I'll bet it did...

wander with me...

gack...
my sinuses are wigging out... my eyes are burning, there's snot running down the back of my throat and I've had a headache for four days. My right ear is clogged up and I constantly feel like puking.
Just thought I'd share.
No wandering tonight. Be well.
wander with me...

Farewell Transmission...
Songs:ohia - Magnolia Electric Company
I don't usually post things like song lyrics, but if you know me right now, you know why...


The whole place is dark
Every light on this side of the town
Suddenly it all went down
Now we'll all be brothers of the fossil fire of the sun
Now we will all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon
Someone must have set em up
Now they'll be working in the cold grey rock, in the hot mill steam
Now they'll be working in the concrete
In the sirens and the silences now all the great set up hearts - all at once start to beat
After tonight if you don't want us to be a secret out of the past
I will resurrect it; I'll have a good go at it
I'll streak his blood across my beak and dust my feathers with his ashes
I can feel his ghost breathing down my back
I will try and know whatever I try; I will be gone but not forever
I will try and know whatever I try; I will be gone but not forever
The real truth about it is no one gets it right
The real truth about it is we're all supposed to try
There ain't no end to the sands I've been trying to cross
The real truth about it is my kind of life's no better off
If its got the maps or if it's lost
We will try and know whatever we try; we will be gone but not forever
Come on let’s try and know whatever we try, we will be gone but not forever
The real truth about it is there ain't no end to the desert I'll cross
I've really known it all along
Mama here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Mama here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Long dark blues
Will o the wisp
Long dark blues
The big star is falling
Long dark blues
Will o the wisp
The big star is falling
Long dark blues
Through the static and distance
Long dark blues
The farewell transmission
Long dark blues
Listen
Long dark blues
Listen
Long dark blues
Listen
Long dark blues
Listen
wander with me...

I've decided to be greedy...
and do something for myself for a change...
behold - my future woodworking shop!

I've been looking at plans for buildings for the past year and I keep coming back to this one. There's just something about it that I find soul-settling. It's pretty big, twelve by sixteen feet and will be a wonderful place to create things out of wood. I figure I can put it up for less than three thousand dollars, plus another thousand for heat, electricity and a small, through the wall air conditioner. The perfect place to lose myself in what is my second passion, next to gardening. The only modification I'm thinking of making is moving the double doors to the extreme right side and moving the single door to the back, so I can build a small roofed porch that faces the back woods so I can sit and relax. I figure I will start on it next spring, so I have a good seven months to bankroll the project. And, in order to make sure it doesn't get loaded with all my gardening gear, I will build this to hold all that stuff.

It's a perfect four by six feet and will just nestle into a corner of the yard that's just pining for something to be built there.
So, that's my plan and I'm sticking to it.
Wander on, friends, wander on...

wander with me...

just asking...
Which do you find more terrifying..?


This...

or this..?



I think it's time to go wander... and wonder...

wander with me...

mystical visions abound...
The image of the Virgin Mary has been discovered in some chocolate drippings at a candy factory in Kalifornia...

Apparently hoards of the faithful are flocking to the company to view the sweet vision of holiness, holding candlelight vigils and laying flowers at the feet of the effigy. There have been some reports of miraculous healings amongst those of the faithful, although one diabetic worshiper went into insulin shock...

In other news, a worker at a cattle ranch in Crawford, Texas, made quite an interesting discovery of his own this morning...

He was quoted as saying,
"Damn near ruined a new pair of Red Wings!"
Film at eleven...

wander with me...

yard slave...
seems to be my lot these days. I spent five hours yesterday cleaning the area enclosed by the remnants of the foundation of our old barn, which became a depository for things like my woodpile, my canoe, bricks and other things that didn't have anywhere else to be. Over the past few years it became a tangles mess of honeysuckle vines and looked like hell. Earlier this summer I hit the vines with some Round Up and they finally died off, so I chopped them down, dug out the roots and relocated what good wood was left to an inconspicuous spot in the back lot, built a pair of two by four brackets on the side of the garden shed to hold the canoe and begged a pallet from the landscape place next door and stacked all the loose bricks on it, also next to the garden shed. I'm going to dismantle the remaining brick foundation to just below ground level and, hopefully, will end up with enough brick to build a small garden wall on which I want to hang one of those neat, self contained wall fountains with a greenmans face that spits water. Maybe I'll espalier a quince bush on it as well, or maybe plant some ivy and let it grow over it. I still have to fill the hole left by the pool and when I order the topsoil to do that this autumn, I'm going to get enough extra to level out some places in the yard that hold water when we get a good rain and cut down the level of the soil inside the old foundation, so there's a nice gentle slope from the back of the manor all the way to the little brook. It will make mowing a bit easier and will leave a nice open stretch of ground on which to build a nice sixteen by twenty workshop. In another two weeks or so I'm going to start preparing the areas that will have evergreen shrubs planted in them next spring so we have a bit more privacy across the front of the property, as the increase of traffic brought with it an increase of noise and dust. I'm going to stop the shrubs even with each side of the house and continue across the front with a cast iron fence, with a nice gate on the front walk, with an iron arbor over it, so the ivy that fill the front of the property will eventually climb on the fence and arbor and separate the house from the street. I'm hoping it will look a bit spooky, too, which is an added bonus!
I've still got to re-roof the addition and finish up the bathroom, but that is going to wait for cooler weather, I've had my fill of working of roofs in the blazing summer sun. Not a good time.
I also measured out the area for a textured concrete patio off the kitchen today, it will be fifteen by fifteen feet, then an eight inch step down to another smaller section, probably fifteen by ten. Just big enough for Grillzilla and an small outdoor fireplace. I'm going to build a cantilevered arbor over that section, so there's some shade to stand and cook without being baked by the sun and it will offer some more privacy to that area of the property. The afore mentioned garden wall will go from the sidewalk to the end of the higher section of the patio and will be purposely built to look very old and decrepit. Considering my masonry skills, my best attempt at making a nice looking wall will probably yield just the right look! I may also build a pergola over the back walk with a gate midway to enter the garden proper. Lot's to do, but I finally am able to afford to do these things. I would have liked to have been able to do them over the past years, but college and other things the kids needed were, of course, more important, as well as getting rid of some other small debts, so now I actually have a few bucks to throw at this stuff.
Well, I'm off to cook dinner. I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and you have a great week ahead.
Be well, fellow wanderers. Fare thee well.
Oh, that's funny... when I ran spell check, it didn't recognize "woodpile" and suggested replacing it with Opedial... gotta wonder...

wander with me...

amateur hour...

where's Ted Mack.when you need him..? Hard to tell who the real amateur is, huh?
wander with me...

OMG...WTF..!

I mean, like, is she like for real?!?!?
Click here. for yet another sign of the impending End of Times...

wander with me...

Zen...

Ebeneezer and Snooch...
wander with me...

stranger in a strange land...
A manatee has been sighted in the waters of the NYC / NJ area. It better think about heading back South before the Labor Day weekend, or it will probably end up on one of those half fiftyfive gallon drum grills in Elizabeth somewhere, slathered in BBQ sauce and served on a hard roll with some potato salad on the side.

wander with me...

take five minutes...
and read this...
Thanks to Wild Thing.
wander with me...

what goes up...
sometimes doesn't come down so easily...
It took less than two days to put up our pool, including the excavating, erecting the pool, installing the liner and filling it. It's taken me six days so far to take it down, and I still have a twenty seven foot diameter hole to fill, which is going to cost me almost two hundred and twenty dollars for top soil. And probably another two days to wheelbarrow it from the driveway to the other side of the Manor. Then I have to level it out, roll it and plant grass seed, which is best done in the early fall, so I'll have a wet, sandy mess until then. I still have to haul everything away, but at least I'll get a few bucks for the metal at the local scrap yard. I did end up with ten, eight foot long four by fours, so I guess I'll use them to make a border on one side of the driveway or something.
Garden-wise, the first moonflower of the season bloomed last night. I spent an hour this evening weeding the perennial beds and some of the annual beds, I haven't been at them for a long time because of the heat. My crape myrtle is in full bloom, finally. That is one frustrating shrub. Winter before last, it completely died and I cut it back to a stump and hoped for the best that some suckers would come up, which they did like mad. It seemed to grow overnight and set blooms in early July. This year it survived the winter, leafed out early and healthfully, but didn't start to set buds until after July fourth and just started to bloom a week ago. I will never figure that thing out. I'm also having a fit with a Piggyback Plant. It wilts when I set it outside, even in the shade, then I bring it into the cooler Manor, where it perks back up for a few days, then starts to wilt again, probably from not getting enough sun, or drying out from the a/c. So, I bring it outside again, to repeat the cycle. I've had it in all sorts of shaded locations, but nowhere seems to be the right place. My caladiums seem to be enjoying the front porch this year, they are huge. The leaves must be over a foot long and eight inches wide, I've never had them grow so large. Exceptionally colorful, too.
Well, I'm beat. I've been up since six thirty and tomorrow is another early day. I need to chase the lawn mower around for a few hours tomorrow, it's been almost two weeks since I had at it, because of the heat. I'm going to go wander around the grounds for a while and watch the moon rise, the climb into the coffin.
Have a wonderful evening, my fellow wanderers. Fare thee well.
wander with me...

Arthur Lee...

passed away yesterday. If you click on his picture you can read a bit about him, and, if you go to my Song of the Week page, you can listen to my favorite song by his band "Love". Thanks for all the great music, Arthur.
wander with me...

it's really hot...
there's no sense in even trying to describe it. It's a fucker. At least most of the Manor is air conditioned. I was outside last night around ten thirty or so and it must have still been in the lower nineties. The gardens are sucking up water like crazy, but everything seems to be hanging on. There are even a few moon flower buds ready to open, maybe tonight. Got love night blooming flowers, eh? I think I'm starting to ramble here. I really have nothing of note to say, just felt like spouting, I guess.
right now, I'm listening to a great old album, Sandy Denny and the Strawbs. Her voice puts me quite right for some reason. I think it's one of those old "place and time" things, now that I think about it. First time I saw her perform was with Fairport Convention and I was with someone very special and it was a good time. Actually, it was a great time. Memories are wonderful things, aren't they.
so, I've bored you enough, me thinks. Time to wander into the larder and scare up something to eat and then on with reading The Golden Bough.
Stay cool, fellow wanderers. Fare thee well.
wander with me...

another millionaire crybaby leftard...
who wants to play hippie...

you clicky picture... have fun.
wander with me...