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Spirea not only gives us this wonderful show, but it also gives us pain relief in the form of aspirin, although the willow plant is better known from ancient days as a source of the main ingredient salicin.

Many people today prefer other pain relievers to aspirin, but not me. I happen to enjoy the taste and always chew up the tablets and let them dissolve in my mouth.

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(Kathy on Apr 5, 2005 6:17 AM) You *are* weird!

(samcandide on Apr 5, 2005 1:30 PM) Not at all. I ran out of Bufferin the other day and drove twelve miles to the mercantile to pick som

(samcandide on Apr 5, 2005 1:32 PM) By the way, your spirea is gorgeous! I'm so envious.

(mary lou on Apr 5, 2005 2:20 PM) EEEWWWWW!!! My jaws are clenching at the thought!!!

(la chica alta on Apr 5, 2005 9:39 PM) Beautiful picture. I too used to like the taste of aspirin!

(Leslie on Apr 7, 2005 6:04 PM) I'm an aspirin chewer as well and used to sneak baby aspirin when I was a child and eat it like cand

It has been very hard for Americans -- lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring -- to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleepwalking into the future. I call this coming time the Long Emergency.

Read the full article in Rolling Stone

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(Shelley on Mar 31, 2005 10:38 PM) This fits in with that other environmental report this week, and doesn't paint a good picture, does

(mary lou on Apr 1, 2005 1:19 PM) I think that the US should offer to buy Siberia from Russia, They need the money, and then we could

(Suzette on Apr 2, 2005 9:16 AM) I am all for of public transportation to lighten up the impact of single-driver commuting, but unles

(Leslie on Apr 2, 2005 10:07 AM) You're right. We haven't seen anything yet. It's going to be an entirely different world.

(M Stevens (Austin) on Apr 2, 2005 8:53 PM) Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.

(Larry Davis on Apr 3, 2005 7:09 PM) As I travel the blackland prairie, I run into this after reading the latest installment at billmon.o

He was a flour mill manager in Fort Worth who hit on the idea of advertising his flour with a radio show that featured a band called the Light Crust Doughboys. O'Daniel himself was the announcer, lacing his program with Bible quotes and political commentary. The show became very popular in rural areas and O'Daniel played off that popularity to get himself elected governor and later senator, defeating a young LBJ. W. Lee campaigned as "just folks," promising tax cuts and old-age pensions, but once elected he allied himself with northern Republicans against labor and New Deal Democrats.

As for the Light Crust Doughboys they were the seminal Western Swing band. Several members went on to lead their own bands, including Bob Wills who founded the Texas Playboys.

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(mary lou on Mar 30, 2005 12:35 PM) Sounds like the preface to Prairie Home Companion!

(thingfish23 on Mar 30, 2005 3:18 PM) ...or Pappy O'Daniel from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

(Suzette on Mar 31, 2005 2:32 AM) Daniel's grasp on his audience and how he turned that into political clout was very well documented

At Cain's Academy, down in old Oklahom'

The dust was blowin' but the music was right,

And W. Lee O'Daniel played all night

Actually it was about 30 years ago that I first heard James Talley sing those lines. In those days most of my record collection was jazz or rock. Despite living in Texas I had little appreciation for country music. But Talley's music touched something in me.

The album was a gift that got lost somewhere over the years, but the music kept running through my head. I tried to find a replacement but it was always out of print. Then I happened on his website where all his albums were available. Now I've got a brand new copy and in addition an album of James Talley singing the songs of Woody Guthrie.

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(mary lou on Mar 29, 2005 2:10 PM) SCORE!!!! :)

(PM Summer on Apr 7, 2005 9:15 PM) While going to school in San Francisco in 1970, I discovered that people thought I was from Northern

The weatherman was predicting rain but it never happened. There was a gorgeous blue sky on the first day of spring. Everything in the lawn was green and perky. Salvia greggi was blooming in several colors. The mutabilis and rouletti were covered with blooms. The white wisteria spread its sweet perfume over the west yard.

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(thingfish23 on Mar 22, 2005 9:39 AM) That is one sexxxy pink flower, man.

(thingfish23 on Mar 22, 2005 9:40 AM) That is one sexxxy pink flower, man.

(mary lou on Mar 22, 2005 11:32 AM) Pretty flowerMy wisteria isnt even STARTING TO bud yet. Still just a stick.

(la chica alta on Mar 26, 2005 8:32 AM) So pretty! I need to get back to my...er...garden. Thanks for sharing the picture.

Actually I am kind of on the same page as Rob because I have lately been learning to appreciate vultures myself. There is a huge roost of them on the cliffs below our lake cabin. I have counted at least fifty as they start gathering just around sunset. It can be a bit intimidating to see that many of the big birds circling over you. They look graceful in flight. Not at all like the caricatures I am used to from cartoons or stories. And they really are big too. It is something just to hear the rustle of their wings as they settle in for the night.

Most of the lakedwellers don't like them and try to run them off with loud noises. But they just move on to the next property.

Did you know they are a protected species? I suppose because they perform a useful service, keeping the roads and countryside cleaned of rotting flesh.

But I want to say a few more words about Spruce Pine Cottage because it also has some good profiles of native plants. Even though we are not in the same state we have most of the same native species here.

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(Leslie on Mar 15, 2005 8:54 PM) Is there such a bird as a turkey vulture? (I suppose I could simply Google it). I've never seen a

(mary lou on Mar 16, 2005 12:26 PM) OOO The lights are blinking...gonna lose power, better post this quick... I had a flock of Turkey

(Dottie on Mar 16, 2005 8:06 PM) When I was in the Galapagos Islands last November there was a frequent sighting of a certain bird -

(don on Mar 18, 2005 12:46 PM) Bill -- In my youth I remember camping at a state park in Limestone County in the winter and coming

(Joel on Mar 18, 2005 11:43 PM) I enjoy watching the vultures soaring over the hillsides near us. They are graceful and efficient f

I found these bones along the south fence. It's a young deer who probably got its foot caught in the top of the fence and didn't make it. There is a small herd of about seven that we see quite often.

This morning I was planting near the house when I felt some eyes on me and turned around. There was one watching me at the edge of the woods about 100 feet away. Making a mental note I am sure to come back when I wasn't around. They eat or pull up just about anything in the vegetable family. Saturday I replanted a dozen iris bulbs they had pulled up and scattered.

Yes, they are cute but it does not bother me to find the bones of one who did not make it. Their natural predators have all been run off or exterminated, and there seems to be an over-abundance of them in these parts. Last month I saw a pair grazing next to the access road of a busy interstate.

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(jenn on Mar 14, 2005 12:05 PM) Where is Coyote when we need him? Oh, right, trapped and hunted away from 'civilization.' I ha

(mary lou on Mar 14, 2005 12:52 PM) ALl the coyotes are up here. They yelp and holler at Sadie over the back fence. I am SURE they are

(thingfish23 on Mar 14, 2005 9:17 PM) I love me some bones, man. The only bummer I see with regard to the photo above is that the animal

(Dottie on Mar 14, 2005 9:32 PM) We have major problems with deer here in West St. Louis County........all of our local communities h

(PM Summer on Mar 15, 2005 6:40 AM) Woke up this morning with Mickey Mud Turtle and Amanda Possum on my mind/heart. A Google search brou

(Joel on Mar 19, 2005 6:43 PM) Did you find these bones inside a big track?

So it's not live, unless you are in the studio audience. Later they do a little "cutting and pasting" to polish up the show for broadcast. We stayed while they redid several parts. For instance while interviewing Larry Hagman, Peter Sagal made the statement that the actor was not a real Texan. I guess he objected to that since he really is from Texas. Anyway they had Peter Sagal read that part of the script again with the statement taken out.

It was warm enough to stroll around the SMU campus without a jacket last night. Today iit was sunny and clear. The irises are starting to bloom now and redbud trees are putting on a good show.

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(mary lou on Mar 12, 2005 3:21 PM) WOW, mine are just about 8" high.

(Dottie on Mar 12, 2005 7:48 PM) March here in St. Louis goes back & forth between warm and cold.........some flowers are beginning t

(jenn on Mar 13, 2005 4:10 PM) Heaven glimpsed in a blue flower.

(Leslie on Mar 15, 2005 8:55 PM) What a magnificent photo!

(Cowtown Pattie on Mar 24, 2005 8:58 PM) So pretty! I used to have a teacher in the 5th grade - Mrs. Vanlandingham, who raised all varieties

I have been listening to this NPR station for almost 20 years, ever since I moved to Dallas for a job and took an apartment in a new complex. I thought an apartment complex would be a great place to meet people in a strange city but it wasn't. But I guess I wasn't trying too hard anyway. In those days I went to work 6 days a week, sometimes 7. I was one of the first people at the office in the morning and one of the last to leave. I parked my car in the same spot every day. One time a coworker told me that she thought the car was abandoned or something because it was always there in the same place.

There was a cafeteria in the building where I worked and I ate both breakfast and lunch there every day. I always had the same thing for breakfast and after a while the cafeteria workers got to know me and they would have my order waiting for me. Before leaving home I made sure I had exact change to pay the bill. These things were like rituals. For some reason it was important to me to do things the same way all the time. Maybe it was because that way I didn't have to think about it.

I am not as compulsive as I used to be. One thing that has stayed the same - I still wake up listening to NPR. On Sunday mornings that means Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. It's a quiz show, where they call somebody in the radio audience to solve a puzzle.

Well I don't know why just thinking about going to this show got me off on such a tangent. Maybe I was just looking for an opportunity to talk about myself. I think the show will be fun. I'll let you know about it later.

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(Kathy on Mar 11, 2005 8:07 AM) This makes me want to know how you met your wife. It sounds like having everything the same was a wa

(jenn on Mar 11, 2005 11:54 AM) Do have much fun. Sounds great!

(mary lou on Mar 11, 2005 6:13 PM) I LOVE that show, and the word one...and of course Re-wind. I really do like NPR But they changed t

(Tricia on Mar 11, 2005 10:53 PM) Thanks for thinking of me, Kathy. But we were both single twenty years ago. I was working long hours

(Tom on Mar 12, 2005 7:50 AM) I love that show.

(la chica alta on Mar 13, 2005 1:58 PM) One of my favorite shows. I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

They still had family there and about once a month we would load into the family car and go visit my grandmother with the sunny garden and the quilting frame in the living room, or one of my mother's many sisters and brothers. If we were lucky we would get to spend the night at a cousin's house, most likely sleeping on the floor on a pallet. Only a few times in my childhood did we go on real vacations. These trips to Kerens were about the only traveling I experienced.

Kerens attained a sort of mythological status in my mind, a sort of Eden that my parents had been forced from by the necessity of making a living. Eventually they were able to return there thanks to good health and social security, but by that time most of the people they knew were gone. Whatever gods of history or economics there might be had dried up the town until only a few abandoned buildings remained in the old downtown. Once there had been schools, garages and churches in the surrounding smaller communities. Now there are only a few houses spaced a little closer together than normal along a farm road.

My cousin Ivan was a little older than me and lived there in the years when the people and places in my parent's stories were still alive. He has started writing down some of his own stories in a series called Tales from Elm Flat. It's not quite a blog. I find them pretty entertaining and maybe you will too. The latest story is about the town doctor, who by the way, is the doctor who brought me into the world too.

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(mary lou on Mar 9, 2005 1:20 PM) WOW.. Looks like a neat site to get lost in. I bookmarked it. Thanks.

(Don on Mar 9, 2005 2:04 PM) My grandparents for a time lived in lovely little Elm Mott, just north of Waco. This was basically

(Joel on Mar 9, 2005 10:12 PM) Pssst! Bill has been blogging for two years now!

(Leslie on Mar 10, 2005 9:37 AM) Sounds like something I'd enjoy immensely. Thanks for the link :)

We have our first rose of the season (actually several blossoms) on the Rouletti. It's a miniature rose we picked up at the Antique Rose Emporium on one of our annual road trips to South Texas. When I say miniature I just mean the flower. Although the literature suggests that it is good in containers, ours are quite ample in size.

It really felt like Spring today. It was pleasant to be outside even if it was a bit damp. Lots of daffodils and tulips in neighborhood yards and some of those early blooming white irises, or flags as my grandmother called them.

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(panthergirl on Mar 7, 2005 10:50 AM) What beautiful photographs!! Thank you so much for leaving a comment on my blog, to support Greyhoun

(mary lou on Mar 7, 2005 2:48 PM) Oh that is Pretty. ALmost looks like our Wild Nootka ROse.

Lately we seem to have alternating days of rain and sun. Plants are slowly greening up, but there is still not much to talk about in the way of flowers. It's fun to look at the buds on the limbs though and watch them develop. These are on a redbud branch.

Today is Texas Independence Day. It used to be a big deal when I was a school boy; now you don't hear much about it. I guess the state employees and schools still get a holiday. Traffic was really light on my daily commute.

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(mary lou on Mar 3, 2005 11:45 AM) Hey Bill, Go to gravitar.com that is where you get to post your picture. Take your hat picture and

(Leslie on Mar 3, 2005 9:45 PM) Ah, yes **big sigh**. Buds, flowers, green! What wonderful thoughts those are. Our ground is star

(la chica alta on Mar 6, 2005 11:40 AM) Hi Bill, Thanks for the pic of the buds. I haven't seen anything that looks like that in my area. N

(Joel on Mar 6, 2005 10:10 PM) There are times when I think Texas can have its independence any old time. Maybe California shoul

I have mentioned her quilting business more than once here before. She can make quilts to order or do the quilting work on pieces that others have sewn up. You can check out some of her work at her own website.

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(Tricia on Feb 28, 2005 10:12 PM) Thanks to my photographer and webmaster >^..^<

(mary lou on Mar 1, 2005 1:00 AM) I have one of her wonderful creations and I just LOVE it. I wish I could do that. Ah well.

(Kathy on Mar 1, 2005 9:59 AM) My neighbor, Marilyn Belford, has an incredible sewing machine that launched a whole new hobby/caree

(Tricia on Mar 1, 2005 5:21 PM) WOW...I can see why she needed upgrades on her PC equip...those are fantastic !! closest I've come i

(la chica alta on Mar 6, 2005 11:37 AM) Beautiful work!

About two years and a few months ago Tricia and I finished remodelling our kitchen. It was a time-consuming project. We pulled everything down to bare studs and started over, doing most of the work ourselves including electrical, plumbing and drywall. It was finally over in time for the holidays that year and then that winter I went into the hospital for a gall-bladder operation.

My life changed a little. I had lots more time and I wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous. I had always been an Internet fan but I started spending more time than ever surfing and especially reading this new kind of website called blogs. It was the political blogs that I started out with, but soon I was reading all kinds of stuff and I knew that I wanted one myself.

I used Blogger until I was sure I was serious. At first I called the blog Vertigo. I did not know just what I wanted to write about either. I mainly just wanted to write but I was not an expert on anything and wasn't particularly funny or entertaining. I spend a lot of time working in my garden but it never occurred to me that someone would want to read about gardening. I kind of had this idea of writing about all kinds of things using the persona of a country gardener. Eventually I did wind up writing a lot about the garden itself just because that was what interested me.

After a few weeks I changed the name to praire point which is the name of a community that ceased to exist decades ago out where my parents are from. Also I had noticed that most of the sites I liked then used Movable Type. Clearly that was the way to go and I decided to get my own domain and try to install it.

The very first gardening blog I stumbled across was Garden Spot. I once lived in Houston and I think I was just looking for blogs in Houston when I found it. From the list on Erica's site I discovered a handful more, many of which are no longer active.

I don't know what I expected from blogging, but I can say that I did not expect it to be like the way it turned out. For one thing I am surprised by how much I feel like I am writing to a particular audience all the time. Many of the readers have become friends - even if we have never met.

I don't seem to have as much to say as I used to. Nor do I have as much spare time. I have planned for months to redesign the site and to either upgrade to a new release of MT or switch to WordPress. I can't seem to get off my duff to do those things and with spring around the corner I imagine they will be postponed even more. However I am definitely hooked on this.

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(Kathy on Feb 19, 2005 12:02 PM) I am glad to hear you are hooked on writing your blog, because I am hooked on reading it. I wonder w

(mary lou on Feb 19, 2005 1:25 PM) well I for one miss the HAT!! and the CAT!! But you just keep on blogging and I will keep on readi

(mary lou on Feb 19, 2005 1:26 PM) Now if only we could get Tricia to blog about quilting....(wink)

(b vernon on Feb 20, 2005 5:29 AM) your blogg site ,read because your my cousin, inspied me to start a site also.I have found your sit

(Leslie on Feb 20, 2005 9:35 AM) I'm still using Blogger and seem to have not too much trouble with it compared to some. I remembe

(bill on Feb 21, 2005 8:25 AM) Mary Lou: The hat is still around - you just have to look for it. I have been neglecting my cats i

(jenn on Feb 21, 2005 10:50 AM) "...not an expert on anything and wasn't particularly funny or entertaining." We are voices in th

(Tricia on Feb 21, 2005 10:58 AM) It ain't going ta happen, Mary Lou >^..^< I have a 20'x14' sewing room with a computerized profes

(la chica alta on Feb 21, 2005 7:10 PM) I enjoy reading your blog. Your spot is a place of serenity; I like that. We all need that consideri

(don on Feb 28, 2005 9:33 AM) Bill - congrats on your two year anniversary. I certainly enjoy reading your blog. As a former Cen

(mary lou on Feb 28, 2005 3:51 PM) Well Then Bill, Why dont you give tricia a DAY of her own, on your site, she can blog about the quil