Baldur

Thank you

"All Baldur, All the Time'

lilalee

Have not heard this for years, and so glad you printed it here!! It's beautiful!!

Baldur

I'm guessing Lilalee that you are not referring to the 'Song of thongs'.
Christina Rossetti was quite talented.

lilalee

She was quite talented!! The thong song, is no longer in the top forty!!

Baldur

I think it was a one hit wonder

maddyjean08

I haven't heard from you, lilalee! I can't remember the last time...

Baldur

Even when Lilalee isn't commenting she is always paying attention.

lilalee

I haven't been here too much, been to busy getting ready for a show, and doing domestic 'things'!! My maid never shows up anymore.

maddyjean08

I know how you feel. As soon as I get home I have an entire list of things to do. I'm usually done by ten, maybe nine if Olivia stays out of my way!

lilalee

I just want to know WHO, said it's women's work? My husband and son do help around here, but, now I want to play and be merry!!

maddyjean08

Exactly! It's like, get up off your butt because I've been cleaning up your mess for hours and my back hurts and I couldn't sleep last night so, GO!

lilalee

Maddy, your so young and have chores. I did when I was a girl too. But now, I'm older and have been doing all this stuff, plus worked a total of 42 years, and I want a maid!! Demand a maid in your life!!

maddyjean08

I suppose I could pay my sister...

Robindcr8l

Baldur, for the record, I did solve your cryptogram, but it was in the wee hours of the morning, and didn't feel like getting out of bed to post or draw. Then today was 12yo football, of course, and then a nap before I leave for work in a little while, so here's my first chance. No time for drawing, though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

And Marius, a puzzle is fine for me on Wednesday through Friday! Saturday through Tues. I am either working, sleeping, or sleep-deprivation recovery day, where my IQ is about 50points lower than baseline. The thing is, the puzzle could be posted on one of those days, and I could wait to work it til Wed., but I find that part of my motivation is being among the first to solve it. And once the answers are posted, even in a different thread, I have no self-discipline against cheating. So to some extent, it's my own fault I don't get to participate in all of the puzzles. The system is set up to allow me to!

Well, wish me well. Tonight is my Monday. But, on a brighter note, tomorrow is my Wednesday, and by Monday, it's my Friday! Can't really beat that schedule once you wrap your dyslexic mind around it! I'll check in when I am able.

marius

Baldur ... laughed myself silly with your thong poem. Thanks for the bread recipe. I'm in the baking mood so will probably try it within the next week.

Robin, love the way you break down your work week. Clever and funny way to look at it.

Now to the "what's new in Missouri" segment of Baldur Radio:
Summer has officially ended because, alas, there are no more flowers in the garden. Since it's going to freeze tonight, I cut all the remaining flowers in good shape. Got one large vase full and one small one. The Dahlia's are still superb, the zinnia's pretty fair, a few brown-eyed Susan's, some nasturtiums, and a few others I can't name. Fairwell to the growing season. Spouse is happy - now finish rototilling the "whole" garden and prepping it for next year.

Drove over to friend's house in Kansas today. She lives about an hour away and the scenery was spectacular. We are perhaps four days away from the peak of fall colors. LOVE this time of year!! Hope to go hiking at our state park tomorrow.

That's the exciting end to this evenings Missouri segment. : )

How are colors in New England, Baldur? Do you feel like you are living in the best version of heaven ever invented? Is the air crisp and invigorating? Do you envy yourself for living in such a beautiful area of the country? Really - I want to know all about this. New England would be way too cold and snowy for me, (I'm like Dragon about the cold) ... but the fall in New England is the best I've ever seen. I can almost smell the night air and hear the crackling of leaves underfoot ... and this memory is from 27 years ago in Connecticut. Yes, I've seen the Aspens in Colorado in the fall, and they are wonderful, but not like New England.

Alright ... long day and time for dreams. Night to all.

Baldur

Baldur did spend some time out in the wet flower beds this morning.
It seems like the rain is falling just enough to make yard work messy but not halt it altogether.
Today I cut back the echinacea stalks, those flowers are pretty much done.
The asters, chrysanthemums, false dragon heads, portulacas, some roses, nasturtiums and spider worts are going strong.
Spider worts are definitely out of season but Baldur has never had trouble getting them to rebloom. As soon as their early summer bloom is done I lop them off at ground level. By midSeptember they are blooming again like crazy.
This drives Jacob the witch to distraction. When he first chanced to visit my garden in the Autumn (It was the Autumn of 2007) he was completely unprepared for spiderworts. He said that in all his 75 years of gardening he had never seen that before.
To me it seems perfectly logical that they should be cut down, as logical as scattering dried flowerheads along the perimeter of the woodland. This gives me an endless supply of seedlings each spring to fill in the bare spots in the garden.
Now if Baldur could only convince his candy lilies to increase their color range.
More on that later.

Baldur

There truly is nothing like New England in the fall.
It would pain Baldur to miss it.
Though I love New England in the Spring & Winter also. It is only during July and August that I think that living in northern Greenland would be nice.

Winter gardening is another odd pleasure of mine. When landscaping the property here Baldur took great care to keep the leaf-free snowy vistas in mind. I planted hollies, including the deciduous type. These are unexpectedly beautiful when they drop their leaves and bare branches laden with thousands of perfect red berries. Against a backdrop of snow these are sublime.
There are also willow trees of the corkscrew variety that have tossled branches. There are boxwoods and cypress, pines and yews.
There are boulders strewn across the hillside and ordered in curving arcs to delineate the paths.

Baldur

It is rather a chore getting the fall cleanup done, but the rewards of having things relatively tidy when the early spring bulbs start flowering make it worth the effort.

We decorated the yard for Halloween this past week.
This was as simple as placing a pumpkin by the front door. There are those that think the interior of Chez Baldur is already creepy enough.
We will leave the animated monsters and blinking lights for the neighbors.

Baldur

It was mention here on Radio Baldur that I have been involved in rebuilding a memorial at the corner of our road.
There was a small flowerbed there with a solar lantern and encroaching weeds.
Baldur needed to prepare the site to accept a piece of sculpture.
One of the neighbors here is a sculptor of some local renown. Je had approached me 2 years ago about reworking the site.
He had the original piece that a bronze casting was taken from for another town's 9/11 memorial. He envisioned installing it where the flowerbed currently was. I was agreeable to the task but wanted a bit of instruction as to what exactly he needed me to do. That never came until this month.

He wanted me to remove the old raised bed and replace it entirely. He wanted stonework. Baldur had gotten clearance already from the woman who's husband had built the original memorial, so I started the very next day.

Baldur

The old site was completely torn up, it was a bed constructed of railroad ties and was perhaps 8 feet wide by 3 feet deep.
The new bed is a ringwall 10 feet in diameter and 15" tall. The land behind it dips a bit so in the back the wall is indeed higher, but the top course of stone remains level.
Then using the trusty wheelbarrow I brought in a bit (25 loads) of topsoil to fill it.
Then I commenced to clear the scrubby bushes and weeds from the site, opening up the view of the pond that had been completely obscured.
Baldur left the mature trees intact but cut out several completely dead lower limbs.
Shortly after starting the project the trees on the other shore commenced to turn scarlet and gold in their annual autumn show. Timing is everything.
It does look wonderful and the feedback from the neighbors has all been positive.
I do hope the piece of sculpture goes in soon.