“To beautify the Earth is the supreme Art.”
The morning is damp from last night’s rain. It is already 46°. The sky is light grey cloudy and is supposed to stay cloudy all day. I have an empty dance card.
Today’s chores are the same as yesterday’s chores because I was a sloth the whole day.
I am watching a science fiction film from 1958, It, the Terror from Outer Space. If tradition had served me, I’d be sitting on the floor in my pajamas eating my cereal and watching the movie. I wouldn’t notice the cheesy painted backgrounds of Mars and of star-studded space or that the rocket ship is as big as a house with huge rooms and several floors. The movie takes place in 1973. The two women crew members are serving coffee and sandwiches to the male crew sitting at the table eating lunch and smoking cigarettes. This is a rescue mission. Only one of the first Mars’ space landing crew has been rescued. He is accused of killing his shipmates. That’s the plot so far.
When I lived in Ghana, in Bolgatanga, the only seasons were the dry and the rainy. When the rains started, green shoots began to pop out of the once dusty ground. They reminded me of spring but a dramatic spring. Behind my house, in the field beyond the fence, the tiny, green shoots of millet appeared. Everything came alive, fed by the rains. The growing season was in full array. Millet covered the whole field, and when it grew tall, the compound at the far end of the field would disappear behind the stalks.
The first crocus gives me the same elation I felt when I saw the tiny millet plants. Back then I was saying good-bye to the dry season while here it is a less than fond farewell to winter. The first crocus this year was yellow followed by purple. Each new flower is a renewal, a hopeful sign.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Bolgatanga, dry season, millet, Peace Corps Ghana, rainy, spring
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March 18, 2023 at 1:28 pm
Hi Kat,
Today the sun is shining and my spouse left me home to do our taxes. Yuck. She and my daughter are having a girls out lunch. The high temperature today should reach 55°.
I remember spending Saturday mornings watching kids shows on TV. My mother prohibited us from eating in the family room while lying on the floor close to the screen. She believed that if we sat too close we would go blind. The eating prohibition was to protect the carpet. She also believed in many other debunked nonsense that we called, “Bubby, (Grandma) Tales”. Have you heard the joke about the mother who catches her tween-age son playing with himself in the bathroom? She then tells him, “Don’t do that or you’ll go blind”. The kid replies, “Can I do it until at least I need glasses”. 🙂
Yesterday, I noticed that in a few places my grass is beginning to green up a bit. Tomorrow morning hopefully will be the last freeze of the year. They are predicting a low of 32°. Our average last freeze is March 16th, but the latest date for freezing temperatures is April 14th. This winter, so far, we have had 20 days of below freezing temperatures. The average is 25 per winter. I have to get my yard people out to trim my trees and clean up the dead leaves and stuff from the fall and winter.
We have a very short spring and autumn. By Memorial Day we will be in the 90s. Then during July, August, and most of September, the gates of Hall open up with triple digit temperatures and very little rain.
March 18, 2023 at 7:05 pm
Hi Bob,
I get so little back in taxes they they take no time to fill.
The sun did come out this afternoon for a while, but it still felt cold. I did a few things in the yard until my hands stopped working in the cold.
My mother told us the same thing about going blind. She didn’t mind our eating cereal in the living room. We were quiet and didn’t bother her. We called them old wives tales, passed from mother to daughter. That joke gave me a laugh!!
The planting schedule claims that in my region May 31 is the last day for a possible freeze. I, however, plant earlier. I don’t ever remember a freeze that late in the spring. We have had a warmer winter than usual and almost no snow.
We have almost no spring. The ocean takes a long time to warm up so it keeps spring away. We do have a beautiful fall, a long fall. We don’t get hot until August, and even then, it is in the high 80’s and maybe a day or two in the 90’s. I don’t remember the last time we hit three digits.
March 18, 2023 at 8:30 pm
No one tells you when you open up these tax deferred investments that when you turn 70 and a half you have to take distributions as ordinary income. The assumption is that when you are that old you will be retired or dead and in a lower tax bracket. 🙁 I am probably giving most of my social security checks back to Uncle Sam in taxes. As long as I have my health and enjoy working I will continue to work regardless of the tax consequences.
March 18, 2023 at 8:43 pm
I get teachers’ retirement, noy social security. It started as soon as I retired which was at 57 years old. I receive 80% of the average of my last three years working. I have no other income, but I’m doing fine. That makes my taxes easy to do.
March 18, 2023 at 10:26 pm
Lucky you, simple tax return.
March 19, 2023 at 12:29 am
Lucky in one way but if I had enough to itemize I’d get more.
March 18, 2023 at 6:22 pm
Another nice spring day here, the daffodils are blooming and first buds of our magnolia tree start to open. Our blackbird pair still visits every day, eating and bathing, but chose to nest elsewhere. I haven’t found their spot yet. Yesterday we went to the still swollen river by bike, wet feets and muddy bikes but it was fun.
I hope the world survived this Terror from Outer Space, it would have been too bad if we became extinct in 1973 🙂
March 18, 2023 at 7:11 pm
Birgit,
It stayed chilly today. I was outside for a bit then my hands got cold.
The cardinals are back. The chickadees never left. It is too early for mud season though the ground is soft already. Spring is still a while away.
They manage to kill It!