Class Reunion

I accompanied my mother to her 50th class reunion this weekend. She graduated from Teaneck High School in NJ. Her yearbook is online. You can find my mother on page 15, her name is Emily.

My mother learned that I have a really bad sense of direction. I got us hopelessly lost in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, at least we had each other to talk to! We spent one night with my mother's sister and her husband in Sussex, NJ. We had a wonderful visit with them.

I highly recommend going to a reunion with your parents, you'll be one of the youngest people there. Trust me, it feels good.

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Here's my late pass...

Hello blog friends! Sorry about the dearth of postings lately. I want to thank those of you who check back from time to time. I understand that you must feed your blog to attract readers, much like putting out food for the birds, a steady supply is best.

Speaking of birds, I've been busy readying my backyard for the birds who will be staying the winter. We've built a huge roosting box to keep the birds warm for when the temperature gets frigid. I've put a heated birdbath out back for when every bit of water outside is frozen solid. I have a stash of pinecones, peanut butter and seeds to treat the birds with this winter. I've planted some bird friendly shrubs so my yard will be the top pick of the birds in years to come.

I've been researching native plants, and also tree and wildlife identification. I helped my son's boy scout troop earn some requiems for rank advancement by helping them identify plants and wildlife.

I'm also busy as a chauffeur for my son, driving him to sax lessons, swim lessons and scouts.

My Mastercard has been getting a work out too. Seems I had some pent up shopping to do.

I've also taken to watching more TV than I'm accustomed to. This past week I saw Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, CSI, 1 versus 100, and Deal or No deal. I gave up TV when I started blogging, there is only room for one of those past times. It also means that I see more commercials.

I'll be glad when election day gets here. I always hate watching the political ads on TV. I find them to be a sad commentary on our government. Every single politician is inept, immoral or criminal according to the ads. No wonder that's what a lot of Americans believe.

The United States is now estimated to have over 300 million people. As the population grows the impact of my vote on election day shrinks. My vote in a national election seems worthless. I don't ever remember voting in a local election where the votes were close enough that my vote mattered.

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Sleeping

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I think he's sleeping.
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.
Join the blogroll.
Visit participants. expand

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We're going camping this weekend, to Letchworth State Park. I volunteered to help the scouts spot 10 animals or signs of 10 different animals. Expand to read the rest

I am going to throw in a bonus and have them identify 10 native plants. Lucky for them I just attended a native plant class and I think I may be able to find 10 native plants in the park.

I've been doing a lot of reading about native plants and why it's important to add them to your landscaping plan. An important one for me is that non-natives are contributing to loss of habitat for birds and animals. Our birds and animals just don't eat or live in many of the non-native species. Some non-natives have adapted and don't cause many problems, but so many, while pretty, are just taking up space that a native tree could be using to help feed and shelter wildlife. Even worse, the invasive non-natives are eating up wildlife habitats quicker than us humans are. Since I've been looking into the natives I found that one of my favorite trees is a non-native invasive; the Weeping Willow. I have such fond memories of climbing the two giant willows in my backyard as a child.

I'm beginning to learn to identify some trees now. I was completely clueless about trees. I planted a couple of bushes (native) in the backyard last week. Bushes are one of the best things to add to your yard to create habitat for animals. I've seen a big jump in the number of birds and animals in the yard after we put some bushes on the back edge of the yard a couple years ago. I've enjoyed it so much I'm going to add more.

My next gardening chore, getting rid of any invasive non-natives in my yard.

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