Sunday, June 26, 2011

Loop-de-loop Lupine


This was my Lupine plant a few weeks back.
I planted it last year, no blossoms.  Then, I forgot about what it was.
This year, the leaves/stems started growing like crazy, and I did not know what to expect.  One day, I noticed that the stems were laying on the ground, I propped them up with a wee little metal fence, and as Jack Paar used to say, "I kid you not",  the blossoms started growing within days, like little pockets, then they opened up and this beautiful color appears.  I had 4 large flowers within a week. 
One day, it rained a lot, and the large flowers went from shooting for the stars to looking for worms-they hung down from the force of the rain and the weight.  Notice at the end/bottom of the flower, those little pockets are white-they are the new growth, and they are already, within hours of falling over,
turning up towards the sky.  Fastest growing plants ever.
Now, maybe you master gardeners knew that center flower was upside down, but I think those of us who are simply amazed at it's beauty
are just too in awe to bring it to the attention of the Lupine.
  I needed to ask a SFriend who knows so much about flowers,
to tell me what it was named.
Now, I will remember.
As I said, this photo was taken a few weeks ago, now the flower has small, long, furry pods where the beautiful purple pillows were.  I need to look in my book to see if those are seeds that I should allow to fall to reseed or just trim off.
I just wanted you to see this beautiful plant-you deserve
some pretty in your life today SReaders.

And for your patience with my little flower story, here is a portion of a Jack Paar show-with Richard Nixon playing the piano. 
Only here folks can you be so amazed.  No charge. 

What do you mean "Who is Jack Paar?", what do you mean "Who is Richard Nixon?"
Go to bed little kid, way before your time eh?


Friday, June 24, 2011

LOVE, Time and Respect

Love, Time and Respect, put it all together, and they spell "Happy 50th Anniversary" to my Dear Cara Sorella#1 and Her Wonderful Husband.  Here they were then:




Here they are now:


They are always the first to help each member of their families with ANYTHING.  Work, Support, Guidance, Role Models, you name it, they did it, never complaining, just looking to see whom else they could support in any way.  They are active in their church, and I  think that is what really gives them what they need to sustain all their goals.
They have 3 accomplished, kind children, 5 incredibly adorable, smart grandchildren, and a family on both sides that admire them both. May the gifts they give to others come back to them everyday in blessings.
Here is our family picture on that wonderful day:
And here is the age run down on this day in 1961: Bride 20, Groom 22, Mother of the Bride (Matka) 37!!!!!, back row/left SSister #2 18, SBrother#1, well, have you noticed that I cut and pasted him into the photo?  He was off serving his country in the Air Force, so this picture was taken 7 seven years later when he was 26, SBrother#2 14, Me 13.  The man in the front-left is the father of us kids, maybe 40.

My God Bless them and their marriage for another 50 years.  Love you so much.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Gee, how come?

Gee, How come some people treat others so disrespectfully?
Today I was at the local grocery store.  The store is not too large, so while making the rounds, you sometimes see the same people as we weave in and out of the aisles.  This happened today with two couples-male and female.
Couple #1 were both in their maybe 80's.  He was pushing the cart, she was choosing items and putting them very tentatively into the cart. Sometimes he said nothing, other times as she worriedly looked at him, he told her that was wrong, put it back.  No kindness in his tone. Sometimes, she would place her hand on an item and look at him for guidance.  He would say, I don't know, you should know.  When I was coming down another aisle, he made an abrupt turn, almost colliding with another cart and me.  He very pleasantly joked with me that the aisles are too narrow-he was correct, but he treated me, a stranger very politely.
Couple #2 I encountered in the area where you choose which cashier lane you will go in.  They were in maybe their 60's.  He was telling her over and over which lane to put the cart into to queue up. But, she wanted to get a few more items she said, he said no, that is all we are doing, now get in that line-very roughly.  He continued negative comments to her even while he placed the items on the conveyor belt.  The items were placed very precisely, if they wobbled when the belt moved, he methodically aligned each item again, still talking to his wife.
So, here I am judging and wondering again.  I wonder what the situation was with Couple #1?  Was she having memory problems, and could not make proper choices for items that once gave her no problem?  Was he not used to going with her to the store and felt out of his element and needed to show resentment to hide his lack of knowledge for grocery shopping?  Was he always so domineering?  Was she always so tentative to make her choices freely?  I don't know, I am outside of their lives, do not know what brought them to this place.  I could only see that they both were unhappy and stressed.  It saddened me greatly.
Couple #2 made me mad, why were all the decisions his?  Why did he need to continue to beat the dead horse?  And, why is she  taking that constant assault on her self respect?
Again, I do not know what their dynamics are outside of that store, that day, I only know it was hard to listen to for me.
Life is short, life is hard, life is a gift, relationships are gifts.
Please let's try harder not to always say negative things to those we hold so close. It does not all roll off the back,sometimes the constancy of the statements start  a fissure, and all future unkindness sink in to fill whatever space was formerly occupied by who we felt we were. I think one of the main reasons I had so much difficulty in my first marriage was because the statement "I was only kidding" was used to defend cruelty to all family members.
My accusations and advice are finished.  I need to make sure that I can also not be accused of doing the same things.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Comment away

Hi all, it has been mentioned to me that readers have not been able to post commens to my blogt.  I found out today that it is totally my fault.  When I switched over to a new editing format, I did not enable comments again.  I thought it was automatic.  I know, that's what I get for thinking.
Here is me today:




And here is something for you to listen to:
I love this song, have been known to sing it, and it fits me perfectly today.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Hello my friends...

I know, I know, where have I been.  Everywhere, no where, ups and downs.  SO here is something beautiful to listen to as a present for you until I can do a proper post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gORWrElG1ag&feature=related

It is MEDITATION FROM THAIS - J.MASSENET (GH.ZAMFIR)
SHusband and I were searching for a "just right" prewedding song to have all attending listen to before the ceremony began.  A few weeks before, I was driving the car, listening to WNED  the classical station, when  this song came on.  SH was at home planting the Tulip Tree that I gave to him as a wedding gift.  We wanted to plant it early so that he would be available to water it for a few weeks.  We ran out of peat moss in the process, so I made a peat moss run.  Found it, was returning home when I heard this beautiful meditation.  I zoomed home, screeched to a halt and beckoned SH to quickly come listen, he did, and he caught the title.  That night we went to Borders Books and Music, were able to order a tape of it and then made a copy for our master tape to be played before our wedding.
I hope you like it.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Ever feel like someone is watching you?

Ever feel like someone is watching you?  Well today while I was doing some computer work, SHusband said very excitedly "Look at this"!!
I looked and took a few pictures so you could see also:



He is a Pileated Woodpecker, not usually seen at our feeder, and he did not fit very well, but did manage to grab a few morsels.  SH and Boo-Boo Marie were amazed.  SH said that while he was lying down he heard the PW's call first, and wondered why the sound seemed so close-when he sat up he was very pleased.  Here is that sound and a good look at them, they are about 15 inches long:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwFMcutDt2o&feature=related
My pictures are not very good-they were taken from the opposite end of the living room, through the window screen, I didn't dare try to get too close or wait to zoom my cell phone-these needed to be taken now.  Nice diversion for an afternoon.

And here is what I am watching while I drive through my town:


Some hay has been sown after the fields were turned over, now grown and cut, will sit like this for a day or so then turned over to dry and then a big machine sucks it up, compacts it into a block or roll and spits it out for another machine to gather up.  I like living in the country so that I can see this process and can appreciate the long hours and days that it takes our farmers to produce our country's bounty.  And I also get to see little baby sheep and goats and cows toddling around.  Life, ain't it grand.  I need to make sure that I appreciate all the good things around me, sometimes I get caught up in planning, doing, and my brain is going a bizillion miles an hour to do what I think I do best "seeing the big picture", well, the big picture is sometimes really small out a window and needs to be part of my daily "to-do" list.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mighty May

May, the month of birthdays and all things that tweak your being.
Here are few pictures from May:



Me and my SDaughter, I brought her some lilacs from my fairly new bush, and put them on the car dash so that I would not forget to give them to her.  While in having lunch, the sun moved to the dash and whitered away the beautiful French Lilacs.  But she smiled anyway.  We both have May birthdays

SD and her Godmother, my cara sorella-whose daughter/ my SNiece has a May birthday.

I did not take this picture, stole it off of facebook.  It is my SNiece and her handsome family-she also has a May Birthday and her adorable brother and his wife/my SNiece and SNephew both have birthdays and her kind brother-in-law/my SNephew, married to my SNiece has a May birthday(the same day as my daughter). 
A precious picture of my SBrother#2 and his adorable granddaughter at her 1st Holy Communion this month.  Her brother has a May birthday, and her uncle/my SNephew/my SB#2's oldest son has a May birthday .

Mother's Day: Me, SD, SS-I-Law (SD's stepmother)
and SD's Mother-in-law to be-they are all generous and kind Ladies to me.  All but the lady on the right have  May birthdays-but she is right on the cusp in June.

We had our "Ladies Lunch" in May, and the Sweethearts above with me were joined by the sweetie below who scampered out before we got our picture taken  She was on her way to Washington D.C. to attend a Venetian masked ball at the Italian Consulate.  We live through her and her adventures!

At SGrandson's May birthday party-we watched  the Celtic singers- a bunch of good looking Irish boyos.  Do you see SD's sig other-he put up with the ladies watching it twice. 
Hey, it was raining, he couldn't run outside.

And here is the cuttin' O' the cake, with the knife pulled out by SGs SGrandma Ellie.  She was next in line for her birthday, so she got to do the honors.

Cake, design as requested.  Good job TOPS Markets.

In May, SHusband received this quilt from my SSister#2, far away.  Her daughter and grandson/my  SNiece and SNephew also have May birthdays.
When I put it on him, you know who had to stay tucked in.
She did a beautiful job sewing this, as always.
Hey, see that thing near SH's head? It is actually a brace/bar thingy that fits under the end of the couch and when he wants to get up from the couch, he pulls on this for some help-it works,
so if you have someone you know who needs a little bit of help-
we got this one at our local medical supply store-they ordered it from a catalog, it is called a couch brace.

Our cherished SGrandson.
Opening presents at his party, Soaking wet after a bit of water gun play with his friends in the rain.


And because it just looks so pretty, here is another picture of that cake from the lunch with my SDFriend when we celebrated both of our birthdays.
Also in  May, we have two Wedding Anniversaries from our Generation 3 kids.
The service organization that we belong to Kiwanis International had a very busy month
of service projects and meetings, feels good to do these projects, feels better to be finished for the month.
And, just so that the whole month is not one big celebration, SH got shingles last week and on the last day of May, my parked car was slammed into by a poor dear soul who thank God was not hurt. 
That kinda put the frosting on the cake for May.

Another crock pot recipe

It was very hot here yesterday, so I decided to make a crock pot recipe today to keep the kitchen cool:
3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 cut up onion
1 cut up green pepper
1 zucchini cut into chunks
1 can red beans for extra protein
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 package crock pot chicken italiano seasoning
Stir, cook on low 6 hours, then break chicken into chunks-not shredded.
Add 1/2 bag spinach, stir to cover spinach, turn to high for 15 minutes.
Serve over Ronzoni Garden Delight Fettuccine.  (made with tomato, carrot and spinach)
There, now you have the recipe.
Now, burn your computer, this was possibly the worst supper that I have made in my adult life.
The boys said the pasta was good.  They said the whole thing wasn't horrible.  Does that tell you anything?   As I was putting the leftovers into a freezer bag-I wondered how I could throw it away without SHusband knowing?

Well, anyway, here is a happy picture for you:

Leona, a flamingo friend, a big sister flamingo from  SH's big sister, and she threw in a duck!