Last spring, as I spun along the interstate headed home from work, I noticed some "cows" that didn't look quite right grazing in a pasture. They were mamoth and moved slowly across the field. I did a double-take. Those "cows" turned out to be elephants! The big pasture and barn along the highway are used by a small circus for their winter quarters. That bright spring day, the elephants were out enjoying a bit of green grass and a bit of sunshine.
The elephants are back now. The circus is once again in its winter quarters, and I purposely drive home on the interstate to see if the elephants are out. I get in the right lane and go as slowly as safety allows just to get a glimpse of them in the pasture or by the pond. It is a novelty to see elephants where one normally sees cows. Somehow, as the days get shorter, and life falls into the routine of work and darkness, the idea of elephants in the pasture is just the spark I need to keep life from becoming dull.
The elephants are out of place in a sense, and I like that awkward balance between what is expected and what actually is. So, I look for the elephants. I keep looking for the unexpected. It brightens the dull winter days and keeps me expecting surprises.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Starting New
Grandpa and I have moved to town. With a new neighborhood and a new town, I'm trying to add some new, positive habits to my life. I don't have my garden here yet, but I know where it will go, and on nice days as the winter progresses, I will work on it. I want to be ready to plant lovely vegetables when spring does arrive.
In the meantime, I've joined the YMCA and am trying to exercise. I am NOT an athletic person. I don't mind sweating and getting dirty in the garden, but just running on a treadmill makes me feel like a hamster. There is no joy in that. So, I'm trying some of the activities available at the Y.
I tried the free weights. That was my biggest failure. Even with no weight at all attached to some of the machines, I could not move them. I moved from machine to machine trying to find something I could do! I found one. That told me I should find something in a hurry to build my muscles and keep my bones strong!
I tried the stationary bicycle. That went pretty well. I enjoyed looking out the big window over the roofs of the business district while I pedaled, but it didn't feel like much of a whole body exercise.
I tried racket ball. Well, I was on the racket ball court with a ball and a racket. My daughter tried to teach me along with my 6 year old grandson. I swished the ball as much as he did, and sad to say, by the end of the hour, he was doing much better than I.
Persevering, I tried the aquacise. Now, I may have found something I can actually do. I'm pretty good at it in the shallow end, but once I get into the deep water I have a tendency to move all over the pool as we float and swing our legs and bodies. If I can learn to stay in place, or at least in a smaller area, I may actually succeed at this.
At any rate, I am trying to move my body and keep my heart and bones at least as healthy as they are now!
In the meantime, I've joined the YMCA and am trying to exercise. I am NOT an athletic person. I don't mind sweating and getting dirty in the garden, but just running on a treadmill makes me feel like a hamster. There is no joy in that. So, I'm trying some of the activities available at the Y.
I tried the free weights. That was my biggest failure. Even with no weight at all attached to some of the machines, I could not move them. I moved from machine to machine trying to find something I could do! I found one. That told me I should find something in a hurry to build my muscles and keep my bones strong!
I tried the stationary bicycle. That went pretty well. I enjoyed looking out the big window over the roofs of the business district while I pedaled, but it didn't feel like much of a whole body exercise.
I tried racket ball. Well, I was on the racket ball court with a ball and a racket. My daughter tried to teach me along with my 6 year old grandson. I swished the ball as much as he did, and sad to say, by the end of the hour, he was doing much better than I.
Persevering, I tried the aquacise. Now, I may have found something I can actually do. I'm pretty good at it in the shallow end, but once I get into the deep water I have a tendency to move all over the pool as we float and swing our legs and bodies. If I can learn to stay in place, or at least in a smaller area, I may actually succeed at this.
At any rate, I am trying to move my body and keep my heart and bones at least as healthy as they are now!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Chicken Soup
We are experiencing our first real cold snap. The temperatures have dropped below freezing for two nights and that trend is expected to continue for the next two nights. My solution to the chill is to make a big pot of chicken soup. In the past, every pot of chicken soup I made tasted like just boiled chicken in broth. It wasn't bad, but it was boring. I've finally hit on a combination that renders a wonderful pot of soup every time.
I being with a tablespoon of butter and slowly saute an onion, 2-3 stalks of celery, and 3 -4 carrots in the butter until they being to soften. I then add cooked chicken to this mixture and saute the chicken with the vegetables. To this add about 2 tsp of sage or poultry seasoning. I then add 4 cups of good low sodium chicken broth and heat. To this I add about 1-2 cups of prepared Uncle Ben's long cooking long grain and wild rice (original recipe). I also add on pouch of Swanson's chicken flavor boost. Sometimes I will add peas or other vegetables that I have on hand. Let this simmer for at least 30 minutes and serve it with a crusty roll.
So yummy on a cold night!
I being with a tablespoon of butter and slowly saute an onion, 2-3 stalks of celery, and 3 -4 carrots in the butter until they being to soften. I then add cooked chicken to this mixture and saute the chicken with the vegetables. To this add about 2 tsp of sage or poultry seasoning. I then add 4 cups of good low sodium chicken broth and heat. To this I add about 1-2 cups of prepared Uncle Ben's long cooking long grain and wild rice (original recipe). I also add on pouch of Swanson's chicken flavor boost. Sometimes I will add peas or other vegetables that I have on hand. Let this simmer for at least 30 minutes and serve it with a crusty roll.
So yummy on a cold night!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Sweet September Rain
At last the September rains have come. After such a long drought, I feared more drought as autumn approaches. But, gratefully the rain has come. Even after such deadly heat and such a deep drought, the hard patch of ground that is the back yard has sprung to life. Water makes all the difference.
With water, the grass greened immediately, and as the rains have continued to come regularly, the crepe myrtle has bloomed. The penta and salvia have lifted their colorful heads again and are giving a last show of color before the frosts come. Even the day lilies, which are no longer blooming, are putting up little green shoots of leaves and storing up nourishment before the cold arrives.
The rain has cooled the air, refreshed the earth and the people and relieved the animals who move now with more vigor. Thank goodness for the rain. It is beautiful.
With water, the grass greened immediately, and as the rains have continued to come regularly, the crepe myrtle has bloomed. The penta and salvia have lifted their colorful heads again and are giving a last show of color before the frosts come. Even the day lilies, which are no longer blooming, are putting up little green shoots of leaves and storing up nourishment before the cold arrives.
The rain has cooled the air, refreshed the earth and the people and relieved the animals who move now with more vigor. Thank goodness for the rain. It is beautiful.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Blessed Rain
At last, a real rain! It has rained off and on all day and the clouds have kept the precious moisture from being sucked up into humidity before it could soak in.
In all of my life, I have never seen the ground so hard an so dry. Many trees are dying, and some that have survived are already beginning to get their fall color a month or more early. That must be their defense against the drought; they just go dormant. Maybe the September rains will come and quench the earth again. The weatherman says that just since June, we are 11 inches behind our average rainfall.
One of our sons gets his water from a spring on his property, and he has been without water for almost 6 weeks. He has had the local fire department bring him 2,000 gallons of water to replenish his cisterns and holding tanks. He is very frugal with his water and saves as much as he can. Our well is holding up, but we have always tried to never waste water. We turn off the water when we brush our teeth, and I water the flowers with any left over water from dinner or from the tea pot (after it cools or I pour hot water on weeds around the stone path to kill them). Water is a precious resource, and it is good to see it rain again.
In all of my life, I have never seen the ground so hard an so dry. Many trees are dying, and some that have survived are already beginning to get their fall color a month or more early. That must be their defense against the drought; they just go dormant. Maybe the September rains will come and quench the earth again. The weatherman says that just since June, we are 11 inches behind our average rainfall.
One of our sons gets his water from a spring on his property, and he has been without water for almost 6 weeks. He has had the local fire department bring him 2,000 gallons of water to replenish his cisterns and holding tanks. He is very frugal with his water and saves as much as he can. Our well is holding up, but we have always tried to never waste water. We turn off the water when we brush our teeth, and I water the flowers with any left over water from dinner or from the tea pot (after it cools or I pour hot water on weeds around the stone path to kill them). Water is a precious resource, and it is good to see it rain again.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Drought
Day after day it is hot and dry. Everything that should be green is turning brown. In all of my life, I have never seen it so dry and hot for so long. Yesterday we had a brief shower - just enough to dampen the porch, but the earth and vegetation is so dry that when I walked through the grass immediately after the 2 minute shower, everything was dry. It was like no moisture had fallen at all. I dug up some of my perennials to put them in pots where I can get some water to them to try to save a start of a few of them. I was shocked at the lack of moisture in the earth, and even after digging down about a foot, the soil was bone dry and cracked. No wonder the trees are going brown. Some will die from lack of rain.
The wasps come to the bird bath and drink and drink. The birds come too and sit with their wings out and their feathers fluffed as they pant through open beaks. It is pitiful to see them suffering. I turn on the sprinkler in the evenings to water the garden, and the birds come to sit in the cooling water and preen themselves. So far the well is holding out, but we are more careful with water now.
The garden is still producing a few tomatoes, but everything has stopped flowering. I keep watering hoping that when the 100 plus degree heat finally breaks and the rain returns we might get more vegetables. There are cumulus clouds building in the sky now, but so far no rain in sight. Pray for rain.
The wasps come to the bird bath and drink and drink. The birds come too and sit with their wings out and their feathers fluffed as they pant through open beaks. It is pitiful to see them suffering. I turn on the sprinkler in the evenings to water the garden, and the birds come to sit in the cooling water and preen themselves. So far the well is holding out, but we are more careful with water now.
The garden is still producing a few tomatoes, but everything has stopped flowering. I keep watering hoping that when the 100 plus degree heat finally breaks and the rain returns we might get more vegetables. There are cumulus clouds building in the sky now, but so far no rain in sight. Pray for rain.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Sweet Talcum
Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting of sweat and sweet talcum. from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Days and days of 100+ degree weather is wilting the peppers and tomatoes in the garden and has made the yard nothing but a patch of dry, crunching fiber. It wilts me too. The heat is invasive even when I stay inside where the air conditioner moderates the temperature. Somehow, the heat glazes the windows and pokes fingers of blasted air around the doors defying the cool inside.
I try to work in the garden early in the morning when it is relatively cool. By nine or ten o'clock the heat begins to bake everything. I head for the shower drenched is sweat and ready to feel the cool water. When your head is baked by the sun and you've worked outside until the sweat runs down your back and arms, there is nothing like standing under the cool stream of water in the shower. But the best part of a summer shower is the talcum. I might be one of the last people in the world to use talcum; that soft powder on freshly dried skin is a silken coating that defies the heat. Pampered by its slippery smoothness on my parched skin, I think of the ladies of old. Talcum and a cool bath was all the relief they had in the heat of summer. My grandmother used to use big fluffy pad to apply the loose powder to her skin. I remember watching her standing in her slip on a hot day in a cloud of sweet talcum as she moved the puff over arms and neck. My talcum comes in a shaker bottle, but I think back to those wise women who knew how to fight the sticky summer heat and follow their lead with a dousing of sweet talcum on a hot summer day.
Days and days of 100+ degree weather is wilting the peppers and tomatoes in the garden and has made the yard nothing but a patch of dry, crunching fiber. It wilts me too. The heat is invasive even when I stay inside where the air conditioner moderates the temperature. Somehow, the heat glazes the windows and pokes fingers of blasted air around the doors defying the cool inside.
I try to work in the garden early in the morning when it is relatively cool. By nine or ten o'clock the heat begins to bake everything. I head for the shower drenched is sweat and ready to feel the cool water. When your head is baked by the sun and you've worked outside until the sweat runs down your back and arms, there is nothing like standing under the cool stream of water in the shower. But the best part of a summer shower is the talcum. I might be one of the last people in the world to use talcum; that soft powder on freshly dried skin is a silken coating that defies the heat. Pampered by its slippery smoothness on my parched skin, I think of the ladies of old. Talcum and a cool bath was all the relief they had in the heat of summer. My grandmother used to use big fluffy pad to apply the loose powder to her skin. I remember watching her standing in her slip on a hot day in a cloud of sweet talcum as she moved the puff over arms and neck. My talcum comes in a shaker bottle, but I think back to those wise women who knew how to fight the sticky summer heat and follow their lead with a dousing of sweet talcum on a hot summer day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)