Valentine's Day

It’s another day. A fresh start in life. Yesterdays ills and problems are behind me and a new day awaits me. A good day. After all, it’s Valentines Day and Mary and I are going out for lunch.

Good news and bad news already. The good news is that as I sit here looking east out of the window, I am greeted with a magnificent sky that is brightly lit with a golden hued light from the sunrise. So what is the bad news? As I look out the window at the sunrise I am also seeing the neighbors “solar dryer” and it is loaded with clothes. Sort of ruins the view just a bit, don’t you think? But I must laud them with praise for “thinking green” and saving energy. Where can you find parts for a solar dryer like clothespins? They may have gone the way of Gulfwax. Remember Gulfwax? It was a block of pure paraffin wax that was about the size and shape of a one pound package of butter. It was used in the “old days” in canning. After filling the jars with the cooked vegetables and jam, my mom would pour melted parrafin wax over the surface of the jam. When it cooled it would form an airtight barrier to prevent spoilage. Parrafin wax was very common in the grocery stores along with mason jars. But I haven’t seen blocks of parrafin wax for canning in eons. It has probably gone to the Peter Pan Neverland along with wooden clothespins.

The picture above and below is of a wildflower that has been fooled by the warmer weather last week and started to bloom thinking that it was spring. Some people call them weeds but I prefer to call them wildflowers. The flowers are small but up close they are as pretty as any garden flower. Lew