Spring Parade was Today

The Winton Spring Parade was today, Saturday, April 25. Members of the Winton Historical Society rode in the Model A's, courtesy of the Yosemite Gateway Model A Club. The Winton Scouts carried our Banner in front of the first Model A in the Parade.
Here is Lucille and Don Morgado, standing by Don's Model A. It's a 1927 Model, the first year that Ford changed over from the Model T to Model A's. His car is in like-new condition. Beautiful color.
Here is my sister, Carolyn and I. We rode in the rumble seat of Don's car. He had to give us a little help getting in. Other Winton Historical Society members rode in the other Model A's. Grace and Marilyn also rode in a rumble seat. I hope to get a picture of that. It was fun being in the parade, waving at all our "fans" along the route from the Fire Station to the Winton Park on Olive Avenue. Don parked the car and then we wondered how we were going to get out of the rumble seat. It was easier getting in than out. With our bum knees, it took TWO men to help us out. Guess that was our first and last ride in a rumble seat, but it was FUN!!

The Unknowns are Blooming

The yellow Irises is one group of Unknowns that are blooming. This year, I tagged them all with a different color twist-em for each color or named Iris as it bloomed. I wish I knew the name of the pretty yellow ones, but the person who gave me a start of them, didn't know the name either. In the background is the Lavender Trumpet Vine. I'd like to also have a red or orange one because the Humming Birds are crazy about them.
Some of my other Unknown Irises are blooming also, I think I will be able to tag them all this year. I'm hoping to give most of the duplicates away.
Here is a picture of "Strictly Jazz" that I got from Cathey's Valley last year. It sure is a pretty one. Not all of my new ones have bloomed yet.

I was surprised today to see I have a duplicate of Royal Crusader, one of my favorites. I don't think there will be any more surprises with the unknowns.

Winton Spring Festival and Parade

The Winton Spring Festival is this coming weekend, starting on April 23 (Thursday) through April 26 (Sunday). THE PARADE IS ON SATURDAY,THE 25th, STARTING AT 11:00 a.m. It will start at the Burbank Park, by the Fire Station and end at the park on the corner of Winton Way and Olive Avenue.
The Winton Historical Society members will be in the Parade, riding in Model A cars.
The first Winton Spring Parade was held in 1964, sponsored by the Band Boosters Club of Winton. The above picture was taken in April 1964 of seven high school girls who ran for queen. To qualify, the girls had to be former Winton students and were members of the Winton Band or marching unit. The contestant who sold the most tickets, at 10 cents each was crowned queen the night before the parade. Evelyn Perez was the very first Queen of the Spring Festival.
In the picture, from the left is: Lynda Nunes; Carol Mooneyham; Cathy Coatney; Lisa Ferrari; Evelyn Perez (Queen); Jeanette Toews and either Wanda Friesen or Ann Wuehler. If anyone has other pictures from the Winton Spring Parade, please contact me at WintonCA@aol.com

His Iris Garden in Merced

Good News!!
Merced has a walkable Iris garden again. Actually, it's the same people and location as the April Enchanted Iris Garden. They were online only, for a few years and now back to inviting people to walk around with a list and decide on which ones to purchase. The Irises are dug up in late July, ready to plant in your yard.
Do a google search for His Iris Garden or click here.
This is a picture of Purple Pepper, I always like the speckled ones. So Pretty.
I was happy to know that Hello Darkness was still available, as well as a couple of others I used to have.
Beverly Sills is another pretty one that I ordered today. Now for sure I will have to give away my duplicates to make room for the new ones. Pictures of my Iris flowers are on flickr.
If you live near Merced, be sure to check out His Iris Garden at 2669 Seal Court, off of Yosemite Avenue. (Turn left on Perch at the last traffic light, going East on Yosemite Avenue, the garden is on the right.) There was an ad in the Merced Sun-Star today saying they will be open Fridays, Saturdays (10-6) and Sundays (noon to 6). If you missed their ad, check out the website.

TAXES

I put off doing my Income Taxes until the very last minute. Usually I had a CPA do them for me, but this year I thought how difficult can it be? So, I got the blank forms and started to fill them out.
This is the first year I am filing solo. Up until now I always got a refund, so I thought I would maybe break even this year. WRONG!!
I was in for a rude awakening.
The IRS hates single people. I thought I could file as a "Head of Household;" after all I still have the same mortgage to pay.
Problem is, Maggie the Cat doesn't qualify me.
I was appalled at how much I would owe this year and hoped I made a mistake; like maybe computing how much of my Social Security I will have to pay taxes on. So, I went out and bought Turbo Tax Deluxe, to the tune of 50 bucks plus tax. The Standard must be for 1040EZ which anyone can fill those forms out, no problem. But if you have mortgage interest to report, or more deductions than you're allowed with the standard deductions, you can't use that form.
Turbo Tax is easy, when I got through, it came up with me owing $6.00 less than when I did it myself. Turbo Tax may be more accurate, but I really didn't save anything.
This year, instead of a $500. refund, I have to pay $1,700. to the IRS. I have to pay a little to the State also, instead of my usual $300. refund. Somehow that didn't seem right, but I guess I have to trust Turbo Tax.
What a revolting development!!!

LIFE GOES ON
A couple of new Irises are in bloom. Too bad it's windy out again, not good for the flowers. Here is a picture of Captain Hook that I bought last year from Superstition Iris Garden in Cathey's Valley. I didn't see it in their garden, but picked it out from their website. I really like the color on this one. To see more pictures of my Iris flowers, see this set at flickr.

Do you have a nice wedding picture of your grandparents, parents, or other relative?
I was surprised the other day to find a note by a great-aunt's wedding picture at flickr. The note said: "The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has just set up a site for wedding fashion: www,vam.ac.uk/wedding. We would be delighted if you added this photograph." So, of course I uploaded it and you can see it at the "Museum in London" here.

Progress in the Backyard

MY NEW SAND BOX!!!
The Gardener was here yesterday and built the raised flower bed. He worked for 5 hours, first digging up the plants, then tilling the ground, then building the flower box, then hauling the new soil from his pickup to the finished flower bed and last replanting the flower plants.
The Adonis Blue Butterfly Bush doesn't look too happy about it all, but I hope it will perk up in a day or two.
I'm going to have fun with this "Sand Box" it will be so easy to buy a 6 pack of whatever is blooming and keep some color in the yard year-round. I hope Maggie and her feline friends don't think it's their sand box.
In a couple of weeks the gardener will bring in more sandy soil and the sod. So, at last I will have some lawn. I'll have to buy a lawn mower, I'm sure it will be an electric one. No fussing with trying to start it or buying gas, etc. Just have to be sure to keep the extension cord behind me.

Here is another Iris in bloom, It's Bragging Rights, a new one from the Superstition Iris Garden in Cathey's Valley. More Irises are blooming every day. Spring is my favorite time of year.
The rose is "Playboy" one of my favorites. My son-in-law gave me this rose bush several years ago for my birthday. I have other favorites like, Taboo, a very dark red rose and of course Peace, introduced in 1946, right after WWII.

Weekend Visitor

My granddaughter came to visit me on Friday, just in time for lunch. We went to Mi Casa, our favorite Mexican Restaurant. Saturday night we went to our favorite place for dinner, Nagame's and had Japanese food. In between time, we looked at hundreds of pictures. Mandy wanted some pictures of when she was growing up and she knew her Grandma had boxes of them. The drawback was, Grandma wouldn't let her take them home until they were scanned into her computer. So, that's what I spent a lot of time doing while she was here; scanning pictures. This is something that I've been meaning to do for a long time. I bought a nice photo album that holds 200 pictures to give to Mandy for Christmas, but that's as far as it got. So, now Mandy will have the fun of putting pictures in there herself. lol
We had a good visit, the pictures helped our reminiscing. I hadn't seen Mandy since October, so I was very happy to see her. I snapped Mandy's picture just before she left.
The Irises are starting to bloom, the white one is always my first one; second is Centre Court, shown here. The picture was taken on March 31. I'm anxious to see the new ones, several have buds and should be opening soon.
There are buds on some of my "unknowns." You know how it is when you divide the Iris clump and plant them here and there temporarily and somehow the names are not tracked very well. I hope I will be able to identify most of them this year. Some duplicates will be given away.
I planted the tomato plants and it looks like the cherry tomato has already been eaten by snails. Guess I will have to put snail bait out and hope the cat doesn't try to eat it.
I planted some Catnip for Maggie. I haven't seen her over there yet, but Savannah, the neighbor's cat sure enjoys it. She hugs it up one side and then the other; and then she lays on it. It was funny watching her. I hope Maggie will learn to enjoy the Catnip as much as Savannah does.