U.S. Department of Labor Cites Alabama Framing Company For Safety Hazards

Jan. 31, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Alabama Framing Company For Safety Hazards

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Lily-Of-The-Valley, Dressed Up For A Party

I‘m glad you enjoyed my post on forcing lily-of-the-valley. What I didn’t tell you in that first post is that I had plans for those flowers. I intended them to be the centerpiece at my daughter-in-law’s baby shower. (Yes, I’m going to be a grandma!)

Lily-of-the-valley looks even prettier in a soup tureen fancy container.

I wanted to transfer them from their clay pots to a pretty container. (I didn’t take any pictures of the transfer because it was the day of the party, and I was on a deadline, and I forgot.) It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. For one thing, the pips were really jammed in there. I had to run a knife along the inner edge of each pot, and poke through the drainage hole, several times before they loosened up. I was really afraid my grip would slip and the beautiful flowers would smash into the table, totally ruined. But that didn’t happen.

When they finally slipped out, I was surprised to see how dry the soil was at the bottom, where the roots were, even though it was moist at the top. The tureen I wanted to use wasn’t as deep as the clay pots they had been in, so I had to gently remove the potting mix from the roots, smoosh the pips into the tureen as carefully as I could, and then repack the mix around the roots all the while holding individual plants upright.

I didn’t have room for all of them in the tureen, so I planted the rest in this mug.

The flowers fit in well with the shower’s tea party theme.

I was very pleased with how it all turned out. And I think my daughter-in-law was, too, since she enclosed her thank-you note in this envelope:Since the tureen has no drainage hole, I’m going to have to be especially careful to water not too much and not too little. If the plants start looking poorly, I will repot them once again in a container even bigger than the clay pots, giving them as much room to grow roots as possible and better drainage. But as long as they seem happy, I’ll keep them where they are, and plant them outdoors this coming spring.

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Kansas Aircraft Manufacturer For Exposing Employees to a Known Carcinogen

Jan. 31, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Kansas Aircraft Manufacturer For Exposing Employees to a Known Carcinogen

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Georgia Auto Parts Manufacturer for Safety Violations, Proposes Maximum Penalties

Jan. 30, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Georgia Auto Parts Manufacturer for Safety Violations, Proposes Maximum Penalties

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Wes Montgomery: Paris, '65

Wes Montgomery was puzzled. Like most leading jazz musicians in 1965, the guitarist didn't think much of the pop-chart scene. Many top jazz artists felt the music was painfully repetitious and that many lousy musicians were making a lot of fast money. Geared to the kid market, the music, jazz musicians felt, lacked substance. Hence, jazz musicians who covered the stuff sounding like silly sell-outs. So when Verve producer Creed Taylor turned up at Montgomery's gig at New York's Half Note in September 1965 and played him Little Anthony & the Imperials' Goin' Out of My Head, Montgomery scoffed. "“Creed, you must be going out of your head. I can’t do that kind of stuff." [Photo at top of producer Creed Taylor and guitarist Wes Montgomery by Chuck Stewart]

Months Montgomery left for Europe on his first tour. Backing the guitarist in the early spring of '65 was pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Arthur Harper, drummer Jimmy Lovelace and special guest Johnny Griffin. On March 27, the group appeared a the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. For years, their performance was available only as a bootleg. Now, Resonance Records has remixed and reissued a clean, warm version in cooperation with the Montgomery estate. The result is a stunning two-CD set, Wes Montgomery: In Paris, the Definitive ORTF Recording.

ORTF stands for the Office of French Radio and Television, which archives recordings of American jazz artists who performed there. The Montgomery material was among the listings producer Zev Feldman noticed while working on another project ith the OFRT. Upon request, Zev and Resonance's George Klabin were given the green light to restore the tapes. [Photo above, from left, Zev Feldman and George Klabin]

The results are spectacular. The out-of-studio energy, speed and and swing of the Montgomery group are stunning on songs such as Four on Six, Impressions, To Wane, Jingles and others. And there's lots of heart on the ballads, such as The Girl Next Door and here's That Rainy Day. The Johnny Griffin tracks—Full House, 'Round Midnight and Blue 'n Boogie/West Coast Blues—have a harder sound, with Griffin wailing away. A different mood from the quartet tracks but still worth a listen. [Photo above of Wes Montgomery in Paris by Jean-Pierre Leloir, courtesy of Resonance Records]

This set is a fantastic addition to the Wes Montgomery canon and shows us how much more muscular and spirited he was on guitar in a live setting than when harnessed in the studio.

Getting back to that meeting between Creed and Montgomery at the Half Note, let me have Creed pick up the story from my interview with the legendary producer: "I said, 'Listen to the chord changes and the melody, and you’ll find there’s something there that’s going to be very useful for you in a recording studio.' I also told Wes that Oliver Nelson was arranging and that he already had the chart in his head. 'Forget the vocal and performance,' I told Wes. 'Listen to the changes.' That was the only time I had to talk to Wes in a somewhat uncomfortable situation."

In November '65, Montgomery recorded the album, Goin' Out of My Head, for Creed, with Oliver Nelson's arrangements. This would be the start of Montgomery pioneering the pop chart at Verve and CTI, and turning transistor-radio hits into hip adult contemporary  jazz classics. Just before he did, he was showing his stuff to European audiences.

Wes Montgomery died in June 1968.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Wes Montgomery: In Paris, the Definitive ORTF Recording (Resonance) here.

JazzWax clip: Here's a mini-doc for the album...

And here's The Girl Next Door...

      

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• Bill Evans: Another Time
• Bill Evans: Some Other Time
• Pete Turner (1934-2017)

 

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Four Colorado Employers After Fatal Fire and Explosion at Oil and Gas Facility

Jan. 25, 2017 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Four Colorado Employers After Fatal Fire and Explosion at Oil and Gas Facility

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Gainesville Poultry Processing Company For Amputations and Other Serious Hazards

Jan. 25, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Gainesville Poultry Processing Company For Amputations and Other Serious Hazards

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U.S. Department of Labor Issues Citations and $69,058 in Penalties to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for Endangering Employees

Jan. 24, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Issues Citations and $69,058 in Penalties to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. for Endangering Employees

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Evergreen Native Ferns

It’s so easy to think that nothing is living or growing under the snow, but all you need is a January thaw and a stroll in the woods to see that there are plants that have not given in to the onslaught of cold and snow. On my strolls over the years I have noticed that there are two ferns that remain evergreen in our woods during the winter. The previous two days the high was 45°F and it rained for a good part of each of those two days, removing almost all of the snowpack. It would have been the perfect time to take photos of the ferns, but then last night it snowed and the ferns are somewhat obscured as a result.

I don’t know much about ferns

I know a fern when I see one, and that’s about it. I thought it was about time I taught myself a bit more. The first step is to learn the terminology, otherwise whatever you read in guide books or online makes no sense. I have William Cullina’s Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses which illustrates all the terms with photographs, but you can visit Fancy Fronds Nursery’s glossary for a quick review. Join me as I try to identify these two ferns.

Christmas fern

Christmas fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, is so named because it’s been used for holiday decorations.

If you wish to use it this way, Cullina advises that you only remove one or two fronds from each clump or you will weaken the plant. Likewise, in a garden setting, don’t cut down last year’s fronds until the new ones have expanded and the old ones have withered.

Here’s what one Christmas fern looked like today.

Christmas fern fronds are pretty distinctive, and since it’s one of the few evergreen ferns native to northeast North America, I’m pretty sure I’ve identified it correctly. The identity of the next fern is more ambiguous.

Lady fern, or wood fern?

I’m pretty sure this is intermediate wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia) and not lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina), but I’m not 100% certain.

Cullina lists ferns alphabetically by botanical name, so if I hadn’t seen the picture of the lady fern first, perhaps I never would have considered it. At first glance it looks exactly like the fern growing in my woods, and it’s supposed to be the most prevalent fern in my area, so there you go–except nowhere could I find a mention of it being evergreen during the winter.

So I searched online for evergreen ferns, and the name Dryopteris kept coming up. It turns out Dryopteris intermedia (aka intermediate wood fern, fancy fern, and glandular wood fern) also looks exactly like my fern. So, which is it?

Both ferns are supposed to have scales on the stipe.

I took one sample frond to bring into the house, but it occurs to me that fern fronds that have been through a couple of months of winter are bound to be a little beat up. The brown, papery stuff stuck to the lower stem doesn’t much look like a scale to me, but maybe if I saw a newly unfurled frond in spring it would look more like it. Also, the wood fern is supposed to have “short glandular hairs, visible with a good hand lens.” I think we have a magnifying glass somewhere in the house, but I couldn’t find it.

The easiest way to distinguish these two ferns? The sori (spore cases) are circular on the intermediate wood fern.

What do you think? The lady fern’s sori are supposed to look like eyebrows.

Not a very sharp photo when blown up, but I think the sori are circular.

Intermediate fern today.

Here they are during February of last year. They do get flattened by snow, but they are green.

A thaw–however brief–in winter gives me a taste of the coming spring, and seeing these evergreen ferns only strengthens the feeling that the plant world is poised to spring into growth as soon as the signal is given.

Posted for Wildflower Wednesday, created by Gail of Clay and Limestone, to share wildflowers/native plants no matter where you garden in the blogosphere. “It doesn’t matter if we sometimes show the same plants. How they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most. It’s always the fourth Wednesday of the month!”

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Pallet Manufacturer After Employee Injured by Machine

Jan. 24, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Pallet Manufacturer After Employee Injured by Machine

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U.S. Department of Labor Cites Construction Company For Exposing Employees to Hazards and Proposes $59,864 in Penalties

Jan. 23, 2018 U.S. Department of Labor Cites Construction Company For Exposing Employees to Hazards and Proposes $59,864 in Penalties

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Elegant Bathroom Designs

Content originally published and Shared from http://perfectbath.com

 

Every room in the house should be decorated according to its function and with the right decorating designs as well. Architectural designers have come up with different methods of improving a home to attain the modern and classic look, and these inventions include how to make a bathroom stand out just like the rest of the house. There are different ideas that one can use in designing the bathroom, but the most important thing to consider is its size. The space or scope of the bathroom helps you determine the kind of fixtures to incorporate and the best designs as well.

Elegant Bathroom Designs.

The Material

Now homeowners have discovered the excellent ways of building easy to clean bathrooms with the use of marble, granite, and porcelain. These three materials are soft to touch and come in different colors that give your bathroom a modern and elegant look. It is easy to maintain the elements regarding cleaning since they only require you to wipe them with a cloth.Another area to focus on when selecting the material is the floor. The bathroom floor tends to get water all the time when people are taking showers or even when cleaning the surfaces. Therefore, instead of investing in the old design of adding carpets on the floor, now people are adding tiles. Also instead of using fabric curtains, you can use opaque glass doors which are comfortable to maintain and does not get attacked by mildew or mold.

The Colors

The colors are other excellent designs to consider when it comes to modeling a bathroom. When it comes to small and large bathroom renovations, the colors that you use to determine how the bathroom would appear. For example, there are some colors such as white, beige and cream that cause the bathroom to look more prominent. Also, neutral colors are easy to maintain and go well with any bathroom. If these colors seem to be a bit dull to you, you can add some boldness on other fixtures in the bathroom such as the bathtub, the faucets and also the lightings.

The Fixtures

Add your own taste of fixtures when designing a bathroom. There are different designs of bathroom fixtures such as the bathtub, the sinks, shower heads and also you can add some style when choosing the kind of lighting to use in the bathroom. For example, you can use chandelier lighting in the middle part of the ceiling.

Lighting

Lighting is another excellent design that a lot of people are focusing on. Your bathroom requires enough illumination just like the rest of the house, and therefore, there should be good lighting. For homeowners, this design can help you attract a lot of potential buyers mainly when you use unique and bright bathroom lighting fixtures. Some of the ideas to add when designing the bathroom lighting include the kind of light to use; maybe you can use crystal chandelier and also consider using other bold colored like led bulbs.

Conclusion

Let your bathroom pop up with the use of the above designing ideas. Make sure you work with an experienced designer so they can help you regarding how to put in place the different designs. Also, use other ideas like adding portraits on the walls of the bathroom if space allows you would be awesome.

 

Contributed by : Aaron Gruenke foremost expert in bathroom design.

The post Elegant Bathroom Designs appeared first on Perfect Bath Canada.

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Donald Byrd: Fancy Free

Mention the 1970s to jazz fans and many will think of the jazz-rock fusion movement. Bands then that united jazz and the rock guitar and other electric instruments included Tony Williams Lifetime, Chick Corea ad Return to Forever, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Larry Coryell's Eleventh House and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to name just a few. [Photo above of Donald Byrd]

But fusion wasn't the only jazz-hybrid movement emerging in the post-Woodstock '70s. Another jazz genre took its cues from the Stax label under the direction of Al Bell, Sly Stone, James Brown, Kool and the Gang, the Ohio Player and other electric funk artists popular in African-American communities and on black radio. One of several jazz artists who pioneered this soulful electric jazz-funk fusion was Donald Byrd. [Photo above of Rufus Thomas, who recorded for Stax]

Last time I posted on Byrd, I looked at his album Fuego (1959), a hard-bop masterpiece. During the early and mid-1960s, Byrd's albums for Blue Note moved in the same general direction as many other artists who succeeded by combining R&B, funk and the riff-heavy boogaloo. These artists included Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, the Jazz Crusaders and many others.

But by 1969, Byrd shifted gears again by integrating electronic instruments and adding a strong drum beat, which not only helped him transition to a younger African-American audience but also put him in play at parties and club dance floors. Unlike rock fusion, which was popular with sit-down audiences in college dorm rooms and events, Byrd focused more on the grooves and beats, accompanying them on his trumpet rather than being driven by them.

This period in Byrd's career began in 1969 with the recording of Fancy Free, an album decades ahead of its time. It sounds fresh today, and young artists still sample it. There were only four tracks—Byrd's Fancy Free and I Love the Girl, Mitch Farber's The Uptowner and Charles Hendricks' Weasil.

The album was recorded over two sessions. The collecive personnel was Donald Byrd (tp), Frank Foster (ts), Julian Priester (b), Lew Tabackin and Jerry Dodgion (fl), Duke Pearson (elec-p), Jimmy Ponder (g), Roland Wilson (b), Joe Chambers and Idris Muhammad, (d) and Nat Bettis and John H. Robinson Jr.(perc).

Fancy Free is an upbeat but mellow Latin-jazz track showcasing the conga and Dodgion's beautiful flute. I Love the Girl is a precious ballad dominated by Pearson on the Fender Rhodes electric piano and Byrd. The Uptowner is a gorgeous funky boogaloo with Byrd, Foster and Priester. Weasil grooves at roughly the same tempo with the same instrumental line up and a flat snare by Joe Chambers that foreshadows the drum sample. Byrd's horn stands out on all of the tunes, ruminating on the slower songs and heating up on the uptempo groovers.

Interestingly, a third session was recorded for this album, featuring Byrd (tp), Kenny Rupp (fhr), Al Gibbons (fl), Gary Campbell (ts), Duke Pearson (el-p), Wally Richardson (g), Bob Cranshaw (el-b), Freddie Waits (d), Roland Wilson (cga), and three vocalists. Three songs were recorded—Now Steady (with the horns out), Yano and Congo (an instrumental). All three were rejected for some reason. I suspect the four songs they already had in the can were allowed to run in full rather than be cut down to make room for two others that were out of character with what they had. Thankfully.

Between Fancy Free in 1969 and Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes in 1983, Byrd's albums grew increasingly fascinating in the electronic jazz-funk space. During this period, Byrd probably hit his commercial peak with Places and Spaces in 1975, which hit #1 on Billboard's jazz alum chart, #6 on the R&B chart and #49 on the pop chart. As a producer, his biggest success was The Blackbyrds' Walking in Rhythm in 1974, which was featured on the group's Flying Start.

Yesterday, I had great fun crossing the jazz-funk cosmos listening to all of Byrd's jazz-funk albums on this list:

• Fancy Free (1969)
• Electric Byrd (1969–70)
• Kofi (1969)
• Ethiopian Knights (1971)
• Black Byrd (1973)
• Street Lady (1973)
• Stepping into Tomorrow (1974)
• Places and Spaces (1975)
• Caricatures (1976)
• Thank You...For F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life) (1978)
• Donald Byrd and 125th Street, N.Y.C. (1979)
• Love Byrd (1981)
• Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes (1983)

All of them are superb, with different grooves and feels.

Donald Byrd died in 2013.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Donald Byrd's Fancy Free here.

It's also available on Spoitfy.

JazzWax clip: Here's the title track, with Frank Foster, Julian Priester, Donald Byrd and Jerry Dodgion taking solos...

And here's I Love the Girl, with Duke Pearson and Donald Byrd...

      

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• Donald Byrd: Fuego
• Video: Bobby Jaspar, 1958
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Red Garland: The Quota

Pianist Red Garland is best known as the pianist Miles Davis hired in 1955 when pianist Ahmad Jamal turned him down. Davis admired Ahmad's modernist, bluesy swinging style on the keyboard, so much that he recorded songs such as Surrey With the Fringe on Top, A Gal in Calico and Billy Boy with Garland playing virtually the same way as Ahmad's earlier recordings.

As Ahmad told me in an interview a few years back, "I was the leader of a group at the time and Miles was a leader. Why should I join his group and give that up any more than he should join my group?"

Both Ahmad and Davis thrived during the 1950s. So did Garland, who played behind Davis and John Coltrane while also recording superb leadership albums for Prestige. It's important to note that Garland wasn't an Ahmad Jamal clone. Both pianists could swing effortlessly, both loved the high end of the keyboard when soloing and both used their left hands as punctuating accompanists for the right hand. In most cases, Garland was meatier and more dramatic than Ahmad, often using single-line improvisation that climaxed in waves of block chords during solos.

Garland recorded for Prestige from 1955 to 1962—from Musings of Miles (1955) to When There Are Gray Skies (1962). Then there was a nine-year gap in his discography. During this period, Garland moved to his hometown of Dallas, Texas, to take care of his ailing mother. When he returned to the studio in May 1971, he recorded two albums— Auf Wiedersehen and The Quota.

Strangely, these albums were recorded in New York by American producer Don Schlitten (above) but released by the German MPS label in 1975. My guess is that the albums were recorded when Garland wasn't signed to a label, and then the tapes were shopped around, with MPS picking up the rights. Of the two albums, The Quota is clearly the superior recording.

What makes The Quota so dynamic is the inclusion of tenor saxophonist Jimmy Health, who also plays soprano sax on two tracks—Henry Mancini's For Carl and Love for Sale. The other musicians here in addition to Garland (p) are Peck Morrison (b) and Lennie McBrowne (d). Garland always seemed at the top of his game when going head to head with a bossy saxophonist. Heath doesn't disappoint. His driving tone and improvisation gives Garland a chance to run around his notes as well as deliver bold solos. 

The remaining tracks on the album are Health's title track, The Days of Wine and Roses, Tadd Dameron's The Squirrel and On a Clear Day, an extraordinary uptempo rendition with Heath soaring and a swinging Garland driving your right foot cray. 

Garland would go on to record for Galaxy, Muse and Baystate as well as a few other labels. It's hard to know how Garland would have fared in the 1960s had he not been off the scene for so long. Odds are he would have been pressured into recording "hits of the day" albums. Then again, Red Garland Plays Burt Bacharach and Hal David or Garland on Broadway might have been compelling. Imagine an ultra-slow People by Garland, akin to Since I Fell From You from It's a Blue World (1958). Or an uptempo I Say a Little Prayer with block chords. We'll never know. What we do know is that Garland had his chops together on The Quota.

Red Garland died in 1984.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Red Garland's The Quota here.

JazzWax clips: Here's On a Clear Day, with Jimmy Heath on tenor saxophone...

      

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• Miles Davis: Musings of Miles
• Ahmad Jamal and Fender Rhodes
• Ahmad Jamal: Greasepaint Roar

 

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How To Have Fragrant Lily-Of-The-Valley In The Middle Of The Winter

Move over, hyacinths. Stand back, amaryllis. It’s time for lily-of-the-valley to take center stage. Yes, lily-of-the-valley!After my hyacinths bulbs rotted last winter and my amaryllis were clearly not going to bloom on my schedule, I was feeling a bit gun-shy about forcing bulbs. In fact, I had made up my mind I wasn’t going to force any.

And then suddenly in December I got it in my head to force lily-of-the-valley. I had always been discouraged from doing this by the price. So the first thing I did after the notion took hold was do some online price comparisons. There was a wide range of prices on Amazon, but I noticed all the inexpensive sources had a number of bad reviews. The one firm that seemed reliable was more expensive than White Flower Farm, which was the source that always seemed expensive in the past (go figure). Maybe because I didn’t have any other bulbs to force, I felt entitled. Or maybe–given the bitter temperatures–I just felt desperate.

I ordered two bunches.

I’d never forced lily-of-the-valley before, so follow along as I give it a whirl.

The roots were well wrapped to keep them moist during shipping and hopefully protected from cold.

Here’s what they look like unwrapped.

Lily-of-the-valley has a creeping rootstock with growth points called pips. The pips are what will grow into leaves and flowers.

Here’s a tip: you don’t need to put broken crockery in the bottom of your pot. A coffee filter is sufficient to keep the soil from leaching out.

White Flower Farm recommended an eight-inch pot, and that was just big enough. If you have a deeper pot, that’s even better. And cold climate gardeners–if you store your potting soil in an unheated shed or garage, bring the bag into the house the day before, so the potting soil can thaw. And your potting soil needs to be moist, of course.

You can trim the roots a bit if you’re having trouble cramming them into the pot.

It’s awkward getting the potting soil down in between all the roots. I was glad for the video White Flower Farm provided (see below) as it looked awkward for the presenter, too.

All done.

You can see the pips peeking out of the soil.

Now, the hard part: waiting.

For the first two weeks, they did nothing. Nothing that I could see, at least. I started to wonder if they had frozen in their box on the porch. Maybe they would never bloom.

After three weeks, I was starting to see some action.

Exactly a month after I potted them up, the first little bells started to open.

If I can keep the plants alive until winter is over, I will plant them in the ground. After a year or two they should bloom outdoors for many years to come. That makes my frugal soul feel justified in the expense.

They bloomed just in time for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Here they are, pictured with all my other January bloomers.

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens. Check it out at May Dreams Gardens.

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