One last Snowfall (I hope)

 

I woke up early this morning to a sugar dusted world.

I forced myself to go out and feed the birds. It was so cold and I couldn't quite wake up.

Of  course I stepped in doggie doo on the way to the bird feeder.

Don't you hate that?

But the little birds were so grateful.

The cats don't quite know what to do when it snows. I love to watch them pick their way across the snow, shaking each paw with every step. Ling Ling is especially prissy. But she wanted to be outside, so her wish was granted. She is quite spoiled. But look at that little face. Just as sweet as can be. I can't help but spoil her.

The clouds are very low in the sky today. The weather has been very moody. One day it is sunny and warm, the next it is snowing. All weekend Hubby and I worked outside in mild sunny weather, picking up branches from the ice storm. It is very overwhelming. But we cleaned up an area that was most important. The top of the driveway and alongside the road. We filled the back of the pick up truck 4 times.

It looks much better now.

But I have 300 feet of driveway to finish. All lined with broken trees. I have one side almost done. I've been going out myself and doing a little here and there whenever the weather is mild, while Hubby is away at work.

We have gigantic neat piles of branches waiting for the chipper.

It is very hard work and my body can only do so much at a time.

But I am in no way complaining. I am very grateful that the house wasn't damaged or we weren't hurt. This week has been a terrible week across our country with Tornadoes causing so much heartache and loss of life.

I have nothing to complain about.

I have these sweet little faces to bring a smile.

And my crocus are starting to bloom. Even in the snow.

And I have daffodils to remind me that spring is just around the corner. (This picture was taken last week)

And last night Hubby brought home a package from the Post Office. Inside were all these little gifts from my sweet sister-in-law, T, all the way from N.H.

Just look at that sweet little sachet! The scent of Lavender, mmmm! And a beautiful photo all framed and ready to place close by as a reminder of how much we miss our dear ones.

So I will be busy creating a Thank you card and writing some letters.

So let it snow!

 

How is the weather where you are?

Collecting Porcelain Boxes

I love little porcelain boxes. They are miniature works of art. Not only that, but they are useful, too.

They are great for holding all sorts of little odds and ends.

I've been collecting them for quite a while and had them stored in a box in my loft. I have been doing some organizing up there and Hubby suggested that if I didn't use what I had

hoarded saved, it had to go.

So naturally I had to find a use for them!

I find them everywhere for just a couple of dollars; thrift stores, garage sales, and vintage shops.

Placed on top of a vintage piece of needlework or a pretty plate or tray, they are sweet and charming.

I have found a wonderful use for them besides holding paper clips or sewing pins.

Do you hate throwing out all that lotion that you can't get out of the bottom of the pump bottles? Do you hate the looks of the jars that your face creams comes packaged in?

You can use these small porcelain boxes or pretty jars to pot up your leftover lotions and face creams! You won't mind leaving them out in plain sight.

Just cut the plastic lotion bottles with a serrated knife to get started, then cut around with a pair of scissors to get the leftover lotion out.

Then use a rubber spatula to scoop out the lotion into your favorite jar.

This little beauty with hand painted violets is made of polished alabaster with a hinged lid.

It looks so sweet on the decoupaged tray that I made from a pretty napkin. I keep this tray on my bedside table. 

I filled this darling heart shaped box to go in the upstairs bath.

It has a blooming lily pad with a long legged egret and pink cherry blossoms. Vintage Love.

This unusually shaped one is a lotus blossom. I filled it with lotion to keep by my kitchen sink. It's so much prettier than a plastic lotion bottle.

This tiny heart shaped charmer is hand painted and rimmed with 14 karat gold. The tiny plate is the perfect size for this little vintage heart. I keep my rich night cream inside and keep it on my vanity. This is one of my favorites.

This little trio all have similar colors of poppy orange, yellow, and mossy green. One is actually an orphaned sugar bowl.

I filled them with tiny kitchen odds and ends. The sugar bowl holds butter mints (which I love, but have to hide from my candy stealing Hubby). Shhhhhh! The other two boxes hold birthday candles and candle holders which would otherwise be lost in the pantry or a drawer.

They perfectly coordinate with my soup tureen in my kitchen queen cupboard.

The soup tureen was a gift from my Dear Mother who passed away last year. It has unusual colors and finding coordinating china has always been difficult. When I found that sweet little sugar bowl, I knew it would be perfect.

I love collecting these tiny treasures. They are small, useful, and beautiful.

What do you collect?  

Apple Crisp

With the weather alternating between cold and damp, or warm and sunny, I wanted to bake something that would satisfy both situations.

This can be eaten warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

or

cold with a dollop of whipped cream

or

 fresh out of the oven

But please, take the time to put it on a plate first. This is sooooo good!

I will give you the original recipe, but the pictures show the recipe doubled to make enough for serving guests or eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lol!

(picture shows recipe doubled)

Apple Crisp

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Butter a pie plate or equivalent size baking dish

Ingredients

Approx. 6-8 apples, (more or less) depending on the size of your baking dish

cut into bite size slices about 1/4 inch thick

I used Gala apples, but any firm sweet/tart apple will work

 2-3 tbsp lemon juice (bottled is fine)

1/4 cup sugar

Topping

2/3 cups oatmeal (quick or 'old fashioned')

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup cold butter

Peel and cut up apples and place in a large bowl, add lemon juice and toss well. Add sugar and toss again to coat apples.

Pour into buttered pie plate or equivalent size baking dish

Topping

Mix all dry ingredients together well in medium size mixing bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients.

Using a pastry blender (or large fork) 'cut-in' the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

(picture shows recipe doubled)

Spread evenly over the top of the apples in baking dish

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until apples are soft when pierced with a knife.

Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake 10 minutes more to 'crisp' the topping.

Cool for 20 minutes and serve as is or with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Or cool completely and serve with whipped cream.

Apple Crisp will keep covered in the refrigerator for several days.

Enjoy!



Leap Year

It is the last day of February and the mornings have been icy and cold. The weather is so changeable this time of year, one minute it is sunny, the next it is snowing.

We wake up to beautiful sunshine illuminating the frosty trees. Everything sparkles.

But by afternoon it is snowing in the foothills and everything is gray.

It has been unusually windy today. It blows through the trees sounding exactly like rough surf by the ocean. The sound of your voice gets quickly carried away.

The little vent cap on my roof is flapping away; tap, tap- tap, tap, tap. The wind blows down the chimney making a long, sad, whooo-whooooooooo. Like some disembodied spirit pining his lost love.

The wind chimes are frantically tinkling; at first softly, then all of a sudden a frantic burst like the crescendo of a piano at the end of a suspenseful thriller.

The little birds fly very low to avoid the wind, or hide out in the thickets.

While birds of prey take advantage of the wind to soar high above.

And I take advantage of the cozy house to catch up on a little embroidery. (I will show you my finished project when I am done.)

And here it is already the last day of February. A Leap Year.

My Maternal Grandfather was born on Feb. 29th, 1898. As a child it always fascinated me that we could only 'really' celebrate his birthday every 4 years (even though we did every year, anyway). My Grandfather was your typical Irishman. He spoke with an Irish Brogue. He called film, 'Fillim'. We would make him say it to us, and then giggle. He was a fisherman and went out onto the Atlantic off of the coast of Massachusetts with a large crew to catch flounder and cod for 2 weeks at a time. My Grandmother always had a freezer full. He lost a finger in a fishing net accident. We were always told it was from opening a tin can. Grandpa liked to tease us. He had thick black curly hair and gray eyes which my Mother inherited. He was a staunch Irish Catholic. His forearms were thick and strong and he knotted his own nets. He taught me some knots and later when macrame' was all the rage, I made money selling knotted tapestries of the sea.

He was married to my grandmother, Beatrice Euphemie until the day he died. Together they had 7 girls and the last one, the 8th, finally a boy. That boy was his pride and joy. He was the football hero and the first in the family to go to college. My Grandfather died happy knowing he had at least one son to carry on the name.

Those born on February 29th are called 'Leaplings' or 'Leapers'. Lore held that leap day babies were unruly and tough to raise. I can certainly attest that my Grandfather was at times unruly and tough.

There are about 187,000 born on leap day in the US and 4 million worldwide during leap years.

Legal permissions like getting a driver's license are granted either the day before or after according to official regions. In the US it is the 1st of March.

The reason why we have leap years is because of the length of the year. A year isn't really 365 days. Our planet actually takes 365 and 1/4 days to revolve around the sun. These additional 6 hours each year add up to an extra 24 hours over 4 years, at which point we add a day to our calendar in order to keep us in sinc with the sun.

Without leap day, annual events would slowly shift seasons. Eventually we would be celebrating Christmas in July.

Caesar is the one who incorporated the leap year into the Calendar in 46 BC.

And while the calculation of 365 and 1/4 days to lap around the sun was close, the true figure is actually 11 min. short.  This caused a discrepancy every 128 years.

So in 1582, Pope Gregory X111 ruled that leap year would be skipped 3 times every 4 centuries to fix the snag.

Whew! Glad I'm not in charge of figuring that out.

In the middle ages, farmers worried that messing around with the calendar would throw Mother Nature for a loop.

They worried that it would lower their crop yields or sicken their livestock.

There is an old Scottish saying, "Leap year was never a good sheep year."

So now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about Leap Year, I hope you enjoy this last day of February.

I think this is a good day to do some baking.

I will post the recipe tomorrow.

What are you doing today?



Consequences - Our Life Together

 For Blue Eyes and me, our beautiful time spent at World's End in the fall of 1971 was rapidly coming to a close. Every chance we could, we escaped together to this serene place to be together.

I was just beginning my 11th year of  high school, and Blue Eyes was in his senior year.

During our years in school we tried to be 'normal' teenagers 'without a care in the world.' I tried out for cheerleading the year before and made the team. Blue Eyes was working after school to pay for his first car. He worked for his Father who owned a packaging business. By then his parents were divorced and his Mother had to take a job for the first time in almost 20 years. There were 4 children, Blue Eyes was the oldest. The youngest was 10. Money was extremely tight.

I also worked in the evenings. I was a nanny to 5 little boys under the age of 7. I worked from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. every weeknight. My job was to fix dinner, clean up, bathe and dress the children for bed. The Mother of these young children was going to night school. The Husband worked late hours. On weekends I also babysat after cheerleading duties and helping out at home with my 4 younger sisters. In order to remain on the squad I had to keep a B+ average.

But things were in a turmoil. I was forbidden to see Blue Eyes. It was felt that I was too young to date. Blue Eyes came from a 'Broken Home'. My parents were very strict.

So we continued to skip school occasionally to be together.

This did not end well.

Naturally we were caught.



My life took a sudden turn for the worse.

I was placed under virtual house arrest. I was not allowed to stay over at friend's houses. I was absolutely forbidden to see or talk to my Blue Eyes. The teachers at school were informed that if we were caught talking to one another, my parents were to be notified. I was called down to the guidance counselor's office every single day for 'counseling'.

It was a nightmare.

Blue Eyes would meet me secretly in the hallways between classes and hand me notes. I would tip toe downstairs late at night to call him. He would drive the 5 miles between us just to see me at my 2nd story window. He would throw pebbles at my window to get my attention and then toss me up a note.

But soon it was just too much for Blue Eyes. All the restrictions made it difficult for us to maintain our relationship.

So we broke up.

But he still wanted to be 'friends'.

As soon as my parents found out that we broke up, all the restrictions were taken away. I was allowed to date. It didn't make any sense to me, but now that I have raised my own children, I can see through their eyes. Somewhat.

It was the clash of the old rigid society with the new.

I was caught right in the middle of it.

So I followed the straight and narrow pathway. I tried to please my parents. I worked hard at school. I payed my own way by working. I tried to understand.

I would see Blue Eyes laughing and having fun with other girls. He wanted to remain my 'friend' and would stop and chat with me or call me on the phone.

But that was 'too understanding' for my sensibilities and I cut him off. I was depressed and dejected. I wasn't interested in the boys that asked me out. One of them would pick me up for school every day in his 1957 Pink Cadillac Convertible, with a single rose and a cinnamon roll. He was so good to me.

But I didn't feel the same way about him. No matter how hard I tried.

I didn't understand why my parents would let me date him and not the only one I really cared about.

It took the wind right out of my sails. I felt so alone. I became very withdrawn. It was a difficult winter.

Little did I know how difficult life would become.

Next time: Reunion