Beautiful World by Colin Hay is a good choice for today for those same reasons.

Like The Sky - A Little Blue

March break and Easter will be combined next year on PEI giving students and teachers a longer holiday. From my memory that's what it was always like in the New Brunswick school system when I was a kid. We always had Good Friday off then the whole next week.

I have some pretty awful memories of that time because something always happened that ruined that holiday for me. I had mumps over Easter. I stepped on a nail on Good Friday and got a really deep puncture wound that I could not walk with. One year, I got a haircut so bad I would not leave the house. I couldn't go to my cousin's house in Saint John for the week one year because I got measles. The next year, those same cousins came for Easter. I got really bad hives and spent the whole weekend scratching and covered in calamine lotion. We never figured out what I had the allergic reaction to but again, another Easter break was ruined. I remember crying year after year that it wasn't fair. My mom would be very sweet and somehow make me feel special or at least okay.

My Easters have improved since I became adult but this one seems a bit lonely with no one from my family around. It's something I have been getting used to though. After all, my first son left home in '95.

Music yesterday was for the travellers. Today it's for the other half of the family. My youngest is studying for an exam on Monday. He'd rather be home for Easter. Perhaps an Easter present would be to share more than two songs. Miss Me by Eleni Mandell is first on the list. I love the slow, sexy sound of the sax in this. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness is a wonderful song by Nancy Griffith and John Prine. I'm not sure whose song it is. They're both magnificent writers and it's a great song. A classic Elvis Presley song, Are You Lonesome Tonight is one of my favorites from my childhood. It's fitting today. Lonely Girls is very nice if you're a Lucinda Williams fan.

The following links can all be found on page One. I'm finding them looking for a Bettye LaVette song. Johnny Cash and Nick Cave did a fabulous version of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. Here's the classic version with Hank Williams Jr. I Still Miss Someone from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash is another song about loneliness.

Lonesome Road by Madeleine Peyroux and Kate Rusby deserve a mention. They are not the same song; they just have the same name. Hah! Just found Bettye LaVette's song. Thinkin' Bout You is wonderful. I really like this artist. She's been around for a long, long time but I only discovered her a couple of years ago. This song, also from Page One, has only been played twelve times. Lets remedy this because it is a great song.

This is turning out to be rather long but I just wanted to say that we are forecasted to have a blizzard tonight with high winds, of course, and 15 - 20 centimeters of snow. Happy Easter!

Soft Food Blues

I am a little under the weather this evening. I had dental surgery today and am on a soft diet. What hurts the most is the soft diet. I like real food and am going to have warm (not hot) soup and yogurt for my supper. This is very hard for me.

I like the whole cooking nutritious, healthy food every day aspect of my dinner time. Even though I'm alone I cook a complete meal every night, occasionally having a simple meal involving eggs. I'm a bit lost right now. I have to open a can of soup and scoop out some yogurt. Only my kids can sort of imagine what I'm like over this. My favorite ex just left and she was going home to a dinner her husband was cooking. I was salivating as she described it.

Music: It Hurts Me Too by Keb Mo and Lucinda Williams with Hard Times Killing Floor Blues. I just discovered that every one of my playlists on Windows Media Player has disappeared. I accepted a new download of Version 11 last night and just turned it on now. What a bummer! It wiped out everything.