Everyday Images

I enjoy the Everyday Images link up hosted by Kym (Another Cup Of Coffee) and thought I might try to make some of my recent random photos fit the prompts. Bloggers tend to snap a lot of pictures and a prompt like this one is a nice place to set them down. 

Kym posts new prompts every two weeks and the most current are-

flag, simple and/or complicated, at home, Wednesday weather,

 doorway, movement, and branched

Well flag is an easy one because I'm adding patriotic decor in spots around the house and several feature flag motifs-

This is on my coffee table, a little vignette that's fun and festive. I chose poppies because they make me think of soldiers and sacrifice. The pop of red in a little blue floral vase is so pretty. These are artificial poppies, but look so real. I ordered them from a company called Luv Sola Flowers which I think is out of California. The stems have some bend to them which made arranging easy. 

Love my 'smells like freedom candle' too. What does freedom smell like? For some reason I immediately think of freshly mown green grass, which is not the scent of this candle, but that's the first thing I thought of. The label on the bottom says gun powder, but I had to check so I don't think it's obvious. 

Since we're talking flags I also bought hand soap for my powder room and some disposable towels, both with red, white, and blue flag designs on them. 

Simple and/or complicated-

I spent Thursday afternoon cooking. I made dinner to take to a friend as part of a meal train (pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and glazed carrots), then made a big pan of ziti to have ready to go for Friday night's dinner when my two sisters, my brother-in-law, and my nephew will be at the lake. 

And I made hubs and I a big cobb salad for our Thursday dinner. I'll make a dessert tomorrow but it felt simpler to devote an afternoon to the bigger cooking as opposed to spreading it out over a couple of days. 

Hubs is grilling wings Friday too but that's his department and he's got it covered. 

at home-

I'm writing this post at 8 PM on Thursday and this is the first I've sat down today. Maybe all week? 

Here's the sofa on our upper deck which is pretty much my favorite place to sit and it's currently on point with my patriotic theme. Happy birthday America! 

Wednesday weather-

Hmm. I take a picture almost every morning, but did not snap one on Wednesday. It was drizzling when we got up, we had thunder at one point, humidity, clouds and then a very pretty sunset. We had gone to dinner with some neighbors and I attempted to take a photo of the pastel skies from their driveway. 

Doorway-

I didn't have anything that fit this particular prompt so I scrolled back through my camera roll and found a photo I took back in March that I never posted. Yes, of course that counts. You make your own blog rules, right? 

I took this when I was visiting my daughter2 in Tennessee and we shopped in the prettiest little store. Even the doors were beautiful-

Movement -

Well the beaver family has returned. Not the original beaver family because ahem, they're goners, but maybe one of their offspring? 

He's movin' alright. Moving is good though because we do not want him stopping and staying a while. 

We started seeing one good sized beaver swimming from the back of the cove towards the channel, which means he swims under our dock bridge. You have to get up very early to see him (which we do) and he is busy. As a beaver. Ha! That saying has merit y'all. We watched him one morning swim across our cove and under a neighbors dock all while carrying a large branch with the leaves still on it. Crazy! But kind of interesting too. 

On Tuesday he had a friend with him. Oh boy. 

We don't want him/them setting up house on our property so we're doing what we can to deter them . I don't think I'll elaborate. 

Also, I wrote back in 2020 about the beaver who ate his way through our hillside landscaping and if you've never seen one you might think they're cute, but I'm here to tell you they are not actually cute. One reason we put in the waterfall was to save the hillside and the beavers have not come up the hill since so it's working. 

branched-

This one feels like a challenge. Technically they're under some branches-

These two deer were in my neighbor's front yard the other day. They were not bothered by me at all. 

Happy weekend everyone! 

The Friday Seven

I know it's usually dubbed the Friday Five, but I have a random seven so there ya go. Just a few stray thoughts and happenings from the past week and life lately linked with Andrea and Erika today. 

1. Did I tell you daughter1 and her family got a puppy? 

As my granddaughter loves to say 'he's a basket hound'. Oh my word, it's the cutest, and we absolutely do not correct her. In fact we all now say basket hound and likely will say it that way forever and ever amen.

He's super cute, as all puppies are wont to be. Pretty sure God designed it that way because puppies are puppies, right? As far as puppies go he's a good one. Basset Basket hounds are kind of low energy which is not a bad trait in a puppy. I've read they're sometimes called the couch potato of the dog world, and while I don't think I'd go so far as to say that, he is pretty chill. 

2. Did I tell you daughter2 and her family got a puppy? Their guy joined the family back in the fall but I don't remember mentioning it here and I don't play favorites. This handsome fella was a rescue and nearly a year old when they got him. 

fyi-A  one-year old dog is still a puppy. 

He's a real sweetie and has settled in well. The kids adore him. And because I know someone will ask our little brown dog is uninterested in these juveniles lol. 

3.  We had our monthly wine club dinner on Monday and it was one of my favorites. The food was so good. There was a Spanish theme to the menu and I meant to take pictures, but oops.  

One course was a Salmorejo which I'd never heard of before, but is similar to a Gazpacho. It's made from puréed tomatoes, bread, garlic, and olive oil and I might like it even better than Gazpacho. I found a recipe online I'm going to try at home. It's served cold so will be a nice summer treat. 

4. Tuesday was book club and we read The Indigo Girl. Our hosts had all sorts of indigo details on the snack table including this tea-

Have you ever tried butterfly pea flower tea? It's indigo in color and doesn't have a lot of taste. We added honey and lemon (and in some cases Prossecco) to give it more flavor, but the color was beautiful. I read the tea's benefits are similar to green tea, without the bitterness. 

5. My two oldest grandsons are playing on the same baseball team this season and they're killin' it. I've been running non-stop since April, and until this week hadn't made it to a single game. Hubs has managed a few, but I can't be in two places at once so priorities. 

Hubs and I drove to the field Wednesday night to see them play and the other team was a no-show. Boo.  Hubs had plans Thursday night but I trekked back to the field to finally see a game. 

I love the ballpark vibe. 

6. Thursday morning hubs and I met up with daughter1 to watch grandson #2 (aka Max on the blog) 'graduate' from kindergarten. I love this school they are part of so very much. It's a hybrid, so some days students are in a classroom and the other days are homeschooled by their mommas. The heart of this school is beautiful. 

Each 'graduate' is gifted a copy of Max Lucado's The Oak Inside the Acorn, and the Director's message and prayer were lovely. The kindergartners walked in to Pomp and Circumstance and I don't care if the graduates are six or eighteen or twenty-two, that song always makes me teary. 

As we waited for the program to begin they had a little slide show with a picture of each child in their cap and gown (precious!) and a tag line telling what each little person wants to be when they grow up. They flashed this sign too-

Class of 2038???!!. Can that be right? That date doesn't even sound real. 

They let the students toss their caps in the air at the conclusion of the event and I  guess it's in our DNA because they all knew just what to do. So fun! 

After graduation I drove the hour and twenty over to spend time with my momma and had a nice visit with her. Such a beautiful blue sky day...

I  made a stop at Costco when I left there since I was somewhat in the neighborhood. Not really, but definitely closer than I am when coming from home so it made sense. Plus hubs was out of his peanut butter stuffed pretzels and we can't have that.

7. I made a pot pie for dinner Wednesday night and it was so pretty-

I am all about dishes that make more than one meal these days. Have a great weekend everyone! 

Zing!

Well here we are. The end of April and the end of the alphabet. It's actually been a lot of fun thinking about some of the ordinary objects I keep and why I keep them.  

Day 26-Z is for Zenith 

I've had a long day and my brain isn't firing on all cylinders so keeping this short and sweet. The non-astronomical definition of the word zenith  is 'the highest point, peak, or maximum success'. I think we can say reaching the end of the alphabet is the highest point in the A-Z so works for me. 

In taking note of the mostly ordinary objects I've held on to through the years I've reached a conclusion. It's the memories the objects stir up, and not the objects themselves, that I've been holding all along. 

Zee end. 

And now back to your regularly scheduled hit or miss blog programming. 

Home On The 'Range'

I am definitely winging the April A-Z challenge aka writing the posts the day before, but I'm still here so that's something. It's been kind of fun to think about the things I keep and try to match them with each day's letter.  Here's today's-

Day 18-R is for Recipes

How did you learn to cook? Well, first I suppose I should ask do you cook? I'm always surprised when I meet someone who says they don't cook. How do they eat? Lots of take out apparently, but that would be really tough where I live. 

I learned to cook by watching and helping my mama cook. And she learned to cook by watching and helping her mama, and my girls learned to cook by watching and helping me. I'm enjoying doing some simple cooking now with my grands and I hope they learn to cook by helping too. 

Circle of life. 

Growing up we rarely ate out. We were a family of six and dining out was a real treat. My mom cooked dinner pretty much every night and she was an excellent cook. I don't know if she started out that way, but her mom (my grandma) was also an excellent cook so I imagine she came into her marriage with some kitchen skills. 

One of my first 'cooking' assignments at home was making salad dressing. Good Seasons Italian which didn't involve any actual cooking, but you did need to read the directions, measure, and mix, all of which are a part of cooking. We had salad every night because my mom was ahead of her time in terms of healthy meals. She made almost everything from scratch too. 

When I was a young wife finding my way in my own kitchen I quite often called my mom mid-recipe to ask a question or  confirm some note written on the instructions. My own girls do the same and I love it.

Circle of life. 

I have always loved cookbooks and still enjoy browsing them for inspiration. I know when it comes to cooking we're all about the internet now, and of course I use that too. But there's something about holding a recipe card in my hand and thinking about the person who shared it with me, remembering when I've eaten the dish and the event or occasion it's associated with, that makes the cards feels extra special. 

I have a nice collection of cookbooks but my most consulted is the binder filled with hand written cards, recipes primarily from my mom's kitchen, but also from my sisters, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.  I refer to this collection so often that the binding is coming loose and I need to move the pages to a new book. 

I wish I had more recipes written in my mom's hand, but most of the time I would copy the recipe while she was cooking, or she'd tell it to me and I'd transcribe. 

A few years ago for Christmas I put all of our family holiday recipes in binders for my daughters. I wrote those recipes out by hand and it was a true labor of love. 

I won't part with my favorites. They're keepers. And now I feel the urge to make my mama's blueberry pie. 

Linking today with Joanne for Talking About It Tuesdays

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 650

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (April 22) to share your answers. See you there!

1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most 'out of this world' place on earth you've ever visited? Tell us something about it. 

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it? 

3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? 

4. What's your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What's the last thing you made using that tool? 

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I'm going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today's - 

What is your greatest extravagance? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

And Away We Go

If you're here for the Wednesday Hodgepodge today you’ll find it here

Hello friends and strangers too, visiting from the April A-Z Blog Challenge. Thanks for stopping by! If you're not familiar with the A-Z go here to get details. It's not too late to join the fun, signups close April 4th and you'll find that form here. 

My theme this year is The Things We Keep: An A-Z of Ordinary Objects. My loose plan is to look around my house at the things I hold on to and tell a story as to why. Let's get started-

 Day 1-A is for Aprons

I have a drawerful. Maybe two, but who's counting? I love a pretty apron and I like to cook so win-win. Remembering to actually put the apron on before I'm halfway through a bake is sometimes a problem, but I get there eventually. 

There's something about cooking while wearing an apron that makes me think of my mama, and also my girls. My girls love to cook and have their own collection of aprons, most of which they were gifted by me.  My mama, who I feel very tender about these days, was a far neater and much better cook than I am and she always wore an apron when baking. 

Here we are in our aprons making quiche for my daughter1's baby shower nine years ago. 

Nine years? Is that right? Can that be right? Evidently it can. 

There's something that feels homey and a little bit old-fashioned about wearing an apron and that's probably why I can't part with any of mine. I have a couple of favorites-

I bought this one in the Harrod's shop in Heathrow on a trip to France with girl friends. How could I possibly part with that? 

I have some Christmas aprons I wear during cookie baking season.

This one is probably my most worn because it's pretty, a dark color (iykyk), and the fit is really comfortable. 

This was a gift from Daugther2 one year because 'stay tuned for letter H'. 

Here are my girls wearing aprons, home on college break helping with Thanksgiving dinner-

Maybe when I look at my aprons this is really what I see. People I love, the memory and the moment of time spent in the kitchen cooking, talking, being together. The apron pings the memory. 

Monday March Madness

It's the end of March and I'm going on record to say the first quarter of this year has positively flown.  I feel like that's something old people say, except all the young people I know are saying it too. 

Is it because the world's in chaos? Is it because we're regularly checking the very full calendars we now hold in our hands, and as a result our lives are marked by 'what's next'? Is there some scientific explanation for it? Whatever the reason I want to remember each day is a gift and to keep a grateful heart. 

Let's chat about our weekends with Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) who host the Hello Monday hop.  

We were at home this weekend which was nice. I've either had a houseful or been in the car going hither and yon the last four weekends, and then I was at my daughter's all last week which also meant a road trip, so I'm glad to be livin' local for a few days. 

I drove home from Tennessee Friday morning, arriving back at the lake around 1. Hubs and I had a light lunch, I did three loads of laundry, caught up on some paperwork, then got ready for some Friday night fun. 

A really great night out with friends. Those aren't them -ha! We went to a local venue that's part farm-part Airbnb-part cooking class locale. 

We signed up with friends for this month's pizza class. There were twelve of us in total, and the set up is really nice. We started with a simple but super delicious appetizer-baked brie made in ramekins. We put cubed brie, raspberries, blackberries, chopped pistachios, a little bit of a spicy seasoning, and a drizzle of honey and balsamic glaze in ramekins, then baked. 

This picture is pre-bake, but once they came out of the oven the cheese had melted into the berries and the combination was so good! They were served with grilled crostini and I'll definitely be making this at home. I've done baked brie before but I liked the individual servings and the way the melted cheese was contained in a bowl, so more like a dip. 

I wore my pizza sauce colored shirt because I know myself, but they did provide aprons so all's good. The host had made the pizza dough ahead of time so it could proof, but she shared the recipe and the particular flour and yeast she likes to use. We worked the dough and added our toppings, and then they were baked in a pizza oven on the deck that overlooks the farm. 

note to self-purchase a pizza oven 

This isn't my pizza, but I forgot to take a picture of mine before we ate it. Everyone shared their pizzas so we got to taste a variety. We've done pizzas on the Green Egg at home, but we struggle with getting the cook just right. The class used two different ovens but she recommended the Solo brand and I currently have one sitting in my cart on Amazon. 

There was a super creamy homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert with a small chocolate brownie and I want to try the ice cream recipe at home too. Melt in your mouth good! 

It was a fun evening with a nice group of people, lots of chatting, eating, and learning a few helpful tips for our future pizza cooking too. Bonus we were home in time to watch our Vols beat Iowa State to move on to the Elite Eight playoffs in college basketball. 

Course the game started after 10 PM so I snoozed through it and hubs watched and told me they won. Worked for me as I was pooped. 

Saturday we had things to do in the morning. Hubs worked on finishing up some painting in the lower garage that he started while I was away. We have a wall of wooden storage drawers we got when we built the house, and we've wanted to paint them ever since. We didn't pick these out, but our builder knew of another home build where they were not going to use them after all, and asked if we wanted them. 

The drawers hold a lot and are really practical for the space, but while we do love our wood here we have never loved the tone of this particular piece. Plus we already had a gray-ish countertop to use and it clashed with the wood. It's a garage so not a huge deal, but we wanted to make the change. I didn't get a before pic, but you can see the color here- 

 

Hubs used chalk paint and he's meticulous when it comes to painting. He won't like me posting this 'not quite done' picture, but the paint looks great-

Yes those are cassette tapes on top of that counter. They're relegated to the garage though. 

The drawers are now black and look so much better.  They need a clear top coat which will happen this week, and the drawer pulls need to be reattached, but otherwise a project completed. 

While he was busy with that I ran to the library to return a book, the post office to mail a package, and the market to pick up a few things to get us through the weekend and the beginning of the new week. I came home and made an appetizer to take to a neighborhood party that evening. It was tricky and I forgot to snap a photo. 

Basically it was a Caprese tulip garden...here's a link to the picture I'd seen and was inspired by. You x the top of a cherry tomato then stuff the mozzarella pearl inside, pop it on a toothpick, add basil for the leaves and then stick the whole thing in a cucumber slice. It looks like a tulip and when you make thirty of them you have yourself an edible garden. I added a drizzle of olive oil to mine at the end. A couple of tulips tipped over in the transport, but they were all eaten so calling it a win. 

My daughter1 dropped by with her little ones before we left for the party, and we visited with them for a bit before heading up to our clubhouse. It was sunny and I snapped a picture of this 'flock' of turtles on our neigbhor's jet ski dock. This is the local turtle hangout-

Also, a grouping of turtles is called a bale. Who knew? 

Our neighborhood had a casino night in the clubhouse and everyone brought appetizers to share. It's not Vegas so no real gambling, just a fun night with friends. There was roulette, black jack, and bingo and they had the room decorated for the occasion too. 

Sunday morning we went to church and had plans to go to lunch afterwards with my daughter and her kiddos. Her hubs was on call this weekend so was busy doing surgery and didn't make it to church. Anyway, we got in our car after the service to drive to the restaurant and the tire light came on. Yes! Again! Ugh! And yes, it was just last Sunday we had a flat on the way to church. 

Thankfully this one wasn't flat, but it was low so we pulled in to a gas station and hubs discovered a nail in the tire. Not the new tire but still, super annoying. We decided we better go straight home just in case it deflates before we can get a plug put in it tomorrow, so that's what we did. 

We had lunch at home, and watched the Vols sadly get clobbered by Michigan. I worked on my blog a little, but probably not enough. The A-Z challenge starts this week and looks like it will be a blog as you go proposition. Time to sit and blog or just time to think about what to blog has been in short supply this month, so while I have a theme I haven't actually written any of the posts ahead of time. I think most people do, but sometimes I do better with a little pressure. 

That's what I'm telling myself anyway. 

Sunday evening our church had a special night of worship to begin this Holy Week and we were tired, but got ourselves together to go and were so glad we didn't miss this really wonderful service. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Hello December

Good morning friends and hello December. I'm sure this month will move at the speed of light, so I'm trying to pump the brakes a little and enjoy the many blessings this season brings.

Linking with Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) today for their Hello Monday weekend catch up. Mine will be more than a weekend and that's okay too. 

Backing all the way up to Wednesday when it was 70 degrees, sunny, and the perfect sort of weather for hubs to get the outdoor lights up. Let me just say this is not his favorite task. ahem. 

He gets it done though, and the end result is always worth the aggravation. We splurged on these giant nutcrackers this year-

What can I say? We're grandparents. 

Like every year, there's a fuse that keeps blowing on one of the light strands out front, and hubs says he'll just keep replacing it until he runs out of fuses lol. It's 2025. Why hasn't someone solved the Christmas light problem? 

He also put a tree on the dock and it tipped over a couple of times in spite of being weighted down. First world problems I know, but still these are the things that niggle and can put a chink in your holiday spirit. I think he's got the dock tree problem solved so yay hubs. There are always a few kinks to work out when the decorating begins. 

Hey, remember Thanksgiving? We had a really nice day and enjoyed dinner at daughter1's house. Life definitely feels full circle on days like this one. One day you're buttering a roll for your seven-year old, and thirty years later she's baking a beautiful apple pie for your dessert. Grown up girls are such a gift. 

My grandmother's china on my daughter's table-

We split up the meal and I made shrimp cocktail, cranberry sauce, squash casserole, mashed potatoes and fruit salad. She did the turkey, dressing, gravy, a Brussels sprouts salad, rolls, and that scrumptious apple pie with homemade custard. Sooo good! If you've never had homemade custard poured over your pie you don't know what you're missing. Thanks England! 

We had a fun afternoon chatting, watching football, and of course eating. Daughter2 was in Tennessee but had her in-laws there along with hubs mom. We'll all be together later this month and both my sons-in-law have jobs that require some work arounds in terms of holiday travel. We figure it out. 

Friday morning we woke up to the thermometer in the house reading 60 degrees. We had the air conditioning running on Wednesday and the heat turned on Friday. 'Tis the season.   

Hubs brought the boxes down from the attic and I dressed for the day's chore aka decorating the house. It's a job, but I think sitting beside a lit Christmas tree in the early morning dark is one of life's best and simplest pleasures. 

Saturday hubs and I had a day date, but I think I'll save that recap for tomorrow's post. I'm two episodes behind in recording and want to catch up here. I know you can't wait. 

So what's new with you? I hope your weekend was merry and bright!