Much as I don't like trying to make it through the security "prove you're not a robot" stuff, I have added it to my blog, enuf already.  I have been slammed and spammed for quite awhile.  Some are sleazy, some in foreign languages, and some are trying to sell something.  I imagine you all know these from your own blogs.  So I apologize in advance.

Memories of Mom



After my birthday came memories of my mother.  She's been gone twenty years this year, done in by emphysema and a lifetime of smoking.  One of my strongest memories of her is that she got up very early, sometimes as early as 4am to have "some time to myself" as she lived with four daughters and Dad in a not so large house.  I can see her sitting quietly at the kitchen table with a cigarette burning in her ashtray and what was probably the third cup of coffee in the morning, sugar and cream.  In a really early memory I was looking up at her as she popped leftover pie dough in the oven to make treats.   You know maybe, the kind where you butter the raw dough and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it.  Then you slice it and roll it into tiny bun-like goodies and bake them?  She was in a skirt and sweater and shoes with little heels on them.  Unlike me whose daily costume seems to be jeans and tees, I don't think she wore a pair of jeans ever in her life.

 

 

About a year after our mother died my father hired a small plane and with three daughters scattered her ashes on the seaward side of Haystack rock at Cannon Beach.  Cannon Beach was where he and Mom had spent their brief honeymoon after their wedding in Portland in 1941.

 

Mom and me in Seattle 1942.

 

Her name was Rosemary and she looks like a child herself to me in this picture.  I was their first baby and Mom liked to tell me I was also the first baby she had ever held.  She had no siblings and was often shocked and upset at the quibbling and arguing that went on with her daughters.  "I'd of loved to have had a sister," she'd say, "I was so lonesome."  "Here take mine," we'd say.  Now I miss my sisters and I belatedly realize what she'd been telling us.  Although she still needed her morning time without us.  

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

It's also Happy Birthday to Me.  I saw on the internet that you can book a vacation in Ireland in a horsedrawn caravan wagon.  Would have been an adventure at a younger age but now with one foot firmly into my 8th decade, I'm 71, I crave a little more comfort.  Still, lovely to think about.  Like many, I had two grandmothers who were very proud of their Irish ancestry.

 

 

 

THE FIDDLER OF DOONEY

William Butler Yeats 1865-1939

WHEN I play on my fiddle in Dooney.
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Mocharabuiee.

I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.

When we come at the end of time
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;

For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle,
And the merry love to dance:

And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With 'Here is the fiddler of Dooney!'
And dance like a wave of the sea.

And last but not least my shamrocks are in bloom.  A great birthday gift.

What's Your Favorite Meal?

My favorite meal is breakfast.  In fact I like breakfast for dinner too.  This morning I cooked up my morning standby, oatmeal with raisins.  And half and half.  I'm supposed to be watching my weight and I'm doing okay but I'm keeping my half and half and butter.  Yesterday was a bad hair day and a bad food day.  I'm still on prednisone from the aftermath of the flu, nearly two weeks of it and it's given me the nibblies.  Not for broccoli and salads.  A three egg omelet for breakfast.  For crackers and cheese, that was lunch, for ice cream with chocolate chips in it, in the morning.  Sour dough muffins with any kind of cheese on them, cheddar, Laughing Cow, shredded string cheese, all day.   Carbs and fat.  So I tossed the ice cream, in the outside trash where it would melt and become irretrievable and went to the grocery.  I didn't replace the cheese or crackers; did all my shopping away from the "center aisles" where all the goodies were beckoning me.  Bought broccoli, cauliflower, a little fish, and oranges.  Piffle.  I think I will stick to breakfast, I have lots of good recipes and a freezer filled with strawberries, blueberries, and peaches.  Oh, and overripe bananas.  I think I will make banana bread and muffins. low sugar, no salt, and have plain yogurt with blueberries and banana bread for breakfast tomorrow.  Mmm.  Hopefully I won't eat a whole loaf of banana bread for lunch.

I'm amazed to see the daffodils coming up almost over night.  In the backyard are those large purple crocus as well.  Looks like I'd better get my rake out and start cleaning up the winter mess.  NOAA is suggesting we'll have three days of sunshine and about 52 degrees coming over the weekend.  

Went to the grocery and checked my once a month lottery ticket and won $30!  That was a surprise.  So of course I bought another.  It's more fun playing with their money.

The coughing and hacking has almost left the family.  I'm free of it entirely, what a relief after two weeks.  I seem to have acquired the habit of napping after lunch those last two weeks.  Not sure I want to give it up.  I've been having the loveliest dreams during those naps.  Yesterday I dreamed I was sailing through the air in some kind of balloon airship.  Not a hot air balloon although it was propelled and steered by air flow.  I sailed over rivers, urban waterways, cities, and landed briefly in an empty meadow.  At least two of my sisters were with me.  Best trip I've had in years.

This morning blogger informed me my reading list had disappeared and my typeface has defaulted to gray and I'm had trouble returning it to black.  Actually I changed the color to black but the default is still gray.  Sigh.  A small thing for such a nice day though.

While heating my rice filled pad to comfort my flu plugged up lungs my microwave gave out.  It seemed like a good time to try out my recovery sea legs and find another.  There in the Sunday sale pages was a gorgeous red Kenmore microwave,  a little bigger and fancier than my no clock, no bells and whistle $30 long-lived cheapie.  It was the color that got me.  And it was even better in the store.  What has happened to me that I'm so thrilled with a red appliance?  Anyhoo, the clerk put it in my car, and my son came over and put it in place.  Turns out I'm still a little wobbly and couldn't get it into house on my own.  Now I'm thinking maybe I need to paint the refrigerator red.  Just need tape and appliance paint.  I do have mostly white wallpaper in my kitchen with red tulips on it.  Hmm?  Retro kitchen.  Something to match the retro cook.  Maybe it's all the spring like sunshine outside.  Hope your Monday is sunny too.

 

 

 

Lake Bennington in March, drained and waiting for spring.

Just thinking about winter this morning.  I had no pithy thoughts so here are a couple of quotes I liked.  Although for myself I would replace Behan's beer with wine.  I only like a stout beer in the summer with fish and chips.

"I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer."   Brendan Behan.

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."  Anton Checkov