How Does Your Garden Grow?

Lettuce

Tomato

Eh, Waddamalone!

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

How To Carve Letters Into Stone by Hand

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Another anniversary celebration. Dinner at Elaine's restaurant. It was a beautiful night to dine al fresco on the patio.

2. Two Old Ladies were back on the road again, back to our little cabin with a screened porch at the Half Moon Motel and Cottages where we stayed last year in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire

3. We had sundaes at the Kellerhaus for supper

4. I had early morning tea while sitting on the front porch and watching the boats on the lake.

5. We went to Edicott Park. Teague went swimming. I dipped my toes in as Lake Winnipesaukee was too cold for me.

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

 

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Juggling Monkeys

I thought I would have a free and clear day. There was nothing marked on the calendar on the fridge. I'd get the Young One to school, the Eldest to work, and then I'd be able to settle in and work on the book project. Maybe even have it finished by the end of the week.

As the Young One got ready for school, I took my morning tea and booted up my square headed spouse. The hum of the disk drive spinning up was meditative. The desktop widgets blinked to life. The Heath birthday countdown calender. Big Bopper's cheery "Helloooo, Baby!", the day's weather, monthly calendar, and the day planner. My eyes popped out of my head. It couldn't be. A 10:30 Weeble doctor's appointment? We were just there a week ago! It must be a mistake! Yes, that's it! A mistake. I marked the wrong date.

Before I left to take the Eldest to work, I made the mistake of calling the Weebles. Ma answered the phone.

"Do you have a doctor's appointment today?"

"Yes, at 10:30."

My heart sank at the loss of productive me time. At least I'm good at juggling monkeys.

Ma must have been in a good mood because she was yelling at Dad when I got to the house. She went to get dressed and Dad and I had a few minutes alone.

"Did that check clear?"

"No, the bank is still holding it."

"Do you still have the letter from the postal inspector?"

"What for?"

"Because I want to give him a call."

Dad gave the letter to me, one spy making a drop to another.

Ma's good mood held as we left the house. She yelled at Dad as she tried to maneuver around the metal folding chair that was on one side of the stairs. The bricks had come loose so she wanted to make sure no one would kill themselves on the loose bricks. Course, I don't know what she'll put out so people won't kill themselves on the metal folding chair. I helped Ma down the stairs. 

She took another breath in the car and began singing the "Your Stupid" song to Dad. I looked in the rearview mirror, and he was feverishly making the sign against evil. She sang repeated choruses from the parking lot to the lobby to the doctor's waiting room.

"Enough!" I yelled at her. "This is not the time or the place for that! Sit over here!" I'm not sure whether I'm their parent or the referee. The waiting room was fairly quiet so I wandered back to say hello to the lab tech and to hold an OPD Support Group meeting.

"Weren't you here last week?"

"Yeah, that was to see the middle toe doctor. This week they're here to see the big toe doctor."

"How are they today?"

I took a cautious peek around the corner. Ma was nodding off in her chair, and Dad was flipping through the pages of a magazine. "Good. Today, they're being good. How's your mother?"

"Oh, she's just wonderful! She had an operation, and it's like she's a new woman."

I wondered if the procedure was similar to what happens to the pod people in The Body Snatchers, but as I was about to ask, patients came in so I went to sit down in the waiting room.

As I was just getting engrossed into the latest happenings of the characters in the book I'm reading, another weeble lady sat down next to me. She was terribly concerned with the goings on of the trial for the body of Anna Nicole Smith. I refrained from rolling my eyes, smiled politely and turned back to my book. She didn't seem to notice, but happily kept on chattering.

A half an hour had drifted by, but the doctor hadn't sailed in. Rather frosts my fanny the office books appointments at 10:30 but the doctor doesn't show up for another half an hour or so.

Finally the doctor arrives and calls them into the exam room. My waiting room weeble neighbor asks me what time my appointment is.

"Oh, I don't have an appointment, I'm just the chauffeur."

The Weebles are in an out before I've finished my sentence. Ma had fallen earlier in the week. This now being a weekly occurence. She handed the doctor's prescription to me. He had written a prescription for Advil and Ben Gay. 

"We can go to the Stop and Shop to get these," I told her.

Dad decided to come in to the store with me to get the "prescription filled.

"Would she mind the generic Advil and Ben Gay because it would save you a few dollars?"

"No! You better get the real stuff, because they'll be hell to pay if it's not exactly what the doctor ordered." I rolled my eyes, but got the items. We headed to the check out. "Do you need anything while we're here? Bread, milk, juice? The bank?"

He shook his head.

I dropped them off at the house and was on my way home in hopes of salvaging some of my work day.

"Before you go, give your father a ride downtown to the bank?"

"To the bank? We were just there!" (there's a branch bank at the Stop and Shop) I roared. "Why does he need to go to the bank downtown?"

"I got another check for $2000 and he needs to deposit it."

I silently borrowed a phrase from Himself. No, not horse's patoot! Help me, Lord! All morning Ma and I had been dancing around the issue of the check. Both of us desperately wanted to tell each other "I told you so!" but the jury was still out for both of us.

Dad turned me toward the door as I was still sputtering. 

"You go on. I can walk. I need to get a haircut."

Yes, a walk would do him good. It would get him away from her for a couple of hours. He didn't need to hear the "Your Stupid" song being hammered out like "The Anvil Chorus." I was going back to the Stop and Shop to pick up a bottle of baby aspirin to eat on the ride home.

Are You Looking At Me?

I opened up my watermelon Luigi's Italian ice and to my delight saw a face smiling back at me. This dude must be very intuitive with that large, third eye.

If you turned the cup 90 degrees, there was another face. This one a bit sad with a wordless "oh". I named him Vincent because he only had one ear.

T Stands For Crane Beach

The Eldest had a vacation week around the time of her birthday the second week of July. She asked if I wanted to go with her to the beach. It used to be if you wanted to go to the beach, you packed a bag, towel, and chair and drove to the beach. Now you have to make reservations. It seems local residents complained about the Summer people getting all the parking spaces. Reservations come in the form of day passes which get scooped up quickly or 2 hour passes. Nice if you live close to the beach but not practical if you have to take an hour and a half ride to get to the beach.

The week the Eldest chose also happened to be prime vacation time. I told her about the reservations, but she had no difficulties securing a day pass to Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We left early on a Monday morning, and had a little hassle with commuter traffic.  When we got to the beach, we were one of the first visitors and hardly anyone was there.

A seagull

claimed his spot on the beach

We took a selfie to remember the day

The Life Guard crew were holding contests to see who could paddle out to the buoy 

and back to shore first.

It was a perfect beach day. Though the weather was hot and humid at home, it was quite breezy at the beach. We set up our chairs and I made a little cabana to try to keep us out of the sun.

It had been decades since I had been at this beach with Teague. One thing I forgot about was this beach was notorious for Green Heads, a type of Horse Fly. They have emerald green heads and giant teeth! Apparently, the Green Heads decided to return a few weeks earlier than normal to correspond to our visit. 

By the time we left, I was covered with so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox.

I found a beautiful snail shell

There's a snack shack along with a clean beach house so we decided we didn't need to drag along a cooler for lunch. We did bring water. 

The Eldest was going to treat me to lobster sandwiches for lunch, but they were out of lobster. I opted for a veggie and hummus wrap with a peach ice tea. The wrap was delicious, but I'm not a fan of peach flavored things though I do like peaches. All that could be said about the tea was it was wet and cold. We had a nice lunch underneath the pergola.

While the Eldest was swimming, I met a young woman a few years older than the Eldest. Her name as Tanya and she had also brought her mother for an outing. We had a nice chat.

How many seas must a white gull sail

before she sleeps in the sand? (apologies to Bob Dylan)

Despite the Greenheads and the sunburns, we had a nice day at the beach.

See ya later! 

Only if the Greenheads are gone!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

 

are tracking a polar bear through Fahlo. I had been seeing ads for tracking animals and wondered if it was worth it. I thought it would make a fun gift for the girlies for their birthdays. Then my friend, Andy Tiberius Fish, said he was tracking some animals and got some for his adult sons. Well, monkey see, monkey do.

For the girlies, I chose a pink bracelet with a dolphin for the Eldest. The dolphin is a male named Per. For the Young One, I chose a blue bracelet with a penguin, another male named Luc. Why should the girlies have all the fun?

Monet is modeling the bracelet I chose to track a polar bear named Bobbie. A portion of the sale of the bracelet goes to conservation efforts for the animals.

Bobbie is an old broad like me. She's a 20 year old polar bear, one of the Churchill bears from Hudson Bay, Canada.

Once a week or so, the tracking app on the phone, sends an update map as to where your animal is 

Sometimes there are also some factoids about the animal and what they would be doing at this time of year.

There's also some tracking stats and a mini bio about the animal you are tracking. A bit of fun and a good cause to help endangered species.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We had a couple of visitors to the yard, a deer

and a hawk. The hawk was probably a Cooper's hawk as we've seen him/her from time to time.

This picture of Quill could work as a cartoon with the bunny in a thought bubble. Quill dreaming of bunny rabbits. Or the rabbit blissfully unaware how close to death s/he is.

A Monarch butterfly hung out for a while

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Keith Wann ASL - Green Eggs and Ham

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Last month, I applied for the  old people's parking pass to Massachusetts state parks. The pass is for people 60 and over, costs a one time fee of $10, and is good for life! I think they figure us Weebles aren't going to last long.

2. I made giambotta, an Italian vegetable stew, with veggies from the garden.

3. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with Chinese food take-out and hanging out in the sunroom.

4. I Skyped  Microsoft Teamed with the Young One

5.  I received some Happy Mail 

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Dance Band on the Titanic

The scam man phoned again only didn't leave a message on the voice mail. I had done a reverse look up on the first number he left, but that only told me it was a land line in NY. This time, I had a company name and number. I looked up the company in BB and found this company does business under 49 other names and all sweepstakes. Red flags went up. If one of his companies is sending junk to Ma, so are the others. The BB didn't have much useful information. The company did not have an unusual amount of complaints lodged against it.

A week or so ago, Ma had received a letter from a US Postal inspector about one of the checks she received as a prize. Because I don't get a complete story, I wasn't sure if the inspector's letter concerned the check Ma tried to cash on Tuesday.

I called Dad to try to find out the particulars. Only to find, she cashed the $250 check plus a few others she had. Seems she went crying to the neighbor next door to take her to the bank. Help me, Lord! The bank opened a second checking account for her, and all the checks were deposited into this new account. She was told she couldn't have access to the funds for at least a week.

I feel like I'm in the dance band on the Titanic.

I have a sick feeling about what will happen, but can't do anything but play the tune. The worse thing is if, on the long shot, one or all of the checks she deposited are legitimate, there will be no end to Ma's "I told you so." I can just hear her chortle and gloat. Depending on the time of day, God, Nostradamus, and her father have told her she will be a rich woman. She is, but she's looking in the wrong places.

So she took a gamble and maybe, just maybe, she beat the odds. I wish her Buona fortuna! The worst thing is the addiction will become even stronger. But Fortune's wheel swings round. Most gamblers know the House always wins. Always. In the mean time, I stand on the deck with The Dance Band on the Titanic by H. Chapin

Paper Bag Book

A day or two before the Bookbinding 101 Zoom session was to begin, I poked around the Vintage Page Designs website and found some free instructions for making hand-made books.

The book I decided to make was called a Paper Bag Book because it used a brown paper bag

as the pages of the book. I like these kinds of projects because no special materials are needed. Just stuff you have around the house and in the recycle bin.

The paper bag was cut to a standard size sheet of paper 8.5 in. x 11 in. Cuts were made so the bag could be accordion folded.

I've made this type of book many times, but I learned it as a Meander Book. The only difference being that the loose pages/flaps were glued together in this book and left to change the direction of the fold in the Meander Book (hence the name)

I raided the recycle bin to make the cover from a cookie box. I had every intention of covering the cardboard with paper, but looking at the Windmill cookie box reminded me of my Auntie.

Auntie was Ma's younger sister and a second mother to us. Since Ma worked, we spent a lot of school vacations at Auntie's until we were old enough to stay at home by ourselves.

Auntie had a white cookie jar embossed with cookies. The cookie jar had a lid with a red knob. The cookie jar was always filled. Auntie would sometimes by the spiced cookies shaped like a windmill, and a Dutch boy and girl. 

I decided to leave the cardboard as is. Glued to the front and back of the paper bag pages. I made a button and string closure to hold the book shut.

T Stands for Eldest's Birthday

 

We've always celebrated birthdays by going out to dinner. The birthday person gets to pick the restaurant. The Eldest decided she wanted to go to The UxLocale for her dinner. Good choice as the restaurant is our go-to place for special occasions.

On the way in, I got to say hello to Elaine, the owner and chef. Elaine used to work at the Worcester Art Museum where I teach. We had a nice time catching up and then a fabulous dinner.

I ordered a change of pace dish for me. Usually, macaroni (pasta) has to be in gravy (tomato sauce). I ordered a fettuccini and zucchini dish in a butter sauce. Delicious and look at the pretty dish my dinner was served on. I also had a glass of Prosecco. So festive.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

 

took a week-long, online class Bookbinding 101 sponsored by Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs and the Handmade Book Club.

Topics for the course included paper, adhesives, covers, and stitching. We made one small book that didn't require sewing, and 3 small books using 3 different stitches to bind the book.

I've made small books before so some of the techniques I knew, but I didn't know about some tools. One of the tools talked about was a book binding cover tool guide which is what Monet is holding. The tool is a 5 in one. You can square your book covers and pages, you can round corners, you can easily create neatly mitered corners, you can use the guide to make small measurements, and the narrow metal bit allows you to evenly space book covers and spine. Like this:

The tool that was featured in class was from We R Memory Keepers, but I found the same tool for a lower price at Amazon. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ink's garden looks so pretty with the morning glories and sunflowers. I was hoping the morning glories would be the Heavenly Blue variety, but they didn't take. The morning glories that came up are from the seeds Reggie Ezell gave us after completing his year long, master class, 26 Seeds in 2017.  These morning glories keep reseeding themselves. Himself calls them weeds. Weeds or not, I think they are very pretty

A beautiful sunset

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Stolen from Jean at Pushing the Envelope

Envelope with a Twist

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I heard from my high school friend who is moving from California to Arizona. The renovations to the house haven't been finished yet so they won't be moving until the end of the month. I'm glad I didn't send the new home card yet.

2. The Eldest Door Dashed donuts for breakfast.

3. The first ripe tomato and cucumber when to making a cucumber and tomato sandwich on brioche for lunch. Okay, it was Wonder Bread and still delicious

4. During bookbinding class learned about a jig to make perfect mitered corners. Found a different tool that does that plus has  4 other features for less money!

5. A lady at the hairdresser let me go ahead of her so I could have the hairdresser I like to cut my hair

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Thursday's Child

The sun was shining and though cold, it promised to be a beautiful day. Dad's eye doctor appointment had been changed from 10am to an hour earlier, and I was unable to give him a ride. I pushed down the momentary guilt and reveled in the thought I had crossed an imaginary international date line and gained a day. Since I didn't have a Weeble run, I had an extra day to work on the roll call book. Yes, it promised to be a perfect day.

I told the Young One I would do some work on the book, and we could spend the afternoon at the mall having lunch and shopping. In the middle of lettering, the phone rang and on the fourth ring the call was sent to voice mail. Most times, these calls are from telemarketers and charities. On the off chance it was the Eldest calling for a ride home from work because another water main broke, I dialed into the voice mail and saw red. Steam poured from my ears.

Seems Ma wasn't happy with the bank telling her the $250 check didn't seem kosher, she called the scam man who issued the check, and gave him my phone number so he could talk to me! I felt the blood pounding in my ears. How dare she! How dare she put me in the middle of her OPD stupidity! I paced, cursed, and spoke in tongues. I said the eff word several hundred times.

Long ago, and through the hard way, I learned to continue with my work if I was unhappy or in a bad mood, was disastrous. The work came through my hands in ugly puddles and rivers and would only need to be redone. Since I was writing in a book, I couldn't take the chance pages could easily be removed in order to redo. No sense trying to work with flames shooting from my eyes.

Just as I collected keys and kid, the phone rings. No psychic or caller ID to tell me the call was from Ma. She danced around the reason for the call. I didn't mention her scammer had called earlier. Finally, she told me about that damn check. I old her she's never to give my phone number out to anyone.

"I don't care if the Pope himself wants my number. You're not to give it out! Do you understand?"

She whined the man told her the check was good, and she should cash it. She was like a dog worrying a bone and no amount of reasoning or cajoling was going to work.

"If you want to cash the check, cash the damn check!"

I felt the familiar throbbing behind my left eye. I was determined she was not going to spoil the rest of the day. I wasn't  able to work, but I could enjoy the afternoon with my kid. It was near lunch time and I told the Young One we were going to be very naughty. We were going to have ice cream for lunch and the world could go to hell in a hand basket. The Young One was thrilled.

The weather was sunny and pleasant for a winter day. There was a feeling of Spring in the air. We went to the ice cream parlor, and I was disappointed to find there were no tables to enjoy the decadent treat inside. I wasn't adventurous enough to eat my ice cream outside. No worries. I promised the Young One we would be naughty. We headed to the bookstore. I ordered cups of chai and a double chocolate cheesecake slice for her, and a heated cinnamon bun for me. I tried to concentrate on the delight of the Young One and not Ma and that damn check. I wished I could make the draft spontaneously combust or to find a way to reason with Ma. Thursdays' child has far to go. (I was born on a Thursday.)

Doodling for Stress Release

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.

The assignment started with tracing our hand. We could fill the space with curved line contours as I did in the wrist. We also had the option of dividing the hand into sections and doodling in those spaces.

T Stands for Breakfast for Lunch

After a rainy Spring, we finally got a nice day to visit the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery where my parents are buried. We missed a visit Mother's Day, but we made it on July 8, four days after the Fourth of July which would have been my parents' 82nd wedding anniversary.

The grounds are absolutely pristine. The cemetery doesn't allow planting, windchimes, statues or personalizing the grave in any way. I'm pretty sure that after I leave flowers and when we have driven out of site, the groundskeepers swoop in and toss the flowers away.

One of the groundskeepers was in the section I was visiting. He asked if I would put my flowers on the side of the headstone instead of in front as this area was going to be mowed and it would make their job easier. No problem.

When I visit, I always visit Ma's side of the stone (the back) first. She was funny that way. Her nose would get bent out of joint if we didn't greet her first. So I still carry on the tradition. I put the flowers to the side of the stone just as the groundskeeper asked.

The flowers are always for Ma and Dad would have been pleased with that. He wouldn't have minded. He would have just been happy to see us.

Since I can't leave stones or a token to let the folks know we visited, I leave bird seed. If a seed gets blown off the stone and germinates whatever grows is just going to get mowed down. The birds or critters might get a treat, too. The Weebles would have liked that as they enjoyed watching birds at their birdfeeder. In any case, nothing permanent left. No harm, no foul.

After the cemetery, we stop at The Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way home. It was a hot day and we arrived at lunch time. I was hoping for an ice tea and a sandwich, but their lunch menu was pretty much dinner entrees and none of them interested me. One thing you can always get all day at Cracker Barrel is breakfast. We started with beignets, I had a cup of tea and

the blueberry pancake breakfast which came with egg (I had them scrambled) and bacon or sausage. The blueberry pancakes also came with blueberry syrup. Perfect!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

 

From the suggested scarecrow names from last week, Monet and I decided we liked the name Bolger. This name was contributed by Mackerull and the FSG from Trout Town.

Thank you all for the wonderful names

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Before A's hard work

After. 

He will come back to dig out the hostas and daylilies

Before

After

I didn't take a before picture, but this is the area, A weeded and mulched two weeks ago.

How does your garden grow?