Minstrel Boy in These titles mean nothing.

I probably planted this daylily twenty years ago. I rarely remember the names of plants but this one struck me. I wondered if it was racist to name the darkest of daylilies after a minstrel. I suppose that was why I remember it.

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There were two bald eagles in the freshly mown hay field in front of the house when I came home from my walk this morning. Jim must have hit something and they were the cleanup committee.

Gracie hunted and caught and ate a baby rabbit on our walk. She also flushed a group of ducks from the little pond the county made at the bottom of Joana’s hill.

Yesterday when I was on the deck talking on the phone, a gray tweed flicker landed on a tall dry weed stalk at the end of the deck.

During my increment counter cleaning I came across a plastic bag of salted in shell peanuts from a previous Christmas. I took the bag down to the woodpile that’s closest to the walnut tree the squirrels live in. I’m eager to see if the peanuts disappear.

So it’s been an interesting few days wildlife-wise.

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I made soup this morning. I had planned to use the mystery meat I’d found in the freezer - yeah well, you know me. But instead of aged sandwich meat, it turned out to be three brat-like sausages, and I was somehow reluctant to put into my soup. I guess I’ll give them - one at a time - to Gracie.

Ingredients I did use in my soup were:
- butter
- onion
- garlic
- celery hearts and leaves
- brown rice
- mild chunky salsa
- potatoes
- frozen corn and green beans
- salt

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I’m thinking of writing a letter today. It’s partially an invitation to a class reunion. I’ve turned down invitations to class reunions for long time. I have absolutely no desire or intention or even dig in my heels willingness to attend a class reunion. It won’t be hard to express that one more time.

I don’t really have bad memories of high school. I went to a good school with good teachers and had good classmates. I see some of them in real life. I keep track of some in FB. I have enough of them. I do not want the whole get together experience.

I don’t know if there is enough prednisone in the world to make me enjoy a class reunion.

The rest of the letter can be a little gossipy, a little about what I’d doing, a little about shared memories. And we can talk about RAGBRAI, which is coming to our town this year. The letter writer no doubt will be involved in that too. I haven’t asked for specifics but I can.

Jim has agreed to be tour guide/conductor to his friend Dave’s school bus circuit. He’s been promised a t-shirt.

The newspaper says volunteers are needed to pick up trash the next day and I might do that if I feel like it. If I do, I’ll report back.

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