I'm Still Here !!

Wow, How the time flies!  I have been SO busy lately that I just don't get to sit and THINK !  Finally tonight I have taken time to check out my emails and look at what my friends on face book are up to.

It is that time of year when I have paperwork to do as I am the Village Clerk here and although it is not a big job, it is time consuming for a week just before and after our Annual Meeting.

The garden is all planted and some of my pole beans are already up.  They would like a bit more sunshine I'm sure.  We sure have made up for the lack of snowfall this winter with a lot of rain these past months.  It is so lush and green everywhere.

Many, many red squirrels and chipmunks about this year.  Hubby still hasn't won a bout with the red squirrel at the bird feeder!  But he has finished checking for nooks and crannies where they might invade our house. He's done lots of little cementing and foaming up these places.  We are in the village here and don't have a problem with the bears coming to the feeder so that is why we leave it up.  We have many pretty birds stop by to sing to us and thank us for keeping some seed in the feeder.

Dennis has been pining for his motorhome, the one we sold a few years ago thinking we would save on insurance and registration and gas by just having a little pop-up camper that went into the back of the truck.  This worked for awhile but the truck gets really bad gas milage.  Another plan, take the camper out of the truck and build it onto a car dolly and drag it along behind the truck.  This he did and we liked that for awhile.  UNTIL he got to missing the motorhome.  SO  he got a good deal on a Toyota truck with duel wheels and no body on it.  Ah ha... now he has made a sort-of- motorhome, putting the camper onto the little truck body permanently.  Quite a job but he really likes doing stuff like this.  Now, or soon, when he gets all the bugs out and it spiffied up a bit more, we can just pack up, hop in the cab and be off for a day or two without hauling anything and have somewhat decent gas milage.  We have some visiting and traveling around VT to do this summer so I hope it will work out well. Will post a picture or two now and when he gets the project done.

I'll call the new creation ' The Gypsy Wagon'.  I had a fascination with all things gypsy when I was a girl.  I loved to read about them.  I remember a book called "Gypsy Goes To College".  It was such a great story about a Gypsy girl way out of her element and coping as best as she could while striving to keep some of her heritage evident in her life.  Wish I could find it again !  I am sure it is out of print by now.  It was a book for young people maybe in 8th grade or so. Just maybe I could run into it again at a yard sale or a school book sale somewhere, someday.  This sounds like a far fetched occurrence but I once was looking for a book our teacher, Mrs. Hammond,  in 5th grade read to us as we settled down from a rowdy recess time outside.  It was "Dan's Boy" by Cobb.  I sort of remembered the story but for sure remembered how much I liked the story at the time.  While traveling north in VT one summer, we saw a sign at a big old house with a great front piazza that said Book Sale.  We stopped.  I went onto the piazza and looked around.  In a pile marked 'FREE please take', I found Dan's Boy !  Nobody was around and I let out a loud whoop for joy at my find.  There was a box there for donations or to pay for the books that weren't in the free pile.  I put $5. in that box I was so thrilled! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it again!  Maybe it could happen again??  Anyway, I am sure we will have a good time traveling around, Lord willing, in the new Gypsy Wagon.

The Gypsy Wagon in the making and...

All registered and rolling.  Waiting for the finishing of a few new

cubbies on the sides, fender things and some other finishing touches.

When popped up, it makes a nice little weekender. It has a gas stove,

gas heater and a fridge that runs on gas or 12 volt, and a comfy, roomy bed

even though it is a bear to make!

I found a quote to share with you today.   I'd better remember this one!

" While you were busy judging others,

You left your closet open and your skeletons fell out!!"

Take care and Blessings!

Perfect Peace

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, who's mind is staid on Thee"....The words from an old hymn we used to sing.  They came to mind on Tuesday as I settled into the dentist's chair for the LONG procedure of having root canal therapy.  I was looking for this perfect peace...calming of my fears of this place and especially this procedure.  All in all it wasn't so bad, but I did get pretty shaky before it was time to exit the chair!  The dentist was so YOUNG!  She looked like a teenager!  But she was sweet, kind and as gentle as one could be and get that job done.  I should say half done, as I have to go back in a month for the finishing touches.  UCK!   Now, a couple days later I have what they call a 'flair-up'  where I have some swelling in the gum area and much soreness and aching.  So I am taking some antibiotics and lots of Motrin and WAITING for it to all go away!  I'll never take a pain free day for granted again!

With my 'mentor', Lizzie.  Learning the art of relaxation !

It's nearly a week since I wrote the above.  I have been busy in all this wonderful weather with my neglected flower beds, catching up on reading while nursing my sore jaw and everything but writing in my blog!  Our little 'Jenny Wren' is back singing up a storm in our back yard and getting her birdhouse home all ready to nest in.  What a worker she is!  As for that clever red squirrel... she has won at least 5 rounds in her bouts with my hubby !  We finally noticed that she is a she and probably a nursing mom right now so we have just let her enjoy the birdseed...FOR NOW!   Then we'll see.  Dennis has been spending much time looking the foundation over, inside and out for possible entry places where she might be squeezing her way into our cellar. He found a most likely place and has cemented it up. We don't want another 'surprise' when we come home from FL next spring!  Even a lampshade was crooked, like she had been swinging on that and we have concluded that it HAD to be a squirrel as most little mice don't do such things and don't eat seeds, probably.

Waiting for the purple iris!  The deep purple lilacs did well but not the light purple ones.

Columbine and hostas

On Saturday, we had a visit from a friend whom we hadn't seen in about a quarter of a century!  Now that is a LONG time!  She came in the morning and stayed till after noontime.  We had a lot to catch up on and it was so very wonderful to have this time with her.  She also visited other friends here and I am sure they were as thrilled to see her as we were.

My sweet daughter, Angel with hubby Paul are in VT for the week!  It is so nice to be able to spend time with them.  We were off yesterday on an errand we have waited to do until we had some time to invest in the project.  We are 'elected' by our family to seek out a memorial for our family cemetery lot.  So we were about this project yesterday.  What a lot of choices.  We got caught up in admiring the beautiful work of a young man who carves not only names and dates but such lovely scenes, angels, and anything you might want for art work on the granite, marble or what ever stone you choose.  We left not choosing anything as we had so many things still to consider.  This is hard work!  We decided we needed to go for lunch and that was fun and tasty too.

In the evening as the sky grew dark, Paul had a nice big fire in the outdoor fireplace and we just sat around listening to the night birds warm up... the Hermit Thrush... my favorite, which I never see, just hear here in VT with her lovely trilling song.  Lately we have been treated to Canada Geese flying over our houses on their way to and from a beaver pond nearby and their other haunt up the river somewhere.  They come by in a gaggle in the morning but in the evening they return north in pairs or sometimes in odd numbers but not all at once.  They are very talkative as they travel. It was the perfect evening for a fire and NO bugs anywhere about.  It was pretty dark when we left to come home across the meadow that separates our homes.  The grass had just been mowed and as we scuffed along, that wonderful new-mown hay scent rose to thrill our nostrils.  We had left a light on in the house and it sent a welcoming glow out the window.  All this a peaceful preparation for a good nights sleep.

Today is a cloudy day but also great for getting some more yard work done.  When the flower beds are finished, it will be just time to plant the veggie garden.  But I also have errands and paper work to do today.  I am the Village Clerk and have to get the annual Warning out tomorrow and post it in a few public places.  So I'd better get busy!  Have a fabulous day, all!

And Spring arose on the garden fair

Like the Spirit of love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on earth's dark breast

Rose from the dreams of it's wintery rest.        

                                                        P.B. Shelley

A Poem for Mother's Day

For Mother's day, just a poem I wrote a few years ago.

My Mom and Dad and I

MOTHER'S DAY

It's Mother's Day again

And I need to pay tribute today

To my Mom, someway, 

My Mom who I barely remember.

Of that day in May

When she went away,

I have but little recall;

The sandy road beneath my feet,

Up the hill to the church is vivid still.

My Daddy lifting me up to see

Her sleeping in a fluffy white bed.

And saying good-buy

And blowing a kiss.

A new friend, Aunt Mary, 

Came for a few days to stay,

But then she too, went away.

The next few years are an empty page,

Until school days came

And aways, I hated Mother's Day.

Tho' I'd make cards for my Grammy P.

Who sometimes took care of me.

My world was my Daddy and me.

He was so kind and good

And patient beyond belief.

And I hated Mother's Day.

I went through the stages 

Of blaming her for leaving.

When everyone else I knew 

Had a mom to share in their achieving.

I needed to know...

What was she like?

And I realized it wasn't her choice

To go, and so, I'd ask others

About her... you know.

And always I was told 

Of her kindness and loving ways;

And how she surely didn't choose to go

And how she loved me so.

This was so important to know!

They said how she loved the Lord

And trusted Him

To keep His hand on me,

And so He has.

And blessed me evermore!

I know not the reason

He called her home so soon,

But His will is wiser than my own.

One day, I'll know,

When all is said and done.

How the time has flown! 

So many years gone past!

I am so glad God granted me

The privilege of being a Mom,

A Grammy an a Great Grammy yet!

I tried real hard to get it right!

I love you all so much.

Somewhere along the way,

I've  had a change of heart, 

For now I can truly say, 

I LOVE MOTHER'S DAY !

                                                                           by dottie richardson 

A Gift-Boxed Day...In May

Awaking on Friday, on a May morning in my Vermont valley, between the mountain and the river, is like being given a lovely gift..in a pretty box, all tied up in rainbow ribbons and colorful balloons.  All my senses awaken as well, seeing, hearing, feeling and smell.  The fresh cool air coming in through the bedroom window , open just a bit, refreshes ...and the curtain flutters in the soft breeze. The faint scent of lilacs and dewey grass wafts in along with just a hint of oak wood smoke from our kitchen chimney...as the coffee perks and sends out it's very own beckoning aroma, the birds begin to sing.

I accept the gift of this brand new Spring day.  And I thank my God for it and count my blessings all.  I'll open it slowly to see what is there and embrace the moments it holds as the day unfolds.

It's amazing how good that cup of coffee tastes!  As well as the rest of my simple breakfast.  A slice of homemade toast with spiced tomato jam accompanied by a fresh poached egg and a small clementine.

It seems this day was designed for friends as we are treated to a visit from Debbie this morning as she stops by for hugs and good cheer, bringing a toy for Lizzie.  We've planned a trip to see friends on Darling Hill, north of here.  Lunch is packed and we're off.  It is a great day for a ride up through our lovely mountainous state.  The hills fold into each other and I am amazed at just how many, many shades of green there are!  We take back roads in to our friends' place.  May flowers can be seen alongside the road.  It's sunny and nice with a cool breeze just to remind us it is still Spring.

Cyndy has made some of her violet syrup! What a lovely color and wonderful taste.  All from wild violets.  Syd has installed a new door. We catch up on each others 'doings' etc.  After enjoying a great day,  good visits and a walk down from the top of the hill where we visit with Cyndy's mom we all head off to the Upper Valley.  We choose Appleby's for supper.  Great food, good fellowship with good friends.  What more would one want?  Then we hop into our separate cars and go off in opposite directions, to arrive home just at sunset.  Lizzie is happy we're home.  We plop into our favorite chairs as the day winds down... it's gifts all opened and enjoyed to the fullest.  All 'cept one...falling asleep in our own soft bed, when Lizzie insists it's time for bed.  The quiet little night sounds barely audible through the partially open window.. where the curtain flutters just a bit.

A Trapeze Act & A Lesson in Perseverance

Well, I finished off the last of the dandelion greens tonight for supper.  Yum!  It has stopped raining and things look ever so green everywhere!  Our little 'Jenny Wren' is back chattering away on top of her house, actually a house built for bluebirds but she always claims it first.  So good to hear her cheerful, twittering song again.   A lone hummingbird came by the other day and buzzed about where the feeder usually is.  Dennis saw him/her first and went looking for the feeder.  Usually if we aren't quick enough to get it out, they come up to the patio slider door and hover and stare at us, letting us know we aren't being very good hosts.  Still haven't seen but the one at the feeder which is now full and in it's proper place.

The red squirrel and the big gray one are providing us with entertainment these days.  Better than the trapeze act at the circus.  They ARE a circus !   It is a war now, a contest of wits between Dennis and the squirrels.  They were climbing up the shutter by our dining room window to get to the bird feeder. The gray is so fat he sort of runs with a waddling sway.  He visits my neighbor's bird feeders all winter.  We really want just birds at this feeder so Dennis put up a plastic coated wire from the house to the cherry tree and hung the feeder from that.  It worked for a couple days (squirrels must have been having a meeting to come up with the best way to get to it anyway),  Yesterday they were successful !  The little red squirrel would climb the cherry tree, go out on a limb, chew off any small branch obstructing his launch way and then back up and run......fly through the air and try to land in the feeder.  Watching him miss and flip over and onto the ground was kinda funny.  He immediately jumped up, shook himself and headed up the tree for another try.  This went on for a bit. (I'm getting no work done here..)  Then he finally perfected the jump and that was when Den decided he would put an obstruction between the tree and the feeder on the cord going to the house.  He found a plastic cover which came off of a 5 gallon pail and installed it on the wire.  "There... now let's see you get around that!"  NO problem thought the little red  head.  Using the same launching method which had proved so successful before, he tried it again, and again, and finally he got hold of something on that plastic cover and around and around he and the cover went!  Just like a carnival ride!  Whee!  And then reaching out, he grabbed the top of the feeder and plunked himself down, right in the seeds, right where he wanted to be! A trapeze act for sure.  Round 2 goes to the squirrel.  I finally stopped laughing long enough to get the camera and remembered it has video capability.  I got a few short videos and will post one here for you to see...and if the sound works....to hear.  All the funny noise is Dennis laughing so hard.  Hope it will go on here.  Well, I guess it didn't work !   Oh well, I do have a couple pictures but they aren't nearly as entertaining as the little video.

The launch !

Landing on the plastic cover.  Then the cover spins, fast.

Then it finally dumps him into the seeds.

I guess it does work !!  Great !

Well, so much for the circus!   A lesson in perseverance for sure.  I'll take this lesson upstairs to my sewing room and get on with the quilt I started this week.  It is coming along pretty well but if I stay away from it for long I have to stop and think...hard...when I come back to it.  Paper piecing is so precise and nice when finished but tricky, for me at least, while putting together.  I never was good with mirror image type things.  

Remember to take time to stop and enjoy all the good things God provides for us in nature. Don't hurry too much, the work will be right there waiting for you.    

Wild Leeks and ESP...or what?

My goodness!!  I just sat down to write a post here and thought to check my friend Cyndy's blog first.  I couldn't believe that she is writing today and will continue with a place on her blog she will call Aunt Jan's Wild Corner.
  The notes I wrote today for this blog are about the wild things to be found at hand and in the woods around us! Now isn't that what they call ESP??

I love to dig some nice dandelion greens and my lawn usually provides me with plenty.  The fiddleheads are ok but I really prefer the dandelions.  Cooked up and served with a nice helping of hot mashed potatoes and maybe a fat slice of ham like my Gram used to make.  Yum!  She would put a thick slice of ham in a big iron skillet, put some brown sugar and dry mustard on top and pour milk around and up almost to the top of the ham.  Then bake it in the oven for about an hour.  The flavor was just super and with the greens and mashed potatoes,  a favorite spring meal.

Cyndy spoke of the leeks too.  Years ago, when she was a little girl, her mom and I and another friend, Barb and her little boy would take a hike up on our nearby mountain, Hawks Mt. and find there among the rocks just below the top, lots of these wild leeks.  We would sit and eat our cheese and crackers and the wild leeks that we would clean as best we could. Always picking enough to take home for later.  They always made our cheese and crackers taste so good!  Barb and her family moved to NY a few years later and when it came time to go to the mountain again that year and search out the wild leeks, we were missing her so we picked a few extra and thought we would send them by priority mail to her.  We were sure to wrap them in plastic with some water, but very little, to help keep them fresh, or so we thought!  We got them over to the Post Office just as the mail truck picked up at 5 PM so they would be kept cold right up till the last minute. Then we waited for a surprised and delighted Barb to call us.  Well, she finally did and she was way more surprised than delighted !  She got the package and as she opened it the oniony smell, I should say the spoiled oniony smell was anything but delightful!! They were in pretty bad shape and certainly not edible by that time!  So much for our surprise.  We thought she would love having some leeks from the mountain as we knew she was missing us as we missed her.  What is that saying, "it's the thought that counts"!!

Each year as I bend over the lawn with my trusty digging knife and fill my basket with dandelions, I think of the time my son Chip came by on his way home from a job and stopped by for a visit.  As he came down the road and saw me all hunched over gathering my supper he told me his thought was, "Ah, there's Ma getting ready to eat the lawn"!  It was that Mother's day that he bought me the book " Stalking the Healthful Herbs" by Euell Gibbons.  I have Euell's other book, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" a Mother's day gift from my other son, Matt in 1980.  I will enjoy reading about Cyndy's Aunt Jan and her adventures stalking the wild things.

I spent some time today in my sewing room.  I have TONS of smallish pieces of fabric so I was planning a quilt for our new great grandbaby's arrival in June.  I am experimenting with a technique called Paper Piecing. I have done this before but not for a long time.  It is one of those things that if you don't do it often you almost need to learn it all over again.  I have some nice bright, cheerful pieces to use and they say that babies like bright colors.  So we'll see how this works out.  I need to make 12 blocks.  With my re-learning process today, it took me half the morning just to get that first block done right!  I am not the world's best at seeing ahead what a finished piece will look like and have been disappointed many times before with my color choices.  Once I SEE it, I know right away if it is right or not!  A bit late if the pattern is a fussy one.  So we will see how this goes.

I have done lots of Spring cleaning this year, what with all our indoor projects and all.  Since I have clean bedroom windows now and it was a bit rainy this morning, I took a picture of the flowers the "Garden Fairy" planted in our yard, out through the clean window.  I think Spring is my favorite time of year, with Autumn coming in second.

I like this quote...a daffodils response to Spring...

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head

And whispered to her neighbor...

"Winter is dead".

                                 A.A. Milne

Spring Chores...More than usual!

Finally back again!!  I've missed writing my blog.  Seems this Spring is a time of fixing up and redoing many little things we have long neglected around here.  Our latest project, after the new floor in our living room, is the painting of the bedroom floor.  So much 'stuff' to move to get to the floor !  Our bed is a real old cannonball bed with the round wooden orbs on all four corner posts.  Originally it was a rope bed but many years ago, after offering the highest bid, not much at the time, something like $10. at the local Church Auction, we hauled it home and Dennis revamped it so it became a full bed instead of a 3/4 bed.  That meant we had to make a new headboard...the old one was pretty bad anyway, and make the whole thing wider.  Then later he made a platform for our new mattress. This thing is HEAVY !!  It takes at least 4 weight lifters in good shape to move the thing!  With the help of our son in-law Paul, grandson, Nate and Den and I plus a hand-truck thingy which I 'drove' with one side of the bed up  on it, we got it over to the other side of the room that was all cleared off.  The painting didn't take long but the drying took just FOREVER !  The house is circa 1860 and the old wide board floors are so nice to have.  We had covered them all these years with a wall to wall carpet.  Then we had to do the moving thing again with the bed to paint the other side of the room.  Finally that dried and we could get things back to normal.

Lizzie kitty had to be kept out of that end of the house while the paint dried.  And we had to vacate to the 'Hayloft' which is our summer bedroom or the guest room off at the other end of the house.  It has no central heat, but a Franklin stove does a great job if you bother to light it !  (only a couple sticks of wood at a time or it cooks you out!)  So we spent a week as guests in the hayloft.  Yes, it was once a loft for the hay needed for the family cow and horse.  The floor was a 'floating floor'.  In those days it wasn't such an uncommon thing.  In the late summer, when haying time was finished, the floor was lowered and the dried hay was pitched in through the hayloft door which was on the second story of the building.  Lowering the floor made it cozier and warmer for the animals for the winter. It has always been in the raised position all the time we've been here except for the time one corner gave way and let that corner of the floor down into the workshop!  Thank the Lord nobody was in the workshop at the time!  Now it is a solid floor that can no longer be raised and lowered. This is one of the three buildings moved to the property and all hooked together.  One can go from the main or first structure to the ell to the woodshed and on to what is now the workshop with the summer/guest bedroom above it without going outside.  Good Yankee ingenuity.  The former woodshed is now a bathroom, coat closet and a stairway to the loft.
It is good to be back to normal again, and Lizzie thinks so too!  Here she is having a little visit with her red squirrel friend.

Besides all the fixing up stuff and spring cleaning in general (which I have been kinda lax about for a couple years), it is also our time of the year to visit our dentist and doctors for annual checkups etc. So I really have been a  busy cleaning machine!

It is still pretty chilly here in the early morning so we are keeping the wood furnace going and even the kitchen wood cookstove when we first get up.  This means keeping the furnace wood cut and at the ready.  Den has a great system for this.  The wood is put into the large open area of the basement, the part under the 1960's addition, in 4 foot lengths, stacked and ready to cut into furnace lengths.  He does this sawing in the fall and again in the spring...all inside and under cover and dry. After sawing, the cut pieces are loaded onto a dolly and wheeled to the other side of the cellar where the old wood furnace resides. He says it gives him something to do in his spare time.  Here's a picture of him tonight doing his thing down in the 'wood room'.

So I will find time to slow down soon.....get outside.....pick some dandelion greens and get back to my usual spring life.  I have a baby quilt to make by June.  Remember, Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, and Today is a gift.