Thursday, August 15

Up around 7:30, and got ready for the day. Skipped my exercises after breakfast, so I could get the house ready for a scrapbook club meeting this afternoon. Hubbie helped with this task after he accompanied Mother to our house. Mother went to her puzzle shortly after she got here, since she's not able to do housework anymore.

Around 10:30, one of the scrapbook club members called to say she was having plumbing problems again...this time in the yard between her house and the meter. Someone was there dealing with the issue, but he hadn't completed the task in the time he thought it would take him, so she wasn't sure if he'd be done by the time she needed to leave the house, pick up the other member and come here.

Mother completed her puzzle by noon. After lunch, we started working on greeting cards. Mother busied herself trimming Christmas cards that one of the members brought last month, and I started a couple of birthday cards for our two lady friends that we visit from time-to-time. One has a birthday next week, and the other's is next month. I always make the same design of card for both.

Around 1 p.m., the other two members showed up. Glad the plumber got the job done so the ladies could come to the meeting. One of them hasn't been here for several months due to illness.

The one who had plumbing problems brought several scrapbooking tools she'd obtained at a food pantry (someone had donated them to the pantry, and obviously they weren't needed there). There are several templates, and two kits of punches...one of letters of the alphabet and numbers 0-9, with a tool for interchanging them, and the other is an assortment of design punches, with another tool for interchanging. She also brought a large flower design punch. I'm anxious to try them.

We had a great time visiting, and around 2 p.m., I served refreshments of frozen yogurt bars, with coffee. I wanted to see how the ladies liked the treats, and they loved them, just as we do. They'll be searching for them at their local markets or at the WDCS.

The meeting ended around 3:20, and the ladies headed home. Afterward, Mother and I played with one of the templates, making dimensional flowers.

Later, I gathered leftovers from the refrigerator for supper...beef stroganoff, pork chops with apples and onions, rice topped with roast pork gravy, and a mix of veggies. Sliced tomatoes, and toasted hamburger buns to go with it.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then around 7 p.m., we went to a Master Gardener event.

The speaker was a professor from India, here to conduct a class at a local college. He presented a slide show and lecture on algae. His English is heavily accented, but I understood him just fine. Hubbie not so much.

His talk centered on the importance of algae in bio remediation of waste water, and as the catalyst for biofuel. He admitted that this plant life is much maligned, but he emphasized it's importance to the world. In fact, he called it the "mother of mother earth," because it was the first plant life to emerge after the ice age. From it, all other plant life emerged...algae to moss to fern to pine tree.

There is an amazing variety of algae, of course, some of it quite beautiful, and some of it quite large, like the giant kelp of the Pacific ocean that can stop ships. When folks around here think of a algae, we think of pond scum.

The professor is very taken by our state, which is lush and green, and a wonderful habitat for crops. The plant life of his own country has been irreparably damaged by chemicals. So of course he warns against using chemicals in our gardens and on our crops.

We were back home around 8 p.m., and finished the evening watching TV.