Post 1001: Accolades, Confessions and Black Locust

My humble blog has recently received a couple of honors.  Sherry, who plays a viola and blogs at Mama Diaries presented me with the Shine On Award.” I like the name of the award as it reminds me of Pink Floyd (“Shine On  You Crazy Diamond” from the “Wish You Were Here” album.)   I’m supposed to tell you seven things about me which is hard when I’d done a 1000 posts, most of which are about me.  So I’ll have to dig deep (and obscure) to come up with some new things about me.  I’m also supposed to nominate seven more folks, something that I don’t particularly like doing unless you’d want to be nominated.  If so, let me know and I’ll nominate your blog.  If not, that’s okay too. 

  And then, on the heels that accolade, Hilary at the Smitten Image honored my post “Redbuds Along the River" as one of her “Posts of the Week” I am always humbled to be a POTW selection.

Here are seven “obscure” things (or confessions) about me:

-I used to have a phobia of poison sumac.  It started when I was five and my father was clearing some brush out behind the garden.  My brother and I were playing with the cut brush, swinging at each other as if it was a sword, hitting each other upside the head. My mother jumped all over us, telling us it was poison sumac.  I never went near that patch of sumac and it wasn’t until much later that I learned poisonous sumac doesn’t grow on well-drain sandhills, but in very wet marshy areas. 

-I also use to be afraid of tornadoes.  I blame this on Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz.  The monkeys and the witch never bothered me, but that twister was more than I could bear.  After the first time, I’d wait until after Dorothy was in Oz before I began watching.   

-As a child, I also had nightmares of nuclear war.  It probably had something to do with Goldwater’s presidential bid.

-Liver and onions look delicious and is an example of how looks can be deceiving. 

-In the early 80s, I brought a year’s supply of peanut butter based on reading the Wall Street Journal.  It probably saved me the cost of the newspaper because peanut butter skyrocketed due to a shortage in peanuts.

 -When I was a senior in high school, my dad called the school and asked them to release me so I could pick him up at the Wrightsville Beach Police Station.  I ashamed and worried about what my dad had done only to discover that the motor on his boat had knocked out and someone towed him to the city’s dock and the police station was the closest phones (this was long before cell phones).  He had me take him to the marine where he’d his vehicle and the trailer so he could get the boat out of the water.  At least I got lunch out of the deal and missed half a day of school. 

-When I was younger, I heard raw sea urchins were a delicacy in Japan so I tried one, fresh from the sea.  As far as I know, they’ve yet to become a delicacy in North Carolina and for good reason.

Okay, I know this is the eighth thing, but I just learned about this when I looked at my stats...  Last week I had 60 people from the Faroe Islands visit my blog!  I can't believe it, but my last post was picked up by a Faroe Island Facebook page and it created a lot of traffic.  The islands aren't that big; 60 people represents a pretty good sampling of the island's residents (~.1 %).

Black Locust flowers

A final note:  This has been a wonderful spring.  Walking around the fields on the edge of town, I've noticed the fragrance from the Black Locust which has had a bumper crop of flowers this year.  From a distance, the trees appear to be white, although the flowers are slowly falling and will be soon gone.

grove of black locust