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Berries on a plant in the woods near home, Falmouth, VALooking for sweet potato recipes, I came across this collection

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2014 11 10 ernie food
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View du jour. November 19, 2013

White Camellia bloomSeveral years ago I bought a white camellia shrub at Roxbury Mills, a farm and garden shop in Fredericksburg. Since then we’ve been blessed with a prolific display of white double blooms  from November until the very hard freezes of January. Today is November 7, 2014. The bush started blooming a few days ago.  A pleasant reminder that Winter is not final and we can survive and enjoy a beautiful resistance.

The photo is also available on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/eca/14844243672/in/set-72157647696149382

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Brief review. Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard

Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard

A well-written story about the transformation of a farm and the people who chose to live on it from dead-end industrial farming to a sustaining natural and organically managed farm. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

“We buried my father on a magnificent hilltop, rising above the West Virginia valley where he had spent his childhood summers. Here the grass grew so tall that the seed heads bowed in the wind, nearly touching the ground before straightening again. Below, expansive views of hay fields and forests stretched to the horizon, mountains rising on all sides.”

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2014 11 07 ernie Books Comments (0) Permalink

Obituary average age. November 6, 2014: 86.5

Tomatoes from front garden, home, Falmouth, VAThe average age of those listed in the four obituaries in the November 6, 2014 Free Lance-Star was 86.5. The median was 87.5 with a sample standard deviation of 7.681. The ages ranged from 78 to 93.

This is the fourteenth day I’ve been collecting this data.
The mean of  obituary average ages  using {77.375,64,74.143, 62.5, 55,66.8333, 74.11,71.27,68.82, 76.92,63,76.71} at Wolfram alpha is 70.55, up .4 from the previous day.

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2014 11 06 ernie Commentary Comments (0) Permalink

Obituary average age. November 2, 2014: 80.64

Muir Woods, CaliforniaThe average age of those listed in the fifteen obituaries in the November 2, 2014 Free Lance-Star was 80.64. The median was 83 with a sample standard deviation of 11.49. The ages ranged from 56 to 9992.

This is the thirteenth day I’ve been collecting this data.
The mean of  obituary average ages  using {77.375,64,74.143, 62.5, 55,66.8333, 74.11,71.27,68.82, 76.92,63,76.71} at Wolfram alpha is 70.1.

Quotes from some of the obituaries that caught my eye:

  • Her other loves included her many animals: dogs, cats, raccoons, peacocks, chickens and possum; all plants and flowers; decoupage; bridge; Christmas; shopping; music and the ocean. She had a joy for life, and often said she wished she could “do it all over again.”
  • This event will be open to all who wish to come and pay respects to Lewis and give Alice a hug.
  • Sydnor was known affectionately as “Hop” by his many friends because as a youth, he contracted polio, a dreaded disease of the time, which left him with a distinct limp. [This struck me because we have been listening to a reading of Nemesis by Philip Roth in which the polio epidemic of 1944  Newark, NY serves as backdrop and the source of a major theme in the story.]

 

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2014 11 02 ernie Books
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“I listened to … A Place to Bury Strangers, which is a great name for a band..”

APtBS poster from show in GreeceA Place to Bury Strangers have been mentioned recently by Daniel Radcliffe (plays Harry Potter in films). He thinks their music is the type the character he plays in a recent movie would be listening to.

He also says “I listened to … A Place to Bury Strangers, which is a great name for a band..”

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Obituary average age. November 1, 2014: 76.71

Clothes at vintage store in Warsaw, VAThe average age of those listed in the seven obituaries in the November 1, 2014 Free Lance-Star was 76.71. The median was 76 with a sample standard deviation of 11.04. The ages ranged from 62 to 92.

This is the twelfth day I’ve been collecting this data.
The mean of  obituary average ages  using {77.375,64,74.143, 62.5, 55,66.8333, 74.11,71.27,68.82, 76.92,63,76.71} at Wolfram alpha is 69.22.

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View du jour June 15, 2014

Magnolia bloomI love to visit the gardens at Chatham Manor in Stafford County overlooking the Rappahannock River and Fredericksburg. This is a photo of a bloom past its prime on one of the large magnolia trees on the grounds.

Chatham is a Georgian house that was the manor house of those that owned Chatham Plantation before the Civil war. The owners were adamant secessionists. They the house when troops of the Grand Army of the Republic (the Union) appeared in 1862 for the ill-fated battle of Fredericksburg. The house was used as a hospital. The descriptions on site are quite graphic and somewhat gruesome, but the War itself was as terrible as all wars. Walt Whitman supposedly was on site as a nurse. The home was privately owned until the later part of the twentieth century when it was dedicated to the National Park Service.

The photo is also available on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/eca/14842131294/in/set-72157647696149382

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2014 10 31 ernie view du jour Comments (0) Permalink

Obituary average age. October 31, 2014: 63

Ice on Chesapeake BayThe average age of those listed in the four obituaries in the October 31, 2014 Free Lance-Star was 63. The median was 63.5 with a sample standard deviation of 27.99. The ages ranged from 31 to 94.

This is the eleventh day I’ve been collecting this data.
The mean of  obituary average ages  using {77.375,64,74.143, 62.5, 55,66.8333, 74.11,71.27,68.82, 76.92,63} at Wolfram alpha is 68.54.

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APtBS Links from October 30, 2014

APtBS poster from show in GreeceA Place to Bury Strangers had two shows in NY near the end of October

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