A certain author, Geoffrey Chaucer to be exact, author of The Canterbury Tales wrote Well in the middle of summer the bees are quite busy around here, but their busy natures seem to have motivated a little more activity in their human friends here this past week. You will see what I mean, when you read this post that I am linking to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop hosted by Kristi of Thankful Me.
1. Humor that was directed toward me on my birthday
It began with a gift given to me by a daughter that has a way of making me laugh.
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| Birthday quarantine banner |
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| Birthday tiara and COVID mask |
More humor includes the fact that my age now is the same whether read forward or backwards! (I probably wouldn't have thought about that if there had not been some FB games recently that asked a person's age backwards, or something like that. I saw the game, but didn't play.) There was a Zoom birthday meeting with my family that included lots of laughter. Cards and gifts came in the mail or were hand delivered along with yummy treats. Unexpected phone calls from friends and relatives who live far away were a nice surprise.
2. Maple slabs sawed and split and hauled away
There were a couple of people who were willing to do this big job for us and who could make use of the free firewood.
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| Large maple slabs waiting to be turned into firewood |
3. Reviews and recommendations
We have found a handyman who can do some repairs for us in a few weeks. These are not urgent repairs, just ones on our "to do" list.
4. Sign that fall is on its way
Even though summer is putting on the heat and fall weather is likely a couple of months away, this little crocus just couldn't wait.
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| Purple crocus |
5. Calling in for a take-out dinner from one of our favorite restaurants and being able to just drive up and have them bring out to us
I decided to try their Cannelloni Garibaldi. Yum!
6. Hot Lips Salvia
When our plant started blooming this year, all the blossoms were white instead of red like they had been last year. It wasn’t until I bought another Hot Lips Salvia that had all red blossoms, and sat the pot beside the older plant, that we discovered that over a few week’s time, the older plant began displaying red blossoms again. It still has some white blossoms too but there are more red blossoms than white ones. From what I am able to find online, it is not unusual for these plants to fluctuate between white and red blossoms and there are multiple reasons given for why this happens. It is deer resistant and attracts hummingbirds which makes it a perfect plant for our territory.
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| Hot Lips Salvia plants |
7. Being able to pass on something that is no longer of use to you and has just been a weed trap, (no it wasn’t the bathtub) but which is still useful to someone else
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| Used drip lines once used in raised garden beds |
8. Produce that one rarely sees in a chain grocery store
Typically the size of produce is limited to a certain size in stores, but if you have your own garden, or if you get produce from a farm stand, etc. you may have seen some “extra large” onions like this one that came in the produce box I purchased this week.
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| Very large Vidalia onion |
9. Being able to identify plants, especially when touching one might bring undesirable consequences
As we were walking through the pine trees this week, Vic pointed to a couple of plants and asked if I knew what they were. I recognized them as the plants I avoided as a child because if I accidentally touched them I ended up with welts on my skin. Needless to say, I didn't pick a couple of leaves to take back to the house to look at while I googled or explored plant books. Stinging nettles also have a very distinct odor, at least the ones that I remembered seeing when I was a kid did.
10. Friends who share ideas (what works for them), share their physical strength to do something you can’t do, or share their excess with others (fresh peaches)
11. Vic and his sense of humor
the increased accessibility of takeout surely is on everyone's grat lists.
ReplyDeletethose must have been huge maple trees! as firewood, I understand they highly prized for the heat(potential) being aa hardwood, I assume.
Nice onion!
We had planted several other young maple trees at the same time, but for some reason the trunk of this one tree grew like wildfire. It suffered from some wind damage over a year ago and we had to have an arborist come. We learned that in addition to the wind damage, part of the tree was dying. We made the decision to have entire tree cut down so we wouldn't have to risk any large limbs, etc. falling on the house. It was kind of sad, but necessary. Yes, maple does make good firewood.
DeleteI think I may be making some more caramelized onions if I don't come up with another way using such a large onion.
Oh! Wouldn't that make a great blooming onion! LOL I am happy you had a birthday celebration despite Rona trying to spoil the party. Have a blessed week. My great niece is being blessed today and this is the last of the kids in this family to have blessings. Mama is a tad emotional as she displayed the red and white slippers her prior girls wore, knowing this is the last time. Maybe one of her grandchildren will wear them one day waaaaaaay down the road. I made a blanket for the first child's blessing and they use it for each one's. Next, her second daughter is being baptized in September. Then we have about 6 years for the next one.
ReplyDeleteI think I would need an air fryer to even consider making a blooming onion, so I will probably just try caramelizing one again.
DeleteThat is a wonderful tradition of using the blanket you made for each child's blessing.
I'm glad you had a great birthday--and I'm glad you laughed.
ReplyDeleteI thought someone would want the slabs.
You really have been keeping busy, but that doesn't surprise me. :-)
Sometimes it is just a matter of finding someone who has the equipment and the muscles to get those larger slabs into pieces small enough to load into a truck. :-)
DeleteYes, I have been keeping busy, but the old body as of Thursday, said "Whoa" for a while, so I am giving it a break.