Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Critters in the corn!
We've noticed ears of corn having been torn open and bites taken out. It tickles me that Mike has twice asked me if I have been peeling back the corn husks to see if the corn is ready to harvest. I told him no, both times. But tonight, I went out to the garden and broke off four of the fatter ears and we had them for dinner. They were good, but I believe in another few days they'll be amazingly delicious and completely filled out. Basically, both the squirrels (or racoons) and I jumped the gun on the corn.
I was on the Somerville square yesterday and went into the Square Hardware store and they had corn cutters. I've lost mine in the move, so was thrilled that they had one almost just like it. So some of our corn, or some we buy from a local organic farmer, will be cut and put in the freezer already seasoned with butter salt and freshly ground pepper to be eaten this winter.
I love Square Hardware. The old man who owns the place is there everyday and it's his family who take care of customers. He has a shiny brass National Cash Register AND the wooden crate it was shipped to the store in. It's the last working one in the country. He LOVES talking about it, and one day I took the time to listen to the whole story. So yesterday I looked for him just to say hello, and his face lit up.
Square Hardware has an adjoining store that sells furniture, and decorative pieces. Most of what they carry is not my taste, but I have my eye on a 'booksellers bookshelf' unit for my bedroom. My bed is usually covered with books and magazines as if I were an invalid needing constant reading material to occupy my mind. My bedroom is where I do my reading, unless I'm on a train or a plane. I need it to be quiet and no dogs whining for attention. I've been reading a lot lately and getting the greatest pleasure from it. A friend just finished the latest Wally Lamb book and since I'd already bought it I've moved it to the top of my 'stack' to begin after I finish two by Kate Chopin that were written in the late 1800's. They are about life on Louisiana plantations and so well written, it's no wonder they have stood the test of time.
Dover Thrift Additions was having a sale, and I got a somewhere around 20 books for a bit over $50. They're naturally all paperback, but I am treasuring them as if they were bound in leather with gold endpapers.
I feel the same way about the Jane Austin books I got at Barnes & Noble for $8 each a few months back. This was to be "My Summer with Jane", but I've also been watching every version of movie that Netflix carries of her work as well. Now, since the Dover books are shorter, my plan is to read the Austin books after watching the DVD's. I'll probably begin them in September, since this summer is flying by.
Well, this blog entry began as a few comments on the garden, but as you can see I have gotten caught up in literature again recently, and am having a high time with it.
Oh, one other bit of news, about local things. There's a Mr. Tucker who has an antique/junk store that's located just off the town square a bit.
I've bought some small things from him, but have been eyeing a dry sink he first acted like he didn't want to sell. I asked him yesterday if he cold rethink selling it, and what was his best price. He told me he'd already told prices to two ladies who were interested in it, but since he and I had discussed it and I already knew what he paid for it he gave me a price of $25 more than he paid for it. I told him it was SOLD!
Now I'm going to reintroduce 'country' (but not the tacky '80's stuff) into my homes personality, and this dry sink (with a copper liner in the sink part!) will be perfect in front of the kitchen windows holding plants. I'm moving the kitchen table into the corner of the family room, since the four chairs are on casters and can be moved around for seating when people come over. Besides, no one sits there to eat because the couch is closer to the TV. Yes, I am admitting the rule I made when we first moved here is broken and I fear not fixable. One reason I like having company is because I insist on using the dining room. I can seat 10 people in there and theres no TV to interrupt polite conversation.
I'm tickled to have found Mr Tucker. He tells the greatest stories, and he even knows my uncle Louis, and graduated HS with my aunt Peggy (Louis' wife) and knows other members of my family. I told him he and I had to accept now being as close as family without being family since he's been friends with my uncle and aunt most of his life. And he didn't disagree. He likes having an audience for his stories, and I love listening to a good one, so we're a good fit for someone who always has something new an unusual to sell, and someone else who loves to look at old things.
I was on the Somerville square yesterday and went into the Square Hardware store and they had corn cutters. I've lost mine in the move, so was thrilled that they had one almost just like it. So some of our corn, or some we buy from a local organic farmer, will be cut and put in the freezer already seasoned with butter salt and freshly ground pepper to be eaten this winter.
I love Square Hardware. The old man who owns the place is there everyday and it's his family who take care of customers. He has a shiny brass National Cash Register AND the wooden crate it was shipped to the store in. It's the last working one in the country. He LOVES talking about it, and one day I took the time to listen to the whole story. So yesterday I looked for him just to say hello, and his face lit up.
Square Hardware has an adjoining store that sells furniture, and decorative pieces. Most of what they carry is not my taste, but I have my eye on a 'booksellers bookshelf' unit for my bedroom. My bed is usually covered with books and magazines as if I were an invalid needing constant reading material to occupy my mind. My bedroom is where I do my reading, unless I'm on a train or a plane. I need it to be quiet and no dogs whining for attention. I've been reading a lot lately and getting the greatest pleasure from it. A friend just finished the latest Wally Lamb book and since I'd already bought it I've moved it to the top of my 'stack' to begin after I finish two by Kate Chopin that were written in the late 1800's. They are about life on Louisiana plantations and so well written, it's no wonder they have stood the test of time.
Dover Thrift Additions was having a sale, and I got a somewhere around 20 books for a bit over $50. They're naturally all paperback, but I am treasuring them as if they were bound in leather with gold endpapers.
I feel the same way about the Jane Austin books I got at Barnes & Noble for $8 each a few months back. This was to be "My Summer with Jane", but I've also been watching every version of movie that Netflix carries of her work as well. Now, since the Dover books are shorter, my plan is to read the Austin books after watching the DVD's. I'll probably begin them in September, since this summer is flying by.
Well, this blog entry began as a few comments on the garden, but as you can see I have gotten caught up in literature again recently, and am having a high time with it.
Oh, one other bit of news, about local things. There's a Mr. Tucker who has an antique/junk store that's located just off the town square a bit.
I've bought some small things from him, but have been eyeing a dry sink he first acted like he didn't want to sell. I asked him yesterday if he cold rethink selling it, and what was his best price. He told me he'd already told prices to two ladies who were interested in it, but since he and I had discussed it and I already knew what he paid for it he gave me a price of $25 more than he paid for it. I told him it was SOLD!
Now I'm going to reintroduce 'country' (but not the tacky '80's stuff) into my homes personality, and this dry sink (with a copper liner in the sink part!) will be perfect in front of the kitchen windows holding plants. I'm moving the kitchen table into the corner of the family room, since the four chairs are on casters and can be moved around for seating when people come over. Besides, no one sits there to eat because the couch is closer to the TV. Yes, I am admitting the rule I made when we first moved here is broken and I fear not fixable. One reason I like having company is because I insist on using the dining room. I can seat 10 people in there and theres no TV to interrupt polite conversation.
I'm tickled to have found Mr Tucker. He tells the greatest stories, and he even knows my uncle Louis, and graduated HS with my aunt Peggy (Louis' wife) and knows other members of my family. I told him he and I had to accept now being as close as family without being family since he's been friends with my uncle and aunt most of his life. And he didn't disagree. He likes having an audience for his stories, and I love listening to a good one, so we're a good fit for someone who always has something new an unusual to sell, and someone else who loves to look at old things.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Screen Doors, Doggie Doors, Tree Frogs and Roller Skates
We went shopping for screen doors the other day. I want one for the front door and another for the back that has a doggy door built into it. Unfortunately the back door will not be an old fashioned screen door, but a storm door. As my husband says, he'd rather not come home to find I've been air-conditioning the entire neighborhood all day. So, the screen doors will be used in the spring and fall, but the storm door on the back will be during the heat of summer, and cold of winter so the dogs can go outside to take care of their bathroom business and stop using the mudroom for a potty.
My mother would be rolling over in her grave if she knew I was purchasing potty pads to lay about the mudroom floor for the dogs. But hey, the room is already scented from the two former owners' dogs use of that room as a toilet. Removing those marble tiles will be a job for sometime in the future and hopefully removing them will remove the latent smell of doggie markings. But til then we will make do.
Right now, since it's a nice evening I have the back door open a bit just to listen to the tree frogs.
There must be hundreds of them singing their tiny little hearts out. I think it's the sounds of summer that bring so many childhood memories to the front of my mind.
Did you use clothespins to attach baseball cards to the spokes of your bicycle wheels to hear a clicking noise as you rode your bike around the neighborhood? We did. My brother didn't mind at all sharing his baseball cards with us since, back then, little boys primarily bought them for the bubble gum that came in the wax pack with the cards.
I remember playing jacks with the girls on our street. I wasn't the best with the eye hand coordination, but I did enjoy playing anyway. And an even more trying game was Pick-Up Sticks. Did you play with them? If I recall correctly one player would hold the sticks loosely in her hand in a vertical position, with the bottoms of the sticks resting gently on the floor and then release her hand so the sticks fell in a kind of pattern. The object of the game was to remove the sticks, one at a time without moving another stick in doing so. It was fun and didn't require bouncing a ball and throwing jacks at the same time so I was a bit better at it than other games.
Another game that required a bit more grace than I was blessed with was jumping rope. But, on the playground at school when there was a long rope and two girls throwing it I could, at times, manage to go a few jumps before loosing my turn.
I WAS reasonably good at kick ball because the ball was a large one, and much easier to kick than hitting a baseball with a bat, which I could never do. And, I eventually got pretty good at roller skating on the sidewalk. I saved my own money for a while to buy my own skates. They were $5.00 and I got many good years use out of them. I guess it was games using feet, that were my forte'.
But, as long as people didn't mind my lack of skill, I was always included in one way or another in the neighborhood games. Kids were better behaved back when I was a kid, all the mamas were watching and would let your mama know if you'd not behaved well when with the other chidren.
The only person who had less skill or grace than I, was my sister. Since she was more popular than I was her clumsiness was my saving grace for being included with the girls who lived on our street. Eventually, though, we parted ways and had our own groups of friends from school. And to this day, since she and I have nothing in common, we have not one friend in common, and that suits me just fine.
My mother would be rolling over in her grave if she knew I was purchasing potty pads to lay about the mudroom floor for the dogs. But hey, the room is already scented from the two former owners' dogs use of that room as a toilet. Removing those marble tiles will be a job for sometime in the future and hopefully removing them will remove the latent smell of doggie markings. But til then we will make do.
Right now, since it's a nice evening I have the back door open a bit just to listen to the tree frogs.
There must be hundreds of them singing their tiny little hearts out. I think it's the sounds of summer that bring so many childhood memories to the front of my mind.
Did you use clothespins to attach baseball cards to the spokes of your bicycle wheels to hear a clicking noise as you rode your bike around the neighborhood? We did. My brother didn't mind at all sharing his baseball cards with us since, back then, little boys primarily bought them for the bubble gum that came in the wax pack with the cards.
I remember playing jacks with the girls on our street. I wasn't the best with the eye hand coordination, but I did enjoy playing anyway. And an even more trying game was Pick-Up Sticks. Did you play with them? If I recall correctly one player would hold the sticks loosely in her hand in a vertical position, with the bottoms of the sticks resting gently on the floor and then release her hand so the sticks fell in a kind of pattern. The object of the game was to remove the sticks, one at a time without moving another stick in doing so. It was fun and didn't require bouncing a ball and throwing jacks at the same time so I was a bit better at it than other games.
Another game that required a bit more grace than I was blessed with was jumping rope. But, on the playground at school when there was a long rope and two girls throwing it I could, at times, manage to go a few jumps before loosing my turn.
I WAS reasonably good at kick ball because the ball was a large one, and much easier to kick than hitting a baseball with a bat, which I could never do. And, I eventually got pretty good at roller skating on the sidewalk. I saved my own money for a while to buy my own skates. They were $5.00 and I got many good years use out of them. I guess it was games using feet, that were my forte'.
But, as long as people didn't mind my lack of skill, I was always included in one way or another in the neighborhood games. Kids were better behaved back when I was a kid, all the mamas were watching and would let your mama know if you'd not behaved well when with the other chidren.
The only person who had less skill or grace than I, was my sister. Since she was more popular than I was her clumsiness was my saving grace for being included with the girls who lived on our street. Eventually, though, we parted ways and had our own groups of friends from school. And to this day, since she and I have nothing in common, we have not one friend in common, and that suits me just fine.
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