Category Archives: fun

Happy Birthday, Roger!

May 31, 2020Friends, funsusanmanzke

There was another country parade today heading south on Miller Road.

I almost missed this celebration as my family had come by to help out around the house.

As we were doing chores, we stopped to look up when we saw some strange vehicles honking past Sunnybook Farm.

As they passed, I remembered I had been invited to join this country parade. It was to celebrate our neighbor, Roger Roskoms’ birthday.

Again, I wasn’t close enough to photograph the beginning of the parade, but I did click one photo before they disappeared down the road.

Roger’s daughter, Juli said: We had a fantastic turnout with three fire trucks from Navarino, Nichols, Cicero, a mixer from Green and Gold Concrete from where Dad used to work, a bunch of old cars and cool tractors. … We had 53 Vehicles total … not too shabby I guess.

Happy Birthday, Roger. You are a good neighbor with a lot of good friends and a loving family.

I hope you enjoyed your country parade.

A Surprise Parade!

May 24, 2020fun, Wisconsinsusanmanzke

I was getting ready to open the door to the chicken coop when I heard the chugging sound of an old tractor.

I turned toward the road and saw one, then two tractors, one pulling a wagon with people waving a flag. The best part there was more coming down our country road.

I ran to the house to get my camera.

You can see the tractors just below the tree limb as I raced for my camera–my photo came from critter cam I had on the porch.

I raced back to the road with my camera and started snapping pictures.

I might have recognized a driver or two, but I’m not sure, I was too surprised and excited by the passing parade.

I don’t know where they came from or where they were going, but I sure was happy they passed by Sunnybook Farm.

A Winter Bloom in May

May 11, 2020fun, gardeningsusanmanzke

I like having house plants blooming in the winter. Seeing the colorful blossoms and greens gives me hope that spring will soon arrive.

Because my husband Bob was so sick this past December and died in January, I had no heart left to put my bulbs in soil.

Finally, I felt sorry for my amaryllis bulbs. Without any fanfare, I plopped them in a pot of soil. Now they have rewarded me with their trumpet-like blooms.

I have them out of the backroom and set them where I can enjoy the pink blooms in my kitchen now.

There are more flower bulbs and tubers in my basement. These are waiting for warm weather when I will place them in the soil outside. My fingers are crossed that they will do as well as these amaryllises have done.

Next week the temperature is predicted to turn warmer, without frost. If that is true all the bulbs will come out of the basement and start their journey to summer blooms.

Happy Easter!

April 12, 2020fun, Odds and endssusanmanzke

It wasn’t that long ago that women wore hats. Easter was the time to get a new hat and show it off at church.

When my mom put on a hat, I knew she was going somewhere. Even if she went to the store Mom put on lipstick and a hat.

Times have changed. But I happen to have a hat collection. In the past, I’ve presented hat programs for Mother’s Day gatherings and for club meetings. Today, in honor of Easter I’m going to show off a few–some have a netting so may look a little blurry.

Often my head is too big for a hat, but I show off the hat anyway.

Happy Easter!

Being best friends from a distance

April 2, 2020Friends, fun, technologysusanmanzke

Joyce and I have been friends since first grade. We started school together in 1956 and have been best friends ever since.

Even though Joyce lives in Illinois and I’m here in Wisconsin, we still manage to visit. For quite some time we used our telephones to talk to each other, but we are going high tech now and we use the internet.

For Christmas, Joyce was given a Facebook Portal mini with the idea of connecting to me. Well, we finally figured how to use it and instead of holding a telephone, we are now talking and visiting as we look at each other.

We are also playing Words with Friends as we talk and laughing a lot, too.

Joyce and I are enjoying our visiting time together more than ever.

I also connected with writer friends the other day. There were four of us visiting at the same time.

Isn’t technology wonderful? Especially since we are all sheltering at home.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person

Category Archives: fun

Happy Birthday, Roger!

A Surprise Parade!

A Winter Bloom in May

Happy Easter!

Being best friends from a distance