Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas All!
Yes, that was our tree this year. We cut it fresh about 2 weeks before Christmas just down the road at our local tree farm. The field was pretty picked over this year, it's very popular. A bit muddy, as the frost was starting to come out of the ground due to the warm day. My hubby picked this one out. I usually do, but he did such a good job. I don't like a tree overly formed. I like it to have a bit of a natural look. I like nooks and crannies to put my ornaments into. The branches are firmer too, not so limp as a tree that's been pruned too much. I would just as soon go cut one in the woods, but around here, that's not possible.

We had a good Christmas. We went up north to New Brunswick, Canada to visit all of our families. My side and his. It's 9 hours each way. We pretty much decided (again!) not to go home next year. The weather wasn't good this year, ran into sleet, freezing rain, slush, and snow in Maine. Traffic was down to 45 mph. Many vehicles got caught in the slushy mess at the side of the road and were hauled into the ditch. Must have seen a dozen cars off the road in the stretch between Bangor and Augusta. One truck was on it's top. We stopped to see if one car was ok. It was facing backwards. They had been there about 10 minutes, and had already called the wrecker. Thank the Lord for cell phones!
Between the weather, and hauling a load of presents in the back of the truck (we were driving a four wheel drive), it's just getting to be too big of a hassle. Gift cards are the way to go!! Yeah!

Pet peeve alert!
People, you've got to express your gratitude for the gift given. Be thankful!! And show it!! Sometimes that's all the thanks a parent or friend really wants, is to know you truly like it. If you don't, thank them anyway for their thoughtfulness in remembering you. Find something about the gift or moment to be thankful for. And let them know. I spend hours every year searching out presents for our family that I think they want or need. I call them about it, ask questions, and find exactly what they ask for. All I want in return is to see the look of gratitude on their face, a heartfelt 'THANK YOU'! Say a word or two about it. After all, I asked them what they wanted, and here it is. I shopped, I bought, and hauled it nine hours to deliver it.
This has been a major pet peeve of mine for years. Some parts of our family still needs to learn the art of gratitude, and more than that, the art of expressing it. A smile and a nod just doesn't cut it for me. One needs to think about what the other person put into buying these presents for you, the effort made.

This past year, I told my in-laws and my parents we just wanted a gift card to a local furniture store. Quality furniture, made to last, that with a little help, we could buy an item that would last for years. So instead of semi useless little things that we can live without, we got a gift card from each set of parents that enabled us to buy something we've wanted for years.
We are so very grateful for this gift. I emailed them, I am mailing a thank you card, and we thanked them over the phone. We want them to know, WE REALLY LOVE THIS GIFT! and we are thankful for their generosity.
Well, that's a long enough post for now. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and are well versed in the art of Gratitude!

Thanksgiving, scones, apple orchards and potato fields...

ORANGE GLAZED TROPICAL FRUIT SCONES (without the glaze)

I baked these scones last month and boy, were they good! The recipe can be found in Pillsbury's Best of the Bake-off Cookbook, 50th Anniversary Edition. I didn't fill them with the spread, but they were still scrumptious. Now, these were more biscuit like, instead of granular. Depends on the type of scone you like, but these were very tender and flaky. The trick is not to over handle the dough. Just barely mix it, shape it and bake it.
Thanksgiving was celebrated with just the two of us this year. Usually we have company from up north come to spend the holidays with us, but since they had already been here in October, it's too long of a trip to come back that soon. (9 hrs each way). I baked a lovely ham, Carando Spiral sliced smoked - very very good, and makes good leftovers, even after freezing. I also made boiled potatoes, green bean casserole, and since I over cooked the yams in the micro, I decided to mash them and make some sort of casserole. It was my version of a recipe for sweet potato pie. Was quite good, actually. The brown sugar on top really made it. I usually slice them and candy them in brown sugar and butter, but they were too soft.

I made apple crisp for dessert. I bought a new kind of apple this year, Blushing Golden. They stay quite crisp in the fridge for a long time, probably up to 2 months, if your fridge isn't too dry. I read that the flavor for these apples develop during the month after they have been picked. They are good out of hand too. I love Ginger Gold, an earlier apple. They make excellent crisp apples. My all time favorites are Cortland. I skip right over Macintosh. Never cared for them as much.
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Apple bins like the ones I used...
Long long ago, in a far away land, I once worked in an apple orchard with my mother and younger brother. First, I picked, because I was quite young, about 14 at the time. In a couple of years, I was able to do the U-pick, and then worked in the apple house. I much preferred being in an apple orchard than the potato field, as so many of my friends were doing at the time.



PRESQUE ISLE, MAINE - OUTLYING AREA

I lived in potato country (no, not Idaho) - Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada. Not sure many people are familiar with that area, but it and Aroostook County in Maine (which I refer to as 'sister' counties, because they are so similar that way) main crop is potatoes. Every year in the fall, school children would get 3 weeks off to work in the local potato fields, earning money for clothes, etc, and helping local farmers get their crops in. Therefore, the school year started earlier than most.

POTATO BLOSSOMS IN AROOSTOOK COUNTY, MAINE

One year, I did work in the potato fields. I worked on a harvester, actually. A lot of younger kids would pick by the barrel, but I didn't move to the area till I was a teen. I had the misfortune to be on the same harvester with a lady who disliked me intensely, and the feeling was mutual. (The fact that she was best friends with my husband's ex did nothing to endear us to each other.) Anyway, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a bit more if it hadn't been for that fact. It was nice to be outside, but on dry days, the dust flew. On wet days, when we could get into the fields, there were clods of dirt bigger than the potatoes to sort through. The harvester doesn't stop, so you end of throwing things madly to keep up.
I always looked forward to new fields, as the landscape would change. Sometimes we were right out in the open, on top of a broad hill. Other times, we were in a former hay field, surrounded by woods, only found by traversing many farm lanes. The big fields seemed to take forever. Some mornings, it was very crisp out. By afternoon, we could be down to shirt sleeves. Same with the apple orchard. If the temp was below freezing, we had to wait until the sun took the frost off the apples before we could go out and pick. I remember snow one time. Winter comes quite early that far north. Glorious summers, but very short.

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I have a lot of memories over that span of 3 or 4 years. I grew up during that time, got married, moved across town. My horse, Bandit, a yearling, was killed one October, on my birthday. He crawled through the fence while we were at church that evening, and got in the road. Very hard lesson learned. I went to work the next day, because I was working the U-pick. I only lasted an hour or two, because I couldn't stop crying. My boss then told me about a barn fire they'd had years ago, and had lost 4 horses, so she understood, and let me go home.
On the way home, I stopped into the welding shop where my husband was working to let him know. We had an old Lincoln town car with a moon roof at the time, and when I left the shop, I backed into a trailer and dented the area between the back window and side window. Fortunately, I missed the glass. But it was another unfortunate incident I didn't need.
That seems so long ago. The orchard where had I worked in that had been there for years before I arrived, and several after, is no longer. Potatoes were more lucrative, so they've been replaced. They tore out the big hedge row of trees that were so pretty and protective of the apple trees to make more room for potatoes. I mourned the loss of the orchard where I had made so many memories. It just doesn't look the same.
I hadn't planned on going down that particular 'memory lane', but there it is.
Well, that's all for now. I will try to do better about posting.

November is half over!

I just realized that I haven't posted in awhile, and before you know it, November will be over with. The months are flying by. For those of you who are quite young yet (perhaps 20 or so years younger than me?) I realize that time sometimes crawls, but know this: the older you get, the faster it goes. At least for me it does. And time used to crawl!!
I am wishing my life away as we speak. I am wishing it was spring, and that we've finally found our dream home, and we were moving in. Wouldn't that be nice?!! It would be nice if I could stop obsessing over it. I have to remind myself to get of the 'hamster wheel' about moving. To try and live in the moment. Enjoy today. Make today count. Do what you can do now. Bloom where you are planted. Sigh. I've been trying to do that for over 10 years. Another sigh...
Christmas is coming. I'm about 1/2 way there I think, in being ready. I've gotten at least 50 percent of the gifts bought. It took nearly 26 years, but I'm getting the hang of early Christmas shopping, and I really like the feeling of being prepared in advance. My mother was the queen of being prepared. I used to wait until November or even December, sometimes the week before Christmas to buy gifts. Not that I wanted to, mind you. The money just wasn't there. It was a case of waiting for that Christmas bonus. There were years that wasn't in the picture, depending on where we were, so there was a year in which only 2 people got gifts, because I couldn't bear the thought of telling them how poor we were. Thank God, we are doing so much better now. He has blessed us in that area, for sure. We still have to watch the pennies, but at least there are an adequate amount of them now.
Oh yes. Mice. We've had 2 or 3 of them about. I had seen them once or twice in the garage - Max would be out there playing with one, but let it escape. That's a male cat for you.
Then, one night after my husband let him back in (Max has this thing about being able to go in and out of the garage from the house - he's an indoor cat, so the garage is a novelty), we were sitting in the family room watching TV, when I thought I heard mouse like sounds, as if it was squeaking at something. I thought for a minute that my husbands' recliner had a squeak in it, but then realized he wasn't moving. So I said: MUTE IT MUTE IT MUTE IT!!! He looked befuddled for a minute, then grabbed the remote and muted the TV. I jumped up from my chair, walked quickly into the kitchen, just in time to see Max's face drove into the corner of the hot water register. I knew instantly that it was a mouse.
Sure enough, he was hiding in there, face down, in behind a piece of the kitchen flooring, which was rolled up the wall slightly, with his little bottom sticking up. Poor thing. It was terrified. So, we plotted how we were going to get him out. We took apart the register, used the long metal piece as a shield to guide him outside if necessary, opened the french doors (right next to the register, fortunately) and tucked Max into the basement out of the way.
First, Rick used a coat hanger. I badgered him, worried he was going to poke holes in it.
Since the tail was sticking up, we got pliers and gloves, and managed to finally grasp it's tail, and gently fling him out onto the deck. We shut the door, and watched him scurry off into the night.
I thought, that's the end of him.
For some reason, the next night, I turned the light on out on the deck about 9:30pm. There he was, scurrying around in a zigzag manner, gathering bird seed. We just chuckled and shook our heads. We knew there were neighborhood cats very good at mousing.

Just a few days before this, I had been in the furnace room in the basement, checking the water filter, when I noticed some small specks in the dipper underneath. (used for a very slow drip from the last filter change) You guessed it - mouse poops.
So I set a trap, and by the next day, the cutest little fellow had ate his last meal. He was all white underneath, with a pretty warm brown color on his back. Much cuter than a gray mouse.
We set the trap again, and a few days later (after we freed the one upstairs!) there was another one. Somehow I think it was the same one.
There's been no more since then. But we are much more careful about keeping the garage door shut.

Happy October Ending!

Did you ever pet a bumble bee? I did. It was a real cool morning, so this fellow was very accommodating.

...I just got my daily dose of Mitford. Actually, the first daily dose during lunch, followed by another at bedtime. Almost as good as an apple a day.
I love Jan Karon's books on the Mitford series. I can identify with some, having lived in small rural towns at one time. I live in a smaller town now, but I don't know anyone. They are a reserved bunch around here. Polite, but reserved. Me, on the other hand, I love to talk and have a good conversation. I don't mind being a bit personal, open up a bit, if it will help get to know someone.
That's midwest friendliness. And Maine and New Brunswick too. No pretention, just me. I am uncomfortable with pretention. Actually, I feel sorry for these people, as they don't seem to be comfortable letting the real them come through.
I realize that I probably have 'put on' a bit at some point, but generally speaking, what you see is what you get with me. Ok, so I hide the wackiness for the most part. I save that for my husband, the cat, and my best friend Sandy.
We have our own club, you know, which we call the Dingbat Club. I am president, and she is number one. There are satellite members, many of whom I don't know, but they know who they are. In order to be a member, you have to have a bit of innate wackiness. Let the goofiness shine through.
For example, I like to be goofy, and sing silly songs to my cat (which I'm sure only he appreciates :0)). Or, or rare occasions, I pretend to be Freda, someone whom only Sandy knows. (Freda will be a funny old lady someday, with big floppy hats, large handbags, baggy knee highs, and a definite love of flower gardens.) I am also known as Myrtle, of Myrtle's Girdle Shop. 'Big or small, we make 'em all.'
Get the picture? Oh, and most importantly, must love animals. And talk to them. Not like you are actually waiting for them to answer, but... you know. Right?
(Ok. I confess. When I talk to Max, he actually answers me with some kind of meow, purr, or prrtt kind of thing. That happens when you've been with each other for several years.)
Let's see...oh yes. We like to bake, and we like to eat. We love cookbooks, decorating, antiques, the simple things in life. We are quite old fashioned - we believe in old fashioned values, good morals, we love God. And we value our friendships. The older I get, the more so.
How did I get on this subject? Must be the Mitford influence...

Well, we are thinking of NOT going home for Christmas this year. Sigh. Can't decide if that's a good idea or not. We always go home for Christmas. 9 hour drive each way, hoping it doesn't snow during the drive. (it can snow after we get there - that's always fun) But the thought of a road trip again, visiting both sides of the family, well...it's exhausting just thinking about it. The downside of staying here is we don't know anyone or have any family here. We would be alone. So we are trying to think of alternatives. Perhaps a weekend trip up to Maine where they are really celebrating Christmas, a stay at any inn, some festival or music presentation would be nice.
We need something to do to celebrate and make the season memorable. Of course, going to a candle light service at church would be lovely. Going into Hartford for a presentation of the Nutcracker would be high on my list. Even higher would be a trip to Boston to see the annual Boston Pops Christmas music presentation. I've always wanted to do that.
Another down side, mailing all those heavy presents into Canada. Now that will be expensive, I can guarentee you. What was I thinking, buying 4 sets of flannel sheets? Or giant wreaths for a door? I think gift cards should have been the order if I had thought this thing through earlier, but it's hard to tell how one will feel when one gets close to the holidays. We might still change our mind. My husband is thinking staying home and resting would be nice, after working 12 hour days for months on end. Can't say I blame him.
Well, I finally joined the gym. Yup. A brand new Planet Fitness opened up 15 minutes away. Great opening special, so I signed up. Now, to get there...sigh. Why do I always have a mental block about getting ready to go?? Why do I put off what I know will make me healthier and feel better in the long run? Why???
Well, I better get going. Housework is waiting, the laundry buzzer just went, I have a garage full of furniture that I stupidly volunteered to refinish...(WHAT was I thinking??!!) Oh right. It costs money to replace all that bedroom furniture. Recycle and reuse, right?
We barely escaped the snow last night. I heard New York got nailed. Kind of early, isn't it? I know some years it's at least Thanksgiving before we get any snow, and sometimes not til after Christmas. But this year, everything seems more normal for being a New England state. Previous years, you would think we were Virginia or something. Nearly subtropical.
The juncos arrived this week. I just love those little birds. I love their 'talking' to one another. My carolina wren is back, visiting the feeders. I just love him too. I think he's my all time favorite bird. Little pot belly and stick tail. Just makes me smile to look at him.
We had a lot of chipmuncks this year. They got into the grill of the van and made a nest in the air intake (think that's what it's called). You would do well to take this apart and check it out - we never guessed that they would be in there. Thought it would be more obvious - just open the hood and peer in. Sure improved how the van worked. :0)
Gotta run. Happy October Ending!

I just love autumn...

One of my favorite spots, about 1 mile from our house...

I just love fall. I love the colors, I love the cool crisp air, the fresh scent of pines and falling leaves. I love being able to see through the woods again, instead of the jungle we have for summer. I love all the wild flowers and vines and things that have fully matured with their seed heads, and finding neat stuff growing in the fence rows and along the edges of fields.

Except I can't do that right now. I don't have a field, or a fence row to explore, and that bums me out. I used to, but not where I am right now. All I can do is walk or drive by and admire someone else's.
That's the difference living here in CT as opposed to way up north. When we lived in NB, and Maine, we had so many fields, just acres and acres of potato and hay fields that the farmers didn't mind you using if you were careful. My brother has a 4-wheeler that he drives around on over 2000 acres, even though he only owns 5 of them. But that's the way it is up there. As long as you stick to the edge of the field, or wait until it's harvested. Down here, there are fields too, beautiful acres of garden crops and tobacco fields, orchards, etc., but we don't know anyone here, and there are so many no trespassing signs out there. There's just too many people, and I'm sure that the area farmers (and big conglomerates like Culbro) have had bad experiences, or just don't want to be sued in case something happens.
Sigh...So much beauty here, but you can't touch it. My husband and I have discussed this many times. Maybe because we are relative newcomers (3 yrs here), we feel this way. We feel we don't 'own' or have a stake here. In Maine, we rented, like we do here, but for some reason, we felt a sense of 'ownership', like it was 'our state'. I took pride in living there, loved to tell people the best places to visit, what not to miss, etc. But here it's different. Why is that? When we think about going to visit places, at first it seems great - so much to see and do. Then you start thinking about the crowds, the traffic. And talk yourself out of going. I know we shouldn't, but we do. And it's kind of depressing.

Saint John River, New Brunwick, Canada - view from his Dad's camp.

My husband feels that way about fishing. He loves to fish. He has so little time for a hobby, and doesn't get much chance to go. He got out about 3 times this summer, and nearly each time was a huge disappointment. He didn't get any fish worth keeping, for one thing. Another, it seems there are so many people who have the same idea that it's hard to find your own spot. He went fishing over to Congamond Lake. Was there about 15 minutes, and a family drove up in a pickup, and proceeded to swim right where he was fishing (there is a public beach, and this definitely wasn't it). So he gave up and came home. Poor guy was so disillusioned. I felt so bad for him, as we are trying to make it work here.

Crossing the bridge in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, where we stayed in a B&B...

In Maine, much less people, much bigger state, and so many places to fish. We talk about moving back up there, but he has a good paying job here (best he's ever had), they love him, treat him good. But he works 12 hrs a day, 5 days a week, plus every other Saturday. Being in management means more is required. And he's a giver. Gives it all he's got, just like he was an owner (and more than some of them). That's his work ethic. But I'm so afraid it's aging him and wearing him out.
Maine jobs in his field are hard to come by, much less good paying ones. And he'd have to prove himself all over again. When you are over 50, you really think about that. He has tons of experience in his field (steel/metal manufacturing) an excellent work ethic (hard to find nowadays), and a huge commitment to getting things done. The 'word' out there is that if you want things done, see him.
No place is perfect. This I know, having lost count on how many times we've moved over the last 25 years. (6 states and 2 provinces so far, with over 20 moves involved). Utopia doesn't seem to exist. Either it's beautiful, and it's too expensive to live there and the people are unfriendly. OR, you trade in some of the beauty, and you have low paying jobs, but friendlier people.

Sigh. Life isn't easy, and I don't mean to complain. God has blessed us so much here. But what do you do when your heart doesn't belong here? Stay for the money? Or 'go home' and try to make it work on less? It's not an easy answer at our age. We've started over too many times. It seems to get harder each time (not to mention the physical aspect!! I got alot of stuff over 26 years of marriage!!;0)) But yet we can't see ourselves retiring here. The house payment would be huge, the property taxes are probably the highest in New England. Everything in CT is higher than most of the surrounding states. Food is generally cheaper in Maine, even though they have to ship it farther. Go figure...
I admit one of our problem is our choice of housing. We aren't city people. We both want some land. A small farm. Heck, we could get by on an acre if need be. If all we wanted was a small fixer upper house on 1/4 acre, there's plenty of that here for around $200,000. But then we think - wow! For that kind of money, we could get 5 or more acres, a farm house, barn, garage, etc in Maine! Our dream!
So....do we forget the dream, or do we move to Maine, and my dear sweetie commute on weekends home to Maine? That is what we are plotting right now. It would be hard, but when we retire, we'd have a home. Without a huge payment. Because we wouldn't have to spend that kind of money up there for our dream.
Why are things always so complicate?