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By Richard R. Barron, May 16, 2012 8:03 am

As I have written earlier this spring, the wet weather after two years of difficult drought has delivered some unusual biology to our corner of Oklahoma, like crane flies and harmless red wasps, not to mention toadstools in the pastures and drillions of gnats. But the most unusual sighting so far this spring has been a one-inch tall fungus tower cluster that appeared on my bathroom windowsill this morning. So far web searches have not yielded what kind of fungus this might be, so if you know, please comment.

At nearly an inch tall, this fungus appeared overnight in my bathroom window.

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By Richard R. Barron, May 13, 2012 8:08 pm

This is one of the toys made from cartridge casings Abby and I bought today.

For Mothers Day Abby and I had toyed with the idea of going out to eat, but decided early on that we would be fighting crowds of other Mothers Day celebrants, so instead I made French toast. It was, not surprisingly, perfect.

We also wanted to shop for a present for her, but didn’t exactly know what she wanted. On our way into town we saw big “Gun Show” signs at the Pontotoc County Agri-Plex. Abby and I love going to gun shows together, so in we went. We saw tons of cool stuff we wanted, and even a few things we bought for Abby, like a pair of knives made from cartridge casings and two toys, also made from cartridge casings.

We made a couple of other shopping stops, then came home for a nice nap.

The secret to my French toast is that I pay attention to it while I'm cooking it.

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By Richard R. Barron, May 12, 2012 6:48 pm

We look so young. This was more than nine years ago, just a month after we started dating.

Driving home from a rather complex day at my office today, which included the second false report of a plane crash in as many weeks, I thought about a movie Abby and I might re-watch. Hmm. When had we seen that before? Yes, it was seven years ago.

Whoa. Seven years.

Today, by the way, marks thirty years since my one-time college roommate Jeff shot himself. I talked a little bit about it on my other blog, but today is the actual anniversary. Many moments have long been forgotten, but most of that day is a permanent part of my memory.

This is Jeff's Trans Am, with Jeff and our friend Allen sitting up through the open t-top roof, in 1980.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 29, 2012 9:53 am

According to the internet, this is a ichneumonid wasp. They don't sting and are easy to kill, but are not nearly as delicate as the crane flies we experienced last month.

As spring rolls along, we continue to get abundant rain. In March we had tall early weeds like henbit and wild onions, and an invasion of crane flies. Now with the passing of April, we have fields of wildflowers and an invasion of harmless small red wasps.

The wind was up the last couple of days, as are everyone’s allergies. I for one have been suffering very itchy eyes, particularly when I work outside, which I do a lot in the spring. I’ve been lucky so far not to have terrible sneeze attacks, but that might be right around the corner. Adding to the irony is that all the flowers in our little world are beautiful and smell amazing.

Also, last year I felt I had mostly won the war against the poison ivy here in the patch, and while that’s mostly still true, I am spotting some, including some in the crotch of the pear tree, and it may be time to make the rounds with the weed killer. While I was on assignment today, I schooled a nice couple on the poison ivy in their back yard, and they had an impressive stand of it.

This is poison ivy growing in the crotch of Dorothy's pear tree. I have no problem with nature making a living, unless it interferes with my own living. This small stand of green has the potential to completely ruin ten days of my life.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 28, 2012 9:27 am

I made this short segment of video in August of 2009 as I flew home from Florida. The music is the last few seconds of Long Life to You My Friend by Bliss. I am reposting this because I like it.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 24, 2012 8:03 pm

Abby was exhausted when she got home, and fell asleep in her recliner right away, with her bear shoes propped high up on the “green thing,” which my friends in Norman always called an LBUA, or Leaner Backer Upper Againster.

Abby naps in her recliner tonight, with the dogs in her lap.

So I went to mow, but first I wanted to cut at least some of the dead branches off of the old apple tree in Dorothy’s yard, since I saw her today (to get her column, which she has decided to start writing again – yay!), and she gave me her blessing. We think last summer’s heat and drought are the cause of so many trees being dead now.

While I was cutting off these huge branches, I noticed Buxton the Goat had joined me. Odd, I thought. He doesn’t have opposable thumbs, so he couldn’t have opened the gate. I must have left it open, but that had to have been yesterday, so he only came out of the back yard when he saw me. I walked over to him as he ate leaves off of one of Abby’s Rose-of-Sharon and said, “Come on.” He followed completely, and surprisingly, obediently, through the gate into the back yard. What a good boy.

The whole time I was chain sawing and mowing and dragging branches, I had the Third Eye Blind song Non-Dairy Creamer playing in my head. In particular, I kept hearing, “They call it KFC ’cause it’s not really chicken.” I get it, Stephan, but hey, both of those statements are wrong. They call it “KFC” because Americans are lazy and don’t like to say whole words. KFC was just easier. And while it’s not a paradigm of well-prepared chicken, it is actually chicken.

I finished my night by showering to get the sawdust out of my hair.

Buxton eats Rose-of-Sharon in the yard. After his obedient walk back home tonight, I rewarded him by brushing him and feeding him a big sprig of mimosa.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 22, 2012 6:52 pm

This is where the chain saw chain hit me when it flew off while I was cutting down Dorothy's old peach tree. Abby wasn't too happy when she heard about it, but I think it's frackin' cool.

I have a big hiking trip coming up, and it’s with some of my fitter friends, so I’ve been trying to push myself hard when I work on the patch. Today I…

• Carried all the peach branches and stumps, which I created when I cut down Dorothy’s oldest peach tree, which was dead, to the brush pile.
• Mowed the front yard with the push mower.
• Mowed under the Rose-of-Sharon bushes lining the driveway with the push mower, which is among the most strenuous activities I ever do.
• Mowed a large portion of the “golf course” on the riding mower.
• Dug out the “hump” of earth left behind after removing the two dead Rose-of-Sharon with the chain saw last week.
• Moved the earth, which filled seven wheelbarrows, to a low spot near the garden.
• Put the chain back on my chain saw – it had flown off when I was cutting down the peach tree.

It was insanely nice weather out, so I had a great time. I want to keep pushing myself as much as possible so I’ll be in decent shape for my trip.

The grass in our pastures, like this in the north forty, is lush and healthy, since unlike last year, we are getting ample rainfall this spring.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 15, 2012 4:11 pm

Jamie holds the diminutive Pentax Auto 110 today.

My long-time friend Jamie, her husband Ian, and a close friend of theirs came by today. Jamie had acquired a bag of photo gear about which she knew very little, and she wanted me to check it out. Afterwards, we gathered some weapons and went to the pond to shoot for a while, and we all had a great time.

I mention this not only because it had been a long time since I saw Jamie and her ilk, but also because one of the cameras she had was one I hadn’t seen in at least 20 years, the Pentax Auto 110 SLR. This tiny camera was the only one of its kind ever made, and while not a success, it represented and interesting precursor to today’s ultra-compact digital cameras and phones.

It was great to see Jamie again. As she was leaving, she threw her arms around me and said, “You give the best hugs.”

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By Richard R. Barron, April 14, 2012 12:41 pm

In this context, “DNA” means Does Not Apply, and what doesn’t apply in this case is the song You Don’t Bring Me Flowers by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. Yes, I know that it is a sappy and musically homogenous, but when my iTunes shuffled to it the other day, I had to smile, because the tragic faded love about which they sang was not like my own marriage, and specifically that I do, in fact, bring Abby flowers all the time, and that there was a lovely rose next to her even as that song played.

I thought of it again today after Abby and I slept late. When she got up, I made coffee for her and heated up two of her famous cinnamon rolls. (Sidebar: in spite of wanting to freeze some because she made so many, they have proven so popular that we are almost out of them.) As I presented her breakfast to her, I noticed that the rose was wilting. I had noted while mowing yesterday that Dorothy’s iris and roses were flowering like I hadn’t seen in years. So Today I ran down and got Abby two beautiful specimens and put them in my mother’s purple vase for her. Good husband: 1, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers: 0.

I thought these two flowers together were amazingly beautiful. There are many more in Dorothy's garden.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 14, 2012 12:41 pm

When I was ten, my family and I saw Lost Horizon at the Vaska theater in Lawton, Oklahoma. For former Lawtonians, the Vaska is a legendary landmark, and mention of it for them will surely stir some memories.

The film, which I found and started watching on YouTube over the past few days, is often regarded as one of the top 50 worst films of all time. It tells of travelers who find a hidden utopia, and shows their struggles with their desires, particularly their desires to sing terrible Burt Bacharach songs. The utopia depicted in the film is a little like an airport executive lounge or a suburban California country club, with everyone relaxing around card tables or potted plants. Internet reviews note that there are no blacks in Shagri-la, and most of the oriental people are silent and seem to do all the work, so really it’s a utopia for rich whites.

Sally Kellerman plays a character named Sally, a neurotic waif who hates her life back in the real world. Seconds after this screen shot, she bursts into song - and not a good one.

When we came out of the theater on that night in 1973, my sister and I were singing the songs, and thought that we had just seen a masterpiece, while mom and dad were probably rolling their eyes and talking about how they’d never get those two hours back.

While re-watching it over the last couple of days, I have to say that the music is mostly an embarrassment to my past, although I can kind of see how one or two of the pieces might have been catchy to a ten-year-old.

I vaguely remember as a child having something of a crush on Liv Ullmann, but now as I watch it, I find Sally Kellerman’s portrayal as a neurotic waif much more fetching. Of course as she gets happier and better-adjusted as the movie progresses, she gets less attractive. (How I managed to marry a non-neurotic woman remains a complete mystery.)

Also of note is this: why did anyone ever cast George Kennedy in any movies? He is one notch below Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman in terms of talent, and rivals Ernest Borgnine in looks. His character builds an irrigation system to “improve” paradise, which in the long run would have the unintended consequence of making the inhabitants fat and lazy, but in 1973, that would be difficult to foresee.

Also also of note: John Gielgud as “Chang”? I suppose that in 1973 the world was desperately short of real oriental actors, so an English actor had to step up.

The saving grace of this experiment is that on YouTube, I can skim forward to skip all the songs. At the end of the day, it was a fun little blast from my past.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 8, 2012 5:23 pm

Preface: I promise this is not going to turn into a food blog or a domestic life blog, and I assure you that if it begins to resemble The Pioneer Woman‘s blog in any way, I will suffocate myself with a pillow.

I was able to photograph Katy and Robert together during their short visit yesterday.

That said, it has rained since the middle of the night, it is cool and cloudy outside right now, and Abby has just spent most of the day making cinnamon rolls from scratch. I think she told me the recipe makes 50, but she claims we can freeze them.

Yesterday I worked just a half day. Robert visited in the middle of the afternoon, having picked up girlfriend Katy at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport for a whirlwind visit to Tulsa. They only stayed a few minutes, but it was nice to finally see Katy, who we had not actually met in person.

By evening as we got hungry, Abby had a hankering for beef stroganoff, so she made some for her, plus a little vegetarian dish for me that ended up a little like a pasta prima vera.

Abby naps now, exhausted from her kitchen toils.

For my own part, I am excited to say that I finally finished my “best of photojournalism” entry on my teaching blog. Check it out here.

Abby's cinnamon rolls cool in the kitchen. I tried a couple and they were great, despite the fact that I don't really have a sweet tooth.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 4, 2012 6:53 pm

The pond, which was completely gone last September, actually looks like a body of water again.

It was another busy day for me at the news mill, but by evening Abby and I had settled in. A cold from that helped spawn tornadoes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area just 120 miles south of us, and thunderstorms here all day yesterday, finally passed late this afternoon, leaving cool evening temps and a perfectly clear sunset. I walked to the mailbox with a camera, as I am want to do, and made of a few images of this amazing spring night.

Assuming we don't get a late freeze, it looks like we'll have peaches this year.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 2, 2012 7:26 pm

This is the first year my cherry trees, which I planted in 2007, have shown significant blossoms.

Today’s order of battle:

• Woke up at 8 am feeling fully rested, with no desire to go back to sleep.
  

  This toad was evicted from the grass I tilled up in the garden this afternoon.

• Mowed like it was the grasspocalypse, including Dorothy’s yards, the bar ditches, the golf course, the south forty, and our front yard.
• Fired up the cranky tiller and tilled the entire garden thoroughly.
• Increased my chances of being struck by lightning by photographing the yard, a toad, and my cherry blossoms as a thunderstorm approached.
• Watched from the garage as a handsome thunderstorm rolled through Byng.

Of note: the tiller starts just fine, but, like a lot of airplane engines I flew over the years, does not like to start when it’s hot. Fortunately, I kept it running for the whole session. Also, if the warm weather holds, this could end up being an excellent season for peaches, cherries, and pears. I’m hoping to get the garden planted this week; I like to wait until April because I have lost crops to frost twice in recent years.

It was nice to be outside today, and now, as I prepare to have dinner, I am feeling exhausted.

This rainbow appeared briefly after the passage of a thunderstorm this evening.

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By Richard R. Barron, April 2, 2012 9:38 am

Gail, Ethel, Abby, Rachel, Aiden, and the Chihuahuas Max and Sierra visit two horses that are currently grazing Ethel's pasture.

Abby and I went to her hometown, Ryan, Oklahoma, yesterday, to see her father’s widow Ethel. We brought her lunch, KFC as usual, and she gave us cookies and cream ice cream (I know, “cream” twice, but whatever.) After lunch we were visited by Abby’s sister Gail, Gail’s daughter Rachel, and Rachel’s kids Ally and Aiden. We brought along one of our printers, the one that scans and copies, so Abby could copy a bunch of family recipes, which she, Gail and I did with assembly-line precision.

I even got a nap.

Abby seemed to be feeling better than she had for months, and it was both a relief and an inspiration. Maybe, just maybe, she is finally on the mend from what could only be called the Winter of Sickness.

Our drive home as the sun went down was wonderful, with the light on the drought-recovering countryside nothing short of spectacular, and Abby was perky and chatty. It was a great day with my wife.

Rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow, so I hope to mow a bunch, then maybe dig in the garden, assuming I can get the cranky tiller to start. Either way, I will be outside today, filling myself with springtime.

A sunstar shines through our front door peephole this morning. I don't see this often, since it only happens a couple of weeks in the spring and fall, and Abby and I are often at work when it occurs. It makes a rainbow circle at the end of the hall.