Friends, Family, and Stoves

35°f/2°C this morning. Brrr! We dodged the frost/freeze but many places around us were hit with it. 62° as I write, but still feels cold with a chilly breeze blowing.

Yes, we covered those tomato plants we put out last week! Even though I felt confident we would not get a damaging frost, better safe than sorry. Larry covered the raspberries too...just in case. This cold weather will continue pretty much all week; tomorrow and Tuesday will warm up a bit, but then we will be back to 40- degree nights.  My beans are popping up anyway, but no sign of cucumbers or squash yet. I may have to replant.

We had a good day Friday, restocking our booths, then dinner with our friend Suzy. She has no family close by except her late brother's wife, with whom she is not close, and a couple step-nieces. Fortunately she has many friends and gets out every day for one activity or another. We try to get together with her a couple times a week--- she's great company so it's a real pleasure. I think as we get older we value our friends more. Even though we have a large family, people our age are comfortable company. We understand each other's aches and pains, have shared history and experiences. Even if we didn't know each other when we were younger, we remember the same music, historic events,  styles,  etc, so there is never a lack of topics to talk about.

We took the table we've been working on and got it staged with a couple chairs we have had in the booth for some time.

We had to make a top and a drawer for it, but I think it's cute.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a birthday party/baby shower at granddaughter Hannah's house. It was our son Derek's 54th birthday, and Hannah's husband and his 2 sons all have birthdays within the first 2 weeks of May. And then of course Hannah is expecting in July. She looks so much further along than that!

I had to dig out this old photo of me when I was expecting my youngest son, back in 1986. I think this was taken just a couple weeks before he was born. Hannah laughed when I sent it to her. Two pregnant peas in a pod! But she seems to be a lot bigger than I was.

It was a nice party, about 50 people and children there. Even though it was only 57°, Derek cooked on the grill, and Hannah had a small marquee set up with tables and chairs, so when clouds covered the sun we were still comfortable. It was a big blended family event, with Derek's ex-wife Tara and her husband, her husband's mother and sister, and her mother, aunt, brothers,  their spouses and children and a few of their kids. Then there was Hannah's husband's family, and Larry, Haley, Desiree, and me from Derek's side. And of course several good friends, a couple neighbors, etc. It is good for all families when divorced couples can stay friends. We have known Tara since she was 14, I think, so she has been part of our family for a very long time.

Speaking of granddaughters,  Hannah's sister Haley is now the proud owner of this vintage Chambers stove.

These, and the O'Keefe-Merritt stoves, are considered the Cadillacs of old cookstoves. My Tappan Deluxe is also a great stove, but this Chambers is amazing. It has a griddle built into the top,  and two ovens! The girls' other grandma had this stored in her garage. It belonged to her late husband's first wife, who passed away in 2002, so it has been a minute since this has been used. Apparently she never used the ovens because they look like new. I so wanted this stove myself, but I knew the men in my life would kill me if I asked them to move another heavy old stove! Of course, now Derek has to move it anyway for his daughter, which I admit makes me grin wickedly!

This is the second granddaughter I have corrupted, as Sarah took my old Tappan Deluxe up to her cabin when I got another one in better condition. I just love it that my granddaughters understand just how amazing these old stoves are. They all love my old Tappan, but I never thought they would want their own! Haley will have help getting hers going from our son Aaron, who lives just 15 minutes from her.

Today I used up all our asparagus to make cream of asparagus soup.  I think we have eaten asparagus every day for the past 2 weeks! I love it, but we couldn't eat all that we were getting, and I had over 2 pounds in the fridge.  Now it's all made into this delicious soup. What we don't eat today and tomorrow I will freeze. We will enjoy it as a special treat in the winter.

The recipes I have all say to thicken it, and to add cream or sour cream before eating, but I like it just like it is. It is so simple to make. I cut up onions, celery, and asparagus, added a little garlic and mixed in turkey broth from the cellar, and simmered til the vegetables were soft, then used the immersion blender to puree it. It doesn't even need salt and pepper,  it's just delicious without adding anything more.

I spent this afternoon pricing for the booths. We went to a small flea market, then did some picking at a few thrifts on our way to pick up from the auction on Thursday, so I had a pretty good pile of stuff to clean up, research, and price. This is less than half of it, I think.

I have a lot of plants that need to be put in the ground or in planters, but it was just too chilly for me today. That will be tomorrow's to-do list. 

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