December 24th

It was the night before Christmas

and it's raining.

Spending a quiet night at home

is the best.

I'm thinking of Mary riding a donkey into

Bethlehem being 9 months pregnant.

It was Luke's gospel that says the trip

was taken as an imperial command

because all people had to return to their

ancestral town due to taxes.

That journey is approximately 81

miles (I looked it up) and it 

supposedly took them 4 days.

Wow, I hope Luke took some 

artistic liberties with that story

and it didn't actually happen that way

he should have given poor Mary a break! 

 Some interesting tidbits from

the Christmas story..

1) Bethlehem translates from Hebrew to

"House of Bread" possibly due to 

the area's significance for

grain production.

2) Jesus, Mary and Joseph's names

translated to Hebrew are: Miriam, Yeshua

and Yossef. 

3) The name Jesus literally means 

"The Lord is Salvation" in Aramaic.

In Greek, Christ means "the anointed one"

and Messiah means "one who is anointed".

and

4) Some biblical scholars say that

Jesus was actually born in the spring.

It was changed to "Christianize"

the holidays and have them take

over the old pagan days of worship.

Christianity has endured for so long

because the message resonates

with so many people.

It's about hope.

Peace and Hope for the world.

That is my prayer for tonight.

Luke 1:26-28

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel

was sent from God to a city of

Galilee named Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named

Joseph, of the house of David;

and the virgin's name was Mary.

And he came to her and said,

"Hail Mary, full of grace

the Lord is with you!"

Merry Christmas!

 

December 17th

Our last girl passed away quietly

this afternoon.

Funny girl Lucy is gone.

It's the end of an era here.

We are sad because it's so hard to lose a pet.

I went to check in on her and she was

laying in the coop with her eyes closed.

I called to her, but she didn't stir.

I knew she was gone.

Lucy went from a scared baby to

a flock leader in her short life.

Yes, she was a feisty girl.

She and Minew were best friends,

especially since Ethel died.

Minew is walking around looking for her.

She looks so lost.

In the past few weeks,

Lucy has been slowing down and not eating much.

We did all we could but it was her time to

say goodby.

We will remember all our special girls.

To honor her, we plan to feed the

ducks at the park with the

remainder of the chicken feed.

Thanks for the memories Lucy.

You and your sisters were

the best girls.

💔

 

December 1st

I've been a bit under the weather.

This has lasted over 3 weeks and

I'm taking it slow.

I'll get back to blogging as soon as 

I feel better.

As always,

Thanks for 

perusing my humble

musings.

💋

 

October 31st - Halloween!

It's fitting to celebrate the end of summer

with an ancient harvest festival.

(No, we won't be doing that.)

The last of the summer crops would

have been gathered and the Celts would

begin their sacrifices to ensure that

next years harvest would be bountiful.

They also believed the veil that

separated the dead from the living,

would be lifted and the gods would 

play tricks on them.

Hence the "haunted" aspect of Halloween.

The Celts celebrations included

costumes of animal hides and antlers.

They also had jack-o-lantern's

made of turnips to ward off evil spirits

and treats (sacrifices) to their gods.

They had games like bobbing for apples

which was a fortune telling game 

where an eligible man would put his apple

in the water and if his apple was

bitten by the girl, he was supposed to

become her husband.

I wonder if this practice ever backfired.

Hmmm.

😆

So, on Samhain, which was actually 

November 1st, the Celts began

celebrating after the sun went down.

Why is it called Halloween?

The medieval Christians called

Samhain, All Hallows Day, and the 

day before was called All Hallows Day Eve.

It quickly became shortened to 

Hallow'een.

We call November 1st, All Saints Day

because, in medieval England,

Hallow meant Holy or, in some cases, Sainted.

The church, in order to quell the 

superstitious Irish, held an evening Mass

on All Hallows Eve.

(I wonder if that worked?)

*******************

So much for ancient harvest practices.

On our little farm, the summers brutal heat

definitely took its toll.

This is a few of the last veggies

we have growing,

2 small green bell peppers,

2 green eggplants,

and

4 very small Japanese eggplants.

We still have onions, some poblano peppers,

and a few brave little cherry tomatoes.

The culmination of hard work...

This is some of our veggies and herbs

that I dehydrated.

Thats a gallon ZipLoc bag filled to almost bursting!

It'll make the veggie/herbal blend for seasoning.

This is 14 zucchinis that were dehydrated.

I use them in sauces, salads or crumbled 

onto meat before baking.

Delicious!

*******************

Milkweed.

We have several colors but few

caterpillars partook of our offering.

Here's one little guy

that looks ravenous!

The odd couple 

eating from a can of tuna.

Lucy standing guard over the tuna can.

She is protecting it from the wild birds.

😁

Lucy checking out Minew's dinner spot.

We put the cat food up a bit higher

to keep Lucy from sampling it.

Sometimes it doesn't work... 

Sweet little Minew,

she is too meek for a cat.

**************************

Here's a tasty recipe that I've used many times.

Vanilla Extract

Pour 1 cup of vodka or rum into a glass jar 

with a top that can be sealed tightly.

I use a mason jar.

Take 2 or 3 vanilla beans and cut them

lengthwise to expose the seeds.

If the beans are too tall for the

jar, cut them in half.

You don't have to scrape the seeds out,

just place them into the jar with the liquor.

Shake the jar a bit to loosen up the seeds.

Place the jar in a darkened area for 2 months.

I give it a shake every so often to stir up the seeds.

Then it becomes the best vanilla!!

Great to make now for Christmas gifts.

Amazing..

🎃👻 💀

Happy Halloween!

💙💚💗

 

September 29th

Yes, I know...

It is supposed to be Fall,

but it never feels like

Fall in Southeast Louisiana

until at least the middle of October.

I cannot wait for cooler weather.

I spend about an hour in the morning 

weeding and tending to the gardens,

but then I have to come in for 

a cool shower!

Sometimes I don't even venture outside.

The veggies really aren't producing much.

We do get a few eggplants and some

poblano peppers, but that's it.

The onions are still growing

but the bulbs are small because

of lack of rain and intense heat.

I had a buddy following me around.

Lucy is lonely since all her sisters passed away.

When I'm outside, I always sit with

her and Minew for a while.

I try to bring a kitchen scrap

as a treat too.

Ever curious.

Ditto!

Best Buds.

They even nap together on the patio.

****************************

The Onions.

The ones in the back are shallots.

(Just a smaller onion)

Japanese eggplants.

I pulled these earlier because of the heat.

They'll ripen to a deep purple

on the window sill.

Poblanos.

Basil on the window sill.

Rosemary in bloom.

Even the flowers are edible.

*************************************

My Dendrobium orchid.

This is the second time it's bloomed,

and I'm so excited!

Beautiful!

My Succulents!

All of these guys live on my kitchen bay window sill.

I have several more in growth stages

that should be ready to 

pot soon.
 

****************************

Getting in the Fall mood!

This is Edgar, our resident raven.

He stays on the etagere year 'round.

*********************************

This tattered little guy

was resting on our mailbox pole.

He's a Polyphemus Moth.

Here's a "did you know?'

These moths have a very short life span.

The entire life cycle from 

egg, to caterpillar, to cocoon, then pupa

and finally adult moth, is only 3 months.

They only spend 1 week as a fully grown moth.

So, this little guy is actually dying.

Another fact about them is that,

they don't eat.

In fact, they don't have mouths!

They only live to reproduce!

*******************************

Oddities seen while driving around town...

Truth in advertising..

A HUGE lawn ornament!

I think this might be a part of the

Worlds Fair gate,

not really sure,

but it looks like it could be.

*****************************

And this

This is beautiful.

My sentiments exactly.

💗💚💙

 

August 30th

Today is a sad day.

Our beautiful Cooper Maran hen,

Ethel passed away.

She and Lucy were 2 of our rescue hens.

The sisters did everything together.

She was 9 years old.

Thank you girl, for letting us

have the pleasure of

raising you.

We will miss you terribly.

💔

She has been getting slower and not eating

and drinking as much lately.

We had been enhancing her feed

and adding oregano to their water.

Oregano is a natural antibiotic

and it aids their immune systems.

It just can't help with their old age issues.

When she ate the gecko yesterday,

I was happy to see that she

may have rallied and was getting back

to her old self.

It wasn't to be.

Lucy and Ethel together.

She was such a beautiful girl.

Now, Lucy is roaming the yard,

probably looking for Ethel.

I'm sure animals

feel grief too.

And then there

 was 1.

👼

 

August 29th

The projected path of Hurricane Idalia.

As far as the month of August goes,

the 29th will live in infamy.

The dates of Katrina and Ida

continue to cause PTSD-like distress.

Now we've got one in the Gulf,

but thankfully, it's not a threat to us.

It really seems like an anomaly

to just have this one dangerous

hurricane in the Gulf so far, what

 with all the consecutively hot days

that went to 100 or over!

This past Sunday the temperature

recorded at MSY was 105 degrees!!

That set a record as the highest 

ever recorded in the New Orleans area.

Along with the oppressive heat,

the rain came sporadically, if at all.

We tried to water our veggies and

ornamental plants twice a day,

but it simply wasn't enough.

Every veggie plant died, with a 

few small exceptions of some

misshaped peppers.

Slowly, due to the heat,

we are removing the dead plants 

to let the beds rest before

planting a fall crop.

There's no pictures of 

dead vegetable plants,

but I took a few shots of the 

menagerie.

Minew seems to like this weather.

In the mornings, she basks in the sun

until it gets too hot and then

she sleeps in the shade near the coop.

Ethel is enjoying the remains of an

unfortunate gecko.

Lucy is scratching her wattle.

Earlier, there was a free for all to 

get the gecko, 

but Ethel got the lions' share!

Lucy, watching a couple lovebugs.

These girls are true predatory

dinosaurs with keen eyesight.

This is the second time my

Dendrobium orchid bloomed.

I'm excited to see these beautiful flowers!

It hadn't bloomed in 2 years.

I originally thought it was root

bound, but upon reading

about the care and feeding

of orchids, they love to be root bound.

So, I'll keep it in the same pot.

😉

*************************

Some observations....

The Barbie Movie.

No, I didn't see it, but it makes you

wonder how they can get a full

length movie out of a toy?

Oh, I know about the others.

G.I.Joe, Transformers, 

Battleship, The Lego Movie

and even 

Masters of the Universe,

all decidedly bad.

But Barbie?

Ok, I guess little girls can get

positive values from playing

with her, like being anything they

want to be and cooperative play with 

her Barbie friends.

But, 

I don't remember seeing

myself in any of the

pretend Barbie roles.

and

my Barbie looked different.

This is what she looked like.

Who looks like that??

Her lashes were molded plastic.

Her nose was Wicked Witch pointy.

Her waist was ridiculously small.

And, 

her clothes were expensive.

So,

 our Mom made her wardrobe.

Whenever I tried my hand as 

couture designer,

I sewed the clothes onto her body.

To change outfits, 

I used my Mom's seam ripper!

For a Barbie house, 

we used shoe boxes that

we decorated with scrap cardboard,

construction paper and cloth.

I remember that my sister had a car, 

not the OFFICIAL one,

but it served the purpose.

We had a carrier for the doll and 

her clothes - also not an official one,

but it worked.

We used a gallon ice cream tub

as a Barbie swimming pool.

We also had a Midge doll.

I think she was Barbie's cousin.

The good thing about her

was that she could wear all Barbie's clothes.

Anyway, 

the wonder of make-believe play

escapes so quickly.

One day we were playing with

the dolls, and the next.

we were listening and dancing to 

The Monkees and The Beatles 

on a battery powered record player.

It went so fast!

Too fast.

I wish that those simple times

would have stayed longer.

*************************

Aging brings its' own issues,

like cataracts.

Ha!

Me after surgery on my right eyey.

Soon I'll have the left one done.

Then I'll be able to see!!

Yay!

*******************

💚💙💗