Posted tagged ‘cool’
September 15, 2016
It is sunny and cool, only 68˚. The breeze makes it feel even colder so I have shut a couple of windows. Last night was just fine for sleeping.
5 days and counting!
Yesterday I made a day by day list of what I need to do before I leave on Tuesday. Mostly it is filled with errands like going to Agway for pet food, Stop and Shop for trip treats, the bank for money and the store which sells bus tickets. Packing is on Monday, the day before I leave. I roll my clothes and have since my packpacking days. They don’t wrinkle as easily.
My mother always brought treats on our trips to Europe. She’d have cookies and candy for the car rides and nighttime snacking. I follow in her footsteps and will bring Oreos, candy which won’t melt and peanut butter crackers. Ghana is short on snacks. We used to buy Cadbury chocolate bars. My favorite was fruit and nut. The Ghanaian bars were made by Chocolate Tree. They were dark and not all that sweet. The taste took a while to get used to. I brought home one of the wrappings. The back has black stars and celebrates the Second Republic 1969. Chocolate Tree still sells bars. The wrappings have Kente patterns on them. The chocolate taste still takes a bit of getting used to.
Nothing is better than fresh bread from the oven. The bakery in the town where I grew up baked bread, and the aroma was so tantalizing we all beat a path to the bakery door to buy it. I’d take a hunk of bread and eat it on the way home. I always thought it tasted best when still warm and slathered with butter .
Once in a while I have toast in the morning. Sometimes I have it with jelly or marmalade. My favorite is clementine marmalade which I have to buy on-line. It isn’t all that sweet, mostly fruity. I seldom buy white bread. Lately it has been honeyed wheat as I have started a love affair with honey which I never liked until recently unless you count Bit-O-Honey. I have even bought honeycomb and eaten it on an English muffin. I add honey to goat cheese as a snack on crackers. Mostly I buy local honey just because it is local.
Well, I have two chores or errands to cross off today so I bets get moving.
Categories: Musings
Tags: 5 days, 68˚, canned cat food, canned dog food, Chocolate Tree, cool, fresh bread, Kente patterns, lists, packing, rolling clothes, slathered with butter, sunny
Comments: 6 Comments
August 23, 2016
This morning I starred as Sleeping Beauty, but no prince woke me up. I just did. It was 10:15. My mother would have said you probably need the sleep.
Last night we had movie night on the deck. We watched Dick. I had seen it before, but my friends hadn’t. I was glad they enjoyed it. We sat and ate appetizers while we played Phase 10. I lost. It was then movie time. We ate dinner while we watched. It was hot dogs and salad, a perfect summer meal. The night quickly got windy and chilly. I actually had to wear a sweatshirt. The screen fell down blown by the wind. It was undamaged.
Last night’s weather morphed into a beautiful day. It is in the 70’s and dry. I’m thinking deck time.
I totally lack ambition. I’m guessing I used all of my weekly allotment yesterday and last night. Being the consummate hostess takes energy and a lot of lists.
I’m not a fan of commercials, but I figure they are the price to pay for watching network television. One commercial, however, drives me crazy. It is for Dole fruit bowls. Two couples are at a picnic table after playing tennis. One couple stabs the tops of their fruit bowls then drains the liquid. The woman from the other couple looks at them with pure disdain and says, “Oh, they’re drainers.” She explains why she and her husband don’t drain. “We drink it,” she says with a haughty, superior look. That’s when I’d have thrown my drained sugary fruit cup in her face.
Categories: Musings
Tags: ambition, cool, Dick, Dole's fruit bowls, hot dogs, lists, movie night, salad, Sleeping Beauty, windy
Comments: 6 Comments
August 21, 2016
Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day! It is cool and sunny with that clear light of morning. Last night I didn’t even need air conditioning. Tonight we’re getting rain, but not just rain; we’re getting a thunderstorm. I don’t even remember the last time it rained.
I have noticed the darkness creeping in earlier now. We are losing two and a half minutes of light every day. According to the weatherman, a couple of nights this week will be in the high 50’s, a warning that cool nights and crisp mornings are getting closer. They are harbingers of fall. I love when it when late flowers color the front garden. The white clematis are starting to appear on the sides and tops of the front fence. Black-eyed Susans are still in bloom. A white flower whose name I’ve forgotten is budding in the garden next to the house. Soon it will bloom. That unnamed flower has spread across one whole side of the garden. When it blooms, it looks so lovely with the green house as a backdrop.
Tonight we are having our first movie. I have chosen Dick, but it is on order from Amazon prime, and they are saying by eight tonight. I’m hoping for sooner or we may have to choose another movie. The main dish for this evening is hot dogs. I have a hot dog machine which rolls the dogs over and over and also warms the rolls. It needs no tending. I’m going to pick up an appetizer or two, popcorn and some movie candy. We have birthday cake for dessert. I’m hoping my friends find Dick as amusing as I do.
I have two errands to do which makes this the third day in a row I have joined the outside world. Goodbye to comfy clothes.
Categories: Musings
Tags: beautiful day, beautiful morning, clematis, cool, Dick, flowers, front garden, garden, hot dogs, movie candy, popcorn, sun, sunny
Comments: 13 Comments
August 2, 2016
Okay, I have been balancing on the edge for days. Today I went over.
The morning started just fine. I sat out on the deck and read the papers. It is humid but cool enough that the humidity isn’t bothersome. When I finished reading and had done the crossword and the cryptogram, I came inside to grab another cup of coffee and read my e-mail. That’s when everything fell apart. My computer pulled a Hal. The view wobbled and disappeared. Random programs opened by themselves. The bookmarks refused my command to disappear. Bing opened instead of my homepage. I ran upstairs and got my iPad hoping for answers. It wasn’t a whole lot of help, but I did get my toolbar back. Bing, however, wouldn’t go away. I closed all the programs and decided to start again. When I opened Safari yet again, everything was as it should be. The view stopped moving and disappearing. Bookmarks were hidden. I have no idea where Bing went, but it’s gone. I checked my utilities and Bing wasn’t even there. During this computer fiasco, I was crazed. Added to that was Fern meowing and Gracie crying. I checked them both. Fern was happy with some treats. Gracie was crying at the empty bag she had stolen treats from the other day. I was flummoxed. I did the only thing I could and showed her the empty bag and said, “See!!” Strangely enough she walked away and got on the couch.
Today is a neither day: neither sunny nor rainy. Given my druthers, I’d choose rain. I had to water the deck flowers again today. The plants were wilted. I soaked them and they perked right up. I figure I have to water every other day now until it rains.
Last night I decided to watch Netflix and chose the pilot of The X-Files. Scully was the skeptic with a grin. Mulder, of course, believed the case revolved around alien abduction. I loved it. I admit to being a super fan of The X-Files, but I doubt that is a surprise to anyone. I have a few favorite episodes and another few which gave me pause. One of my favorites was Bad Blood where Mulder and Scully had totally different recollections of the same event. It was a comical episode in its own way. One episode which still gives me the crawlies was called Home. The Peacock brothers were the main characters. Mulder and Scully went to investigate the finding of a dead deformed baby which had been buried. The Peacock brothers were deformed in some of the same ways, indicators of in-breeding. But with whom? The answer is one of the creepiest characters in any X-Files episode. I won’t be a spoiler in case you want to get the chills from watching it. Leave the lights on. That’s my only advice.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Bad Blood, bad computer, Bing, cool, crying dog, Hal, home, humid, mewing cat, on the edge, Peacock Brothers, Scully and Mulder, wobbly computer, X Files
Comments: 11 Comments
April 26, 2016
We had rain earlier, but I don’t think it was much as I never heard it. The day is cool and dark. Grace and Fern are here with me but Maddie is hiding. I managed to give her some medicine last night and haven’t seen her since. I checked her usual places, but she has found someplace new. She’ll turn up just in time to get medicine again. After that, I expect her to pack her bags and leave without even saying goodbye.
In the dampness of the morning, I walked around the front garden. All sorts of flowers are peeking out of the ground. I haven’t an idea of what any of them are. Some have spread and my burning bush which was cut to the ground last fall has several small branches. I was worried but was reassured by Sebastien, my landscaper and my neighbor. He was right.
It never entered my head that I would care about a garden or flowers. Even when I first moved in, I didn’t care so much. The garden was behind the front fence so nobody could see my neglect. When Sebastien planted the lawn, he suggested I move the fence behind the garden. That’s when I started to buy plants. I bought perennials and a few annuals but the garden was still sparse looking. I still didn’t care all that much until I saw a garden filled with color and flowers, and it was beautiful. I started buying flowers. I think I have an addiction as I buy some every year. This year, I already have a list, but I need to do some refining. I want flowers which bloom at different times during the summer and fall so the garden will always have color. I’m still taken aback by my flower enthusiasm.
It has started raining again. Maddie just showed up from wherever she has been hiding. She is allowing me to pat her. That will last only for a while as soon enough it will be time for her medicine.
I have always found the rain subduing. Even when I was little I wanted to hear the rain and nothing else. School seemed quiet when it rained. I remember the sounds of papers being moved and pages being turned but no conversations. I don’t even remember the nun teaching us. She too must have listened to the rain. I remember seeing her sitting at her desk looking at papers, but I always thought she was really listening to the rain.
Categories: Musings, Uncategorized
Tags: blooming, cats, cool, dark day, flowers, gardens, medicine, quiet, rain, subdued, wet
Comments: 10 Comments
May 30, 2015
On spring Saturday mornings, my neighborhood was filled with the sounds of fathers mowing lawns with their push mowers. All we could hear were whirrs and clicking sounds. After that came the scraping sounds of rakes. I always felt reassured in a way. The world was as it should be on a spring Saturday morning.
Today is a day much like yesterday. The morning air is cool and filled with sunlight. Some leaves on the backyard trees are in sun while others are caught in shadow. I keep going to the deck just to stand a while in the beauty of the day. While there, I’ve been watching the cardinal couple. They must have a nest nearby as they are always on one or another of the branches by my gate.
I scared a spawn this morning. It was on the back side of the feeder and neither one of us saw the other. When I was right at the rail, it leapt and I jumped.
My lawn is being mowed. The guy has one of those standing mowers which make so much noise. It took him all of five minutes to do my lawn. I can also hear other mowers and edgers being used around the neighborhood. The Saturday ritual continues but is different, noisier, much less personal, much less fun to hear.
When I was a kid, life was serendipitous and spontaneous. I had no obligations, no chores and no places to be. I never needed a list. Now I make lists. They’re my way to stay organized and push myself a bit as I love sloth days. This has been a busy week for me mostly doing errands so today is an around the house day. I have a few flowers to plant, a table to paint, a really small table, a few feeders to clean, the ones for the orioles and the hummingbirds, and my deck needs sweeping again. I have decided, though, not to put them on a list. That would make me obligated.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bright morning, chores, cool, edgers, lists, loud Saturday mornings, power mowers, push lawn mowers, Saturday rituals, serendipitous and spontaneous., sounds of mowers
Comments: 23 Comments
November 10, 2014
Today is a lovely fall day with a slight breeze, mottled light shining through the backyard branches and birds at all the feeders. It is a quiet day. I don’t even hear cars. I do hear the snoring, especially Gracie’s. She seems herself. The next test for her is Saturday.
I have to buy cat food and litter today so Gracie and I will be out and about later. I also need some cold cuts so I can keep hiding the horse-sized pill she takes each morning.
I have started my Christmas shopping. Everything I’ve bought is on one of the guest room beds so I have to start checking what’s there and making a list of what I need. My sister in Colorado never helps. I ask and she says she’ll have to think about it. That drives me crazy. My other sister usually has one big item in mind and always asks if it is too expensive. It never is. The best part of Christmas presents is getting something you really want. I may drive my sister crazy this year as I have nothing in mind. I’ll just let her surprise me.
The three boys are getting Hess trucks for one of their gifts. They get one every year. The baby will only be 5 months by Christmas, but I figured I’d start his collection. Both babies got hand-knit stockings already, and I have ordered each of them a wooden box containing three handmade ornaments including Baby’s First Christmas. Kids are easy. Adults seldom are. To some I give magazine subscriptions including Afar, Smithsonian, Bon Appetit and Yankee. They are always a big hit as gifts. I’ll also do some hunting in local stores as I love to find different and off-beat gifts, and there are a few stores I can always count on for something special.
Well, my back is horrific today. I did too much yesterday. That’s always the way with me. It happens all the time. I am a slow learner.
Categories: Musings
Tags: baby's first Christmas, Christmas presents, Christmas shopping, Christmas stockings, cool, errands, fun stores, horse pills, lovely day, magazine subscription, off-beat gifts, sunny day
Comments: 15 Comments
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