Around OakMeadows

Well, there is good news and not so good news.  Let's do the not so good first and get it out of the way.  My CMT has progressed to where I am pretty much dependent on JMM to drive wherever I need to go.  The problem is that my legs are not strong enough to support me so that I can get to the back of the van, open the van's back door, and pull to swing the scooter out of the van. For an independent soul like me, this is rather dispiriting. OTOH, JMM is not perturbed by my needing a driver so I suppose, if it doesn't bother him, it shouldn't bother me....but it does.

Now for the rest of the goings on around here. 

The kittens are so cute.  Duffy is much too grown up to want to be held and cuddled but Henry is still sweet, crazy Henry.  I cannot get over how Henry's coat has changed from the dry, scraggly mess to the sleek black beauty he is now.  Duffy eats mostly IAM's Kitten Chow but Henry loves his Fancy Feast.

Quilting is proceeding at a glacial speed.  This week I am making the lattice to hold the blocks together. Next week I hope to put it all together.

Cooking this week: Shrimp Jambalaya, Meatloaf, and a Slow Cooker Chicken, Sausage, & White Beans. JMM is helping with the cooking by doing all the chopping and standing to stir things. Between the two of us we eat rather well...and probably a little too much.

I finished a good whodunit--Death in La Fenice by Donna Leon. It is the first in a series set in Venice and starring Commissario Brunetti.  I've just started Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters--so far so good.  I am plowing through a biography of Calvin Coolidge; he is rather more interesting than I had thought--talk about climbing out of poverty!

We have had quite a bit of rain recently and with the rain, came the mushrooms. I have not attempted to identify them but there is just something magical about mushrooms!

 

 

That is about all from OakMeadows for now.  It has been a good week.

October Menu





1.  Meatloaf, GMP, GB 

2.  Leftovers

3.  Texas Roadhouse

4.  Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries, Veggie tray

5.  Schlotzsky's 

6.  Shrimp Jambalaya

7.  Oven BBQ Chicken, Beans, Cole Slaw.
8.  Slow Cooker Beef and Noodle Soup

9.  Leftovers

10. Texas Roadhouse

11. Bean and Cheese Quesadillas

12. Schlotzsky's 

13. Fish, Carrots, Cabbage

14. Slow Cooker Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream SCR p.80

15. Hamburgers, Oven fries

16. Leftovers

17. Chipotle 

18. Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries, Veggie trays

19. Schlotzsky's 

20. Tuna salad sandwiches

21. Chicken Pot Pie (from Costco)

22. Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

23. Leftovers

24. Luby's 

25. Bean and Cheese Quesadillas

26. Schlotzsky's 

27. Fish chowder

28. Chicken and Snow Peas Stir Fry

29. Spaghetti and Meatballs

30. Leftovers

31. Shrimp and Stuff in Galveston with PWCB

Meditation September 4

“Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.” 
― Robert Frost

Saturday Poetry

A Speech to the Garden Club of America

Thank you. I'm glad to know we're friends, of course;
There are so many outcomes that are worse. 
But I must add I'm sorry for getting here
By a sustained explosion through the air,
Burning the world in fact to rise much higher
Than we should go. The world may end in fire
As prophesied--our world!  We speak of it
As "fuel" while we burn it in our fit
Of temporary progress, digging up
An antique dark-held luster to corrupt
The present light with smokes and smudges, poison
To outlast time and shatter comprehension. 
Burning the world to live in it is wrong,
As wrong as to make war to get along
And be at peace, to falsify the land
By sciences of greed, or by demand
For food that's fast or cheap to falsify
The body's health and pleasure--don't ask why. 
But why not play it cool?  Why not survive
By Nature's laws that still keep us alive?
Let us enlighten, then, our earthly burdens
By going back to school, this time in gardens
That burn no hotter than a summer day. 
By birth and growth, ripeness, death and decay. 
By goods that bind us to all living things. 
Life of our life, the garden lives and sings. 
The Wheel of Life, delight, the fact of wonder. 
Contemporary light, work, sweat, and hunger
Bring food to the table, food to cellar shelves. 
A creature of the surface, like ourselves, 
The garden lives by the immortal Wheel
That turns in place, year after year,to heal
It whole. Unlike our economic pyre
That draws from ancient rock a fossil fire,
An anti-life of radiance and fume
That burns as power and remains as doom,
The garden delves no deeper than its roots
And lifts no higher than its leaves and fruits. 

Wendell Berry

Goals for Next Week

Quilting
     Make lattice strips

Reading
     Coolidge by Amity Shlaes
     Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
     The Care and Maintenance of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

Cooking
     Shrimp Jambalaya
     Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage with White Beans
     Meatloaf, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Green beans
     Blueberry Bran Muffins

Home
     Take Italian door pictures to be framed

Personal
     Buy new purse

Some Good Movies, some not so good

Most of these I have watched on Netflix DVDs. (Yes, we still get Netflix through the mail.)  Some are classics and some I know I've seen before but don't remember.  These are in order that I watched them.

1. Captain America.  You know that I love my husband because I sat through this at the theater because he wanted to see it.

2. Up in the Air.  Funny and not funny at the same time. George Clooney. 

3. O Brother where Art Thou.  OK. 

4. Libby, Montana.  Documentary. Excellent but chilling. 

5. Miss Potter. Excellent. 

6. Saving Private Ryan.  Excellent but very hard to watch in places. 

7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I loved the books and the movies are remarkably true to the books. 

8. Coal Miner's Daughter.  Pretty good.  Not my usual taste though. 

9.  Braveheart.  I flat didn't like it. YMMV. 

10. Philomena. Pretty good. 

11. The Comstant Gardener.  Nope. Just didn't like it. 
  
12. I Remember Mama. So good. Warm fuzzies

13. Doctor Zhivago. I had forgotten just what a spectacular movie this was. Excellent. 

14. Charlotte Grey.  Pretty good. 

15. The Sound of Music.  Can't help singing along. 

16. The Help. Very good. Another movie remarkably true to the book. (But the book was better.)

17.  The 100 Foot Journey. We saw this in the theater. It is a pleasant movie but probably not worth the tick/popcorn/drink price. Definitely worth a Netflix view. 

18. Casino Royale. Good 007 flick. 

19. The Way. Meh. 

20. The Nun's Story. Coming from Netflix tomorrow. 


Do you have some movie suggestions?

Around Oak Meadows

Finally! The weather is a bit cooler! And we had over 7 inches of rain last week! Good for the trees and grass...and mosquitoes, unfortunately.  But such is life-- the good and the not so good. 

Our water well project is on hold until the ground gets dry enough for the big trucks to get in. Ironic isn't it, that when we finally decide to put in a well, it won't stop raining.  Maybe in another week...if it doesn't rain. 

My quilt is coming along but I am at that awful stage where I'm not sure it is going to turn out like I want it to or if it is going to be a total disaster.  Should I chuck it in the back of the closet and not waste any more work on it or should I soldier on and hope for the best??

The kittens are growing. Duffy is still quite noticeably larger than Henry but Henry seems to be able to hold his own when they are tumbling around.  They were both up the oak trees this week but I didn't have my camera to take pictures. Maybe next week I can get some photos of them in the trees. 

JMM and I are finally trading in our trusty Blackberry phones for the iPhone 6 Plus. We are staying with T-Mobile as our carrier and thus got a $100/phone discount. They are supposed to be delivered in 10-14 days.  I have never had an iPhone but I absolutely love my iPad so I am sure I will get along just fine once I learn how to do the stuff I want with it.  Who could have guessed that the old black rotary dial phone would one day be wireless and take pictures and be connected to the Internet?? Love it!!

We went to Taste of Texas for our daughter's birthday. It is expensive but my, oh my, what good food! The stuffed mushroom caps were just the best and the steaks are always melt in your mouth good. JMM and I split a dessert and we all waddled out and went into a carbohydrate induced coma when we got home. But,maid I say how good it was?!

I'm reading two really good books. Coolidge by Amity Shlaes, a biography of  Calvin Coolidge who I knew absolutely nothing about, is really excellent so far. And I am reading Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. It is a whodunnit set in Venice and is the first in a series. Very enjoyable read so far. 

Haven't done any traveling but this Friday we are going to lunch in Galveston with Joe's brother and sister and their spouses which is always fun and then in November we are going to the North American Butterfly Association meeting in Mission, TX which I am really looking forward to.  Next spring is our trip to Yosemite which I expect to be terrific too since I've never been there. 

Life is so good.