Me: Cliff, tomorrow is the 31st. It's New Year's Eve! Anything special you want to do? Cliff: I think I need to vacuum! The Christmas decorations are down. The outside and inside trees are packed. Wreaths are off the windows. Christmas dishes are carefully packed in their boxes. Everything is back in the garage in their usual places. This holiday has held the least interest that we've ever felt. When Mark and Jen come for Thanksgiving, Cliff likes to have the house, inside and out, decorated for them. The two trees went up. Porch lights were swagged. Wreaths were placed on the windows. Then we lost interest, desire, and it seemed to become a chore. Remaining boxes of decorations stayed on the back porch, taped up tightly. Next year will be better. HAPPY NEW YEAR! May we vacuum out the dust and old debris. Let go of this year's negative events and begin a new year with positive thoughts.
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Nature's Perfect Timing........... We got about 2" inches of icy crusty snow last night that caused some power outages and vehicle accidents. Cliff chose not to respond because our road was treacherous as were the other roads. I'm pleased he didn't. We cooked a nice turkey dinner together and have a cozy fire in the stove. No dessert. I was too lazy to make any. He'll eat the leftover tapioca pudding. Some of the snow melted but our road is still "iffy". Certain neighbors on our road never stay home and have been out-and-about since morning. Some people don't worry about Covid nor icy roads. Merry Christmas!!
Let's see how this goes............ I figured this would be a good day to play with the blog and see what I can screw up today. It's very dark still at 8:30 a.m. as rain pounds the roof bringing a fast moving cold front through. The barometric pressure is dropping quickly. Our temperature will plummet this afternoon from low 50's to 20 degrees. My hot tea sits to my left on the desk and from my peripheral vision, I watch the fog thicken in the forest as the weather changes. I recall my mother telling me how she felt like a drunk when she woke during the deepest darkest time in winter when our bodies experience a slowing and hibernating need. I've felt that the past week. The other day I craved warm cooked apples. Found a quick easy Sauteed Cinnamon Apples recipe. apples sauteed in coconut oil until softened My choice was spooned over cherry vanilla ice-cream.......... Cliff's choice was "black and white" ice-cream to
At 8:30 am........... The sun was out, granted it was only 25 degrees, and the lazy squirrel was still cured up in his squirrel house sound asleep. 8:47............ Eyes barely opened................he needed black coffee. Yesterday was lovely. Temperature hit high 60's by 3 pm. We strolled Konehetee (Cherokee for "village by the water") Park. My hip and knee were complaining so we only went around once. I'm loving these few mild days and this afternoon we'll do the walk again, maybe a bit longer. Sun feels warming and comforting. It was welcoming to see people walking their dogs, children playing basketball. we also saw a group of six friends sitting in a spaceous circle
Yesterday 7:30 am................. Early this afternoon.............. This is our kind of snow............... The Almanac mentions snow showers and snowfalls often for our area this winter. Yesterday I made a warm sweet potato with red lentil soup to comfort us in the 34 degree day. This morning we woke to 17 degrees until the sun warmed the air to 49. Thursday Mark and Jen arrived for the Thanksgiving weekend. Friday Jen and I spent the morning together in the kitchen cooking up a storm. I made the dressing with sprouted grain bread that I had dried on cookie sheets for four days and to my surprise it was the best dressing I ever made. I bought a nine pound turkey breast, not a Butterball because they're injected with stuff, but just a plain old store name turkey, and baked it in a cup of white wine and it was so moist and juicy. Even the gravy was delicious. We had peas and farmers market winter squash. I was really pleased that everything came out as we wanted, moist,
Sunday was my birthday. What more important event is there than a person's birthday? A celebration of life. (The Jane Goodall Institute) Tucked in the mailbox with the birthday cards from family and friends was a envelope from Cochran Family of Funeral Services. That was quickly discarded to the trash. Cliff and I made an old-fashioned apple crisp from a recipe online by The Chunky Chef. You can't go wrong with a chef named Chunky. Easy, juicy, and delicious especially with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream........or both. I finally picked the three chocolate peppers and grilled them with Cliff's shrimp and my mountain trout for lunch today. This morning our temperature was 27 and even with full sun was slow to rise. As it reached 60 by mid-afternoon, the sun started back down behind the mountain taking the temperature down too. So far our November days have been comfortable. Last night was sleepless for me. Shoulder and wrists inflammation sent me to the reclin
The Covid virus continues to surprise me by inconveniencing what I thought were simple things. Back in the summer I ordered my garlic for the usual mid-October planting. The garlic just arrived Monday. chesnok red My all-time favorites..........music garlic Cliff helped me put the fifty-plus cloves in rows, spacing them six to eight inches apart, before the rains arrived. Then I mulched the three areas with dead leaves, which were not hard to find here. While I was working in the garden, there was such a cacophony of bird noise and flying that the sky looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." Hundreds of black birds perched high up in a couple of trees then took flight talking and screeching overhead settling in the next trees. This went on for a couple of hours. As they flew over, pinging sounds came from the garage and house roofs and Cliff's motorcycle trailer. More dropping and bouncing
Temperature was 35 degrees when we got up around 7. Seven is over-sleeping for me. My right hip talked to me all night causing tossing and turning in tangled bed covers. After the cold morning temperatures, the day turn out lovely. We reached 65 with sunshine. I'd like November and early December to be this wonderful and I'd like the clocks to be left alone. The change doesn't serve a purpose anymore. October had two full moons which I find intriguing. Today was the last Union County, GA Farmers Market. Vendors have slowly been winding down but we show up each Saturday morning for our fresh veggie fix and to see what's happening. I have my favorite farmers that I always buy from so I wished them a healthy safe winter and I'd see them next spring. The elderly farmer I purchase sweet potatoes from sells them from his old-truck tailgate. His sweet potatoes are the best looking and tasting. I was attracted to him because of his age and his fortitude. I
Fall is a time for transition. Trees and shrubs quietly undress preparing for winter. There's a subtle browning of the earth and the intense heat of summer dwindles with a hint of autumn crispness in the early morning air. Plants are storing energy in their roots for the approaching winter months. Farmers markets display beets, carrots, and other root vegetables along with fall greens such as kale and mustard greens. A few weeks ago we bought a North Georgia Candy Roaster squash at our farmers market. Last year when I saw these beauties at the market, I couldn't imagine trying to peel and cook something that large so never bought one. This year I researched different ways to cook them and talked to the farmer about the most efficient way to bake and preserve the meat for freezing. Cleaning took place on the porch so I could brush the stray seeds into the woods. Cliff cut the pieces for me. I wanted to use the sawzall but he just used a large kitchen knife. Wasn't
After a very busy morning driving back and forth from Lowe's in Murphy to The Depot, as my Mother used to call it, in Blairsville, GA, I took my late afternoon tea to the garden chair over looking the fall garden. Before resting in the chair, the yoga deck invited me to lie supine and gaze through branches and leaves toward the sky appreciating the calm a forest brings. The leaf colors seem late this year and leaves have just begun to fall. The hummingbirds have gone south to their winter homes leaving all the beautiful red salvia for the bees. I've been cutting and drying herbs for winter use. dill, coriander seeds, basil, and holy basil for tea As of this writing, I'm not going to continue any gardens through winter. I've decided to let nature take whatever is in the garden and kitchen gardens and I'll start new in March. We'll see how I do with this.
The computer updated again leaving me in a quagmire. I'm still navigating my way through this new blog format. I supposed it's good for the brain, especially when technology is my discomfort. Cliff is involved in the funeral procession this morning for our friend, Jim. I intended to go to the viewing and then drive to the cemetery in the procession but can't drive this morning after both thumbs and wrists pained me during the night. To drive would be unsafe so I'm soaking hands in warm Epsom water. It'll take a few days to heal the joints. I keep discovering different movements or tasks that cause a problem. Yesterday I tried to open a tightly closed jar, before asking Cliff to do it for me, and by last evening the thumbs and wrists were scolding me. There's no pain or discomfort at the time so I don't know until hours later that it was too strenuous for the hands. A jar opener is the solution. Temperature was 38 degrees when we woke at 6 and wi