Yum, yum. Waiting for the stuff to come off. Already got a couple of the yellow tomatoes. All the squashes are about ready, the peppers have been coming off a few at a time. I am about ready to start some hot pepper jelly, Otis!

The stir-fry mix grows like a bat out of Hades so I have trouble keeping it cut and used.

I have a lot of sweet basil and need to get it chopped and prepped to freeze for pesto.

My beets are looking great. The leaves are good in a salad too. I hope I have enough to pickle.

My poor zucchini has some powdery mildew. I am working on controling that.

Wiley is taking it real easy.

And as usual, my pics aren't next the appropriate wordage.

No biggie.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Weekend Update

Baby Sammy, my week-old great nephew, was the main reason for a trip to southeast Missouri.
What a cutie and none of us got enough baby time. Got to head back in a week for more









































I wore these this weekend.















Chairman Meow, otherwise known as Wiley came back with us to stay while my mom is in Michigan. He is a pleasure to have.



And I don't know what I am doing wrong- probably the same old thing. My photo posts are always scewed up. Oh, bother.

I was scrubbing my filthy car just a while ago. I always wash my own car. Prefer it to taking thru a car wash. I enjoy doing it myself, even in cold weather( I imagine I was strange looking bundled up in sweats and a stocking hat to passers-by).
I was reminded of a fund raising car wash I worked at as a senior. Money for Daytona Beach senior trip, I think. We had 3 wash stations at the school. I was working with a couple other people at one. Let me just say no one had ever taught these people how to was a car. I was my usual self, pointing out this part or that part that was not done correctly-in other words, not CLEAN. One person got fed up and left but the other guy just continued with his job. I was working hard myself, too, trying to earn a good donation for the job. A short story long- he signed my year book with a reference to the car wash and my "intensity", pointing out I had it made as a car wash attendant if I ever wanted to pursue it.
My brother showed me how to wash a car, his '69 Galaxy 500 primarily. When he was in high school and after he graduated, I always washed his car before a date on the weekend. He'd pay me $2.50 for it. I detailed it inside as well. He was pretty much always satisfied with the job I did.
I began washing my parents car then and detailing it inside. Then I moved away. I inherited my brother's Galaxy. It couldn't bear anyone else touching it in such a personal way.

That Scratch Fever

I have poison ivy and chigger bites. Nuthin' like livin' in the Ozarks in summer!

I deserve it, I suppose. I have been tempting Fate, wearing shorts and tees to pick up fire wood for the camp fire last week at the lake( there must have been poison ivy somewhere on it) or tripping through weeds and grass to follow some wild kittens at my friend's house yesterday. I might not have done that if we hadn't imbibed in the manner in which we imbibed. It just felt right but now it feels so very wrong.
I also wanted to prevent the little summer school scalawags from rolling in it when they had their garden classes so I worked tirelessly to remove it's long rhizomatous roots from the garden's midst. I just managed to beat that first blight on my forearms back with calamine when a new batch appears in all it's itching, bubbling glory. Add to that the burning, bulleted marks on my ankles and eh-hem...other rather non-mentionable sites from those blankety- blank chiggers! There is nothing that works AT ALL on chigger bites for me. I have learned that the hard way.

Where I grew up, there were only mosquitoes, no chiggers or ticks. A person could go tripping through the tallest grass and weeds with no thought to protecting one's self from those menaces.
Then I moved to the Ozarks where there are ten billion ticks and ten times that in chiggers just waiting to hitch a ride under delectable skin.
I paid a high price one of my first nights here, having coated my entire body with the delicious scent of body spray and ending up skipping through high grass to a lookout over a river.
No one said to get right home and shower off those cussed pests! They must have lingered in their all night buffet enjoying the idiot from the Bootheel.
And I didn't even know what I had on me! Someone had to identify I had chigger bites!
I must have spent a large fortune trying any remedy over -the-counter. Eventually the itch abated but not before I had spent 2 solid weeks scratching and miserable, sleepless nights.

I will wear more clothing
I will wear more clothing
I will wear more clothing
I will wear more clothing....

I just spent this past weekend completely alone. It felt good and I almost didn't worry about anything or one. I worked, played, vegged with equal parts reading and watching movies ("Babel" and Flight Plan").

I realize I am heading toward a period of self-imposed solitary confinement. It feels right, though. Being with someone (other than my kids) visiting, hanging out or whatever, feels like so much work. Too much. I don't have much to say. Then everyone is asking constantly what is wrong to which I reply that nothing is wrong, to which they start thinking "sure, blabbermouth has nothing to say-something's wrong" and then I'm all uncomfortable 'cause I know what they are thinking and that's when it's too much work.

Should this set off warming bells? Or do I go with it? I might not worry much about it if I knew how long this might last or how difficult it will be to re-introduce myself to the world again.

The ice cream cake is in the freezer ready for the setting together of the two parts. Breyers Mint choclate chip ice cream layered with Oreo crumbs and gooey chocolate fudge sauce in two cake pans. I need to set them together and frost with equal parts of ice cream and Cool Whip. Then I can decorate it.

She's Sweet But Only 15 Today

Only 15- what am I saying!? I can't believe it! Time goes too fast.

You may want to leave now since I plan on gushing about her.

This girl impresses me, comforts me, tickles me, surprises me, delights me, scares me, amazes me, needs me, loves me. My days spent with her till now have been a complete blessing. She is my gift.

Okay, that wasn't so bad, huh?

My biggest feat today consists of finding a recipe and preparing the perfect ice cream cake for her.

A New Stage of Life

Thanks to all who sent good thoughts my way. I appreciate them, really.

Putting my father in the nursing home was very much like his death. We all knew it had to come, there was relief when it was done but it was also saying goodbye. We each dealt with it and are dealing with it differently, of course.
Unfortunately, like a death with the finality, this situation isn't ending for years, most likely. It's just been eased a bit.

My father has a bleeding ulcer which had him off meds and very , shall we say "cranky". Unmanageable without meds in the nursing home, he was transferred to a hospital with a geriatric psych ward to get his meds re-established and re-evaluated under a doctor's care. I went with my mom to admit him after he was transferred there. It was horrible to see him sedated and so lost to us and the world. He was disheveled to say the least, and contorted on the bed, sound asleep thanks to the medication they had to give him. At that point my heart realized he was gone for me. It was final. Even though I had watched his descent into oblivion for some months now, it was this time I had to say goodbye.

Now it is our job to see he is well taken care of and it is hard for me to relinquish control. I had worried about my mom the whole time he was at home but I never worried about my dad because I knew Mother was doing everything to make him comfortable. But to give control to someone else has me on red alert. Lets just say I am on top of this as are my siblings.

My mom is doing much better and getting some sleep, some quiet time to regain some control over her life. She misses him desperately and can't believe she is going to live without him. We had many good talks while I was there and I hear strength in her words but I didn't want to leave her alone just to save her from that lonesomeness she was already feeling. She was fragile still yet and will be for some time. I just have to hope my dad's condition stabilizes so there aren't many emergencies to worry her.

I was reluctant to take my kids when I went because I wasn't sure what incidents would take place when we got there. I didn't know if Daddy would be gone when I got there or what shape Mother would be in or what jobs I would need to do so I thought they didn't need to be in the fray. I am not shielding them from all of it but some stuff is better relayed at a later time then for youngsters to see it first hand. I think I made the right choice.