Breakfast With the Williams Clan

Tom and Margie invited me to breakfast at the Jantz Cafe this morning. It was a four generation Williams family group. In the above picture is Tom and his mother Kathryn.

In the next picture is Tom and his wife Margie.

In this picture is Margie with their son, Tom. We used to call him Tommy, but we can't do that anymore because there is another little Tommy pictured below.

In this picture is little Tommy sitting on his mother's lap. Jamie is Tom II's wife and on the right is Michelle, daughter of Tom and Margie.
I guess that's as clear as mud. Three generations of Tom Williams. Little Tommy is almost 2.5 years old. Very smart. He knows his colors well and not just the 8 primary colors. He loves his battery operated tractor and also his grandpa's big tractor. They have been visiting in Mariposa, but will be leaving for home on Sunday. They live in Missouri. Have a safe trip. Breakfast was fun. I enjoyed it. Thanks.
Oh, Jack was there too, but he sneaked out before I could take his picture.

Eye Exam

Pictured is my red Penstemon. Actually red with a little white inside the flower. A Perennial.

I had an appointment with my ophthalmologist yesterday to check on the cataract in my right eye. First he asked me about double vision. I used to have that really bad, but I don’t see double anymore. The only problem I have now is trying to look down through my bifocals to read and then I have a habit of closing one eye. My right eye is still up too high and so looking down through the bifocals creates the double vision. If I use my reading glasses, then it’s o.k.
The cataract is about the same as it was 6 months ago. My eye sight is at 20/50. Eighteen months ago it was 20/70 and my ophthalmologist was ready to remove the cataract. But since then it has improved so much that no action is needed at this time.
I give Miguel, my reflexologist in Turlock the credit for the improvement. Every time I have a treatment he works on the area on my feet for my eyes. One time I complained that I wanted to keep my eyes closed all the time even though I wasn’t sleepy. He discovered I had a lot of pressure behind my eyes and he worked it out on the corresponding areas on my feet.
It was instant relief.
My ophthalmologist said it is surprising that I can see as good as I can, considering. I’m happy my cataract isn’t getting any worse. I have to go back in 6 months.

The one lonely cherry is ripe. Yay. This is the Stella cherry tree that is self-fruitful. I'm hoping for more cherries next year.

Butterfly Bushes

This is one of 6 Butterfly Bushes I planted since I moved here in July 2010. Two are planted around the shed and 4 are in the front yard. Two are still quite small.
I forgot the name of the one pictured. I have it written down somewhere. Just saw it the other day.
The Butterfly Bush by the driveway is Adonis Blue. One of my favorites. I had that one in Merced and when I couldn't find it again locally, I ordered it and it was so tiny when I got it in the mail, but it's about 4 feet now. Another one I had in Merced was "Strawberry Lemonade," with varigated leaves and pink flowers. I wish I had dug it up before putting my house on the market. Haven't been able to find it again. I was able to find a petite Black Knight. It has one flower on it now. They are supposed to bloom all summer and fall.

This next flower is from "Annie's Annuals & Perennials" that I purchased at The Greenery in Turlock. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be an annual or perennial here in Atwater. We had some very cold weather last winter and I don't think it completely disappeared, but it also said it re-seeds itself. Which it has, I started with one plant and now have a few little ones besides the main one.
Oh, the name of the plant is Catananche Caenulea or Cupid's Dart.
The flowers are small.
Blogger has made some changes recently. What I miss the most is the spell-check tool. Why did they take that away?
And when I upload a photo, it doesn't always appear. After finding the picture I want to post, there are two buttons to click on, either "cancel" or ____. The other one is blank and that's the one I need to click. Something's not working right.

What's Going On. . . . .

My friend Carole went by Amtrak to visit her daughter. Here she is back in Merced and asking about her luggage. The official is pointing her in the right direction. The train came in a little after one, so Carole treated me to lunch at Nagame's.
On the way home we stopped at the Atwater Veterinary Clinic on Ashby Road to pick up her dog. Vito was so happy to see her, he barked and barked as soon as he heard her voice. Carole and Vito sat in the back seat and I chauffeured them home.
Today the newsletter for the Winton Historical Society was finally mailed to all our members. It was very late, so that means I can be late again next time. lol. It's printed every other month, so the next one will be for July / August and the last newsletter before the Winton Old Timers reunion on the last Sunday in September. Membership to the Winton Historical Society is due on October first every year. Many people like to pay their $10.00 annual dues by cash at the Winton Old Timers, so that's why we decided to have October 1st as the due date.
This is a good time for new people to join. So if you have a connection to Winton or just enjoy hearing about local history and reminiscing of days gone by, check it out. Any questions can be emailed to me at WintonCA@aol.com. We currently have 217 members scattered over 18 states and Canada.

Here's a good example of flowers re-seeding themselves. Last year I bought one Bachelor Button plant. They are coming up all over. The Portulaca are back, the Zinnias and little Marigolds. They come up where I least expect them. That doesn't make for a neat yard, but fun for someone who is still a child at heart.

Atwater Sand

I grew up in the Winton/Atwater area. Then after I got married I lived in Le Grand for six years, then moved to Merced and lived there for about 46 years. The places we lived in Le Grand had very heavy soil. Mud in the winter and hard dirt in the summer. I didn't like the soil in our yards.
In Merced, we lived in a number of places, some had heavy soil and others not too bad, but nothing to compare to the Atwater sand. I'm still getting used to it again.
Don't get me wrong, I like the sand, but it takes some getting used to. The big thing of course is watering plants often enough. It still surprises me that the ground doesn't stay damp very long at all.
In Merced I could water once a week, or maybe twice if it was really hot. Here you gotta keep your eye on it. Sometimes have to water every day in the heat of summer.
On the plus side: It's much easier to pull out weeds and the annual flowers reseed themselves readily. Wow! You just have to wait and see what's going to come up. No need to go out and buy a bunch of flower plants. Just be patient, they'll be back.

Here are the wild Coreopsis that I used to see along the irrigation ditches. I didn't plant them, they're one of my volunteer flowers. Also the bright pink Oriental Poppies that everyone tells me are Opium Poppies, I didn't plant them either.
It's fun to see what's going to come up next.

It Blows My Mind

I had a dental appointment in Merced today, so decided to get my car cleaned inside and out. It really needed it. They were very thorough today.
Afterwards I did a little shopping at the Mall. It wasn't until I was parking the car at In-N-Out that I noticed my American Express card in the cup holder on the passenger side.
Whoa, that blew my mind. Where did that come from? Then I noticed it had a 2010 expiration date. It was my OLD card. The one I lost in 2008. I searched high and low for it and couldn't find it anywhere.
I'm always looking under the car seats for lost items. I wonder where they found it. Good thing the number was no longer good on that old card. When I called to get a new card, they also gave me a new number.
I went to my bank to get some cash before coming home. A couple of hours later, the lady at the bank called to ask if I had been in today to get X amount of dollars? Well, yes.
She forgot to subtract it from my account!! Alright!!
Guess she wasn't able to balance out. LOL.
It's been a weird day.

What I'm Reading

Adam Hamilton has published quite a few books. You can find them at amazon or local bookstores. This Christianity's Family Tree is a history of some of the Christian religions. It begins of course within Judaism and he talks about the earlist followers of Jesus. They were not Orthodox or Catholics but simply known as followers of Jesus of Nazareth. By 381 AD there were great differences between Christians in the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire. In the 7th century, the western Orthodox Christians added 3 little words to the Nicene Creed which the eastern Orthodox Christians didn't agree with. The western Orthodox Christians split off and became the Catholic Church.
Adam Hamilton goes on to give some history on several Protestant churches; Lutheran; Presbyterian; Anglican; Baptist; Methodist and Pentecostal.
Adam Hamilton interviewed a church leader from each of the churches he writes about. The aim of his book is not to critique the different churches, but to learn from them.
Adam Hamilton writes in a way that is easy to understand. Very interesting reading.

Iris Garden

Today Pat drove 3 of us up to Cathey's Valley to the Superstition Iris Garden. In the picture is Pat, Carole and Cecelia. We left right after church, stopped at Carrows in Merced for lunch.
Then it was off to the Iris garden. I was looking for Black Magic Woman that I saw in 2008, but it was $50.00 then and so didn't buy it. Today it was down to $9.00, so I bought two, one for my daughter, Sandy.
I took pictures of 11 different Iris flowers and after I uploaded the photos, I couldn't believe I didn't take a picture of Black Magic Woman. You'll have to click on the link above to see what it looks like.

I took a picture of the others I bought, this one is "Class Ring" so beautiful. It was a bit pricey and was trying to decide whether to pay $19.00 for 1 Iris plant or not. Then Pat suggested that she and Carole share the cost of it. I get to plant it and next year will give them each a start of it. Very generous of them. So, if something happens to that Iris plant, I owe them some money. LOL. I really love this flower. I don't have anything like it at all.

This next one is Absolute Treasure. It's a very pretty light blue. I call it cornflower blue. It's kind of similar in color to my Angels in Flight, but I think this one is a little prettier.

This one is Spiced Tiger, so different from any that I have. There were so many pretty Irises. Some were as little as three dollars each.
We had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect. Only thing is I kick myself for not buying "Iconic" pictured below. I was looking for a good red one and this is the best red one I've seen. I got confused though after looking at them all and then couldn't remember what was the name of that red one. Checking the list, I see it is $18.00, so I guess it can wait until next year.
Thank you Pat, for a very enjoyable day!!!

It Is What It Is

After that hail storm last month, I was left with one lone cherry on Stella. Couldn't find any on Bing or Rainier. Bing was in bloom earlier than the other two cherry trees. I think the blooms on the other cherry trees were too late to polinate Bing. It was the same thing in Merced; Bing was in bloom before Stella, but it had so many flowers that a lot of the blossoms were pollinized anyway. Stella is self-fruitful. Sure hope I get more cherries next year!!

Here is a picture of 3 of the little peaches on SunCrest. There are only two nectarines on Fantasia a couple of peaches on FlavorCrest and nothing on the apricot tree. The trees are very young. They've been in the ground about 16 months. Can't expect much out of them so soon.

I planted the cherry tomato in the milk can that I inherited when I moved here. The hail cut it down to half its' size but it's back up there again and doing good.
I have a lot of projects going on right now. Worked on the newsletter for the Winton Historical Society today. I need personal stories from local people, or those who used to live in Winton. Stories are hard to come by.
Also need to work on genealogy. Some cousins have sent in their updated information which I need to add to my file. I'm glad they wanted to do this. It's interesting to see how many children, grandchildren they have.
My biggest project though is getting the spare bedroom sorted out before my daughter gets here the first week in June. Sure don't know what I am going to do with a lot of that stuff. Hard to make those decisions.
Last of all I still have lots of weeding to do. Sounds like I have some busy days ahead.