Saturday, March 11, 2006

Stuart's Meme

Alice has tagged me with Stuart’s meme.
I tried to think of some answers last night but the old brain was pretty much blank. Now morning has broken, and after a good night’s sleep I’m actually having a few original thoughts….nothing earth shattering, mind you, but I’m ready to give it a go.

If I was only allowed to keep one plant in my garden which would it be?
I’ve decided on echinacea, or purple coneflower.



Their color is delightful and they bloom for a long time. They reseed easily and their seeds are a favorite with the birds. I could also use them for medicinal purposes if I could figure out which part to use!
However, I could only make this choice knowing almost certainly that I’ll never in reality have to deal with this question. I can’t even imagine a garden with only one plant!

If there was only one thing invented in the past 100 years that I was permitted to keep, what would it be?
Compound interest!!!!! This was my hubby’s answer and I liked it so much, I had to put it in here :)
If Stuart means an actual machine, I'd be inclined to pick my computer. We’d have electricity to run it since electric generators were introduced in 1882, and were sending current around NY City at that time.
How would I keep in touch with all my blog friends without a computer?

Name 3 animals you saw yesterday (excluding cats and dogs).

Downy Woodpecker

Numerous birds, including woodpeckers, chickadees, sparrows, blue jays, gold finches, starlings, crows, a nuthatch, and a female cardinal. The only other things I saw that are remotely animal related, apart from our 14 barn cats (which I’m barred from mentioning), were a daddy-long-legs spider and a ‘slow fly’….large, comparatively slow-moving flies that show up in the house as the weather begins to warm (charming creatures….they die in piles on the floor in front of windows and glass doors and have to be vacuumed up. Some years there are zillions, other years hardly any).
But! Today on the way to choir practice I really paid attention and saw chickens and roosters, muscovy ducks (the funny-looking ones), horses and a herd of Black Angus cattle.
This morning we had a very large flock of red-winged black birds in our front yard. They are true harbingers of spring. We usually only see one or two at a time. Having a whole flock show up was a real treat. There were starlings and grackles mingling with them too.


Red-winged Black Birds - Unfortunately had to be taken through the porch railing from inside the house otherwise they would fly away.

I was pleased to feel more aware of my surroundings….so, thanks to Stuart and Alice for promoting this awareness.

Which season do you like the most?
This is the easy question. Hands down it’s summer! This is a beautiful season in upstate NY. The average temperatures are usually in the 70’s and 80’sF (21 to 32C). Last summer was unusually hot and we had a longer period of warm weather beginning with a warmer than usual June. It was wonderful! I spend as much time as possible outside.

Name the person who imparted the most wisdom into your life?
My mother certainly taught me a lot about life. She was a mostly self-taught person with a passion for reading and a love of word-related games, including scrabble and crossword puzzles. She was very creative, especially with a pair of knitting needles, a sewing machine or a pair of gardening gloves and a trowel.
She also showed me the importance of love by giving it in abundance.

I’m tagging
Connie and Sonia and Sue.

12 comments:

Val said...[Reply]

Loved the photo of the woodpecker, but I won't have anything bad said about muscovy ducks. What do you mean, "funny looking"?!?! We had a male muscovy for 10 years, his name was Roastie. He got quite large and scary looking, I must admit.

Didn't know the coneflower is echinacea!

WendyAs said...[Reply]

I love the coneflowers too. Lovely pictures. They remind me of summer in Canada. You have seen some incredible birds all in one day.

sonia a. mascaro said...[Reply]

Hi Kerri, love reading your answers and seeing your photos!

Thank you for your visiting on my blog and for your compliments! Always a pleasure your visiting!

Thank you for tagged me. Yes, I will answer it. But first I must answer to Connie and what a coincidence, she is also tagged by you! LOL!

Susie said...[Reply]

Kerri,
I also didn't know that coneflower was echinacea. Wouldn't have a clue how to get the medicinal part of them extracted!
Too rainy here for any pictures, but thanks for the tag and I'll get working on it!
Sue

somershade said...[Reply]

Love the flowers and wood pecker, we have some here in our woods that are the size of chickens.I'm Abandon in Pasedena's daughter, sharon. Just dropped in to say hi. Me and hubby were upstate N.Y. in july on our 2 bikes on highway 1 or 5. Anyway it was beautiful and green and lots of Vineyards.

Sandy Hatcher-Wallace said...[Reply]

Kerri...thanks for visiting and leaving such nice comments. This is by far the most interesting meme that I have ever seen. I have never seen a meme complete with pictures.

The pictures were great and I really love the coneflowers. I had some, but they died out for some reason...I am going to replant some more because they are by far very beautiful.

I really enjoyed your meme and I too would choose the computer, so I could stay in touch with my blog friends.

Motherkitty said...[Reply]

Kerri, I absolutely love your blog. I wanted to comment, however, on the colors and font size. I have a difficult time reading your blog because of green or purple letters on a green backgrouond, and the font size is so small. Otherwise, I love your blog and all the interesting topics you write about.

David Edward said...[Reply]

hello from Sugarloaf mountain
where this weekend we got 3 feet of snow

Jellyhead said...[Reply]

What a lovely post, with all the photos, too. Gives us a taste of your life and your surroundings.

Thanks, Kerri.

kylieps said...[Reply]

Beautiful Pictures, Mum. You're really a wiz with that camera now. You'll have to show me your tricks when I see you next.
Where's Alice? I don't see her comments. I'll have to go visit her blog.
smooch!

Alice said...[Reply]

Hi Kerri and Kylie - thank you for your concern (privately). Kylie's right, Kerri, you're becoming a master photographer. I loved R's suggestion about the Compound Interest. If only we realised its benefits and took advantage of it at an earlier age - I could have made enough money to come visit you. The coneflowers are lovely, too.

Anonymous said...[Reply]

Hi Mom,

I'm going wild here, posting my second comment of the day. Kyle loves the cat pictures above!

But I just wanted to let you know that I'm pretty sure the concept of compounded interest has been around pretty much since the beginning of money. Have Dad take a look at that Babylon book that I lent him.

Love,
Andrew