Good Living 123

Spring makes me soooo happy… I’m loving the temps in the 70s.

The Helleboros (Lenten Rose) have been blooming all winter.

Both pink and white blossoms have made me smile, as I didn’t see these in New Hampshire till the snow melted.

They are now gleefully joined by other blooms.

I LOVE how spring in the western NC mountains dances gleefully for 3 months.

Even my baby orchard is waking up with blossoms.

Hello plums, peaches, pears, and apples. Can I hear a Hallelujah one time!!!

At 12 noon on February 15, 1965, Canada’s red and white maple leaf flag flew for the first time on Parliament Hill. 1 year later, February 15th officially was deemed National Flag of Canada Day, reflecting Canadians’ common values of democracy, inclusion, and equity.

Of course, Canada became an independent, self-ruling nation as the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. Prior to 1965, however, the primary flag flown was the Canadian Red Ensign, including the Union Jack and Canada’s coat of arms. We LOVE our friends and neighbors to the north. Happy National Flag of Canada Day!

Joining the nation in 1846, the 29th state is also known as the Hawkeye State.

With corn fields and farming often getting top billing, Iowa has much more to offer.

Its oldest city is Dubuque, founded in 1788 as one of the first settlements in the entire Midwest. Dubuque is also home to Iowa’s oldest standing church… the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, built in 1833.

With the wild rose as its state flower and the eastern goldfinch as its state bird, Iowa’s motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”

With its population of 3.2 million people, Iowa has 400 bowling alleys, giving it the highest number per capita in the US, along with more golf courses per capita than any other state.

The National Hobo Convention is held annually in the town of Britt, complete with a hobo parade, hobo queen coronation, and a hobo museum.

The Iowa 80 Truckstop is the world’s largest and hosts the Trucking Museum in Walcott, dedicated to the history of trucking and vintage trucks.

Iowa also claims the 3rd highest motorcycle ownership in the nation.

Museums don’t stop there. Indianola is home to the National Balloon Museum, which offers hot-air balloon rides.

Noted as the safest state in the US, Iowa also leads the US in wind energy, producing the highest percentage of electricity powered by wind, at over 57% of its electrical power. Iowa also has the highest literacy rate in the US, setting a nationwide literacy and academic excellence standard.

In 1869, Arabella Mansfield (1846-1911) became the first female lawyer in the United States.

Known for friendly communities and farmers’ markets, Iowa holds the first Caucus in every Presidential primary election.

Iowa has also produced nearly 20 Olympic athletes in multiple disciplines. In swimming, the butterfly stroke was invented by David Armbruster, head coach of the University of Iowa Swimming in 1935.

Also developed here in Davenport was the first single-loaf bread-slicing machine in 1912.

The Red Delicious Apple variety originated here in the 1870s as a chance seedling growing on Jessee Hiatt’s farm in Peru, Iowa. Thinking of it as a nuisance, he tried to chop the tree down several times, but it repeatedly grew back.

Iowa is also the only state bordered by two navigable rivers… the Missouri and the Mississippi.

In the Native American tongue, “Iowa” means beautiful.

Maquoketa Caves State Park welcomes visitors to tour one of the highest concentrations of Iowa’s hundreds of prehistoric underground caverns.

Another attraction is the Effigy Mounds National Monument, home to ancient Native American earthworks in the shapes of animals, including bears, birds, and deer.

As the nation’s largest producer of corn, eggs, and pork, it’s little surprise to note that hogs outnumber people 7 to 1.

On the yummy side, Le Mars, Iowa was officially designated as “The Ice Cream Capital of the World” in 1994 by the makers of Blue Bunny® brand ice cream.

Little-known facts include that Snake Alley, between Washington Street and Columbia Street in Burlington, Iowa was named the Crookedest Street in the World by Ripley’s Believe It or Not!

Iowa is also home to the world’s largest Strawberry Shortcake. Created in 2009 as part of the annual Strawberry Fest in Strawberry Point, the cake measured more than 10 feet in diameter and featured more than 5,000 servings of berries, cake, and cream.

The Winter Dance Party Tour scheduled 24 concerts in 24 days visiting 24 mid-western cities. Though it started on January 23rd, it ended abruptly on February 3, 1959, when wintery weather caused a plane to crash shortly after take-off into a cornfield outside Clear Lake, Iowa.

Along with pilot Roger Peterson, everyone else on board died in that crash, including rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.

Don McLean named the day in the lyrics to his 1971 song “American Pie.” Not originally scheduled to be on the flight, the 28-year-old Big Bopper, who was suffering from a cold, hoped to skip the long cold bus ride to their next stop in Minnesota and traded places with Buddy Holly’s bass player, Waylon Jennings.

And Ritchie Valens, considered a pioneer in Chicano Rock, was just 17 when he snagged his seat on the plane with Buddy Holly by winning a coin toss with one of the other band members, Tommy Allsup.

Buddy Holly, inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, was 22. An annual memorial concert is held at Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom, which hosted the artists’ last performances.