The trip to Lancaster was followed by a week with my grands and their friend visiting. Now, that's a houseful of fun! The mother cat was very accommodating -- had kittens in the barn just in time to be admired by all. Mother cat didn't have a name, so one granddaughter dubbed her "Mommy," and informed baby sister "that's 'Mommy' ." The little one said, "Oh." Then she came back into the house with me and told her grandfather, "My Mommy turned into a kitty!" That didn't seem to be overly startling to her. Kids just crack me up. Oh ... did I mention that this child has a little trouble pronouncing her Ks? She pronounces them as Ts. Now read it again -- it's funnier.
Everybody left, and I headed up to New England for a training seminar. Caught up with a long-time friend there, and touched base with some acquaintances -- made some new ones. A good time was had by all. I popped in for a brief visit with a brother while I was in his area just to throw a bit more commotion into the mix. The trip home was a bit much.
In the slightly-more-than-a-week during which all of the above transpired, we went from having six inches of snow one day, to having nearly 90-degree heat. A few of the plantlings in the hoop house bit it while I was gone. (Forgot to ask anybody to babysit them. Rats!) Some of the trees are blossoming, spring bulbs and forsythia are going great guns. And I'm thinking it's about time to start planning for the return of the hummingbirds.
I'm not sure if it's exactly correct in a scientific way, but I always expect them to return on the 2nd of May. I once made a quilt that has all the colors of the hummers in it. (Hand-pieced and quilted it in the car while DH drove the family to and all about Boston for a vacation one year.) I didn't start out with the hummers in mind, but that's what it made me think of. Being a nut-case who always names my projects, I called this one "Hummers Return on Mom's Birthday" and hung it on a wall. And that is now I remember when to start filling the feeders for them.
Last year I made a true scientific discovery. Or at least I think that's what it was. Namely, I think the center of the Earth is actually made up of sugar and boiling water. Here's how I figured that out: I put an old glass coffee pot of sugar and water in the proportions needed to create the syrup used to fill the hummingbird feeders. I started it on the stove, went to check my e-mail while I waited for it to boil, and promptly got engrossed in my messages.
After a while (I have NO idea how much time had passed, but I'm thinking it was a LOT!), I sniffed the air and thought, "Smells like someone's baking cookies." Now, a minute or two later it smelled like the cookies were burning. I realized how bizarre that was because I was the only one home, and the nearest neighbor is about 1/4-mile away and not likely to be baking cookies at 6:00 a.m. So I decided to go investigate. When I got to the kitchen, I was totally freaked. It was filled with a thick smoke. It took a few seconds for me to remember the pot on the stove.
I turned off the fire under the pot, let it sit there whilst I opened windows and flagged the door open and closed to draw the smoke from the house. Then I took a look. The stuff that started out as sugar and water had become lava. It had oozed up and out of the pot, down the side of the stove, onto the floor -- you would not believe how much lava can be made from a few cups of sugar and water! Shoot -- it probably wouldn't take more than a five-pound bag of sugar and a gallon of water to fill the entire planet!
Here's the pot, removed to the grill outside because I was afraid it might next burst into flames:
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