Around Oak Meadows

Around Oak Meadows

December already! Friday is my 67th birthday! Amazing! I have now lived longer than either of my parents. Other than my dratted CMT, I am in good health which is such a blessing. 

Finally, we got the 10 Italian door pictures hung.  These are pictures that JMM took when we were in Italy in 2001. I was really surprised because he doesn't usually notice things like that. All of our early vacation pictures that he took are of rocks or outcrops. Even our trip to Israel is mostly rocks. Anyway, I had him print out the 10 door pictures and went to Hobby Lobby for mattes and frames (which we bought on sale for 50% off).  I laid them out on the bed in a nice pattern and JMM hung them for me. I think they turned out rather well. 

Modest progress on monster quilt. It is all basted and ready to quilt. The kittens find it fascinating and are in the middle of it.  I think Henry will develop into a good quilting partner because he doesn't mind my moving him around.

We went to see The Barber of Seville which was a live broadcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera. It was OK but was nowhere near as good as Carmen last year.  I think JMM wants to see The Merry Widow in January. 

I am hooked on The Hunger Games series.  We saw Mockingjay Part 1 and it was excellent.  I am so disappointed that we have to wait a whole year to see Part 2.  Well, if I made it through the Harry Potter series, I can wait a year for Mockinjay Part 2. 

Reading:  Wartime Britain by Juliet Gardiner is excellent but 600 pages long so this will take a while.  Almost finished with The Last Kasmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly; I have never read anything by her but I think I have a new detective series to get addicted to. 

And finally, Call the Nurse by Mary Macleod; it is about a community nurse on the island of Papavray off the west coast of Scotland.  All I can say is that they are made of sturdier stuff than I am. In reading about the cold and wind and rain,  I had to go get a quilt and the heating pad. 

Thanksgiving was nice and very low key. JMM and I made the turkey and dressing.  The only disaster was I tried to make mashed cauliflower and I couldn't get it as smooth as I wanted; it was good but lumpy.  We had our traditional pecan pie from Goode Co. for dessert. Daughter, son-in-law, and their ancient cocker spaniel were our only guests.  Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed good food and a nice visit. 

Christmas decorations are in the process of being put up. I have decided to put out the crèche in spite of the kittens; this is going to be interesting.  I don't put up a tree anymore but dear daughter has all the ornaments from when she was growing up and she likes to have a tree at her house. My decorations take about 2 hours to put up; if I could walk, it would take about 30 minutes.  We are going to the Houston Symphony and Chorale performing Handel's Messiah and that will definitely get my Christmas spirit going. 

And that's the news from OakMeadows where the people are all retired and serve as concierges to the 4 cats.