Day 2 Day radishes

April 29/ Gardening weather hum?

I am thinking I should move or become a snowbird. The beauty of Washington is not making up for the incessant grey weather. Although Saturday was breathtakingly sunny, Sunday was not, nor is the forecast. Yesterday I took my walker outside to plant two little sprigs of tarragon in pots. That was a disaster. Dirt got all over my boot brace, and I can think of no way to clean the dirty foam part. It made me realize that gardening is ways off for me unless I put my foot in a garbage bag, and that could present more hazard than not. 

April 28 maybe/movies

On my continuing stretch of movies, I have two more.

Both are movies about boys needing fathers.

The first Dear Frankie, a Scottish film about a boy whose mother has made up facts about his father living on a ship. Then the ship actually shows up in his town, he wants to meet his Dad. While it is a good movie on it’s own, it is a five star when it comes to men. Very, very sexy male lead. It reminds me of being in high school and thinking you could save all those very naughty boys.

The other movie is actually a Masterpiece Theater piece, Goodnight Mr. Tom. It is the story of a boy who was sent to the country during WWII while the Germans were bombing London. He is deposited with an old man, and it is their story. It is an excellent family movie for those with kids eight and over as there is child abuse. Mr. Radish liked the movie. But then we actually know one man from London who was sent to live in the country during the war and have heard his stories.

April 25/ Tagged

 

I have been tagged. This is something that I have only read about. And it does seem like a version of chain letters which I abhor. However I truly enjoyed reading the links of writer Sue Hepworth, and her wonderful character Sally Howe and the other links. I read a lot of food blogs and I would not impose on the authors to comment, but you should see their sites. My daughter’s expat blog is great.

Link to the person that tagged you - (in my case

Sue Hepworth

)

- Post the rules on your blog

- Write six random things about you in a blog post

- Tag six people in your post

- Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

- Let the tagger know your entry is up

Six random things:

1. I sailed on a 50 foot sail boat to Hawaii from San Francisco thirty six years ago. I left three children at home and went with my husband, mother and brothers. It was during the Vietnam war and I considered this frightening experience equal to having to go to war.

2. With any luck I could double my weight from when I got married.

3. I do love my husband after 48 years. With my broken ankle his idea of helping me is to drive me out to lunch, rather than cleaning the bathroom or sweeping the kitchen floor. Could be a lot a lot worse.

4. Once our family rented a goat for eating grass. But the only person who could deal with old Bill was my husband. Old Bill knew from the shifting of gears when my husband was driving up the hill to our home and he would whinny. One night I heard a sound of something eating the house. Mr. Radish and I jumped out of bed, ran down stairs and outside, and there the goat was eating our house. Mr. Radish left me holding the goat while he went to get a leash. The goat had the nerve to poop all over my bare feet.

5. I am a Christian with piety going in and out of my life. I try hard to keep the principles in mind. I try to see God working in the everyday.

6. I am a very addictive person. Sometimes it is knitting, other times it is hydrangeas, cupcakes, Chinese cooking, gin, French cooking, reading. What ever it is, I throw myself in whole of it. I am about to restart my recurring adventure with vermiculture.

Here are my tags.

http://www.suehepworth.com/sue/

Also use the link to the Sally Howe site. Sally is Sue’s fictious character in her book.

expatprincess.wordpress.com

http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/

http://www.elise.com/recipes/

Do not be fooled by the simplicity of this site.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

 

April 24/ Thanks

According to myself, I am generally nice enough to people. But two weeks ago, sans ankle break, I annoyed even myself by being rude to a young woman in an Issaqua, yarn store. I didn’t like that yarn, I did not like this yarn, no, I could not take this class, I already had seen that before, blah, blah, blah. I would not be satisfied. I did go back and apologize, but still I had acted pretty ugly and as was the case, looked pretty ugly too. At least I bought something to ease my annoyance at myself, and maybe help make her numbers.

I bought a sock book New Pathways for Socks two months ago and still have yet to complete a sock. This book is difficult, although the author has made every effort to make things as easy as possible, in the end you have to know grade school math, and you have to be willing and able to follow the directions. I can knit socks the old fashioned way. Actually I can knit socks several old fashioned ways. However, these socks in New Pathways for Socks, are architecturally interesting and look as if they fit perfectly. The author, Cat Bordhi, originally shocked the sock knitters world with knitting socks on two needles instead of four or five, has studied many antique socks in museums and has reinterpreted some, and others she has thought up on her own. The challenge is captivating.

Frustrated in isolation and inability to proceed with my latest attempt, I telephoned this above nice young woman, and she made every effort to help me over the phone. She had was a fan of the author Cat, she said that she was her idol. She was very nice. But still my problem was not solved.

I had started a sock three times, by that I mean up to the heel, and it was the most ridiculous mess. Yesterday in my pity party and my “ankle at home” angst I emailed this author, Cat Bordhi, with all my facts and figures and whined a little, and she answered me within hours. Although counting is basic, I had miscounted.

This woman lives, as the crow flies, 60 miles away but it takes an eternity to get there by both road and boat. The young woman’s shop Cultured Purls, (fine name and a touching web site.

www.Cultured

-Purls.com) was one and a half hours away.

I would like to publicly thank these women for their gracious help. One of the blessing of our time is that through technology, we are able to communicate a long way and sometimes instantly. But it is the people behind the keyboard and the telephone who make all the difference in the world.

The above socks are what I hope will be his new game day socks, and are not a part of the story.

April 23/ Fishy

Today the SF Chronicle has an article about our fish supply this summer. Wild king salmon is out for California and Oregon, and that pretty much means everywhere else. The article talks about alternatives: farming, and other fish. Alas, halibut will be expensive also. You might think of buying coho/silver salmon or sockeye.

Farming raises eyebrows as being environmentally incorrect. I have not made it my business to find out why. Some one could write in on the comments. But it is said that farming is not a sustainable solution. Apparently great strides are being made in fish farming. I have not personally eaten farmed fish for a while, as every thing you read for foodies was “not farmed” with three alarms behind it. But all oysters are farmed and I eat all of them I can get. Go figure.

However, what I think I am getting around to saying is that there are other fish aside from salmon and halibut. In the last half century, Americans have wanted their fish not to be “fishy”. So fish like mackerel, sardines and anchovies have been pushed aside. But they are very nutritious, if lower on the food chain. The Brits eat a great deal of mackerel and I imagine that is where to go for recipes.

The article mentions other fish which at my markets the fish counter is loath to sell such as sand dabs, rex sole, ling cod, petrale sole, and rock cod. Two of my favorite fish are sanddabs or rex sole, and ling cod.

But I think I am going to try to get down and dirty with the mackerel and sardines. FISH. . . YYYY

April 22/ Dogs and knitting

This year will be remembered by locals as the year it snowed three days in a row, April 18,19, & 20 in Seattle. A century ago it would have been called the snows of aught eight. This snow was not debilitating except for Little League. But it was dark and hideously dreary. Mr. Radish and I went down to spend the night with daughter Margaret and family, and then we stayed to spend the second night. Margaret pointed out that it was like Christmas. That we stayed two nights instead of the usual one, and had two big family diners with the Meredith and her family. Plus Mr. Radish had gifts for Meredith from China. It was a good time that otherwise would have been a dreadful time. When I arrived, Margaret wanted to go to a yarn store to buy more yarn and especially replace a $17.00 knitting needle that the puppy Hero had just chewed. Thirty five dollars later she left the knitting store.

Margaret has in 12 days become addicted to sock making. In fact the new puppy is playing second fiddle to the needles. The puppy pees on the rug. In sock language, turning the heels” is a bug a boo for the beginner, and the not so beginner. The puppy pees out in the living room. Into the crate. I was instructing and Margaret huddled over her work, knit one heel four times. Suddenly I remembered that I was telling her incorrectly. That took half a day. Puppy is out of the crate because he is cute. He pees again. Yikes. Later on Sunday I was left alone with the dog, I walkered over to the computer with my boot cast, and puppy was on the loose. From the computer I look down and see the puppy peeing. Plus there is yarn brought to me. I get out of my chair and follow the string and there is knitting along side knitting needles, which alas are chewed. Hum . “Kids put the damn puppy in the crate.” Margaret was furious when she came home from her happy movie, and she learns of the casualty. Her day and evening were ruined. “Thirty five dollars of knitting needles!”

Monday, as she leaves for work, we kiss and say good bye and I ask if she is over the needle crisis. Yes, she says, but, thirty five dollars made me mad. I said, “But it is cheaper than the carpet.”

Dogs are jealous lovers or in this case puppies will be toddlers.

April 18/ On standby

Life is so quiet when you have a broken ankle and there is just me and Mr. Radish. I like silence, but sometimes it wants to strut it’s stuff, and can get overbearing. Knitting is good. I have one sock project in the bed room and one in the living room. Both are keeping the interest up. The bedroom pair is for Mr. Radish and I hope will be his "game day" socks. They are Berkeley’s blue and gold and I am knitting the word “Cal” in the heel. The living room socks are perhaps some of the most beautiful I have ever knit, as they should be for the cost of hand painted yarn.

But there are always life’s lessons to be learned when a cosmic happening like a broken ankle occurs. I was feeling very non spiritual. This worried me and disappointed me. I do not want to be one of the people who as they reach the end of their life, become less and less faithful. My own church was annoyingly overly liberal, and other denominations lacked the meat of the Eucharist.           

I happen to belong to a church that has a older congregation. This means that there is a lot more money than other churches, but it also means that everyone is sick, or sicker, and others are confused. Funerals are common. It is impossible to quantify how much a phone call means to some. Call up one person and she has shingles, call another and her total hip needs replacement. One person is fainting and does not know why: some one else has cancer.  Everone needs encouragement. I lay on my bed and make phone calls, the very ones I am too busy to make if I am well.

Aside from being allowed to knit fun socks, it seems as if God has found a place for me in the upcoming weeks. Anyone out there need a phone call, please let me know and I will try and cheer up up.  I think I may be at peace again.

April 16/broken ankle

I wrote my last post before I broke my ankle last Sunday.  So talk about passive aggressive,  I thought I’d like to bring Mr. Radish down.  Untrue. But between me and his computer crash, I have pretty much gotten him over his fabulous vacation.  There is no vacation after glow for him.

Here is how I broke my ankle.  I was talking in my bedroom on the phone,  and I went out to the living room where the Master’s golf tournament was  playing.  I am walking and talking to Mr. Radish when there is a good shot on the golf coarse, and I turned to watch it, and I stepped in my knitting basket and my foot caught on the basket handle.  I lost my balance and fell.  There you have it. 

Here is the good news.  It is a definite fracture of my fibula. No displacement. I am wearing my old boot from the last time that I broke an ankle.  I can shower.  I will  heal in six weeks. And it hurts, but not too much.  My codeine induced sleep is great.

April 13/ Kids here

My daughter Margaret and sons came for two days, and stayed four.  We had a very good time.  It was a rare time with the stars in alignment and the pinnacle of perfection was seen.  The boys who are ordinarily very indifferent about Mr. Radish and myself, were engaged, helped with chores, were positive, liked my food, endured the trip through the tulip fields, and were willing  to have a cooking lesson. 

For someone who really did not encourage her children in the kitchen, I am trying to mend my ways.  To be honest, in the summer I need help in the kitchen. Families come and go.  I like a decent meal, but I am only good for about three days, and then I am wiped. Each year I  have a new plan how to make things easier. Nearly all the time I am disappointed.  Two years ago I broke my foot, and I could not do a thing.  Everyone helped out, but it was a poor way to achieve my goal.  No one wanted any lip from me about how the food was to be put on the table.  Then last summer I contacted pneumonia and was in the hospital for five days.    This, I think, was interpreted as passive aggressive. 

For summer 2008 I have a new plan.  I am going to get the children to cook.  The adults can clean the kitchen.  I started this plan off this week with my grandsons, Calligan, and Gabe.  Both are put off by ishy feeling goods.  Their chore was to get a roast chicken ready to roast.  I have an excellent children’s cookbook, the  RIVER COTTAGE COOKBOOK. it is British but talks to kids in a way I think they want to be talked to, which is not babyish.  Armed with this book, the boys prepared the chicken.  I let them slide, by taking the innards out of the bird.  But they did the rest, reading and rereading the recipe, stuffing our chicken  with lemons and bay leaves and seasoning it.  They liked the final results.  And they are willing to take on this recipe for summer.  Although we will likely BBQ the chicken.  But that too, I think they are willing to do.  Every summer has a new hope. 

Guest Blogger: The Radish is Off Her Feet

Hello Loyal Blog Readers,

I am the guest blogger for The Radish today.  Unfortunately The Radish took a spill last night.  It has been determined that she broke a bone in her foot or her ankle.  When she feels up to blogging she will clarify this for us.

In any event, The Radish needs our prayers.  She has always been so kind and thoughtful to add people to her prayer list; I ask you to do the same for her.

Expat Princess, if you don't comment, we'll know for sure that you are already on a plane to save us.

Love,

The Radish's Thing 3