What is an icker anyway?

I while back someone was asking me to explain the blog title and tagline. I harumphed that it is enough that I go through the trouble of maintaining this blog just for your amusement, giving you guys all kinds of advice and information to help you in your daily journey into the light, one would think that you all could go to the trouble of typing a few lines of text into a search engine and figuring this out for yourselves...but apparently not...Now, if you are from the Appalachian mountain area, you probably already know what it all means because your grandmother probably spoke Scottish and perhaps even recited this very poem to you at one time...is this not so? No? Well, if you get out your trusty Scottish-English dictionary, you will find that "daimen icker" means "an odd ear of corn," which pretty much sums up what I am all about. The line is from the Robert Burns poem "To A Mouse," in which he apologizes to a mouse for overturning her nest just as winter is coming on. He asks, what's so bad about a little mouse on the farm anyway? We're talking about the loss of, say, one ear of corn out of a bushel, we won't really miss it! That's what this blog is. A toss-away. Let the mouse have it. Out of all the blogs out there, who will miss this daimen icker when it is gone? All the action is over on You Tube now anyway...

hootie hoo

Here is a song I wrote many years ago about a lady some of us knew as "Party Girl Polly."

If you want to party with Party Girl Polly
There is not much you need do
Grab a pint of Bacardi, half a pound of Havarti,
And let out a hearty "hootie-hoo."

You probably had to be there to appreciate it, all those times in the late eighties and early nineties, when she would show up in her van and wearing her leather floppy hat and say "where's the party?" She was an attractive lady with very crooked teeth and could always find the party.

Back then, you could get a quick and inexpensive meal at the Continental Cafe on Henderson Street. They served Greek food and pizza and had ancient Greek figures painted on the ceilings. Some of the booths had little black and white televisions on the table. You could slide a quarter in and watch Doogie Howser or the Wonder Years while you ate your manicotti or Greek salad. Or you could go to Sadlack's around the corner, or walk to Fowler's grocery store (where the current Vespa restaurant is) and buy some cold cuts and bread and a bottle of wine, or walk into the cooler and pick up a case of Little Kings.

All gone now. Like dust in the hourglass...

Honesty, Integrety, Sticktoitiveness

Yo peeps, I haven't laid anything down here in a while and I am sorry about that. I have been busy. I am taking some classes here at the local land grant university. In case anyone is interested, I am taking Urban Planning, The History of Landscape Architecture, Computers in Landscape Architecture and Plant Systems. There is a lot of reading to do for all these classes. Computers is especially time-consuming. But they are all interesting. I encourage everyone to check out a three deminsional drawing program called sketchup. It is like the ketchup of automated 3D drafting software, easy and fun to use. You can get it for free at www.sketchup.com. The free one expires after a while, and I don't know how much it costs to keep it around, but it sure is fun. Watch the video tutorials and do some of the self-paced tuturials before you try anything.
the videos are under the training button on the home page, I think you find the self-help tutorials in the help menu. I have had a blast making houses in sketchup. You draw and save in 3D, which means you can view your creation from any angle, even below grade. While you are at Google, go ahead and download Google Earth. Now that is one hell of a fun toy. You can fly back to your home town and cruise the old neighborhood from about 500 feet in the sky. You can tilt the perspective and fly towards the horizon. I cruised up and down the Tigris River for about half an hour the other day and found some cool olive groves. Check out the masive man-made palm-shaped peninsular developement at Dubai. I have had a lot of fun with these things, but I need to learn Photoshop CS2 and AutoCAD as well, and they are much more complex. Better get started.

disneyworld

On the way home from Key West we stopped to get gas in Orlando and I found one of those disposable cameras laying on the ground. There were only three images on it. I have no idea who these people are. If you click on the second photo to make it larger you will see that the sign says; "Supervise children at all times. Must transfer. Wait time is 60 minutes from this point."

more Key West

These were all taken at the West Martello gardens in Key West during the two days after Christmas.

Christmas in Key West

Notice in the top photo the callicarpa, or beautyberry, has fruit on it. Where I come from that happens in September or October. How does it know when to fruit in Key West? I also saw salvia guarantica and lantana blooming next to a black locust tree. The Martello gardens are just about the only free attraction in Key West and is run by the Key West garden club. It is a nineteenth-century fort that was never completed.