Happy Thanksgiving

I'm a couple days late, but the sentiment is

still there.

Every year while I'm cooking

our family's Thanksgiving dinner,

I try to remember what I'm thankful for.

This year I decided to do it

a bit different.

Here are some of the things

I thought of,

Thankful for the ability to smell:

coffee brewing, rain, freshly cut grass,

flowers, the ocean, forests, a library,

babies, puppy breath and home cooking.

Thankful for the ability to see:

the moon and the stars, sunrises and sunsets,

mountains, especially the snowcapped ones,

clouds, flowers that have the most exquisite blooms,

the faces of my loved ones, familiar scenery,

a running stream, a summer rain shower, the ability

to read.

Thankful for the ability to hear:

Music and singing, a baby's laugh,

birds chirping, kids playing, waves on a beach, breezes,

a crackle of a fireplace, the words, "I love you".

Thankful for the ability to touch:

Fuzzy, soft and silky cloth, tree bark, warm water,

the water of the ocean, holding hands, hugs, 

a warm mug on a cold day, loved ones faces.

Thankful for the ability to taste:

tart lemons, sweet nothingness of cotton candy,

snoballs, juicy hamburgers, beignets, and

a Thanksgiving dinner with my family.

🦃

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

There's only a few veggies growing,

the bell peppers and the sweet peppers.

Our Mirliton vine is growing well and sweet basil

is too. This week I'll harvest the basil to dehydrate.

Cooler weather sometimes kills the plant.

We have a few cherry tomato plants with

flowers that we hope will produce fruit.

I'm down to 6 pints of tomato gravy that I 

cooked and froze this summer.

We are planning to do jerky

with ground beef and chicken

this winter.

Minew, doing her best job - sleeping.

If she can fit on something, she'll sit on it.

This is a container of potting soil.

The angel doesn't look pleased.

😊

 ****************************

I ran out of this this week

and now I need to make more.

I always keep it in a Mason jar and 

it comes in handy for a lot of dishes

so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Cream of Something Soup

4 cups of powdered milk

1 1/2 cup of cornstarch

1/2 cup of chicken bouillon

4 teaspoons of onion powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning

1/2 teaspoon pepper

mix well

to use: 1/3 cup of mix to 1 cup of milk, warm water or half and half.

I add it to soup, gravies, rice and chicken.

I have made a beef one that I used often too.

In place of the chicken bouillon, I add

1/2 cup beef bouillon and

1 cup nutritional yeast.

Everything else is the same.

Try it!

💚💙💗

 

October 31st Halloween!

It's 7pm and not one Trick or Treater has come

knocking at our door.

Kids do parties these days or go to 

Trunk or Treats.

Oh, well the times are changing.

💀

The Halloween decorations are 

put out in the stores by the end

of August along with school supplies.

The candy is bought, eaten and re-bought

before Halloween night.

👻

As a kid of the '60's things were

much simpler.

Sure, we had store bought costumes,

but the bulk of the kids had homemade ones.

My sister and I were ghosts and witches 

quite a lot.

Neighborhood moms made popcorn 

balls, and candy apples.

Yes, we got those crappy

circus peanuts and the inedible

orange and black wrapped taffy,

but we also got fun sized chocolate!

My sister ate her candy, 1 piece at a time

and saved it till way past Christmas!

Me?

My candy was gone before the week was out.

Then I'd sneak some of my 

sisters' stash.

😄

We'd watch the scary movies on TV

and stay up to see Morgus.

The Mummy and Frankenstein with

Boris Karloff,

The Werewolf with Lon Chaney

and Dracula with Bela Lugosi was 

such scary stuff in black and white!!

😯

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

The purple Cymbidium Orchid

in bloom, with its velvety petals,

is so beautiful.

Long Sweet Cubanelle Peppers

Some are yellow, some are turning

purple, and some are red.

There's a green Bell pepper too.

That's the last of the veggie crops.

Thai Basil

Marigolds

Sweet Basil

English Ivy

Milkweed with Monarch

Caterpillars munching the leaves. 

2 Caterpillars

2 more...

and 1 more here...

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

A few spooky decorations around the house.

When my boys were small,

we had a book with this poem 

and we'd say it every

Halloween.

I couldn't pass up the 

chance to say it again.

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

Can't forget Minew,

she accompanies me on 

my daily garden chores.

Well, it's almost my bedtime

so I'll close out the blog with

something I read a long time ago.

It's said that the veil between

the spirit world and the real

world are very thin tonight

after midnight till dawn.

So,

here's hoping

there's no 

Ghoulies and ghosties

going bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!

👻

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

💗💚💙

 

September 30th

Yet again we are watching a potential storm.

On September 11th we had Francine pass through

with damaging wind and water.

Thankfully we had our generator.

It's so loud, that it could change the 

migratory patterns of birds,

but it saved our

food in the fridge and freezer. 😁

Our power went out 5 times in total.

It came on and kept going out.

We had a small window unit

to cool us along with several fans.

It was still hot!

😓

Luckily, this is our only damage. 

The tree, a bit of the fence and the gutter on the 

corner of the house.

We are grateful that we didn't get

any flood damage.

The water came up past our sidewalk.

Several homes very close to us did flood.

We haven't picked up our

"hurricane supplies" yet,

because the season isn't over.

You never know when you'll

need the generator, extension cords,  

batteries, candles and matches again.

I can't wait for cooler weather!!

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

There's no herbs or veggies growing

because they were blown to bits

in the wind and rain.

As soon as the storm season passes,

we'll prep the beds for cool

weather crops.

I found a dead Monarch butterfly

in a pot filled with water,

the day after the storm.

😞

Minew 

We have our indoor plants 

that are doing well.

String of Pearls Succulent

Topsy Turvy Succulent

This little spiky guy is a 

Zebra Haworthia Succulent

Purple Cymbidium Orchid

Love this plant!

The CEO gave it to me on Mother's Day

a few years ago.

It blooms about once a year.

I don't do anything special,

except that it lives on my kitchen

windowsill above the sink,

and I water it about once a month.

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

Today is Monday,

so,

it's a rule in the NOLA

area that we eat red beans and rice.

My crockpot is full of beans and sausage!

The house smells heavenly!!

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

Yeah, 

there's really no leaves turning

in this area.

If you want to see autumn leaves,

you're gonna have to go to 

Hobby Lobby.

Here's a prayer that this

new storm doesn't do

any damage

and God bless the 

people affected by 

hurricane Helene.

🙏

💚💙💖

 

August 31st

(That is a Hurricane Ida picture)

These are the peak days of the season.

It's when everyone in the south begins

the dreaded  "hurricane prep".

Our main concerns are food and water,

so we begin to stock up on 

nonperishable food and gallons of water.

We southerners, usually wait until the "watch"

becomes a "warning" to begin in earnest.  

That's when the stores put their most 

wanted items front and center.

Having been through this drill

way too many times,

I try to begin in July.

Yes, I'm aware the season starts June 30,

but it almost never arrives with

a full-fledged storm and the stampede

to get water, food, batteries and gas

can be nerve rattling!

At our house, we keep a "hurricane

shelf" that has flashlights, candles,

matches and batteries.

We also get the gasoline containers ready,

because we have 2 generators that

use quite a bit of it. 

In a garage storage area, we keep the food.

It's stuff like tuna, peanut butter,

powdered milk, cereal, ramen noodles,

Franco American pasta, and canned soup.

I don't forget instant coffee, creamer

canned meat products and crackers.

Oh, and snacks too!

Here's hoping we get a repeat

of last year with no terrible storms!

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

Cucumber and Sweet Peppers

Eggplants

It's been either very rainy or really hot

so, the veggies aren't producing

very much.

😔

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

My succulents are doing really good! 

This little guy is blooming!

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

Do you remember the summer days?

These are The Lennon Sisters Paper Dolls.

My sister had a set of these.

They were famous during the 1960's.

I had one of these.

It's a Mr. Machine!

He had a blue key wind up and he 

rolled around on the floor

while opening his mouth

and making grinding gear

noises!

I loved it!

We played board games like, 

Monopoly, Parchesi.

Checkers, Chutes and Ladders,

Canasta and Sorry.

We jumped rope and skated on 

uneven sidewalks with our metal wheels.

We rode bikes till the mosquito truck

came at dusk and we had 

to go inside.

We performed plays that I wrote,

and we practiced, but only one

person came to see us 

on opening day.

We had a plastic 2 feet deep by 8 feet 

pool that we splashed in until

it needed to be refilled.

My Mom wouldn't allow us

to get back in the water directly 

after lunch, Ha!

We played our transistor radios 

and a portable record player

to listen and sing along to the Beatles.

We'd save money to buy a 45

record that we played

over and over.

Those days were so uncomplicated,

and it seemed that the summer was 

soooo long!

It was such a simple time.

I'm grateful for my sister and 

the friends we had

that we experienced that together.

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

I'm in the SALT corner!

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

Bye August!

Even on dark days,

stand tall

and find the

sunshine!

💗💙💚

July 31st

 

Mornin'

This little guy reminded me that,

even at my advanced age,

I have unanswered questions.

Like...

Why didn't that guy give that poor horse a

name after riding through the desert?

Why didn't that other guy just consult his 

watch instead of asking "does anyone

really know what time it is?'

Or how about the woman asking if

we know the way to San Jose?

Get a map!

Stevie Wonder asked "isn't she lovely?', but

he's blind, so we get that one.

No, I don't know who wrote the book of love

or who let the dogs out!

I'm not lonesome tonight either.

I don't even know what it's all about, Alfie.

The Beatles asked if I want to know 

a secret, sure and I promise not to tell.

I also don't believe in magic or know

how much that doggie in the window costs.

There may be someone who is actually

afraid of Virginia Woolf and knows the

actual location of Waldo or the perpetrator

who framed Roger Rabbit.

Then again as these questions remain 

unanswered, we may never know

whatever happened to Baby Jane either.

Answers! 

We need answers!

😁

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

Minew says, Hi!

Harvests this month...

Sweet peppers, cucumbers,

and eggplants.

Cucumbers

Dried herbs,

basil, oregano, thyme, sage,

Thai basil, and rosemary.

More peppers.

I dehydrated some to turn into powder.

It's great on salads and sprinkled on meat.

Basil

Oregano

Coreopsis

Mother of Thousands,

with her babies.

Gardenia

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

We've noticed a plethora of 

Dragonflies of different colors.

Did you know that,

temperature and food quantity

determines some colors in dragonflies?

Also, the older the insect, the deeper the color.

Younger ones are much paler.

Notice the 2nd picture is a pale blue,

where the 1st is a vibrant red.

The red dragonflies are always mature males.

They can live up to 6 months.

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

Confounding Things:

Since we're on the unanswered questions,

Why is it, when you walk barefoot,

it seems like you always walk into

 a door or a coffee table leg?

Are they sneaking up on us  

just to mess with our exposed pinky toes? 

Is it a conspiratory theory?

The pain takes a couple seconds

to travel from the toe to the brain.

This allows you to immediately think

that, "Oh, that wasn't so bad' which then 

turns into an excruciating pain

that has you with an out of body experience!

OUCH!

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

My grandson took this 

last weekend in Jesuit Bend.

Beautiful!

Thanks for reading 

💗💙💚