ON BEING A FLORAL DESIGNER

I have been meaning to write a tale about my 10 years in a Flower Shop. It may not seem too important a thing to a lot of people. But, it is a very important to me and who I am.
We had serious lifestyle upheaval and I needed to find a career quickly. I needed a career fast. Something In the art field. Something I knew I could pick up quickly and be good at. Then a schedule for evening classes arrived in the mail. As I was looking through it, there was a class listed on Beginning floral arrangement being offered. Serendipitous to say the least.
That was something my Mom and I were always interested in. (I figure my Mom sent it.
Oh, yeah. Hmm. Ah, You see my Mom passed in 1971.From breast cancer.)
So, I called up and enrolled in the class. It was a 6 week class. It was fun and I found it basically easy. But, I knew I would like to find more training somewhere. Then one night during a break in class, the teacher took me aside and told me there was a flower shop owner who badly needed help. Would I be interested? Would I?! She did mention that she had told another student. I said, uh, well I will call anyway and check it out.
Anyway, the owner hired me. I worked for her three years. I learned a lot just by being able to make arrangements right off. Then she went out of business. The area where the shop was, changed her customer base. As she couldn't afford to move. She just retired. Really bad luck for the owner.
While I was working for Bobbi. I discovered that one of the Junior Colleges had a Florist Training course. Wow! I checked it out and signed up immediately. Bobbi and Berte, her friend and employee, were so gracious to work things out, so I could take the course. As most of the classes were daytime. There were other students not so fortunate.
Because I was working and taking the classes. It took me about four years to finish the course. It was kind of a let down when I was done.
After Bobbi's, I worked for a large floral shop, that was the pits driving to. 17 miles end to end traffic. One day, after having worked there for three years, I chickened out and said to my boss, I couldn't drive in that traffic anymore. I do not scare easily, really. But that day I knew, I had better change shops if I could. I did find work in a shop only 15 minutes away. At the time I thought," Talk about providence".
Even though I worked three years for that shop. The owner was a whutz. She made me crazy. I just finally had to quit, after she insisted that I deduct my bathroom time from my time card. That is illegal. The IRS sternly frowns on that.
I really liked working at the big floral shop . Because they had allowed me to develop all of my latent talent. I really wasn't sure I had. But, I was pleased at what came from my hands.
I worked as a Floral Designer for ten years. I know, 3x3=9. However I did some short time work between, and that filled in. I rather somewhat miss it.
There is a lot of turn over in the floral business. It is about the craziest business to get into out there. The owners are wacky, the help are transient, I don't even want go into the customers. But, boy do I have some stories I could tell. Three years seemed to be an average tenancy for help at a floral shop.

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This is one of the commercial arrangements I made. It is about 4ft. tall

BLOG THOUGHTS

There are many ways to begin a blog,
even if one ought to, instead walk the dog.
Besides it helps postpone,
the blocked feeling
one has, if you feel alone.
You sit, bemused and ponder,
as you think and wonder.
Now, just what can I say to amuse,
and attract browsers to read
and find the site that just might
have something to peruse.
An interest in common find,
that tickles the funny bone
or maybe stirs the mind.

WELL,----I SAID I LOVED HORSES----

So, here is a small bookcase with a few of my horses figures on display.

They have mostly been purchased from eBay. Yes, after my Hb. surprised me with my first computer and I found eBay. Way too bad. I went nuts. But, I found treasures I had been looking for, for years. Most of what I found, came from the east. One would think, this being the West, horse figures would be easy to find. NOT. All of the ones in this photo came from sellers back eastside. I am so pleased. Boy, I would have loved to have had these when I was a kid. Now they make my 'child' happy. I have them at last.

Sometimes I sit on the carpet and hold them, it takes me back to when I was a kid at home, And we three cousins would play with our paper horses. We made paper horses just like , others made paper dolls. No, just horses. Not Accessories. My two cousins have never seen my collection. Although I have written to A.H. about them.

JULY-DOLDRUMS

How very odd. My July seems to in the doldrums. Nothing seems important enough to consider. At my age, this is not good. I went to the dentist yesterday, and had the permanent crowns put on. Afterwards, we went over to a Hobby, craft and doll shop. No, not Michael's. It's one privately owned. Purchased four dollstands and a doll magazine. But, my hips and legs were hurting so, I just had Hb. bring me home. Too bad, because there were about two other places I had wanted to go to.

I have three dolls I want to finish. And I am trying not to over schedule myself. When it comes to the patio garden, I do not want to even go there.

Yesterday when I wanted to sign the card reciept, my hands shook so bad I almost couldn't. So, I had the young woman hold the paper and I held one hand with the other so I made it. It was a reaction to a string thing that has ephedra on it. Today my hands are ok. Or rather back to what is normal trembling. I can control that. Scarey.

I am absolutely no good in the mornings and but, when I have an appointment I prefer mornings when it's hot. In the Winter, I ask for afternoon appointments. My brain worksmuch better later. School was always tough in that regard.

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Here is my July doll. She is not 'quite finished'. I decided to show her now, rather than wait a year. Who knows what next year will be.

I HAD A LITTLE POODLE-----------

Her name was: Pepper.

I am thinking of her, because of a post Kerredelune made about her doggie. Her furfriend doesn't like thunderstorms. I know how she feels. I do not care for them either. But, that is another story.
My little furface seemed to have noise issues too. Puzzled me for long time as to the reason why. Because her sensitivity to loud noise was not consistent. We played music, and had the TV on a lot.
It could be we were living too quietly. Humm. But, then all of a sudden she would cower on an unexpected loud noise. Firecrackers, a loud car. Or if I dropped something, Pepper would go paralyzed and flop on her stomach all splayed out. I could see it was like 'shell shock'. Which is what PTS used to be called. I would go and pick her up and try to reassure and comfort her. I see that she was frightened, But, at first, I couldn't think what to do. She would just shiver and shiver.
By just trying different noise makers. I discovered just stirring something in a metal kettle on the stove would bring on shivers and fear. Now this was not something she learned at our house. My Hb. and I do not ever fight. That word is not in our world. We only talk, if necessary. But, we just were always considerate of each other. We lived quietly. I am very much a "smoother'. I do not like chaos. Luckily Hb. is an organizer. And he picks up and washes his own socks. Occasional semi-loud music was about it.
So, I Crouched down. opened the doors of the cookware shelves, and called Pepper to me. No, this was not mean. I picked up a lid and just sort of lightly clanged it about. Yes, she wanted to run away. But I made her stay and I made it clear to her, it was a game. You just play with this stuff and bark at it, chase it. So, rattling the cookware in the cupboard became a fun thing. The therapy would last quite awhile. Sometimes it could be months before she had trouble again.
There used be a musician named Denny Martin. I found that I could play those records fairly loud. Then we would run up and down the hallway and dance around the living room. That was therapy too. Pepper liked it though. Because it was playtime.
Poor baby. It wasn't until she had died at 10yrs.old from uterine cancer. That my Mother told me something that had happened to Pepper. When they were caring for her, because Hb. and I had taken a long trip..
I was just aghast! And it gave me such despair. My little black diamond, my gem, my tiny sweetheart.

I was so anguished, a betrayal of trust.

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This is a picture of her favorite passtime during the warm days. Although, she didn't care much for baths. So funny.

FRIDAY---THE 13TH.?

Do you actually know just why and how, this date came to thought of as a bad luck day?
Well, I had gotten the idea somewhere, it had been a pagan holiday or something like that. And that during the turmoil of the early church, it had been designated a bad luck day.
So, imagine my surprise to find out, the real origin. The story was on the History Channel. Turns out, that was the day an armed force by the then French King in a serious fit of picque, attacked a the Templar stronghold and totally annihilated all of the Knights Templar there. It was over religious differences. About the most stupid and selfish reason there is. Never ever had anything to do with paganism. It was all about greed.
But, it was black day theosophcaly.

ALLEN'S CHIPMUNK

Here is picture I found. He is not as handsome as our little guy was. But, this shows a wild one and he has to work hard for his living. Whereas, Napper had good access to a quality food supply. A safe place to live.

He was such a character.

My memory of our visitor is a lovely fond one.

CHIPMUNK SUMMER

The year I was 13 (I think.). My Dad came home from the sawmill, carrying his hat in both his hands. Mom and I happened to look out the front window and wondered: ''what? in the world!?'............
Dad came in the front yard gate. Mom and I went to the front door and stepped out. 'What's the matter?' we asked. Dad said, 'look'. And in his hat were five baby Chipmunks.
What happened was, that he and my uncle had gone over to the sawmill and were shoveling sawdust into the furnaces to build up the fires so the boilers that ran the mill would be hot enough for Monday morning. As Daddy put in the shovel to get sawdust from the bin down to the furnace. He saw a chipmunk nest fall out. He just saved them in time. A poor silly little female chipmunk had found a crack in the sawdust bin, and thought would be a safe place for her young. Isn't that sad? So Dad knew she would not be back. So he did his best to save the kits. He brought the five babies home. At that time there weren't any Wildlife Rescue centers. The nearest SPCA was two hours south.
We really did our best to save all of them, but, only one male survived. Little wild creatures are very delicate and their nervous systems so fragile. Dad told the Forest Ranger about them and asked for feeding information. Also the feedstore in town because people have rabbits. One cousin had rabbits too.
We named our little orphan 'Napoleon' because he was a real conqueror. He was so winsome, so sweet. We all just loved him. He knew it too. We didn't keep him in a cage. We let him have the run of the house. Later, when we thought about it. Goodness! what would we have done with 'five' chipmunks!? He was quite clean. Mom and I found where he left his droppings and carefully cleaned, because we didn't want him to change places. Napper had little nests all over the house. Because that is what they do in the wild. To protect themselves from predators. One in each bedroom, (In one of my shoe boxes.), one on the back laundry porch. Dad found a box and put it on the screen front porch. And Napper had one there.
We were not going to keep him. We were only trying to raise him so he was big enough to fend for himself outside.
He was such a delight and he thought these big creatures were fun to play with. He would jump up on us and get a ride . He liked to ride on top of my Dad's hat. He would jump on our beds and wake us up in the mornings. I think he would be lonely. He also liked to go under the covers and run around. Napper loved to get inside our shirts amd blouses. He thought it was great fun. I know, but he was so funny. He knew what he was doing. Napper was a bright eyed little rascal. Healthy and active, he loved to play.

When he began to climb on the screens of the front porch we knew he wanted out. We didn't think he was old enough yet. I guess he felt he was though. Because the time came when one night we came home from town, and he didn't run to meet us. We looked all over. And could not find him. We were very dismayed. He must have slipped out before we left. We didn't notice. We may have had him most of the Summer. We have always felt really lucky to have had a friend like Napper, even if only for a few short months. He enriched our lives, we hoped we had given him a good start. We just hope he was able to survive for however long chipmunks live.

My Dad was going to take him out to the woods out back, because it would be safer and easier for him. Not to be.

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Turned out he was an;'Allen's Chipmunk'.

This is the only decent pic I could find. However, think more like "Chip and Dale".

HARE DOGS

I was browsing through eBay one day. Looking through the animal prints to see what was up. When I came across an Audubon print titled: Indian Hare Dog. !? What could that be? So, I looked at the print and bookmarked it.
Then I went online and looked up Hare Dogs.
I was so surprised, I knew the very first Original Settlers had brought dogs with them. However the dogs were only ever mentioned as a footnote to Native History.
It was wonderful to find they are yet extant and are bred by very closely controlled and select kennels.
There seems to be three sizes. To me, and this just my surmising from photographs, the dogs are rather similar to Alsatians and/or, Border Collies. Which makes sense in a way, In some photos the dog resembles a Spitz.

And yes, I'm sure when someone sees my post, they will leave me messages to put me straight.
They look to be very good working and companion dogs. The breeders are EXTREMELY careful about who they let their dogs go to.
Oh yeah, the etching by Audubon, doesn't look anything like the real thing. Sometimes his vision was way off.

This the print I found online.

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ANNIVERSARY=----SORT OF

Anyway. it was a year ago July 4th. That my Hb. had his stroke. He is doing fairly well. But he is negative about that. He still has dizziness at certain times. Men, they are so impatient. It hasn't been as hoy yet this year as it was last year. July 4 and 5 were triple digit. So. we had the A.C. on for about three hours each day. From 4:PM-7:PM. Thoses are the hottest hours of the day. The rest of the week will only go to the mid-80's. That is tolerable and I can still breath.
And I have gone four days without an IBS attack. I have actually been able to some more small things. I have even been to go a short walk a couple of days. I had regained a little energy.
I have the 10" Edith Flack Ackley doll all stuffed. However, I have not been doing any drawing. Maybe because I have been working on my written Journal. I guess I can only do one of that sort of thing at a time.
Hope everyone had a pleasant and safe Fourth Of July.
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Hey, I can 'title again'. So, I did.

OUR BRAVE NEW WORLD-circa1776

HAPPY JULY FOURTH

LET FREEDOM RING

AND THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE

LIKE OUR HOME.

JULY=WELL, HELLO

Well, it is now July. From now on it is all a downhill to the end of another Year. Already, people begin to think of Christmas. Must be, that July brings ";HOT;". So we begin to look forward to cool weather. Aren't people silly? However, it is hard to live in the moment when it's so hot out.

Hb. and I are still trying to figure out how we managed to survive last year's scorching 12 days, without the Air.

I prefer the first part of the year. More to look forward to. Everything is fresh and new, flowers bloom. The weather is nice.

Now all is hot and dusty. No rain. Fires all over the place. Seems like the entire world is on fire. Well, it is actually, in a way.

I am beginning to be a little nostalgic, because we used to go visit my parents about six times a year. There was: Easter, Mother's Day, Mom's Birthday, then Father's day. Followed by Fourth 'Of July. With Labour Day in September and my Dad's birthday too. And of course: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes we spent New Year's with them too. Sometimes not. Because we didn't want to drive back in the holiday traffic. So, we really don't celebrate Holidays anymore. Except a little at Christmas. I insisted that we not count birthdays. It doesn't mean the same as it used to.

But, my brother's and their sons are not family oriented. So, family get togethers don't happen. Unless there is a wedding. There have been two in the past 12 years.

One bright spot. My miniature fuchsia finally bloomed. I had two. The other one did not survive the winter.