Friday, April 28, 2017

A bit of randomness....

Be forewarned, these are really, really random.

1.  I was browsing around on Youtube and came across THIS video...it is a bit long, but it is well worth watching.

2.

This is me, many years ago.  I spent many hours pruning during my time at the orchard.  I often felt like an artist...I used to think I should have every tree named because I messed with every tree so many times every year.  Pruning, thinning the apples, cutting out fireblight some years, and picking.  This particular tree I am pruning was one we grafted.  We never did actually know what kind it was...they called it a Scarlet Beauty.  The apples were huge.

3.  I worked at a bakery for about a year...we made Italian bread and bread sticks plus other breads.  Customers called and would just say 'save me a loaf" and hang up without giving a name...the girl that had been there a long time knew their voices, and I quickly learned.  Before I did, I could describe to her the call and she could tell me who it was.   One old guy would call and say 'I'm coming.'  And we knew we had to grab a loaf and take it out to the street.  His legs hurt so bad that he couldn't stand to have to park and get in and out of his car.    One man we called the round man, because he always wanted the round loaves.  For another, we always put back a loaf of bread if it was done a bit more than the others cause this one customer preferred them. Other customers would come in and tell us what they wanted...we also carried other things that were things the old Italians wanted and could not get anywhere else.  Anyway, they would make their choices and hand their checkbooks over to us to make out their checks.   There is definitely pluses to small town living.

4.  Does anyone remember this song:


5.  Did you like Downton Abbey?  Do you like to watch the mystery shows such as Foyle's War, Inspector Lewis, Wallander, Morse, Prime Suspect, Father Brown?  Or other shows similar to those? If so what are your favorites.  I just found a new to me show called Shetland.  It does not have many episodes, but they are really good.  Anyway, I am wondering if I have missed any good shows.  I have watched some of the Murdock ones...and also the Miss Marple series, as well as Poirot.  Once I got past his mustache, he is really good.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Thankful....

I am thankful for a Grand-dog with well rounded interests:

 In the previous post Delta was watching animals and later a Western...last night my daughter sent me this one, saying that Delta was ready to rest after playing.  I don't recognize the show, but it is not animals or a  Western.

Tonight she is watching sports!  This just cracks us up.   She is done worth her weight in gold for her entertainment value.  I would love to be able to know what she is thinking. It is apparent she is really interested in the TV.  (Notice her balls are in both photos.)

Linking to Thankful Thursday....


Monday, April 24, 2017

She likes to watch TV


My daughter informed me that my grand-dog, Delta, likes to watch TV.  I asked did she have a preference, and she said she likes animals.


She also likes the horses and gunfire on Westerns...and she really pays attention if a woman screams.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

This and that...

We saw this hawk yesterday...definitely not good quality, but still, I think it shows its interesting look.  I don't know if that is a wire coming up off the pole but assume it is. 

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Does anyone else watch America's Funniest Home Videos?  The video above is from one of their episodes....listen to it carefully.  It is so funny.  She is so young to use the words she uses.

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We basically stayed home today.   And I got a bit of sewing therapy, though I don't have anything to show you yet.

Friday, April 21, 2017

A bit of randomness....

1.  Ginseng.  I love to hunt the stuff.  I no longer dig it...I just like to find it and see it growing.  And photograph it.  But when I was a kid, my mom and I would hunt it and what money came from it could go for things for school...material and patterns to make my clothes.  I don't remember if I bought other stuff with it or not.

2.   If you are a grandma, you might enjoy reading Granny by Sean Dietrich.  I did not grow up close to any grandparent and have always felt like I missed something in life.  But I sure as heck enjoy being one...my heart just sings when I know Lorelei is coming.  Last weekend when we went to bed, she asked me, "Do you enjoy sleeping with me, Mamaw?"  I said I did...she ask, "Do you REALLY enjoy sleeping with me?"  I told her that I did.  She then asked did I like sleeping with her better than anything...I told her almost...she only thought a second...she said oh, I know, Papaw!

3.  For a little bit of laughter, how about Mama trying to go to sleep in a hammock?


4.  And then I can almost guarantee that you will get a warm fuzzy feeling if you watch the following....and maybe even laugh a time or two.

I saw this video a few days back on the blog Not Afraid of Color.

5.  For a taste of music, for those of you watching The Voice, maybe you would like to hear something from Gwen/No Doubt.

I  listened to this song about a zillion times when I worked at the orchard.  (I would make mixed tapes and listen to them.  And certain songs appeared more often than others...)

6.  And how could I leave out Alicia

I had left the orchard before this came out, but I can guarantee you if it had been out, it would have been on a variety of cassettes. 

That is my few bits of randomness....I hope you seen something you liked....

Linking to Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday 5....

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Thankful...


I am always thankful when we find a few minutes to be out in nature...last week was no exception.  So thankful to get a few new photographs.


I am thankful for a wild and crazy granddaughter.  Yes, she is making a face in the photo above.  Some tell me that one of these days she is sure going to love me for this.  I honestly don't think she will ever mind...her mom never did care.  She did not get embarrassed easily so am not expecting Lorelei to change.
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The Maintenance light came on and stayed on on our Rav4 yesterday.  Talk about being upset...I just did not know what to do....I could call Jeremy, or I could try to get it to a guy not too far from here and ask them to bring me home.  But I decided to sleep on it before I did anything.  And pray about it.  I got up this morn, and the thought came to me that maybe it was time for the oil to be changed.  I went and checked the mileage and was pretty sure that was it.

I first was going to reset the light and see if it came back on, then decided I would be apt to forget to have the oil changed if that was the problem.  So, I talked to Roger and believe it or not, he agreed to let me have it done.  I called, and got it in this afternoon.  I came home and did the reset of the light.  The Maintenance light comes on every 5,000 miles...when we change the oil we have to 'turn' it off.   There are specific steps to turning it off.

You turn the key to the on position, but not to the point you start the car.  And you do not touch your foot to the brake, and set the odometer tripmeter to Trip A....then turn the key off.

Next, while holding down the trip A meter button, turn the key to the on position, and continue holding the Trip A button down while it goes down to zero and wait till the maintenance light will goes off.

So I did that and took it for a drive to see if the maintenance light would come back on...it didn't.  I am so, so thankful for that.
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These are just a few things I am thankful for...

Linking to Michelle's Thankful Thursday...

Sunday, April 9, 2017

A bit of fabric therapy


First of all some oranges, for an orange quilt sometime in my future.  I keep adding a few.  Years ago, on an quilt forum a lady whose first name was Judy did a quilt and named it Bushels of Orange(s)...it was all oranges with a bit of black and an accent of blue, on my computer it was sort of a torquoise blue.  I totally loved that quilt and have planned to make one some day.

I did not get this to go with anything specific...just in case I needed it for an alternate quilt block in the ones I am making now.

Then I got some neutrals, since I have been using mine.  One of these days I would like to make another two color quilt...such as the one below.

Do you remember it?  I made it in 2012...and it is kind of reversible...see?
I didn't have enough of any single fabric so I did this using the same fabrics I had used on front.  I think it was about 52 inches square.


Friday, April 7, 2017

A repeat post...

In a post over at Lily Valley, Karen ask if we had a favorite gift or item from childhood.  Though she was remembering Easter, the Christmas I write about below is one of my best childhood memories.  I think it will be new to a few of you.  I hope you enjoy it.


Did Santa ever come to your house? I am sure he was at mine...in the form of one of my sisters. It is the Christmas I will never forget.  Though you would think I would remember how old I was I am not sure...I think I was about seven years old.

It was late in the evening, either dark or almost dark.  I don't remember if I knew my sister, Fran was coming home or not.  Either way, in her and her husband came--and they had a big, big box full of stuff for all of us. I remember the box ripping apart.  It had toys and clothes--I can remember most of what I got, and it was wonderful.  But to just to have Fran home was joy beyond measure. 

A ham was fixed for Christmas, and it is the first time I ever remember having ham.  I could not stop eating it....every time I could I would sneak in the fridge and get a piece of it.   My mom kept telling me I was going to be sick from eating too much. Oh, my, how I loved it.  That night I paid the piper though.  I started throwing up and don't remember how many times or how long it took to stop...Fran got up and took care of me.  It was almost worth it just to have her caring for me.  I can remember her telling mom to go on back to bed, that she would stay with me.  She would wring a wash rag out and wash my face with such loving care.

Don't get me wrong, we all loved each other, but Fran is sort of the special one...I think special memories are attached to her by all of us.

She would do anything on a dare, and not afraid of anyone or anything.  I can remember when she was in high school, her and the algebra teacher got in a big, big argument.  She was sure she was right, and he  just assumed the book was right.  I think he even came to our house talking to her...not sure how right all my memories are because I was maybe not even in school then.

Anyway, I think they argued back and forth for a day or two or three, each working and reworking the problem.  He finally had to agree that Fran was right.  Anyway, that is just a sample of what she is/was made of.

Back to that Christmas, she brought the game of Tripoly home...I was too young to actually play...so I just sat by her side.  I don't remember how the game is played, but a free hand is dealt.  Well, she  would look at her hand and whisper to me to see if there was this or that card in the free hand...and if there was, I would sneak it to her.  I would have did anything in the world for her.  Of course either her husband or one of my brothers caught her and put a stop to it.  But she was having fun just sneaking and getting by with it.

All my sisters and my brother always came home, at least once a year after they moved away, and I always hated seeing any of them leave.  It was just always worse when Fran left...

Thankful + Random

I will warn you ahead of time...this is not much of a video...I just wanted to do a little video featuring the sky....



I was wishing I could take a panoramic photo when the idea to take a short video hit me...so I pulled as far to the side of the road and quick did this before another car came...

I am so thankful to have been able to be out for a while on day like this one.

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Also, thankful that we got to keep Lorelei a couple days last week.  She initiated a little conversation with me.
Lorelei:  "I am your only grandchild, aren't I, Mamaw?"

Me: "Yes."

Lorelei:  "Well, someday I will get married and have kids and I won't be the only one.  But I have got to grow up and go to school and do stuff first."   Those are pretty close to her exact words.  She used to tell me all the time she was going to have kids.  Actually, there is more to this latter part but not going into it now.

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This is my new Grand-dog, Delta.  I have only seen pic of her and can't wait to meet her  in real life.

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I think today has been the first day ever, that I have not felt those fearful feelings, since Roger's stroke.  Not even a little bit.  

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I have three blocks cut out and hoping I get to sew them together tomorrow. 

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I have gotten several phone calls made that needed to be made.   And they all went smoothly instead of having to wait and wait and wait.

I started out to make a post to link to Thankful Thursday.....

And then decided I will try to remember to link to Willy Nilly Friday 5.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Yesterday, we went down and sat by the river for a few minutes...as you can see it would not take much for it to be out of the banks....

But expand the view of the photo...notice the birds along the top of the trestle....


It is pigeons.  They were coming and going the few minutes we were there.  I had suggested going down there in the hopes of seeing an eagle but no such luck.
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Today has been an okay day.  I have stayed busy, with things inside.  It has rained off and on all day long.  I don't think it went 30 minutes straight without raining.   And at one point Roger was taking the garbage out, the sun was shining bright and it was raining at the same time.  I kept glancing for a rainbow but did not see one.

A blog post at last....


Spring is here!  Or making a strong showing at least.   It will be warm, for a day or two, then we will have a cold snap.  I am finally almost over my cold.  And I don't feel bad at all.  I had two or three nights of only sleeping a couple hours.  I finally gave in and took Nyquil.  I slept from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in my recliner, got up and gave Roger his meds, and went to bed and slept till 3:00 p.m.  Then I started to feel better.

Other than that, have had such up and down times this spring...it has made it hard to blog here.  I have been having to really concentrate on any blog with much more than a photos and a few words, and sometimes have to come back to posts two or three times that has stuff I want to read. 
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Roger went through a few days about 2-3 weeks ago that was horrible.  Just terrible fears...felt so alone.  This stroke really did a number on him.  I don't know if he has ever felt depressed a day in his life till this.  He has always been a person that thought positive...always determined to find a way to fix a problem.  Always a way forward.

Add to that I had another mole come back positive for basal cell cancer.  And I know it is generally nothing to really worry about.  But you did not see my father-in-law.  Before he died, he had lost one of his eyes, his jaw bone on on side, half his nose.  And that is not the half of it...he had went through so many plastic surgeries to repair the original surgery.  I did not see him after it...it happened before I met Roger. I am not sure what all he lost the first time around.

Anyway, he went in for the last visit to the doctor, and they found a small hole between the roof of his mouth and his nostril.   So, there was that hole...they scheduled surgery to repair it, and found more cancer.  that is when he lost the roof of his mouth, his eye, and part of his nose.  Well, that was the beginning of losing them.  I don't recall the exact sequence of it.  That was over 30 yrs. ago.
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So, I battle fears of my own.  Every evening I go through spells of what I call the fearfuls.  Sometimes they don't amount to a hill of beans...others I have such awful thoughts.  And so much of the time I feel so alone...like I have not told Roger that the mole was cancer...and he has not thought to ask.  It upset him so bad for me to have this cold...I just avoid worrying him.

So that is just a touch of what has been going on.  We did go for a little drive today.  The first time we have just went for a leisurely drive in a while...and I am wanting to go for a few more.  And I think it would be good for both of us to get out and get in the woods and look for some mushrooms.    But even that holds fears.  But I think we will still get out and go.