Confessions of a Grandma

Today was the day to replenish my cleaning supplies.  With the mini financial crisis brought on by Mike’s medications and his position in the donut hole, we have been looking at ways to cut back on expenses.  And of course I have been a follower of Green Clean: the Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home (Melcher Media, 2005) for a few years now. I also usually have an abundance of lavender and thyme in my garden and I can use those herbs in some of the homemade cleaners.  I put a cup or so of lavender flowers and a cup or so of thyme sprigs in a quart jar and then fill with white vinegar.  Some times I use sage or mint, too.  After that steeps for a couple of days, I strain the vinegar into a spray bottle.  It is an effective disinfectant. I use this for a daily shower spray.  If you give the tile or tub enclosure a good scrub to start with, this will keep the soap scum at bay a bit longer between major cleanings.  Put 1/2 cup whit...

This is an easy recipe that serves 8.  Three basic ingredients and some flavoring.  Share.  Don’t eat it all yourself! You know who I’m talkin’ to. It is like a big shortbread cookie, but the almonds make it Italian. Heat the oven to 350.  Butter a 10” tart pan with removable bottom or a regular 9” pie pan. Melt 2 sticks of unsalted butter (1 cup) and allow to cool. Coarsely grind one cup of unblanched, whole almonds ; set aside. In a medium sized bowl. whisk together: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1/4 tsp. of salt. Stir in the almonds. Stir   2 tsp. real vanilla extract into the melted butter and stir that mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir until butter and flour mixtures are evenly combined. Put 3/4 of the mixture into the prepared pan and press lightly with fingers. Scatter remaining crumbs over this.  Do not press. Bake 25 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Allow to cool before slicing into wedg...

Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity . –T.S. Eliot (poet) Anxiety is part of creativity, the need to get something out, the need to be rid of something, or to get in touch with something within. –David Duchovny (actor) I never considered myself to be a Creative person—Creative with a big C, the kind of person who could accomplish something so astounding that the entire world (or at least a small part of it) would stop and take notice, the kind of person who would win awards and recognition, the kind of person, you know, with actual talent. Still, there is something in me that wants to create something everyday.  That feeling has not diminished because I am retired although the focus has changed. In my mind, that urge to create (with a small c, if you will) means being open to new learning, being curious about the world around me, really seeing the world around me as it is and as it might be, being flexible in my thinking and willing to change.  It’s about giving ...

There just was nothing going on today.  I started poking though my fabric scraps and this is what I came up with. It’s a fish, if you can’t see it.  Here it is draped over a pillow, but I think that I will put it on a stretcher and use it for a wall hanging. I could have done some garden weeding, but it was kind of hot today and it is supposed to be in the 90’s tomorrow.  It has been a hot summer by Vermont standards.  Still, I haven’t had my bathing suit on since last winter.  Life has gotten a bit topsy-turvey. I also finished Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.  If you enjoy laughing at serious panic attacks, social anxiety, and marital arguments , this is a really funny book .  Be warned that I  really do have quite a sick sense of humor.

I gave my grand son back to his mother last night so I had a chance to breeze through the hundred posts that had accumulated in Google Reader before crawling into my bed.  Amazing how answering a continuous barrage of questions can be so exhausting! - Do you have a real name? -Yes. - What is it? -Olga - Olga?  That’s not a real name.  Let’s call you Melinda. ******************************* -It’s time for bed. - I’m not tired. -I am.  Mike is.  It’s time for everyone to go to bed. - Why are the elderly always tired? **************************************** -Can I have a Popsicle? -Not now, it is too close to suppertime.  You can have one for dessert. - Let me say something!  You are not listening to me! ***************************************** -Why do men like boobs? - WHAT??

I finished The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty . I have to say that I had never heard of Louise Banks, who was apparently a real silent film star who really did grow up in Witchita, Kansas, and who really did go to NYC at the tender age of 15 accompanied by a chaperone. But the book is fiction and the focus is the story of the fictional chaperone, named Cora Carlisle.  I found it an interesting story and social commentary. Before that, I read The Dovekeepers Alice Hoffman, who is one of my all-time favorite authors. It is a sad story, but a wonderful read. Another of my favorite authors is, of course, Toni Morrison.  Home is also a very sad story that is based on real historical events. Short, but powerful. Right now I am reading The Goddess Lounge by blog land’s own Margaret Finnegan .  I believe everybody in the world already reads her blog, but if for some reason you have missed it, definitely check it out. It’s fun (and only a little sad if you think ...

I forgot to tell you… I finished my quilt.  It is far from perfect, but I am still quite happy with it.  In fact, I really kind of love it. 'This is made from pre-cut charm packs and is called ‘disappearing nine patch.’  I signed up for a tutorial on Craftsy . Now I may have been bitten by a new bug.  I have wandered into a couple of area quilt shops just to run my hands over the bolts of fabric and think about what I might want to make next.  Uh oh.

The past week was Vermont summer at its finest…well, at least if you like the heat and the sunshine. Weeding the garden chores were fairly easy.  It has been dry and even the weeds are not growing quite as vigorously as usual.  Watering the tomatoes and the planters is of critical importance, though.  Mike takes care of that job when he swabs the deck each morning. I have a few tomatoes almost ready to pick.  I also picked a bunch of lavender to hang for drying.  I do like to have a sprig at bedside.  Lavender is one of those smells you either love or hate, but I love it. I spent about 8 hours doing library volunteer work spread out over the Monday-Wednesday-Friday open hours.  The advantage there—besides doing something useful in the community—is that the library is air conditioned.  This week, I covered many, many new books in plastic and entered them into the catalog system.  Our library is small, but it is very, very busy, especia...

Generally speaking, Mike and I are quite compatible.  That doesn’t mean that we agree about most things, (HA! Far from it!) but we politely agree to disagree.  As I often tell him, he does have the right to be wrong.  So if he wants to watch some black and white movie about World War I with closed captioning, I simply watch something on my television with the sound on. Since it is grilling season in Vermont, he likes to have hamburgers, hot dogs, and steaks a whole lot more than I.  But he can grill his meat selection and I’ll make something heavy on the vegetarian side.  Right now, I am in a spicy lentil salad loop.  I made up a big batch—meal planning solved for the week. However, we are never going to agree about this: Our yard is pretty open and sunny.  About 18 years ago this tree was a little sprout next to the wood shed.  It is a box elder.  In my mind this is a weed tree.  I wanted to pull it up right away, but Mike said ...

Honestly.  I never realized how much sparrows actually fly into the house.  I have my craft table set up in the garage during the summer months because it is spacious and a nice breeze blows throw.  Twice in the past week, though a sparrow has flown in while I was out there working.  The first one bashed around a bit and then found his way out, but he made sure to squawk at me like it was all my fault that he got lost. The second one had a harder time finding his way out.  He rattled around in the furnace vent for a while, then flew to the door.  For some reason he was totally flummoxed by the space between the top door sill and the open overhead door—just could not figure out how to go three inches lower and fly out.  He finally flew back into the garage and perched on the hoop of a fishing net Mike has hanging on the wall.  It must be that he was trying to tell me to scoop him up and take him out. The other day while I was at the library, M...

Is there a household task more thankless than washing old windows? I can’t think of one off hand.  I mean other jobs are a pain—shampooing the carpets, cleaning the oven—but at least they give you a momentary feeling of accomplishment and a couple of days of feeling that the house is clean.  Windows, old windows, never look clean.  There are always streaks or smudges somewhere and then they get spattered with rain within a few hours—guaranteed.  And even though I don’t think the windows look sparkling clear, there is always, always a bird that thinks the glass has disappeared so – smack – bird sludge on the pane. Here’s another thing that I resent having to spend time on every week—doing my nails.  All that fussing to shape and file and then they just keep on growing.   I personally do not view my nails as a fashion accessory and really don’t see the need to have them extend past the ends of my fingertips.  Twice a week I have to sit down and deal...

I do have a certain fondness for curry dishes, although usually it is chicken or cauliflower.  Sometimes it is good to branch out.  On a beautiful summer night, I thought supper should consist of tomatoes, olives, a bit of cheese, a lentil salad, and some spicy shrimp.  We had cherries for dessert. Have you noticed that the supermarkets are now bagging up the cherries?  They were on sale for $2.99 a pound today, but all the bags were 4+ pounds.  We will eat that many cherries, but what if you really just wanted a pound? It was such a pleasant evening to sit out on our deck and have, not exactly a picnic, but a pick-at kind of supper.  The sun has already reached its furthest North point and has started inching back South along the horizon.  The days are a minute or two shorter now.  We savor these summer evenings in Vermont. We watched our sparrow family as we ate, and realized that there are in fact two white sparrows. A recipe ...

We decided not to join the 100,000+ throng on the Burlington waterfront on July 3rd, which is when the city of Burlington celebrates.  Their fireworks are quite amazing, but we find that we have less tolerance for the crowds and the exit traffic is a nightmare. We celebrated in a quiet way on Wednesday.  We barbecued some chicken and I made a sweet potato salad. Watermelon for dessert. How 4th of July is that? Then we sat on the deck and watched a fireworks show of lightning—the cloud to cloud type that races all over the sky, complete with rolling thunder. Here on our hill, we had sprinkles.  It was a good thing that Burlington had its fireworks the night before because that area was getting the brunt of a storm called a bow echo . Sweet Potato Salad one large sweet potato, cut in bite size chunks a stalk of celery, chopped half of a red bell pepper, chopped chives or a scallion, sliced parsley Steam the sweet potato just until fork tender (6 to 8 minutes, do...

Here is a quilted place mat that I made this past spring: I use it on the bedside table of the guest room: I have also use scraps of material from other sewing projects to piece together and quilt some pot holders.  This has been the some sum total of my quilting experience to date.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just wanted to use up scraps. Was I daunted by my lack of education and experience when I for some reason took it into my head to attempt a larger quilt project?    No, no, just plunge ahead full speed.  Make it up as you go along. Here we are in progress.  Since I took this picture I have added a plain narrow border and then a wider print border.  I have cut the backing and the batting and pinned everything together.  I think it’s way too big to quilt on a regular sewing machine and I had not previously considered the possibility of hand quilting. Now I know why it is fairly common to find quilt tops, unfinish...

 

The white sparrow prompted me to do some surfing.  I learned a few things about  sparrows in general. Their Latin name is Passer domesticus.   The common name derives from the Middle English sparewe.   They are may also be referred to as spodgie, spuggy, or sprog. Sparrows are the most common wild bird on earth. They are used as a Christian symbol to signify the importance of all things in God’s eyes, and extending on that, as a symbol of God’s presence. In many European traditions, the sparrow is an omen of death.  If one flies into your house you should catch it and break its little neck or otherwise you will die yourself.  If a sparrow flies into your house and lands on your piano—that’s really bad.  You are doomed. (A sparrow did fly into our house once a couple of summers ago.  Mike picked it up and took it back outside.  Neither of us died, but thank goodness we don’t have a piano!) Both Chauser and Shakespeare referenced the s...