hobbyist…

One cold, windy, gray day back in the Fall of our first year in the house, I looked outside to find that one of the doors to the old chicken coop had blown open. I really never noticed the structure, maybe because it sits on one of the farthest corners of the property. It startled me, really. I thought someone or something was hanging out in there. Armed with my boyfriend by may side, I made my way out in the the unpleasantness of late Autumn to figure out what had happened, or why the door was opened.

As I approached the coop I could make out the shapes of some caging or fencing, and a few tomato cages were stacked upon each other. I remembered something about the previous owners allowing the neighbors to store some things in there; maybe they forgot to close the door behind them…There it was! My gaze wondered up and I was standing in the doorway, facing one of the biggest hornets nests I’ve ever seen! I screamed and ran away.

My boyfriend thought it was a birds nest made of mud. Silly. I’ll give him that it was dark in there, but I know a hornets nest when I see one. We argued about it for a while and soon it became a conversation piece, something that we’d show guests anytime they came over. He finally believed me that it was a hornets nest after his father, brother-in-law, and several other people told him, “Yep! It’s a hornets nest”.

I wanted it gone. The size of it was terrifying! I could only imagine what it would have been like to walk past that coop while the nest was in use. The building probably hummed and passersby were probably attacked while walking their dogs on the sidewalk! Coincidentally there was an article published in the Quad City Times around the same time we found it, about a guy named Kermit who collects these things. We learned that hornets only use the nest for one season, never to return to the old one. I was comforted by this fact but still wanted the thing removed, just in case. We were able to obtain some contact information for Kermit through the newspaper and hoped that he would be interested enough to take it off our hands.

Skip ahead almost two years and we still had the darned thing! Kermit’s address and phone number was misplaced and I guess we sort of forgot about it with all the other little projects we had. When I did remember I started mentioning it to anyone who would listen. Whoever wanted it could have it just as long as they removed it themselves (I also learned that a well preserved hornets nest could fetch a pretty penny); A coworker took me up on the offer.

Today was the day! I gave Harold the key to the coop and he used a tiny saw to remove it from its holding cell. I took one picture. Didn’t get too close. And now it’s gone. I realized that it really was quite pretty up close. You can’t see that from the photo. It had all different shades of tan and brown, maybe some gray, and I think I saw a bit of blue, all swirled around. It was impressive. I think I’m going to miss it a little bit…Ha ha! No I won’t!

H

I think I’m becoming more comfortable with my weirdness, or maybe I’ve just stopped caring. What I mean by weird [today] is the random, and most often unusual, things that pop into my head at any given moment, when any given thing happens at that particular moment. These thoughts usually prompt me to act, but lately I don’t act, opting to sit there instead and think some more.

For example, as I was sitting here thinking of something to write I saw a baby spider crawling across a piece of paper I have lying on the floor. I thought to myself, “What an odd place for a tiny, baby spider to be crawling at this time of day”. I know it doesn’t make sense. I was thinking it looked red, kind of the way a spider mite looks, but it couldn’t be because spider mites are much smaller than that and are usually outside in a sunny crack. I thought that baby spiders are my favorite kind of spider. Then I was thinking that if I didn’t do something about it, it would just get bigger, becoming one of the larger spiders that I don’t like. I was thinking that if I didn’t kill it, it would get bigger and crawl into my mouth at night, and I would swallow it…I did nothing.

Maybe I just couldn’t think of anything to write about today.

H

I really enjoy taking pictures, but never really have the time to take the pictures or the forethought to bring a camera along for that just-in-case photo op. Thankfully, with the advances we have in technology, I can carry a camera along after all, via the digital camera on my cell phone. Sure, you don’t always get the greatest shot, and sometimes you forget about the phone too. But when you do get that shot, it’s gold.

I’m not saying that I’m the greatest camera phone picture taker. Many of the pictures I’ve taken haven’t been worth the space it takes to save it on the phone. Not only that, I find that I’m most inspired to take a photo while I’m driving. This makes for not so ideal photo taking conditions, and it definitely makes driving a little more…reckless.

So I’m sharing with you a few of the pictures I took on my cell phone while I was trying to forget about the flood at work, and the amazing clouds that I saw on my extended drive home due to detours caused by flooding. I’m hoping that you can look past the fact that these were taken in a car and see the beauty that I saw on those dark days we had this June.

H

Quite a few weeks ago, maybe it was more like two months ago, I bought a huge freaking ginger root from the grocery store to make some kick ass Japanese food one night. If any of you have tasted straight up ginger you know that it is quite flavorful and strong. Needless to say I didn’t need but a little bit, and the rest of the root sat there waiting to be used again.

I must have forgot about it for a while (my taste for ginger comes and goes) because the next time I saw the thing it had sprouted some cute little green knobs. It reminded me of a potatoes eyes, and then I remembered that to grow a potato you use a potato. Without doing much research on growing ginger I went to work using the little knowledge I have of potato plants as a basis.

I should first preface the route I chose to grow ginger by stating that had I looked into the process even slightly before I started, I would have done things a little differently. Instead, armed with the confidence I had over the potato thing, I snipped part of the root off that I thought had the prettiest bud. I left the bud to sit outside for a couple of days, partly to get accustomed to the heat and humidity of the outdoors, and partly to heal itself from being separated from the rest of the root. When I thought it was ready I just plopped it into a pot of mulch and compost, then watered it. At least I got the bud side up part right.

I’m looking forward to what (if anything) might sprout up. I found out [later] that ginger doesn’t like a whole lot of sun, so this plant will do well in a less sunny room. The best part is that when I need more ginger I’ll only have to dig it up, use what I need, then bury the rest to grow some more!

H

This is the starting point to what I hope will be a pretty exciting web spot. It will be a little rough around the edges for a while, but with patience and work comes success.

So please stay tuned to read about all of my wacky ideas, projects (both finished & unfinished), excursions, and what I’m into at the moment. I’ll also try to post a picture or two for your viewing enjoyment.

H