Happy New Year

To anyone reading this, Happy New Year. It will be an interesting year, at least. When we llived in New York,, I always wanted to go down to Times Square and watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve. Now I think I must have been deranged. Luckily, my husband would never go. We do watch on TV, from the comfort of our warm and safe house. We seldom go out anymore, but we enjoy all important events on the TV. Anyway, Happy New Year to all!

a lovely day

The sun is shining on the redwood trees and the drops of water on the branches glisten like crystals. This happens after every rainstorm and we always look forward to a pretty sight. We are spending a quiet day here at our house, just cooking and resting and planning for next week.
One of the problems with reaching an advanced age, as we have, is that we now have too much time. Years ago, when we were working, we never had enough time, but now we have to think up things to do. I have taken up crossword puzzles and my husband listens to book tapes. We take care of the cat, and I google and blog. And I am still learning to work with the computer.

learning to cook

I went onto the internet this afternoon and found all kinds of recipes for scalloped potatoes. 'There was even one by Juiia Childs, a bit complicated but it sounded good. I settled for one titled "old-fashioned scalloped potatoes". I shoved it into the oven where it is cooking even as I type.
My mother was a superb cook and how she knew all of the recipes she cooked up I do not know. Her own mother died when she was eleven so she really had no one to teach her, but I never knew her to cook something we didn't like. She had to be creative because her available ingredients were somewhat limited. Mostly she cooked what we raised on the farm. We especially liked her baked beans and pork spareribs.
We are having a quiet evening. Good-night to all.

rain, rain, rain

Last night we forgot to turn the family room heater off and so the whole house was warm when we arose. It was nice to be able to eat breakfast in a nice warm room, but the electric bill will be somewhat higher, I fear.
It is pouring outside and the creek that runs below the house is quite high. We are going to finish viewing the pictures today and will try to get the ones we keep put onto a CD. We felt a little spooky throwing the others out but we did it anyway.

Popcorn

I somehow managed to publish only the title to this blog. But never mind. I am still learning. We are listening to a book tape and eating popcorn. Comfort food. We used to pop corn in a skillet on the top of a wood cookstove - how we waited for the first popping sound that told us the skillet was hot enough. I don't remember any butter on it -we were careful how we used butter. The neighbors would come over and we would pop corn and make fudge. If a couple of the young neighbor boys came over, that was even better.

Popcorn

Friday afternoon

We are going through some more of the old color slides from long ago. Fifty years of our lives are contained in them, but a good many of them have faded or are from places no one but us have visited. We are going to keep out the best and have them put onto a disc.

One more time

I will try one more time. How is that for persistence? there is an answer to every problem. Is that not so?

spanish waters

spanish waters, spanish waters, you are ringing in my ears
like a slow, sweet piece of music from the gray forgotten years

Merry Christmas

Grandma Dottie wishes you a merry Christmas!