The First Snow, In the Kitchen, The Hawk on the Deck, Resist

 

Not a fan of winter, waking up to this on November 10th did not make me a happy camper.  AND you can see we hadn't put away the remnants of summer with outdoor umbrella still there.  Plus, as you can see the trees still haven't dropped their leaves.  This is really really early to have snow.  MELT and chant with me 130 until Spring!!

Not too long ago hubby got a good picture of this big hawk resting on one of the chairs on the deck.  See the sun and plants vs the above white ick!  I love seeing hawks in the neighborhood to try and keep some of the over abundance of chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits in check.  Though I think we need more hawks, cause each year it seems we have bigger problems with the other critters eating and digging in the yard.

This is not something I stitched, but spotted on the internet and really liked it, so thought I would share it.

A very simple and tasty way to make a yummy sauce for your pasta.  Cut up onions and tomatoes (I cut mine tomatoes in half, as I use those sweet Compari tomatoes), a whole container of Boursin cheese.  I had some nice large basil leaves to add flavor.  Cook in the oven on 350 for about half an hour, then stir together.  I took out the leaves at that point and crushed them to mix in well and serve over your paste or blend your cooked pasta right in the dish.  Excellent!

Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray is a book many women can probably relate to.  At work or at home feeling that what they do goes un-appreciated.  A funny twist as she becomes in fact invisible and her son and husband fail to notice she's not really there.  Though her best friend does.  Then it gets really entertaining as she's able to spy on folks being invisible.  When to be naked and when to dress....now there's an interesting question.  A light hearted and entertaining book, but......it does touch on a real problem.

Love story, beach, money, and a mystery all rolled into an entertaining book.  Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores.

Mailman by Stephen Starring Grant.  A nonfiction story about a man who loses his job, can't find another one and settles to be a mailman in rural Appalachia Virginia.  He needed insurance so he took the job.  It turned his life around in such a positive way.  A real eye opener for me.  The hard work that goes unseen.  Entertaining, and educational.

E. Jean Carroll's book about trumpie and a detailed review of the courtoom with all it's drama.  She is very entertaining in the book, even though this is a serious topic.  It's her personality.  Of course we all know she won, we know he's guilty and sadly has still not paid her.  Between this book and Nobody's Girl (previous post), women trying to take down important and wealthy men is not a new problem.

I recommend all 4 of these books.  Let me know what you think.

I've started blogging about my France Adventure, click HERE.

Good Bye Summer, boooo Fall Has Arrived.

 

I'm happy to see so many Democrats won in yesterday's election, and hope things will continue that way as we move towards the midterms.

I haven't worked much on this variegated afghan, as summer really isn't the time to have something this heavy on your lap; but now that the weather has turned; time to pull it out and get busy again.

This past summer I planted Milkweed for the first time, and this was the first of 2 caterpillars I saw.  The season was almost over before I spotted any, and as you can see the plant was on it's way out.  After he ate a good bit, I moved him to a 2nd plant that was looking a bit better, I thought.  Then several days later as the cat was getting bigger, it moved it'self to a smaller plant and ate almost all of it...hopefully next year will be a bit better.  It was exciting to see the caterpillars.  Monarchs and all butterflies need folks to plant accordingly.

I finished this book a few days ago and am sorry I took the time to read it.  I stopped reading it multiple times and switched to other books that became available on my Libby.  I should have returned it unread.  Really HATED it.  I'm surprised it's rated pretty well.  I thought it was boring and slow moving initially, the story disjointed, and the ending DEPRESSING.  If it's on your to read list, do yourself a favor and delete it.

This book, How Fascism Works is a must read for everyone.  I wish I thought some of trumpie's supporters would read it, but I'm not hopeful.  

A very talked about book.  A bit hard to read.  We all know how horrific Epstein and Maxwell were, but to hear the details of what this poor child went through, as did others........heartbreaking.  I hope it's read by many and that increases the pressure on the pedophile protectors to release the files.

I've not kept up with documenting my exercise, as the summer's heat kept me from doing much walking beyond yard work and mowing.  However, hubby and I spent 16 days getting to and touring France and got lots of walking in.  Over our 16 days we walked 237,453 steps for an average of 14,841 per day with our highest day of 19,879.  Our total mileage was 96.53 for an average 6.03 miles per day.  The balls of my feet actually got sore, felt almost bruised.  I think it was all the cobblestone, and uneven terrain.  I'll be blogging about the trip with lots of pictures once I get them all edited.  

Been ages since I've blogged, must get back into and look forward to visiting all your blogs to catch up.  

Another Completed Afghan, Audio Books, Memes to Help Us Laugh

 

If you've seen many of my afghans, you know I rarely make one that has a pattern.  In part because I'm using up donated squares made from lots of different people and rarely have many of the same color or design.  This is obviously the exception to the norm.  They were squares from the different people, but I did have multiples of the color or similar color.  The pink in the right corner for example is lighter then the diagonal strip of dusty pink, but it works.  I also prefer working on ghans that aren't patterned.  Fits my personality better, lol.  

iT'S oriented differently here, but this is what it looked liked as I was designing it.  I've named this one Summers End.  Had a hard time coming up with a name; but thought the darker dusty rose, the darker green etc looked liked flowers at the end vs bright colors in spring when everything is new and fresh.  Like all the afghans it will donated to Home for Families.  Counting my pictures, it looks like I've made 106 of these over the years from donated squares, plus about a dozen that I made without donated squares.

 I've read several of Mary Trumps book and have enjoyed them all.  She really had to work at it coming from such a dysfunctional family.  Her father Freddy one of 5 children of Fred Trump's (Donald's Father), had only room for 1 winner in his family, so the kids were pitted against each other constantly.  Freddy was kind, sensitive and had his own interests other than his Father, Fred's obsession with real-estate.  He wasn't cutthroat and vicious enough to satisfy his father, so Mary grew up watching her Dad be constantly humiliated by his father.  That's what drove him to become an alcoholic.  Her parents divorced and she had to find her own way.  Much insight not just in retelling of her story (and The Felon's), but the added insight of a good behavioral psychiatrist.  A good read.

Some memes I thought worth sharing.

Some folks are so creative when they make the memes.

Lord knows we need to laugh so we don't loose our minds with all the horrible things going on.

And who doesn't LOVE Kermit!!

These are 2 books I recently returned to library without finishing.  I was 3 or 4 chapters in for both books, and just couldn't get into them.  I was tempted to force myself to finish the 2nd book, "The Serviceberry" as it's only a 2 hour book; but NO!  I see no reason spending time reading a book that's not enjoyable, or educational that you just can't get into.  Clearly my opinion does NOT match others, as the 1st book was rated 4.32, and the 2nd book rated 4.38 on Goodreads.  If you read either book, let me know what you're thoughts were.  I only rated each of these books a 1 star, because you can't give them a zero.

LOVED this book!  Put this on your list.  It's a fascinating story about a very strong woman who played an immensely important role in FDR's Presidency.  She was initially involved with FDR when he was The Governor of NY.  She was a Hungarian Jewish Immigrant who advised FDR and was The First Woman to be Assistant Secretary of Defense back in 1950.  This woman worked behind the scenes and accomplished so much for so many years, her story now needs to be known.  

On the blogging front, you may notice my blog log decreasing in size/or numbers of blog names listed.  as I've been deleted some folks from the list.  Why?  Because I like reciprocal blogging.  You visit and comment on my blog, I always visit your blog and return the favor.  In reverse, there are folks who no longer seem to be returning the favor when I visit them.  This does not include folks who are taking a break for health reasons etc.

Pink Lollipops, Civil War, World War II, Mothers Day

 

Pink Lollipops in the beginning.

Oriented differently due to the bed size (twin).  All squares edged to equalize sizing and tied ready to be joined.

Drying, click to enlarge to see the little scalloped edge.  The pictures for this ghan somehow ended up in the wrong folder on my computer, so not sure how long ago I made this one, but think it was last December.  So, a bit late sharing with you.

Two beautiful bouquets from my Darling Daughter for Mothers Day.

I thought maybe the florist had made a mistake when 2 boxes came, but she says no.  First one is displayed in the living room, and 2nd in the bedroom.  Aren't they gorgeous!  Hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day filled with love.

Some signs I've seen posted on social media around the country at various protests.  I thought they were worth sharing.  People are quite creative in their contempt for the many horrific things that have happened so far under this administration.

An interesting read, though not my favorite Ann Patchett book.  Lots of food for thought about the secrets of scientist living on the dime of drug companies doing their research in dangerous and unhealthy conditions in the Amazon.  Who's beholden to who?  Lots of mystery as this story unfolds.

The build up to the Civil War.  Once Lincoln was elected the turmoil started.  Some wanting war, some not wanting war, some thinking they could just vacate the union without consequences.  Inner turmoil, Major Robert Anderson a slave owner himself, but loyal to the union.  Big Ego's of too many men and the mistakes made that caused the worst war our country ever fought ....in terms of the death toll and the families torn apart fighting on opposite sides.  Highly recommend this book.

Mary Trump, the Felon's only niece is a highly qualified psychiatrist who explains how we're all suffering from PSTD from the 4 years of Donald J. Trump.  AND things are so much worse now, as this book was written about his first term.  She also discusses how we've got to come to grips about the things purposely done during and after slavery to keep an entire race down.  A very good read, put this on your list.

Back to my World War II genre, this book tells the story of 2 extremely different women who were war correspondents.  One is a follower, one a very strong woman.  One pushes Nazi propaganda.  Add this one to your list.

Stats are down on all fronts from March, steps are down 253,997 for an average of 8,466 per day, Miles  down 105.72 for an average of 3.5 miles per day.  Only 4 planks done for the month and likewise only 4 leg lifts.  Where did the month go?  Geesh.  I know I had a couple of appointments, and a couple of travel days, but still a very disappointing month.  Reporting this and I'm 12 days into May, which aren't looking better.  Must see what I can do the remainder of the month to bring things up a bit.

Spotted this t-shirt on Facebook, saved the image as I think it says it all.

Fall Afghan, Books, Flowers and More

Another afghan completed.  This one went through quite a transformation.  Again using yarn from my stash, green, orange, and black I mixed the yarns as I sized the squares.  In some cases I unraveled a few squares to redo them to get them to fit.  I used both orange and black to join them together and used all 3 colors to do the final boarder.  Am pleased with the final product, as I was pretty skeptical when I started on this one because the squares were so many different sizes.
 

This was early on, you can see the middle section had been worked on a bit.  Calling this one Fall.  It will be donated to Homeless Families Foundation, like all the others.  In the previous post you can see the very beginning of this project.

We spend the winter, or at least a good chunk of it in Hilton Head, so on one of my walks, I decided I needed to take a picture of this beautiful bush.  Isn't it gorgeous!  We don't have pretty blossom yet in cold Ohio.

Another day I spotted this painted rock.  I assume that's the name of the person who painted it?  I enjoyed it for a day, then took it with me on another walk to place elsewhere for someone else to find and enjoy.  This is the 3rd painted rock I've found while walking.  Found one last year at Hilton Head, and one in Williamsburg.  It's a fun thing that people do.  If I could paint, I would and place some around, but I'm no good at painting.

Once back home where they're aren't pretty flowers yet (too cold), I spotted this on one of my walks.  It was pretty windy so it's hard to see the flags, but the 1st one says deport elon, the 2nd one says America doesn't have kings, and the 3rd of course is the Ukrainian flag.  I appreciate seeing people standing up, even if the current administration isn't.  

I have been very disturbed by the actions of this administration.  Many of those deported were not criminals, and even those that perhaps are deserved to have due process.  Kilmar is not a criminal, and he was not here illegally.  He was not undocumented.  Despite knowing they made a mistake, despite being told by two courts (including trumps court), he remains in a concentration camp in El Salvatore.  People are being kidnapped off the streets, car windows being smashed to drag people from their cars.  I've seen many video's and read many stories about this happening to people who are here legally.  In all cases thus far, they are people of color.  

I know often when I post books I've read I see a fair number of comments that say I can't read that it's too much of what's going on now.  For me, that's the exact reason to read them.  I've wondered multiple times about The Orange Felons ties to Russia; but after reading this book...I have little doubt that he is, in fact a Russian Asset.  The detail given in this book is astounding even as much news as I've followed.  Truly astounding.  Please put it on your to read list.  And when you do read it, please let me know what you think.

Sometimes I have to clear my head and read a book just for fun.  I've read many of Jean Grainger's book and they're always a good read.  This one is a good mystery with lots of small town Irish flare.  Mags is the police sergeant and deals with being a woman in a mans world while still trying to solve a murder case.

World War II rages, the Nazi's are not only trying to take over other countries, but they're stealing treasures.  Art, money, and cataloguing art to steal the worlds cultures.  They're also destroying art they feel is unclean.  But, in the middle of all of this is a small very dedicated group of British and American soldiers who were museum directors, art historians, curators and the like who go behind enemy lines, often without arms to document, and move art to protect it from the Germans.  Their work focused on the period between D-Day and V-E Day.  I found the book fascinating.  I knew Hitler had an art collection that he had stolen; but did not know the hard work being done to protect the worlds treasures.

I was a young child when John F. Kennedy was President, and when The Situation Room first began.  George Stephanopoulos a former advisor to President Bill Clinton with 20 years of being an anchor of This Week and wo-anchor of Good Morning America brings lots of background and first hand experience of 12 different Presidents and how they used or didn't use the Situation Room.

March was a good month for me stepwise.  333,826 (up from 290,232) averaging 10,244 daily (up from 10,365).  Miles were also up 139.07 (from 126.03), averaging 4.48 miles daily.  I doubt April will be up, as we started having iffy weather while in Hilton Head, and once home nasty weather.  Planks were down as were leg lifts.  Planks 17 (down from 19), Leg Lifts 5 (down from 6).  Have not done well in April thus far, playing catch up with stuff around the house, and appointments.  Argh.  Must try to do better.

I'm also having a hard time being motivated, reading the news makes me not want to do anything.  Anyone else feeling this way?