Posted tagged ‘cold night’
June 5, 2015
This morning is warmer than yesterday morning but still in the 50’s. We have sun and blue skies and a bit of a breeze. It’s a pretty morning. Lots for me to do today including laundry, sweeping the deck, doing some errands and painting a part of the fence.
Last night my friends came for dinner. Other than the mixed grill, everything I served was new to me. That’s taking a chance, but usually my dishes are successes so I head confidently into the unknown. Every dish from appetizers to dessert drew compliments. I was asked to share two recipes, both simple to make, and I was pleased to oblige.
Last night I used the grill for the first time this summer. There should have been fireworks and majorettes and weather warm enough for dining al fresco, but that will come soon enough.
The first barbecues I remember were hot dogs and hamburgers on a small charcoal grill. My father always did the grilling. It is a strange phenomenon that men who never touch a stove do all the outside cooking. I think it harkens back to cavemen hauling home a piece of meat to be cooked over the fire. Tending the fire was men’s work which translated over time into cooking on a grill. My father cooked the meat perfectly no matter what it was. The menu changed as I got older, and my father cooked sausages of all sorts, steak tips, pork tenderloin, chicken and one of my personal favorites, ribs. My mother made all the side dishes: potato salad was the family favorite.
My father always cooked with charcoal, but his was the light a match and toss it on the briquets type which smelled a little like chemicals when it was first lit. He waited and watched and knew exactly when to start the cooking by reading the coals. He kept a spray bottle near him in case of flares ups. He’d sit out there, have a drink or two and cook, usually by himself. His attention was all for the food, not conversation.
He’d pile the meat on a serving platter, come inside and announce dinner was served. We were ready. The salads were made, the table set, and we were hungry for that food we had smelled cooking through the opened windows. It was always kudos for the chef.
Categories: Musings
Tags: barbecues, briquets, cavemen, charcoal, cold night, dinner guests, errands, first time dishes, hamburgers, hot dogs, hunters, Laundry, mixed grill, outdoor grill, painting, pretty morning, sausages
Comments: 6 Comments
May 14, 2015
When the wind started yesterday afternoon, the warm temperature began to drop. After the sun set, it got cold enough so I had to shut the windows. Around 1am Gracie went out, and I decided to watch her from the deck. It was chilly like a fall night. I was glad for the sweatshirt and the comfy slippers I was wearing. Gracie went way back in the yard where I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the crunch of dead leaves wherever she walked. She went back and forth at the same place hunting, I guessed, for the chew bone she had buried during the day. After a while, I wanted into the warm house and called her. She came quickly, and we both went inside. It was one of those I wish I could get to sleep nights so I watched some TV. Gracie got on the couch, fell asleep and began to snore as Boxers are prone to do. I was jealous of the sleeping, not the snoring.
Today is lovely though still a little on the chilly side, the low 60’s. The sun is brilliant. It is a day of celebration. Skip, my factotum, is here to open the deck for the summer. He’s been here a few hours already and has cleared the vegetable garden and emptied the deck window boxes and the clay pots. He has cleaned off the chairs and the table. My outside shower is now ready for use. The spiders’ webs are gone. Yesterday I bought all the deck flowers and herbs. I tried to restrain myself at Agway knowing I’ll be making another trip next week for my vegetables, the herb garden plants and the front yard perennials. When I was driving home yesterday, the car smelled wonderful. It was the rosemary. Skip will be back tomorrow to finish. I have a couple of new projects for him.
This weekend will be the deck grand opening parade. There will be music and sparklers. The plastic pink flamingo and the Travelocity gnome will leave their winter quarters to take up their summer residences. The pink flamingo will be dressed in her finest Hawaiian outfit. The gnome will wear his traditional blue jacket and red conical hat. I will be resplendent in bright colors.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold night, crunch of dead leaves, Deck cleaning day, deck flowers, deck herbs, like fall, opening deck parade, plastic pink flamingo, rosemary, shower cleaning day, Travelocity gnome, uplate, windy
Comments: 12 Comments
May 8, 2015
My windows have been opened to bring inside the sweetness of spring and to rid the house of the closed smell of winter. Through those opened windows I get to hear the birds and be serenaded by their songs, sounds muted in the house during winter. This morning I was awake at dawn for a bit and could hear the mighty chorus of birds greeting the day; however, with the temperature going down to the 40’s tonight, I’ll have no choice but to shut the windows as the day starts to close and the sun dips behind the trees.
A long missing sock has returned home. It is red and one half of a favorite pair. The other red sock sat on the dryer all this time so I’d know where it was just in case its mate returned, but I admit I wasn’t hopeful. I went to get a sweatshirt this morning and pulled out one I haven’t worn in a while, a favorite sweatshirt, a Doctor Who sweatshirt. When I put it on, the sock popped out of the hood. Now I have a reunited pair of favorite socks.
When I was a kid, I didn’t really care if my socks matched. I just wanted one for each foot and just about any socks would do. I didn’t have fashion sense. It never even occurred to me there was a method to choosing clothes. I’d wear my girl jeans forever as they were comfortable and warm. Girl jeans were the ones with the zipper in the pocket. Back then that wasn’t the only difference between girls’ and boys’ clothes. Girls never wore shirts but rather blouses which always looked like shirts to me so I was a bit baffled. I know girls’ shirts have buttons on the left side while boys’ have buttons on the right. I looked it up just now and found that the reason dated back at least a century. Because men dressed themselves and most were right -handed, that’s where the buttons went, but servants dress the women and stood in front to button the frocks so left-side buttons made for easy buttoning. Sneakers too were different. Boys had high tops while my sneakers were low tops but both were usually Keds. I never wore a jersey, but my brother often did. His looked like Beaver Cleaver’s, usually long sleeve and striped. I did have one summer advantage, sleeve-less blouses.
Fashion has changed dramatically, and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t have to wear classic old lady clothes. They don’t exist anymore. Come to think of it, neither do old ladies.
Categories: Musings
Tags: blouses, buttons, chorus of birds, cold night, fashion sense, girl jeans, jersey, missing sock, opened windows, shirts, sneakers, sweetness of spring, warm day
Comments: 19 Comments
January 3, 2015
No new experiences can be had sitting in my den. I haven’t been outside for a few days except to get the mail and newspapers and fill the feeders. Last night I noticed two strings of lights on the deck rail were no longer lit so I went out and unwound them from the deck. It was cold, and I wondered why in the heck I was doing that. I didn’t have an answer but once I started I needed to finish. Now only half the rail is lit, and I’m wrestling with the half full, half empty concept.
We, Gracie and I, have to go out today. She is out of canned food, my trunk is filled with trash and I need to go to the pharmacy. It is an ugly day, cold and cloudy. Rain is expected tonight. It is a perfect day to hunker down, but that will have to come later.
I diligently read two papers every morning. When I write that here, I always get comments about reading on-line and why aren’t I. That’s easy to answer. I like the feel of the paper, the sound of the pages and all the small pieces of content. It takes me a while to read both papers. I skip over international news in the Cape Times as I had already read it in the Globe. I pick and choose what to read on the sports pages. I am first and foremost a baseball fan, but I have a while to wait before it resurfaces. I read football stories if they are about the Patriots. I am not such a football fan that anything else is of interest except I did read about Rex Ryan cleaning out his office even before he was fired on Black Monday. In college I seldom missed a home hockey game, but I don’t like hockey, never have. It was the pre-game festivities which drew me in college. I do like basketball, but I haven’t followed the Celts the way I used to.
The last thing I do in the Globe is the crossword puzzle. The last thing I do in the Times is the cryptogram. The puzzle gets finished. Sometimes the cryptogram doesn’t and that drives me crazy and frustrates the hell out of me. I tend to ball up the page and toss it. That makes me feel just a little bit better.
This morning I finished both of them.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Baseball, Boston Globe, burned out lights, Cape Cod Times, cold night, crossword puzzle, cryptogram, dog food, errands, football, international news, newspapers, Red Sox, sports pages
Comments: 10 Comments
November 29, 2014
When I woke up, it was cloudy and dark. Now the sky is blue and the sun has returned for the first time in days, but it is mostly light and a bit of show. The early morning, even with the sun, was so cold my car windshield had frost for the first time this year.
Last night was the coldest night since March. Gracie got under the spread and stayed there all night which is unusual. Most times she starts to pant from the warmth and uncovers herself again. Right now she is napping, exhausted from barking outside at nothing and from playing fetch down the hall. She is finally back to her chipper self. I was a bit worried.
Today we’re going to the dump then we’ll Christmas shop along 6A. Gracie will be my co-pilot. Once the cold weather arrives, she gets to wait in the car, not something we can do in summer. She always keeps an eye out the closest window for my return.
One of the guest room beds is filled with boxes and bags, all Christmas presents. When something arrives, I just put it upstairs without marking anything down so I need to check and make a list of what I have for whom. Naughty or nice doesn’t count. I do love to Christmas shop, to find just the perfect gift. I never last-minute shop. All year-long I put gifts into my Christmas box. Over time I have learned to buy it when I see a perfect gift no matter the time of year as it might not be there the next time.
The gold finches have taken root at the feeders. They stayed around last winter, and it looks as if they’ll be here again. I did notice a few other sorts of birds in and out, but most take a seed and fly to a branch to eat it. The finches just hang around. A woodpecker stopped at the suet feeder. It stayed a while. I noticed the thistle feeders need to be filled, but I’ill wait for a warmer day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bird feeder, Christmas presents, Christmas shopping, cold night, gold finches, makig a list, playing fetch, Suet, sunny day, the dump, the perfect gift, woodpecker
Comments: 8 Comments
November 21, 2014
Today is downright cold. The sun is shining but the light is weak and muted. The pine tree limbs in the backyard are swaying from the wind as are the dead leaves still hanging off the ends of branches. I had an early appointment and was out of the house before nine. It was 31˚. Now it is a lovely 34˚, basking weather, almost deck weather.
Yesterday I was a whirlwind of activity. Not only did I finish my four errands, but I also swept the kitchen floor, cleaned the top of the stove, dusted and polished a couple of tables and changed my bed. I was exhausted.
When I woke up this morning, Gracie was in a ball right beside my head and between the two pillows. I figured she must have gotten cold during the night, and I was warmth.
I remember well Thanksgivings when I was a kid. For some reason my mother was always up with the birds as she used to say. She’d get busy making the stuffing first. I can still see her using her hands to mix the bread chunks with the other ingredients including Bell’s seasoning. Even now, all these years later, one sniff of Bell’s brings back my mother and all the turkeys of her lifetime. She’d finish the stuffing then put it in the bird. My mother used a giant roasting pan which just fit into the oven. It was oval and blue with white specks. She’d put the turkey and the turkey neck into the pan then the pan went into the oven though sometimes my dad did the oven as the pan was too heavy for my mother. At nine we’d settle in to watch the Macy’s parade. My mother put out tangerines, mixed nuts and M&M’s for our watching pleasure.
It didn’t take long for the wonderful aroma of turkey to spread about the house. My mother, still in the kitchen, would start on the vegetables. Always we had mashed potatoes. I think it is against the law not to have them on Thanksgiving. Creamed onions, canned asparagus for my dad, green bean casserole and later the squash casserole, our all time favorite, would be prepared in no particular order. Before the big day my mother had made the pies: apple, lemon meringue and one more, usually pumpkin or custard. With the left over crust she’d make the turds as my dad called them which always made us laugh. They were rolled dough with cinnamon and sugar in the middle which had been baked in the oven.
I remember the kitchen windows covered with steam from all the cooking, the aromas of the different dishes and how special the whole day seemed.
I put out mixed nuts and buy tangerines. I watch the parade. I make a pie and this year I figure I’ll make some turds. My dad would be happy.
Categories: Musings
Tags: aroma of turkey, Bell's seasoning, cold, cold night, exhaustion, making Thanksgiving dinner, mashed potatos, muted sun, pies, squash casserole, steamed windows, Turkey, whirlwind of activity, windy
Comments: 18 Comments
September 13, 2014
Today I am taking it easy, as if I don’t do that anyway. The cleaning of the cabinets on my to-do list is being shifted to tomorrow. Yesterday I moved the wrong way off the couch and twisted my back such that I couldn’t stand up. It took a while until I finally moaned and yelped my way vertical though it was tenuous as I had to hold on to anything I could so I could move forward. This morning I am much better, but I will not tempt the fates by doing any chores; however, I do need to get birdseed so an errand will be my sole accomplishment for the day.
At around four this morning I woke up because I was so cold. The window was open, and I only had the spread and the sheet to cover me. I did have two animals leaning against me, but they didn’t help a whole lot. I got up, easily I’m happy to say, grabbed the afghan and threw it on the bed. Gracie and Fern immediately chose their spots which didn’t include room for me, but I was determined. They got moved, I went back to bed under the afghan and was comfy and warm in no time. I fell back to sleep. The three of us slept until 9:45.
This morning I had a banana. Ever since I was young I have loved bananas. They went on my Rice Krispies, and I used to hunt for the slices with my spoon as they had a tendency to fall to the bottom of the bowl. They are a perfect fruit. In Ghana I could buy some right off the street and peel and eat and not worry about catching something. They are a boon to health and loaded with vitamin B. Bananas make a great bread. I am generally too impatient to wait until the bread cools so I slather a slice with butter while it is still warm. No fruit salad is complete without bananas. I don’t like pancakes, but if I did, I’d want banana pancakes. Banana cream pie is smooth and silky. A banana split has everything. It is served in a boat which gives it an epic proportion. It has three kinds of ice cream, a couple of toppings, whipped cream, nuts and cherries with stems. I was always partial to hot fudge sauce and usually caramel as my second choice. A finished banana split is a work of art. As crazy as the movie is, I like Woody Allen’s Bananas. I can sing the Chiquita Banana song, but I doubt my hips can gyrate in the same way. I do think the banana headpiece would look great on me. I have seen bananas growing. Big bunches of them hang from a palm type tree which isn’t a palm though some call it a banana palm. It gets confusing.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bad back, banana bread, banana split, banana trees, bananas, Chiquita Banana, cold night, easy day, errand, hot fudge sauce, tempting the fates, Woody Allen's Bananas
Comments: 16 Comments
August 31, 2014
Last night a cool breeze made the night chilly. My friend Clare was dressed for an Arctic expedition. A sweatshirt was enough for me, and I was still bare-footed. The deck movie was Capricorn One, released in 1977. It was about a Mars landing hoax which got me thinking about the moon landing. I know I’ve mentioned I heard the description of the landing as it was happening but from the radio on VOA during training in Ghana. The Ghanaians also heard it so none of us actually saw the one giant leap for mankind. Many Ghanaians don’t believe it was real. They think it was faked for the radio. Capricorn One would fit right into that theory.
We cancelled Clare’s sled dogs when the breeze disappeared and the night got warmer, but it still felt more like mid-September. I don’t remember the last hot night or when I had to use my air conditioner. This has been a spectacular summer for weather.
When I was a kid, a summer rainstorm was my favorite of all. The rain hitting the pavement caused steam to rise, and the cool rain and the hot pavement together had a distinctive smell, a summer smell. The street gutters were rivers of fast-moving water carrying leaves and paper to the grates over the sewers. Sometimes paper would get caught on the grate and the water would rise. We’d splash through the gutters barefooted and clear the grates so the deepened water would flow like a waterfall into the sewer. It made a roaring sound.
Sometimes when it rains I go on the deck and sit under the umbrella. Above me I can hear the rain tapping as it falls. The leaves glisten with drops of rain. All around is wet, but I stay dry. I love a summer rain.
Categories: Musings
Tags: breezy night, Capricorn One, cold night, gutters, Moon landing, movie night on the deck, sewer grates, summer rainstorm, the smell of rain, waterfalls
Comments: 18 Comments
August 30, 2014
During the night I was so cold I got up and put on socks. By getting out of bed I disrupted Fern and Gracie who were huddled beside me. It seems we were all cold. An afghan solved my problem and I quickly got cozy and warm. Fern and Gracie each took a side, leaned against me, got comfortable and went back to sleep. That is the last thing I remember.
Today is one of those blank slate days when my memory drawer is closed tightly and can’t be opened. This second paragraph has had several lives, and each was erased when the trail led nowhere. I’m sort of stuck. I filled the bird feeders hoping a change of scenery would bring memories and random thoughts tumbling out of my head. It didn’t. I came back inside, sat here for a while then went upstairs and made my bed. Aside from my bedroom looking neater, nothing was accomplished, nothing came to mind. I then changed the litter boxes not really expecting any sort of memory flood but the boxes needed to be changed. I figured why not. I was upstairs anyway. I came back downstairs and am now in the same spot I have been most of the morning. I’m thinking next I’ll put the litter in the trunk for Monday’s dump run. Maybe the front yard will be a source for inspiration. If not, at least I did a lot of chores.
I caught the litter bag on the screen door and tore open a small hole. I didn’t know until I got to the car and saw a pile of litter beginning to form. Looking behind me I saw a trail of litter Hansel and Gretel would have had no trouble following. Luckily I use pine litter, not clay, so I don’t have to do any sweeping. It will become mulch. That was one exciting trip to the trunk.
I was always a kid with a great imagination who believed in fairies and gnomes and elves. Witches scared me. I think the witch in Snow White was the reason. She was diabolical. For a long time I thought any woman with a wart on her face was a witch. When we saw the movie we were really young, and my mother said my brother hid under the seat whenever the witch was on the screen. I watched. He wasn’t a brave kid. Even Santa scared him.
When we moved to South Yarmouth, the woman who lived next door had a few warts on her face. I had never forgotten about witches thanks to the one with the apple and the wart on her nose; however, I had long ago realized they weren’t real, but after meeting the neighbor and getting to know her, I had to reconsider.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: bird feeders, cold night, elves, fairies, gnomes, litter boxes, making the bed, memory block, pine litter, warm afghan, warts on faces, witches
Comments: 12 Comments
June 24, 2014
I have come outside to the deck hoping the malaise which has descended will disappear in the glory of the morning. I have to admit that first sentence does make me chuckle. I sound like a Victorian woman swooning on the chaise holding a handkerchief infused with lavender. Even Gracie too seems not herself. She followed me to the deck then went back inside to her crate. She doesn’t usually ever leave me.
Yesterday I fell twice. Nothing serious, a few scrapes. The first was due to inattention. I was talking and walking, luckily I hadn’t added gum to the mix, when I tripped over one of those parking blocks. My elbow and knee got it that time. The second was going up the deck stairs. My flip-flop turned and I tripped on it. I was two steps from the top, which almost sounds like a song title. Anyway, I went down on the deck and this time it was my hand and elbow. Today my knee and shoulder hurt. I have no idea why the shoulder hurts.
It was a chilly night. I don’t think my feet ever got warm. I burrowed as did Gracie and Fern. I should have gotten up and gone downstairs for the afghan, but I didn’t want to leave the bed and my luck during the day with stairs hadn’t been all that good so I chose chilly to wounded and bleeding.
Yesterday was a productive day so today won’t be though I might change my bed and maybe do some laundry. I’m not leaving the house. Errands are for tomorrow.
When she was little, my youngest sister always had the grossest big toes. She stubbed them too many times to count. My mother would put on band-aids but they never lasted. Toes and band aids don’t seem to do well together. Sneakers would have solved the problem but she never wore them. I remember white strapped sandals with open toes, gross open toes.
My other sister broke her leg by getting it caught in the spokes of her tricycle which went down the hill leg and all. She also almost lost her finger when one of those fold-up stools folded on her hand.
Given their childhood injuries, you’d think their adulthoods would be rife with broken bones, but nope, I’m the one who falls, who breaks a few bones or scrapes protruding parts of my body. I guess I should have been more prone to injury as a kid so I could have skipped it as an adult. Falling is now run of the mill for me.
Categories: Musings
Tags: broken leg, cold night, cool morning, falling, flip-flops flopping, gross stubbed toes, malaise, productive day, scrapes, steps
Comments: 42 Comments
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