A Windy Day

     "Now Laura," Ma said kindly, "You must not be so easily discouraged.  A few blizzards more or less can make no great difference."
                         "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder


     On Wednesday we went to the stores and bought 5 weeks worth of groceries.  That includes the Butcher store, the Health food store and two grocery stores.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours.

At the Health food store, I bought bulk molasses and maple syrup, Tibetian Pink rock salt and Applewood smoked salt, chili powder and decafe Earl Grey Tea, and a dozen lovely red peppers on sale for .33 apiece.  These define the tastes of this month's cooking, to some extent.  The peppers are frozen, nearly a gallon of them for fajitas, salads and omeletes, Eliyah will make pancakes after school to eat with maple syrup, and the salts, well, nothing tastes better for me than scrambled eggs with smoked salt and ground pepper for breakfast!  The total was $24.80 and constitutes my quarterly trip to the Health food store.  Counting that and the others, my total for 5 weeks was $300.75.  We saved $50.  Of course, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  If we find ourselves jaunting to the store in less than a month to get some goodie we're out of, well, that would be a failure of the budget, wouldn't it?
My menus for this week include Pasta, which will make three meals,  Beef stew with barley and mushrooms, Pork tenderloin sandwiches and Clam chowder with toasted cheese sandwiches.  We bought plenty of ice cream, fruit and chocolate for desserts.

This week I made Rye bread for a change, using the molasses and some cocoa powder to impart some color and flavor.  I rolled the loaves in chopped sunflower seeds too.  It is yummy.  

Today is a very windy day.  The air is like, buoyant, as I noticed when I went out to rescue two t-shirts left out to bleach in the sun.  So I left the garage door up and the door into the house open, to bring in that leafy air.  When I went out to get something in the garage, I found a wren trembling on the work table.  She was so afraid of me she wouldn't shoo out, she just couldn't move with fear.  I put up the second door and left her alone and now she has gone.  It is so windy, the garage must have seemed like calm from the storm.   

Eliyah made breakfast Pizzas Thursday, biscuit dough with eggs, cheese, bacon and a slice of tomato.  They were very good and he has written down the recipe for his box.  We used lard in the biscuit dough, which gives it a special flavor.

 Some have mushrooms on them.

My sole decoration for Halloween is the witch in our kitchen, brought all the way from Yugoslavia.

I have been making lists at the dining room table by lamplight, even though it's the middle of the day.  I find it makes the lists go better, and now I think I'll add a cup of Earl Grey tea too. 

Cozy Winter Days are Coming Again!

"A b-b-b-blizzard" Ma chattered.  "In Oc-October.  I n-n-never heard of . .. "

Quote from "The Long Winter"  by Laura Ingalls Wilder

She originally called it "The Long Hard Winter" and so it was.  But her publisher felt that was too frank for her audience of children so it was shortened.
And no, there has been no blizzard here, just some cool weather.  But I love the thought of snowy cold weather.  Now that I'm retired and don't  have to go out to work every day!  I have already moved the table close to the stove for warm cozy meals.  Eliyah and I have brought in wood and stacked it on the hearth.  Every morning I read a chapter from "The Long Winter" after breakfast.  Not that we are having fire in the stove yet.  The Chimney Sweep hasn't even been here yet.  I am just anticipating!

I brought home some souvenirs from Florida.  A lovely little Nocturn, a little night painting:

   And a reproduction sewing bird.  It is impossible to actually stick a pin in the bright red cushion and I don't know how they managed that!

 Also  a set of Majolica canisters that are actually worth something.  You will see them in the background of this next picture.  The picture is of a bottle of oil.  The plastic bottle was so thin that it crumpled and spilled oil on the counter when I grabbed it to pour in the skillet.  I found a nice whiskey bottle to put it into and I like it very much, easy to hold and to pour.

   In line with being cozy for winter, I am cooking beans for the next month or so:

 I will put them in the jars, cover them with wax paper and canning rings and freeze them.  Beans, it turns out, are a proper carb for a diabetic.

It's almost time for our show so I'll stop now except to note I have gone back to monthly grocery buying.  It seems to save me about $50 a month.  More on this later.

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

     I have been gone on an extended trip, a working trip and come home thinner and very grateful for my life here.  We saw several accidents, which were horrifying, found that the cottage we were to stay in had been burgled and even the bedroom furniture taken so that I slept on a couch with a throw pillow the whole time we were there.  We emptied the house and cleaned it up as best we could and there was no time for fun in sunny Florida.  I wouldn't go back for a mint of money!   Florida was interesting though, as it always it.  It seemed to me that the Spanish Moss was thicker than I remember.

 If you look closely, upper third,  left of center, you can see an opportunistic moss attached to the phone wire where it is looped!

We loaded the car to capacity and beyond.  I loved this picture because if you look at the window you see a reflection of me, taking the picture!

     The trip was a good distraction from the sadness of finding out my old friend Ida had left this earth for Heavenly pleasures, (no doubt about that, none).
And another sadness, my youngest daughter has moved across the country to Seattle.  I have had the pleasure of her company all these years and now she has gone away to have adventures apart from me.  I miss her more than I can say.  I helped her pack and move and in cleaning out the house, brought many things back to my own house.  When I realized that she was really gone, I got some of those things out and spread them around, to use and to think of her and be grateful that she has been so near all these years.

 Her parasol is awaiting repair to the handle.

 The pantry is full of a motly assortment of new stuff.

 The clothes pins I fasten plastic bags shut with have a new container.

 My hair clips now reside in the box she used to use.

 This tiny cup was detached from a tea ball to become a companion to an India silver teapot.  The dolls will have a teaparty for Christmas, of course.

 This stone sculpture by another daughter, Jude, now lives on the hearth.

   This Norfolk pine has pride of place in the window of the bird room.  Though these days there aren't many birds feeding.  You can see the pan of water I've been keeping out for the deer.

     This morning during breakfast I was staring out the window in a vacant way and noticed something on the screen.

I went out into the rain to take it's picture.  It's a Preying Mantis, her abdomen swollen by eggs, I suppose.  I will recognise the egg casing when she is finished, because we had one in a vase of dried flowers for several months, in our old house down south,  until they hatched and when I looked, the wall appeared to be waving like a flag, as a sheet of hundreds of tiny white babies climbed upward in search of sunlight.  I opened the door and the cat and I watched as they gravitated out, turning pale green as we watched them surge towards the light.  I can't even estimate how many hundred there were.  But lately, I haven't been seeing very many adult Preying Mantis.  I would have liked to keep her in a jar for Eliyah to see but I didn't want to endanger her health or her babies' either and neither would Eliyah. 

NIB

     So often when I am trolling e-bay for treasures, NIB appears.  It means "new in box".  Everything is worth more if it's new in the box, the original box, mind you, not some Johnny-come-lately replacement box.  Now I have been looking for furniture for Mary Lincoln's room for some time.  She is taller than doll house dolls.  1/6, in fact, not 1/12.  That's Barbie size however most Barbie items are not old fashioned enough to suit Mary's taste!  But Bill has found something New-in-box!

 As you can see by the label, "Wood Dresser with Mirror"  Made in Japan, not occupied Japan so pre-World war II.  About the 1930's.  The style is just exactly Civil war era, called Jenny Lind, after the singer.  I was so pleased and I confess, happy to spend the grocery money this week on it!  We have installed the new window, the wall paper and the dresser but not the curtains and the scenery outside the window yet.

Note the tiny soap on a tiny doily.  Hand-made lace decorates the mirror and lies under the bowl.  Each drawer opens and I now lust after tiny gloves, hankies, a fan, and comb and hand-mirror to put in them.  Some people are never satisfied!

     Last week the most successful dinner menu was lamb stew.  I wasn't sure Bill would like it.  There was some ground lamb left in Rose's fridge when she moved.  I carefully added garlic, finely minced red onion and smoked sea salt and pepper and made large meatballs of the mixture, then simmered them in beef broth, with carrots, celery and mushrooms and a couple of tablespoons of barley.  It was a big hit and made enough for two meals for us, just with salad and toasted rye bread.  Yum-o-la!
More about our diet next time.

Art Show

     I've been to the Waldron Art Gallery twice this month.  I went to see a 40 year retrospective show of the employees and former owner of Pygmalion's Art Store.  The store always advertised itself as the Art store owned, run and staffed by artists.  My Daughter worked there for years.  So two of her pieces are in the show.  It was a lovely show but I hadn't taken my camera and the place was really too packed to make picture taking feasible.  So Eliyah and I went after school.  However, my photography leaves a lot to be desired!

"Tree" by Jude Heichelbech

Artist - Jude Heichelbech

 

 This wet-sculpted cement dog was the work of Tom Zeta, I just love the look this dog gives you!

All in all, a very successful show!

     I have put my sewing in the downstairs closet.  I confess the picture makes it look cluttered but I feel very comfortable in there.  My projects are lined up in hanging shelves on the right.

     I have cut out a pink dress to sew.  I'd like to finish it this week.  I have a pink and white shawl I want to wear with it.  It's a very simple pattern with only three pieces.

 

Feeling grateful

     I don't know why but as I age, I don't sleep as well as I used to.  After two nights of interrupted sleep, I woke up grumpy at 3:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep.  After several hours of trying I gave up and got up to get breakfast.  Padding around the house in bare feet, I went towards the dining room to get the big teapot and at the window I stopped, entranced.  Three deer, two does and a yearling were drinking out of the tub I've put out so that the birds could have water.  They were hardly 8 feet from me and with the room darker than the dawn beginning outside, they couldn't see me and I was able to watch them for about ten minutes.  Immediately I felt different, I felt grateful for the many good things, the birds at the birdfeeder, the sturdy wildflowers that bloom in spite of the drought and now a few deer.  I watched them until they moved on and then fixed breakfast with a different attitude.   Still feeling grateful, I went out in the evening to see the meteor shower though we are so close to town I usually don't see much but this year was different.  At 11pm I saw two but when I woke up again at 3:30 I saw 4 or 5, three big bright ones and two so faint I wasn't sure.  Then I came in, thoughly chilled and snuggled under the cover and went back to sleep again.

     Last week I showed you a picture of an inexpensive contempory doll (1989), cheap and not worth much he nevertheless intrigued me and I have been working on him this week.  Not entirely finished but here he is today:

       That's a cashmere sweater I've cut down for him, nickers and a newsboy hat, made from the material I've bought to make my fall suit.  Here's hoping I haven't cut off too much!  He still needs shoes, a bag for his papers and a white shirt.  Bill is looking for proper sized newspapers too.  I am very happy with how he is looking.
     For breakfast this morning I made an Italian omelette, with mushrooms, mozzerelli and leftover spaghetti sauce.  I liked it very much!

 

Pork fajitas tonight at 7pm, to watch "New Tricks" and eat in front of the tv.  We only do this on Sunday nights as a treat.

     I have been looking at my stats and was astonished at the number of people from other countries who read my blog!  Welcome to Russia, France, UK, Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Canada, Sweden and Australia!  And anyone else who's interested!

New things

      In spite of my buying diet, things do come into my house.  People send me things, or give them to me when I help them move, or I just break down and buy them anyway.  Last month my sister-in-law came to visit me and I joyfully took her to all the antique malls, and of course, in the spirit of companionship, I bought a couple of things, noteably this mincey purse, so called because carrying it absolutely forces one to mince slightly with each step, it's so girly.  Saks Fifth Avenue too, so it's marked!

 And then my best friend sent me some Hollyhock seeds, in time for fall planting.  Thank you Ida!

 And these aren't new, I've had them for 50 years.  I asked my then new husband to get them for me when we were newly married and had bought a sewing machine for me to use.  "A good pair of scissors" I said as I sent him off to the store.  He bought the best, some Gingher shears.  I used them for decades, having them sharpened every so often, until they no longer worked, having been sharpened too many times.  We sent them back to the factory last month to be refurbished and for $7.50 they were fixed, sharpened and inserted into a new sheath and mailed back to me, good as new!  I was most delighted to have them back, like old friends.

 When I went to drop off stuff at Good Will, I could not resist going in.  I found a little china "trug" style basket for Mary Lincoln.

Now for some cut flowers to put in it!

But these last two I shamelessly shopped for and, though I put off buying the head for a month, eventually I caved in and went to the Seventh Street Mall and bought her!

She is only a head but I am getting ready to make her into a whole doll.

  
 This contemporary boy doll and Limoges tea or soup cup with miss-matched saucer just came along with.  The total was $21.50 so not a serious budget deficit!

I have been keeping the food budget at $70 or below each week though and it has so far worked out.  I'm worried that prices will surge when it becomes apparent that the harvest has failed because of the drought.  We are in the midst of it here.  Last night it rained all over the state but only a few drops fell here.
     Here are my suggested menus:
Today, big meatballs, small tomato sauce and miniscule pasta.  I will have as an appetizer hot spinach and artichoke and cheese  dip with french bread slices for the others.  I'll just eat mine with a spoon!  And a big tossed salad and canteloup and blueberries for dessert.
Tomorrow salmon, roasted vegetables, salad and low carb ice cream.
Tuesday hamburgers and salad and chocolate square.
Wednesday the second salmon dinner, about the same though I might just fix steamed broccoli instead of the roasted veggies.
Thursday Lamb patties with sour cream and cucumber sauce and a salad enriched with herbs and lots of cheese.
Friday an old favorite. Chicken Fajitas with refried beans but no rice.
Saturday we'll have chicken and herbed cream cheese sandwiches on low carb bread and pumpkin and peanut butter soup.  

     This is not all the stuff that has come into my house this month but I'll save some for later!