A Day in the Life

  

I mentioned that I planned to plant at least two more trees yesterday – a Loquat and a Lemon.  I also planned to mix up the weed killer and work on a few more weedy areas.  Temps were almost too cool and it was a bit windy but . . . .

Out I went.  Got the shovel, the two trees, decided where they were going to be planted and remembered – no gloves.  Went to the shed to get them and . . .

Now, something about the shed.  The door is very heavy -
V E R Y  H E A V Y. 
Has some heavy duty hinges.  Opens/closes easily but it’s
V E R Y  H E A V Y.

opened the door, got my gloves and stepped out.  Then several things happened.

1 A huge gust of wind hit me

2 Knocked me off balance and I

3 Partially stepped on a brick and stumbled

4 The wind hit the HEAVY DOOR

5 The door hit me

6 I went flying across the yard and

Then, I just lay there for a while thinking

OHMIGOD DID ANYBODY SEE ME???
(don’t we all think that first?)

Then, I sat up and

My left knee took the majority of the crash, checked – no blood.  OK that’s good.  Slowly got myself up and did what –

Go inside??

Rest for a few??

Walk around and test the knee??

No, none of that.

Found the gloves (which had flown across the yard also) and limped around to the front to plant the trees.

Which I did.  Of course it was quickly apparent that there was no putting any pressure or even bending the injured knee but I preserved. 

And planted the two trees.

Then, I came inside to check out the damage.

(Actually the knee was hurting pretty good by then)

And it was swollen up the size of a

Well, thought I, that’s not good.

Then,

my daughter saw me limping and questioned why

and

told me to sit and put ice on it.

Which I did for the rest of the day.

 

The End.

29 Jan 2021

End of January!

  

Already!

I’m not sure how this has happened – the end of January already.

I looked back over my List of things I HOPE to Accomplish in 2021.

1 Exercise more regularly
2 Eat proper meals
3 Get a bunch of the plants currently in containers, into the ground
4 Get the rest of my ‘stuff’ stored in Ellen’s shop over here and where I can find it all
5 Work more on my genealogy (I like doing that but it gets pushed to the back often)
6 Think of interesting places to go and things to post here
7 Stay healthy and safe and mostly out of trouble!

So, a recap – I’m doing well on numbers 1, 2, 5, and 7.  I’m working on #3 – and I’ve managed to plant two more trees (that have been living in pots) and a Texas Mountain Laurel which I am going to try to make look like a tree (it’s one of tree-like shrubs). 

 I want mine to look like this

rather than

 

this

Today I’m going to get out and plant a Loquat tree and a Lemon tree, both grown from seed.  Forest – I’m planting my own forest. 

Oh, and I’ve also planted a prickly pear cactus (supposed to be spineless – hahahahaha no such thing).  I’ve decided where some of the shrubby things are going to go and will be working on those by the middle of February. 

It’s been very mild this winter with only one or two frosts and, this year, that’s fine.  Next year we can have winter as I’ll be better prepared plant-wise.  Of course, February tends to be our SURPRISE! month.  It will be mild and sunny one day and freezing and overcast the next. 

As I said - I’m working on #3.

I’ve also done some work with my genealogy.  More research on the Abbotts and Pulliams.  (#5 – check)

Great grandmother Mary Marcella Fowlkes Pulliam
abt 1883

Great grandfather Homer Virgil Pulliam
late 1920’s

 2^nd great grandfather Frances Marian Abbott

1870

 

2^nd Great grandmother Margaret Waldrop Abbott
1870 (the woman looks like she could bite tacks!)

 

8^th great grandmother Elizabeth Peyton Beverly
late 1600s (she’s on the Pulliam side)

With the arrival of the wonderful-marvelous-beautiful shed, I’ve also been working on #4, getting my stuff in a place where I can find it.  I am still a bit hampered by the fact that the wmb shed is full of plants but soon they will all be back in the sun and the shed will hold – shed stuff.

And, while I didn’t include this on THE LIST, I’ve worked on various projects started, then set aside to “finish later” (haha).  Here, I’ve been pretty successful also.  I have a number of bird houses and all of them have needed some refreshing.  I got several repainted, repaired, and put up for new birdies. 

 

While working on the cat bird house, I noticed something wedged inside and popped it out.  Along with the one, came several more somethings.

four itty-bitty eggs!

I think these are Titmouse eggs. 

I did feel guilty as I wasn’t aware the house was inhabited when I took it down for packing but . . .

I’ve also done a great deal of handwork which is destined for a project to be finished before next November.  Hard to tell but they’re about 50% beadwork.  They’ll look better after the finish work is done.

I’ve not been successful at # 6 on The List, keeping in touch via blog, thus my surprise that it is the end of January already.  I’ll try to do better but you know – Covid and I live in Wharton (both things that limit anything even slightly maybe possibly interesting). 

Guess that’s it for today.  Y’all stay warm, safe and for everyone’s sake, wear a mask/social distance!

 

28 Jan 2021

Much and Nada

  

Which is what’s been happening around my household lately.  I’ve finished several projects (started and set aside because . . .  who knows the because, I don’t).  I’ve had company, been alone, exercised and been a bit of a couch potato.  The weather has been dry, really hugely wet, warm, and cold all in the span of a couple of weeks.  I’ve also watched some mindless TV, rewatched some movies, and started watching a new series on Netflix.  Absolutely nothing of great interest or excitement going on here to write about.

The outdoors is starting to sing to me but as it is January with our (possibly) coldest month yet to come, I am ignoring the song to bring the plants outside, to dig in the dirt, to arrange the rest of everything that goes outside.  Nope – been there, done that and had to cover, carry things back inside, lost things planted. 

News:

I got my first COVID shot last week – yay!  Have the second one scheduled for February. 

I watched the terrorist attack on the Capital with the same horror and shock as when I watched the twin towers fall on 9/11.  And even though thousands of people were not killed or injured, it was the worst thing I’ve ever watched because it was Americans attacking the basis of America. 

I’ve read several books. 

Two by Donna Andrews – The Meg Langslow series.  The Penguin Who Knew Too Much and Cockatiels’ at Seven.  Both are good – fun, light, and a good mystery.  Meg Langslow is a very good mystery solver AND very, very patient.  I believe I’d have locked my father (possibly mother too) in a closet if he’d done some of things hers does!

I also read Emerald Blaze, A Hidden Legacy book by Ilona Andrews.  I think I’ve read all of their (they are a husband/wife team) books and have enjoyed every single one.  I specially like the Hidden Legacy series because it’s set in Houston and having grown up there, I recognize all the reference points.

As Prime magic users, Catalina Baylor and her sisters have extraordinary powers—powers their ruthless grandmother would love to control. Catalina can earn her family some protection working as deputy to the Warden of Texas, overseeing breaches of magic law in the state, but that has risks as well. House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step . . . .

My granddaughter Abby recommended a book for me to read – American Gods by Neil Gaimon.  In the first pages, the author talks about this particular edition.  This particular book is the 10-year reprint.  And, the editor had him put back in some 12,000 words that had been eliminated from the original printing.  It’s long and a bit wordy.  The book is about America and its immigrants, a road trip, a little romance, and a mystery.  It’s full of mythology and fantasy – I mean, how often do you talk with various gods brought to America hundreds of years ago.

 Released from prison, Shadow Moon finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.

 Some of the people (gods) Shadow encounters and interacts with – Mr. Wednesday, Low-Key Lyesmith, Czernobog, Mr. Nancy, the Zorya sisters, Mr. Jacquel, Bast, Easter, Whiskey Jack, John Chapman, Hinzelmann along with several others.  There are some “new” gods he encounters also but I’ll let you read it yourself as they are pretty easy to figure out.

 So, what do I think about the book?  Well, it’s like the “GREAT AMERICAN (or English or Russian or, or, or) NOVEL” we’ve all read at different times in our life.  You read it, close the book, and think – that was really good! I’m not sure what it was about but it was good!

 The new tv series on Netflix – Lupin.  My daughter recommended it.  I was originally put off by the fact that it’s either in French with English subtitles or dubbed in English meaning nothing matches up exactly.  She recommended I watch it in French with subtitles.  It’s very good.  And, in case you are watching it also and wonder about the “book” - Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar – it was a real series of 17 or so books written in the early 1900’s by  Maurice Leblanc.  The good thing/bad thing is, of course, having to read the subtitles meaning there’s no doing anything else while I watch.  The other good/bad thing is it is very good and now I’m hooked.

 Well, that’s all of any interest right now.  Everyone think positive thoughts that Wednesday goes well and there are no more attacks on anything.  And, that all those that broke the law – ALL THOSE – are arrested and 1 put in a deep hole; 2 shot at sunrise; 3 sent to a deserted island in the middle of hurricane paths; 4 forgotten about except for “yeah – I remember that guy, a real idiot”.

 

 

2021 – Time for a Hard Reboot

 

Today, at my house, there will be black-eyed peas with cornbread for lunch.  It’s a tradition for many of us in the south.

During the Civil War era, black-eyed peas were considered trash food that was used to feed the livestock.  Then came General Sherman.  His march to the sea left a trail of destruction.  For many in the south, all that was left were those black-eyed peas and families felt lucky to have them.  As the south rebuilt after the war, black-eyed peas became a symbol of good luck and prosperity.  Some believe they represent coins.  Add in corn bread, a symbol of gold, and you’ve got a traditional New Year’s southern meal.

I didn’t have them last year.  Not making that mistake again!

I invited Bobby over for lunch and he will be my First-Footer.  Generally, the first-footer should be a tall dark-haired male who is not already in the house when midnight strikes. 

Okay, Man (check), Tall (check), Dark-haired (well in a year or so past dark-haired, so I’m pretty sure that counts).

I’m currently concentrating on all things involving good luck. 
I’m tired of the alternative.

One of my Christmas gifts is a rather unique book –

The Forme of Cury (The Method of Cooking, cury from Middle French cuire: to cook) is an extensive, 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text exists in nine manuscripts, the most famous in the form of a scroll with a headnote citing it as the work of "the chief Master Cooks of King Richard II". It is among the oldest extant English cookery books.

It's a really cool book though I have to think hard about the recipes and occasionally look up a word or 5.

Sawse Madame.

Take sawge. persel. ysope. and saueray. quinces. and peeres, garlek and Grapes. and fylle the gees þerwith. and sowe the hole þat no grece come out. and roost hem wel. and kepe the grece þat fallith þerof. take galytyne and grece and do in a possynet, whan the gees buth rosted ynouh; take an smyte hem on pecys. and þat tat is withinne and do it in a possynet and put þerinne wyne if it be to thyk. do þerto powdour of galyngale. powdour douce and salt and boyle the sawse and dresse þe Gees in disshes and lay þe sowe onoward.

Translation:

Take sage, parsley, hyssop and savoury, quinces and pears, garlic and grapes, and stuff the geese with them. Sew the hole so that no grease comes out, and roast them well, and keep the dripping that falls from them. Take galyntyne [sauce or jelly of meat juices] and grease and add to a posset [milk curdled with wine or ale, often spiced]; when the geese be roasted enough, take and smite [cut] them into pieces, and that which is within and add to a posset and put wine in it if it be too thick. Add powder of galingale, powder-douce [a mixture made with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, long pepper, and sugar] and salt, and boil the sauce and dress the geese in dishes and put the sauce on them.

Probably I won’t be making any of these recipes but I do enjoy reading cookbooks of all sorts.

I try to not make “resolutions” on New Years’.  Too easy for them to get lost in the shuffle as the year progresses.  I do make a tentative plan list.  So –

1 Exercise more regularly
2 Eat proper meals
3 Get a bunch of the plants currently in containers, into the ground
4 Get the rest of my ‘stuff’ stored in Ellen’s shop over here and where I can find it all
5 Work more on my genealogy (I like doing that but it gets pushed to the back often)
6 Think of interesting places to go and things to post here
and
7 Stay healthy and safe and mostly out of trouble!

 

1 Jan 2021