Posted tagged ‘Laundry’
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
April 27, 2015
No errands to do today, but I have some laundry which I’ve brought down to this floor, only one more floor to go. I’ll probably make my bed, but that’s not a given. I will water the plants. I’ve already showered and read the papers. The day is partly sunny which I prefer over partly cloudy, a choice which reminds me of the half-full or half-empty glass description. I always figured that choice had little to do with outlook and more to do with thirst. Really thirsty makes the glass half-empty.
In our travels, my brother and I would drink water from just about everywhere except the swamp. Beside the tracks, there was a pipe with water flowing from it. Underneath the pipe was a small pool of water which was the start of a stream. We always stopped there for a drink. The water looked clean. That’s all we cared about. There were very few bubblers around town. One was at the field below our street, and we stopped there. We even taught the dog to drink from it. Germs were never a consideration. Cooties were, not germs, but dogs didn’t have cooties. People did. In my head just now jumped the memory of cootie catchers. They were made by folding a paper several times until there were four corners meeting in the middle and each corner had a pocket to put your fingers in so you could move the corners back and forth until a corner was chosen. Inside each corner was something pithy the maker had written. We also used those cootie catchers as fortune tellers, a nicer game. Later I realized these were origami, but knowing that was a long way in the future.
The best and the coldest water was from the hose. Before you drank it, the water had to run a bit as the sun had warmed the water already in the hose. Once it was cold enough, the flow had to be gentle or the front of your shirt got soaked. It was a balancing act which took some practice.
Even in Ghana we drank suspect water which had floaties, our pet name for whatever was in the water bottle, really a beer bottle holding water, but on my latest two visits to Ghana, I bought water, bottled water. I figured I’m beyond taking chances with floaties.
Categories: Musings
Tags: choosing half empty, choosing half full, cootie catcher, cooties, drinking water, fortune teller, Laundry, lazy day, make bed, origami, water from the hose, water plants
Comments: 8 Comments
March 31, 2015
Today is bright and lovely, a bit chilly but that’s okay. It feels like spring; it doesn’t smell like a spring morning yet, but I think we’re close. Two bright, beautiful yellow crocus (croci) have flowered in my front garden. My eyes, hungry for color after the winter, saw them as soon as I walked outside to get the papers. It seemed as if they sprang from the earth overnight, maybe as a gift from much maligned Mother Nature.
I keep watching the birds flying in and out of the feeders, and I keep checking to see if I will again be plagued by the red spawn. I thought I caught a glimpse of the beastie on a tree limb, but he didn’t go to the feeders. I wonder if they have red spawn tasers.
I have decided winter is over even though it will be 28˚ tonight. You will read no more complaining about this extended season from me. Every day I see or hear a new sign of spring. The mornings are now filled with the songs of birds. No longer does that single bird sing. The sun is so bright coming through the storm door that all three animals vie for a sunny spot. Maddie’s fur was hot this morning when she came for a pat. The plowed snow is still on the corners of the street but the piles are tinier every day. I no longer pay them any mind. When I look out my window here in the den, I see the deep blue sky and I see trees no longer seeming shadowy, no longer silhouettes in the darkness of a cloudy day.
The last few days have been busy ones for me. I think the winter sloth has moved on. All the chores I kept putting off are done. I don’t even have any laundry in the drier. Today I have PT and some errands. I’m excited about going outside in the sun. Today is a sweatshirt day. I think I’ve seen the last of a winter coat day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bird song, bright day, color, Crocus, end of winter, happy, hot fur, Laundry, snow piles, songs of birds, spring, sunny door, winter slotgh
Comments: 6 Comments
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year, my friends.
I was still awake to say goodbye to 2014 and to give 2015 a hearty welcome then I stayed awake longer and watched Twilight Zone episodes, several of them. I woke up close to eleven this morning and took my time with coffee and the papers. The morning doesn’t feel any different from yesterday’s morning. A new year always begins with parties, noise, funny hats and midnight celebrations then settles back to the usual day by day stuff. The cats and the dog are having their morning naps oblivious to the importance of the day. As for me, I’ve nothing planned, and that makes me glad.
Winter has settled in. Today is cold. It even looks cold. The sky has a pale blue color and some scattered clouds. The dead, brown leaves at the ends of the oak branches are waving in the breeze. Lots of birds are at the feeders. The red spawn was here earlier but has since gone. I haven’t seen any cars on my road. I can’t think of any reason to go out or even to get dressed.
Christmas will begin to disappear tomorrow. It’ll take at least a couple of days and several trips up and down the cellar stairs. I’m never happy to say goodbye to Christmas. It is the one bright spot in a drab, cold winter.
There is a sense of accomplishment left over from yesterday when I actually did two loads of laundry. The basket had sat in the hall for a few days, and I just walked around it. Finally I decided it was time. I even put the clean laundry away, but I’m going to change my bed later and start a new pile of laundry.
Thank you for having spent another year with Coffee. I cherish you all.
Categories: Musings
Tags: cold, drab winter', goodbye Christmas, Happy New Year, Laundry, quiet day, seasonably cold, sense of accomlishment, staying home, The Twilight Zone
Comments: 13 Comments
December 29, 2014
I no longer consider myself a loller. Yesterday I went out and did my errands and even brought my laundry downstairs, but I admit it got no further and still sits in the hall waiting for its final journey. I am in no hurry to move it. I just keep adding to it. Doing laundry demands a particular mood or a frantic need for specific clothes like underwear. Maybe tomorrow I keep telling myself.
It’s chilly today. We have sun and a blue sky, but it is pleasing only to the eye, best seen from the warm house through a window.
Getting ready then celebrating Christmas made for an exciting week. It was filled with anticipation and neither Christmas Eve nor Christmas Day disappointed. Now, however, there is a lull. I don’t even have a dance card. I take naps. I still light the Christmas tree every night, but its days are numbered. Soon the house will be boring, bereft of light and color, a perfect reflection of winter.
The ocean in winter looks dark and foreboding. The beach is sometimes so windy and bone chillingly cold you fear you’ll never get warm. The car heater on high makes your fingers tingle as they start to feel again. Your feet seem to take a bit longer, but taking off your shoes and putting your feet by the heater helps. Soon enough hands and feet are back to normal, and it is time to lower the blasting heat and move along.
I always hope no one comes to my door on a winter’s afternoon. I am never dressed for company. Even now I’m in my winter uniform. I’m wearing a sweatshirt, a Celtics sweatshirt, my around the house pants and a pair of new slippers. I haven’t even brushed my hair, but I don’t care. I am comfy and happy, and I’m thinking that’s all that counts.
Categories: Musings
Tags: anticipation, busy Christmas week, chilly day, comfy and happy, cozy clothes, drab winter', Laundry, lolling, post Christmas lull, sun and blue sky, taking down the tree, the ocean in winter
Comments: 14 Comments
December 20, 2014
The grey day doesn’t phase me at all. My trees are lit. The chili pepper wreath, the painted gourd and the scallop shell lights are also lit. They are bright and warm and the rooms feel cozy in the light. Today is make a batch of cookies day, orange cookies. Of all my cookies, the orange ones were my mother’s favorite, and they are also my friend Clare’s favorite because they remind her of her mother’s orange cake for which the recipe was lost. I remember my mother hiding some of these cookies because they disappeared quickly when company came, and my mother wanted a stash.
I am not going anywhere today. I’m doing the laundry, making the cookies and wrapping gifts. I’ll watch Hallmark movies this afternoon and be wary of my sugar intake. This evening, in keeping with the spirit of the season, I’ll watch the premier of the Syfy movie Christmas Icetastrophe. The only description says,”Christmas turns deadly.”
It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen them. I still watch all the old Christmas movies. A Christmas Carol is my favorite dating all the way back to Seymour Hicks, the gruffest of Scrooges, but, as I’ve said many times, the 1951 Alastair Sim will always be my favorite. In The Bishop’s Wife Cary Grant plays Dudley the angel. One of my favorite scenes is when Dudley magically decorates the Christmas tree by just a wave of his arms.
It seems Christmas angels have odd names, not just Dudley but also Clarence and Gideon and probably more I’m forgetting. Gideon is the angel responsible in The Magic of Christmas, a movie I like though it isn’t on TV often. In the night scene, the street lights have almost an eerie glow. Snow is piled high along the sides of the roads. The roads still have a layer of snow. Their breaths can be seen as Ginny and Jack, the two main characters, talk. In that pivotal night scene is one my favorite sounds, the squeak of boot on snow as Jack takes a walk.
Okay, I admit a guilty pleasure, the 1997 horror movie Jack Frost. I first saw it one Christmas Eve while my mother and I were talking and laughing. We couldn’t believe it, but we got pulled in and watched the whole movie. Jack Frost is a serial killer on his way to be executed when his van crashes into a truck filled with genetic material. Jack mutates into a killer snowman seeking revenge on the sheriff who arrested him, the sheriff of Snowmonton. Residents of the town are killed in horrific Christmas themed ways. Spoiler Alert: a blow dryer plays a key role.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Christmas angels, Christmas Icetastrophe, Clarence and Gideon angels, Dudley, grey day, Laundry, lights, orange cookies, The Magic of Christmas, wrapping gifts
Comments: 12 Comments
August 3, 2014
Yesterday it rained all day, sometimes it was heavy and sometimes it was misty. It was a chilly day, and I had to shut the doors and the window behind me. Today is dark and still chilly with damp. I’m going nowhere. I have no plans. I did a couple of loads of laundry yesterday and felt accomplished. Peapod is coming later. I knew it was time for an order when I used the last of my coffee. Last night my larder was so empty I had a pizza with sausage and onion delivered for dinner. Gracie and I shared the crust. We both enjoyed the pizza.
Life is slow. Even last night’s syfy movie didn’t hold my interest. Sharktopus was back. At the start they showed the ending of the first Sharktopus when he was blown up and small pieces of him floated down the river. I had just seen the first movie so I noticed something different. They had changed the ending so we could have a sequel. An egg type sac, not in the first movie, floated down the river into the sea and was caught in a net. When the sac was cut open, the smallest baby sharktopus was inside. It wasn’t a cute I am hybrid. You can figure out the rest of the movie.
One of my former students called this morning and we chatted a bit. Yesterday another called. I love that we stay in touch.
I am not loquacious today. My life has been quiet of late. I’ve been reading A Spy Among Friends, not my usual light summer novel when I am more often in the middle of a murder or several murders than a cadre of spies, but I find this book and its story of Kim Philby riveting.
Today is harvest day. Many of my cherry tomatoes are ready. I am already thinking of lunch and those tomatoes. A panini sounds perfect.
Categories: Musings
Tags: A Spy Among Friends, cherry tomatoes, damp and chilly, harvest, Kim Philby, Laundry, Pizza, Sharktopus
Comments: 14 Comments
July 10, 2014
Yesterday was a sweat producing day, a day for the air-conditioner which was on all afternoon and night, but I turned it off this morning though it is still a bit warm. It’s just that the mornings are so lovely I hate to miss them sitting behind closed doors and windows. Right now there is a little breeze from the window behind me, the birds are singing and the neighborhood is gloriously quiet as if I’m alone in the world. I like that feeling sometimes. Last night it rained, but I didn’t hear it. Today might reach 80˚ but it will drop to the 60’s tonight. Tomorrow’s forecast has the nighttime temperature at 59˚. That sounds delightful.
My energy comes in spurts sometimes dictated by my back. Yesterday my sole accomplishments were to re-set the flag holder and screw in the hook off the deck which holds a bird feeder. Both were victims of the wind. The bird feeder had been filled but it fell to the ground and was emptied. I’m thinking the spawns had a picnic. Now that the hook is fixed I’ll go and retrieve the items which fell off the deck and refill the feeder. I am already on my second load of laundry, and I have to go buy Gracie food and drop a few things off at the dump. That, for me, is quite the busy day.
My sisters used to give my mother dandelion bouquets. She’d act thrilled as if she had been given the rarest flowers. She’d put the bouquet in a jelly glass and then in the middle of the table. The dandelions were brilliant yellow and didn’t seem at all like a weed should be.
My father always got two weeks’ vacation, and he took them in the summer. Most of the time we didn’t go away as it was too expensive though I do remember the trip to the island in Maine and the Niagara falls trip, but that’s it; instead, we’d go places close to home. I remember going to the beach on weekdays when the traffic was light, and there were parking spaces near the water. We’d stay most of the day. A couple of nights we’d go to the drive-in. Sometimes we’d go to Maine for a weekend and stay at my father’s friend’s cottage. I always found that boring. The water was too cold, and there was little to do. The museum trips were my favorite. I remember standing in the Egyptian section at the MFA and marveling at how tall the sarcophagi were. I still get that feeling when I visit the MFA even now. Once during the two weeks we’d go out to dinner, a rare occasion for us. We’d go to Kitty’s where the food was cheap and plentiful. It never occurred to me that we didn’t have enough money to go away. I never felt deprived, and I loved being surprised by every day.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Air conditioner, bird feeders, bird song, breeze, dandelion, dandelions, Laundry, mornings, Niagara Falls, stay at home vacations, sweat, the dump, Wind
Comments: 11 Comments
June 2, 2014
Wonder of wonders: my first laundry load is in the dryer and the second is in the washing machine. No longer does the bag of laundry lying there by the cellar door haunt me. My victory lap was well-earned. Tomorrow, though, I change my bed and the laundry bag gets filled anew. It is an endless cycle. Blame Adam and Eve who in being thrown out of the garden had to drop the leaves and don clothing.
It’s a sprawl in the sun on the rug by the door morning for the cats, proof that spring is finally entrenched. Last night stayed in the 50’s. Today is lovely, a word not often heard anymore, but it fits perfectly.
It is is plant and flower buying day, one of favorite days of the year. I’ll shop for herbs and veggies for the two small gardens and for flowers to fill the deck window boxes and clay pots, some of which need replacing. All this shopping frenzy is in preparation for tomorrow, opening day. My factotum, Skip, is coming to clean the deck and decorate it and the yard for summer, weed the two gardens then plant the herbs and veggies, fill all the window boxes and pots which sit on the deck rail with new soil and both flowers and herbs then finally de-spider and clean the outside shower. The deck is covered in pine pollen so it will not only need sweeping but also washing. The fence around the veggie garden needs some work as a few of the fence boards broke over the winter and Gracie has dug a few holes in the garden. She is a champion hole-digger.
My dryer has just announced the first load is dry and ready for folding and the second load is set to take its place. I do feel accomplished.
Categories: Musings
Tags: Adam and Eve, flowers, herbs, Laundry, lovely day, outside shower, pine pollen, plant buying, pots, window boxers
Comments: 15 Comments
June 1, 2014
Today is a glorious spring day filled with warm sunshine and deep blue skies. I just came back from driving my friends to the bus stop in Barnstable, and the ride home was a joy. The trees along the highway are leafy and are so many different colors of green. Hawks were riding the thermals. No one was in a hurry. When I got off the highway close to home, I saw people walking their dogs, runners along the bike path and bike riders along the road. The warmth of the sun is like a magnet drawing us out of our cool, dark houses. The sun on the deck is waiting for me.
I have memories of Junes long past, of transitions and changes. It was always the month ushering in the freedom of summer days. It was the month of graduations, of moving from one place in my life to another. I left for Ghana in June on a journey which changed my life. I came home two years later in June with experiences to hold for a lifetime. June is when the cape finally wakes from winter, when the flowers all bloom and the air smells fragrant. It is no wonder I count June as my favorite month.
The laundry has made it down to this floor. It is by the cellar door. It may get done today or maybe not. It depends on how long I can stand seeing it lying there. Sometimes I need to do things right away, the laundry obviously not one of those things. This morning it was sweeping the kitchen floor. When I was making the coffee, I noticed dust in the corners and bits of dry dog food around Gracie’s bowl. I lasted only through one cup of coffee then took out the broom. I couldn’t take it any more.
I have decided how to spend my day. I will do nothing but sit in the sun, sip a cold drink and read. The laundry in the hall will just fine for another day or two.
Categories: Musings
Tags: bike riding, cleaning, dog walking, glorious day, hawks, June, Laundry, running, sun, sweeping, transitions
Comments: 13 Comments
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