Happy Birthday, Olivia

-
Three years ago today, Olivia greeted the world and she's been a ball of energy ever since. The day was so cold with a bitter cutting wind.  Each time we went to visit Lauria and Olivia at the hospital, Hayden, Sofia, and Grant shivered and cringed as we ran across the parking lot.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA!!!

 Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter but we won't mind if it's six more weeks like we've been having.  Farmer's Almanac says we'll have a couple of short wet-snow periods then back to the mild weather.  Our clay is so wet, I'm not sure when I can set my potatoes..............will have to talk to our local farmers and see what they advise.  Got my first seed order in the mail a few days ago............exciting!!
I'll start the tomato seeds in the house in the next few days and leave them in the south window.  A first time try for me is the Broad Windsor Fava Bean.  When we were children, my father used to walk us down our road, onto a dirt road with woods on one side and a pasture with bulls and cows on the other side, along the Assabet River to the Portuguese Club.  I always feared the bulls would start snorting like they do in cartoons and charge at me even though I made sure I wasn't wearing red.  During the Portuguese festivals, such as Our Lady of Fatima, the Portuguese Club played festive music, men competed in bocce, and wonderful foods were served, my favorite being fava beans.  If I'm successful with growing them, I'll prepare them as the Portuguese do...................and I know a great Portuguese cook!  This first batch of seeds came from a small family farm that uses natural methods of keeping pests and diseases away and seeds are GMO free.  I have another list to try from Baker Creek, which has an overwhelming variety of seeds and is an education in itself just reading the descriptions and the origins of some of their seeds.

Yesterday our temperature reached 67 up here on the mountain.  The house plants went out on the porch as soon as the temp reached mid 40's and were able to stay until suppertime.  Even with this mild winter weather, I haven't seen any insects, other than ants climbing on the pieces of old orange and apple placed out for the possum's midnight snack..............until the other day when I was walking up the hill from the compost pile, not talking to anyone, just breathing........... a bug found an opening between my lips and made his way to the back of my throat.  UGH! Gag! Cough and spit!  What are the odds.....................

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
 Some days are full of doing tasks and chores that Cliff did for me.  The floor wasn't that dirty but he enjoyed saying. "Guess I need to pull out the vacuum.  I'm tripping over debris."  I thanked him.  Whenever I was in the kitchen trying out new recipes, making cookies or the double batch tapioca pudding for him, he was there beside (getting in my way sometimes) washing the utensils, pots/pans, cutting boards, drying them and putting everything back in their proper places only to have me take some things back out and  reuse again.  "I just washed that" he would state.  He learned to ask if I were through with things before he cleaned up after me.  I thanked him.  He emptied the dishwasher when it was finished in such an orderly manner (getting in my way sometimes because I was also in the kitchen working but he wanted to be there with me).  I thanked him.  Every morning he made my bed reminding me of the order that the pillows needed to be placed.  John&
Read more
-
 When I woke this morning a little after five, very rested, no head talk in the night, I wondered how to fill my morning since it was too rainy, damp, dark, dank to walk in town. Going near any store was not an option and we are under a weather alert for high winds with possible 30-40 mph gusts that could down limbs and branches.  I did 30 minutes yoga live with Hannah then while eating my oatmeal breakfast Michael texted me that he needed a childhood picture of himself for his accounting firm.  They want to update the employee bios with childhood photos.  Hmmm...........that's a challenging task.  I pulled out all the boxes from the bathroom closet, brought them to the living room where I would have plenty of room to sort and go through albums.  Looks like those boxes hadn't been move in quite some time.  The large roach hotel was dated back to April of this year and it was time to vacuum up the dead debris behind the boxes.  I actually moved everything off the floor and clean
Read more
-
Image
 Saturday mornings are Farmers Market mornings.  It's my time to stroll through the three pavilions visiting with familiar vendors and adding new ones to my routine.  There is so much wonderfully fresh produce weekly and I have had to control what I buy now or I'm throwing food away.  Last week I bought a North Georgia Candy Roaster squash. They are sweet and make delicious pies.  The old farmer who sold it to me is one I try not to engage in  conversation with during the sale. His conversation never stops while I'm cradling the heavy squash. Once I broke away from him I hooked a golf cart ride with a volunteer back to my car, placed the heavy squash in the back, and returned to the pavilions.  I've frozen many of the veggies for fall and winter.  This morning I was compelled to stop at a pipe display, not that I was thinking about taking up pipe smoking like the old mountain women, but what caught my eye and brought up unexpected childhood memories was the craftsman us
Read more