A long time ago

True to my resolve, I tried out a new recipe, and to my great gratification, it turned out well. It was listed as salmon puff, and was easy to prepare and tasted good. I have a pile of recipe books, so I should be able to keep this up for a long time.
Today passed very pleasantly, warm and sunny outside, with the hummingbirds darting back and forth just outside the window in the family room.
I chanced upon a video display of Janis Joplin singing some of her songs, and it reminded me that she died 39 years ago, so many of my readers probably had not been born when she was with us. She lived just down the street from my house when we were living in Larkspur, California and my husband delivered her mail. She worked hard at being outrageous but at heart she was just an insecure, although talented, young woman. Unfortunately, she threw away her life on drugs and died alone and lonely.
Oh, the times I have seen. I remember when Charles Lindbergh used to ride his motorcycle past our house, on his way to the University of Wisconsin, and the excitement when he flew his plane across the ocean to France. We all listened to the radio when his baby was kidnapped and killed, and when the "trial of the century" took place. I have lived through wars and droughts and depressions and earthquakes and floods. Changes are taking place even today that are life-changing. i hope I have still more time to watch the passage of events and am able to understand and appreciate them. I have been lucky!

A new recipe and a short walk

Cold weather is coming. When we pulled up the blinds this morning, the windows were all fogged over. It's time to get out the dehumidifier and get it going. It does a good job of drying out the air which does hold a lot of moisture from cooking and showers, and so on. During warm weather it doesn't make any difference, of course.
I have resolved to try out a new recipe at least every other day. Today i made Apple Crisp, a super easy recipe that turned out very well. It satisfied my sweet tooth and contained fresh apples, of which we have a plentiful supply. These are from our own apple tree, much better than the ones we get from the store.
My husband and I meandered down my neighbor's lane to where several tractors are leveling off a portion of the hillside to make a parking space, I suppose. We hadn't been down that way for awhile, and I must confess the walk was a little hard on me. By the time we got back home, i was dizzy and had to rest and drink orange juice to revive myself. This doesn't happen too often, but I always recover. Ha,ha! One never knows.
The house we passed on our walk is empty, with the owner coming up only about once in six months. It sits there, windows covered over and leaves and debris littering the deck and walkway. It was for sale for awhile, but no one even made an offer. Actually. it is quite attractive inside, and is on a huge piece of land. Houses in our neighborhood simply aren't selling, like everywhere else. We thank our lucky stars that we are secure here in our little house.
More soon. Bye and keep in touch.

Recipes

Last night's blog set me to thinking of my great-aunt Johanna, who never married and spent most of her life taking care of various family members. She had a beautiful sister, my great-aunt Kate, who was married to a very wealthy Chicago businessman and disgraced the family by running off with the family chauffeur. Although her husband searched high and low for her and even advertised in the papers, she never returned and Aunt Johanna was left as the only caretaker for my mother and her sisters and brother. Pictures of Aunt Johanna show her to be a plain, even homely woman of middle age but I think she was very kind to the motherless children. My mother grew up to be a wonderful cook, a skill she must have learned from Aunt Johanna.
As I type this, I have in the oven a dish referred to as a chicken hot-dish. It is the first time I have tried this particular recipe and I do hope we can eat it. I did not inherit my mother's cooking skills and have to struggle along as best I can. I have several cookbooks, some quite expensive, but I still have as many failures as successes.
We are somewhat isolated here, but as I sit here I can see across the way to the house where the twelve foster children live and it cheers my heart to think of all of them gathered around the table eating dinner, or playing board games. They are remarkably well-behaved children, and range in ages from about three to nineteen or twenty. The house is built in two stories and there are lights in all the windows. up and down.
Well, time is flying by. Please keep in touch.

Gather ye roses

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

This poem was written long ago, and came down to us as a nursery rhymn. It reminds us that the age of thirty used to be the cut-off point beyond which a maiden was considered to be a hopeless old maid. Girls were often motivated to marry, not for love but to save themselves from a disgraceful state of spinsterhood. We may all be thankful that those days are over.
But back to the present. Today was shopping day, so we stocked up on Hallowe'n candy and verious other supplies to keep us in groderies for the week. We had leftovers for dinner again, and watched "dancing with the stars" for awhile. How they keep from dislocating their lege and arms I will never know.
It is now midnight. Night all. Keep iin touch.

A tamale pie

I must be doing better - I tried out a new recipe for dinner - tamale pie, and hope it turns out well. It is at this moment in the oven and looks rather promising. I am little by little teaching my husband how to cook, and he is embracing the concept enthusiastically. It is all part of my new lifestyle which I am planning for the future, in which I no longer shoulder responsibilities and let others make decisions. I am looking forward to the day when i can consider myself a placid old lady and let my husband do the worrying. That would be quite a switch, but not impossible.
We have the option of going to Yountville to the veterans home where everything is furnished, food, lodging, medical care, entertainment - all for a minimal sum each month. We visited it once and felt that we would vegetate there and last maybe a couple of weeks before we fled screaming out into the world of the living again. The rooms are small, with just room for a bed and wardrobe and maybe a computer. There is a community room where there is a TV and a table or two for board games or jigsaw puzzles. Meals are taken in a large dining room, and are reputed to be nothing to brag about. We came home grateful for our little house where we are free to do as we please and eat what we want. Some people do adjust and live there for years and years but I don't think it is the answer for us.
Keep in touch - I like to hear from you.

Gather ye roses

Things are moving along! The new well is in and producing water, we have our winter's supply of wood in the garage, and I am feeling much better. The weather has been very pleasant and the maple trees are in glorious color. I am reminded of an old poem that begins "Gather ye roses while ye may " which rather expresses my sentiments for this period of time. "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think." Consider that I usually gaze out at the world through dark glasses, this is a new mood for me. Could it be that my mind-altering exercises are bearing fruit? Wouldn't that be pleasant"
We ate left-over chicken soup for dinner, and will have cookies for dessert later. Unless my husband makes pudding or something equally tasty. Now that Dr. Oz has proclaimed chocolate to be good for us, I no longer have to feel guilty when I eat it. He also urges us to eat sardines!
Well, I shall go and watch Mash on TV and catch Dr.. Oz at eight. Take care and keep in touch.

Dr. Oz

We have been watching a TV program called "Dr. Oz" which is very interesting. He extols the virtues of health-promoting foods, like sardines and dandelion greens, demonstrates exercises and encourages obese people to lose weight. Last night he featured a woman who lost 150 pounds and looked fabulous. Here in our time zone it comes on at 8 on channel 6.
I have been practising (or trying to practice) mind control. Since I am a worrier and obsessive compulsive, it makes sense that I could direct my thoughts into constructive channels. Since I have only now started this endeavor, I have no idea if it will help or not. I have my OCD under control pretty well, and no longer have to get up in the middle of the night to check on the water, heaters and doors. I check them before going to bed and that is it. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.
Flu has come to our little neighborhood, and I am glad I went and got the shot. One whole family is down with it.. Further up the street, the children have been found to have lice, which is an inconvenience but not as serious.
Well, maybe my blogs will become a kind of day-to-day journal that my descendants will read. I hope so. Bye for now.

I get the flu shot.

Off I went today to get my flu shot, not a big deal really as they were being given at the Safeway store in a nearby town. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all, and was paid for by Medicare. I had expected a line of people, but there were only two of us there, myself and a little old lady of 89. She was so lively and perky that I thought she was much younger. Then a stop at the mercantile store, crammed with every kind of article a person could wish for. Then back home, and a nice nap while my husband washed the windows.
Can it really be that Halloween is coming next week? We only get about twenty children each year, but it's fun to see their smiling faces. We still give out candy, though that practice is rather frowned upon these days.
Am I back to blogging again? I hope so. Take care and keep in touch.

thirteen steps

Thirteen Steps

My house sits atop a little hill, with a long stretch of forest leading down to a little stream. To get down to the bottom, one must wander down a little twisting path through redwoods and bracken. For the first time in three years, I walked down that little path yesterday and revisited scenes of the past.
Today I decide to repeat the experience.
To walk where I walk, one must carefully descend thirteen shallow steps of wood and gravel, holding carefully to a hand rail for balance. To the left, still blooming here and there, is a thicket of rambling roses, carefully tended by my husband. I stop to pull out a long strand of periwinkle which has entwined
itself into the bushes, and remember when we planted them so many years ago. We had no idea that they would grow so densely and so tall. To my right is another rose garden, and several rose trees still blooming.
But I have now reached the end of the steps, and I stand on a little flat area carpeted with dichondra and bordered by tall hydrangeas. Once upon a time we used it for a circular meditation walk, and I now circle it a couple of times, murmuring “Hari Om, Hari Om” softly to myself. But I still have a way to go.
The path turns to the right here, and becomes steeper and harder to traverse. Blackberry bushes have grown across the path and I have to be careful not to trip over them. Strands of spider webs brush across my face, and mosquitoes have discovered my presence. Over my head a squirrel chatters and blue jays squawk and hop from limb to limb of the redwood trees. I reach the wooden bench at the side of the path and decide to rest there and go the rest of the way another day.
As I sit there in the sun, I feel calm and rested. The air is warm and a little breeze stirs the branches of the trees. Myriads of insects are buzzing around and if I listen I can hear the barking of a dog in the distance and the answering bark of another off in the hills across the stream.
We had a dog once. She was a little Samoyed and we dearly loved her. She is buried in the pet graveyard just behind the bench where I am sitting, along with a couple of cats, a little canary and two pheasants. The pheasants were not pets. But they have a little plot in the graveyard nevertheless. I suppose there are more pets there, but I have forgotten now.
Just below the bench is the filled-in entrance to a mine shaft, rumored to be an old cinnabar mine. We were told that it was filled in to prevent children from crawling in and being injured or trapped by falling boulders. The story may or may not be true. It makes for a good tale, and I suppose we will never know the true story.
I sit so quietly that I begin to daydream. I am almost in a meditation mode, and my mind goes back to the old days when I used to attend the meditation seminars and study under Swami Chinmayananda at summer camps. Perhaps I fall asleep there in the sun, because I feel his presence beside me on the bench. “Swamiji,” someone asked him once. “Will you come back after you have passed on?” He laughed for a moment, slapping his thigh with his hand and jiggling his bare foot. “How should I know? Ask me that after I am dead.”
Was this his answer? Had he come back to me now after all of these years? I am struggling for an answer when a call from above rouses me from my reverie. “Lunch is on the table.” I struggle back up the path, leaving behind the ghostly presence of my long-ago guru.

Glad to be back

Aha! At last! I am back at my blog spot. It has been a long time. We finally pulled my computer out into the living room where it is more comfortable to work, and i can keep an eye on my cooking and so on. I can keep an eye out on all of the activities going on out in the street, and the humming birds at the feeder, and in general feel more a part of things. I celebrated my 87th birthday on the 25th of September, with a nice family party and fun with my wonderful little great-grandchild who is almost two, and going through new phases of develoopment on a daily basis. I wish I had known all the basics of child-raising when my children were babies. Actually, I wish I knew them now! It's a day-to-day process for us all.
I am continuing to improve in my walking ability, and can march around the house without even a cane, though I use one outside. Please welcome me back and keep in touch. I always love to hear from all of you.