Skip to main content

Dead Poplars and Good Peaches



    Hey, everyone. We have been dividing our time between the green retreat and our place in the valley. This morning we were up at the green retreat and noticed that dozens of our poplar trees had died, simultaneously. What with an extended dry spell (recently broken) and temperatures over 100 degrees, it is not surprising that more trees have noticed the difference. I'll say it again, I believe that global warming is very real and very dangerous. I also believe that we have already passed the point of fixing it. I was amused to see the oil company executive pontificating on that subject the other day. Whatever.
     As I've mentioned before, we have had several species of trees die in our years on the mountain. First it was the dogwoods, then the pin oaks, then sourwoods and now the poplars. Our woods, and our world are changing more rapidly than most believe. Only those who live or work close to nature can hear her silent screams.
     Hey, I went on one of my games called Hooked On Words, this morning. As soon as I opened the app there was a video ad of Jack In the Box restaurants I had to endure. I deleted the game. I have mixed feelings about this stuff. You  get free games. These people work hard and deserve some coin, what do we expect? There are a lot of internet people who won't pay for anything. I cheap out quite a bit myself. I will say that if I enjoy a free game I will go and buy something from the people that made it, whether it be an in-app or another game. With their usual diligence, though, the marketers are busy trying to ruin IOS gaming.
     At our valley place we have some peach trees and there are small, sweet peaches on them. The other morning I went out and picked several to go with my breakfast. It occurred to me that they were the first peaches I had ever eaten off those trees. In Biblical days it was considered a sign of God's displeasure with a people if they 'planted a vineyard and never tasted the fruits thereof' or 'built a house and was never able to live in it'. I am a disillusioned old man and not very spiritual anymore but one wonders if America is not under some sort of condemnation.    
        Another thing that the peaches reminded me of was my youth. When I was 12 years old, one summer I got a job picking peaches in a big orchard. It was dawn to dark, hard, stoop labor for the princely sum of 65 cents an hour. I used the money to buy my first bicycle. It was a used bike but I bought some snazzy handlebar grips with colored streamers on them. Honest! I also bought  12 different subscriptions to comic books. Stuff like Justice League of America, The Atom, Flash, Green Lantern and others. I rode that bike 10 miles to town, on a routine basis, so I could get a soda at a drug store and check out the new comics. On one of those trips I was caught out in the rain and it rained so hard I couldn't breath. I got under a bridge until it was over. It was the hardest rain I've ever seen.

     Well! It looks like I've had an outbreak of seriousness this morning. I'll have to try to get rid of that! Let's see...what sort of lightweight things can I chatter about? Oh, I know. We have had a lot of rain, thank goodness. Here's a little video for you. I apologize for it being sideways but I took it on my I-Pad and turned it without knowing. Oops! The video would not upload. Sorry. How about a still shot?
     From the green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The White Chicken Mystery

    The other night I happened to come home very late. It was the middle of the night and I was driving up a steep mountain road. Near the top I saw something white in my headlights. It was standing in the other lane, standing very still. It was a large white chicken. It was probably a rooster because I thought I could see his comb as I whizzed by at my customary pace. He never moved a muscle. This is weird, don't you think?      After a couple of days to consider this phenomenon, I have come up with some plausible answers for his bizarre behavior. 1. He was conflicted whether or not he should cross the road. 2. He was feeling cocky and decided to play chicken with the traffic. 3.He was being hen-pecked at home and had decided to end it all. 4. Someone had egged him on to do it. 5. He had just watched the movie Fantastic Four and decided to try to stop a truck the way that Ben Grimm did on the bridge. 6. He had driven himself crazy wondering if ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egg Art

     Hey, everyone. One of the odd customs in America is the Easter Egg Hunt. Here at the Green Retreat, we do a hunt every Spring. I just ran across some of the pictures from this years hunt and it is obvious that an artist had sneaked into our midst. The orange egg is a rendering of one of the Angry Birds of gaming lore. If I were a bird and had to pass an egg that size, I would be angry too. Ha, ha.      We typically will dye about 10 dozen eggs and people get quite creative with their quotes and colors, as you can see. Many of the eggs are a bit risque for these pages. After having a few laughs, we hide the eggs. All of them are never found, which is cool. It is amusing to see old men (me) and all ages of folks, walking around with a basket on their arm. Some of the hiding spots are dastardly. Like eggs hidden in the guttering downspouts and ten foot up a tree. The kids are perhaps the most devious at hiding the colorful orbs, goi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...
Post a Comment
Read more