A good night's sleep, chocolate, the happiness and satisfaction of sharing on AgingCare forum. Does anyone have some favorite things to think about? Yes, this phrase is from the song in the movie "The sound of Music". My husband and I often resort to using movie lines and song to improve communication. We were the only two in a gathering of people who heard the background music playing. We both had the same (cassette tape/CD). A connection bringing two people together. To this day, we crack up when one uses a simple movie line to make a serious point.
SO, What is one of your favorite movie line, some of your favorite things?
Maybe I can figure out how to buy the almonds and extract the oil.
Once I went shopping at an outdoor wreath demonstration - I think it was a special draw for a promotion at the adjacent strip mall, but it's been years ago. It was a brisk, chilly winter day but the area was scented by the aroma of fresh evergreen wreaths, and lots of them. As I remember, hot chocolate was being given to shoppers for free.
Even though the air was so cold and bitter, there was an excitement in the air b/c of the pines.
Reminds me that my junipers have a lot of berries that would look nice on wreaths; I'd better get going on that before the grapevines become too rigid.
Thanks for the info on making pine oil; that sounds like a nice project for the anticipated really bitter weather, perhaps after Christmas, when our weather segues into bitter cold.
I also bought some almond oil, at a reasonable price, but without that characteristic aroma. However, I at least have the oil; now all I need is to get the pine needles, and it's a great time to be outside amongst the pines collecting needles. I can only imagine how fresh and invigorating it will be.
However, I'm not thinking about the backache I'll have after bending down to get all these needles. Perhaps the easier way is to take a rake with me and just rake them up, then sort them out when I return from the woodsy areas.
Guess I need to consider adding a pine forest to my garden next year! I've always loved pines and evergreens anyway.
Good thought about the branches; the places I would go are public parks, either state owned or county owned. I wouldn't want to get in trouble for cutting the branches.
Or maybe I can go out to a tree farm and ask for the branches they throw away when cutting trees for the holiday season. The aroma of all those trees would probably put me into a frenzy.
Pam, when I brought the pines into the house, they had been washed first outdoors in warm or hot water- I don't remember which because water that's too hot will cause the scales to open, and I didn't want them opened too much. Then I baked them in the oven at a low temp to kill any other unwanted guests.
I can only guess how upsetting it must have been when all those little critters started exploring your house! That did happen once when I brought in some juniper branches to decorate the kitchen table and after a while noticed little red spiders crawling all over. Yuck.
I suspect evergreens for sale have been sprayed, which I really wouldn't want to do.
However, Hope, are you extending an invitation to visit your Pines? (hint, hint!)
I haven't seen too many of that kind here. Someday I'll spend some time learning about clouds and how to interpret them - they provide so much calm, beauty and diversity.
Glad, what happened to the dibble? I hope you aren't giving up on bulb planting, especially since now is the time when we dedicated gardeners are out rushing to get in the last 200 or bulbs we bought before the storm predicted for tomorrow.
Other favorite things:
Connecting, bonding instantaneously, with someone you've never met over topics in which you both have passionate interests.
Yesterday a woman in the dentist office asked me if my father was a pilot. She saw his B-29 hat on the cloak rack. She related that she had seen the inside of a B-29, including the cockpit, at a military museum and was fascinated by its complexity. Her father was WWII Navy man. We quickly began chatting as if we were old friends
A few months ago I was waiting for my father at one of the VA clinics, indulging in a favorite indoor passion of browsing through gardening magazines and drawing sketches whenever something inspired me. The woman next to me began a conversation, she too being a dedicated gardener.
The path of our discussions segued into hypertufa creations, which I told her was something I planned to do to create my own pots and other plant holders. She offered a caution; a neighbor spent a lot of time making hypertufa creations, ended up with severe respiratory problems. I suspect she didn't use a mask when working with the cement.
It was otherwise a very pleasant conversation, but it was also a caution to be careful when working with Portland cement, something I would have done anyways. But it was sad that a dedicated gardener suffered the side effects.
(BTW, this woman had also brought her father for treatment, so we also spoke a bit about our fathers and their service.)
View off back deck at twilight....still a fave!
I'm having visions of living in a log home in a rural area, surrounded by forests of pine adding their exotic scent to that of the fresh winter air. A fire, even an artificial ones, creates warmth inside. Folks are either cuddled up in warm quilts or huddled up with their pets. It's so, so peaceful.
Even when the power goes out, it's still peaceful.
A photo on the Weather Channel website reminded me of the days of drive-in restaurants. We ordered through a microphone type set up, then a woman in a short skirt roller skated out to bring the meal, usually great big hamburgers and thick milkshakes. Ted's Drive-In restaurant was one of the favorites.
Anyone remember the fun of going to outdoor drive-in theaters? Of getting popcorn at the refreshment center, hoping you could find you way back to your car amidst rows and rows of cars, and hoping that the microphone thing that fit inside the window was one that actually worked?
If you were a child perhaps you fell asleep during the movie. Mom and Dad brought pillows and blankets, and you napped through the last feature.
And the previews, and news in black and white at indoor theaters? The smell of all that popcorn, the sense of excitement as the lights dimmed and the movies began?
It seems like that all took place a hundred years ago.
As teens my girlfriends and I used to load the car up for movie nights, there was a boy from our class who earned extra $$ cleaning peoples windshields, everybody seemed to know each other. Of course we brought in booze and our own popcorn...cheap night out! The first time I saw Rocky Horror was at the drive in, can you picture a bunch of giggly girls dancing The Time Warp around the car LOL!
Bring back the Drive-ins!!!
Imop, technology is partially responsible for isolating people more and more.
Stacey, I had forgotten about the swings at drive-ins. I do remember those were special nights out with the family though, as were the times Mom packed a picnic lunch and we went to a state park. There was a special, tantalizing fragrance and sense of bonding with nature as we crossed the bridge in our little rubber slippers, waddling with our inner tubes around us, and began to smell the water
I still remember baked beans eaten at a picnic bench in sands at the end of evergreen stands. Some smells like the baked beans, hot dogs and hamburgers just evoke certain memories like picnics.
You have some great memories of your family, loving, warm, caring and together.
And it seems like we all remember the drive-ins. It's a reminder that the younger generation never experienced that excitement, as it was for us.
But maybe they can get excited about staying in touch with family via SmartPhones and Facebook......I'm so excited! Today I shared a photo of myself with my cousin on Facebook!
Years ago there was a movie titled Bladerunner, in which the star Harrison Ford fell in love with a "replicant", an artificial life form virtually indistinguishable from humans except that they had no ability to create or retain memories, functions which only humans had.
While a lot more complex than just this distinction, the fascinating aspect about memories being created and retained as the difference between the two races holds a lot more meaning than just science fiction. Scientists used to exclaim the complexities, especially when addressing mammals such as elephants which also form memories and linger over a deceased member of their herd's bones. It was amazing to me that they knew who their former friend was by smelling the bones. We aren't the only species that creates and retains memories.
Fast forward another 60 or more years when young people today have family gatherings and discuss their Facebook postings as family memories. Or maybe by then family gatherings will be obsolete and everyone will communicate through wireless devices - they might not even see their families anymore....no "over the river and through the woods", no hugs and kisses, no cuddling the little ones.... I'm glad I won't be around then.