Best Present EVER!

Photo courtesy of Roger's mom's iPhone via iPhoto via Flickr...thus the fuzziness.
7/29/10

For his birthday today, my Nature Boy nephew/godson, Dodgie (or Roger) had the good fortune - well, at least to him - to catch a snake at his other godmother's (yes, he has two godmothers and nary a godfather) NJ home! He told his mom that along with the toad and frogs he caught at my house in CT, his snake was the best birthday present ever!

Happy Birthday to the best boy ever!
So glad I got to spend part of it with you!
So glad I missed the snake part...tho I woulda touched it...really!
O, and in case you forgot, your Auntie Nanas adores you, Dodgie!

~~~

xoabb
birthday wishes comin' your way all day, Dodgie!

It's All Good...Very Very Good...

Grand Cayman
Christmas Time
1965
That's 10 year old me on the left & my 6 year old sis Carrie on the right
(Oops! I've just given away our ages!)

My mom just sent me the above photo - what good memories it brings back! While I was growing up, we went to Grand Cayman for Christmas every other year. 1965 was our first year there. I remember being dressed to the nines in a woolen outfit, Mary Jane shoes and with a heavy winter coat for the looooong plane ride there. We walked off the plane into the un-airconditioned Quonset hut terminal and all of us wished we had left anything wool at home! Our vacation home had a generator for electricity and we had to prime then pump the cistern for water. That first night Dad turned off the generator because it made so much noise. He couldn't turn it back on. Good thing there was a gas light in the living room. Quite primitive. And it was one of the very best Christmas vacations ever!

~~~

Helllllooooo Mom & Dad! I'm back! Well, for at least one post. (Yes, I actually continue this little old blog for you two more than any other reason - though I love having folks drop by and vice versa - don't y'all doubt that for a minute!) Haven't gone this long without blogging since I started this 2 1/2 years ago!

It's been crazy time of late. We just had our most wonderful second Blister Blogfest in Mathews, VA (which other attendees have been documenting brilliantly). From that I traveled to Alexandria, VA to spend some good times with my sis and bro-in-law. Now home again and my wonderful nephew/godson and sis-in-law are here for a few days. We three are off to NJ for a bit then I'm off to my Missourahhh soon thereafter. Whew! I'm exhausted from all this!

Busy busy busy - and I'm lovin' every minute of it!

~~~

xoabb

P.S. Go here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here or here for VA Blogfest adventures. We certainly had many of them! (There are most likely other of my Blister chroniclers I'm sure I've missed. It's not intentional!)

It's Raining! Happy Dance!

We had the most wonderful spring this year in Connecticut (quite unusual). Not too cold, not too hot and the rains came only but always when needed.

And then they didn't.

Today we've had close to an inch of that heavenly watery stuff fall and all the plants, from trees to grass to veggie gardens are all heaving a giant sigh of relief! Wonderful once again! Hope it lasts.

~~~

xoabb
rain, beautiful rain!

Fruit Crisp!

Another fabu recipe from my mother (mum bum):

Any Fruit Crisp

Filling: Put fruit of choice in an au gratin dish. Fill until about 1/2” from top. (This could be unpeeled fresh peaches, nectarines, Italian prune plums or other varieties of plums. Or apples, fresh blackberries, cherries, blueberries, a mixture of berries and slices, rhubarb, rhubard with strawberries, whatever you’d like. You can also use frozen fruit. (Citrus isn’t appropriate for this.)

Topping: A rounded 2/3 C. flour, 2/3 C. sugar, 1/2 C. regular oatmeal. (If an apple crisp - add cinnamon; peach - add nutmeg; cherry - add almond extract.) Put all in a small food processor and pulse enough to mix. Then 1/2 stick cold butter; cut into chunks and added to processor bowl. Pulse that on and off until you have a coarse meal. (You can do this with two forks if no food processor is available.) Spoon that over top of fruit so all fruit is covered.

Bake at 400º for about 45 minutes. It’s done when the crust on top is getting golden brown and fruit juices are bubbling up from below.

You can use any size oven-proof dish, add amount of fruit and topping accordingly. The larger the dish, the longer it will take to bake. And it's delicious!!

This is best baked an hour before you want to serve it, so it’s hot. Excellent with a dollop of creme fraiche on it. Or if you must, a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Don’t ever bother to peel peaches or nectarines or plums. Absolutely not necessary!

~~~

xoabb
expect yum every now and again!

Sunday Serenity

Whether the name of the flower is known or not,

It doesn't distract from its beauty.

~~~

xoabb

expect anything!

Photo courtesy MumBum's (Dad's too) MO garden

Red Sky at Morning

The sky that greeted me a few days ago. Beautiful beyond anything I've seen! Wish my camera could have captured half the beauty I saw.

Remember know that old rhyme?

Red Sky at Morning,
Sailor Take Warning
Red Sky at Night,
Sailor's Delight...

Well, it was a very red sky that morning...
and nuthin' weather-wise happened.
Another Old Wives Tale dashed!

~~~

xoabb
expect anything!


Sky Watch Friday
do join us!

Fuschia Finds a Friend

I do believe we have at least 3 and possibly 4 wren families raising their young around the perimeter of our home this year. This is odd because wrens are usually quite territorial - to the point that they will go into rival nests and poke holes in those eggs - but we seem to have peace in the neighborhood...so far.
I'd been seeing activity in the fuschia hanging basket for a few days, but really didn't think anything about it. Startled I was this morning when I took it down to water it. Mama Wren came hurtling out of her nest and then sat on a tree branch fussing at me LOUDLY! I kept the basket down just long enough to snap this less that good photo, and then quickly put it back as I knew Mama Wren was going to start dive-bombing me at any moment! I've had past experience with that. Just sayin'.

(Can't wait for the babies to hatch!)

Wrens! Warrior Birds!

xoabb
expecting baby wrens in just a few weeks!

Hooray for the Red White and Blue!

~Independence Day~

~~~

xoabb
I love this Country!

My Country!

A Good Day Golfing

Spent a quality two hours golfing with Connor-man and his mom on our local 9-hole par 3 course. Just a beautiful day - both the weather, temperature especially, and the company! I would be so very happy if every day was like that day, weather-wise...and company-wise!

~~~

xoabb

SkyWatch Friday

On a Saturday - join us anyway!