Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Herb Garden

Several weeks ago I saw pictures of a patio herb garden made from different size tubs and pails.  I knew I needed to have one on my front porch.

I went to Tractor Supply Co. in Lucedale looking for my tubs.  I had never been in the store before.  What a wonderful place!  Stuff that I didn't know where to find, they have it.  It is on my VBS Mad Science shopping-go-to list from now on.

I got a 16 3/4 gallon tub, a 7 gallon tub, and a 2 or 3 gallon bucket (I can't remember which, but it doesn't really matter.)  I got a 2 cubic yard bag of potting soil at Wal-Mart to fill them up.  I was a little worried that it wouldn't be enough dirt, so I put an empty gallon milk jug (lid on) in the bottom tub in the spot where the smaller tub would rest over it.  No need for lots of soil depth under the next tub.  (be sure to rinse the jug well first.  souring milk releases gases that can blow the lid off and I'm not sure what that would do to the tub above it.)





I planted oregano seeds in the top tier, due mainly to a vague remembrance that oregano can take over a container or even a garden.

The middle tier has basil and rosemary.

In the bottom tub, I planted cilantro and dill.  I don't think the dill has made an appearance yet.  I could be wrong, though, because I've never grown dill.  It may look similar to cilantro in the beginning.


 I am looking forward to the day I can smell all those herbs every time I walk out the front door.




Friday, March 16, 2012

Mrs. Jones and the camera

Being a cat person has its challenges.  Cats in general, and Mrs. Jones specifically, don't like having their picture taken.  Maybe it has nothing to do with their images being captured.  Maybe it has everything to do with just being difficult. 

I was learning how to use my camera this morning and since she was right there close by, I decided to use her as my model.  She was not amused.


I think she got bored when I took pictures of the flowers on the kitchen table.
 

I'm amazed that these flowers are still hanging on.  They were used at the bridal shower for my eldest almost 2 weeks ago.










Since I was not amusing Mrs. Jones, I headed to town.  My first stop was the city park. 


This bridge really jumps out at you.
The tiles on the vertical faces of the amphitheater seating look so bright.  They were designed by the art students in George County schools.



The Depot Greenway is a nice place for photographs, too. 

And I learned that turtles don't like having their pictures taken any more than cats do.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Mind of a Printer

What was my printer thinking? 

I press the little printer icon at the top of the Publisher window and get this:
which is exactly what I wanted. 

Then I press that same little icon button on that same Publisher window and get this:

My question is 'Why?'  'What changed?'
The image in the Publisher window is still exactly the same.

One more question: 'Why could I never-in-a-million-years get my printer to do this again if my life depended on this result?'

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

You Know, One of Those Churches in George County...

Monday afternoon, our Worship Pastor's wife brought us a piece of mail that had been delivered to their house, which is next door to the church.  The letter was from a Baptist Association in a neighboring county.  The envelope was addressed to an individual unknown to either of us, therefore probably not a member of our congregation and certainly not in a leadership position here.  Under that lady's name was our church name:  Agricola Baptist.  Under that was an address on a highway that does not exist in George County.  (I did however find it around Mantachie, MS).  Under the unknown highway was Lucedale, MS  39452, which is good for all of George County as well as a bit of Jackson County.

The number portion of the address was changed (by hand) to our Worship Pastor's house number and the highway number was changed to the highway number the church is located on.  His address must be in a data base known to the post office as owned by the church.  After some investigation, I found that the scratched out number was, in fact, the street number of another Baptist church in our community.  The highway number had an extra digit, but was similar enough to assure me that I had found the intended recipient.

Or so I thought...

I had arranged for our housekeeping lady, who also does the housekeeping for the other church, to deliver the misdirected missive.  Problem solved, right?  Wrong.  This particular week, our regular church secretary is on vacation.  She arranged for the previous secretary to take her place while she was gone.  In the course of my speaking to the housekeeper/impromptu-mail-carrier, the substitute secretary heard the name of the individual that the envelope was directed to.  "Oh, she's not at B***** Baptist. She's the WMU director at R**** C**** Baptist."


I called the now 3rd church involved in this misdirection and found that yes, the lady on the envelope was still the Women's Missionary Union director there.  Since it wasn't convenient to send someone out to deliver it across the county, the secretary there said to fax it over and she'd make sure it was delivered to the lady in question. 


I think it's funny that with that one envelope, that neighboring association had covered 3 different churches in George County, where we just about all know each other anyway.