個人檔案Around the Homestead相片部落格清單更多 ![]() | 說明 |
Around the HomesteadFinding Joy in Simple Things |
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2008/12/21 Merry Christmas To You AllUp the valley, at the home place, there is no computer, no TV, the radio only works if it's pointed in the right direction, and cell phones don't work at all. Spending a few days up there leaves you out of touch with the outside world. Coming back down the valley, it's always surprising how little's been missed. Because of work schedules, our family Christmas will come two days early, and the gathering place is almost ready. Just a little more baking, a few things to wrap, and a touch of cleaning will make the house holiday ready. The cottage on the back road will be occupied again by the end of the week. Until then have the happiest of holidays with your family and friends. Much love is sent to each one of you from my little valley in the mountains. A Blessed Christmas to You All!
Little Gal's Christmas Fashion Show (She does wear shoes!)
Baking Sugar Cookies (Sorry, no time for the story)
Riding the Christmas Train (Oops, we lost Santa Claus!) 2008/12/10 Little Gal Gets Her Guy - 2008When the weather turns cold in the valley, and Christmas lights start twinkling on houses in the village, the quest begins. Every year the anxiety and excitement mounts until a new guy is added to Little Gal's collection. It's been so since the year of her birth, when the first guy came into her life and shocked her mother at his size and the rest of the family because he looked so bazaar. He was the size of Little Gal, and then some. She wasn't quite two months old.
To find the perfect guy for Little Gal, the Internet is searched, the pattern box is searched and Grandma's cluttered mind is searched. Because it can't be just any guy. It has to be the right guy for Grandma's Little Gal. Sometimes a pattern is used, Or, sometimes Grandma dreams up one of her own. This year's guy came from a picture chosen From all the pictures of guys saved and kept in a folder.
A pattern was drawn, then enlarged onto tissue paper. Cut from muslin dyed a gingerbread tan, Little Gal's guy took shape with well stuffed legs, arms, body and head. Clothed in a vest with holiday theme, Red buttons lined his chest and belly. White rickrack circled his arms, legs and head, And black eyes looked out from his rosy cheeked face. A wide smile stretched from one ear to the other - (But the certainty of ears is in question). Snowflakes were danced across his forehead and one of his legs. A plaid heart, matching the lining of his vest, Was needled and threaded to the opposite leg. Lastly, for remembering, a tag with Little Gal's name and the year the new guy entered her life was hung around his neck.
For six Christmas' Little Gal has gotten her guy. In some of those years, though, to be truthful, she's gotten a gal instead of a guy. This year, there is question whether she has a gal or whether she has a guy. It isn't known for sure, But, whatever it is, it has a new home with the five other members of Little Gal's Gingerbread Clan.
2008 Gingerbread
2008 Gingerbread With Gingerbreads From Little Gal's Past (You might recognize Kermit the Gingerbread Frog in the above picture, the first gingerbread oddity that had family members chuckling and tongues wagging. He was named by an amused uncle who recognized his froggy characteristics.)
Last Year's Gingerbread - 2007 2008/12/6 Little Gal Visits the Valley - What! No Boots? At the head of the valley snow often comes sooner, falls heavier and lasts longer than it does down below, Around the Homestead. Over Thanksgiving, throughout the valley, an uncommon It fell deep and stayed long in the upper reaches of the valley, where as a family, we gather, coming from all directions, on most holidays during the year. With her family and Jack the Dog (also known as JackiePoo), Little Gal came from the Big City, where snow isn't as frequent, as lasting or as deep, to the little house in the bend of the creek, at the edge of the wood, where snow can keep you snuggled inside or give you a purpose to go out. Little Gal came with a firm purpose in her expanding mind. Her purpose was to have some rousing fun in the snow. Little Gal's intention was to go out. To go out, she was longjohnned, tobogganed, gloved, jacketed, hooded and, finally, booted. Little Gal was raring to go. She couldn't wait to go out, to romp in the glorious snow. But before she got to the door, she had to quit. Her boots didn't fit! A wintertime tragedy for Little Gal! Playing in the snow had been talked all the way from the Big City to Grandma's, then all the way up the valley from there. Maybe she could wear her boots without socks? Grandma vetoed that suggestion. She needed more protection than that. Well, Grandma had worn her boots. Perhaps with some extra pairs of socks? No, it didn't work. Little Gal clopped and flopped. Couldn't she just wear her Sketchers and socks? This idea got an emphatic "No" from Mother. Her feet would get too cold and wet. Heartrending times like these require serious innovation. These are the times when Super Wise Grandma must assert herself and commandeer the situation. These are the times when everyone knows (who has good sense and distaste for family discord) to disagree with Grandma is a total waste of verbiage. Because she's Grandma, and Grandmas always know best! Post haste, Little Gal was socked and shoed. Next, she was plastic bagged to her knees to keep Little Gal's foot cover was a Thanksgiving masterpiece, one of Grandma's best quick-thinking inventions. From such Grandma-based brainstorms springeth a happy Grandchild.
Fists full of packed snow flew back and forth between father and daughter, with Little Gal hunched behind the fort, popping up to pelt Daddy with all the snow her five-year-old hands could hold. The battle ended, but for Little Gal there was no thought of abandoning the cold and snow for the warmth she would find in the house. A day in the snow wouldn't be fun in the snow without a ride downhill on a sled. And Little Gal had her saucer, an end of season purchase last year and never used. With some nudging from Daddy, she flew down the hill (a little girl size hill) on her saucer of green. Trudging back up, with Little Gal determination, she did it all over again.
Carrying her saucer in pink mittened fingers, the climb back to the In time, Little Gal's snowy adventure came to an end, except for the memory she carried with her when she left the valley to return home to the Big City. The snow fort was left to melt and The boot socks that had kept Little Gal's feet warm and dry were tossed into the garbage, no longer an important accessory for a little girl who had come in from the cold. Their important purpose for Little Gal's Thanksgiving escapade in the snow had expired. Sometime soon, she'll return to the valley, a valley that will likely be covered with snow. This time, though, inside her bag of this and thats will be a good pair of little girl boots. Boots made for hours of playtime in the snow. Boots that will fit Little Gal perfectly. 2008/11/26 What the Hay?WARNING! NOT FOR VEGETARIANS TURDUCKEN A TURDUCKEN is three birds nested together. The tur is (turkey). The duck is (duck). The en is (chicken). From YUMSUGAR Turducken From The Cartoon Lounge - The New Yorker November 19, 2008 More on TurduckenI have to say the whole idea of turducken grosses me out a little. Maybe it’s because it starts with the word “t--d.” But just the idea of stuffing one animal carcass into the hollowed out cavity of another seems disturbing to me. It’s like something from a horror film. It’s like those Russian dolls that fit inside each other except it’s made of pimpled, pink poultry flesh. But if you’re into that sort of thing, why stop with just three birds? How about this—how about you cram a quail into the chicken and then you’ve got yourself turduckenquail. I’d even go a step further and farther afield and stuff the quail with a shrimp. What else? Maybe wrap the shrimp in bacon? Then stick the whole thing in a goat in a pig in a cow and then deep fry that sucker. Delicious. Posted by Matthew DiffeeTURDUCKEN at the History Channel No TURDUCKEN at our house. We'll feast on turkey and ham. 2008/11/23 Snowed in NovemberDaily falling through the valley whitening every abode, It white dressed the fields And camouflaged the road. Crunching through it's coldness, Our pace numbly slowed. Breaths turned to icicles, And cheeks wildly glowed. Trudging gamely onward, About how this November 2008/11/16 Not a Typical Holiday
Growing up, it wouldn't have been Sunday without the funny papers and L'il Abner. November 15, 1937
November 15, 2008 Sadie Hawkins Day Not a typical holiday, Sadie Hawkins Day is the invention of Al Capp, Copyright ©1999, Yankee Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.
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2008/11/11 In Their HonorVeteran's Day Veteran's Day is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I in 1918. This day is also known as Armistice Day in Europe and Remembrance Day in Canada. It is celebrated on November 11th. In Flanders Fields John McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow We are the Dead. Short days ago Take up our quarrel with the foe: 2008/11/8 Little Gal Visits the Valley - In A HurryLittle Gal arrived Thursday evening, and we haven't stopped since. We've been preparing -rolls, cookies, pies - for our annual fall family get together up the valley. In the middle of it all we were slowed down when company came to visit. Happy we were to see them but the longer we visited, the behinder we got.
All this in between Noggin, Disney and a letter find computer program. (How many times can a grandmother say "Wash your hands before you help me with the food" before she locks herself in the bedroom and weeps?) Little Gal and I were almost there yesterday. But today is another day, and we're packed and ready to go. (How many times can a grandmother hear "Grandma, can we go now?" before she logs off the computer and says, "All right, let's go?)
2008/11/5 Walk Along Prattle - Jackie Patooties
Cows watched us curiously, as they usually do, and milkweed pods were bursting open, spreading their seed. They'd be popping up again next spring, in larger numbers, and in many different places. All the sounds were there that perk our ears every early morning. Birds chirping, still flying from one wild plant to another in their constant browsing for daily nourishment. Vehicles humming toward us or from behind us, shooing us quickly to the side of the road. Whisking traffic sounds reached us, too, from the main highway a few miles distant.
Everything was in its place, that is, except the donkeys. Most often spending their time at the far end of their grazing area, they had grazed themselves closer to the tempting grass near the fence by the road.
Discussing them as we walked past, Walking Partner became agitated that she had lost a glove. Looking around and turning back to search for it, we laughed to see that she had one on her hand and one in her pocket. Not to be upstaged by WP's senior moment, I, who had dressed warmly for the weather, suddenly felt uncomfortable about the legs. Feeling the snugness of my long underwear as I walked along, it rushed through my mind that I had forgotten to slip into my baggy sweat pants. A quick look reassured me that they were there, a Anyway, I knew without a doubt that WP would have informed me if I had, in fact, been without pants. With a chuckle, the nightmare was explained to WP. With a chuckle of her own, she let me know that she never pays any attention to what I throw on my body. I could have been naked, and she wouldn't have noticed it. Well, maybe that's stretching her lack of interest and observation a little too much. On second thought, back to the donkeys, that count of five might be too low. They aren't the only Jackie Patooties on the back road. 2008/11/3 Walk Along Prattle - Day of the Deer
Then after a night of rest, in early morning, they make
Reaching our distance and turning around, back and forth conversation diverted our attention from the fields Then a snort came to the left of us, out of a break in the Not always appearing when we want them to, with every walk down the back road, they sometimes surprise us when we think there's little chance. Today was a day of the deer. |
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Gratitude is a twofold love love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest. Henry Van DykeWhen angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.
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