Bear With Me

I love bears and this fella just made me smile.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Good times at the annual Clan Gathering

2. Celebrated the Young One's birthday with dinner out and home-made lemon cake with blueberries.

3. Saw a new bird at the feeder. Black body, white markings on wings, white bars on wings, white underbelly and red or orange throat. no clue what kind of bird.

4. On the way home from class, saw the beautiful orangey-pink full moon floating in a cloudless, inky sky.  Full Thunder Moon or Full Hay Moon

5. My Cousin M sent me some family pictures I had never seen before. So thankful he shared these treasures.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

Anyway one morning Achille went to work and took the ferry to Boston. As did a lot of East Bostonians. On this particular morning he happened to lay eyes on a girl and said to himself, that's for me. So he went around the ferry seeking someone that knew who she was. He had that person or some person who knew his background and went to that woman's house and spoke to the uncle that she lived with and his wife. Asked if he could bring his friend to introduce him to the family. Evidently, things went well. Evidently, Raffaelina or Fannie went for him. They married.

My mother was born in Italy on 28. August 1891 in a town, Grottaminarda, within the area of Naples to Euplio Mottola and I did not hear her mother's name. [ed: I think Dad must have forgotten because when I was young, my mother told me my paternal great-grandmother's name was Gaetana as when I was born my grandmother wanted Ma to name me after her mother. Gaetana Maccarone]

My grandfather was born in Siena, Italy. He was educated and was an employee of the Postal Service in Italy. He was transferred to the Grottaminarda area. His home before the transfer was in the upper area of the country. The people were well off and educated. They spoke the high Italian language. He was the Postmaster in my mother to be's area.

Uncle Mike (Mary and Clara [ed: Dad's first cousins. Uncle Mike was married to Raffaella's sister, Filomena] who lived in the Grottaminarda area knew him [ed: Euplio] and spoke highly of him. He [ed: Euplio] fell in love with a woman in the town [ed: Gaetana] and married her.

They had six children. My mother, Filomena, Lucia, Vincent, Luigi, and another daughter. Here again, I did not hear the name of the last child, my aunt.

Wordless Wednesday

Tomato, Tomahto

On the first day of class, Himself tells his students to keep their cellphones off.

Himself: I don't mind if your cellphone is on, but your classmates will. Your phone will go off at the most important part of the lecture. What I do mind is your taste in music. So phones off.

Student: So what kind of music do you listen to?

Himself: Mostly 50s and 60s.

Student: Ah, Roots

Hot and Humid

How do you spell relief?

Natural Vegetable and Garden Spray

Himself made a natural vegetable and garden spray. It contains simple ingredients, no harsh chemicals, and seems to work.

As noted in the First Harvest post, most insects and critters don't like the smell and/or taste of peppermint.

He made two variations of the concoction. He didn't measure any of the ingredients.

1. Peppermint Soap and Jabenero Pepper Spray

You will need:

Recipe 1:
A spray bottle
Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap (you can find this at Target in the natural soap and lotion aisle look for Burt's Bee's stuff. The Castile soap should be in the same aisle.)
1  bag of Jabenero pepper. (There were a couple 3 or 4 peppers in the bag)
Water

The night before:

Chop peppers. Add to spray bottle.
Fill bottle with soap and water (50-50)

Spray the next morning.

Recipe 2 is the same as above. Omit peppers. Himself said he was too lazy to buy and chop more peppers.

Your yard and garden will smell minty fresh. The critters seem to stay away from the garden with or without the Jabenero peppers.Your mileage may vary.