Gobble Gobble and More

 

Happy Thanksgiving one and all.  Spotted this turkey while out walking the other day.  Normally, I'm not a fan of blow up directions; but thought the turkey was sorta cute.

Making headway with The Sherbet blanket.  The bright pink section I'm working on now is the wider section you see towards the bottom of the picture, then light pink, green, and bright pink edge.  I think it's going to be a bit smaller than I anticipated; but was trying to be careful and not run out of yarn.  That's the problem when you're using up this and that and don't know how much yarn you have and wing it.

Leaves before raking.  It takes generally 3 rounds of raking to get all the leaves from these 2 trees, then another couple of raking and or mulching with the mower those that blow over from the neighbors yard.  His trees drop later than ours, and he tends not to rake until they're almost totally down...meanwhile they blow in my yard.

Switched out the pumpkin placemats for the more fall looking leaf mats.

These are my birthday roses from hubby.  They were called Hot Sauce.  I've never seen such a color combination with the red and yellow.  Gorgeous, and they go so well with my fall table.

I almost didn't read this book, given the title; but the look her face made me curious.  Jennette McCurdy was child actress, later a writer and maintains a podcast.  This book is a New York Times Best Seller and International Best Seller.  It's funny, it's sad, it's a autobiography of her growing up years, dealing with eating disorders and the toll that took.  It was enlighten for me, as I've not known someone who suffered from an eating disorder...at least not to my knowledge.  The audio book is 6 hours.

 This 9 hour audio book was a Pulitzer Price winning book.  A historical fiction that takes place in Alabama with a look at generations of White vs Black, backward social norms and what finding out the truth can do a family that for years was entrenched as a leader in the community.

A 4 hour Novella filled with intrigue, duty, money, flooding a rescue ? And of course love interest.......then throw in the criminals and you have an enjoyable griping story 

None of these 3 books are my typical genre; but I recommend the books just the same.  Sometimes you need to change things up.

Making my Way to Edinburgh, still blogging about my touring The UK

Hogan's Heroes, Thanksgiving, Anne Fran

 

Just a few days ago this popped up on Facebook.  An article from The New York Post.  Not a publication I typically read, so was surprised it was in my feed.  I loved the sow Hogan's Heroes, and LeBeau was a favorite character.  What I didn't know about him at the time was he was in fact a survivor of The Holocaust.  At the age of 16 he was taken from Paris to Auschwitz Concentration Camp along with his family.  He was one of 14 children born to Orthodox Parents.  His parents were gassed, and none of his siblings lived.  He was moved from Auschwitz to Buchenwalk were he spent 31 months incarcerated.  He worked in a wooden shoe factor making heals.  

He was a performing and believes one reason he was spared was because he sang and entertain The SS officers every other  Sunday.  He was liberated and returned to Paris and performed, both dancing and singing; and then sailed for The United  States were he performed on soap operas, Broadway and most notably, "Hogan's Heroes".

He has written a biography, which is on my to read list:

I was fascinated to learn this about him, and wanted to share.  Perhaps you all knew this?

How many of you go through a check list like this when you leave the house?  I know my hubby does, checking pockets etc.  I doubt he thinks of the stove and or iron, but certainly the other items.

A book perhaps you read back in High  School?  I didn't read it back then.  Frankly, I never liked reading when I was younger and always fundged a book report by reading the first, last, and middle chapter of the book.  So, I guess I'm making up for lost time.  

Things I didn't know:

1. She was in hiding 761 days (25 months).  
2. That only her father lived through the concentration camp captiviity
3. That they were multiple versions of the book.  This one is a combination of the first one written (without any conversation about sexuality).  Her Father Adolph censored that out.
4. Her last diary was written August 1st, 1944, and she was arrested on August 4th, and the Germans surrendered to the US on May 8th, 1945.  Just a few months after she was arrested.  

Not sure what I make of her as a teenager.  On one hand her situation seemed far better than many who were in hiding, or taken early to camps.  At times she seemed very nasty to her family and the others in hiding with them.  I didn't find her endearing.  Did you?  Would love to know your thoughts.

My asymetrical scarf looks pretty much the same even though I've spend quite a bit more time working on it.  It truly is taking much longer to complete than I anticipated.

Spotted this Turkey on a recent walk.  I don't decorate outdoors for this holiday, do you?  I've seen some in the neighborhood, but far less than Halloween decorations.  If you're traveling for the holiday, please be safe.  If you're gathering with family, I hope you enjoy yourself and everyone stays healthy.  We'll not be doing the large family gathering this year, since hubby just recently had surgery.  Many thanks to all that left kind messages.  His surgery went well and he feels better each and everyday.

Knitting, Fall, and Reading

 

Holly Cow!  I don't know where time goes.  Had no idea it had been this long since I had blogged.  I got busy with yard work, walking, planking almost daily; and genealogy!  The genealogy is probably what I spent the most time on.  I worked on my husbands side of the family and then switched back to my side and found lots of information, pictures and made great headway with both of our families.  Reaching back several additional generations for both of us.  

AND, I finally finished my shawl.  I love the color and the texture this broken garter sttch provides.  It's nice and warm, and since the weather has indeed turned; I've worn it several times so far.

We had some nice color, but it didn't last long.  This was taken Nov 2, right after voting and since then we've had lots of windy rainy days, so the leaves just simply didn't last long.

It seems like people do more decorating for holidays these days.  When I walk I noticed far more than Christmas Decorations, which is really all I remember until recent years.  I saw lots of Halloween decorations.  I posted about them on my travel blog, click HERE.  Have you noticed more decorations?  Do you decorate for holidays beyond Christmas?  I never have, so am curious.

Continued my lighter reading/listening with this series of 4 books, Bride Ships Series by Jody Hedlund.  They are historical romances.  This is book 1, A Reluctant Bride

Book 2 The Runaway Bride

Book 3, A Bride of Convenience

And Almost a Bride is the 4th and final book of the series.  These books deal with bad conditions for women who can't marry well, due to their station in life.  Often not having a say in whom they're promised too, violent pasts and so they try to improve their lot by leaving London and head to British Columbia on a Bride Ship with the purpose of finding a husband.  All is not as it seems.  The historical fact is women did travel to marry men they did not know in many places around the globe.  It often help settle frontier areas.

Let me know if you've read/listened to these and what your thoughts were.

As always, please leave a comment so I know you were here and I will happily visit, read and comment on your blogs.  Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving, Eat Today, Exercise Tomorrow

Happy Thanksgiving one and all.  Hope you all have a special day planned with friends and loved ones, and if you're traveling for the day, b safe.  

Tomorrow, we'll get back to our exercising off the food we eat today.  LOL  I purchased this recently after trying it out in Hilton Head.  My friend, Jane brought her's with her and I thought it seemed like a good item.  It's quite reasonably priced from 10.00 to 35.00 depending where you buy it.  I got mine on Amazon for 9.99.  She had purchased her's through a Groupon.  It's light weight and very portable so easy to take with you when you travel.  There are 3 bands to increase the resistance as you progress.  You can start with the lightest band which is 15 pounds resistence, and move to 25 and then 35.  You can also put two bands on...not that I ever think I'll get that strong.  This is called Wonder Arms.

Here's a little humor for you.  This made me smile when I saw it.  Do you make lists of things to do?  I do and love marking them off the list, however sometimes.........I decide something on the list doesn't need to be done.

New Knitted Afghan, a Turkey Made of Fruit?

Earthy?  Land and Sea?  Earth and Sky?  These are the names popping into my head for this in the works afghan.  This was started just last week while traveling in the car with 2 girl friends to Hilton Head.  We have girls week twice a year, once in the Spring and again in the Fall.  Though Cardiac Collage isn't yet finished, I needed to take something that wasn't so big to work on in the car.  Cardiac Collage needs to be edged and joined...stay tuned on that score.

But what of this latest one?  What shall I call it.  Currently it has 2 shades of green, a tan, and a variegated tan, blue, green.  It measures 60 inches wide (cast on 200 stitches)  and since photographing here measures 14 inches deep.  The green you see next to the tan is completed and I've got about an inch of blue which picks up a bit on the blue in the variegated.  No fancy stitches...just stripes/sections of good old garter stitch.  Love to hear you thoughts on the possible name.

Trip was fun, but I came back with a cold.  Dang it.

Last year I shared a photo of a turkey made from veggies for a beautiful center piece.  Several people I know made it, thought it looked great, but was lots of work and people were afraid to eat it, didn't want to ruin the look, lol.  This is a fruit turkey you might want to try for the up coming Thanksgiving Day Holiday.  However........my question is how does one keep the banana's from getting dark?  If you make this, please let me know how it went.

I don't post about politics as often as I used to, and certainly not as often as it's on my mind.  But, when I saw this on Facebook...I couldn't help but think how sadly accurate it is with depicting "don the con".

Need to catch up with stuff around the house, and blogging since I've been away.  Looking forward to visiting everyone on my blog log and catching up with your activities.

Setting the Table

 I don't really decorate for Thanksgiving, or really any holidays beyond Christmas.......except I do like to change napkins and placements to be seasonally appropriate.  I purchased these probably last year, and have never used them.  Was actually looking for ones I have that are more Thanksgiving Looking with a pumpkin...but in the process came across these.  Pulled off the price tags and decided this would be a good time try my hand at the napkin folding thing.

You might remember me posting about it a few posts ago.
I choice what appeared to be best match for what I was doing, as I wasn't putting dishes on the table.  This is the 2nd or 3rd from the end of the video, as I recall.  Pockets for your silverware.  I only added a spoon that day, as we were having chili for dinner and only a spoon was needed.

Even though I didn't find or use the Thanksgiving Placemats, I was happy with these very fall like placemats.  LOVE the colors.  Plus my flowers from work for my birthday were indeed a good match color wise.

We did not do Thanksgiving at my house, we went to my older brothers.  Believe there were 19 of us for the feast.  Hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday and enjoyed special time with friends and family.

Homemade Noddles!

This is my niece who helped me with making homemade noddles. Realized I never edited these pictures, there were in the wrong folder on my computer and are from Thanksgiving a few years back. We make homemade noddles...TONS of them, believe that year we made about 6 recipes worth. We are a huge bunch when we gather for the fest and everyone loves my homemade noddles. Then we had to make more so my little helper had some to take home. We made egg noddles for the meal and for her to take home, then we made tomato basil angel hair...bird nests for her to take home. She was a good worker, but tired at the end. It takes lots of time and energy...and all day project.
My daughter usually helps me, but wasn't getting home from Baltimore until late the night before Thanksgiving and so wasn't able to. She was teaching 5th and working on her Masters at the time, and they didn't get off early.