Around OakMeadows

 

Rain, glorious rain!  I know there are parts of the country that have experienced more than enough snow/rain but that is certainly not the case around here along the Texas Gulf Coast.  We very much needed the 3 inches of rain that we got last night. The thunder and lightning upset the cats so that they woke me up by standing on my chest meowing that something awful was going on outside and I needed to wake up and stop it.  Soothed the cats and we all went back to sleep. 

We have more hummingbirds than we have ever had in the 10 years we have lived here. There are 6-10 hummers at the feeder almost all the time. In addition to the feeder we have large beds of saliva and many blooming bottlebrush bushes for them to feed on. I have even seen them feeding on the crown of thorns plant on the back porch.  I guess word has gotten out on the hummingbird internet that there is plenty of food at our house.  Anyway, it is a pleasure to look out and watch them. 

Speaking of birds, the 4 baby barn swallows in the nest on the back porch flew last week. That makes a total of 8 barn swallows that have been reared on our porches so far this year. There is another nest on the front porch with 4 more; they look like they will need another week in the nest before they fly.  The more barn swallows the better; there are certainly enough flying insects for them to eat around here!  

I did my summer clothes shopping online. I am a long time L.L.Bean fan. In fact, last year when we went on a fall foliage trip to Maine, we went by the Mother Ship -as Joe called it.  Anyway, all I needed was 2 tees and a pair of black walking shorts. And Joe needed a shirt and socks. I had a $10 off coupon and they were having a 10% off sale and they always have free shipping. I love L.L.Bean clothes because I know what size will fit and the clothes and shoes wear like iron. 

May 5 is the anniversary of my retirement and I always go in to the Fidelity office and we go over my retirement portfolio and see if any adjustments need to be made.  Since they are on straight salary, they have no incentive to advise me to make unnecessary trades. I consider it a very valuable service they provide. 

Joe is going in tomorrow to fill out paperwork to work 2-3 days a week. He wants to work part time for a couple of years to finance some projects around OakMeadows--a well, a shed/barn, and an irrigation system.  He is about the workingest person I have ever known. He always has about 6 projects going at a time. 

My quilting on the baby quilt is coming along. I'm working on Block #2.  I am sure not as fast a I used to be but OTOH, I am in no big hurry. It isn't like the last baby quilt I made where I was worried the baby would get here before the quilt was finished. I have 5 whole months before this one is due. 

Reading has been very good. I finished The Light between Oceans by M.L.Steadman. It was excellent! Good story, well developed characters. 
I also finished Pandora's Seed by Spencer Wells. I read it as it was the Goodreads Science & Nature selection for the month. I was less than impressed.  Not well organized, jumped from topic to topic some of which were only nebulously related. 
Still plowing through George Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner. It is taking a long time to read but what an excellent book it is! 

Lots of cooking:
    I made Chicken Noodle Soup in the Slow Cooker. I decided to leave the noodles out because I had some sourdough bread that I toasted to go along with the soup. It was so good with the celery, onions, and carrots. 
    Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies....nuff said...
    To counter the calories from the CC cookies, I made Beef and Bok Choy stir fry.  I'm not sure what effect it had on the calories but we really enjoyed the stir fry. 
    Tomorrow will be Beef Stew in the slow cooker,

That's all the news around OakMeadows.