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