Tomatoes

I went to visit Tom & Debbie and buy some tomatoes on Sunday.  I had a nice visit with Debbie and she toured me around her yard and beautiful flowers.  I should have had my camera in my pocket but had left my cell phone in the car, not expecting to get this tour.  She has a hedge of fuchsia colored petunias that is just amazing.  She buys a gross of plant plugs from a wholesaler and did they ever grow and spread.  She also had beautiful dahlias.  They also raise pheasants for release, so there were pheasants picking around in the garden, under the hostas, and in the yard.  It was quite something to see all those pheasants around.  I got a bunch of tomatoes and they said they would sell me some more, so to call when I'm ready for another batch.  Yay!

I left Almena with the intent to go to Aldi to get a few groceries, especially bacon, so I could have BLT for supper.  I had my camera so I took the back-roads, hoping to see some wildlife.  I had never been on some of these roads before and found a wonderful little wildlife area.   I ran across John Porter Flowage and a nice family of swans. This is a nice area with big parking lot, I'll be going back to see what else I might see if I 'sit a spell'.

"John Porter was a Wildlife Biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from 1964 to 1989 for Barron and Polk Counties. He developed the plans and acquired much of the land for 5 major wildlife management areas and many smaller ones totaling almost 15,000 acres during his career.

The John Porter Flowage, formerly the Hwy T Flowage, is located 15 northwest of Barron. It consists of 77 acres of land, of which 40 acres was purchased by Ducks Unlimited and donated to the State of Wisconsin. The cornerstone of this project is a 17-acre flowage developed by restoring a drained wetland. The flowage is used by nesting and migrating ducks, geese, and trumpeter swans."  

DNR webpage.

There might be some trails here, but I couldn't readily see any paths to walk.

I'll go back again and look around more.

Just up the road there were a herd of horses frisking around. 

There is something fun about taking photos of running horses.

I know nothing about horses and breeds, but these sure were pretty to look at.

I made another stop at friends Doug and Sharon before finally making my way to Aldi.

Doug and Sharon are parents of my nephew in law Mark and also parents of my plumber Ryan.  They have a lovely home not far from me, long driveway and they mow everywhere, it looks like a state park in there.  We had a nice little visit and I got a few updates on Krista & Mark's family, so that was nice.  They have the world's oldest cat.  This cat has no tail, it got chopped off somehow.  I think it must have been hit by a car somewhere along the line, because it's back end is not in alignment with her front end.  But she still eats and seems happy to see people.  She sleeps in the heated garage and after I gave her some head scratches, she followed me out to the edge of the driveway as I left.

She's had a long life, I wonder if she will make it through another winter.  She's like that old cat, Grizabella, in the Broadway musical Cats.

I hope I see her again.

It was a really nice afternoon, but what happened at Aldi kind of made my day.

I was standing in the produce aisle and I heard a Mom say to a young boy "well, ask her".

Then she turned to me and said "my son wants to ask you a question".

So, I turned to him and said, "sure, what is your question?"

He said "were you the judge at the spelling bee?"

I said, "yes, well actually I was the pronouncer, not the judge"

So, then I asked him about how he did in the Bee and he said he went out on round 8, the vocabulary round and his word was chivalrous, he thought is sounded like another word.  I remember this young boy and I remember how sad I was that he went out on that round (I'm not a big fan of the vocabulary rounds).  So, I asked him if he was going to be in the Bee this year and he shrugged.  I took a minute to tell him he should try again and then I gave him a couple of tips about asking the Pronouncer to repeat the word, give the definition, and repeat the sentence.  The kids in the National Scripps Spelling Bee ask for all the info and it gives them more time to be sure they have the right word.  None of the kids at the regional level do this, and if they ask, I'll repeat the word and the info as many times as they want.  I always feel bad during our local Bee that the kids do not take advantage of asking for more information or a repeat of the word.

As I walked away, I heard the Mom telling the little boy "she gave you some good tips".

It kind of made my day.

Oh yeah, I did get the bacon and some avocado too, 

so I had a fresh tomato, avocado, & bacon salad for supper, it was delicious!