Elusive Celestial Events

 This year there have been celestial events seemingly in abundance. The tv meteorologists and social media have been busy letting us know when and where we can witness these amazing feats of nature. It started with all the hype about the solar eclipse in April. There have been super moons, something I never heard of when I was a kid, meteor showers, a comet, and of course the most spectacular northern lights.  I have witnessed only the eclipse and the super moon which seems to happen every few months when we are told the moon will be closer than it will be for X number of years. Seems pretty frequent to me, but then I’m not keeping track. So, when they began talking about how those of us south of the usual aurora borealis zone would be able to see them for several nights my husband and I were excited! We went outside and looked, but never saw them, in spite of seemingly everyone around us and in our town was posting pictures taken from their back yards of the beautiful light show with time stamps that showed we were outside looking at that time. Strange but true and quite frustrating! Next up was the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet, which “Meteor Mike”, our local tv station’s meteorologist explained where in the sky and the best viewing times we could all see it, and that it was viewable for several days in the evening. Again, we were excited! Guess what?  In spite of several attempts in different locations around town we never saw it. We weren’t alone, though. There was another man trying to see it on the last night at the same place we were. It’s good knowing we weren’t the only ones disappointed—misery loves company! Most recently it was the Orionid meteor shower. Once again, Meteor Mike explained where in the sky and when to see the event. Once again, we didn’t witness the event in spite of several attempts . There are meteor showers throughout the year so there’s a decent chance we might get to witness one at some point. Way back in the 1980’s (so long ago! lol) when Haley’s comet was viewable my husband and I went to the Jersey shore and set an alarm for 3:00 am, left our hotel and went onto the beach to view the once in a lifetime event through binoculars. It was a little unnerving being on the beach in total darkness listening to the waves but not seeing them, but we were young and adventurous and happy we were able to experience the comet hurtling through space. I think we’ll continue to try and witness the celestial events as they come to our area, and hopefully they won’t be so elusive.

                                                   Me viewing the eclipse in April, in my official eclipse viewing glasses.

                                                    The sky as the eclipse was happening. Pretty cool!

Poetry Month

 

I do love poetry month! It gives me an excuse to pen some ditties, (not that I really need an excuse, but still!), and challenges me to try for one a day. I don’t share them all, some I keep just for me. I do like to share them on Facebook and Instagram as my friends and family seem to enjoy them almost as much as I enjoy writing them. I also really like to take a photo of something and use it as a background for a poem. Sometimes the picture makes me think of the poem and other times I go looking for something to snap a picture of that will suit my verse. I’ve always liked sing-songy rhyming poems. I was remembering today how I spent an afternoon in my childhood with my friend Susie O. at her babysitter’s house and we wrote a rather long rhyming song like poem about the sitter’s basset hound whose name was Billy Jo. I wish I had that poem, or was still in touch with Susie. I remember how it began: “Oh Billy Jo, I just don’t know, about your toe, Oh! in the garden, I’ll beg your pardon….” Isn’t that silly? I think we were probably about 9 years old. She lived up the hill and around the corner and about half a block down from me. I recall being at her house one summer afternoon and a thunderstorm came. Her mother drove me home in her little Volkswagen Beetle. I remember both her mother and mine being angry because I didn’t run home when I heard the thunder before the rain started, it was torrential rain, too. Shortly after that, her mother remarried, her last name changed, and she moved away. It’s funny the things we remember.

This is something I am not likely to forget! Last week on Monday morning I looked out my kitchen window and was very surprised by what I saw in the branches of the Rose of Sharon—it looked like a submarine sandwich or a hot dog. Looking through the window screen it was hard to tell so I went outside and stood beneath it and saw that it was a half eaten baguette!  I took pictures and called my husband out to be a witness to the phenomenon, lest anyone think I was losing my mind and making up fantastic stories. He was just as flummoxed as I by it. We went about our errands and by the time we returned home it was gone. I still don’t know how it got there, or where it went, we assume a squirrel might be responsible, but I guess a large bird might be responsible. Of course I had to write a poem about it after one of my friends issued a challenge!

The background of this one is the Pequest River at our favorite hot dog spot, Hot Dog Johnny’s. It’s nice sitting watching the river and munching on arguably the best hotdogs ever. The Pequest feeds into the Delaware River, also there is a fish hatchery nearby, I’m pretty sure I went there with my daughter’s class when she was in elementary school. They breed the fish to stock the lakes and rivers for fishing season.

Sometimes the moon is quite bright even before the sun has completely set, and pictures never do it justice. Still, I liked the way it was framed by the lacy branches of the soon to be leaf covered Maple trees, and inspired this short verse that was liked by many of my friends. I think we all feel a bit pensive when gazing up at the moon.

So happy poetry month!

Startled!

     I went to the supermarket today for just a few things (which by the way translates to 3 bags and over $100.00) and I was engrossed in my thoughts as I approached my car with the cart and remotely unlocked it and opened the trunk.  I found a box of wipes there that I forgot to take inside the other day, slid them aside and turned to put the bags in the trunk and just about had a heart attack because there stood a tall young man! He had a friendly face under a pea cap and sunglasses, he was wearing a reflective safety vest with the supermarket's logo on it over his winter coat and warm gloves and was reaching for my bags. I caught my breath, chuckled and said that he had scared me as I neither saw nor heard him coming. He apologized and put my bags in the car for me, then took the empty cart and continued collecting them from the parking lot as he pushed them toward the building.   I giggled to myself all the way home thinking about that and it got me remembering other times when someone has startled me.

    The first instance that comes to mind is when I was maybe 10 years old and my eldest brother stood outside the bathroom door and jumped out at me yelling "Boo!" as I exited.  I remember screaming and grabbing the front of his shirt and shaking him, ripping the buttons off. Growing up with 3 brothers was an experience.  When I worked at the high school kitchen (a job I was forced to leave and never go back to because of the pandemic in 2020 and circumstances at home) there was a young man working there as well and he liked to scare us in a similar matter to my brother.  I, however, warned him not to do it to me and related the story about my brother and the ripped buttons saying that if I could do that at such a young age, imagine how much more damage I could do to someone now.  I guess my warning worked because he never did try to scare me.

    Another time that comes to mind was when my daughter was in the hospital for surgery and we were lucky enough to be moved to a room with no roommate for a few days (at my request due to  a roommate with a loud mother).  It was very quiet, she was sleeping, it was after 8:00 pm and the lights were low.  I was reading a Dean Koontz novel and was at a part in the story where a crazed rhesus monkey was getting ready to jump onto the protagonist when a voice said, "hello".  My heart just about beat out of my chest as I jumped and almost screamed.  It was the hospital chaplain come to see how we were doing and if we needed anything he could help with.  We both had a good laugh for a minute.

    We've all probably been startled awake by a ringing phone, loud clap of thunder, or sudden wind gust blowing something against the house in the middle of the night. Some people startle more readily than others, or maybe some of us just hide it better.  Who's to say, but I do think it's something everyone can relate to.

Well I know Thanksgiving is over, but wanted to share this here.  I hope everyone had a nice day filled with good food, people you love, and thankfulness for what you have.

Pictures and Poems

I try to post with some regularity on my little blog here, and every night I tell myself that tomorrow I will write a blog post but life just gets in the way and time goes by without it ever being "tomorrow", apparently.  Perhaps for the new year coming up in a few short weeks I will resolve to be a more regular poster!  It's not even that anything life shattering is going on, it's just the normal business of having family, friends, commitments, and things of that nature which we have.  Anyway, these are some pictures and short verse I have done in recent weeks, so I haven't been a total slouch! haha

We owe such a large amount of gratitude to our veterans.  We can never repay them for what they do.

This was a Sunday afternoon thought on an unseasonably warm summerlike November afternoon which found me enjoying sitting on the back deck with Hillary while my husband puttered in the yard.

These vultures were hanging out by the parking lot at my library the week before Halloween.  I took the picture not knowing what they were and got out my mother's Audubon book of birds to see what they might be.  I took that book when we were cleaning out her house after she moved into a nursing home. I like it better than searching the internet, as I prefer reading books I can riffle through and feel to reading on a tablet or electronic reader. Very old school.

The last rose blooms before we have frost that kills them and they sleep until next spring.

We do tend to rush past November headlong into December and the Christmas season.  Indeed, I have already begun shopping for Christmas gifts for my loved ones, even before I have solidified my Thanksgiving feast menu and coordinated with those who will bring dishes to the meal.  Probably I will still be doing things last minute for both events, it's just how it is!
 

Spring Has Sprung 2!

 

Lately we've been having foggy, misty mornings which turn into warm, sunny days.  I don't know if it's our proximity to the lake or our elevation, or just extra humidity but it makes for some hazardous driving and difficulty waking up. This weekend we're expecting July high temperatures and high humidity and just yesterday we were all feeling a bit chilly. It makes it hard to know how to dress one day to the next!  Oh well, at least it's never boring.  The flowers seem pretty happy with it so far, and I do love to see them blooming away.

When I see the mist it reminds me of being at my sister-in-law's house in the Adirondaks.  She ha a brook running through her land and in the early mornings in the summer you can follow how the brook runs through the forest by the mist which rises from it above the trees.  Nature is an amazing thing  There is something quieting about the fresh smell of moist pine trees in the early morning and sitting outside sipping a cup of hot tea that I feel nowhere else. I look forward to our yearly trip there, and she is a gracious hostess.  In the meantime I find things at home to quiet my mind and enjoy in nature.

The Azaleas are beautiful this year. I bought them perhaps 25 years ago at a supermarket in 4" pots.

I love these little petunia like flowers and get some every year in hanging baskets. The bees seem to really enjoy them, sometimes we get hummingbirds at them as well.

More Azaleas and a wind chime I hung this year on a broken but still useful hook on the inside corner of the deck.

A basket of mixed color petunia like flowers. It's so hard to choose just one color! So I like to get them all mixed together in one basket. 

I think the lighting in this picture of an Azalea is quite dramatic considering I took it with my phone. Soon the petals will fall off the flowers and it will just be green. Still nice, but not as showy as it is now.

MAYDAY!MAYDAY!

 MAYDAY! MAYDAY!  This is not the best picture of me, but it is my current condition. On a recent Sunday late afternoon, after a very nice day spent outside hanging windchimes and planting seeds I tripped over a box I put down and then forgot about. On the way to the floor I caught my arm on the computer chair and wrenched my shoulder out of joint. We called my daughter to drive me to the emergency room and my husband stayed with Hillary. Eight hours, several doses of strong pain killers, one nerve bock, and four attempts later my shoulder was back together and we were on the way home. I still don't know if surgery is needed, but no bones appear to be broken. I expect lots of physical therapy to be in my future at the very least. It's always something!  

The background picture was taken about a week before the leaves started budding in earnest.

This picture was taken from the middle of the board walk at Lake George at Schooley's Mountain County Park, looking toward the falls.

This one is from the same spot facing the opposite direction where a couple streams feed the lake. I went with my sister in law about a week before I injured myself. We had a great time hiking and talking and ended with going for a lunch of omelets at a diner in a nearby town. It was sunny, but cold and windy that day so the coffee we had at the diner with our eggs hit the spot!

Primroses I planted many years ago that have thrived in spite of weeds covering them most of the time in the past. I love their sunny yellow color.

Some violets growing wild along the driveway. This is the first year we've had them.

TIME

 

Time has a way of getting away from us.  It’s hard to believe that:

February is gone,

It’s been 2 years since everything shut down,

2 years since I went to work,

Decades since I was born (my birthday was the end of February),

Nearly 4 decades (or 2 score) since I became a Mrs. (still am!),

 Over 3 decades since I became a mom for the first time,

 Have had some of the same friends for 40 to 50 years! 

Don’t even get me started on how quickly the weekends go, blink your eyes on Friday afternoon and suddenly Monday’s alarm clock is ringing.  It’s always shocking to me when I realize how much time goes by without realizing its happening.

               When we are young we think that we will always be so and we have all the time in the universe to do things that we like to do, until one day we wake up and realize we qualify for an AARP membership card and a discount on a meal at IHOP on Wednesday afternoons.  Seriously, did you ever go to an IHOP on the senior discount day?  My husband and I did that fairly regulary years ago when he first qualified for the discount.  We didn’t do it because of the discount, but rather because at the time we had a respite worker come to stay with our daughter for a few hours and that’s the time that she was available so we’d meet up when he got home from work around 4:00.  We were the youngest patrons there, and it reminded me of a dining room at a senior living community with men in their best shirts smelling of Old Spice aftershave walking around telling lame jokes, women with their hair freshly done twittering in response to their mate’s attempt at humor.  There’s even a special senior menu with lower prices and smaller portions.  I kid you not. We don’t do that any longer because it’s been years since we had the respite worker.  I miss regularly having a date day but don’t miss going to IHOP!

               This weekend we turn our clocks ahead an hour so we lose an hour’s sleep, of course when I was much younger and more foolish it was an hour of party time that we lost.  Haha! Those days are long gone!  I think it’s a hard thing to try and be mindful that time is going at jet speed when days can feel so endless sometimes.  We have so much to do and so little time; or so it seems.

I took a walk at the local park recently.  I can't wait until the grass is green, but it was nice to get outside on such a beautiful day.

These are the flowers my husband gave me for my birthday, a beautiful taste of spring!

My friend sent me this picture of us when my first born was only days old.  Who are those young people?

This is me at my little birthday party last month.  We had so much fun and a lot of laughs.  I think I was being a smart aleck about something in this picture. Haha!

Hello February!

 

               Here we are at the beginning of February again, still in the heart of winter.  Recent snow and now an impending ice event are pretty typical for the beginning of this month.  At least it’s a short month, and once we get through we are just weeks away from spring.  January felt really long, as it always does; I think because we were so busy from Thanksgiving in November until ringing in the New Year that January just feels like a huge let down.  When there is nothing really special going on and the weather decides that it means business the days just seem to drag.  Maybe that’s why Groundhog’s Day has become such a big thing around here—people need to focus on something outside of themselves and celebrating a rodent seeing or not seeing its shadow is a frivolous and lighthearted thing to do.  Of course football fans are now looking forward to the super bowl and the winter Olympics are starting so we have a bit of a break from nonstop virus coverage and controversy.  It’s a relief to think of something else for a little while!

               This is my birth month as well as my dear friend’s and so there are 2 celebrations that will be happening.  We will be celebrating each other from afar since we live about a 12 hours’ drive away.  Valentine’s Day is also this month so the stores are well stocked with red and pink things—candy, cards, stuffed toys, hearts, shirts, and all kinds of kitschy things to give your love.  Restaurants are advertising their V-Day specials, pizza places are asking for preorders of heart shaped pizzas that you can share with your loved one.  Let’s not forget Presidents’ Day and the fact that it is Black History Month as well as Heart Health month. Whew!  Lots of special things in February!  It’s another nice diversion from the wintry weather we get this month.

               Even though it’s a short month, and typically a cold and stormy one, I look forward to it.  Not just because of my birthday, but the sun is getting a little stronger and higher in the sky every day, and setting later as well.  Birds sing a little more even though the trees and ground may be covered in a blanket of snow and ice.  It’s a month filled with the promise of the coming spring.

The hydrangea keeps hold of the clusters of flowers and give a little shelter to small birds through the winter and a subtle color to the snowy landscape.

 

                                                    

I really like how the sun highlights the ice on the branch of this plant through the shadow of the deck railing.

The Teeth of Winter

 

The credit for this picture goes to my friend Jenyfra Nelson, she thought that the words to my  poem fit her picture so she put them on it. I have to agree with her!  This was a snow several years ago before she moved to a different part of the state.

This was just a hot chocolate that I had one snowy cold afternoon recently. It was more of a windy kind of day with flurries so I was alone waiting for my loved ones to return home from work and daycare.  It was delcious!

                                               
This was a recent snow event.  It wasn't much, just a couple of inches but enough to be annoying and also pretty up the ground with a fresh coat of white.  The poem is from a couple years ago, but  I really like it so put it on this picture to share it.  It makes me laugh with the little bit of snark at the end. Haha!

We seem to be in the teeth of winter now.  Temperatures are below freezing most of the time and snowy, icy weather threatens every few days which is to be expected in January. My least favorite kind of storm is the wintry mix, which is what we seem to get the most of the past few years.  It includes accumulating snow, sleet, freezing rain, plain rain, and then the temperatures tumble and it ends as either layers if snow and ice or a frozen slightly slushy mess that if not cleared away before sunset freezes into lumps of ice which can only be removed by Mother Nature.  There are spots on my street and driveway that do not get much if any sun until sometime mid-February when it is higher in the sky.  I use lots of ice melter in this kind of weather.  Of course, at some point, probably in February, we will likely be in for a huge (to me) amount of snow of 18+ inches.  It’s pretty while it’s falling and spectacular when freshly fallen and the sun hits it.  At that point it sparkles like billions of diamonds and looks like a lovely Christmas card;  but then the realization hits that we must go outside and wield a snow shovel and clear off the cars and we begin grumbling about the “stupid snow”.  Like most everything else in life there’s good and not so great things about it.  The squawking heads on the television news really hype the storms that head for us, and the weather casters can barely contain themselves with the excitement leading up to and reporting during the storms.  I suppose it’s a relief to have a weather event to talk about rather than when it’s tranquil with perhaps a light breeze, sunshine and temperatures that are mild for the season but still within the norm.  They must get a little bit bored by quiet weather maps.  We do tend to give credit for weather to the forecasters on the television, as if they had any control over it.  Nice weather?  Thank you weatherman!  Rain on my picnic?  Thanks a lot, weatherwoman, sheesh!  Snow on the way? Geez, weather-people, what do you have against us?  It’s pretty funny that we do that.  They have no more control over the weather than anyone does, guess it’s a case of blaming the messenger. 

               When it’s very cold all the time I look for things to keep me cozy and warm.  Sweatshirts and hand crocheted blankets on the couch are good for that, as is sipping tea or hot chocolate (don’t forget marshmallows and whipped cream on it!) while reading a good book or watching a movie on TV.  Some people snuggle up with a pet to help chase away the chill and dullness of a gray wintry day, and some head out to the kitchen to make soup or bake cookies; all great ways to feel cozy and warm and a bit more cheerful while we wait for Spring to begin.  Some people use the inside time to start seedlings they can plant outside once the ground thaws and the sun warms everything again.  It’s something nice to look forward to and a great reminder that winter doesn’t last forever.  In a few weeks the snow will melt, the sun will be warm, and plants will begin to grow again.  Until then, stay cozy in whatever way you can.

Ramping Up

 

 

               We’re ramping up for the end of the year holidays, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror and I’m still full!  Ha ha!  Maybe it’s just that all the delicious food is sitting around my waist making my pants too tight?  Oh well! Maybe all the running around preparing for Christmas will remove some of that although part of preparations include lots of treats baking so…..oh well!  We did have a very nice time Thanksgiving Day, as we usually do.  It was weird being without brother Dan; this is the first Thanksgiving without him that we’ve been able to get together with anyone not living here, although he passed away June of 2020 during the shutdown.  We talked about him and told stories also about our loved ones no longer with us, and I think that’s part of any holiday family dinner.  It helps keep their memory alive and gives the next generation an idea of what kind of people they come from.  I think it’s comforting.

               We decorated outside the weekend after turkey day and that always is a cheery thing to do although a cold thing to do.  It was windy that day, too, so the wind chill was probably making it feel like it was in the 20’s. Of course, there had to be a quick run to the corner store for another string of lights and lots of hot coffee and turkey soup afterward to warm up. It was a fun thing to do with my daughter and her boyfriend helping.  A few days later we had a dusting of snow and that was nice, it made the deck tree and lights look pretty and Christmassy, and since it didn’t stick to the roads we didn’t mind it at all.  I wonder if we’ll have any snow for Christmas Day.  I really do like it when there’s a little snow on Christmas morning, but not so much that we need to shovel and our family can’t safely travel to get here.  I guess we shall see!

               I made a new wreath during a caregiver’s support group crafting zoom, and it was fun to do.  I hung it on the door to what will eventually be an office/guest room but is currently a holding room for things we don’t know what to do with.  I didn’t want to hang the wreath on the door because I’m afraid it wouldn’t survive the opening and closing of the front door. I plan to start decorating the inside of the house next week.

               I’ve been trying to get my gift shopping done early, partly because the news about supply chains is a little concerning, but mostly because I do have the time and would rather be able to take my time wrapping and avoid a last minute rush while I’m also trying to bake and prepare for Christmas dinner with my family.  I’m finding that the one thing stores don’t seem to be stocking this year is the candied fruits and fruit peel for fruitcake!  I happened to be in Walmart before Thanksgiving and saw the red and green cherries so I picked up a couple packs so I’d have them, but I wanted more because I also us them in a cookie recipe.  I have one more store to check and then I guess I have to either order from Amazon or just use what I have this year and make another kind of cookie.  It seems curious to me the things that are in short supply periodically since the pandemic began almost 2 years ago. It’s so hard to believe that’s how long we’ve been masking, and arguing about all things covid related, and staying away from others as much as we can while still living our lives. It’s a little bit wearying, but humans are resilient and I guess we’ll just keep on moving forward to the best of our abilities.  What else can we do, really?

I love my door cane, simple yet pretty. It was a gift from a coworker many years ago.

This is the wreath I made with the caregivers crafters. I like it, although it looks a little top heavy.

The light dusting of snow which made the deck tree look like Christmas morning.  My daughter and I made the foil chains as one big long chain when she was much younger.  I recall making them as a kid with my brother Dan.

Autumnal Words and Pictures

 

These mushrooms were growing in all areas of the yard, this particular clump was by the driveway.  I guess all the warm, wet weather we had this fall made them grow.  They're an interesting shape and color, I think.

I made these wind chimes at a Zoom caregivers craft meeting.  It was fun, but the invisible thread we used proved challenging for me.  When I removed it from the bag of supplies dropped off at my house by the moderator I figured I was going to be in trouble.  First, I couldn't find the end on the spool so ended up using a box cutter to slice some to get it started.  Then I had a tough time tying the knots to connect the shells to the ring at the top. I ended up finishing it the next morning after Hillary left because I was the only one not done at the end of the meeting, and despite assurances that nobody minded waiting for me to finish, I declined and said I'd finish in the morning because my eyes were tired which was the truth.  So anyhow I worked on it in the morning and as I'm trying to tie knots in invisible thread my brother, who is a man of many talents and writing science fiction adventure is his current project, was texting me about time travel and how it relates to the characters and the universe he's built for the story collection he's doing.  I think that pretty much sums up our lives--I try to tie knots in invisible thread so things don't fall apart, and he creates new worlds.  Somehow it all works.   

I made this cake because I had invited the above brother's family over for a Saturday afternoon of comfort food.  I made my mother's recipe macaroni and cheese (with just a couple of my own tweaks), her coleslaw, and bought some hearty rye bread because that is how she always served it and my sister in law loves that meal.  As it turned out, her mother passed away from end stage Alzheimer's and other health problems the night before so it was extra nice to be able to comfort her with our company and food.  I sent everyone home with leftovers.  I will include the recipe for the mac and cheese and coleslaw at the end of this post.

I stopped at the library one day on the way home from grocery shopping and took the picture of this tree.  Just because I thought it was pretty set against the blue sky.

It’s been a pretty busy season so far, what with things breaking down (still!) and running back and forth to feed Hillary at lunch time and just life in general.  I’m still trying to get a handle on all the clutter in the closets and laundry room and other places where it’s tucked away.  I’ve taken numerous trips to the clothing donation bins and soon I’ll be stopping at Goodwill with some household items we no longer use but are in great shape; hopefully someone else can get good use of them!  The patient hoist is dying on us and it was a couple weeks of playing phone and email tag with the repair company to get on the service visit schedule.  They are the only company in our area and the surrounding areas that does this, so they are very busy always, and I did look to see if I could call someone else but no luck so we are praying this hoist doesn’t give out all together before they can come---5 more days!  At any rate, we are gearing up for Halloween weekend which honestly I don’t expect to be much of a thing as our town has a big trick or treating event at the school to keep the kids safe and off the many roads in town without sidewalks.  Still, I bought candy just in case. Maybe this year we’ll have a few more kids, we’ll see.

Mom's Macaroni and Cheese

3 T butter + 1 T oil

3 T flour

2 C milk

3/4 - 1 C starchy water from the macaroni

16 oz block extra sharp yellow cheddar, shredded

1 16 oz pkg elbow macaroni

saltine crackers, approximately 1/2 stack

Cook macaroni according to pkg directions, retaining 1 C of the cooking liquid before draining. Set aside.  Melt butter & oil over low heat, stir in flour and cook together until very light brown. Whisk in milk a little at a time until smooth, cook until slightly thickened and small bubbles appear around the edges; stir in cheddar. Salt and pepper to taste.  Let  cook a few minutes to thicken slightly and add the starchy water, stirring to combine. Remove from heat and stir together with the drained macaroni in a large buttered casserole dish. Crush the crackers and spread over the top.  Bake in a 350* oven 30 minutes or until crackers look toasted and the cheese bubbles around the edges. Serve and enjoy!

Mom's Simple Cabbage Salad

1 small head cabbage

1/2 - 1 cup mayonnaise (depends on how moist you want it) 

1/4 cup sugar (more or less according to your taste)

Shred the cabbage and place in a bowl large enough to allow for mixing.  Sprinkle in the sugar and stir in the mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Purple and White Clover

 

            One recent day I was out walking Hillary up and down the driveway, just to do something besides sit in the house, as our van was in for repairs so we couldn’t go anywhere.  It was a hot day, this being July, and I noticed that we have a lot of white clover growing wild all over the yard.  It reminded me of those slower paced days when my first daughter was nearly a year old and our summer days were spent with the little kiddie pool in the grass where she played and discovered the world, as toddlers do.  I remember watching the honeybees in the bright sun flying from clover to clover, collecting pollen while small white and yellow butterflies floated from flower to flower drinking the nectar they contained.  It’s a lovely memory of easier, happy days when my whole world was right there in my view, no matter what else may have been happening in the world at large. That was a serene time of life.

               When I was a kid our yard had white clover growing in it, too, and I remember making little chains from it, braiding the stems together to make bracelets and garlands to wear like a crown.  My mother said that you can eat clover, but it’s better to have the larger purple kind as it’s easier to pull the petals off and taste the sweet nectar inside them.  She was right!  They used to grow along a dirt road by our house that we always referred to (and still do) as the new road.  That road connected our street with the next one up a hill and was blocked off by phone poles lying across both ends as it wasn’t open for vehicles until the town paved it many years later.  On the sides of that road grew not just the purple clover, but Queen Anne’s lace, black eyed Susan, daisies and corn flower along with other weeds I can’t name.  We’d walk along that short stretch of road with the sun hot on our backs; gravel crunching under our feet whenever we walked to the grocery store or the post office.  Picking the Queen Anne’s lace on our way home and then putting them in little glasses with colored water was one of the best things to do, and exciting to check on them periodically all afternoon while the white flowers lined up on the kitchen windowsill changed to the color in the glass. I’m glad I had a mother who taught me about flowers and growing things.  Our yard had flower beds and a small vegetable patch where we grew radishes, carrots, scallions and leaf lettuce. It’s a nice feeling to grow some of your own food, we spent time together weeding and caring for the flowers and vegetables.  One year we planted marigold seeds in a sunny spot and that year we had monarch butterflies by the dozens, drawn there by the heady yellow blooms.

               It’s amazing how just noticing what is right in front of me can evoke so many pleasant memories.  It’s a little like time travel going back in my mind to things I have forgotten about.  I think it makes for a little bit of serenity in what is a stressful time for all.

The months of this year just seem to be flying by.  Each month brings a new beginning.

         I have no trellis for the clematis, it's just growing among the pachysandra.  Things got a little out of control this year!

Oh Summer!

 

               June is almost over and summer is in full swing.  We’ve had Father’s Day and my older daughter’s birthday and now we’re bearing down on the July 4^th weekend which will likely be noisy with folks lighting off fireworks in the street and in their yards.  Lawn mowers, blowers, power washers and the sounds of road equipment mingle with the voices of children splashing in backyard pools and riding bikes in the heat of the day.  With the daily birdsong, chittering of squirrels and humming of insects flying busily from flower to flower and person to person, these are the elements of the song of summer.  Even the nights are full of sounds with peepers and tree toads, the soft swish of traffic on the highway, crunch of gravel under tires on the side street, and voices floating from patios and open windows as people relax after the heat of the day.

               When I was a kid summer meant days spent mostly outside from morning until bedtime.  Swinging, riding bikes, walking to a friend’s house or to the store with my mother, running through the sprinkler, or reading books for hours laying on a blanket in the shade are all things that filled the hot sunny days.  After dinner was for playing tag or hide and seek with my brothers and cousins, and sipping lemonade on the porch with my family as bugs swarmed around the yellow bulb in the porch light.  I remember one time when a huge bug landed right in the middle of my brother Dan’s belly and my mother said it was June bug, which is a type of very large beetle.  It was brown with shiny hard looking wings and was as large as my father’s thumbnail.  My brother screamed (as did I) and quickly brushed it off his yellow t-shirt.  We used to catch lightning bugs and put them in mayonnaise jars we had punched holes in the lid with nails and filled with some blades of grass and watch them light up the darkness like tiny lanterns later in our rooms.  Of course, if you made the air holes in the lid too big the bugs ended up on your ceiling or window screen because they just crawled out.  I don’t imagine my mother liked it very much when that happened, but I don’t remember her ever mentioning it.  I guess it just came with the territory of raising 4 kids, 3 of whom were boys and teaching them about nature.  Summer nights were filled with the sounds of my father watching TV, the whirring of the window fan, and the peepers’ high pitched singing broken up occasionally by the fire siren and howling dogs.  Our neighbor 2 doors down kept 3 or 4 hunting dogs and boy did they howl when the fire siren went off.  It was an eerie sound in the middle of the night that always gave me a hollow feeling inside.  It seems the summer is never quiet.

               As we move into July and then into August the sounds of summer change, acorns begin to fall from our oak tree onto the driveway and roof in July, crickets begin to sing and locusts and grasshoppers make themselves heard with their nonstop noise that sounds like thousands of tiny wooden beads being shaken together.  I marvel at the songs that nature sings, especially in summer.