Confessions of a Grandma

Our friend stopped as part of his summer road trip with his two daughters. We went to the Lake Champlain Chocolates tour--lots of free samples provided. We also went to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and took that tour, then on to Dakin Farms so the girls could get some maple sugar candy and we could all graze on their free samples of cheeses, summer sausages, jams, honey, condiments. Cheap dates, all. The LCC tour reminded me of the an article in Sunday's Burlington Free Press . It was about the mother of a bride creating a complete "localvore" wedding for her daughter and new son-in-law. The flowers were all provided from her own and friends' gardens. She found a local grain grower and used their flour to make her own lasagna noodles then stuffed that with locally grown mushrooms, frozen kale from her own garden, and locally produced cheeses. She made apple and blueberry pies and a lemon tart. The lemons were harvested from a Meyer lemon tree she has as a ho...

There was an article in the local newspaper about the latest fad of people in city neighborhoods setting up small chicken coops in their backyards. I wonder if they realize before hand just how much a rooster crows during the day. I used to think they just sounded off at sunrise to wake up the farm and then just weren't heard from for the rest of the day. When I moved to the country seventeen years ago, I found out that is not the case. One of my neighbors told me that ammonia poured around the garden perimeter will repel woodchucks as well as coyote urine--at considerably less cost. I heard a gun shot the other evening so I'm wondering if Little Chuckie had moved on to another neighbor's garden. Most of the gardeners around here would not have a qualm about shooting a woodchuck. Years ago it was not at all uncommon to see dead woodchucks draped over fence posts--I guess as a warning to others. I haven't seen that for some time and I certainly don't miss the ...

A cute little baby woodchuck made his way into my garden and thought that it was just a real nifty all-you-can-eat buffet. The lettuce--gone. The rudbeckia and about half of the liatrus--gone. The one little pepper already in progress--bitten into and spit out. How rude. Mike put an empty coffee can in the garden and shot at it with a B-B gun in an effort to scare the critter away but that had only limited effect. I went to the garden center and bought a spray that is supposed to taste nasty. It cost around twelve dollars and the ingredients list included herbs, spices, and oils. I suppose I could have made it myself. Mike said it sounded like something I would eat for supper (not being receptive to my vegetarian efforts). I also bought some coyote urine. Would you believe that cost nearly $18? If I actually harvest a tomato out of that garden it will have cost me about a hundred bucks. I'm thinking the farmers' market is the way to go in the future.

Kristen had her ninth birthday today. It seems like not that long ago--certainly not nine years--that I was rushing to Rutland on a Saturday morning to be with my daughter after getting the call that she was on the way to the hospital. A mere thirty-three hours later (and nine days past the projected due date), Kristen made her appearance. I went to visit on Tuesday and took her her presents. She didn't wait to open them. She wasn't all that surprised, but she was happy. I also got to see her complete her test for her yellow belt in her karate class. I posted a copy of the video her grandfather took of the yellow belt exercise on Facebook. Dane was disappointed that he did not get to come home with me. He wanted to "see Mike," go to the "museum," and stay at "a hotel." Well, I was disappointed, too. It's definitely getting to be time for some grandma days. These pictures are from the last visit here. Of course, after a few grandma days...

The other night Mike and I were cleaning up after supper. I had a bag of compostable garbage--the kind that has to go to the transfer station because it is heat treated to turn it into compost…NOT the kind that goes into my garden compost bin. Any way, as I was filling a dish pan, Mike holds up the now empty bag and asks if I wanted to rinse it out or just throw it into the household trash. “OMG, no! You tossed that stuff into my garden compost??” I was horrified, horrified. Mike looked at me with an “I was trying to be helpful here” look and said, “I hope you are not going to mention this your blog. I don’t want my compost incompetence exposed to the world.” Silly man. First of all, I’m pretty sure the entire world does not read my blog. Second of all, it was mildly distressing, yes, but I pulled myself together. I’m not crazy. I can get past these little upsets. And third of all, why would I even write about what he did with the garbage and how I can’t believe that he has lived with ...

I picked up a hanging planter for the finishing touch to the deck. I hope I can manage to keep it looking good. Summer is not that long, after all. I don’t fret over plants in the ground, but for some reason plants in planters throw me for a loop. I have bad planter booju…a word I made up, but it’s not a good thing. However, the nursery owner was effusive in his praise of my good taste in picking this arrangement and a random nearby customer was sure that I must be an artist for my eye in selecting this particular pot. I’m such a sucker for flattery. I plunked down the money on the spot. It’s always embarrassing to think about afterwards! 　

I picked strawberries. Luscious. I have put a whole bunch in the freezer for smoothies and such, but it seems a shame not to eat them fresh as much as possible for the short season we have them available…so we are doing our best. I took some strawberries along with a container of chicken salad and a potato salad to my neighbor for her supper. Her husband is in the hospital awaiting five way by-pass surgery. It is not considered an emergency so he has had to wait five days for a surgery time, but they would not let him leave the hospital for those five days either. I just can’t imagine what an anxiety building exercise that must be. I don’t consider a hospital a fun place to pass the time. On the other hand, the things that modern medicine can fix now is quite amazing. Still, I hope to avoid any kind of close relationship with medical personnel as much as I possibly can… If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. If turnips were watches, I’d wear one at my side. ...

There is some information about the derivation of "Fool" as the name for a fruit dessert, for what it is worth, here . I noticed that other recipes online called for two to three times as much heavy cream as I used in my recipe. I'm not a big dairy person, so I think a smaller amount works fine.

Probably no one had a doubt that I would indeed buy the American Girl doll for my grand daughter. I couldn't resist taking her out of the box and playing dress up with some of the clothes I had made. The story on Julie is that she is a San Francisco girl growing up in the hippie era. I actually visited Haight Ashbury the year after the infamous summer of love. There was really not much to see except shops and vendors. Such is the story of my life--a day late and a dollar short, always.

I've made my first attempt at furoshiki. Probably the ribbon and flower is not a traditional element, but there you go. Mike has eye strain from rolling his eyes, but oh well. I had fun.

I wish someone would explain the attraction of peonies to me. I really don't know why I keep this one in the garden except for the fact that it was the only flowering plant in the yard when I moved in. They grow like crazy through the spring, get pretty little buds, then open into huge blossoms right before a heavy rain (Always!). The stems are too weak so the blooms immediately topple over and rot on the ground. I actually do have a support cage around these, but obviously, it was not up to the job The deck is finished and things around it are generally cleaned up. I washed the kitchen window first thing this morning because I was so tired of looking at water spots and streaked sawdust. And here I am enjoying a shady spot on this beautiful (hot) sunny day. Now it was worth all that effort. I was joined by a rose breasted grosbeak also enjoying the newly refurbished deck. This morning there was a fawn running in circles in the meadow to the back of us--just running and...

Our deck is finished!! Now for the cleaning up. Ever notice how you spiff up one thing and three other things get dirty in the process. I'd wanted to wash the siding around the deck and wash the windows that were splattered by the pressure washer, but I woke up to a rainy, drizzly day. It was a good day to dust and vacuum inside. I guess it is just as well since my back is pretty darn achy from the painting on the stain, and my hands are sore. The sore hands bother me because I treated myself to some expensive merino wool to make a shawl and I'll have to wait to get it started. Old age, not for wimps, as they say. At least it teaches a certain patience.

Mike's doctor sent him for some screenings after his last physical. Mike had no complaints or concerns, but he has reached a certain age apparently where the medical profession feels compelled to look for stuff. It was major effort on my part to get him to go for a physical several years ago, but he has been good about going since. He also sees a dermatologist on a regular basis now. He always comes back and says, "Great! Everything's fine...What? This bandage? Oh, he just scraped off a suspicious spot. It's not the bad kind of cancer" OR: "Why are we being charged for surgery? Oh, they took off some polyps during my colonoscopy. No problem." Granted, these have been small things that were easily fixed, but he might have mentioned it, I think. After the tests, he got a report from the doctor. Everything looked fairly good but there was a mention of small tumors on the kidneys of "unknown origin, probably not concerning." "Mike...

I am done with the American Girl doll clothes for a while. I have a couple of patterns that I bought, but I have been adapting them to get a better variety. I have learned quite a bit about patterns and alterations through this exercise. I'm sure my grand daughter will appreciate it although I do expect she'll ask why I didn't make underwear. She's like that. Between sewing and my sanding duties on the deck, I managed to tidy up my two clothes closets. Up and down here are two shots of the closet I share with Mike. He uses a very small section, but he actually has more clothes now that he is retired since his work wardrobe was entirely jeans and tee shirts. There is little call for anything fancier in the antique motorcycle business. He had to buy "normal" clothes when we started doing some travelling. Mike will have to do some wardrobe sorting himself very soon. He has lost about sixteen pounds. I've lost a whopping three. There are some thi...

I saw an ad for a barn sale today--sewing supplies--so I made a trip to the next town to check it out. Good thing it really was in a barn, although I had some trouble locating the right place--it was raining again today. There were boxes of material. I bought a supplies of assorted zippers, seam binding, lace and ribbons and a box of large fabric scraps. The fabric will mostly be used for doll clothes, but there were also several pieces that I can use for furoshiki . That is how I am planning to wrap presents this year and some gift giving occasions are coming up in the near future.

I have been sewing away and finished some American Girl doll outfits and a couple of aprons over the past few days. I am not by nature a very mechanically inclined sort of person. I like to sew, but I have been known to put off the taking apart of my machine to give it it’s life-giving elixir. If I spend an afternoon in my sewing area, Mike is bound to ask about the last time I gave the sewing machine a good oiling. Now, I hear his voice in my head, so I try to be better about that maintenance responsibility. Whenever I expose the guts of the machinery, I am totally surprised by the amount of lint that accumulates so I’m telling myself I have to get more committed to the care of feeding of an old machine that has served me well. I learned the hard way with an old car that machines really do require oil to keep running. During the gas shortage back in the ‘70’s the lines for gas were always so long that I never felt I could ask to have the oil checked and hold other people up. Unfortu...

Our town library was not very busy on Monday when I was volunteering. It gave me a chance to scout out some books for myself. I came home with The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley for Mike. Any one who tracked my book borrowing and purchasing might conclude that I am really into history, particularly the military history of the United States and western expansion. They would be wrong, though. I brought home for myself Anne Tyler’s Noah’s Compass , Michael Pollan’s Food Rules and Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven . I’m usually more of a fiction reader, but I’ve enjoyed Michael Pollen’s other books and this one took about an hour to finish. I like that one of his rules is to enjoy yourself enough to occasionally break the rules. “All things in moderation…including moderation.” Jon Krakauer is an excellent writer, in my opinion, and Under the Banner of Heaven is about religious extremism. The focus is on the Mormons, but it really speaks to any kind of extreme fundamentalism. ...

A recent post on A Slower Pace got me thinking about recycling once again. Mike calls it my hobby. My children grew up with recycle bins under the cellar stairs. There was one for newspaper, one for cans, and one for glass (which then had to be further separated into clear, brown, green), and one for plastic like gallon milk jugs and shampoo bottles. The first time my daughter came home from her college dorm, she said, "Mom, there are people in the world who don't recycle!" She'd been amazed to see one of her roommates toss an empty shampoo bottle into the trash. You try to protect your children from the cruel realities of life, but eventually they have to leave the sheltering nest. One of the things that really put me over the edge at work was colleagues who tossed paper in the wastebasket when we had a paper recycle bin in every room. I mean I can feel my blood pressure spike just recalling that. Just pure laziness in my book. My family thinks I am a bit of a trash ...

When I first started teaching, our teachers' union had a workshop on the state retirement plan for teachers. My eyes tend to glaze over and my attention wonder when anything financial is under discussion, but somehow I did take away from that session the image of a three legged stool. The presenter said that the state teachers' pension was only one leg of a three legged stool. The other two legs were social security and personal savings. The intention was to get us thinking that the quality of our retirement was more under our control if we planned wisely and saved for the life we wanted for our retirement years. Well, who at the tender age of 21 or so believes they will ever retire? And who, on a beginning teacher's salary in those days, was very successful at socking away spare cash? And once a young family starts to grow, who even has enough for mortgage and groceries, let alone spare cash to stash in a piggy bank? No one in my social circle, for sure. But as time passed...

Our company arrived Friday evening and we had a leisurely dinner and wine and conversation. They brought Lindt Dark Chocolate with a touch of Sea Salt. One word: HEAVEN! Saturday, "the boys" left for a BMW motorcycle swap meet. Jeannie and I went to poke around an architectural salvage store and the antique mall situated above it. Jeannie purchased a little soap dish and a large green glass blown vase to put by their newly refinished fireplace. We went to the Four Corners of the Earth Cafe where we had my favorite sandwich and iced tea. Then we went for a nice long walk along the Burlington waterfront. When we all got back, we played bocce in the backyard--great fun, but just for the record, the girls had a quite spectacular win. A rout, really. We got up late this morning. A steady rain and cool air blowing in the windows made sleeping in just about the perfect activity for starting a Sunday. I made a big breakfast which included bacon for a treat. We get McKensie bacon here...

When I am appointed Queen and Supreme Ruler of ALL, we will have beautiful sunny summer days and rain during the night. See what we have to look forward to? Oh, and thee will be no oil spills and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana will be spared any further disasters . I await my appointment.

Tonight's supper was spinach pie with an olive oil crust that I had ready to bake in the freezer. I used the crust recipe from the Vegetarian Times and the filling recipe from the revised Moosewood Cookbook . It was quite good, but I hope the leftovers hold up since this was a large pie and it is rich. A small piece and salad filled me up. Mike made himself a sardine sandwich, but he forgot to take a picture of it. Simple recipe though--slice a whole wheat roll, open up a can of sardines and drain the olive oil before plopping on the roll. Top with a slice of cheese. Maybe someday I'll try one. I finished The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. Well, sort of finished as I did a whole lot of skimming. It just seemed to wander so much I found it really hard to get into. I have now started Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. I'm finding it fascinating, can hardly put it down--hence the supper of sandwiches or freezer fare.

I bought this little chest at a yard sale last weekend. I cleaned off the stickers and painted it. I plan to give it to my grand daughter to use either for doll clothes or maybe art supplies--whatever she wants to put in it. She has dropped major hints about wanting an American Girl doll, Julie--something only a grandmother who is well past the struggling young family stage could possibly provide, a grandmother who has, in the past, been known to be a fairly easy touch. Will it happen? Most likely. I got a post card in the mail today from Circus Smirkus. I took Kristen when she was about four and I'm thinking that Dane is about ready for a trip to the circus this summer. Isn't it interesting that I substituted for six days and I can spend the money earned at least twelve different ways? I do look forward to doing some fun things with the kids, though! And it is so true...when I'm done having all the fun I can stand, I can ship them back to their parents. What a gre...

It has been a rainy day here. We needed the rain since we have had no precipitation to speak of since it snowed last month. This has been the perfect kind of rain for the garden, too--slow, steady, gentle. I hope those baby vegetable plantings out back are drinking up. The flowers were ready for a good drink as well. I'm just glad I don't have to drag out the hose today. Mike's sister and her husband are coming for the next weekend so I have a list of preparations to make for that. It will be a good time and we look forward to their visit. Hey, maybe we can go all Tom Sawyer on them and get them working on scraping the deck. Or...maybe not. Maybe we can come up with something a bit more fun to do.