Quiet Week

32°f/0°C, clear. Warmed up to 60°f, with a light breeze.

Our pear trees are beginning to bloom!

I have not been blogging this week, because I just didn't have much to say. Of course I have been all ears listening to the uproar over that overheard chat. It is hilarious on one hand--thr morons!--and very disturbing on the other. Rhe frankly stated opinions about Europe are certainly troubling, and have not helped our tarnished reputation with our friends over there. Seriously,  what idiots Hegseth and his cronies are. And now I hear that the phone numbers and other personal contact information of some of these clowns has been found on the internet, easily available! But wi anything happen because of this? Of course not. If the media could make Idiot-in-Chief think that this makes him look stupid, maybe he would act, but I doubt it. I think they should all resign, but nope. Not one has taken the responsible action.

One thing, though, really struck me today. Here we have this cohort of clowns, and on the other hand the reporter on NPR's Fresh Air today who has done in-depth reporting on Susan, even traveling with some of the rebels. It made me wonder what danger any of those in the infamous chat group have ever faced. I bet they all get their news from Fox, which doesn't even have actual reporters. Grrrr.

But enough of that. It is too nice a day to waste on those fools---although this fool has been stuck inside all day and hasn't been out much at all! It was pretty cold this morning, so I did housework and eBay listings, then got into cooking. I made a large batch of penne pasta bake, and a loaf of pumpkin nut bread, substituting butternut squash for the pumpkin and adding chocolate chips. Then I worked on waxing the little dresser, which is almost ready to go. Larry has put together 2 of those ornamental windmills, which we will take to our booths tomorrow.

Yesterday I worked on pricing and taxes, in that order.  Yuck. I am slowly getting everything in order to start inputting the data into TurboTax, so by the end of next week that job will be done.

Then I can get back to enjoying my life without that black cloud over me.

And that, friends, is about all the news from this hill! Pretty boring, right? And nothing exciting on the horizon either.  Ah well, I shall have to get my kicks reading about all the excitement in your lives!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A Sweet Surprise, and Weekend Recap

Sunday: 32°f/0°C, hazy. It was still very windy yesterday (Saturday), and very dry conditions mean fire danger.

We wanted firepit time this weekend, but with the dry windy conditions we have had, a fire is out of the question. So we have compromised with nice fires in the fireplace and movie evenings.

We've been watching some old films. Judgment at Nuremberg, with Burt Lancaster was startling with its parallels to what we see going on in the US right now. And Khartoum with Charlton Heston was another that spoke to the danger of megalomania, a man convinced that only he could solve a country's woes. After those two on Thursday and Friday, we watched Eragon Saturday night, a fantasy based on a New York Times best-selling book written by a 15 year old boy; it was light relief! Not a great movie, but fun. Last night I watched one that I will watch again tonight with Larry. More about it in another post. 

Saturday I planted a short row of potatoes, and put in some carrots, spinach, and chard. I wanted to plant kale, but apparently I am out of seeds. I also mulched the leeks which are coming along splendidly despite not being mulched for the winter and deer nibbling off their tops. 

A nice surprise arrived Saturday.  Quinn, who has been a reader of this blog practically from its beginning in 2007, had offered to send me some Candy Roaster squash seeds. I have never grown them so was excited to try them this year. The seeds came in a large box, which puzzled me. When I opened the box, this beautiful handmade quilt was inside! 

Just look at these colors.

Q

The seeds were in there too, and a sweet goat magnet. The quilt is now in place at the foot of my bed, a sweet daily reminder of a good friend.

Sunday we were off on errands--a stop at Mineral for gas and at Aldi's for a few groceries, then over to the tiny town of Beverly, Ohio, for an auction pickup. We came home via two-lane roads,  a nice drive through farm country and along the Ohio River, that actually takes the same length of time as going by the interstate.

Today I am puttering, unpacking the auction things, cleaning up in the kitchen sorting laundry before I get to work on waxing the little dresser I painted last week. This is two-tone, just a slight difference in the shade of the drawers and the frame.

And taxes. I must buckle down and get them done, but boy can I procrastinate! Today I am determined to work on them for at least an hour, which should have all the data entered into the spreadsheet.  I. Hate. This. Stuff. But do it I must. 

I hope your Monday is going better than mine, but if not, feel free to join my pity party! And smile. It's easier and more fun than frowning, right?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Garden Talk, and Unexpected Surpises

30°f/-1°C this morning, warming to 50°f, mostly clear but very windy again.

More daffodil photos, because they are just such a happy sight after winter! (Sorry, FG!)

And hellebores...

We spread another 20 bags of mulch today, and moved a trellis to a better position, where I planted peas. The lettuce, radishes and onions I planted a few weeks ago are doing well, and tomorrow I plan to plant a few potatoes.

I am going to try to have this garden be completely no-till, my goal for the past several years. This year, I believe the mulch is finally deep enough to give it a try. We shall see how it goes.

Now, on a different topic:

Have you ever had a aurprising meeting with a friend, family member or other acquaintance in a completely unexpected place? 

A thread in a Facebook group discussed just this thing, and there were the most interesting responses. The thread started with a photo of 3 Irishman, taken in NYC in 2019. The lady who took the photo asked if they wanted her to send it to their phones, but none of the men had phones. Later she posted the photo online and it went viral as she tried to get the picture to the men. And 5 years later, she finally met them again, this time in Dublin, I believe. 

This reminded me of several unusual things that have happened to me, or to my family. Once in Key West, we ran into my son Jon's next door neighbors, and once in DC I heard someone call my name as I was standing in front of the White House. It was a friend from West Virginia that I had not seen in a couple years. My son Aaron was in a bar in Seattle and was mistaken for his brother Derek by a guy who had served with Derek in Germany. And on the ferry to the Reagan Islands in Ireland, Aaron and his wife met a young lady who was in the National Guard, and had been in a training class taught by our granddaughter Haley. And on it goes. One of the strangest sort of experiences happened to us in Dublin, and you can read about it in this blog post from 2014.

The following story is one of the ones from that Facebook thread that really made me laugh:

"During WW2 a friend of my grandfather's was stationed with two or three other soldiers in a remote outpost in the Western Desert. One day, after several weeks of seeing absolutely nobody else,  they noticed a small cloud of dust out in the desert. As it got nearer they were able to make out that it was a man on a bicycle. And when it got even closer my grandfather's friend was amazed to recognise one of his teachers from school, who, as he passed shouted across to him "Ah Brown, good to see you. Please do remember me to your parents." And without stopping he carried on cycling and disappeared off into the desert."

What about you? Have you ever had such an experience? Perhaps not as bizarre as the one above, but one that made you appreciate how small this earth really is? Do tell!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.