Transitions

   (This is my Fairie Santa from the Poconos).
 I spent a good part of this softly rainy day taking down and putting away Christmas decorations.  Transitioning from the holidays of the past year to the smart cleanliness of the incoming time. (Snork)  Okay, well at least to the Not Holidays Anymore time.  lol   It's amazing how much dust collects during the winter season, and then you put things away and have to dust everything too.  It was almost too much, lol.  I still have a couple of holiday scarves and table coverings out, but they'll need washing first anyway before being put away. I got quite a bit done.  And tomorrow's another day...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

  My husband is in the living room watching the scariest movie I have ever seen again.  Contagion.  We have watched it together twice and this is probably twice he has watched it by himself.  Not me. I don't need to watch it again, thank you.  Although I can still hear it from in here...and I did remark on how familiar that cough sounds....lol  There was a segment on tonight's 6 o'clock news (I usually don't watch it, but was in the middle of doing something and didn't get the channel changed in time).  They said that the flu outbreak in Illinois was epidemic and that 550 people had been admitted to ICU's.  Nationwide, 28 babies have died from it.  Local hospitals are changing some of their protocols about visitors, etc and hospital personell procedures.  Safety measures.  At least 2 different strains of the flu virus have been identified, so flu shots are not helping because at least one of the flu strains is not in the vaccine.

   I feel better today and so does my Irishman. But we didn't have the flu either, I don't think...just a head banger of a nasty cold. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


   It has suddenly started raining in earnest. All day it's just been drizzly and grey, wetting down the earth nicely, for sure, but not a barnstormer of a rain. It's been a little bizarre, as the temperatures started climbing and got up to 55 at about 7 PM.  They're saying it will be 60 by midnight.  And then tomorrow will be sunny and beautiful and by late Monday night it will be snowing again. O, my spinning head.


  I have an abundance of eggs piling up. So, like any good little farmwife, I thought I'd make something for supper that used a lot of eggs...I pulled out mushrooms, kale, onions, garlic, broccoli and sweet red and orange peppers and lightly sauteed them in a skillet. I seasoned it with dried basil, pepper and a touch of salt.  I sprayed a glass pie pan with olive oil and dumped all the veggies in. sprinkled a bit of cheese on top, and then beat up about 8 eggs in a bowl and poured it over the top. Then I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, maybe less.  In the meantime, I oiled up my cast iron skillet, put about half a stick of butter in there along with some olive oil, sliced 4 large red potatoes into it and then half an onion. I stirred it all around a little and then put a lid on it, coming back from time to time to stir it 'round again. I picked some fresh rosemary off my plant, seasoned the potatoes with salt, pepper and garlic powder and tossed in that rosemary. It was a smell that would have pleased the gods !! I put the lid back on and cooked those taterrs to an almost overdone crispiness. 

  It was a heavenly supper.

  I got a gift in the mail today from an old childhood friend, a cookbook called Fifty Shades of Chicken, by FL Fowler. I've been smiling since I opened it and started reading the Introduction.  Check this book out. It's a KEEPER.  It's food porn if I've ever seen it. And the recipes and photographs are...sensual, heart-stopping and fabulous.

  All it says about the author is that FL Fowler is a pseudonym.  LOL


~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**



  My mailman remarked today that "somebody must be loved--mail from the East Coast and mail from the West Coast !!  I got a second package from a friend who sent me some recovery books he had found while de-cluttering.  It was wonderful...I do love prezzies !!!  (Especially on rainy days). The boxes wouldn't fit in the mailbox down at the road, so he had to bring them up to the house. yay--I didn't have to go down there in the rain.  ;)



  Alright--I have other earth shattering things to do tonight, so I'll finish this up and get to them.


Namaste.