This and That

There's a lot more basil to pick.

 I don't go to work until this afternoon, so I am devoting the morning to processing basil. I have my third batch of pesto in the food processor ready to go. However, Ward has a meeting now, so the actual chopping will have to wait because the food processer is one noisy appliance. (Our food processer, by the way, is almost 40 years old! We got it as a wedding gift.) So while I'm waiting for the go ahead with my noisy project, I've decided to check in here. 

Ward and I have two trips planned for this month. One is going to Pennsylvania to do some genealogy work for Ward's family, who were Polish immigrants around the turn of the last century. Both his grandfather and great grandfather died young, so there's not much oral history to go on. We are going with another brother and his wife and plan to explore church records, cemeteries, and the historical society. I like trips that involve exploring with a purpose - they're like scavenger or treasure hunts. This one fits the bill and I'm looking forward to it.

The other is to West Virginia for my annual family reunion picnic. We take turns among the families hosting it, but because of some difficulties, the next-in-line are not able to do it. So, I've stepped in to make it happen. The numbers have dwindled over the years, but it's not something I want to give up. Normally, we have a much longer planning horizon, but it's all doable. Thank goodness for the internet and phones or this job would be a lot more difficult than it is. We don't live close to where it's going to be held, so the logistics are a bit complicated. 

An earlier family picnic when we would gather for my grandmother's birthday every year in July. There were 13 more cousins to come after this. In case you're wondering, I am the one with the curliest hair.

I've been given the go ahead, so back to the kitchen and the wonderfully smelling basil.

Until next time...

Tuesday 4

Here's another set of questions from the Tuesday 4. Play along if you like.

1. Reading anything good lately?  How about magazines? Do you buy any?

I recently reread, The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly by Rebecca Ansari with my book club. This is a children's book but my book club liked it and it garnered a fair amount of discussion. I first picked it up after hearing about the premise that Charlie remembers his little brother, Liam, but no one else does. It was as if he hadn't existed. I won't go into the story any more so as not to give any spoilers in case anyone decides to read it. Suffice it to say, the book weaves an interesting, complex, and well written story.

As far as magazines, my husband gets a woodworking magazine which he enjoys for the tips and plans it has. I enjoy perusing it, too. 

2. Do you belong to any clubs, societies, or do you meet with friends regularly to chat?

I don't belong to any formal clubs or societies except my book club. I have other groups of people with whom I meet from time to time to catch up. Because of COVID, I have a lot of catching up to do with some of these groups.

3. Where are you from originally and if you moved why did you move? 

If you visit here very often, you know that I grew up in West Virginia. I have also lived in Virginia, New Orleans, and Houston, along with Maryland where I have lived for the last 20 years. All of these moves were because of jobs.

4. Do you like a good Western Movie? Who was your favorite movie/TV Cowboy?

I used to enjoy a good Western movie, but I haven't watched one in a long time. When I was growing up, we watched Gun Smoke every Monday night at 8 pm. I still enjoy checking in with it from time to time in reruns. But I think my favorite was/is the Rifleman because Chuck Conner reminds me of my father.

What's blooming this week?

Nature in general makes me happy, so it shows up on my blog more often than not. And here it is again-another post of flowers around my yard. What is blooming where you are?

One of several sunflowers that the birds planted.
However, tomato plants win the prize for the most plants planted by birds this year. They were everywhere. When I could, I dug them up and gave them to friends saved and a few for myself.

Lady bug on a zucchini leaf. I didn't realize that there were so many different kinds of lady bugs until I saw a chart from Cornell. This one is a North American native species, Coleomegilla maculata.

The ever-faithful begonias that I plant in front of my house each year. They require essentially no attention and just keep blooming.

Mexican sunflower 

Coneflowers

Bumble bee on allium. Notice the large pollen sacs on either side of its legs. I have never seen ones this big before or ones on both sides at once. This has definitely been a busy bee. :)

Black-eyed Susan

Marigold

Cosmos

Until next time...

Surpise!

It's not a big surprise, like we won the lottery, but enjoyable all the same. Yesterday, I saw my first bloom on a spider lily plant that a friend gave me last year. She brought them with her when she moved from California and decided that she had too many. They spent the winter in our garage because these lilies are not hearty in our cold weather. They've been outside for months now and I've been waiting and wondering when or if they were going to bloom. And yesterday, I turned around and there it was. The first interesting, delicate, beautiful bloom. When I went outside this morning to show Ward, there was another. All blooms are interesting, but it's fun to be surprised by a new-to-me one. And when I read up on them, they said they were deer resistant. A big plus.

And speaking of deer resistant plants, tomatoes do not qualify. For a while now, deer have been eating the top off of our tomato plants and have now included the tomatoes. You know, if they would just pick a couple of tomatoes and eat the whole thing, I wouldn't mind. It's the take one big bite out of several tomatoes that I don't like. Same goes for the zucchini and sunflowers. Oh, well. It's all part of the balance of nature, I guess.

Despite the fact that the deer enjoyed the tomatoes, we were able to harvest several. I spent yesterday afternoon working with them and plan to make sauce out of them today to freeze. Also, we've finally used up the last of the zucchini. We'll see if we get some more when the deer will hopefully decide they are tired of them. The cucumbers are slowly coming on, but we've been lucky that Uncle Billy has been sharing his abundant crop. We've also been blueberry picking in his patch a couple of times that have yielded some for the freezer and some for snacking. I love this time of year with fresh vegetables and fruits to be found in abundance.

Computer time is up, so until next time...

Tuesday 4, A Visit From the Future

I'm participating in the Tuesday 4 which this week has you examine yourself from the prospective of someone from the future. I've have done similar exercises to this in the past and always found them difficult. To me, everything around me seems normal, of course, so nothing seems special or worth mentioning. But each of us lives in a situation that is unique to us and has our stamp on it one way or another. So much more to say about this, but before I get too far into my thoughts, I will try to stop overthinking things and just answer. Here it goes. Play along if you'd like.

1.  Let's pretend that it is 50 years into the future, and explorers have just discovered your house, "frozen in time" exactly as it is today. Everything is preserved, even the food, but of course no one has lived there for fifty years.  What do you think would be their first reaction as they walk in the door of your house? I think they’d want to know why everything has a wire attached to it and why we have so much paper around. I don’t know where technology is going in the future, but if present trends continue, we will be in a wireless, paperless world.   2.  What would the things left in your house tell the explorers about you? First, I think they would see evidence of pets with our shredded furniture, fur balls, scratching posts, and cat food that abound. They would also see that we hold onto things if they still work even if they aren’t that attractive. That along with the primitive technology that they see, even for 50 years ago, would suggest that we do not part with our money easily.   3.  What kinds of books would they discover on your bookshelves or beside your chair/bed? They would discover many classic science fiction books since my husband still has the ones he got in high school and college. They would also find several “how to” books particularly in woodworking and gardening. Added to that would be some children’s classics, as well as popular fiction and nonfiction books-meaning books I read and liked that I found at used book sales.   4.  What things would they discover in your closets or cabinets that would make them wonder why on earth you were saving it? When we moved four years ago, we got rid of many things, so nothing really ridiculous comes to mind right now. However, they might wonder why we have so many empty coffee cans and empty cat food boxes. If I could talk to them, I would say that I’m saving the coffee cans for a children’s craft program at the library if we ever get to do programs in person again, and those cat food boxes are very sturdy and handy to use in many situations.