Assorted writings by SES_Books

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books
Message #765
04/10/09 09:52 PM


I had to go to Rapid City today to pick up some formica that was not on the last order. Spring is here. I had so much fun on the drive up watching the winter calves following mommy around. And the yearlings running and butting each were hilarious. Most of the snow from Monday's blizzard is gone. One big hill that has been sculpted by the almost constant wind over the past few millennia had dozens of little ridges and ripples with snow still trapped in them. It reminded me of a greyish green and white zebra on his side, the ripples were so evenly spaced. He even had a stiff black mane of burnt and barren pine trees along his spine.

The trapped snow was busily melting and running down furrows to create little rivulets in what is usually a dry creek bed. The little rivulets would twist and twine down to farm ponds that were a beautiful sapphire blue. The wind was blowing gentle ripples across the ponds and every now and then would team up with the sunshine to drop sparkly diamonds on the crests of the tiny waves.

I passed valleys with deep green pastures with a drift of snow here and there just enough to highlight the glossy black angus cattle grazing around. Then there were the fields of winter wheat just starting to show color, they looked like a piece of huge celery colored suede, until I got close enough to see every furrow of little green soldiers marching across the hills.

However, the kitties greeted me with very reproachful eyes for being gone so long that their dinner was late. I don't need any happy hour after the day I had today!

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books
Message #423
09/07/09 12:16 AM

I think Fall is definitely on its way. Days are warm/hot yet the evenings can get really cool. The trip out of town was fantastic. Saturday was hot, but the mountain breezes were cool. The early morning drive was crisp and clear. The cattle are being brought down from their high summer pastures to the winter pastures closer to the roads. They looked sleek and black, relaxing and wandering around the pastures that were still fairly green from all the moisture and cool temperatures this summer. I actually anticipated more traffic being the holiday weekend. Traffic was even light around the turnoff to the lake, and there were no boats being towed to the lake.

The shopping was good. We went to the new Target store and I was very careful. I got only what was on my list (it had been planned for the past four months) and not even all of that. I found the drapery rod that I think I want for the deck doors at Lowe’s. I did not buy it because there were tons of people and few clerks. I have to go back later this fall for a dentist visit, on a weekday, and hopefully it will be less crowded and I can find a clerk to visit with. I was even good at Border’s. I looked at the books on my list, decided on the ones I wanted and came home to order them used from Amazon. I did buy one magazine.

Lunch was wonderful. We went to Red Lobster, which is a real treat for two ladies from the middle of the plains and far from either coast. I treated my BFF to lunch for her birthday. I was totally amazed that gas, the lunch bill and the magazine didn’t even deplete my saved allowance stash. I even had enough to buy a Blizzard (Georgia mud flood-yummy) on the way home and bring $11.27 home for the next time.

The trip home was gorgeous. We were traveling late afternoon/early evening when the sun was low in the sky highlighting the fields of ripening grasses to a white gold color. Next would be an old Spanish gold colored field of wheat stubble from the last harvest. Occasionally there would be a pasture with a dry creek running through it that would have been full of rushing water earlier in the spring. Now there is just a depression that is still green with the last hearty Queen Anne’s Lace not willing to call it quits yet. There are still lots of sunflowers lining the road with cheerful faces waving us on our way. The thistles and sagebrush are drying up ready to become tumbleweeds this winter. Even the big cottonwood trees are hinting at fall and winter with bright yellow clusters of leaves gracing the very top tips of the branches here and there. The little new trees are already yellow.

There are herds of antelope and white tailed deer that need to find good hiding places before hunting season begins. There was one house with a flock of wild turkeys in the lawn along the driveway. A pickup pulled in ahead of us and I expected to see the turkeys take off until I realized where we were. This guy feeds them every evening and they gather on the lawn and line the driveway when he comes home. I had heard if this phenomenon but I had never seen it for myself.

The best part of the trip was coming over the ridge and seeing the evening haze over the town and the big old moon coming up to check us over and tuck us in for the night

[Honeylioness]

<b>SES_Books - 11/26/09 09:18 PM</b>


Just got back from a terrific Thanksgiving Day. The weather was perfect. The drive up was great, we saw what had to be 75-100 antelope feasting in a field on newly sprouted green winter wheat. The dry grasses, both the blond and red, were blowing very gently in the breeze. The sky couldn't have been more blue. And there was really very little traffic.

The food was fantastic and too much. We started with the three cheese seafood fondue and toast fingers(that I, from land locked Kansas, took) about 10:00 as everyone was arriving. The meal started with Oyster Soup (provided by a guy from New York). The table was groaning with personal delicacies from all of the guests. A beautiful golden bird was the centerpiece. Then we also had fabulous sweet potatoes (N. Carolina), venison sausage stuffing (Wyo), sweet and sour red cabbage (Germany), mashed yukon gold potatoes (dug in Idaho two weeks ago), my raw cranberry salad (my-cranberry-growing-Oregon-cousin's recipe, came into the family in 1948), honey whole wheat rolls (Kansas), scalloped corn (Nebraska), pumpkin pie (pumpkin grown in South Dakota), cherry pie (Michigan), baklava (Greece). Oh, and my fruitcake cookies. I never realized just how varied a group we are until just now. We feasted and gossiped and caught up with everyone's lives until mid-afternoon when we all had to head home.

The drive home was beautiful. The setting sun turned the dry grasses platinum and copper, and the small still ponds were golden mirrors. The wind twisted trees silhouetted on the ridge were spectacular!

Onyx and TJ were not placated until a piece of turkey was offered. I think i am forgiven for leaving them.

I hope all of you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did.

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books - 12/17/09 06:14 PM[/u]


Onyx has finally left my side to join TJ in a nap on the bed. I guess I have been forgiven.

This past week has been unbelievable. If it had not been so very many years since I had been back for the Family Dinner, I probably would have passed due to the weather. Here this storm has been referred to as the worst since 1887(I think). Whatever the date was, I will have to agree this past week was severe.

I waited until 9 am to leave due to the low temps, -10*F/-23*C, not that it made any difference. My first stop for gas was -22*F/-30*F. (At this temp three minutes spent fueling up lasts about an hour) There was very little traffic to deal with, but the 4 turned over big trucks made me question my judgment. There was no snow falling that morning but everything was covered. The jet vapor trails lasted forever before dissipating.

The biggest situation was the feathers and wraiths of powdery snow blowing across the roadway. No hazard in daylight, but wicked at night. I was impressed with the thousand shades of white all around me. The sculpted snow in the ditches looks like enormous slabs of carved marshmallow. There was one long hillside covered with snow and not a print to mar it. Along the side of the road there was a platoon of tiny 2 foot tall cedars marching up and over the hillside two by two wearing the required khaki uniforms, with drifts around their feet. Most of my trip across Nebraska is along the Platte River Valley (The Oregon Trail/The River Road) a wide 10-20 mile wide valley. I have never seen the river as frozen as it was this trip. In some places it looked like only a foot or two wide channel was open. The red-gold prairie grasses were almost buried in the snow, bowed but not broken, pointing the way the storm winds the storm had blown them. The further east I drove the more evidence of heavy snowfall I saw. I found an encampment of 15 igloos in one field, very impressive. As long as I stayed on the interstate there was no problem with snow packed roads, but whenever I had to get onto local streets there was a mess. It was obvious which communities still had adequate funds for street maintenance and which did not. The first day I stopped about 5:30 at dusk. I was only the second person the young man at the front desk had spoken to that afternoon. Needless to say, I was exhausted and fell asleep about 8:00 pm and slept through until about 6:00 the next morning. I was up and on my way by 8:00 am. The temp was up to a balmy -12*F/-24*C most of the local schools and businesses were closed due to the weather and 8-12 inches of snow. I decided to head south to Kansas and warmer weather -8*F/-22*C. The worst stretch of road was the hour-and-a-half south of the Nebraska state line. It was so ice packed it felt like I was driving on a cobblestone road, rattling every inch of the way. I was so ready to rejoin the interstate and head east in Kansas. This was where I discovered that low temp windshield wiper fluid turns to jelly when it freezes. So I carried a gallon in the car and stopped every hour or so to clean the window. If it had been warmer and slush had been thrown this could have been a real problem. Boy, was I glad to pull into my sister’s house in Shawnee KS. My car didn’t move until I started home.

All day Friday my sister got to babysit with my great-niece, Baby J. She is a doll. She will be 3 mos. on Christmas day. My sister her gma, is teaching her to blow raspberries. Baby J’s forehead will wrinkle and then her tongue will come out but she hasn’t quite got it yet. Every time my sister my sister has to burp her my sister will say “make your uncle proud.” This is the same sister whose kids would torment her by having belching contests at the dinner table.

Saturday we went to see The Blind Side , a wonderful movie. Sunday was the Family Dinner about 90 mins. away through beautiful countryside. Very similar to the country around Muttley, I think. There is one place with a cliff above a pond where water drips and oozes through the sandstone layers into the pond. With the very cold weather this year the cliff had dozens of mini waterfalls frozen in place. Just beautiful. Sounds like a 75% commitment from the cousins to gather at my house next summer. A bit more work to do there.

Monday we got to have Baby J again. She is going to grow up so used to a camera in front of grandma’s face that she will not recognize her without it. As she left we started to do some baking and cooking to photograph for the cookbook my sister is making for Christmas gifts. It really looks yummy. My BIL is all for this project. He likes eating everything once the photos are taken of all these family favorites. The 19 dozen cookies and 5 gallons of cinnamon corn I took was all photographed and consumed before I left, between the Family Dinner, my BIL and my nephew.

Tuesday I left KC about 8 am. My sister kept saying “the wind chill is only -9*, shouldn’t you wait?” After the previous week that sounded balmy to me. As I took I-435 to the Topeka turnpike, I remembered why I wouldn’t do well living in a city. The stench of diesel fuel!
All in all, the trip home was much more enjoyable that the trip last week. The drifts were very sculpted and quite fascinating. Of course, by this time they were starting to resemble chocolate marshmallow drifts. This just served to remind me to stop at the Russell Stover factory outlet for a few last minute (low cost) gifts. Driving west was beautiful. The storm had coated many of the small shrubs and trees with a glimmering coat of ice creating a glittering tracery along the roadside that was awe inspiring. Then the setting sun turned them all into a display of delicate golden filigree. A good image to end the day.

Wednesday I could barely wait to get started and to finish this week. It was much warmer as I started the day, up to 3*(-19*C). As I headed west it got warmer. More of the river was thawed and moving along, more of the geese and ducks were flying and filling the sky. It is amazing how many hundreds of them can occupy a very small pond when it is so very cold. Coming through the sandhills to the crest of the river valley the snow had blown into moguls a skier would love if it weren’t so flat. Another field had the red-gold tufts of prairie grasses mixed with the dusty grey green sage plants and every now and then a yucca plant with still vivid green leaves. Made me think God was playing checkers. I shortly arrived at the flat section the locals call “the table” where much of the snow had been blown free. The 30 foot tall pile of harvested sugar beets looked like sugar beets and no longer looks like a mysterious new range of mountains. And the field of igloos had turned into regular haystacks. However, the gnarled and wind sculpted trees stood proudly. The one thought that kept coming to mind the entire trip was just how much the wind had influenced the contouring of the plains. The snow drifting and settling in every rift and rill and hollow emphasizing the contours just brings it home.

No matter how much I love the world I live in, I am glad to be home.

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books - 04/23/10 09:44 PM[/b]

Had an exciting trip to the podiatrist today. It rained most of the day, low grey clouds oozing down the hillsides to swallow up the valleys. The rows of rain blackened ancient fence posts were so striking against the vivid greening spring fields flowing over hill and dale. Every now and then there would be a meadowlark perched on a fence post singing in his "shower." I think he was enjoying the rain more than I was. The rain was trickling down the hills to join and to create muddy ochre streams to fill up the low spots creating massive mud spots that were approaching the roads way too close for my comfort. There were a couple of downpours so bad that I decided to pull over and sit them out. By the time I got to the new clinic(open less than a month) the rain had filled the parking lot with several inches of muddy water. Yuck. By the time I was finished I decided the wise decision would be to go home before the rain and its results got any worse. Glad I did, some of the water was starting to collect on the road. So no Chinese buffet, I thought of Honey's trip home from the airport a little more than I wanted to. The rain stopped about 15 minutes after I got home! There are flood warnings out for south of me. I hope they stay south.


************************


SES_Books - 04/26/10 03:25 PM


I thank you all for the appreciation of my writing, but there will never be any publishing. My style is "too overblown and emotional, it is all descriptive with no forward narrative."

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books - 05/14/10 12:15 AM [/u]


Sharing--I didn't even mention the social history of Kansas City. The Border wars over slavery. Prohibition, which the city boss did not acknowledge, and the rise and influence of Kansas City Jazz and Charlie "Bird" Parker. The American Jazz Museum is in KC, although I have never been. There was a movie a few years ago about the KC jazz scene, but I can't remember the name. Perhaps Smartstart knows.


I spent money tonight. A friend and I drove north of town to the reservation casino to have dinner at the casino restaurant, which was fabulous. Although, when I recommend it to anyone I will suggest they start with dessert. The apple pie was divine! And a crab and prime rib, seafood buffet for $14.99!! Excellent. The trip home at sunset was inspiring. Rolling over the undulating green hills, chasing a setting sun the most brilliant coppery gold just sitting on the horizon waiting for a lingering goodbye as we crested the hills was thrilling. The final view of a wind twisted and gnarled tree silhouetted against a fuzzy, peachy sky as it stretched its limbs protectively over a small pond with a hammered gold surface was breath taking. It is a trip I will be making again

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books - 07/12/10 10:56 PM [/u]

Everyone has come and gone. The first annual cousin convention is over. Total exhaustion and letdown have set in. The dishes are done, but not put away. The towels are washed and folded and the last of the bedding is now in the wash. Onyx has sniffed every square inch of the house and yard to make sure the annoying little dog is really and truly GONE! A great time was had by all. My sister did the best she could at totally spoiling Onyx. As if she could be more spoiled.

Friday, in addition to the 36 longhorn cattle (and over 40 cowhands), there was also the chuck wagon, covered wagon, many pony traps, several farm wagons, a stagecoach, a horse drawn trolley, a surrey (no fringe on top), two draft horses pulling a huge I-beam with a bunch of kids sitting on top, with the undertakers glass sided wagon bringing up the rear and half the town sitting on the hillside watching the display. Later in the evening there was a display of mounted shooting for accuracy followed by a horse soccer game. Totally fun.

Saturday before the parade was an exhibition of line dancers (can-can dancers), then was the kids parade followed by the real parade with almost 100 entries, huge by our standards. After the parade grilled buffalo burgers were sold on the courthouse lawn by the Lions Club, and an ice cream social on the oldest church in town’s lawn with music in the courthouse gazebo across the street. I heard the there were over 15 different musical entertainments offered. The tall tales competition was hilarious and the cowboy poetry was pretty good, too. I’ll admit I skipped the rodeo. My various family members represented us well at the carnival, classic and antique car show, art show, old plane fly-in and flea markets. Some of them left to visit the Buckskinners re-enactment camp, and the restored 1880s Indian wars fort. We would not have been surprised to see John Wayne come riding up.

In amongst all the “doings” there was always a group hanging out on the deck visiting and remembering “olden times”

Saturday evening I made homemade ice cream with various toppings. I almost had a disaster when I realized I had only half as much vanilla as I needed, I ended up using almond flavoring and it was fabulous.

Sunday we had brunch and headed out, some to Mt Rushmore, some to a nearby archeological fossil dig and some to a wild horse refuge. Some had to start home Sunday and the rest left this morning.

I loved having them here and I’m glad everyone is gone.


Sharing the Simple Lifestyle - 07/12/10 11:15 PM

SES_, You survived. That was epic. Wow. When will you heed the call and write tourist brochures? If ever there was a natural, it has got to be you.

[Honeylioness]

SES_Books - 11/13/10 03:39 PM [/u]

Whew, this very busy week is over! I ended all the activities with a trip to the dentist yesterday. We left town early in the morning with frost still on the ground. We couldn't figure what happened to the fields until we realized it was frost on the green winter wheat that
caused it to look like the teal planting/fertilizing compound sprayed on new lawns. I felt so stupid. As the road followed the creek bed, we could see the drops of melting frost on the tips of the remaining leaves turning into explosions of multicolored brilliance. The day remained cool and still, the air so clear it felt like you could see to the end of the universe. The drive home as stunning. Much of the trip is through a prehistoric river bed, with the Black Hills rising in the west and ancient bluffs molded and sculpted in the east. As the sun set, a few clouds blocked the sun but created a blaze of gold excoriating a third of the western sky silhouetting all of the pine trees growing on the crests of the hills. As the evening progressed the glow changed from a bright gold to a swath of copper fading into reds and finally to voilets and purples. There is a phenomena here on the plains that is inexpressively beautiful. When the air is extremely clear at sunset, sometimes the eastern horizon will reflect the evening colors with a pale violet color just before total dark. Last night was especially beautiful with the half moon peeking out of the black lavender eastern sky at sunset. It was enchanting to crest the last hill before town and see the city lights stretched out like a necklace on black velvet.

I hope all of you to the east of me keep enjoying the nice weather.

There is a chance of colder temps and possible snow next Thursday. I'm surprised that Fall has lingered so long this year, but I am not complaining.