Happy Valentine's Day !

  It's a cold, snow-glam day out there. None falling, but all beautiful and white...If the rain starts it will all be gone within hours, as it's getting close to 40 degrees outside.

 Are you celebrating yourself this Valentine's Day??  Are you cherishing the relationship you have cultivated with your body and your heart?  We co-exist within this fleshy framework, sometimes forgetting that our hearts beat without us having to tell them to, our lungs inhale and exhale all on their own.  Our legs carry us to wondrous places hither and yon and our arms hug those dear to us and do all sorts of little loving things all day long. Lips for kissing, toes for tapping...brains for remembering.  Thank you, all these cells that make Annie Kelley...you've done a fantastic job!!

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  LOL.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I am at MissB's tonight and the hubster's not home until after 6...we will celebrate V-Day on Friday, on our regular date night.  It's all good. In the meantime, I have made him a card and will get my butt in that kitchen and make him a wonderful dinner for VD night, and he will feel loved with every bite.  And that's what matters to me.  That he feel as loved as I can possibly make him. That he knows without a doubt, that he is the most important person in someone's life (mine!!) and that I cherish my time with him.  To love...and be loved....the greatest things on earth.

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  I think I'll make some soba noodles again as a main dish, with some steamed cauliflower and broccoli and carrots (for color) on the side. I have a peach pie in the freezer for dessert.  He'll love it.  And it will be very good for him.  Last night we had stir fried veggies and a half block of leftover tofu..I came home from work early  because of the weather...my co-worker was a doll about coming in 2 hours early. (She lives there in town) It was already crazy out there, and took me an hour to make the 17 mile trip home. So I threw together a stir fry over leftover sushi rice and it was perfect.  The meat supply is dwindling down to nothing...we're almost there. As it is lately we're eating probably 4 meatless meals a week, at least.

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  It's supposed to be in the forties all the rest of the week.  Crazy, huh??

  I have got to get some kind of system back in place for keeping my house clean. It's a disaster and I swear, I've been trying to do some stuff...it's just that I'm still so tired.  Yesterday I vacuumed and mopped and it was all I could do. The day before that, I straightened couch covers and dusted a bit, but you can't tell it 30 minutes later.  Sigh....I'm keeping the dishes and laundry done, at least.  lol   

  I'm thinking it's time to set up a little FlyLady stuff again.  Are you familiar with her??

  Flylady   check it out!!

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  Okay. Off the computer and into the kitchen for a bit of magick.  Tell me about your Valentine's Day.

   I love you all!!!! (Today, anyway)  lol

Namaste.

Oh my goodness...

  Got word tonight that another of my friends has lost their adult child to cancer. She fought a valiant battle, upbeat the whole time, right to the end. My friend is inconsolable....and I cannot imagine the scope of that pain--to have to bury your child.  My heart hurts, and I think the world is a little poorer tonight for this loss. She was a kind and talented and compassionate woman.

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  It has set my mind to thinking of all the losses endured over the past couple of years, and that includes 3 people in the blogosphere. My friend Mac Walton, and Thailand Chani, and a young woman I didn't know very well who took her own life.  Then there was my friend Ardis, and my other friend Roger, both relatively recently.  Melissa and Matt--both dead of alcoholism.  Diane and Lisa and Maureen and my aunt Teena.  (Just making this list is staggering). Geri and Art and Donna and Curtis and Sally. My uncle and my cousin. It's too much...

  I guess I am at that time of life when this stuff starts happening..I don't like it.

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  On a colder note, we are supposedly in line to get about 4 inches of snow tonight. But so far, nothing is happening. That reminds me--I need to go check the chicken coop, as I forgot to ask the Irishman if he had gone out and shut up the chickens...he probably did, but you never know... I can just go to the back door and see if the light is shining out into the yard or not.  BRB.  I'm back--naturally, he forgot and the henhouse was wide open.  It's probably too cold out there for even the coons and possums to be out raiding, but my bigger worry is frost bite. We have had a couple of hens over the past few years get their combs and /or feet frost bitten...it's NOT a good thing. So I tromped out the back door in my pajamas and robe and coat and scarf and shut them up AND got an egg.  Sigh...

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  I've not got a lot to say tonight...I've been kinda jacked up all evening, because the niece and 2 of the women who come sit with MissB have been smoking out in the garage, with the door open to the house, and the whole damned place reeks of cigarettes. Not only the house, but my clothes, my coat and my Pashmina scarf. My throat hurts, I'm coughing and I have a headache. I had to take a shower when I got home, because it's all over my clothes and in my hair. And I am pissed. And I feel like a whiny bitch about it, but I don't care.  She doesn't need to be exposed to that and neither do I. It will be an issue...and I will not work in a smoke filled environment. I won't. I have been exposed to second hand smoke and have health issues because of it. I have never smoked cigarettes.  This is a big deal with me....

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    I need to start heading for bed.  This feels like another in a line of too many negative posts, on so many levels, and I'm not interested in doing that.  lol

  So, I'll sleep and come back in the morning. IN the meantime...live, love and laugh, y'all.  I mean it.

Namaste.

O, my....where has the week gone??

 It has been a busy week...finally back to MissB's after having the dreaded nasty bug making the rounds for 2 weeks--that wore me out.  Then it was my beloveds birthday on Wednesday the 8th. I didn't get home until late that night,  and promised him a birthday feast for the following night, to which he replied "Don't forget, we're back at l;a Vista on Thursday night."  NOOooooo!!!!!!  So, I called the director and said, hey--is it okay if I bring food and dessert Thursday, it's Patrick's birthday --and she said--Yes,please.

  And so, there you are.  lol

  I spent a solid 5 (F-I-V-E) hours cooking on Thursday afternoon...as I decided to fix the Asian feast I've been wanting to make. And it is all vegetarian, so it lent itself well to this group.  The above picture is my recent attempt at making sushi (only the second time I've ever made it).  I tried to make some of it with brown rice, but it wasn't sticky enough, and the sushi rolls kinda exploded. (Oops.) I made an assortment of combinations, inside-out rolls and regular rolls, with daikon, carrot, avocado, radish sprouts, scallions, cucumber, and cream cheese. All mixed up and willy nilly and it was fun. It got more fun as it went along and the rolls got better looking.  lol  They were really good...and we are still eating them (almost gone).

  Then I made an Asian slaw --ribboned Napa cabbage with shredded carrot, daikon and finely diced cucumber and thinly sliced  scallion tops. I dressed it lightly with a mixture of sesame oil, tamari, and rice vinegar.  It was delightful...topped with chopped cilantro and a sprinkling of black sesame seeds.

  Then I made a pot of soba noodles, which are a Japanese buckwheat noodle. (Somehow forgot to take a picture of them...) Oh my sweet lord...are they good. I tossed them with a dressing of peanut sauce, ginger, rice vinegar and tamari, mixed in some chives and tossed in some sesame seed. 

  For dessert, I made a tofu cheesecake for my husband...he loves them,  He is lactose sensitive and so I've been making these kinds of desserts for him for a while. This one was lovely with lemon overtones, and a graham cracker/pecan crust...garnished with organic blueberries and starfruit.  Almost everyone loved it...(there's always a tofu hater in the crowd, whether they've actually had tofu or not) lol. 

  

  We had a great time and I am so glad that they changed the day of the week they meet so that I can get back in the groove with this eco-discussion group.

    On Friday the Irishman and I went to town for the afternoon. He wanted to see a movie, but I begged off. I am coughing still, and I hate it when people go to the movies and sit there coughing. So, instead, we had a decadent and leisurely late lunch, spent 2 hours browsing in the new Books-A-Million (that took over the old Borders) and then moved on to the Petco for dog biscuits before heading back home to the country. By the time we got out of the restaurant, it was starting to act like winter, with sleet and rain and snow...

    We made it home just ahead of the icky parts, thank goodness, and watched a movie on tv and snacked on leftover sushi...I had to go to bed early as my Saturday schedule is changed and had to get up by 5:30 to be at MissB's by 7.  The good news is that I am home by 3:30...one more night that my sweetheart and I can have supper together. (The one thing I hate most about not being home all the time....)

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  Today when I got home, the Irishman and a friend from Kentucky were out hiking. I was surprised to see his truck in the driveway when I pulled in, because he said he would be going to J's house. This is a typical Saturday event. Turns out they decided to come here and hang out, playing guitars and banjo.   

  All the way home I had been humming my favorite Carolina Chocolate Drop's song..Cornbread and butterbeans  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xOxHyTP91c... Since he wasn't going to be here, I thought I would open a can of butterbeans and heat them up, butter a piece of 12 grain bread and pout them right on top! Add some chopped onions and VOILA!

  So, instead, I asked J if he would stay to supper and he said What are you having?  I laughed and said --cornbread and beans. And he said--oh, hell yes.  I opened a jar of my home canned pinto beans, sauteed some carrot, celery and onion in a pot and dumped them in. Then I found a ham steak in the freezer and cut that up into big chunks. While I was out there, I brought in a quart bag of frozen turnip greens too. While the beans cooked and the greens thawed, I whipped up a batch of buttermilk corn bread and got the trusty cast iron skillet all oiled and put it in the oven to heat. I always pour the batter into a hot skillet.

  The turnip greens are easy enough...saute a little onion and chopped garlic in the small cast iron skillet, and cook the greens a little. I added just a smidgen of sugar to counter balance the sometimes bitter quality and it all turned out to be a wonderful supper. The Kentucky boy just kept saying to the Irishman --My god..do you always eat like this???  (We hear that a lot.)  lol

   Well, I am whipped. I've been up since 5:30 and it's now almost midnight.  I am good and tired and ready for that big sleigh bed to carry me off into the realm of the Sandman....

     Sweet dreams, all....

Namaste.

Seeing things with new eyes today...

 One, Two, Three....BREATHE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Woke up this morning with a much better outlook on life. Feeling better, slept until after 9:30 (which gave me a full 7 hours of sleep), and had breakfast of oatmeal.  Woke up with a bit of an emotional hangover, but I was able to make amends for my erratic behavior and apologize to my [much] better half.

   Sometimes a person just overloads and whacks out and that's all there is to it. I am normally a very patient (snork) and compromising and understanding person.  Yesterday I was not. I went from  0 to BEAST in the course of about an hour.

Whew. I am glad that's over.

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  Sipping a cup of rooibos tea this evening and sitting here at the computer thinking about going to bed. It's not 11 yet, but I have to get up early tomorrow and make sure to not miss my tax appointment.  I need to get the stitches taken out of Miss Bella too, in the next day or 2.  She has healed beautifully from the spay and was only a bit wonky for a day or two.  I need to get this desk cleaned up and pay bills and vacuum the mounds of dog hair accumulating on my floors. Certainly enough to do to keep me busy.

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  I finally made the cabbage rolls today before leaving for MissB's house. They turned out yummy and I had some for my supper, with green beans. 

   Tomorrow will be a vegetarian meal....not sure what, but am leaning into something Asian. May take a trip to The Green Earth Grocers and see if they have soba noodles.  I found them on Amazon, but have to order quite a bit. Which is okay...anyway, yesterday evening I went to one of the big markets looking for stuff that I wanted and found daikon radish and satay sauce and tamari sauce and sesame  oil and  teriyaki sauce. I still need umeboshi sauce, and can order it too, but again...if I can find it locally, that is where I will buy it. I have a large head of napa cabbage to make cabbage salad with, along with the daikon and carrot. Soba noodles with a light sauce. And a cup of the leftover miso soup. Mmmmm...that sounds good. Not sure of the dressing to put on the cabbage salad, but I know it will have tamari sauce and sesame oil and ginger.  With perhaps some sesame seeds too.

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   I am tired. I'll go to MissB's only 3 days before being off again for 2. Taking it easy. She asked me to come an extra day and I said no, thanks anyway. (Aren't you proud of me ??)  I just don't want to overdo it and wind up in a relapse from this nasty little bug again.  I've had my fill of this business....

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   Isn't it a funny thing, the way we slide into our later years and things change so much? I told someone today, (and this is the truth) that I never used to stay home, sick or not. I never missed work. Now I'm all pussed out and changing my operating system. lol  I used to say "I can be just as sick at home and not get paid for it"  I never rested if I was sick or tired, just kept charging on through, no matter what.  Now, I listen to this old body more and when I am tired, I rest. When I am sick, I try to do the things that need to be done to recuperate.  It feels more like honoring my spirit to me, to listen, to pay attention.  I did a guided meditation once in a group, where we went over every inch of our bodies, saying thank you and I'm sorry. And by the time it was half done, 90% of the group was crying. I was bawling like a baby calf. It was incredibly healing and enlightening.  I realized then that I have abused this temple, neglected it, disrespected it.  I have never been grateful enough for all the years of service, all the incredible feats performed. Illuminating, to say the least. 

  These days I try to be more respectful and compassionate on a daily basis.  I spend a bit of time in the morning, thanking and honoring this old bag of bones for a job well done.  And telling it I love it. And telling me I love me too.  And that I am worth taking care of, that I am precious and my body is precious. This old, wrinkled,  worn  out body is precious. And so it is.

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   Alright campers. Time for some shut eye.  Gonna put a salon pas patch on my aching knee and take a half dose of cough syrup and hit the hay.

    Sweetest of dreams to you all.....

Namaste.

2 AM and I'm awake....why???????

A strangely emotional roller-coaster kind of a day. I had a bit of a melt down and was all over the charts...crying, angry, hurt, stupid...  sigh...

 Everything is okay now.  And I feel exhausted from it all.  But I'm still awake and sitting at the damned computer.  And I really am tired and need sleep. I've been doing a little better (now and then) about getting to bed at a decent hour (for me). But not the last few nights. I'm blaming it on all the recuperating naps I've been taking. But I can tell you right now, it needs to stop.

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    Got a call from someone today who's battling  and struggling. Part of me wants to just say--stop fighting. That may not be the right answer this time, and I'm glad  I took the time to think about it first. 

     Found out that a friend who just lost her husband a few months ago has been diagnosed with cancer herself.  She seems very flippant about it. That worries me a little...

    Got 2 phone calls on Friday from people who care about me and I have not bothered to return either of them.  No particular reason...just haven't done it.  My bad.  Feels like something weird is going on in the old melon...

      Today I was fantasizing about the local farm store getting their chicks in and how I was going to go get about 20 of them.  I don't know that I really want 20, but it sounds like a nice number.

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   I had a curious episode of intestinal distress (shall we call it)...something I have not had through this entire time of being sick. Hit me with a vengeance today.   stomach cramps and the whole nine yards.  Seems to be gone now...I'm supposed to go back to MissB's tomorrow.  

  I am still coughing a little and tired. But mostly feeling much better. I did have a rather sore throat when I first woke up this morning, but it didn't last long. I thought maybe from sleeping and breathing through my mouth..

   There are sure a lot of people sick with this (and variations of this)  around here and around the country. 

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  I am obviously babbling and need sleep. Good night, friends of the page...I will be better in the morning.

Namaste.

It's a chilly soupy kind of a day...

And I have to tell the truth.  I ordered some seeds today.

 From Baker Creek.

 I couldn't help it.

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  I ordered quinoa seed and I ordered edamame. AND requested a catalog, just because it's such a work of art.

 And I read a blog called 2 Acre farm, and they live pretty near me. And he's planting spinach and snap peas. And I want to plant something too, dammit !!!!!!!  

  But maybe not today, because I'm recuperating and it's misty and chilly out there.

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  But I do feel better today.  Barely coughing (still some) and more energy (more than last week) and a general feeling of I'm on the way back-ness.  Thank Goodness. I am so tired of not feeling good and being sick and being isolated here at the house.  Tired of feeling like a pariah. Like a wuss. Like a plague-carrier. LOL

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   This noon I made a lovely (busy) miso soup for lunch. Had leftover foccacia and leftover marinara sauce, so I heated that up with a little asiago cheese on top and served it with soup for lunch.

  It started out like this:

   I used a quart of my homemade vegetable broth, added chopped onion and celery and carrot. Then I chopped some fresh ginger and garlic. I chopped broccoli.   I had baby spinach and a block of tofu in the fridge, so I diced the tofu and threw the spinach tofu and broccoli in at the last. I added a heaping tablespoon of miso and some ground black pepper.  It was awesome.  Hit all the right spots.

  It ended up looking like this:

   

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  As you can see by the oven clock, we had a late lunch. The Irishman was systematically taking dogs out to the reservoir to run a while, and Miss Roxie to the park. Finally we sat down to eat.  I should tell you here that we had a major breakfast of oatmeal loaded down with apples and raisins and pecans ...the kind of breakfast that will almost last you til supper, if you're not careful.

  The only thing about any of that, is that now we will have a late supper. My plan was to make cabbage rolls tonight....I have some leftover rice in the fridge and a couple of pounds (still) of ground round in the freezer. I thought that I would use up some of the leftover marinara too as the sauce. I'll need to thin it down some, of course. Serve the rolls with a side of either salad (if there's enough left in the fridge) or maybe lightly sauteed green beans with garlic. Hmm...that really sounds good. If  need be, I can always make these for dinner tomorrow...Right now I still feel really full from lunch. lol  Makes it hard to plan.

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  My son came yesterday and moved a lot of mulch. About 25 wheelbarrows full.  Put a thick layer of it along the rock wall, top and bottom.  Also along the side of the house where I planted irises. (BTW--the irises are coming up already. So are the surprise lilies. A little early.)  Then he started hauling it out back, putting it down in the walkways between the garden beds. Hopefully that will help keep the weeds down this next growing season. He made a good dent in the pile of mulch, but there's still a LOT of it there. 

  So, you can imagine my delight to read that Nathan got some of the same stuff and is putting it on his garden beds!!  I told the Irishman I thought we could, but he said no,no,no.  Now, I am vindicated.  LOL  So, just in case, I am going to put it on 3 of the 8 beds we have so far.  I'm thinking we may put in a  couple of more beds this year, as I'd love to plant beans (pintos, black-eyed peas maybe). And I'm looking forward to erasing more of the yard. MuBahahahaha...

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   Well, enough chattering for a Saturday afternoon.  It's almost dark now and I need to go clean up my little kitchen mess.  The Irishman is watching a movie called The Exorcism of Emily Rose.  (yuck).  I am reading The Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook by Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko. And daydreaming of gardens and rabbits and edamame eating deer. 

     And trying to decide if we'll be hungry enough for all the work that goes into cabbage rolls.

Living an especially blessed life, out here on Honeysuckle Hill.

 Namaste.

Happy Groundhogs Day, Happy Feast of St Brigid, Happy Imbolec...

AND...

  Happy Birthday to my dad...he would have been 87 years old today. (For some reason all of the photos of him that I have in my files seem to be missing or not showing up right...this is fuzzy...)

  The Irishman has a birthday too, on the 8th. Both Aquarius'.  I will plan a birthday/Valentine's Day celebration for him.

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  Feeling better in some ways, not so much in others. It was a beautiful 60 degrees here today, so I opened up the house and blew out the cooties again. (Supposed to have a mild front coming in, bringing us some rain) I also did laundry and hung my bed linens all outside on the line. They smell so good...my comforter too, although I had to finish it off in the dryer, because by dark, it was still a tiny bit damp.  I did a little housekeeping and cooked some supper and that was about it. But tonight I'm coughing more than I was yesterday...I actually went to bed last night with no cough medicine and was fine, after a bit of initial mild coughing. Tonight, I have been coughing since supper. yuck.

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  Nothing much new around here...my son is coming in the morning to do some outside work for me..he needs the money and I need the work done. I'm going to have him do some pruning (lilac, rose of sharons, and roses) and he's going to start moving that giant pile of mulch for me too. I'm going to have him mulch all across the top of the rock wall, and down at the base of it too, where the irises all grow.  Also along the west side of the house where I planted irises. I  want to use that mulch in the aisles of the garden beds...it will make a nice walking path.   It'll be good for him to do some hard physical labor and work off some steam, and good for me to NOT do it. lol  Win/Win.

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  Just wanted to stop in and say hello. I can't stand to read any more of the political crap--it's driving me crazy. I need to go to bed and get some sleep and it's already after 1 AM...but on the bright side, all the laundry is done (I just folded the last load) and the floors are vacuumed and the bed I'm getting ready to climb into has clean clean sheets.  Supper dishes are done too...

  Going to try to get out and go to a movie tomorrow night...hopefully One For The Money...hope you all have a great Friday....

 Namaste.