Do You Remember Ray Rayner.. and a Poem

What Should I Do? by Balisha
I woke to morning snow again.. the winds began to blow..
I thought of many things to do on this day of heavy snow.
My knitting lying in a heap.. where I sit to watch TV..
A stack of many books to read is waiting just for me.
A pot of soup or maybe stew.. my crockpot's on the shelf..
Something warm to eat today...I'll get it down myself.
The scrabble game is there.. for me to play a word..
LA is waiting in DC... her snow is deep I've heard.
The TV tells of more snow coming...this is what I hear..
Those things will wait while I just watch all my birdies dear.
I'll sit in a chair right by the door with windows it is true..
Juncos, cardinals, finches, and a jay so big and blue.
They'll entertain me all the day with antics when I feed..
I'll fill the feeders brimming full with every kind of seed.
They'll hop and scratch and jump around and look at me with glee..
Their little beaks just brimming full is what I want to see.

I have been looking at tomato seeds on the computer. Trying to decide if I want to plant seeds or just buy young plants. I started thinking back to the 60's when Ray Rayner had his morning show for kids. I enjoyed watching his successes and failures in growing tomatoes. I started reading about him and found some interesting things that I didn't know. Ray Rayner was shot down over Germany, during the war, and taken prisoner. For a while he was held in the concentration camp made famous in the movie 'The Great Escape' (a true story) Ray was moved to another camp before the escape and was cast in one of the shows the prisoners were putting on. The camp even had an orchestra, with costumes and instruments for the shows coming from Berlin. (Was this 'Hogan's Heroes' for real?!?) In a production of "The Petrified Forest" the acting bug bit - He worked long and hard they rehearsed it for seven weeks. It was a success and the bug had bit. It was in the middle of a production of "You Can't Take It With You" that the order came down from the ones in charge...that everyone had to move out on foot - immediately! Russian troops were invading, and a several day long trek across the treacherous countryside followed. You really learn what life is all about in prison camp,Rayner said about that time....FOOD! Coming back to the states..when the war was over, he did some summer theater and he eventually came to Chicago and started his morning show for kids. Ray Rayner and Friends. He never thought that he was the type to do a kid's show, but he did it brilliantly...making mistakes on his craft projects, going into the closet and coming out with a drum major's costume and marching around the stage. His blackboard was a part of the show. He kept track of the Chicago team scores and the weather. He would talk to "Flying Officer" Jim Cavenaugh in his helicopter, giving traffic reports. He would visit with the big dog, Cuddley Duddley. I think that we got our Cuddley, when we subscribed to the Chicago Tribune. Cuddley was a part of our family until his heavy head began to lop over... from being used for a pillow...when lying on the floor and watching TV. Chelveston the duck was a favorite...Chelveston the Duck used to ride to work in a taxi from the Animal Kingdom. He arrived in a big green box with a small screened window, a way of traveling that cramped his style; so when he emerged at the WGN studios, to do his act on the Ray Rayner show three times a week, he was usually in a vile temper and worked off his anger by chasing Rayner about the set, nipping at his ankles. I think that Ray had a slight fear of this creature. He had a plastic pool set up for Chel..and while the duck was swimming, he would toss lettuce leaves at him. As an adult, I found one of the most interesting things that he did was plant tomato seeds in cut down milk cartons. He did this in February and we watched the growing progress. This man provided entertainment for kids and adults alike. It was a "morning show" for kids, who dressed in front of the TV and waited for Ray to tell them what to wear. Ray did grown up things that he could bring down to a child's level....showing them all the goofs and mistakes along the way. He was brilliant.

Balisha

Obama, GOP set for televised health showdown

I'm on my soapbox again...bear with me I'll get back to gardening tomorrow.

By Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times

President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse.
Mr. Obama made the announcement in an interview on CBS during the Super Bowl pre-game show, capitalizing on a vast television audience. (this was a smart move) He set out a plan that would put Republicans on the spot to offer their own ideas on health care and show whether both sides are willing to work together.
“I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Mr. Obama said in the interview from the White House Library. Mr. Obama challenged Republicans to attend the meeting with their plans for lowering the cost of health insurance and expanding coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Republican leaders said they welcomed the opportunity and called on Democrats to start the debate from scratch, which the president said he would not do.
The move by Mr. Obama comes after weeks in which the administration has appeared uncertain about how to proceed on his top domestic priority since Republicans captured the Senate seat previously held by Senator Kennedy. House and Senate Democrats had been increasingly at odds over what the bill should say, how to move ahead tactically and, in some cases, whether to continue at all.
The idea for the bipartisan meeting, set for Feb. 25, was reached in recent weeks, aides said, as part of the White House strategy to intensify its push to engage Congressional Republicans in policy negotiations, share the burden of governing and put more scrutiny on Republican initiatives.
Campaign pledge Mr. Obama’s announcement came after he surprised his rivals in late January by requesting that a session with House Republicans be open to cameras. That meeting produced a spirited 90-minute question-and-answer session with the president that many in the White House viewed as a critical success for Mr. Obama.
In making the gesture on Sunday, Mr. Obama is in effect calling the hand of Republicans who had chastised him for not honoring a campaign pledge to hold health care deliberations in the open, broadcast by C-Span, and for not allowing Republicans at the bargaining table.

This from Balisha...

Well, there you have it. Someone said to me just yesterday, "You know the health care plan is going nowhere....It's going to be dropped." I'll admit that sometimes I wear my heart on my sleeve, but I am smart enough to know that these Washington cronies are just deliberately blocking the plan...because they can. President Obama challenged them in his state of the union saying, in so many words..."Hey, if you have any ideas...bring them to my office and show me. We can work together on this." Getting health care for everyone is crucial to our country. I know how people who have no insurance feel. My first husband went to work for a company that didn't offer a health plan and we had to search for insurance...I had a pre existing condition and we had a hard time getting a plan. Only when we signed off on my health problem could we get coverage...a very expensive plan at that time. I have been to the ER and have seen the families there waiting to get taken care of...they have no insurance and come to the hospital as they would a doctor. Moms and Dads medicating their kids and themselves, because they can't afford to see a doctor. Moms and Dads going without meals to help a sick child through an illness. I could go on and on, but I won't. I just hope that Democrats and Republicans forget themselves for a bit and get together and work out a plan that works for both sides. Some Americans now say, “I’m happy with my health care.” Well, as Christians, that’s a selfish statement. How is my neighbor’s health care? Jesus has made that my problem. He says, blessed are the poor, blessed are the merciful. That, to me, is something that affects every aspect of our society. On judgement day, we all will stand equally in the grace of the Lord. We are meant to open our hearts and ears in care and compassion. I'll be watching on the 25th.

Balisha

Balisha's Review of the Movie...Amelia

This seems like a funny post for a Sunday morning. We just came back from Mass and you would think that I could have come up with a better idea, but this movie was on my mind and decided to post it anyway.

We popped the popcorn and settled in for an evening of fun...watching the movie, Amelia, that we had waited for so long. Joe put the DVD in the player while I popped the corn. The movie started. This movie had been hyped for months. Hillary Swank was on all the talk shows. She said that she took flying lessons...in order to capture the feeling that Amelia had in the plane. Her studio wouldn't let her fly solo, however. She cut her hair and colored it, bleached her eyebrows, makeup with freckles made her look eerily like Amelia. I was thinking about Kathryn Hepburn, while watching Hillary do this part. She could have played the part too. Hillary wore pants and jackets,walked with a swagger and had a bit of an accent. Richard Gere played her husband. He was a believable character...always handsome in my mind. His part was minor in the film. The photography in this movie was beautiful. Wonderful sky pictures...storms that were believable. The plane soaring through the clouds and then showing things down on earth were wonderful. At one point Amelia almost fell out of the plane...made me gasp. The background music was very beautiful. The words of Amelia were almost poetic. Some of the lines were actual words of Amelia. She was a strong woman, but very feminine at the same time. I notice things like photography and poetic lines...in movies. Some movies get by with these attributes, but not this one. We were both a little disappointed with the film. The movie went in too many directions without really developing any of them. The story line was skimpy. A beautiful film without much substance. I wanted more...I wanted to know details.

There you have it...I took the movie over to my neighbor and we will see how they liked it. It was worth the $2.80 that I spent to rent it and it provided an evening of fun, so not a bad thing to do on a cold night in Northern Illinois.

Balisha

Valentine Art Project

I started out with these pictures all wrong. I should have shown the watercolor paper...before I cut it up. That and getting these in order for this post...so confusing. Oh, well, here goes. I took watercolor paper and taped a piece to a board. I painted the background in a mottled pinky red color...leaving some white there. Then when it was dried I spatter painted with red and black. Let that dry and then brushed some matte medium in places and squished up red tissue paper and "glued" little clumps here and there. I had some crinkled paper strings of red and pink and put them down. Then I streaked some gold acrylic paint in places and made some doodles with a medium point black marker. In bare spots, I painted some red hearts and blotted with paper towels so the color was more subdued.Then I used those same paper towel pieces and glued them down. I gathered my supplies and grabbed a cookie cutter and traced around the cutter. I cut them out with scissors with a decorative edge. I punched holes in the top of each for the hangers.

I bought some tiny doilies and stickers. Put a sticker on each doily. Then out of crinkle ribbon, I made hangers. After these were assembled I took them into the dining room where I had painted branches in a clear glass vase. I plan to use these branches for each holiday coming up. I'll carefully put these hearts away and will use them again next year.

This was really a fun project and didn't take much time. You wouldn't have to do the watercolor paper part. I saw cute tiny valentines at the store. You could use ready made valentines glued onto heart shaped doilies.

I may make cutout cookies and decorate them in valentine colors. The first year that I was married...I made a heart shaped meatloaf :)

Balisha

My Day,,,So Far

This is not a valentine box that I made.

I'm up early this morning...before Joe. Went to the kitchen and started coffee then looked out the patio doors at birds feeding. Decided to put on Joe's boots and go out to feed them. Filled the feeder and came back to take leftover popcorn out for them to eat. I have read that they shouldn't have salt, but I hope that the squirrels will eat most of it. I'm thinking about my daughter in DC. A huge storm is making it's way to her town and 1-2 feet of snow is predicted. Just got an email from her...she said that they will close up four hours early today and she was looking forward to shoveling with her neighbors. I'm looking out my window and the trees are moving with a brisk wind. Snow is on it's way here too, but not much.

Yesterday, I painted on some watercolor paper with valentine colors. I painted some branches and put them in a vase on my table. Today I'm planning on cutting out small valentines and attaching them to the branches with red ribbon. Something to do (crafty) on a snowy day.

I love valentine's day. When I was a girl..the teacher would always pick someone to make the box to hold the valentines. Oh, how I wished she would pick me. All that red crepe paper, paste and paper doilies...I thought I could create a beautiful box. I was never picked. When I worked at my last job, in a gift shop...I used to decorate the windows. I decided to do windows with a school theme. We had all kinds of antiques on shelves ...high up, in the store. Old school desks etc. I ruffled crepe paper and put it around the perimeter of the windows and then set up an old fashioned school room, of sorts. Now was my chance to do a valentine box. There it sat in the window....people came in the store and said that that window brought back so many memories for them. I finally got to make a beautiful valentine box.

Well, I have to get going ....have to make breakfast and start on those valentines. We'll have leftover chicken noodle soup and pizza for lunch today. I won't have to cook...so the day is mine. I'll check in later and tell about my day.

Balisha

I'm back...I went to town and visited the library and came home with books and a stack of magazines...all the new ones were there with garden covers and pretty valentine covers. I rented the movie, Amelia, and we are going to watch it tonight. A friend came over and gave me a wooden nesting box collection. She got them at Michael's and we each have a set. I will have to get my creative juices flowing and dream up something to use these for. We visited and solved the world's problems. Joe and I ate lunch, after she left, and here I am. I did my valentine tree and it will be on my blog tomorrow.

Balisha

Great Houseplant Census of 2010

Welcome to the Great Houseplant Census of 2010.* The impetus behind the census is that one evening, my Very Indulgent Spouse (VIS) looked around the kitchen and family room and commented, "Wow, you have a lot of houseplants." This is the beginning of a post written by...http://mcgregorsdaughter.blogspot.com/ Go visit her blog and read about hers and others.
She started this whole thing. I wanted to be included in the count. I didn't know how many I had, but I knew that my collection was growing. When moving into this house...there was no place for plants. I moved in with a Christmas cactus. So, I bought a black wrought iron plant stand.

Soon that was full and I had to invest in another folding contraption that held 7 plants. I put it on the front porch. That's where my cacti sit all summer.

The following year...I bought a big table to go downstairs in front of the windows. It held lots of plants. My skimpy collection looked lost on that big table.

So a trip to the greenhouse and garage sales found me buying plants to fill up that table. It looked wonderful. Nice and full.

Now, I started blogging and my interest was in starting seeds in the house. Oh, dear...where do I put those seed trays, how much light do they need? So, I surfed the net and found a lighted plant stand. Four shelves with a light over each. I put it downstairs and now I could start with my seeds. I was pleased.

I started accumulating clay pots. I bought these at garage sales. I soon filled them up and had to look for more.

I bought two big planter pots and filled those too. Annuals of all sorts were used in those.

An old chair caught my attention. It was a soft green and had a hole in the seat to hold a pot of flowers. It was purchased and plopped in my front garden.

Last year I made a trough garden and filled it with hens and chicks. I hope it makes it through this cold winter.

A neighbor friend made me a flat planter out of concrete. It is formed by using a big leaf. My hens and chicks had another home.

My kids gave me a gift card for a greenhouse....I bought a strawberry jar and filled it with succulents.

I planted an avocado seed and it sits in front of the basement window. It's growing tall and making new leaves right now.

I brought in my rosemary plant. I am trying to overwinter it in the basement. I have had no luck with these coming back...so I will try this.

I received plants, when I had surgery. Friends and relatives bought them for me...a couple of dish gardens are now separated and thriving.

I went to Merlin's and visited with an elderly lady. She was replacing her wandering Jew. You guessed it...I brought one home too.

Now this winter I have had 3 amaryllis. One white and two red. January has been going by so fast while I watch these tall beauties.

This is my fourth amaryllis. She spent the summer in the garden and now will bloom again in the house.

I love any kind of vine. I have two ivies. When they get bigger I am going to train them as topiaries.

Here's the other one. So let's see how many plants I have for the count. Counting the two houseplants planted with the amaryllis...22. That's not so bad. Do you think I need more?

Balisha :)

The Robin and the Cardinal

We noticed something that we think is unusual at our feeder the other day. Three male Cardinals and two females. All winter we have had two males and a female visiting our feeder daily, but this one day...just before a snowfall...there they were..two on the feeder, one on the railing of the deck, and two on the floor of the deck. It's a first for us, but read further...

I started to research this behavior and have found many interesting, unusual, tidbits of information about our friends the Cardinal and the Robin. I found that they have been known to share a nest with each other. This was way back in 1945...someone had a bird nest in their yard and it was occupied by a Cardinal and a Robin at the same time. One of the birds built a nest and it was destroyed...then the female found a nest already built. It was already in use, but that didn't discourage her...the two birds sat.. one facing in one direction and the 2nd bird faced the other. When the eggs hatched they both took care of the babies. The person who wrote the article said that when the babies fledged...he would see the adults taking care of each other's babies.
Cardinals and Robins are very territorial. We've had each bird flying at our patio doors. The keep it up for days. They can't distinguish between their reflection and another bird coming into their territory. Cardinals pair for life (usually) Females choose their mates based on the male’s ornamentation such as the size of his black face mask as well as the color of his plumage and bill. The ornaments of male and female Cardinals provide information on the bird’s condition. For instance, females with a big face mask shows that they are good defenders of nests but for males, this means that they are not highly successful in reproduction. Now let's see what the Robins do...When the female Robins choose their mates, they normally base their preference on the males’ songs, plumage and territory quality. Once she has selected a mate, the nest building follows with the female taking charge. Both birds do "mate feeding" It is so sweet to see a male cardinal taking care of his lady, by feeding her. I have read that Robins do this too. Some believe that they do this to let the female conserve energy for the coming events in their lives.

I think that birds are fascinating. Spring is coming and soon the birdsong will be so loud, early in the morning, when we have our bedroom window opened. The Cardinals and Robins will be strutting around my yard marking out their territory. The little house finches have been here already...looking at the front porch...just waiting for me to finish the wreath and hang it on the house. Soon I'll be discouraging them from building on my porch and they will be dashing back and forth with debris in there little beaks. Spring's coming...I must be patient.

Balisha