A Lazy Sunday Morning...

  This is all I've done all morning...harvest some lettuces and spinach and chard.  LOL

  I keep thinking any minute I'll jump up and accomplish something, but it might not happen.  Could it be that it's my day off ??  (One of the problems with being retired is that you don't get days off anymore...) lol

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  Had a hissy fit for a minute yesterday..  made a beautiful batch of bread dough, had it raising in the bread pans...and the oven wouldn't work. Yes...the oven is out. Again. I don't know f you recall that this happened to me before...and the gas guy said it's probably a tiny piece of rusted metal or something blocking the jet that the gas comes through, because the igniter is heating up just fine. It just won't light the burner. Sigh... So, I have a batch of dough in my fridge, and am trying to figure out what to do with it. I should be baking bread in the bread machine anyway, as it's too hot to be running the oven. So..this is already mixed up and ready to go...I'm thinking...fry bread??  A freaky version of naan??  sigh...The last time this happened I didn't have an oven for a while and then it suddenly repaired itself and started working again. I'm waiting for another miracle, as I really can't afford a new oven and am not sure I want to buy an old one, as it will have problems of its own, I'm betting.  I'll make sure and keep you in the loop....lol

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   We just finished a nice lunch of leftover salad fixins with some egg salad, some cheese tortellini, some pickled beets and crackers. Yum. Now the Irishman is heading out to mow. I am going to check into some recipes for the bread, then download some pinwheel directions and try my hand at that. I did buy a big garish plastic multi-colored pinwheel that I stuck in the edamame...I only bought one because it was 9 bucks..AT Big Lot's !!!! It has about a 3/4 inch thick dowel...a monster pinwheel. I want to make small ones...and they have to be made out of something that will hold up to the weather. hmmm....

   It's a beautiful breezy day out there, all sunny and hot. Maybe the winds will bring rain, we could surely use it, and they were saying  maybe Monday.  Fingers crossed.

  I am feeling so lazy this morning, and I am going to just go with it. Friday I took a lunch out to my friend who broke her hip and spent about 3 hours with her. She's doing her best, but I can see she really hurts. Tomorrow I am going to make something they can heat up for supper and spend time with her again. I was going to make chicken pot pie, but I guess that ain't gonna happen....lol (No oven).   Saturday I went to a meeting in the morning,. thought about stopping for some groceries and decided to wait and see how long I can go without buying any. I don't need a lot of stuff...it will be fun to see just how long I can go without buying anything more...I thought I needed onions...then I realized I have the walking onions out there to use. I make my own bread, so there's that. I have a stocked pantry, I have chickens for eggs. I make my own cereal and granola bars. I have plenty of lettuces and radishes for salads.  huh.  I don't need no stinking stores....lol

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  The green beans and the snow peas are both starting to flower. That means before I know it, I will have both of those. yippee!!

  Next weekend the Irishman and I are going to a graduation ceremony for a friend who just completed her medical assistant training, then we will all go to a local pizza joint for a little celebration.  Then Saturday morning I will be getting my coin for 22 years of sobriety at the 10 o'clock meeting.  My AA anniversary is actually Tuesday, as well as my wedding anniversary.  The Irishman and I are celebrating 20 years of welded bliss.   lol  And he has to leave Saturday night for an assembly up in Urbana and will be gone until Sunday evening. The following weekend, he will be going to Wisconsin for his family reunion and will be gone for 4 or 5 days.  SO--it's going to be a busy couple of weeks coming up.

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  Alrighty. I'm off to surf the web and see what I can do about my bread. And pinwheels. Oh yeah..I wanna make some art today...I have been seriously neglecting that side of my life lately.  So...have a happy Sunday all y'all....I'm sure going to!

Namaste.

Decoration Day weekend...

Fresh lemonade was one of my dad's favorite things, and today, in his memory, I made some fresh lemonade. Sort of. Actually, I used lemons, limes and cara cara oranges, which have a deep pinkish orange fruit and are sweet as all get out. The two quart jars are back-ups, and plain.  The big gallon jar is an herbal lemonade...complete with anise hyssop (which tastes more like sassafras than anise to me), white and purple clovers, dandelions and a few honeysuckle flowers. And the flowers off my basil. And sweetened with a combination of agave and local honey. It is extremely refreshing and tastes just heavenly. BUT--next time i think I'll leave out the limes, because they are a little bitter. But strawberries or raspberries would be good, wouldn't they?

 I love playing with flavors like this. I wonder how a lemon and rosemary drink would be? I like those two together on fish....

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  My father was a member of an Army contingent called the Blue Devils. They apparently stormed their way across Italy and Europe during WWII wreaking havoc and establishing freedom.  Not that he hardly ever talked about his time in the service, except to say that he  was proud to be a member of the US Army and that he did what any American would do. His oldest brother Willard was killed paratrooping in France.  His other brother was in the service as well. My youngest brother was also in the Army. My husband joined the Marine Corps when he was 18. My father in law was a sailor with the US Navy. 

  On this day, I want to remember them all with gratitude for serving their country. I have a deep and abiding respect for anyone who is this selfless, who is willing to go to any lengths to ensure  that we can continue to live a life of freedom and  liberties and the pursuit of happiness. 

  So, in memory of all who served, and continue to serve...I thank you.

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   It's been an interesting weekend. It's been scorching hot with temps hovering near, but not quite getting to, 100.  Too hot to do much of anything in the way of yard work, which desperately needs doing. The grass needs mowed-it's looking raggedy out there. The edamame is getting big enough now that there's no excuse for not weeding that bed. The beans , tomatoes, potatoes and butterbeans have all been mulched with straw.  (We are now officially out of straw.) Saturday night we went to the movies and saw Men In Black 3. It was entertaining, as expected. Tommy Lee Jones is starting to look a little old in this one, lol.  Today we went to a Spring Festival for a few hours. It was nice, lots of arts and crafts. But hot. At least there was a bit of a breeze blowing.  Then we came home and had a nice picnic type supper of grilled corn on the cob, leftover cold baked beans (YUM!) and veggie burgers. I also cut up a small bowl of veggies--red bell peppers, snow peas, french breakfast radishes and cucumber. I didn't realize how famished I was until I started eating.

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  I have been researching making home made pinwheels. I want them to put in the garden as a bird and deer deterrent...the big kind that any little breeze will spin.  I am thinking about attaching small jingle bells to them, if it won't make them too heavy to spin. I have a bunch of them left over from some Xmas crafts I did one year, I think. Has anyone ever made pinwheels or whirligigs ?? Any suggestions??

  I used to have some big giant sunflower ones that were specifically for the garden, but they have all broken and come apart, and I can't remember where I got them. But it should be an easy enough thing to make from recyclable materials, don't you think?

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   Well, I'm sipping lemonade and reading emails and generally winding down after a long day. The Irishman is off tomorrow as well, and I will be doing laundry and probably mowing, unless it rains, which they are hinting at. We're supposed to get a cool down for a few days--that would be nice.  Although I must say, the hot weather has cause a nice spike in the garden growth. I have 2 eggplants and some herbs sitting on my kitchen island that need to go in the ground too. I was gonna do that tonight once it cooled off...but at 8:30, it was still 89 degrees...yowsa.

  This heat is wearing me out, so I will probably be in bed early tonight. I feel like I could go to sleep now, but it's only 9:30...if I do that, I'll be up at 3 AM....lol

   I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Take care in the heat, if that's how it is where you are.  And just take care of yourselves in  general...you are precious to me!

Namaste.