Confessions of a Grandma

I have been working on two different quilts and have finished the tops to both.  That is the easy part. I went to the community center to work on the large scrappy quilt.  I set up several tables so I could lay out the three layers and get them pinned together while keeping each layer as wrinkle free as possible.  It was hard work.  In the process of either setting up or taking down those tables, I did some damage.  My knee cap is black and blue and my shin too.  I managed a small cut just below my knee.  All on the left leg. It looks like I have taken up a rough and tumble contact sport instead of a sedate activity like sewing. And let me tell you, maneuvering a large quilt around a small machine to do the quilting is labor intensive as well.  First of all, it involves setting up extra tables to hold the weight.  Then there is all the adjusting and readjusting to keep all the layers smooth.  I'm hoping my arms will muscl...

Those who keep track of such things are predicting a huge influx of tourists this season.  Cold winters in the north are good for the Florida economy.   I have already noticed a big increase in the traffic around town.  Today there was a big car show at the airport and we had to take the long way around to get to the beach.  Damn Snowbirds! I can get away with outrageous statements like that because--when I am not driving around in my car with a Vermont license plate--I am often taken for a native.  That is not necessarily a compliment, but I do plan to check out the Cracker festival this year to see how far I can push it. Even before the tourists get here though, there is plenty of what the Allstate commercials call mayhem on the roads.  In fact with the number of three wheel cycles, golf carts, and those scooter things, there is plenty of mayhem even off the roads.  Those ride-in grocery carts?--mayhem in the supermarket aisles. I did hear that...

On Thursday, we made a trip to Pine Island.  Mike has an old and dear friend who bought a house there so we visited him and went out for a lunch.  Later we went to visit another friend of ours, a neighbor from Jericho, VT, who also stays on Pine Island. Venice is about thirty miles to the north of Fort Myers. I forgot to take my camera, so the pictures are from google.      You go there to fish or to grow palm trees.   I love these day trips and exploring the areas around us. 

Mike and I had our evening out at the Venice Theater.  We went to a sold out performance of Intimate Apparel, a play written by Lynn Nottage.  I might add—very well written, too. Images of from various productions of the play can be seen here. There was a certain amount of buzz as we stood in line about the play being based on a true story. A lonely woman being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous man—really not to hard to believe! It is about Ester, a 35 year old woman who makes her living sewing fine lingerie for New York society matrons and less reputable ladies of the night.  She longs for love even as she diligently stashes dollar bills in a crazy quilt.  Her savings are to be used to fulfill a dream of opening a beauty spa for black women.  In the meantime, she visits her customers and Mr. Marks, a purveyor of fine fabrics and a devout Hungarian Jew. It is set in 1905, but the themes are truly timeless—what brings us together, what keeps us apar...

I am in the middle of Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.   Perhaps you can tell from that title that the bias is strongly in favor of introverts.  Since I happen to clearly be one of the introvert persuasion, that is quite okay by me. I like my quiet time and Mike absolutely has to have his quiet time and would prefer for it to be about twenty-three and a half hours out of his day.  He loves to talk (quietly) but to one or two people at a time. I can tolerate about ten minutes of social chit chat and then I want to get down to business.  I do not mind public speaking although that did come with thirty plus years of teaching experience desensitizing me to it. So when there was an all New Englanders’ dinner last Saturday night, I surprised Mike by saying I wanted to go and he surprised me by saying he would go as well.  There was a lot of food—clam chowder, NE boiled dinner, Boston Crème Pie, apple pie with V...

Whoops.  Not alive.  Dead. As some of you may know, there was a python hunt in the Everglades a week or so ago.  Pythons have become an invasive species in southern Florida, having escaped from parks and zoos over the years.  So of course when I saw this tail sticking out from under the lanai screening, I screamed calmly called Mike to come outside and deal with it.  He thought it was probably definitely not a python. He tugged on it with a pair of tongs. And tugged some more.  It was quite stuck and already dead. It must have been trying to follow one of the lizards that can squeeze through those little drain holes with no problem at all. We looked in our Audubon book and identified it as a red (scarlet?) snake—harmless.  Unless you are a lizard, but the lizard won this time.

I am slowly but surely becoming frustrated with the spam that accumulates daily in Comments. I tried turning on the comment moderation which seemed to have the effect of letting more spam through the so-called filter.  And then there is my tendency to hit the "delete" instead of the "publish" button for legitimate comments.  I hate that!  My apologies to those whose comments did not make it into print. And why does Blogger tell me it is "saving" when I hit "delete" I wonder? Of course there is always the dreaded word verification option.  Surely there can be a better way? The one good thing I can say about it is that it does always prompt me to clean my glasses.  Sometimes that helps. Connie at Family Home and Life does a link-up where I read this post: Please Turn Off Captcha . I have decided to tweak my settings a bit.  I turned comment moderation to "sometimes" (for older posts) and I disallowed "anonymous" co...

I picked up my bicycle last Monday.  Here it is-- It’s a Raleigh Detour 3.5 in silver.  I had to wait for a 19” frame to be ordered.  I am so glad I went to a bike shop instead of trying to buy a used bike from Craig’s list.  They were good about listening to my needs—easy to ride, easy to shift, comfortable.  This is a hybrid, something I didn’t even know existed, but it really fits the bill. I took it for a short ride around the park on the first day. You can see that Mike is much more interested in taking pictures of scenery than of me on my bike. I have taken longer rides each day.  I love it! Now I will need to get a basket.  (I do have a helmet).  I told Mike that I would not get the skin hugging biking clothes, but now I see where ordinary cotton shorts could chafe on a long ride.  Well, anyway it will take me a long time to work up to a really long ride.  It’s very easy to ride, but I do noticed my legs are rubbery wh...

Tuesday, for me, is a full scale mop of the kitchen day. I really cannot complain about Mike when it comes to helping out around the house.  He does his own laundry.  He makes the bed.  He helps with the cooking.  He doesn’t dust or volunteer to scrub the bathroom, but he takes care of electrical and plumbing emergencies and always says, “Call your brother,” when carpentry skills are needed. So don’t take this as a complaint.  It is just an observation. I was saying, “Thank goodness for old fashioned mop and bucket,” because the steam cleaner I had purchased last winter just did work after being stored for the summer months.   He looked at the floor and shrugged.  “How often do you ever mop anyway,” he says (not asks). That floored me!  (I know, I know.  Allow me to amuse myself.)  Really.  He must believe we have magically self-cleaning floors.  But he does tend to believe that a job done once stays done.  I k...

What is this?  A roast in the oven?  On such a hot day?   No, it is the second step in an attempt to sterilize some drift wood.     The first step was soaking it a bucket of bleach and then drying it in the sun. And the completed project to add a bit of beachy ambiance to the place:

Can you stand another 'recipe'? This salad was a throw-together for a vegetarian meal one night when Mike wanted a pork chop.  I cooked his meat, but it was just not what I was in the mood for.  The salad is some of the rice that I served to him and some of the corn.  I added about a cup of quinoa and a a half cup of garbanzo beans.  The dressing is just lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper.  There is some fresh basil thrown in.  If I had mint, I would have liked that in it.  I had it with roasted carrots. Tasty and lots of good protein to fuel my walks.  Or bike rides.  My new bike should be ready early this coming week. Quinoa is a seed with subtle flavor.  It mixes well with grains and I will throw leftovers of this concoction over a lettuce and tomato salad to add the protein.  Quinoa contains a very high quality protein, since it contains all eight essential amino acids. Mike just gives it his pi...

Fresh fruit and vegetables are such a treat for us Vermonters and our short growing season.  I find plenty of my “winter” favorites—brussel sprouts, parsnips, and squash—right along side fresh citrus, strawberries, and local tomatoes.  Sometimes it is as though there is just too much good food around and we can’t possibly get around to eating it all.  And then there are the other times, when I just want the same thing over and over again.  Here is a current favorite. A lightly toasted slice of multi-grain bread. A very ripe couple of slices of avocado smeared on that.  A slice of red tomato.  A drizzle of really nice olive oil.  A sprinkle of sea salt and a good crank of pepper. A proper glass of ice tea—having a squirt of lemon, no sugar—and one of these sandwiches after a morning spent walking the beach.  That is the way to do lunch as far as I am concerned.

This morning's walk on the beach was a reminder to be grateful for the good things in my life. We had our coffee while watching a beautiful sunrise.  We slathered on some sunblock (well one of did, but not the one who has been treated for pre-cancerous sun-damaged spots), and made our way to the beach.  Eight in the morning and it was 74 degrees.  The sun was shining, the sky blue with soft pillows of white clouds.  The beach was lined with fishermen and behind them, a phalanx of snowy egrets.  Brown pelicans rested on the rocks jutting into the water to the north of the boardwalk.  A few plovers with their doe-like eyes Kippy toed along the shoreline, not very concerned about our presence there.  The early morning beach pickers, smiling greetings, were making their way back to the parking lot.  A couple of osprey were scooping up bits of seaweed.  Nest making time. I spotted a porpoise and we stopped to watch if it would surface again...

I met with my writing group—a small intrepid band of us who get together on a fairly regular basis at the Jericho Town Library to discuss and support each others’ writing—last night.  I attended from 1500 plus miles away through the wonders of technology via web cam. Having the ability to do this was one of the main motivations for getting my new laptop last year. So now I have no excuse for slacking off on the writing.  I was not even the farthest away as the group had a note from one of the original group members who is currently in Croatia. ***********   It looks like a good week ahead—temps above average.  Mike has gone to visit a friend today and I am going to shop for a bicycle.  I have been looking at ads for used bikes, but have decided to go to a bike shop and get a new one.  That way I will know what I am getting.  Way more expensive, but I am worth it.   Tomorrow we will make a trip to Sarasota and shop at the Costco th...

  Here is a quick way to use fabric scraps.  I found the basic directions on a site called All Free Sewing.   The pillow: Cut a 9.5” by 6.25” rectangle. Fold it in half lengthwise. Stitch round the edge, leaving a one inch gap for turning. Trim and turn. Use a knitting needle or a pencil to poke out the corners. Fill with dry rice. Tip: A funnel made from the cut off top of a plastic water bottle works well because the rice will flow more freely than through a typical kitchen funnel. Hand sew the gap closed. Tip: A few drops of essential oil really make this more pleasant to use. The pillow cover: Cut an 11” by 6.25” rectangle. Tip: This is a lot easier to do with fabric that has clear right and wrong sides.  Hem the raw edges on the 6.25 sides.   With right side facing, fold as follows:  and  Sew the sides using a quarter inch seam. Turn out one pocket and insert the completed pillow. Turn the other ...

Mike was waiting for me to get ready for the morning trip to the beach and he decided to get in a little bit of early morning yard work. Here he is wielding his “shovel.” He is moving some grapefruit around. We spent a lovely morning on the beach.  I guess he deserved it after all this intense labor.  Almost all of our snowbird friends are back.   It feels kind of like home.  Good thing, because probably all my northern family and friends are not talking to me right now. I have not been picking up shells on my trips to the beach, but I have been picking up driftwood.  I feel a project coming on. The weather is droopy just north of us and I suppose we will get the foggy, rainy weather tomorrow.  Oh, well.  I do need to do some housework and I am sure I can find a project or two for Mike if we have to be indoors for a day.

I am always paring down possessions, trying to simplify, but at the same time acquiring new possessions and hungering after new stuff.  This past year, I made many trips to the Goodwill and Salvation Army donation centers.  Really, I have lost count of the boxes and bags I hauled away.  It's a feeling of lightness that very soon leads to a feeling of "Oh!  That empty space needs to be filled!"  and off I go on a shopping trip. I bought a Himalayan salt lamp mentioned by Patti at the New Sixty on this post .  Eventually, as I meditate next to it, that void I try to fill with stuff will be healed.  That's how I justified that purchase.  That and they are really cool and I wanted one. My vacuum cleaner, the one that was supposed to pick up bowling balls with its powerful suction, but in fact did little more than push cat kibble around the kitchen floor, made its way to the scrap metal bin (even tho' it was mostly plastic as things are these days)...