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OT, the jolly swagman

17 years ago

It's with a heavy heart that I inform Garden Web members that our friend Keith passed away peacefully on Feb 24th

after a long and painful fight with cancer.

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Comments (11)

rachel_frome_ky
17 years ago
Oh, that's so sad. Thank you for telling us
IndianaKat
17 years ago
Thank you for letting us know Alan. My condolences to his family.........
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"I believe that technology has cheated them out of some of the good times that my generation enjoyed. I believe that more and more children are chubby and out of shape and have a stifled imagination as a direct result of todays electronic driven society." Billy, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I remember as a child that I was outside all of the time. We played house, checkers, made crafty stuff, and bicycled everywhere. We had big swamp coolers and no AC so summers were hot in the rooms without the swamp coolers but somehow, we didn't feel it. I have a new grand baby and I worry. Will today's society wring all of the imagination out of her? Linda, I can identify with you in many ways even though I don't have ADD. In the 4th grade, my mother took a teaching job at a college in a tiny Texas town. I didn't fit in. We moved there from Colorado, and I'd gone to Catholic school and was used to wearing skirts. Everyone in the new town wore jeans. I was highly imaginative, played make-believe a lot, and wrote stories & poems. They didn't. I was made fun of because I was different. In the 6th grade, in the same tiny town, I can remember another new girl coming from Arizona who was of course "different." They picked on her too, made fun of her, and she cried. Her parents decided "our town" wasn't where they wanted to live, and they moved. Good for them! However, in the 7th grade (yes, I'm bragging), I was making A's, had some close smart friends, and all of those who picked on me were left behind in the dust to later get pregnant or drink. Sorry, I went off topic on this off-topic. :-) I'm going to try and make sure my grand baby has lots of outside time.
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Comments (18)
anne just sent me a note to tell me about joe's untimely death--thank you for posting it elly. not too long after i initially posted here about a decade ago, i decided i wanted to meet some of the folks i'd been chatting with and we invited them for a cookout. joe and deb joined us, as did a couple from rhode island and 3 other folks from here in NH. just a nice, nice bunch and i remain in touch with some of them still. as i just said to a couple of them, joe was a very gentle soul who was quite good with a camera. i remember one pic in particular, of a hummingbird on an evergreen branch. it was a beauty and was going to be used as a cover shot for a local college. he was just way too young for this and i'm really sorry to hear the news!
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Comments (15)
Pagan - not these ones! - they are toxic, even referred to as poisonous. There is a good book (I am sure many more) by Greg Marley: Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares: The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms ..."Amanita muscaria (aka fly agaric) - It is the most recognizable mushroom on the planet, and is widely known as the hallucinatory ‘shroom responsible for Alice’s trip into Wonderland and quite possibly our beloved images of a red-suited Santa Claus and his flying reindeer"... Some eat it, but many didn't survive...(maybe if you want to get high?) I wouldn't dare. I would think it may be like a Russian roulette. It is a Poisonous beauty... ..."fly agaric has been a symbol of yuletide happiness in Central Europe, Russia and Scandinavia for centuries, calling it “a red light shining bright in the winter darkness.” And the people of the North, as any mushroom hunter knows, are mad about mushrooms. There is a common exchange between us Anglo ‘shroomers when we see various, “lesser” species of ‘shroom: Is it edible? Well, the Russians eat it… Amanita muscaria falls into this category. Historically, the Siberians boiled fly agaric and then drank the pot liquor to get roaring drunk. They then preserved the mushrooms for eating later. As it happens, the Siberians’ livestock also loves this ‘shroom. And I’m not talking about cattle, I’m talking about reindeer. Yep. Caribou will seek out Amanita muscaria just for the high — or at least it looks that way to us humans. So it’s not too far a stretch to conjure up an image of a jolly, roaringly drunk, fat, bearded dude all dressed up for the North Pole — in a red suit with white trim — chillin’ with flying reindeer."...
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Comments (5)
Pittisporum undulatum it is! - Thank You! Now that I know it turns in to a tallish tree, we will have to figure out what to do. Also, since it is native to Australia, that explains why it likes my garden. I will have to look around more - I'll bet there are some mature ones in my neighborhood, and these were the gifts of birds. Jackie
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bluebirdbabe
17 years ago
Oh NO how very sad!!! Please send our condolences to his family. The Aussie newspaper articles Keith sent to me just became priceless.

Thank you Alan for letting us know. He will be missed. I loved reading his stories and he has such amazing birds. This is truly heartbreaking. What a wonderful man is was. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Karen
connie_in_western_nc
17 years ago
Alan, thanks for the sad news... just won't seem the same without his input. Been thinking about him more recently and wondering how things were going with him. Things change over the years but some of them we don't have to like... like the JS, Sylvia, and others who just aren't around anymore.

In that same kinda vein... do you ever hear from our Cuban friend? Or has he been forced to stop communique?
Konrad___far_north
17 years ago
This is sad news...I remember he wrote back after treatment and he seem to be doing well, cancer is a horrible thing and
can turn ugly very fast!
My sincere condolences to his family.

Konrad
janie_may
17 years ago
I am so sorry to hear this, Alan. :( My condolences to his family.

Janie
sowngrow (8a) G
17 years ago
That is very sad. I used to post frequently back when the Jolly Swagman and Sylvia were on this forum. Both were such nice people.
Robin
terrene
17 years ago
How sad. So sorry to hear of his passing. I enjoyed reading his interesting posts and it's such a loss for this forum. My sympathies.
alan_la
Original Author
17 years ago
Connie,Yes I still e-mail Jose,but he's not allowed to post on the Web, He's now got a Wife and Child.and yes Keith was a very pleasing person to everyone on this site.
connie_in_western_nc
17 years ago
Thanks for that update, too, Alan... I'm happy for him (Jose) that his life seems to be "progressing"... hard to imagine how someone who has grown up as he has, just has a different outlook on what's really important and making one happy in life. I hope they are among the "lucky" ones there and life is "good" for them overall.
lisa11310
17 years ago
Wow Swaggy, you get to party with my Mom , my Step Dad and My Nephew (and my dog) they are new up there too, all in the past 6 months. I will think of you with every little chickadee I see and remember you were kind enough to not laugh when I though they were Zebra Finches!Im sure your kickin it with Steve. You are missed.

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