Memorial Day

Achh...a fine day it is to remember those who have gone before us....Said a prayer today for those in the Armed Forces, and had a little annual ritual for my dad. When he died, he wanted his ashes scattered at his favorite place on the planet.. way up in Northern California at a place called Shelter Cove.  My dad was in WWII in the US Army, part of a platoon known as the Blue Devils.  He never talked much about his time in Europe, but was fiercely proud to be an American patriot.  So, every year on Memorial Day, I have a little sit-down with his spirit, somewhere surrounded by trees.   I miss him so much...still.

  It was a good day all 'round. Finished getting the last things in the ground for the garden...mainly the edamame and some horseradish.  I downloaded the data tracking sheet from the University of Illinois, and when it's all grown and harvested, I'll send it back to them. They sent me a lot of different packets of the seed, all different maturity rates and such, I suppose. I'll be meticulous in my observations.  We got everything mulched too, except the green beans. I planted a bush bean this year instead of the pole beans.  The books say to mulch them after it gets hot and dry, so they must be prone to a root rot if you're not careful. Things are looking good out there...hope to get some pictures tomorrow.

  All the kitties got a bath today to stave off the fleas. None of them loved it.  LOL   MIss Molly the Jack Russell Terrorist got one too...she was not happy.  But all is forgiven now that everyone is dry and back to normal...and I for one am glad it's done.

  My back and hamstrings are sure feeling the strain from planting 10 rows of soybeans.  After I got them all planted, I side dressed them with about an inch of beautiful compost. I had no more than picked everything up and it started to rain. We had a good steady rain for about 30 minutes and then the sun came back out and it felt like being in a sauna. yikes!

  Little Bit is sitting here on my shoulder, reminding me of my new goal to be in bed by midnight at the latest.  I don't get nearly enough sleep, and am trying to set some new  patterns to maybe help that. I see the clock creeping up, so I'll say my goodbyes now.

  Namaste.

Thriving on a Thursday

  It's a beautiful morning after a late afternoon and  night of outrageous lightning and thunderstorms.  The lightning was big and close and it was so incredible...the critters were a little scared, but nobody freaked out too much...

  Here's a kitty picture I just took this morning. It was after they'd chowed down on their buffet of kit kibble mixed with a little warm water and half a can of turkey and giblets canned food. The rest of the day they get dry kibble and they're still nursing now and then, but this is the best time to get pictures of them, as the rest of the day they'll be careening around corners, running and jumping and going a hundred miles an hour.  lol

  Here we have: My Sweet Baboo,  Macduff,  Skooter, and little Grey-Grey.

The other kitten, who's the smallest one, is off by himself. here he is:

We call this one Little Bit...and he's as full of piss and vinegar as any of them! lol

  It's humid today and more storms are forecast for the afternoon. I'm teetering between going back up to the plant sale and just  hanging out at home all day. I could do some basic housecleaning...my carpets need shampooing, but it would be pointless until the rain lets up. A couple of my slipcovers need washing, but same deal. I've taken my showers apart and washed all the curtains and scrubbed those bad boys up, and washed all the bathroom rugs as well.  I could start gathering some things up for the big community yard sales that are going on this weekend and ride their coattails, as I didn't plan to do it, so no advertising or anything. That sounds like a lot of work, and it starts tomorrow. 

  OR....I could just take it easy today and enjoy the quiet and listen to the birds sing.

Hmmmmmm...not much of a contest, is it ?

Namaste.

Whoopie Wednesday

  Ah....the perennial Shasta Daisy !!  I love these cheerful pretty flowers. I planted about 3 or 4 patches of them in different places around the back yard. And every year the patches are a little bigger and they are one of the earlier spring bloomers. I have Forrest Gumped my way through planting a yard that is full of flowers that bloom all throughout the growing season, so I always have something in bloom.  These have long graceful stems and are great for flower arrangements too, when I feel the need for a bouquet on my kitchen  table. They don't last terribly long, but I learned an old trick from an elderly woman who said that if you put a teaspoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of white vinegar into your cut flower water it will keep them longer. And by golly, it does help. (You can click on this picture for an even better look at these babies...)

  I spent yesterday doing all kinds of odds and ends around here and never got here to blog. I weeded the garden some,  cleaned the chicken coops, scrubbed my front porch furniture (a birdhouse table and 2 rocking chairs)

                                                              [Click on pic to enlarge]

 They get incredibly dirty through the winter, with muddy animals jumping on them and general weather wreaking havoc.  I potted 4 red and white geraniums mixed up in a couple of pots and I potted several red and white petunias in a big old enamel chamber pot to sit on the back deck.  I got them at my friend Dolly's plant sale. When I went there, she was nowhere to be found (It's in her garage and driveway), I assumed she was in the house, I shopped and browsed and picked out my plants--4 geraniums, 4 petunias, 2 coleus and a beautiful anise hyssop--all for 10 dollars.  I may go back today...When I had added up[ my purchases, I sat down at her little table and wrote her a note..put the 10 dollars down and carried my stuff to the car. It suddenly occurred to me that I had been there quite a while and there was still no sign of her. I was a little worried and went up and pounded on the front door. After a bit of pounding (I was ready to call her sister) she showed up at the door, looking a little bleary and said--Oh hell...I must have fallen asleep!!  It was hotter than blue blazes yesterday and business was slow and she had gone in to the air conditioning for a drink of water and a sit.  lol  We sat outside and talked and suddenly it was 2 hours later and I had to go.

  Coming home I circled through town to where my son has been working on his father-in-laws garage...lordy, he was out there in that heat and humidity working trying to finish up. He looked terrible...I guess he got it finished...he told me that his grandmothers husband had died yesterday...keeled over working in his wife's sisters garden.  A massive heart attack that was swift and merciful. He was a very active man, and they were both in their early 80's when they married after she was widowed. Married 6 years, my son said his grandmother is very philosophical about it all, and is holding up well. He said the first thing she said was" 6 years wasn't long enough, but at least he didn't have to be sick or laid up a long time". Her first husband was sick for years and she took care of the mean little man until the end.  She seemed so very happy to have found love in the later years of her life, and she is a jolly sweet woman anyway.  Godspeed, Kenny...and God bless you, Ruth.

  BY the time I made an easy supper of bbq'd country ribs and corn on the cob and we ate I was bushed. The humidity really zaps my energy, even tho the temps were only 90.

  I need to get out there and get some straw down, but I have to go to the recovery home today and that will eat up my morning and afternoon. I'm stopping by for some groceries and animal feed on my way home from there, and so maybe if the storms don't come I can get out there this evening.  We're eating leftover black bean enchiladas for supper.

  BTW--that potluck dish I made??  Turned out wonderfully.  I made a mixture of finely chopped onion and bell pepper, small diced partially cooked (microwaved) sweet potato, black beans, frozen corn, diced tomatoes and salsa. Didn't really need any seasoning because of the  salsa. I used corn tortillas that I microwaved to soften (Instead of the traditional oil cooking).  I smeared some enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and proceeded to fill the torillas with a swipe of enchilada sauce, the filling and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.  Rolled them up and placed them seam side down in the pan. Topped it all with more enchilada sauce, a little salsa and some sliced black olives and cheese and diced onion. Baked at 300 degrees for about half an hour. They were DE-LISH!!!!

  Okay--better get dressed and ready to hit my day...I have to leave the house by 1045 and it's after 9 now...

  Have a serene day, all y'all....

  Namaste.

Sunny Monday

  Ahhhhh...a picture of one of my giant ant magnets in the front yard. This peony looks better this year than it has in the 5 years we've been here.  The plant is loaded with flowers too...and crawling with ants, as peonies are if you don't put poison out, I guess. It's okay though...ants on the flowers I can handle.  Plenty to go around...lol

  Been a busy weekend and today I am taking it easy (HAH!)  by hanging out at home and doing laundry and cleaning.  Our weather went from 61 degrees last week to the low to mid 90's the past 2 days.  Ziiipppp!!!   From chilly spring to HOT.  Had to turn the air on, because the humidity is off the scale as well.  Keeping it at about 76, and that works okay.

  Listening to the local jazz station as I am in here...came in to clean off the desk and straighten this room a bit.  Sonny boy is coming by later to use the computer to file his unemployment claim for the week. He's at his inlaws right now, helping them side their garage.  I was thinking about taking him an iced coffee, because I know he won't stop for lunch or a drink either  probably.  (Because I'm his mommy, that's why.) LOL   Hard to believe my bouncing baby boy is gonna turn 39 this year...

  Worked in the garden yesterday afternoon late, once the worst of the heat was winding down. Got the okra in and a small bed of lettuce, radishes and spinach. Put onion sets in too.  Hope to get out there this evening and get some straw down, the potatoes need it and some of the other beds too.  Things are looking pretty good out there...supposed to rain again tonight and for the next few days I guess. But temps are going to stay up in the high 80's-low 90's.  Should cause a growth spurt in everything.

  I have some errands to run today, need to hit the farm store for scratch grains for the chickens and dog food.  It's also the first day of the plant sale put on by the local Landreth sisters. They have tons of stuff at great prices...so I can't miss that ! But I do need to put a $$ limit on what I spend, and buy ONLY perennials.  Sigh...  I will get some geraniums though...they are not perennial here, unless you dig them up and bring them indoors, and even then they don't do well.  I just love those perky geraniums...and I have a couple of old enamel pots, one is a wash basin and one is an old chamber pot, and I plant them both every year.  One sits out on the back deck and one on the little table on the front porch.

  Have to make a potluck dish for the Irishman to take to the class tonight. Something along the line of a vegetarian enchilada, is what I'm thinking....spinach??  Cheese and onions?? Hmmmm....

  Enjoy the day.  Looks great from here....

Namaste.

Weekending

  It is Saturday night, or Sunday morning..the wee hours where you lose sight of which day you are in, straddling them both as we do.  It was a pleasant enough day today, and I attended another anniversary celebration in a meeting I used to attend regularly. My friend was celebrating 35 years, and another young women 4. It was lovely all around, and she and I went to lunch afterwards.

  I stopped at a couple of flea markets and didn't find much that caught my eye, aside from an adorable switchplate of ceramic hummingbirds for a dollar. Of course I snatched it up and came home and installed it on the light switches on the living room wall.  And, all right,  I have a confession to make: I also bought some vcr tapes for 75 cents each...The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, with Brendan Frasier, and a copy of Children of the Corn, based on the book by Stephen King. 

  I don't know if it was watching the mummy (must have been), but  I was on the computer (the Irishman is asleep for hours already), and felt compelled to google the name of an old friend of mine who hails from Egypt.  We met in California, years ago, at a masquerade party one Halloween when I was young and beautiful and dressed up as a belly dancer.  The party was in a bar, naturally, and the young man in question fell madly in love with me.  lol  We had a torrid romance and I loved to listen to him talk...his voice so rich and heavily accented, he was so intelligent and cultured.  The last time I heard from him was in 1997, he sent me a Christmas card and said that he had married and divorced and where was I and why was the timing never right for us?   I always felt that we were soul mates, and our relationship was one that makes good reading on a plane, or in the middle of a cold winter night.  He tried and tried to talk me out of living with the Irishman, saying that he was not the right man for me. 18 years later, it seems he may have been wrong. I told him once that God loved him too much to saddle him with someone like me...

  Well, I found him. And he's on Facebook (of course he is).  I wondered if anything had happened to him after the 9/11 events and if he was still in this country. He has moved to central California, but he is still there. I saw the picture of him and my heart lurched a little...he looks really great and I can barely tell that all these years have passed. I, on the other hand, am nothing like I was, in so many ways.  Why oh WHY do men age so much better than we do?? It just isn't fair...

  My gardens are coming along and hope to spend most of tomorrow getting the last few bits in. The weather has taken a turn from cool spring to hot summer, and it was dry today, but Monday is bringing the rains again.  If I don't get myself to bed soon, I won't wake up until late afternoon.  lol

  I have some pictures, but am too tired to post them just now. Maybe tomorrow....

  Off to bed, dreaming, no doubt, of Cairo and camels and a midnight oasis of the heart.

Namaste.

Thursday....winding down the week

   It's been yet another rainy day here on the Prairie.  All day long, a steady soft rain, as the Irish are wont to say.  The best part of it was listening to the birds outside my windows.  At one point my Labrador Retriever was going insane out there, and I stepped out to see what she was after, because she was racing around in a strange manner with her muzzle pointing at the sky.

  My first thought was "Squirrel"  but as I looked up at the top of the big dead tree in my front yard, what did I see but an immature eagle...big, but his head not quite white yet.  No idea how he wound up here, but there he sat, glaring down at the raucous dog.  It was a sight to behold, believe me.  Of course, this picture is NOT what was in my front yard, but it's a great picture and so there you go, lol.

  I sat out in the rocking chair on the front porch for awhile, and saw the first Baltimore Oriole of the year, gorgeous in his brilliant orange and black feathers.  As if this wasn't enough, there were Indigo Buntings, a small flock of about 5 of them, Eastern Bluebirds, Titmouse, Juncko, Robins, a Ladderback Woodpecker, several Red Bellied Woodpeckers, and a host of Finches and Sparrows.  I felt especially blessed to get to watch all this from my vantage point.

 (Here's a red bellied woodpecker on the porch rail)

  This silly chest cold has got me coughing like a fool. Other than the coughing, I feel fine.  And it is worse at night, only sporadic during the day. Bleechhh!

  I baked a lovely chocolate cake today and will bake the Italian Cream Cake tomorrow for the big whoop-te-doo tomorrow night. Decided I might need 2 cakes, because the guest of honor is one popular girl. lol  Hard to say how many people might show up...

  For supper I made a lovely Jamaican pork stew...full of whole garlic cloves, okra, sweet potatoes and succulent chunks of slow cooked pork loin. The key spices are cinnamon  and cumin, and the house smells heavenly as it cooks. It was just what the doctor ordered for a rainy cool day.

  Worked in the garden yesterday, planted squash, butternut and zucchini plants that I started indoors.  I got the Blue Lake Bush Beans planted and got the bed ready for the okra. I put tomato cages around the biggest of the tomatoes, and ran out of cages. I need to buy some new ones anyway, these old ones have just about seen their last growing season. I'm going to buy a different style this time too...these are hard to use after the first year or two. I think these are about 7-8 years old now.Things are looking great out there. I still have a few things to get planted, if the weather would just cooperate a little. I mowed the yards too, before the rains came again. Maybe I'll get out there and take some pictures...the rain is supposed to clear away tomorrow afternoon.

  About time for bed, got a busy day ahead tomorrow.  To sleep...perchance to dream...

Namaste.

 

 
 

Rainy days and Mondays...

Any more rain around here and I'll be building an ark...lol...that's what some of my sponslings call my house...Annie's Ark...

 We have had serious thunderstorms all weekend off and on...very limited computer access, naturally.  maybe God is trying to tell me something by weaning me off this idiot box slowly and surely ????  LOL

  It was a busy weekend too...Friday nights celebration was great and the Italian Creme Cake turned out beautifully.

I also made some cream cheese brownies to take. Between the Friday night and the Saturday morning meeting, every crumb was devoured. There was another cake there too, so there was more than enough of everything.  Had a nice Chinese lunch with a good friend on Saturday and then came home and took it easy the rest of the day. We watched Lady and the Tramp that we had picked up at a yard sale (I had never seen the whole movie...this was beautiful!!).  Sunday was a full day as well, went to a church service that I had to leave in the middle of, then to a meeting to , then to lunch with hubby and friends and then to a District meeting. Finally got home around 4 and ran up to Pappy's Market (in the rain, of course) and picked up some Terro for ants, a small pack of zucchini plants (I don't know why...I just cannot seem to NOT plant those dang things!!!) and some celery.  Came home and made a lovely chicken pot pie. The Irishman had gone to the watershed trail for a nice long hike and got home around 5:30. We settled in , had a nice supper of comforting tasty chicken pie and watched Adaptation, with Nick Cage, Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep.

  It stormed like crazy most of the night, and is raining off and on still. Feels like I live in a rainforest.

  Early Friday morning, I went to a garage sale and picked up a nice little tabletop food dehydrator for my son. He has been using mine, drying apples and pineapples and bananas.  I got this one for 5 bucks...and it has one more tray than mine does!  I think the Irishman paid close to 60 bucks for mine for a Xmas present.  They actually had 2 of them, and I bought the better (I thought) of the 2. Kinda wish I'd gotten them both now...He was thrilled. Called me up Saturday morning and said it works like a dream. He was already unloading the batch of dried banana planks.  Maybe I'll get mine back now ??  I think it's great...he's asking about making the dried fruit rolls that I made when he was little...thinking maybe his kids might actually try those.  lol

  Have to make some kind of a potluck dish for Pat to take to the meeting tonight.  I've decided not to participate this time...a weekly book meeting feels like too much to me right now. If it was once a month, or even every other week, I might consider it....but not weekly. Not now. Too much work to do this time of year.

  The chooks are out in the general milieu of the chicken run now. All fences are down and they are warily eyeing each other, lol. I need to get out and check on them this morning...

  Alrighty. let's see if the computer connection holds long enough to post this...

Namaste.