SoCS: near/far

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “near/far.” Use “near,” use “far,” use them both if you’d like. In fact, if you start your post with one and end with the other, you get bonus points!

I’m going far away today! I’m going to Zurich! That’s Zurich, Ontario, Canada but its far compared to where I’ve been the last year and a half.

We have a lot of faraway names in Ontario. London, Paris, Scotland, Stratford, Cambridge. Our great white heritage. I watched a show about how we destroyed this land that people had been keeping pristine for tens of thousands of years. But white man came in and destroyed it in a mere 100 years. We overfished the fisheries until there was none. We clear cut the forests until there were no mature trees left except one area of bog they couldn’t get at. When there was nothing left the settlers all migrated out west to devour that.

It was fortunate the Saugeen First Nation had some forward-thinking chiefs back then. After the white man’s fisheries had depleted the fish stock, (much of it left to rot as they only had salt to pack it and ship it) these two Chiefs got the fisheries back in the hands of the Saugeen Nation. They used their traditional methods and brought it back to a well-run fishery. Its not as far back in the past as people like to think. Yesterday there was a big announcement that the Saugeen Nation are having land returned that was swindled away from them. Its taken this long to settle.

But that isn’t what I was going to write about: I’m driving to Zurich today. Actually to some rural place near Zurich so I’m on an adventure. Its all the way past Grand Bend! It might even take me an hour! LOL! It makes me realize how close to home I’ve been in the last year and a half!

But I’m excited because this is what I’m picking up:

Can’t wait to play it with my grandnephew and, hopefully, get other family members to play even though they “hate cards”.

Rummy is my favourite card game and I love to play it with my grandnephew who is near to my heart! (bonus point!)

https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-25-2021/

SoCS: puzzle

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “puzzle.” Use it any way you’d like!

This is going to be one boring post. An old lady talking about her love of jigsaw puzzles. But its stream of consciousness so this is what you get.

I heard a comedian say that blogs posts are writing letters that no one wants to read. That’s exactly right in my case! We all need someone to talk to, to air our grievances so why not go to strangers who don’t know you to clear the excess crap twirling around in the brain. I really wish I had never told anyone I know that I write this because often I need to air my grievances but cannot.

Back to puzzles. I only do them in jigsaw puzzle season. I sort of live by seasons so I have something to look forward to. Now, for instance, is the end of summer and beginning of fall, my favourite season. I decorate with faux leaf boughs. Take down my solar lights. Order my firewood and put it in the wood shed. In a few months it will be winter decorations then a gaudy display of Christmas decorations along with a real Christmas tree.

Christmas lights light up the gloom. The days are so short it gets dark at 4:30. I get no sun in my windows because the sun can’t make it above the trees on the south side of my property.

But in late January I start to get a sliver of sun in the afternoon. February -March the sun comes in fully around 2:00. This is jigsaw puzzle season. I have a board that sits on my ottoman and cardboard trays (box lids) with all the separated puzzle pieces. I can park myself in the sun at any angle.

I even love the organizing of it. You have a box of 500, 750 or 1000 little pieces. In the beginning I go through handfuls breaking it down to 3 trays. The most of one colour or the lightest colour. Flowers, numbers, water anything that differentiates one from the other . . . but the border pieces go on the board to start out. I always do the border first.

OMG. this is too boring to even write! This was in my images from 2015. I guess its not the first time I’ve written about jigsaw puzzles.

its all in the organization

https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-18-2021/

SoCS: where is that smell?

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “where.” Use it any way you’d like!

Where is that smell coming from? Every morning I sit at my computer and ask myself “where is that smell coming from?” It smells like a potato gone bad. I’ve cleaned my onion/potato cupboard out completely. I’ve checked the corners to see if a little new potato rolled away and hid. I even thought it might be me and smelled my armpits. I don’t now where else to look. And I only notice it sitting at my kitchen table. Where is that smell coming from?

I had this problem before but in my living room. In the winter time I kept getting a waft of a horrible smell but it came and went. It wasn’t all the time. I could not find where it was coming from for the longest time but finally I did find out. I was out getting firewood and got a full waft of cat spray. You know that awful squirt male cats back up and make to mark their territory. I realized I had it along a woodpile about 1 or so foot off the ground. I would bring this wood into the house and when it warmed up the smell hit my ceiling fan sending down a waft of cat spray.

Where do all these cats come from? At least 4 neighbors have cats who make their rounds through here regularly. Being cats, they don’t like getting their paws wet in morning dew so they have made a path they all use. You can see an indentation of a trail they use across my lawn. A couple of years ago a big willow fell down across the little pond of water so now they have a bridge from my place to yet another neighbor who has cats. In the winter its very noticeable in the snow and takes them along side of the bird feeding table. That’s when I yell at them; “Move along buddy! Get away from my birdies!”

Where are my birdies? The robins left in late July. I was used to seeing them and some other birds on my lawn and using the bird bath everyday. I watched mommy bird show her babies how to find worms in the lawn and how to bathe. Then they were gone. No birds around except the winter birds. Nobody uses the birdbath. I googled to see why they left so early and read they start to ‘flock’ at the end of July. They might have been hanging around the area in huge flocks, getting their young ready for the big trip south. You can see flocks of birds at this time of the year flying together. They may be different species, too.

Where do they go?

I googled that, too. The robins go down to the southern states as far as Texas but can overwinter in more northern states. They don’t fly down to the same place every winter but they do fly back to the same nesting place in the spring if they liked it. Robins, like crows, can also remember your face and get to know you. So I hope to see my family of robins in the spring again and I can ask:

Where have you been?

https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-11-2021/

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pin.” Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Hmmm you’re pinning me down here. First thing that came to mind is my PIN number. I am old. I have the same PIN number for everything that needs a PIN number and that number is written on a little piece of paper and buried in my wallet just in case I forget it. Do you ever do that? Try to think of your number and draw a blank? Funny thing is; once you go to use it your fingers just do the right number.

I know security-wise its not wise but I feel OK about it. Although if someone found my wallet and went completely through it . . . OK its not a very good idea but I’ll take my chances. If I had to make new PIN numbers, I would have write them down somewhere. In my sewing room there is a little box with all my passwords in it. Good thing none of you know where I live.

I sew and have pins that are so old they are dull. I have pins from my mom and mother-in-law that could be 70 years old. How do you throw out pins? I have to start throwing out each one that doesn’t slide easily into the fabric instead of putting them back. I have knocked over pins so many times I keep a good magnet handy for picking them up.

There’s a couple of pinned projects lying around right now. I took apart a dress to make a top; its not finished. I made a cover for my lawn old lawn chairs (was going to make 2) because they are disintegrating and get plastic dust on your clothing. But they still work as chairs. I don’t like throwing things out and how do you throw out an old lawn chair anyway? Not good to have pins in a seat cover. I should finish it/them.

Well hell; I’m just right out of pin thoughts.

Its Labour Day Weekend and I live near a beach. Its quiet right now but soon the Labour Day Weekend frenzy begins. Its like the last desperate chance to have fun! People drive too fast and walk in the roads with blown up beach toys. Old noisy tractors taking boats and sea-doos up and down the road all day. Noisy boats and sea-doos driving around, coming too close to swimmers so they can park on a sand bar. And you know all those people are peeing in the water. Pandemic? Bah! We’re outside! The parking lots fill up at the beach and they line the streets. It works up to a climax along with fireworks at all the campgrounds then boom . . . Tuesday everyone is gone. Sand blows across an empty street. Its so peaceful.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-4-2021/