After Christmas

And a Recipe 

We had a good Christmas Day. After opening presents here in the morning, we headed to Ward's father's house in VA to spend the day with his family. There were 19 of us, with ages ranging from 89 to 10 months. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday was a relaxed day with puzzle working and crafting. 

Today we need to add back some more of the food groups to all of the holiday chocolate we've been eating. We have leftover ham, so I'm hoping Wally will make his potato ham soup before he leaves today. Below is the post it first appeared in.

Until next time...

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Wally Makes Soup

Wally likes to eat. No, let me correct that. Wally loves to eat. However, he doesn't like to cook. But today, he did just that. I asked him to help me with some potato soup by peeling the potatoes. One thing led to another and in less than an hour he had created a delicious potato ham soup.

True to the family tradition, he didn't follow a recipe. He looked at couple of recipes, took inventory of ingredients on hand and started cooking. For better nutrition he added carrots and used low-fat cream cheese. He didn't use onions as a favor to Ward and he added his own special optional ingredient at the end--Stubb's Spicy BBQ Sauce. The result was a very delicious soup that reminded me of scalloped potatoes with ham. I hope this successful cooking adventure is the beginning of a new trend.

Below are basic instructions for making the soup. Detailed recipe at the end.

Chop potatoes, celery, carrots and ham.

Saute celery, carrots, and garlic before adding potatoes and water. Cook until veggies are tender. Add cream cheese and ham.                                     

Garnish with cheddar cheese and/or Stubb's Spicy BBQ sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Wally's Potato Ham Soup

Ingredients:

Oil, 1 T

Celery, 2 stalks chopped

Carrots, 3 large chopped

Garlic, 3 cloves minced

Potatoes, 7 medium--5-6 cups chopped

Water, 4 ½ cups

Chicken bouillon cubes, 2

Low fat cream cheese, 8 oz, softened and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Ham, 2 cups chopped (¾ lb)

For garnish:

Shredded cheddar cheese

Stubb's BBQ Sauce, 1 teaspoon/bowl

Saute celery, carrots, and garlic in oil until celery is starting soften.

Add potatoes, water, and bouillon cubes. Bring to boil and boil until vegetables are tender. Approximately 10- 15 minutes.

Lower heat or turn off heat on electric range and add cream cheese. Stir until melted.

Stir in ham.

Note: I added a little of Stubb's spicy BBQ sauce into my bowl. It gave the soup just a hint of spicy hotness without overwhelming the other flavors.

My mom and dad just put a little shredded cheese on theirs.

Everyone was happy. I hope you like it too.

Merry Christmas!

 ^"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.^"

"...And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." 

 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 

Thankful Sunday

I am thankful for joys in my life.

 I look for something to smile about every day. A good joke, a flower, a wave from a stranger, or a call from my son all make me happy and bring a smile. But true joys are fewer and farther between. 

I can't show you the neighborhood dogs, but I can show Miss Landers' dog
joyfully playing ball in the river.

However, I am blessed that I have an opportunity for a joyful activity most mornings. A golden retriever, Max, lives across the street, and every morning at 7 am, he has a visitor, Frodo - a smaller black dog. Frodo's owner lets him off the lead, and Max comes out to play. They romp, run, and wrestle. They exude joy as only dogs can, and it is contagious. They play for about 15 minutes while Frodo's owner stands quietly on the side. And then they all go on their merry ways. It's a great way to start the day.

Tonight, I had a rarer joy- Christmas carolers. For a few years now, the kids in the neighborhood have gotten together and gone caroling. Tonight we were serenaded by 16 kids ranging in age from preschoolers to teenagers. The older ones took care of the younger ones and pulled them in a wagon from house to house. The group had music to which they sang 4 songs. There were shy kids who hid behind others, there were bouncy ones who danced to every song, and there were serious singers who sang from the heart. Watching and listening to those kids was pure joy for me. They represented the spirit of the season in every way. And not to mention, they were too cute for words.

I can't show you the neighborhood kids, so I'll show you Charlie Brown and the gang caroling on our doormat. (Along with my toes.)

So for the free spirit and joy of playing dogs and the caroling of children, I am thankful.

Instead of...

 Or What I'm doing instead of blogging.

I haven't been showing up here so much recently because I've been doing other things. So let's see if I can remember any of them.

1. Celebrated our wedding anniversary with a trip to a B and B. Elegant surroundings with a delicious 3-course breakfast. 

The sitting room with our bedroom at the B&B.
Can you tell we were in the turret of an old Victorian house?

2. Put up Christmas decorations. And why is it that every year, after we put the lights up outside, half of one of the strands decides to go bad? And maybe LED lightbulbs will last forever, but the wires with them don't. Bah humbug!

3. Cooking more often. Cooking has never been my thing, and it takes a real effort to do it consistently. 

4. Writing our Christmas letter and sending it out. 

5. Buying and making gifts.

6. Coordinating Christmas dinner for Ward's extended family.

7. Working and enjoying the regular storytimes I am doing for the under-5 set.

8. Working on my Storyworth stories. You are probably seeing commercials for this everywhere now as a gift you should give. I got one last year. How it works is they send you a question every week for a year that you write about, and after a year, they publish it into a book. A keepsake kind of thing. I haven't written something every week, but I do have 40-some and hope to do a few more. After the year, you have a little time to edit, and then you're done. So my deadline is coming. Anyway, if I have time to do some writing at the computer, Storyworth is getting priority these days.

9. Helping Miss Landers with some projects.

10. Doing year-end tax planning. Fun stuff. :)

My time's up, so that's what you got off the top of my head in no particular order or importance.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday

 I am thankful for my curious kitties.

I have old cats. They move slowly, sleep a lot, and groom little. They look and act very much like the 19-year-old cats they are. But yesterday, their younger selves emerged when we brought out the Christmas decorations. They sniffed, pawed, and otherwise tried to dominate the different Christmas containers and bags. And for this spark of curiosity that I saw in Annie and Leo, I am thankful.

(And I'm also thankful that they aren't knocking all of the ornaments off the tree, or knocking it over, for that matter.)

Peace on Earth

Usually, I avoid the news except for the headlines, but recently, I did a couple of deep dives into news stories that left me distraught. I felt sadness, anger, hopelessness, and guilt. Too many emotions to handle at once.

I was at a talk once where the speaker explained this reaction. He said that we have only evolved to the point of getting our news at the speed of a runner from village to village - meaning our brains have only evolved to handle bad news in small bits every few days at most. So now, with thousands of places to get information 24 hours a day, our poor brains don't know what to do. Especially mine.

After a few days of reeling from the tragedies around the world, I woke up with this song in my head. "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." It was a song from my youth that I hadn't thought about in years. The message was clear. I couldn't fix the world, but I could do small things to make the day better for someone else. Maybe a small act of kindness would be enough to be a turning point for them. And that could cause a chain reaction that could have far-flung effects. That calmed my worried mind.

So let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

Let There Be Peace on Earth

by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson

Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let There Be Peace on Earth
The peace that was meant to be

With God as our Father
Brothers all are we
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.

With ev'ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me

Thanksgiving

Early anniversary flowers

Holiday excitement is in the air as we prepare to join Ward's family to celebrate this day of thanks. The smell of sausage is wafting by as Theo browns it for the sauerkraut dish he is making. I have 10 lbs of mashed potatoes heating in the crock pot, and Wally just cut up the brownies he made last night. Ward made a fruit salad and is adding the last bit of fresh fruit to it. The kitchen has been bustling over the last 24 hours, but it has been gratifying for me to watch the dance that has been going on. There seems to be a perfect coordination between staying out of each other's way and offering to help. It makes me happy to see my family working together this way, and for that, I am very thankful. 

Wally and Ward are putting extra chairs in the car, so I'd better go help get everything else ready.

However you choose to spend your day, whether it be spending it with family, taking a nap, or reflecting on all who have left us, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. 

This and That

The first bloom ever on this Christmas cactus!

 Winter weather has arrived with cold rain followed by freezing temperatures and wind. I am definitely a fair-weather outdoor person, so the cold weather has kept me indoors for the most part. However, earlier in the week, we did have an outdoor outing of sorts. We stopped at the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Shine in Emmitsburg, MD, on the way back from a funeral.

Statue of Elizabeth Seton at Shrine

Among other things, Elizabeth Seton established the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph and a school for girls in the early 1800s. She was made a saint in 1975 and was the first native-born American to receive Roman Catholic sainthood. We only visited the outside grounds but found them peaceful even though I was cold. Maybe we'll visit in the spring and include the indoor parts of the shrine. I am not Catholic, but I appreciate the history of the site.

Last weekend, we had another outing to a concert in Virginia. Along with the Fairfax Band, four broadway performers sang various songs. Boy, you could tell those women were stage performers because they could really belt out a tune. While the show was enjoyable, the best part was hooking up with a childhood friend of Ward's who played in the band. By serendipity, we sat in the same row as his family and had a nice visit. 

Back at home, we were a little late, but we pulled everything left in the garden this week. I've spent the last couple of days processing the produce with most of it going into the freezer. More to go, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Today, the four of us are going to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Theo got a turkey from work and wants to try a new way of cooking it. On Thanksgiving Day, we will go to my niece's house to spend it with Ward's family.

The first of four boxes of harvest. Three down and one more to go.

Otherwise, I've started to work on some Christmas projects and spent more time than I should with a cat on my lap. :)

Until next time...

One Trick Pony

Recently, I feel my posts are like a one-trick pony, meaning I only have one thing I post about - hikes. Well, this pony hasn't learned any new tricks, so here is another post about a hike. :)

Wally arranged for us to meet him last weekend for a hike he had scoped out for us to take together near where he lived. This was another let's-enjoy-the-outdoors-while-the-temps-are-good outing. Below are some highlights.

The name Soldiers Delight was supposedly named by soldiers from Virginia who camped in the area in the late 1600s. The site is very rocky, so I'm not sure what would have been so delightful about it.

The area is also called the Serpentine Barrens because of the serpentine rocks, which produce soil unsuitable for growing many plants and trees. The ones that can grow there are unique to the area, and it has been made into a Natural Environment Area.

Chromium was discovered here in 1827 and was mined until 1850. At one point, these mines produced almost all of the chromium in the world. There are still remnants of them scattered about the area.

Much of the trail was lined with a mass of tangled greenbrier. Luckily most of it had been cut away from the actual path.

Blackjack oak sprung up here and there among the greenbrier.

After our hike and visiting the nature center, we tried a new place for lunch. Then we parted ways. Wally went home to work, and we made our way home with a stop at Aldis. 

It was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

Until next time...

Cameras and a Hike

Most of the leaves were down in the woods, where we took our hike.

I had Wednesday off, so after some chores around the house, Ward and I decided we needed to get out and enjoy the unusually warm November weather we were having. So we set off to find the other end of a trail we had been on a few months ago. 

The trail ended at a rec center, so we went there looking for the trailhead. As it turns out, the rec center was an early voting location and was quite busy. In fact, the parking lot was almost full. Signs were everywhere, with tables of literature and people trying to help you decide whom you should be voting for. When we drove up, we also noticed a TV camera and thought the local news was probably doing a human interest story about early voting. On our way into the rec center, where we hoped we could find out more about the trail, another person was set up with a camera. She asked us if we'd like to answer some questions about early voting and the issues that were important to us. I asked who she was with, and she named something that I didn't quite get, except it had Washington in the title. (BTW, our local news channels come from Washington, DC.) I said maybe on the way out.

All of the election frenzies were starting to get to me, so we went out another door, and lo and behold, there was another person with a camera. However, she wasn't so general with her questions because all she said was, "Do you want to save democracy?" Well, that told us that this was not a neutral newsgroup but a group with an agenda. Whether or not I agreed with their agenda, I was irate with the way they were trying to manipulate the situation while trying to appear neutral. 

We got out of the fray and into the fields looking for the trailhead. While we were looking around, it was good to see that parts of Theo's butterfly garden he built there as part of his Eagle Scout project, were still thriving. 

Anyway, we ended up getting in the car and driving to another spot where we found what we were looking for. We had a lovely hike while crunching dried leaves and taking in that wonderful smell of fall. It was a nice change from the chaos we had seen earlier, and we were able to connect to the other part of the trail that we had been on earlier. Mission accomplished.

Until next time...

(And speaking of the elections, if half of what the candidates are saying about each other is true, there's no one fit to be in office.)

Leaves are a changin'

 

It's that time of year when the trees around are preparing for the dormancy of winter and shedding their leaves. But not without first putting on a spectacular show of color. I enjoy this change every year but am in special awe of it this year. I look around and can't believe how lucky I am to be able to experience the glorious show nature is putting on. Just like magic, there is an ever-changing beautiful scene to see. Every corny thing you can think of to describe the colors of the changing leaves I am thinking.

Fall has always been a special time. When we were kids, my sisters and I would walk around the neighborhood and collect colorful leaves. Then we'd take them home and dip them in hot wax to preserve them. That way, we could enjoy the color for months after the leaves outside were gone. 

After I left college, I lived along the Gulf Coast, where there were not four distinct seasons, and I missed the fall colors. I had one friend whose mother would mail her a box of fall leaves every year as a reminder of home in the northeast. When I moved back north, and my friend was still in the south, I also mailed her leaves because her mother had since passed away. 

Our tree, which turned a brilliant red in the fall, was lost in a storm last year. However, as I look out my windows, the neighbors' trees are more than making up for it. I am so lucky.

All is Well

 Ward and I are completely well after our bouts with COVID, and according to the CDC, today, I am free to move about without a mask on. After the first positive test, the game changes to days and symptoms- no negative test is needed as long as you've been without a fever for 24 hours and symptoms are improving. Current guidelines have you isolating for 5 days and wearing a mask for 5 days after that. I am on day 11 but will continue to wear a mask as I did before. We are both very thankful that we had mild cases, probably because we are fully vaccinated and boosted. And very grateful for the technology and researchers that made them possible.

I haven't been out of the house much for the last two weeks, so I had the Go-fever, as we used to call it as kids. To treat my Go-fever, Ward and I set off on a drive to look at the fall leaves, which are in all of their glory. But a funny thing happened on the way, we passed a sign for Gathland State Park, and I decided that was where we needed to be. 

Gathland belonged to George Alfred Townsend and was the site of the Civil War Battle of South Mountain. Townsend was a reporter during the Civil war and decided he liked the area while working there. Rumor has it that he got 100 acres cheap because people didn't like former battle sites. His penname was Gath, thus the name Gathland State Park.

Gathland is popular with hikers because the Appalachian Trail runs through it. In fact, Ward had been there several times on backpacking trips, but I had only been there once for a drop-off for one of those trips. We had a nice hike and saw some interesting history. And I was oh so happy to be out again. 

Below are a few more details of our outing.

The arch in the back is a memorial to journalists who lost their lives in the Civil War. Townsend built it in 1896 and it was the first of its kind. In the foreground are a few of the numerous signs describing the battle that took place there.

There were tributes to other journalists as well as those from the Civil War.

This was his wife Bessie's house. It housed a kitchen and meeting rooms. Today it is a museum about being a reporter during the Civil War.

The floor inside the museum was covered with an annotated carpet map of the area - a first for me.

Townsend had a total of nine buildings on his property. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything identifying this ruin, although it might have been a barn.

After exploring the central area, we hiked. The trail was nice, although rocky.

In fact, the whole area was rocky, and there was a prevalence of stone walls on the farms in the area. This was one of Townsend's.

An overnight shelter for through hikers on the Appalachian Trail. According to Ward, this was a nice one.

The park has many more places to explore, and we will definitely be making a return trip.

Until next time...

I've Joined the Crowd

Anemone

Just like clockwork, five days after Ward came down with COVID, I tested positive. This is my second day, and it's not too bad. I had a fever that broke last night, and I feel better today than yesterday. Now it's just the common respiratory symptoms, a runny nose, a hacking cough, and some achiness.

Ward is on day seven and is feeling much better. In fact, according to the CDC, he's free to move about with a mask, so he's out getting some groceries for us. He is very happy to be out of the house, and we are both happy that we do not have to keep up the vigilance of staying apart. In fact, the first thing we did was sit together on the couch - a welcome change from the past week.

To get some fresh air this afternoon, I looked at some of the flowers in the yard. Even though the cats protested, it was good to get off the couch. Below are a few pictures.

These mums are quite the show-stopper every year.

A lone surviving zinnia among the mums.

Various vincas are still blooming around the yard, but our first frost last week has slowed them down quite a bit.

I put these marigolds in late, so they're just starting to bloom. 

These mums were some that Miss Landers was throwing out. I take seasonal mums that people don't want and plant them with varying success. I can usually get a couple more seasons out of them before they die out.

Same story with these mums.

Until next time...

We've Joined the Majority

Ward tested positive last Saturday for COVID, which means that our family joined the many other families who have had a member with COVID. In April, over half (58%) of the US population had already had COVID infections; no doubt, this number is even higher now. In the almost 3 years since the coronavirus was discovered, our family has been able to dodge getting infected. However, even though we have been careful, the coronavirus is so widespread it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ward missed Family Day at Theo's
work because he was sick.

So far, Ward's infection is no worse than a bad cold. He feels well enough that he is getting bored because he has been sequestered to just a few rooms in the house. In the mornings, before I go to work, I make sure he has food, drink, and activities to fill his time until I get back since he's not allowed in the kitchen, the basement, our bedroom, or the den. He's working on a puzzle right now. I anticipate that in a few days, he should be good to join the world again. But this virus, if nothing else, is unpredictable. So we shall see.

In the meantime, Theo and I are symptom-free and are testing negative. And with every day that goes by, I feel more confident that things will stay that way. But we shall see.

We all feel lucky that we have been fully vaccinated and boosted because things could be much worse.

Home Again

One of our rest stops. 

We drove home yesterday from our vacation. The original plan was to do another sightseeing stop on the way home, but the weather convinced us otherwise. The first four hours of the trip were in cold rain and fog before letting up to light rain. And after about an hour into the trip, our minds had switched out of vacation mode into home mode - meaning we had stopped thinking about hikes and ice cream shops and started thinking about what we left undone at work and the chores waiting for us. Also, we missed our purring, demanding cats. So other than bathroom breaks, we powered through the trip without stops until we were home. 

We've emptied our suitcases, done the laundry, and gone through the mail. And now we have to deal with the annoyances of everyday life. For example, within the last week, Wally, Theo, and Ward and I have all had our credit cards compromised. We wonder what's going on. Is credit card theft so prevalent that this is just a coincidence? Or are we all in some database that was compromised? Whatever the case, it's a big hassle. 

And on that cheery note, 

Until next time...

Travel Log, Day 4, Finger Lakes, NY

The temperatures were in the 30s this morning, so we decided that it was time for some indoor activity, so we headed to the Corning Museum of Glass, a little over an hour away. We visited the museum many years ago and weren't sure if we wanted to go back or someplace new. However, every place we were interested in was closed on Monday, so Corning it was.

And I'm so glad that we went because the place is spectacular. As the name suggests, everything in the museum pertains to glass. There were glass art exhibits, history of glass exhibits, and glass technology exhibits, as well as glass-making demos. We had hoped to make our own glass pieces, but the workshops were filled for the day.

After a few hours there, we headed back to Ithaca with a stop at Robert Treman State Park along the way, where we hoped to take an easy hike. Information on the trails in the park was sketchy, but we started out along another gorge trail with a plan to take the rim trail back as we had done at other parks. The plan worked out, except it was not the easy hike we had hoped for. I climbed many more steep steps from one trail to the other than I had planned. I describe this as a hike that is good for me because it forces me out of my comfort zone. I probably wouldn't have gone if I had known about all of the steps before I started. But once I was in the middle of it, I had no choice but to move forward, resulting in good exercise and views I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Back in Ithaca, we did a little more sightseeing while driving around Cornell University and the city center. An interesting drive during which we probably dodged more than 100 students. I know that the students have the right away, but it would be nice if they put their phones down every once in a while and look up while walking, she says like the old person she is.

We picked up dinner from a local Italian place to eat back at our cabin in the woods. Now everyone has spread to their respective corners of the house for some downtime after being together all day. Have I mentioned that we are a family of introverts who need our alone time?

A few pictures from the day.

Corning Museum:

Wally examining an exhibit in the stained glass section.

The history of wine bottles with bottles dating back to the 1600s.

These were casserole dishes showing how the glass transparency changed at different tempering temperatures. This exhibit explained the discovery of glass ceramics.

A piece from the current art gallery.

Ward's favorite exhibit in the art gallery.

A family selfie taken in front of a thermal camera showing the effectiveness of different glass coatings and heat transmission.

Robert Treman State Park:

It's hard to get perspective in these pictures. Lucifer Falls, shown here, has a 115' drop.