Quilts

“After all, a woman didn't leave much behind in the world to show she'd been there. Even the children she bore and raised got their father's name. But her quilts, now that was something she could pass on.”

― Sandra Dallas

The End of June

It's almost the end of June. Where has the time gone? We have had very little summer type weather here in the Catskill Mountains . We are over 10 inches in surplus rain  amounts  after our wet spring and so far summer. Today as I head off for my walk I'm wearing a hooded sweatshirt as it is only 66 degrees at nearly 11 AM. I've been putting the walk off today hoping for it to warm up. But the sunny days we have had have been marvelous. I'm sure there are more to come. Have a wonderful day everyone. Here's a poem about June and a picture I took on my walk yesterday just a few feet from our driveway. We are blessed to live in such a beautiful area.

The Last Day Of School

Good morning sweet friends and happy first day of summer! Today in Franklin it is the last day of school for elementary students. For many , it is a day eagerly awaited. However, when I was in JFK Elementary School in Brewster, NY from 1967- I973 I always was sad on the last day of school. I loved school. I loved my teachers and missed them each year terribly. Growing up on Milltown Rd. in Brewster we had very little. Many of the kids would always bring in fancy gifts as end of year teacher presents but we did not have the money for that. I fondly recall however, my mom always making my elementary teachers each June a corsage from the most fragrant pink roses bushes in front of our house. She would carefully pick them the night before the last day of school and pick the thorns off and add small ferns and and wrap it carefully in a wet napkin or paper towel and place it in the refrigerator for the next morning. My mom sewed a lot (she's an expert seamstress) and she even added a corsage pin she had gotten from her Home Sew catalog . I remember being so proud carrying that prepared rose on the bus and into school . And I remember my teachers always loving them. This morning I called mom to ask her what kind of roses they were and if we had planted them or if they were there when we moved in. She said they were Heirloom Pink Moss roses and they were there when we moved in. They could have been planted as far back as the 1800's! You can still buy the roses today! I think I know what I am going to ask for for my 30th wedding anniversary present! On the internet they actually list them as lilac pink moss roses. When I saw the picture the memories came flooding back . They were the prettiest shade of pink with a yellowy center and I remember them being very fragrant. Our home on Milltown Rd. no longer stands but I often wonder if those Heirloom pink moss roses are still growing there. I bet they are.
We may have been poor back then and my memories aren't all happy but I am certainly rich in the memory of bringing those Heirloom Pink Moss roses to school every year on the last day.
Here's hoping all the children have a wonderful memory making summer!
Do you have memories from the last day of school? Have a happy summer everyone!

Who Remembers The Calendar Dish Towels?

Is there anybody else old enough to remember these calendar dish towels? We had a few and my grandma had them too. I remember them being in mail order catalogs or sold as class fund raisers . I can still remember them on the shelves of Woolworths or Kresges, Newberrys, all those old time stores. Oh to go back to a simpler way of life. Take me back.......

I guess they still make some but I don't think they are as popular as they were back in the day.

Re: Proposed Rule Making: Part 380 Radiation Program
The State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process as it pertains to the proposed amendments to Part 380 does not meet the intent of SEQRA and the DEC Negative Declaration of Significant impact is indefensible.

Ms Hinkel:

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, as lead agency, is required by SEQRA to assess the potential environmental impacts of the proposed changes to Part 380 regulation and make a defensible declaration as to the need for further environmental review and or development of a full Environmental Impact Statement pertaining to the proposed changes.

In reviewing the documentation of the process leading up to the Negative Determination of Significance, it is apparent that DEC is has failed to make determinations based on facts.
The most obvious example of this is the dismissal of Radon 222 and its progeny from consideration as a pollutant requiring regulation. This occurs in numerous locations throughout Part 380, for example in subparts at: Part 380-5.1 (b) on page 28 of 47, Part 380-1.2 (e) (f) and (i(3) on page 5 of 47. DEC seems determined to eliminate from regulation under 380 forms of radiation which have substantial adverse impacts on public health and the environment. Exposure to Radon and its progeny of Polonium210 and Lead210 are the number two cause of lung cancer in the nation among smokers and number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. The arbitrary exemption and exclusion of Radon 222 from regulation is unconscionable, indefensible, and negates the Determination of Non-Significant Impact declared by DEC. The proposed amendments to Part 380 have public health and environmental consequences that require a full Environmental Impact Statement.

How many more people will have to die from lung cancer before DEC meets their responsibility to protect us from all forms of radioactive releases?

Respectfully,

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Division of Environmental Remediation
625 Broadway, Albany NY 12233-7255

Re: Proposed Rule Making: Part 380 Radiation Program
The State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process as it pertains to the proposed amendments to Part 380 does not meet the intent of SEQRA and the DEC Negative Declaration of Significant impact is indefensible.

Ms Hinkel:

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, as lead agency, is required by SEQRA to assess the potential environmental impacts of the proposed changes to Part 380 regulation and make a defensible declaration as to the need for further environmental review and or development of a full Environmental Impact Statement pertaining to the proposed changes.

In reviewing the documentation of the process leading up to the Negative Determination of Significance, it is apparent that DEC is has failed to make determinations based on facts.
The most obvious example of this is the dismissal of Radon 222 and its progeny from consideration as a pollutant requiring regulation. This occurs in numerous locations throughout Part 380, for example in subparts at: Part 380-5.1 (b) on page 28 of 47, Part 380-1.2 (e) (f) and (i(3) on page 5 of 47. DEC seems determined to eliminate from regulation under 380 forms of radiation which have substantial adverse impacts on public health and the environment. Exposure to Radon and its progeny of Polonium210 and Lead210 are the number two cause of lung cancer in the nation among smokers and number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. The arbitrary exemption and exclusion of Radon 222 from regulation is unconscionable, indefensible, and negates the Determination of Non-Significant Impact declared by DEC. The proposed amendments to Part 380 have public health and environmental consequences that require a full Environmental Impact Statement.

How many more people will have to die from lung cancer before DEC meets their responsibility to protect us from all forms of radioactive releases?

Respectfully,

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Division of Environmental Remediation
625 Broadway, Albany NY 12233-7255

Re: Proposed Rule Making: Part 380 Radiation Program
The State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process as it pertains to the proposed amendments to Part 380 does not meet the intent of SEQRA and the DEC Negative Declaration of Significant impact is indefensible.

Ms Hinkel:

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, as lead agency, is required by SEQRA to assess the potential environmental impacts of the proposed changes to Part 380 regulation and make a defensible declaration as to the need for further environmental review and or development of a full Environmental Impact Statement pertaining to the proposed changes.

In reviewing the documentation of the process leading up to the Negative Determination of Significance, it is apparent that DEC is has failed to make determinations based on facts.
The most obvious example of this is the dismissal of Radon 222 and its progeny from consideration as a pollutant requiring regulation. This occurs in numerous locations throughout Part 380, for example in subparts at: Part 380-5.1 (b) on page 28 of 47, Part 380-1.2 (e) (f) and (i(3) on page 5 of 47. DEC seems determined to eliminate from regulation under 380 forms of radiation which have substantial adverse impacts on public health and the environment. Exposure to Radon and its progeny of Polonium210 and Lead210 are the number two cause of lung cancer in the nation among smokers and number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. The arbitrary exemption and exclusion of Radon 222 from regulation is unconscionable, indefensible, and negates the Determination of Non-Significant Impact declared by DEC. The proposed amendments to Part 380 have public health and environmental consequences that require a full Environmental Impact Statement.

How many more people will have to die from lung cancer before DEC meets their responsibility to protect us from all forms of radioactive releases?

Respectfully,

Photo by John Sloane
Verse by Joan Walsh Anglund

Twinings, my absolute favorite brand of tea , has just come out with a new flavor, Buttermint. It tastes like those buttermint candies your grandma had in her candy dish but without the sugar and calories! Delicious. I also like Pure Peppermint( my favorite) , Lemon & Ginger, Orange & Cinnamon Spice, and Lady Grey Tea by Twinings. I can drink these all without milk and never sugar.
Harney& Sons has some great flavors too. Passion Plum is my favorite of theirs.
Do you like tea? What are your favorite brands and /or flavors? Milk, sugar or neither?

Mending Wall

Related Poem Content Details

BY ROBERT FROST

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Trying To Appreciate Winter

January 9, 2017

Good Morning!

I'm no snowbird by any means . I've never been to Florida and quite frankly have no desire to go. I live in the Northeast where we have some brutal winters. I am trying to stay positive and not complain about the weather this year but instead find the  beauty in winter. I came across this lovely touching quote by Ruth Stout. Some of you may remember she wrote books and articles on gardening.

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ..... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." 

- Ruth Stout

If you live in a cold winter region, what do you do to appreciate winter? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas! I wrote a post farther back in my blog titled Making The Most Of Winter. If you have a chance to go back and read it I think you may enjoy it.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Cindy~