Soft Hands

This Blog is not about advertising. I purposely don’t except affiliate marketing on my blog and make no money from it. When I write about a product I do it just because I either love it or hate it, but I am not beholden to anyone. If I write about a friend’s product I always say they are my friend so people can take what I say with a grain of salt.

It is well documented that I don’t like to shop. That is, I don’t like to wander around stores and just look at stuff. I know plenty of women for which shopping is their occupation and I make no judgements if that is how they want to spend their time. It’s just not for me.

That being said, it does not mean that I don’t buy things. I am a sucker for a good Deal and Steal on Good Morning America. Recently my hands have been very dry. I think all the needlepointing and hand washing from gardening and cooking have taken a toll on my hands.

So when a hot hand mask came up as a product on GMA I thought I would go ahead and try it. When the box arrived I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the mask I bought was a four use item so I felt like I got a huge bonus.

I tested the mask today. The box suggested you do one hand at a time and reuse the same glove twice. I went with their suggestion and microwaved the glove. It had a little heart on it to tell you when it was safe to put your hand in the hot glove and not burn yourself. I kept the glove on for the required ten minutes. Wow, my hand was so soft. I was left with a bunch of essential oils on my hand which I rubbed in the best I could before re-microwaving the glove to do the other hand.

I can see I could become very addicted to this product. My right hand pinky had been especially dry and now it is back to normal. I have been putting on so much hand lotion of various kinds over the last two months and nothing has worked until this mask. Now I wish I had ordered the feet mask. Too bad there is not a full body mask, but I I would need a much bigger microwave if there was.

Fun With Carter

Much to my delight Carter has taken up needlepoint. She is working on a pillow which is beautiful. So while she was here we made a stop over at Chapel Hill Needlepoint and she found a coaster set to stitch. Needlepoint Nancy knew Carter was a horse girl and produced the perfect canvas of four coasters. She suggested a monogram go in the center, which was brilliant.

Carter and I decided that a simple “C” was the way to go. We looked at some monograms on Pinterest and ended up designing our own font. I worked it out on graph paper and then did a test run up in the corner of the canvas so Carter could decide if she liked it. It was just her style.

This morning Carter and I pulled threads from my extensive stash and I stitched the blue C so Carter would have a template of where to put the others. Counting tiny canvas holes to center anything is hard. At first I out the letter too far to the right. I pulled out the stitches I had done and restarted. Carter liked the placement and now she is set.

Repayment for my needlepoint advice was that Carter cleaned out her bathroom drawers and cabinet and some cabinets and shelves in her room. Three garbage bags later she no longer has any bathing suits from middle school, base metal necklaces from lower school or sunscreen from high school. I so appreciate her tackling this job for me. She promises her closet will be her target on her next visit home.

There is nothing better than having an adult child you love to spend time with. It was a quick four days, but so much fun, even cleaning out the cabinets.

Great Idea Carter

When Carter asked if she could come home to see her Grandmother, she threw out another idea. “How about having our local family for dinner?” What a brilliant idea!

My cousin Leigh and her family live in Durham. We rarely see each other and we actually love them. Leigh’s Mom Janie Leigh lives at Carol Woods now. I have seen her once and that is all my fault. Leigh’s sister Sarah and her family live in Raleigh. We never see them and Sarah used to be Carter’s nanny. My Mom lives at Croasdaile.

It took Carter coming home from Boston for me to invite everyone for dinner. Amazingly everyone was free. Sarah’s son Sam just got home from camp yesterday. Leigh’s oldest Eva literally flew in from her summer job in Buffalo tonight. Emerson, Leigh’s youngest came back from her exchange trip to France. The stars really had to line up for this miracle dinner to happen.

It was 13 people and I didn’t want to have a kids table so we all squeezed around the dining room table. I made a dinner that seemed to satisfy everyone. Cousins and Aunts and Uncles and grand mothers visited and everyone got along. What a brilliant idea! We must do it again soon.

Eva said on her way out the door she would have to read my blog to see what I would say about this dinner. She wanted to know what the lesson would be.

Eva, this is for you. I am thankful to have such a wonderful family made up of such fun and interesting people. I know we don’t see each other enough, but when I do see you I am always happy. I really appreciate that all the young ‘uns didn’t mind spending their Saturday night with their old relatives. I loved spending it with all of you. The lesson…spend more time with your family.

Barbie with My Baby

It’s a joy when your adult child comes home for the weekend just for fun. Carter recognizes that there is not enough time to spend with her grandmother or her dog and the only way to rectify that is to come home when she can. The bonus is I get to see her.

Today Carter had to work, but planned a movie date with me to see Barbie. Carter had already seen it on opening day, technically the day before opening. She said that it was something she wanted to share with me. I realized that I have not been in a movie theatre since 2019 so I welcomed this adventure with Carter.

I was not much of a Barbie girl which I was young. I had a Barbie and a round carrying case with shoes and clothes. Back in those early Barbie days you did not have multiples. Maybe you had a Skipper, but never a Ken. It was more about collecting outfits and shoes. I did sew a few Barbie outfits, but I never quite managed the “fit” because you had to make the waist big enough to go over her boobs, but then it was much too loose around the middle.

I loved the movie, but as far as I am concerned Greta Gerwig is a genius and I knew she would deliver. I must have missed the map scene that caused the Ted Cruz brouhaha. Then again I believe being called woke is a compliment.

Carter wore an outfit In homage to the last scene in the movie, dressing as Barbie did in the real world as a real woman. It was wonderful to be in the theatre full of people of all ages, most dressed in pink, including the men. Hooray for celebrating strong women.

An Unwelcome Visitor

Carter came home today for a short visit. She had to work all day attending a training on Zoom. I got to have a half hour lunch with her during her break. Just as we sat down the door bell rang and Shay went and actually opened the door. Not wanting to spare any of my Carter time to this intruder I went to the door saying, “I’m in a meeting.”

That’s my way of saying, “I don’t care who you are, I am not giving you any time.”

The young man at the door was wearing a DeSantis shirt, hat and lanyard with some badge.

He was polite enough and asked if he could leave me some materials.

“DeSantis Material? Not on your life.” I followed up with something to the effect of he was wasting his time and should go. He wished me a blessed day.

I was saving DeSantis’ money by not taking his collateral material and binning it. I thought he had let a bunch of staff go. Canvassing in Durham at this time of year was interesting since we are not an early primary state. If we are going to start to have a bunch of political people going door to door for the next 18 months I am going to have to get a big sign telling them not to waste their time walking down my walkway.

Breaking in a New Canvas

Most of the time when I needlepoint I am stitching on a painted canvas. It’s mostly coloring with fiber since the artist painted the canvas. In doing the seats for my game table I am free hand needlepointing. I drew a life size picture of the flower I am doing and use a white blank canvas I stitch one section at a time.

I can lay the canvas on the drawing to make sure my size and perspective stay true, but I am having to evaluate each stitch on its own.

I started this flower yesterday. The hardest party about it is breaking in a new starchy canvas to make it more pliable and easier to hold. Today the tips of my fingers on my left hand are a little raw from scrunching up the stiff canvas. I hope that by the time I get to work on the petals of the flower the canvas will be softer.

Until then I suffer so I can continue forward progress. Always my motto. Just keep moving forward.

New Content

As the Sag-Aftra Writers and Actors strike continues I am getting more and more worried about what I am going to watch while trying to finish both the quilt for my mother and my second needlepoint seat.

I am delving deeper and deeper into unknown territory as I try out little known and unrated on rotten tomatoes shows. I have found I am particular to British Female led police procedurals. I loved Happy Valley which was very much in the style of Vera.

This weekend I stumbled upon Janet King, an Australian legal thriller. Usually I don’t like Australian shows half as much as British, but this is how desperate I have gotten.

Janet King is a crown Prosecutor who is calm and bad ass at the same time. Sadly I finished all 24 episodes that make up the three seasons. Since the show ended in something like 2017 I doubt there will ever be another season, which I find very disappointing.

I am tired of waiting for the weekly one episode of many shows I follow to come out. I much prefer to binge many episodes of many seasons of the same show at a time. So I welcome any and all recommendations for old series or favorites.

Because I loved rewatching Ted Lasso right after I watched the last episode for the first time, I am considering rewatching all of Breaking Bad since I loved it so much years ago. I should have no compulsion to reruns since I watched I Love Lucy every night of my childhood. I must have seen each episode at least a dozen times, to the point that I could recite the dialogue, “It’s so tasty too. Just like a candy. This stuff is pretty good once you get used to it. Vitameatavegiman contains Vitamins, Meats, Vegetables and minerals…”

I’m not looking to learn the dialogue to any shows, but if there are some really good odd ones you have been keeping to yourself, please share. It doesn’t look good for new content anytime soon.

Shrimp & Rice, Paella Like Dinner

Russ invited two work colleagues and their spouses for dinner tonight. One of the couples is pescatarian so I was tasked with a fish centric dinner menu.

As it is the height of vegetable production from the garden I was determined to use as much as I could from my own hand. We had some crab salad on cucumber rounds with cocktails.

Then I made an eggplant, cherry tomato, onion, feta and basil bake. A green salad. And a big paella like dish with onions, red peppers, celery, garlic, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, saffron, smoked paprika, bay leaf, rice wine vinegar, shrimp stock, shrimp, grilled okra and lemon juice. Sorry for the list. I did not take a photo and I want to remember what I put in it because it was a yummy dish. I know I should write out the actual recipe but I am too tired tonight.

Dessert was a key lime pie, made with a ginger snap and coconut crust. The pie had more lime juice than normal which made it slightly softer and much tarter.

If I don’t keep notes on what I serve I will never remember it and this was a very good party menu as it was easy to prep in advance.

Thanks to Carolyn, who washed the dishes and cleaned up. I was thankful to have her be one of the spouses who was invited. Since our husbands are going on a work trip tomorrow she can come over and eat leftover with me. I can do the dishes.

If I Start It…

I am a finisher. If I start something, I finish it. I was not always like that. As a child I often would start some craft project, not be pleased with how it was going and abandon it. As I aged I learned that practice makes perfect. So I trained myself to keep at things to learn how to do them better.

I have always liked production work. I like to make all kinds of things and make them in bulk. That was one of the reasons silk screen appealed to me. I could make many prints of the same thing. This served me well in college. So many friends told me at our 40th reunion that they still have a print they bought from me in college.

When I got in my head that I wanted to make needlepoint seats for my four game table chairs I knew it was a huge undertaking. I had a fabric that was on a Martha Jefferson Chair in my living room that was the perfect inspiration for my needlepoint chairs.

So I bought 110 inches of canvas. That alone was enough of a commitment. I drew out the design for the first chair and I started stitching. I had thought I would paint the canvas, but I realized that step was unnecessary since it was a fairly simple design. Each chair will be one flower from the fabric.

April is my busiest month in teaching, but I started stitching then just the same. I set a goal to be done with the first chair before the middle of August. I finished today more than three weeks in advance.

I might have stitched a much bigger background than necessary because the upholsterer told me to add 1 1/2 inches extra around the whole seat template. That’s a boat load more. This is by far the biggest single canvas I have ever stitched at 26×28 inches.

I am hoping to take the chair over to the upholsterer and have him tell me the next one can be slightly smaller.

Tomorrow I will draw out the design of the next one. I am setting the goal of being done before Thanksgiving. I hope that I can beat that goal well in advance too since I still have three chairs to do. See I have to finish what I start.

Shay Loves So Hard

It’s hard to believe that Shay turned 12 last month. To us she is still “the puppy.” On his way into the office yesterday a woman who works in the daycare in Russ’ building stopped him and asked where the puppy was. Russ used to be able to slip into work unnoticed, but not now that he is associated with Shay. Even the ladies at the dry cleaning drive up want to know where she is when she is not in the car.

We have discovered something about labradoodles recently that is true to Shay. The older they get the more attached and needy they are, as well as the more anxiety ridden. This is not a good thing, but we endure her need to be with us at all times, especially with Russ.

We never have a moment when we wonder where she might be, because she is as close to you as she can be. No complaining about being so loved. It’s the best thing in the world. I wish everyone felt this much love.

Happy Harvest Friday

The heat and the squirrels have been rough on my garden. Today I did have a good harvest. Eggplants have come into their own. Zucchini are failing. I am picking tomatoes while they are free to keep them from the squirrels. The peppers are thriving. Cucumbers are slowing. Okra is King

Thank goodness I am going to Maine in a few weeks so I can pull out whatever is spent before I go so I don’t have to come home to total failure. I may have to put in a fall garden this year just to redeem myself.

Mah Jongg At Work

Russ invited me to share Mah Jongg with his team at work. The only catch is I only had a few hours to tech them how to play the game. They area bunch of smart strategy consultants, mostly young, so I took the challenge.

I sent them a pre-read to learn what the tiles were before I got there and One team member took notes on the white board as I taught them the rules. They were playing their first game in less than an hour and a half and most of them caught on fast.

Russ and his partner Rich were at the same table together and were mor like the old men in the Muppets in the theatre, but they caught on too. This is the first time I have ever gotten Russ to play Mah Jongg.

It was a great team building event I just hope everyone is going to actually do their work and not play Mah Jongg during working hours.

Gluten Free Advice

My doctor has asked me to go gluten free for a while. I had already given up enriched foods due to my MTHFR. Now no wheat at all. When she suggested no gluten her follow up was, “You can still have rice and potatoes.” I have never made a potato BLT.

So I turn to all my gluten free friends and ask for your recommendations. What is the best bread? Is there a bakery in or near Durham you like? Which GF pasta is your favorite?

Russ is not thrilled with this recommendation so I am going to probably make two versions of things until I can figure out acceptable gluten free options.

I am open to any and all ideas from those of you who have gone gluten free.

Sometimes I Play

Had such a fun night of Mah Jongg with the Holding girls. Kelsey is only in Raleigh for a few more days so I am thrilled they invited me to come spend the evening playing.

It was a fairly balanced night with everyone winning their fair share. I made a terrible mistake and no one called me dead. That’s what I get for not playing with a card and needlepointing. It’s not usually good for the teacher to do that, but it does prove I’m human.

I love hearing about who is playing with whom and who is doing well. All the Holdings can hold their own and play with the sharks. We played at a great speed and I did not get as much needlepoint in as I wished.

I am getting to play again on Friday. There just is not enough time in life to play all the Mah Jongg you want.

Thursday I am teaching Russ’ company how to play. Mah Jongg is good practice for strategic thinking. That and it’s just fun.

Reading Hotel Reviews is a Life’s Work

I’ve spent a good part of today booking travel for up coming trips all the way out to October. I miss the days when I called our wonderful travel gent Barbara Crane and just tell her where I needed to go and she would take care of everything. Barbara always knew the best places and the best deals. Now I have to do everything myself. Reading reviews is about the biggest time suck I can find, but it is how I figure out if I am ever going to stay some place.

As I was comparing one hotel to another I had a terrible flashback of a Holiday Inn in Charlotte I stayed in my first year working out of college. I was there to sell some mail opening machines and my company’s standard hotel was Holiday Inn. It was back in the day when the rooms opened out onto the sidewalk.

This particular morning I had calls to make to customers so I ordered room service for breakfast so I could work. I should have known better than to order a bagel in Charlotte in 1983. The tray came and there was a little paper cup of “cheese” next to the non-toasted bagel.

I was still making phone calls and I let the tray sit on the table for a while. When I finally got around to thinking about breakfast I was furious to see that they had sent blue cheese instead of cream cheese. What did they know about bagels in the Queen City back then.

I called to the restaurant to say they had sent blue cheese and the hostess said, “Miss, we don’t have blue cheese.”

Well that was about the worst thing she could have said. You can bet I never stayed at that Holiday Inn again. How I wish there was an internet to leave a review at for that place.

Everyone Was at Nana Steak Tonight

Russ and I had to take his smart car to Cary to drop it off for service. At the last minute we decided to go out to dinner after dropping the car off. Russ looked at Open Table and saw that there were plenty of reservations at Nana Steak. Oh, I love July in Durham. Thankfully no one is in town and you can get reservations at the last minute.

We got there and there were plenty of empty tables. The Pottenger’s came in soon after us to celebrate Sara’s birthday. Then we saw the Spratt/Tendlers, then the Rands. Seemed like we weren’t the only ones who thought a summer Sunday night was a good night to go out.

Some of the only people we didn’t know at Nana’s tonight were the table of seven Russian young women at the table next to us. They got up from the table to go outside to smoke between ordering and the first course coming and between the first and second course.

It was such a throw back to see people smoking at dinner. I could not imagine how terrible the food tastes if you are smoking right up until the moment it arrives and then that you must have another cigarette right after you finish.

Thankfully people can’t smoke inside and ruin our dinner. I wonder if they can smoke inside restaurants in Russia.

I can’t imagine what is going on in Durham that is drawing large numbers of Russian women in their 30’s to town, but I am certain it’s not to go to the center for smoking cessation.

Not Such A Fun Saturday

Today was the worst kind of hot soup like weather day. Russ came out to work in the garden with me. Now the squirrels are just taunting me. They are eating the stolen tomatoes on the top of the garden gate and leaving enough evidence for me to know what they are doing.

Most of my zucchini plants have gotten boring worms and the stems are eaten out rendering the rest of the plant useless. I pulled them out and Russ composted them. I had okra that had not been picked while I was at the beach so it had grown to baseball bat size and hardness. There were plenty of peppers and one beautiful eggplant.

After pulling weeds and picking as many almost ready to not be green tomatoes as I could we had to stop. Both Russ and I were blind from the sweat pouring in our eyes. And this was in the morning. We gave up on outdoor pursuits and went inside for cool showers and equally boring indoor work.

I had been noticing that the shelves in Russ’ office were not only full of the most random things, but also a king’s ransom amount of dust, if dust were valuable. I decided I would take everything off his selves on two book cases and clean all the stuff and the shelves. It was not Russ’ idea of fun when I asked him to look at the accumulation of things and see if anything could be tossed, recycled, given away, moved to a better location or filed.

He did a good job with all these treasures, like three old flip phones, a bobble head likeness of himself that his team had given him, old metal piggy banks and mementos from Carter, which I put back on the shelves. We pared the books down to ones he loved and did away with odd balls that people had given him and he had no interest in. It took an inordinate number of dust rags to clean everything, but I think his lungs will thank me. He still has his eccentric collection of mechanical toys and wind up moneys, but it will be much easier for me to dust.

The good news was it was so much cooler and not so sweat inducing inside that I didn’t mind working on this project. Please just don’t make me weed in this weather.

Tomato Heaven

Yesterday my friend Lee Vann gave me a few of her husband’s special zebra tomatoes. Since it was over 90° out I didn’t want to leave these babies in the car to bake. So when I got to Kate’s last night I brought the bag in her house.

This morning when I went to class I carried the tomatoes in with me. After class I went to do a private lesson at a friend’s and I brought those tomatoes into her house. I drove those tomatoes home tonight. Carrying these tomatoes around like a baby I just had to have one for dinner. I offered Russ one for his dinner, but he declined.

I got some pesto out of the freezer, sliced up one of the gorgeous globes, put some fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar on along with a strong amount of freshly cracked pepper.

Was carrying that bag of tomatoes around worth it. ABSOLUTELY. Thank you Lee. Thank your husband. There is nothing better than a gorgeous vine ripped tomato fresh from the farm.

Mah Jongg Many Ways

Two classes, one private lessons, shopping for Mah Jongg note pads, and four games played after dinner, I’m not sure I could have squeezed more Mah Jongg into the day. Boy was it fun.

As always I have had the best students at Coral Bay this week. The strategy class finished today and they pushed themselves to learn lots of new ways of thinking.

The beginners have one more class in the morning and they all will graduate with honors.

After classes my friend Lee and her sister Lynn stayed after class to learn how to play Siamese Mah Jongg. In return Lee brought me some very special tomatoes from her farm. I am taking good care of these tomatoes until I can get them home tomorrow.

Tonight Phyllis and her husband Stuart had Kate and me over for a yummy dinner and to play a few games of Mah Jongg. Phyllis has taken to Mah Jongg in a big way. She says that she can remember things better now that she has been playing Mah Jongg. I’m just glad she is having fun.

Beach Mah Jongg is always the best way to spend the summer. I loved seeing some of my previous students sitting out under the umbrella in their swim suits playing Mah Jongg all afternoon. Can anything be better?

Good Day at the Office

Normally a day I get up at 5AM in order to get to work by 8:30 is not a good day, except when work is at the beach.

It’s Mah Jongg week July style at the Coral Bay club. Two big classes of beginners and beyond beginners. I often wonder when is the day going to come when I have already taught everybody Mah Jongg, but it’s not today.

After a fun day of classes with some fabulous students, especially mother’s and daughters or sisters and friends I got to retire to my friend Kate’s. Kate is the very generous hostess who has had me stay so many times I have lost count. She provides a spa like room, two entertaining dogs and good light for needlepointing. The view can’t be beat.

In return I take her to dinner which is hardly a fair trade. The good news is she did have a very yummy drink which also was pretty to boot. On the way out of the restaurant we ran into Kate’s friend Phyllis who has taken to Mah Jongg is the biggest way. I can’t wait for tomorrow when we go to Phyllis’ house for a cook out and a little playing on the side.

I don’t even mind getting up at 5am for these kind of days.

The Sauce’s the Thing

In the ever increasing need to use up garden items I made zucchini fritters for dinner. They are just shredded squash, feta, chopped mint, onions, flour, egg, Parmesan, red pepper flakes and black pepper. The amounts hardly matter. Just a sprinkle of flour to bind things together and as little egg as you can get away with. Cook them like pancakes in a nonstick pan.

The real reason to make them was to be able to make an herb sauce. I have many herbs in my garden and I like to use as many of them as possible while they are still young and tender. Tonight I cut a handful of chives, basil and oregano. I pulled all the leaves off the stemmed herbs and chopped it all up together. I had about a third of a cup of the minced greenery. To that I added a heaping spoonful of mayo and three spoonfuls of sour cream, juice of half a lemon and a good sprinkle of garlic powder.

Not only was the sauce good on the zucchini , but also on the leftover okra and lamb Russ ate. This sauce would make cardboard taste good.

Pepper Report

Earlier in the week I posted about my purple peppers. Many of you wanted to know what they tasted like. Today I made a Greek salad for lunch using the purple peppers, along with tomatoes, cucumbers and basil from the garden. I added store bought onions, olives and avocado along with feta cheese, so I can’t say I grew my whole lunch.

The peppers were mild, with a similar taste to green peppers. They were only purple on the outside with a light green interior. There was nothing surprising or interesting about them other than color.

I harvested more peppers today and I pan roasted some mild ones for dinner tonight. I wish I knew what variety they were exactly, but it is something similar to shishito. They were yummy. With just a sprinkle of sea salt they are the perfect snack.

I also had plenty of jalapeños and another similar green pepper that Russ says are good with his eggs in the morning. I have habanero out there, but they are not ripe yet.

Report on the squirrel front is not good. I had three large tomatoes that were almost ripe that the squirts got to before I did. The frustrating thing is they left half carcasses in the green just to taunt me. Damn Squirrels.

Micro Weather

When I was a kid my father would say that the job he really wanted was to be a rock and roll weather man on the radio. What kind of a stupid job is that, I thought. Who cares that much about the weather and who wants to listen to it in song format?

My father’s obsession with weather never wained. When cable TV came about his channel of choice was the weather channel. He constantly would tell me about the personalities who were on the weather channel as if they were his friends. Sometimes he would say that some outfit the weather girl was wearing would look nice on Carter. Like either Carter or I knew who this girl was, let alone wha she was wearing.

As I have aged I am beginning to see some of my father’s same obsession with weather, but just for the sole purposes of watering my garden.

Russ and I are constantly checking the radar, watching where a storm may be going and lamenting when rain just skates by us by just a smidge. You can’t listen to the weather on TV and have any certainty that what is predicted to happen will actually happen at your house.

When they say all news is local, what they really mean is all weather that is happening right at your house is all that matters.

I sleep through most night time weather events, but thankfully Russ is able to report in on any nighttime storms. Today we thought we were going to get rain in the afternoon and it amounted to less than a garden sprinkler on for two minutes. Anything under the trees stayed bone dry.

I guess I am becoming more like my Dad in my old age, just without the rock and roll part.

Faking Out The Squirrels

For the record Squirrels don’t like tomatoes. I have watched many a squirrel bite into many tomatoes and after one unpleasant bite after another they don’t learn that all those tomatoes taste the same and they don’t like them. This fact does not stop the dumber than a box of hammers rodents from constantly biting my tomatoes.

I have a number of cherry tomato plants and I have been keeping my eye on the the ripening fruit. I think that some tomatoes might be ripe tomorrow and when tomorrow comes the fruit is missing. Did I dream that there were almost ripe tomatoes? NO! It’s just that a squirrel has come and stolen the red ones.

So today I put two fake snakes up on top of my garden fence. As I was looking out the window tonight I saw a squirrel run along the top of the fence and stop and look at the snake. It stood there for a good five minutes. Long enough for me to take this blurry picture of it and to run down stairs and outside and scare it away with my voice.

I then sprinkled a bunch of cayenne pepper all long the top of that stringer. I hope between the pepper and the snake the squirrel will think twice about stealing my tomatoes. I am considering getting a fake owl and an ultra sonic noise machine.

I am happy for squirrels to eat the acorns and other food that grows on my property, but just biting the tomatoes and discarding them is maddening. I am not running a squirrel drive thru. Feeding squirrels is not my pleasure.

Big Sucky Day

On the Fourth of July I celebrated by ordering myself a new Dyson stick vacuum. My old stick would only hold a charge for three steps. Since the canister cap had also broken I decided that just replacing the battery was not the answer to my three-step failure.

Waiting two days for the arrival of my new vacuum was tough, but not as bad as waiting for it to charge after it arrived.

I unboxed the beauty to discover more attachments than I have on all my other appliances combined. I did get to test the stick out for one step and discovered one feature I do not like. I have to hold the trigger to keep the machine on.

While the vacuum was charging I went right to the internet to see if this lack of a trigger lock was actually true. Sure enough, thanks to “safety” regulations Dyson fears you might get sucked into your own vacuum if it is left running and unattended. As a professional vacuumer I knew I could withstand the superior suction.

Apparently I am not alone in finding this must-hold-the-trigger not a feature at all. There are many off brand trigger locks available and I ordered one right away. So tomorrow will have to be the big cleaning day.

I am most interested in how much I can get cleaned before the battery needs recharging. See, once I start vacuuming I want to clean everything. If I am interrupted by the lack of power it takes a day or two before the cleaning bug gets me again. I know that I could turn to a corded vacuum, but somehow that option never dawns on me.

Let the great sucking begin.

Surprise of Purple

When you buy vegetable plants you are taking the word of the tag saying what the variety it is. I can tell the difference between a tomato seedling and a zucchini. But I can’t tell a habanero pepper seedling from an ancho. Pepper seedlings tend to look like when they are little.

I bought six different varieties of peppers at the Durham Farmers Market in April. One plant of each from sweet to your-heads-on-fire hot. So far I have gotten some Jalapeños which are the most useful, so I’m happy with that.

I tend to like big sweet red peppers, which are just green peppers that you have left to turn red. I thought I had one of those plants, but imagine my surprise when I got three nice sized purple peppers. They glossy and beautiful. We have not tried them yet, but based on their size and shape I am assuming they are sweet.

Purple peppers are just one of life’s little surprises. They probably taste like green, red or orange, but they are so much cuter being purple.

I hope that life brings you some sweet purple surprises this week. A rainbow of colors is so much better than a monochrome of all green, even if they are beautiful greens. I celebrate the rainbow. The world needs purple peppers right now. We need to see beauty in all things that are different. They are still peppers, just a little different. Hooray for the surprise of purple.

Silent Fireworks Please

It’s reported that Americans will spend over $2.3 billion on fireworks this Fourth of July. I suggest that the fireworks manufacturers should give 10% of their profits for anti-anxiety meds for our dogs.

I don’t know anyone’s dogs who like fireworks. Shay is a quivering mess and it is not even dark yet. Some nimrod is setting off firecrackers on the street behind us. I really don’t know the appeal of fireworks that just make noise. Sparkle and glitter is wonderful, but why do we need explosions? And explosions alone… it’s just cruelty to dogs.

I can’t speak to cats. I feel like they can act disinterested, even if they are nervous wrecks. The sweetness of dogs makes them feel all the scary feelings that fireworks bring. Let’s not even get into the veterans with PTSD who might not like explosions.

So I am starting a campaign to get rid of the sound in fireworks. Who is with me? I’m not sure who the regulator is for them, but no one is enforcing the no fireworks rule in municipalities where they exist. I think most fireworks are made in China. Let’s get the conspiracy theorists in on taking the sound out of fireworks because they might be some communist plot to take down America by scaring our dogs. We are after all a country that loves dogs.

Let’s make July Fourth Happy for the whole family.

Visiting with my Aunt

I had a long overdue visit with my Aunt Janie Leigh today. She called me on Saturday and I invited her for lunch for today. I should have known my inviting her for lunch would mean she would pick up the check. Not my plan.

My cousin Leigh joined us, which was so fun. We talked all about many relatives and if you are one we probably talked about you. You will never know what nice things were said.

After lunch at Mediterranean Deli, thankfully my car not towed from the private lot I left it in, we went back to Carol Woods. I had not see Janie’s apartment so she invited me in to see it. Leigh did not join us, but we did promise to see each other more.

Janie’s apartment was a long walk from the door and she did say it accorded her many steps a day. Her place was very cute. Her kitchen was particularly large for the size of her unit. She said she had only turned her stove on twice in a year.

We had the best visit. I have no excuse for not visiting her sooner and vow to see her more regularly. Perhaps at the next MichiePalooza which we need to start planning. So all you Michie’s let’s start a group chat about it. There is not enough time to be together and it won’t happen without a concerted effort.

Shay’s Ground Crew

Earlier in the spring I ripped out our tiny courtyard garden. I was hoping to replant then, but the plan still haven’t gotten to me. So we await fall for planting.

In the meantime there are just a few volunteer plants and weeds that keep coming up. Not a worry because Shay’s bunny brigade come in to be the ground’s crew. They nibble away on most anything that is growing there in the comfort of the small space, protected from hawks.

I think Shay’s grounds crew nibbled away my whole zinnia garden before it had a chance to take root. Shay is a very bad supervisor. She rarely gets after those bunnies and they have no fear of her.

I may have to employ the hawks as my crew. Shay is not going to be happy.

The Big Fig Newton

I have no rhyme nor reason why a fig tree produces very few figs one year and a huge amount the next. I have had a fig tree that has been a lame producer for years. In the last few years I have hacked it practically down to nothing in the fall. Partly out of frustration and partly because it was growing into the Land Cruiser.

This year, for some unknown reason this lackadaisical producer has exploded with fruit. There are hundreds of figs growing all over this gigantic tree. Are they edible? Who knows, as they have not yet ripened.

Russ tells me the tree is teasing him since he looks out on it from his home office window. He has picked a few figs only to discover they were much too hard. I am hoping that these fruits ripen soon and that we can pick them all before they fall on the Land Cruiser which is currently engulfed by the tree.

I know the figs are not that close to being ripe because the birds have shown no interest. I am certain Russ will alert me as to their readiness. I am not sure if we have the right ladder to get all the figs, but there are so many on low hanging branches I am certain to get more than we can use.

I wonder if I can make homemade fig newtons? No worries, I do know that the best use for figs are on pizza with blue cheese and pistachios. Russ is going to be happy.