Ghosts and Goblins

And all creepy things...Hallowe'en came on so fast that I did almost no outside decorating this year [well, we took Fall driving trips on several days and I just didn't get around to it] but I did do a little in the House on the Hill...let me see if I can find a picture or two to prove I have not been totally idle.

Where did time go?

Came across my old Blogs tonight and had fun reading them..I had forgotten at least a few things, the time Norm mowed off my new rosebush and how tiny Tootie was, I still miss her and many of our cats.

Rainy Day

On the Hill

Poking around on Blogspot and came across my old blog..I can't believe it is still on here as it's been 3 or 4 years since I posted anything on it.  My best intentions to keep my Blogspots up has been all for naught as I have spent the last 3 years in ill health.. running to Drs, going for tests, laying down because I felt too ill to sit or stand up..and here I am now..on the road to wellness it seems.

Life has not changed all that much so with hopes for the best, I shall just pick up where I left off .

 W planted some sunflowers last year and had a beautiful crop..some of them over 10 ft tall, unfortunately they got in a little late so most of them were not fully ripe when we had our first frost, it didn't seem to bother th birds in the slightest..they gobbled up every immature seed and when they ran out, came to the feeders and the front porch where the seed supplies never run out. 

It's so bright and cheerful today that I thought a brisk walk would be in order..as I stepped out on the flagstone patio a gust of cold wind changed my mind and I came back into the house just as a huge flock of geese went over..the 5th one since yesterday morning. The Redwinged Black birds are back, the first one was here on the 7th of March, Norm reported 5 of them on the virbirnum bush this morning..I love their happy OKA-Lee call, a sure sign of spring.

Problems, Problems and ETC

I can never seem to bring this blog up to post to, for some strange reason. I can get to my other blog, The House On the Hill with no problem. This one is impossible to bring up which makes it difficult to update.

It's garden time and cleaning time and picnic time and time for all the good things that don't seem to happen in the winter. I am like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off, running from one thing to another, never finishing one task because I keep starting new ones.

In a weak moment, I bought a 6 pack of canned chicken [white meat] at Sam's Club awhile back. After making a half way decent dip with a can, I decided another 6 pack would be a great idea so now I have 11 cans sitting in the too full pantry.

I spent some time googling recipe sites for chicken salads and finally decided to make up my own, using chicken, light mayo, chopped celery a firm apple or pear and chunks of pineapple. I will add some curry powder and maybe a tiny bit of pineapple juice to the mayo.

I am thinking that there might be another tasty addition but can't think what it might be. maybe at the Father's day Picnic, I will ask for ideas from my family of very accomplished cooks. I think I will try it out here before I make a ton for the party. besides, I have to take my big bowl of potato salad..everyone likes it and I never have it exactly the same no matter how hard I try!

Happy New Year

Another year...another bunch of resolutions I probably won't keep and the inevitable feeling of "Oh my God..another year just flew by and now that is one more gone of the paltry few I have left"..what a horrible thought!

Oh well, as Scarlett said.."I'll think about tomorrow". Today I will make some whole wheat pasta with tomato and basil sauce, drained chopped spinach, ricotta and some mozzarella if I can find any in the frig, if not, I'll top with slices of cheddar or pepperjack.

I always overbuy at holiday time and everything is just crammed in there..time for my budget month to take effect and use up some of the stuff I have already bought and spend no more than $100 this month on groceries.

Tootie has some new additions to her wardrobe..courtesy of Aunt Deb, I had to turn back the fur on her hood so I could find her little face!

Back soon....

Ghosts and Goblins

And all creepy things...time to finish up my Hallowe'en decorating and think about Christmas..my favorite time of the year!

I did't do much decorating this Fall...too many day trips on beautiful blue and gold days. I added about 500 pictures to my scenery, old barns, gravestones and small white churches collections, with a few more goodies thrown in!

Only did inside this year, osteoporosis has limited my bending and lifting and standing on my head to decorate so will just do what I can. Anything is better than nothing I guess. And I do have more pictures but can add later.

My old AOL Journal is still alive !

My old AOL Journal successfully transferred although I am afraid my many AOL Home pages are gone forever. I doubt I would ever take time to make them again and I had no luck at all in trying to move them.

Some of them had several thousand hits but but after AOL changed the software I had used to make most of them, it was impossible to upgrade and remove non-working links so I guess I will print out some of the best ones for my scrapbooks and just forget them...it was great fun while it lasted however.

Today is dreary and nasty, we now have the wood furnace going and a fire in the kitchen stove as well...these old rambling houses were built long before central heating came into use so we have to heat both ends and hope some of the heat drifts into the middle and offside rooms. If not, well, we can always shut the doors on a couple of them on the worst days.

I have been doing a little Halloween decorating, not as much as usual but we have no trick or treaters anymore, they have all grown up and gone away and most of the neighboring places are owned by CITY PEOPLE who just come up to shoot guns, kill stuff and ride those noisy four-wheelers and snomobiles all over everyone's property. some of them are nice and some are awful!

Need to work in the back room and the old office which in now an "everything room"..see you later!

Mixed Up Mess!

After finally trying for a couple of hours last evening to move my AOL Journal over to Blogger I finally got it to move. Great! this AM, I tried to post but had to go through all kinds of tactics including using IE tools to get to enable java script and a bunch of other things I am not sure I want on here.

Now is the time to see if I can get this working right before I go back our and try to catch some SUNSHINE so here goes...

Just Moved my AOL Journal

AOL is closing it's Journal and Hometown pages as of the end of the month. I managed to move my Journal "The House on Long Hill" to Blogger, but am afraid my Hometown pages will end up being lost...might try to rescue some links and pictures for my Blogs on here. I had several pages, some of them had nearly 4,000 visitors and some only a few hundred, but I loved making them and feel sad that they are going.

We had a great vacation last month but now everything is winding down, gardens are nrearly finished, time to buy a couple of bushels and pick our own apples, the deer are standing on their hindlegs to get at them so only the high ones will be left.

We took a ride yesterday and I did get some pics of the beautiful scenery that people pay to come here and see...better to click and see them in a larger size to appreciate them!

I had a long day, will be back soon.

Gardentime

Time to report in I guess, I always vow to keep this journal up but as Willie Nelson sings, "Funny How Time Slips Away"

Right now we are in the midst of garden chores, if they can be called that..to me, planting, watering fertilizing and picking [both flowers and food] are anything but burdensome.

We have had the first broccoli and the little cucumbers will be ready next week, I see a tomato turning already and the flowers are gorgeous this summer. We have had horrible slug and snail problems but other than that every thing except the New Dawn rose looks great. The roses were just beautiful, but some pesky bug turned the leaves into lace curtains.

The deer have also been the usual problem but they are not as bad as some years, probably because I have been using Shake-away which has coyote and bobcat urine in the formula, and also instructed DH to make a late night pit stop around a few of the most vulnerable places.

Tomorrow night is a class reunion with friends and fun and good food, must find something to wear..nothing like waiting until the last minute!

Tags: deer control, roses, gardens, flowers,

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

Back Home Again

Sunrise at Back Beach Rockport, Cape Ann, MA

We got up at 6AM to get to the beach just as it started to get light and before the tourists and dog walkers were out.

What a great trip..mostly sunny, not too hot and found some sea glass on a couple of days. took a trip to Marblehead and the beautiful day turned cloudy, windy and cold so we headed back north to Rockport but will try again next year..found the old Burial Hill with some of the earliest graves in New England and managed to get a few decent photos, see below.

 

Another Death Head marker, these are very old, mid 17th century.

 

View of stones, homes and Atlantic harbor at Marblehead from up on the Burial ground.

And of course, I had to add a flower box from Mt Pleasant in Rockport..the flowers are unreal out there, always a million beauty spots to enjoy.

 

Now I have to try to lose the 2# I gained from those fantastic breakfasts at our B and B and fish sandwiches from fish caught the same day..and the best fries I have EVER eaten...good thing we only stayed 4 days!!!

Tags: Rockport Ma, old cemetery, Cape Ann, window box, flowers, Marblehead

Too Darn Hot!

This weather is just too much! Too much heat, too much humidity too much sitting around waiting for it to cool off.

However, complaining won't change it and so I will get on with life. My patio garden is full and I still have a ton of things to plant.Found a great sale after I thought I was about done and brought home about 4or 5 more flats, mostly annuals that need to get into containers post haste!

I try to go out early in the morning while it is cooler but it is so humid that I can only work a few minutes at a time, better than nothing I suppose. Hope Norm will get out and spray the tomatoes, I see signs of early blight and have been hoping for some really nice tomatoes this year. Had Swiss chard tonight along with sweet corn, sweet potatoes and strawberry mousse' Another veggie night...healthy and good!

Took Twerpie to Dr. West last week...the reason he seems to have lost his balance and is blundering into things is because he has lost almost all of his sight in the past couple of months. Poor little guy, he had such a miserable life before we got him and I had hoped to make his last years happy. Well, guess they will still be happy as he is always walked on a lead anyway and he can still smell the chicken in his food dish.

 I see now why he jumped off the couch into the coffee table about 4 times in the past few weeks! Muffin went along for the ride as she needed to be weighed..she has gained a whole ounce!!! Heart murmur no better but she seems to be doing well so far.

Tomorrow will be a fun day...Debbie and I are going to spend the day doing something nice, we just don't know what it will be. Antiquing, shopping, maybe drive up to Cooperstown or down to Binghamton and go to some favorite stores and of course EATsomething good and unhealthy somewhere along the way.

catch up later, still have things to do tonight.

 

Is it Spring AGAIN???

I can't believe it's Spring again. Not only that but it's almost Summer and I just finished getting the last of the Christmas things put away..where do the days go when they fly by so quickly? I always think of those old movies that indicated the passing of time by showing a calendar with the months flying off and swept into a passing wind.

I will be celebrating a birthday soon and some days lately have been beginning to feel my age. I hate growing old but know that the alternative is worse by far. Maybe someday I will feel that I have lived long enough but believe me, that is in the distant future [I hope].

The gardens are weedy and overgrown, I just can't seem to keep up with so many so this year [as in the past]  I have vowed to cut back and I fully intend to do so this time. I have several flats of annuals waiting, 3 new Clematis, a Honeysuckle vine and a flat of perennials and a couple of dozen tomato plants waiting to go in as soon as I'm sure the danger of frost is over. The past couple of nights have still been cold enough for most of them to freeze so I'll hold back on the most tender until after June 6. The pansies I planted in April are doing better now and I still have more to plant.  My best gardening fun this year so far has been taking digital pictures of whatever I can find that looks interesting and making new albums.

Feel tired tonight so "Good night, Journal", 'til next time.

Another Year

Another year has slipped away, much of it spent in political thought, study, reading and writing. As grandma always said, no sense crying about spilt milk but I feel a sense of despair as I see the America I grew up in slipping away ..turning into something that looks like another country and not a very nice one at that. So much hatred and anger, and a war that grows more disheartening every day.

We don't own the world and the sooner we admit it, the better. Everyone does not want to be like us, even though most Americans do not believe it.

Fall is nearly gone now, the skeletons of the bare hardwoods are gray and drab, dull and dreary  on some days but at least a few days have still had the brilliant blue skies that make even those empty branches seem beautiful. Kinda like an old movie star with wrinkles and graying hair who goes into a makeup room and is transformed for a moment in time into a breathtakingly beautiful  young goddess again...Elizabeth Taylor turned 29 for the day!

Speaking of bright days, I finally broke down and ordered a goLight which I hope will help me combat my S.A.D. this winter. I am so tired of feeling as though I am under 8 feet of water from January until Spring's sunshine days are back again. I KNOW I need to get up from my chair and clean, exercise, work on my hobbies, cook and bake and DO things but it is as though I am caught in a vise. Once the bright sunny days appear, I am back to my old self but our long gray  winters are stealing precious days and  I need to do something about it. Hence, the litebox, on sale at Costco and hopefully on it's way to NY State.

Spent 3 hours today shampooing that darn living room rug and it still looks spotty but the Christmas chalkware collection goes up in here next week and on the last Monday of the month, 2 of our daughters and maybe our grandaughter will be here to trim at least 1 or 2 of the trees, set up the Christmas Village, put out Santas and Snowmen on the shelves over the dining room doors and on the hutch, bring out the fabric Santas and set them up in the living room and laugh, talk, drink tea and eat and laugh some more..I look forward to it every year. The teddy bears of Christmas are waiting to take their turn as soon as I get the teddy bear room cleaned out and pack away the summer and fall bears. Everyone in the bear family has to spend at least a few months a year in the "Vacation Houses" [really big tupperware tubs] because I have so  many. A few of them have gone to new homes and a few more will be going this year...somebody else will have somebody to love!

That's all for tonight, want to finish reading "Skipping Christmas" [even though I think I can guess how it will turn out] before calling it a day.

Food, Exercise and All That Stuff

Well, here it is March..No I didn't forget you dear Journal, but time flies and I have so much to do and so little time. This month I am back checking my scales quite frequently because I am with my usual wintertime weight gain. We have had so much snow and so many cold, windy and  just miserable days I have not been walking. I did finally start my "house walks" which consist of 6 to 15 minutes walking from one end of the house and back with several detours around tables, benches, more tables and so on interspersed with some marching in place or walking in place in front of the clock in the kitchen. I try to do this twice a day if I can stand it. [Boring !}

Along with a few stretchs every day and an occasional half day spent cleaning these darn off white [now dingy tan] carpets those walks are my main exercise for now.

I am afraid I will have to resort to cutting back on carbs for awhile to lose the 10 # I gained since last November but I just can not do one of those Atkins type things. I am not terribly fond of meat, too much fish is tough to force down and I expect to start laying eggs any day now since chicken seems to be the meal of choice around here.

I have been dutifully eating more bran flakes and less candy. I did great on the 2 apples a day for awhile but now have decided that red grapes  and bananas are filling my fruit cravings [along with OJ] on most days. The 5 a day usually is no problem but I do have days when I can eat 6 or 7 servings of fruit and veggies. I found a couple of old notebooks from 15 and 10 years ago, I only weigh about 5 pounds more than I did then but of course none of my old clothes fit.. I have turned into a marshmallow I'm afraid!

Well, my mom should have published a book about weight control, she had it down pat: "Eat a little less, move around a little more". Gol' darn it, Mom, you could have made the family rich if you had only published that 1 page book! Millions spent every years on diet books, diet plans, exercise equipment and special diet foods..people just need to use common sense..Eat Less, Move More.  I will start tomorrow AM....

Haiku for Fall

Now the Russet leaves

Are dancing, swirling gaily

Summer's last Fireflies.

Sisters, Halloween. and MICE!

Another warm day to welcome in the new month, wish it could stay this warm until April and then warm up a little!

Linda hurt her back last week and is still spending a lot of time on the mattress in the living room so I made a big pot of Bean and Kielbasa soup, throwing in a bunch of other stuff and cooking 'til it was thick and filling.We ran it down late in the day so it would be there for last night, driving carefully as we watched out for all the little ghosts, dinosaurs, ballet dancers and the likes doing the annual trick or treat. Since all of the kids on our road are grown and gone [including our own] I miss the Halloweens that brought many little faces to our door, sacks and hollow pumpkins in tow. We were always appropriately frightened and surprised and had to be told who this scarey or beautiful person was, even if they had been playing on the swing set a few weeks ago.

Stopped up to see sister Jeanne today, carrying a bag of books that I am finished with, a few pears, apples and winter squash and had a nice visit if complaining about rising prices, aching joints and the state of the things in general can be considered "nice". She has a new perm and is looking great considering that she had cancer surgery a year ago this past summer, went through the required radiation and chemo treatments and didn't even lose her hair!

Met our son-in-law at a local diner where he treated us to breakfast, a fantastic Belgian Waffle, hiding under a huge tent of strawberry-cherry sauce and topped with whipped cream. I ordered it and then split it with Norm. We did well deserved justice to it even though my inner calorie counter was yelling "No...Stop" most of the time I was eating.

Then home to check the mousetraps. The peanut butter has all been licked off so we know there are more of the little devils upstairs and last night, Norm saw one in the kitchen. Blackie has been spending a lot of time in that area lately but evidently his mousing abilities went along with his masculinity. It is such a temptation to leave them alone, they are tiny and really kinda cute, but there would soon be dozens and I must be sensible about things like this. They are welcome outdoors but we just can't  start a retirement home for mice.

Indian Summer

Another gorgeous day. Indian Summer made it this year albeit a speck late. The next few days are supposed to be warm and if we are lucky, no rain until Tuesday. Today was a gift. The sky was the bright singing blue that the poets write about and along our country roads the oaks still sport their coppery-russet leaves. Enough vivid red and sunshine yellow leaves flutter in the wind to make a merry dance, while the gray squirrels rustle madly from tree to tree, gathering nuts to hide now and forget later when the snow blankets the ground in a few weeks time.

As I pack away bushels apples and store bags of Yukon Golds, I feel a kinship with these little creatures, we too, know worse times are coming. The age-old sense of preservation speaks to all creatures, great and small. Sometimes I think squirrels typify the problem that I and some others share, to rush around madly, aquiring more than we need and then forgetting why we got it in the first place. Sometimes, what seems to be enough can be too much.   Peace......