Winton Spring Parade

This picture was taken in April 2009 at the Winton Spring Festival parade. Don Morgado is driving his 1927 Model A; Lucille Sanders is inside and my sister, Carolyn Wiens and I are in the rumble seat.

This year the Winton Spring parade will be held Saturday, April 9, 2011. The parade starts at 11:00 a.m. at the Winton Fire House park and will end at the Winton Park on the corner of Winton Way and Olive Avenue. Carnival rides will be there again for the kids enjoyment. Food will be available in the park, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. and soda pop. Plan to attend and have a great time.

CORRECTION: This year, my sister and I will set up a small table in the park where the people will be cooking the food. We will be selling the Winton Centennial recipe books ($15.00) and the souvenir mugs ($6.00) for the Winton Historical Society.
Come by and see us. Tell your friends. Several people have asked me where they can buy the recipe books, so here is one opportunity.
Just found out that my husband's Aunt Ernestine will be one of the Grand Marshals in the parade. How exciting.

On Saturday, May 7, Castle Vista will hold a Craft Bazaar in their club house at 2300 Cascade Drive. The gates will be open to the public that day. Castle Vista is off of Juniper Avenue between Shaffer Road and Buhach in Atwater. We will be selling the recipe books and souvenir mugs there also.
Or you can phone us, we're in the phone book: Richards, L.G. or Wiens, C. and make arrangements to pick one up.

Tomato Plants

I planted a few tomato plants the other day in front of the duplicate Irises at the back of my mobile home. These tomato plants seem to be doing good, considering all the rain and wind we've been having. I planted 2 "Early Girl" and 4 "Celebrity."
The Iris plants in the back, against the mobile home are the ones that will be given away in July or August when they are dormant.
I also planted a "Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato" plant and put the wire cage over it. The plant has completely disappeared!! No sign of any green tomato plant at all. The ground has not been disturbed. It's really weird.
A few people suggested it was a gopher who pulled it in the ground. I guess the rain could have made it look like nothing was planted there in the first place!
About a month ago, I saw a gopher pushing up dirt over by the cherry trees. I had a "Solar Rodent Repeller" put in the ground and so far I haven't seen any sign of that gopher in the side yard next to the road. The repeller covers a large area, but it won't go through buildings, so it doesn't cover the backyard. The solar repellers vibrate the ground and the gophers don't like that and leave.
I got another repeller from my sister last Thursday. This one still needs to have the wires connected before I can put it in the ground. I hope they both work.
I sure don't want the gophers eating the roots of the fruit trees!!!
I also bought a couple of gopher traps, but I wasn't able to set them.

Winton Monument Dedication

Today was the dedication of the monument that the Clampers made for Winton to celebrate Winton's Centennial.
The ceremony was held inside the firehouse because of the rainy weather. Pictured above is Rosalie Heppner, president of the Winton Historical Society and the MC for today, with Merced County Supervisor, Deidre Kelsey.
In the next picture are four of the Clampers standing behind the monument that their group made for Winton.
On the far left is the Noble Grand Humbug; on the far right is the future Noble Grand Humbug. He is the one who has his name on the plaque. The Clampers provide historical monuments once a year. Because of Winton's Centennial celebration this year, they are making two. So that is why the current Noble Grand Humbug doesn't have his name on the monument. That honor goes to the man on the far right. They bent the rules a bit to accommodate Winton this year.
They are also making a monument for the community of Hilmar at this time. To learn more about the Clampers go to this article at wikipedia.
This last picture shows Marilyn Colburn and Marlys Flores selling the Winton Centennial recipe books and the souvenir mugs.

Bingo Night - St Patrick's Day

Today was St. Patrick's Day. Not everyone wore green, but this couple went all-out for Bingo tonight. Very cute hats. The lady's hat had flashing lights on the top, which I didn't capture in the picture.
Thursday night Bingo is a fun outing for us at Rancho Grande. Nobody gets rich or goes broke, just a fun time.
I hope the weather is good tomorrow. I still have the tomato plants to plant, besides the flowers I bought today. Need to broadcast the "weed 'n feed" also on the grass. I may not have much green left after that because it looks like I have a lot of weeds.
Don't forget this Saturday, March 19 is the dedication of the monument in Winton by the fire station. Starts at 10:30 a.m. Some of the "Clampers" will be there, they are the ones who made the monument for the community of Winton. At no cost to the community. Our county supervisor will be one of the speakers, also Sarah from the Merced Museum. If you have connections to Winton, be there to help celebrate Winton's first 100 years.
The Winton Historical Society will be selling their new recipe book, "Winton Centennial, 1911-2011." Also the souvenir coffee mugs with a picture of the Winton Depot on it. The recipe book is $15.00 or both for $20.00.

Flowers for 59 La Playa

This is one of the flower plants I bought at The Greenery yesterday in Turlock. It has a fancy name for Bachelors Buttons. (Centaurea cyanus "Blue Diadem") I found the grower's online website and read that it resows. Can't beat that. (I borrowed the pictures from their website). www.anniesannuals.com
It pays to pay a little more and get something special.
The color in the picture is so intense; it's described as "bright richest blue." The flowers are big, 2.5 inches, the plant grows to 3 feet tall.
This next one is commonly known as "Cupid's Dart" (Catananche caerulea). The Ancient Greeks and Romans used the flowers as the main ingredient in love potions and that's how it got its common name. This is an easy to grow perennial. The lavender blue flowers are 2 inches across; the plant grows up to 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide.
I bought a couple of Orential Poppies, one double purple flower that looks like a peony. The other one is a single red flower. Really beautiful. Will they look that pretty in my yard? Can't wait to find out.

More Yard Work

It seems like the yard work is an ongoing affair. One thing leads to another. It started with the fruit trees. Then you need something to define their space. So it was plastic bender board. Joe and Keith have been installing a lot of that stuff !! So far I bought nine 25 foot rolls at $25.00 a roll. And still need 2 more rolls. Wow! Of course it's being put in everywhere. Around the trees; between the roses and the grass, etc. It's supposed to last 25 years. That is if nobody steps on it.

In the picture, Keith is putting bender board around the Flavor Crest peach tree.
Joe is expanding the flower bed behind the mobile. I'm going to plant some tomatoes there very soon. The Iris plants next to the wall are duplicates and will be given away this summer when they are dormant. They all have buds on them, so should be blooming soon. They are ahead of the plants in the Iris garden.

Monday, my sister and I have appointments with Miguel, our reflexologist in Turlock. We're going to The Greenery Nursery afterwards to see what new plants they have in stock. We can always find plants there that we can't find in Merced. I hope to find something to plant by the cherry trees and in the rose garden. Looking for a couple of Scabiosa (pincushion flower) to plant by the rose bushes. And of course the red Penstemon and other Perennials and Annuals to plant by the cherry trees. I may plant some Zinnias this year. They are so colorful. I am so excited about spring !!

Aunt Ernestine's birthday

March 4, 2011 was Aunt Ernestine's 95th birthday. Her great-niece Sharon invited her out to dinner. Helen and I were invited to help celebrate Aunt 'Teen's birthday.
We met at Ernestine's house and still had to decide where to go. I asked if everyone liked Japanese food. They were not familiar with it, so we decided to go to Brooks Ranch in Atwater.
I was surprised to see a few people there that I know.
Ernestine is going to move the end of April into another duplex within the same gated community where she now lives. She will be closer to her cousin, Helen and that will be handy. Here is a picture of Helen and Sharon. Sharon took a picture of Aunt Ernestine and me. I wasn't going to post it, but I want Sandy to know I was wearing the beautiful shawl she knitted for me. Several people have asked me if it is crocheted. I guess it looks too difficult to knit. It's a very intricate lace knit and I just love it.
Looks like I was in a hurry when I put it on.
Today I finally signed up at Anberry for my one free month of exercises in the heated pool. The weather has been so cold that I didn't feel like doing it sooner. Several other people were in the pool. Four of them came in wheelchairs. It was interesting to watch how their family member or friend got them out of the pool. First the wheelchair was thrown in the pool and then the friend helped them over to the wheelchair, got them in it and wheeled them up the long ramp and out of the water.
I was there for an hour, mostly doing the exercises that I used to do at the bars in the machine room. I enjoyed being in the water. Dog-paddled a little and swam on my back. I'm not much of a swimmer, but can stay above water. ha,ha.

Winton Centennial Events

On Saturday, March 19, there will be a dedication of the monument that the "Clampers" have made for the community of Winton. Rosalie, the president of the Winton Historical Society has been working closely with the Clampers, with all the details including the wording on the monument. It is located in the park next to the Fire Station. The dedication ceremony starts at 10:30 a.m. Our Supervisor from Merced County will be one of the speakers.
The Winton Historical Society will have a small table set up somewhere (probably to one side) to sell the Winton Centennial recipe book and the Souvenir coffee mugs with a picture of the Winton Depot on it.
The recipe books are $15.00 each. The mugs, $6.00 each. Or both for $20.00.
Or 2 mugs for $10.00.
Come for the dedication and take a look at our beautiful new recipe books and the coffee mugs.

March 26, Saturday, the Frank Sparks School on Almond Avenue is having a Safety Fair and they invited us to set up a table and sell our recipe books and mugs. It will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you miss the monument dedication on the 19th, come by and see us on the 26th.

April 9th is the parade for the Winton Spring Festival. The Winton Historical Society thought about entering a float, but we have just a small group of retired ladies (occasionally a man or two will show up)so we decided that was too big a project for us. We will sponsor the Grand Marshall, which will be one or more of our 90-plus seniors. We don't plan to have a booth, but catch one of our members if you are looking for a recipe book or coffee mug.

The downtown merchants will have a Block Party on May 7th. We will have a table set up to sell the recipe books and coffee mugs.

The Church of God in Christ Mennonite will have their 100th year celebration in June at their school on Central Avenue.

September 25, the last Sunday is September is the Winton Old Timers' reunion. We will be selling books and mugs there also.

October will have a Halloween Carnival.

And in December they are hoping to have the Christmas party like they used to have downtown by the firehouse.

Other events are still in the planning stage.