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A Window On My World

This is not a daily blog.
Posts will be published on occasion and irregularly as I am able.
Some of these posts are from my web site The Garden At Crocker Croft.
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Tagged Again

Tagged again... fourth time in approximately six weeks. This time by Sunita at The Urban Garden.

I fear I am boring readers, so if you have been here before, there is nothing new. For new bloggers here is the dirt... read on.

I will not be tagging any more bloggers, but if you want to play, consider yourself tagged and have fun. One way to know if someone has been tagged: If they have a labels list in their sidebar look for the label "tagged". If it is there, then you know they have already been tagged and might not want to play again. Click on the label and it will take you to their post about it. There you can enjoy what they wrote about themselves.

Third time tagged in three weeks: You folks are going to get tired of me.
This time I have been tagged by Linda at Meadowview Thymes

Let me see if I can come up with six more things about me.
1. I do not like to drive another person's car.
2. For my own, I do not like a new car. Give me old ones I can haul stuff in and don't worry about getting it scratched or banged.
3. I have owned and driven two pick-up trucks. First was a full size Chevrolet (no air conditioner), second - a smaller Toyota (with air conditioner).
4. I was a Realtor for ten years. Big mistake! Cost more than I earned.
5. I have always been far-sighted. Great for identifying birds.
6. I need to lose about 40 pounds... that'll be the day!

Ok, now I am off to alert Linda that those six (not so fascinating facts) have been published to the world's view.

Second time tagged:
Yikeees, tagged again! OK, I know the post a few days ago (June 11) got quickly buried among the others, so now that Our Friend Ben has tagged me I will brush it off and run it again.

And, just to be fair, I will add six additional random things about me.

First time tagged:
I have now joined the ranks of those who have been tagged. The Patient Gardener drew me into the fold. It is hot and humid out doors. I should be out there working, but... It is nice and cool here in the basement. (See number two below.)

These are the rules:


  • Link to the person who tagged you.
  • Post the rules on your blog.
  • Write six random things about yourself.
  • Tag six people at the end of your post linking to their blog.
  • Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
  • Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
I do want to play once, so will 'expose' six unknown (to you) facts about myself. However, I do not think I will spread it farther, because I am rather new to the blogging world and don't really know the rest of you well enough to give you the tagged message.
I don't know who has already been tagged, maybe multiple times, and who would want to play.

But, I will surly go this far without fear, or flinching.

You asked for it so here it is.
Six (plus six more) random things about me:


  1. I like winter.
  2. I am a procrastinator.
  3. I can wiggle my ears.
  4. My first college major (2 years) was biology; I should have stayed with that.
  5. I went back to college at age 40; I majored in Housing and Interior Design. Loved all the support classes, e.g., art-history, history of architecture, history of interiors, art studios, etc. Graduated with honors - at 40 I had been worried I could not learn and keep up.
  6. I have an heirloom houseplant of my mother's that is older than I am. It was a wedding gift to her in 1931. I don't know what it is, so I may do a post about it someday to see if anyone can identify it.
  7. I am a hopeless romantic in the old sense of the word.
  8. I once traveled to England and found it to be the storybook country from my childhood books.
  9. Two women I greatly admire: Beatrice Potter and Tasha Tudor.
  10. Married 51 years to Husband/Best Friend/Chief Photographer, two sons, two daughters, and six grandchildren - two girls, four boys.
  11. I was born and reared on my grandfather's farm and would not take the whole world for that experience. I get my love of plants and gardening from my grandmother's family line.
  12. (This is going to be a long one - getting you back, Our Friend Ben)
During that trip to England, (a working trip for my husband) my classes in "history-of"-several-things paid off.

In 14 weeks we visited:

  • 7 countries
  • slept in 47 beds (Averages out to be a different bed every other night for 14 weeks.)
  • covered over 7,000 miles by car, plus a few train rides, and numerous ferry trips
  • visited 41 of England's 46 counties, plus 5 in Scotland, and 2 in Wales
  • visited 3 islands
  • visited 7 national parks or famous areas
  • 2 monumental historic sites (Hadrian's Wall and Stonehenge)
  • 7 abbeys, minsters, or other places of worship
  • 2 art galleries (in Edinburgh and Paris)
  • the Glasgow Flower Festival
  • the flower market in Bruges, Belgium
  • the Aalsmeer flower auction in Amsterdam
  • the flower fields and dikes in the Netherlands during the flower festival
  • 15 cathedrals (the first Gothic cathedral I was to see was the Dom in Cologne, Germany. It took me hours to inspect it. By the time we visited the 15th cathedral, I had it down to 45 minutes. I visited all of them with textbook and class notes in hand.)
  • 10 castles
  • 11 historic or famous houses and palaces
  • and, to keep me happy - 23 gardens! Including Keukenhof in Lisse, The Netherlands, and Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France.
And, my body has never been the same since!
That is more than enough about me. Thanks for reading. Now, I will let Our Friend Ben, and The Patient Gardener know I have tagged back.

31 comments:

B said...

How fascinating, I was a Biology major (2 years) as well. I should have stayed with it. I still fantasize about going back and finishing.

I graduated with a teaching degree (much easier to stay cum laude) in Secondary English.

I love all the quotes in your other blog. We really should be neighbors. Thanks for stopping by and lifting my spirits today.

Tamara

Barbee' said...

Oh, Tamara, how I love hearing from you. Yes! Definitely we should be neighbors! I think we are kindred spirits.

At least you did get your teaching degree. My fantasy is that I stayed with biology and went for the PhD, then taught college level botany and biology. Oh, well. It was so easy for me, I didn't take it seriously. At the time I had no idea I had special abilities in that field; I thought everyone knew what I knew and could do what I could do.

You even went to my web site "The Garden At Crocker Croft"?! Did your little one get to see Glitter the goldfish? He will follow your pointer. There is a puppy in the "Granddoggies" Category section, a cat in "A Clowder of Cats", and a secret in the basement at the bottom of the page in "Critter Crossings". They are all interactive with the viewer. Children (and I) love them. I never grew up, you see.

Garden State Kate said...

I love reading these types of posts,
it is so much fun to get to know you.
Your irises are lovely, and I hope you can get the help to move them.

Barbee' said...

Kate in NJ: Thank you, glad you enjoyed seeing the irises. I have one lead on potential help. Cross your fingers that it works out.

Re: about me... I thought of a few more, but it asked for only six. Example: I don't like to drive another person's car. For my own car, I do not like having a new car. Give me old ones I can haul stuff in and don't worry about getting it scratched or banged. I could go on and on - but, I won't.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Barbee'! I too started out as a biology major before ending up with an AB in French, an MA in English/Creative Writing, and an MS in Horticulture. And I spent the happiest times of my childhood visiting my maternal grandparents in Springfield, KY and riding over, fishing, and playing on their family's farm in Washington County. Good times!!! I've been twice to England and once to Wales (for a summer doing archaeology as an undergrad and on a garden tour 20 years later), and enjoyed myself ever so much. I hope to get back and see more of Wales and the things I missed--Canterbury, Yorkshire, and Scotland. One of these days!!!

Barbee' said...

Ourfriendben: How interesting! What a small world. I hope you do get to go back to the U.K. Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment.

Everyone:
I'm humming the song "Getting to Know You". (From 'The King and I', I think.)

Kelli said...

I enjoyed learning more about you! Yes, I heard about Tasha Tudor. She will be missed by many.
~Kelli

Amy said...

This was so interesting to read. I figure anyone who also loves Beatrix Potter *and* Tasha Tudor must be a kindred spririt :)

Barbee' said...

Kelli and Amy: Thank you so much. I appreciate your visit and your comments. I like hearing from you.

Unknown said...

Wow, there's nothing like being an overachiever! Good for you. I found this post very interesting. I too started out as a biology major before switching a year and a half later to be an elementary school teacher. It is a small world indeed!

Kerri said...

What fun to learn a little more about you. I too am a procrastinator, but I can't wiggle my ears (that's quite an accomplishment!), and I don't love winter.
Your trip to England must've been a lengthy one. How wonderful it sounds!
I'd love to see a picture of your heirloom plant.
I too loved learning biology and art history and was very interested in interior design, but it turns out I'm very bad at the latter. I'd rather be outside!

Barbee' said...

Cinj: You are about the third or fourth person who has written that they started out as a biology major. That is so interesting. Knowing you as little as I do, I already think you would be a wonderful elementary school teacher! I can see it in your posts as you teach and interact with your own children. Beautiful!

Kerri: It must be still raining up there. You are all over the place in blog-land.

I know you definitely do not like winter, I don't blame you. It makes your warm roots shiver, I'm sure.

My dad could wiggle his ears and I learned by watching him, and trying, and trying, over and over as we sat at the table for meals. It was a matter of 'finding' the right muscles. Took me a long time, but I finally found them.

Yes, 14 weeks for a trip is a long time to me. His work involved traveling from place to place. He worked six weeks, then took a two week vacation/holiday (during which time we both had really bad colds which we spread over multiple countries), then worked another six weeks. We flew home on Memorial Day the last of May. We had shipped the car home two weeks prior and rented a car for the last two weeks. Our car had to get home and be ready for him to drive to work as soon as he got home. It went by boat and we were going to fly, so it needed that two week head start.

With a family the size of ours, it had reached the point that we needed another car. Volvos are the best fit physically for my husband due to his height and size. That is true only of the least expensive model (fortunately). He worked with our local dealer who ordered a new, lowest price, Volvo which we would pick up at the factory at Volvo Factory Delivery Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. There was no additional charge for shipping, for it would have been shipped to the states anyway. He did the math and found: doing that, and renting a car for two weeks, was more economical than renting a car for 14 weeks. Besides, it gave us a comfortable car for the twelve weeks we used it there.

That was 1988.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting life you've lived so far Barbee! I'm glad to know someone who likes winter too!

Barbee' said...

Hi Kathleen: Thank you. I think my liking wintertime is a result of growing up on a farm. It was beautiful, but I will not go into detail here.

Barbee' said...

Ourfriendben: I am wondering: When you went to Wales on the garden tour, did you visit Bodnant Garden in North Wales?

Steve said...

Barbee, very nice post. Finding out about you and your colorful life is fascinating. Your trip to England is one of those "trips of a lifetime". It sounds to me like you made it memorable for all the right reasons.

By all means, let's see your heirloom plant! Would it be too much to ask to know what it really was? I just bet there is some sort of sacrilege in finding out, am I right? Ha ha.

You left out you were superstitious in your "revealing facts". ;-)

Barbee' said...

Steve: Yep, trip of a lifetime! And, it just about did me in. I knew I would never be back, so we really pushed ourselves. I am no good what so ever in finding my way around. (Another revealed secret: I have no sense of direction!) But my husband is very good at that. He had never had the luxury of studying subjects I had studied, so I would tell him what I wanted us to see and told him what I knew about it, and he would find it and get us there. We made a good team.

Nope, no sacrilege or superstitions (sorry to disappoint you there); I'm just lazy getting it done. Seems every time I need the camera and have time to use it, he has taken it with him out of town. One of these days, I'll get it all together and do a post about it. It is a small plant in a small pot. I will need to put something with it to show its scale. Stay tuned.

Victoria Summerley said...

Fantastic post, I really enjoyed it. Your trip to Europe sounds like my trips to America - it's my ambition to visit all the states in the United States. So far I've notched up 17 (I think) and travelled through half a dozen more on the way.

Nancy said...

I started college with the goal of majoring in Marine Biology, but discovered I missed working with children, so I switched.

I'm glad I did. I get motion sick in elevators.

Amalee Issa said...

Barbee', thank you for your lovely post on my blog, and for welcoming me to blotanicals. You take a stunning photo, and i'll certainly be adding you rblog to my regular gardening reads.

Amalee

Meadowview Thymes said...

Oooooh, so sorry to tag you again, but my goodness what a wonderful life you have had! I love Beatrix Potter (have you read Susan Albert's cottage tales?) and Tasha Tudor (I was so sorry to hear of her passing!) just like you!

Thanks for playing along. As you well know, this is so new to me. I will be more careful, I promise!

Barbee' said...

Meadowview Thymes: That's ok. When I played the first time, I thought I wouldn't be able to think of any more facts about myself if I needed to play again. Humff, I guess I did ok after all.

No, I didn't know about Susan Albert's cottage tales. I will see if I can find it. Thank you.

Sunita Mohan said...

Its so good to find a kindred spirit, Barbee'. Thanks for stopping by my blog and for all your kind words. So encouraging!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog and your website. And your photos! ... so beautiful! I wish I could grow all those lovely plants and trees in my H-O-T tropical garden.
As for this post, I wish I could say that I started out as a Biology major too, but no, I was too stubborn to take up any of the Science subjects (thats a long story)though I enjoyed Biology.
Its really fascinating reading such posts. It already makes me feel as though you're a friend from way back : )

Barbee' said...

Sunita: Thank you for coming over to visit and chatting awhile. How interesting to have friends all over the world. Some seem like long lost brothers and sisters. I have more interests in common with many gardener bloggers than I do my own brother. I hope to follow your blog at least every week. Your photographs are good, too. I remember those dark dangerous looking clouds of the monsoon season. Gardeners are so in tune with the sky, climate, and weather. I hope your tomatoes do well.

Steve said...

Hey Barbee......Happy Fourth!

Anonymous said...

Hi Barbee, I visit often your beautiful garden and I wander and look around "the estate" I usually leave my trowel and my gardening gloves at home and somtimes I can just see you disappearing behind a flowering shrub! See you around again.

Barbee' said...

Steve: Same to you. Is that what all that noise is out there. I thought it was thunder. Wait! Yes, that was thunder, too.

Titania: What can I say except... How charming! Your message is a delight. Perhaps I have communed with the animals too long and am now even more shy. You know; they think I garden just for them. I was sad when I learned someone trapped and carried away the red fox. He was the shiest.

Cathy said...

Not playing, just commenting ~
I lost money in Real Estate too, not in it for 10 years ~ but for a few ~
Same weight problem as you ~
A procrastinator too ~ and a perfectionist ~
Thanks for visiting my blog.
I'm in NC.

Barbee' said...

Hi Cathy: I think it must be true that misery loves company, for when I read your comment, I felt comforted. We do have some things in common. I used to be a perfectionist, but life has beat it out of me. Love hearing from you, thank you!

Maria Berg said...

Intresting to read about you - next time Europe You have to come to Sweden.

I have been around the world in 3 months time.
9 or 10 countries.

6 grandchildren - maybe more on the way?
MB

Barbee' said...

Hi Maria, We did collect the Volvo car from the factory in Sweden, then spent one night in Sweden as we returned to England driving the car. I must tell you that the hotel where we stayed that night was one of the best experiences of the whole long trip of 14 weeks. I do not remember where we were that February night, but our room, and the food next morning, were superior! You were brave to take a trip around the world. I hope it all went well for you. Regarding grandchildren: I am most sure 6 will be all the grandchildren for us. Those were all planned, no more are planned... but you never know!