Day 2 Day radishes

MAY 29/ Happy Birthday Margaret

Happy Birthday Margaret

 

Margaret was born Margaret Frances Calligan two minutes after midnight.

 Most notable were her big cheeks and especially her brown eyes.  She was a perfect baby and rarely ever cried.  She was the perfect baby to hold because she liked to be cuddled. 

 

Today she turns 40 and what a wonderful woman she has become. Exceptional mother. Very good wife, and a fabulous daughter. She is a loyal friend.   Margaret is fair. Fair sounds like only a little attribute, but it is HUGE.  Mammoth.

 

Margaret, thanks for being ours.   

PS.  There is a very nice blog at her sister's blog www.expatprincess.wordpress.com

May 27/ Grand news for me.

  It has been my joke over the last ten years especially in Christmas letters that I do not have friends.  I moved twice since 1998.  I have been in varying degrees of health so have not always been “working the room”, so to speak.  Also Mr. Radish and I are great friends and, sometimes we do not need others, but to some extent we relied too much on each other for friendship. In January I realized that I needed women friends. Period. We needed couple friends, but I especially wanted some women friends.  I have had wonderful women friends in the past, and I wanted some NOW.

 

What finally brought this need to the forefront is that I dropped off some bread I had made to the church for the Christmas bazaar. The women were setting up and fussing over the display of the goods.  They looked to be having a wonderful time.  I am not one for meetings and I am not one for being in large women work groups because I think that the same thing gets arranged three times over.   But I said to myself, if this is what it takes, I have to do it. I made up my mind to do something out of the house with women once a week.

 

With a couple of other women we organized a project for church.  This was not done without of few lunches, and many laughs and some ranting.  My neighbor friends who had been holding up the role of chief friends for the longest time, introduced us to other friends.  Mr. Radish now sits down after church and talks fishing with men. ( If men are at a loss for words at church, fishing comes to the rescue.) 

 

The definition of friends is so elusive.  What makes one person a friend does not make the next person a friend.  But like good art, you know it, when you see it. 

 

It is with a grateful heart that I announce that I now have friends and more than two.  I now actually have an abundance.  They will never replace my old friends from long ago, but they fill the space in new ways and for new needs.  I now only need a photographer friend, and I think that friend is in the works.  

 

I thank all of my new friends for taking me on.  I thank old friends for still keeping with me.  I thank my daughters and my sister who have carried me along for this decade. 

PS.  I would also like to thank my daughter's friends who have been so inclusive. 

May 25/ This one is for Rob

I have been working hard on photography and post editing. 
So after a couple of years you might think I would know something.  My good friend Rob is taking this same picture set up.  He says to me, "What mode are you shooting in?" " Oh", I say, "shutter". He says to me, Do you know why?  I answer, "There are kids, and they always move, so I want to shoot with a fast speed."  He doesn't say anything, but I know I have the right answer. 

Today I get home and I anxiously upload the photos to my computer.  It was hideously  disappointing.  While I had the right mode.  I forgot to set the shutter speed.  Probably only photographers can understand.  But it is disgusting.  This is the equivalent of putting your dishes in the dishwasher, but not turning it on.

It was a very nice party at my daughter and her husband's house.   They have lots of culdesac parties when the weather is warm and especially if there is a holiday.  The children had a wonderful time.  Although there were some babies, most of the children are all old enough to play together in the circle, riding bikes, riding scooters, having water fights and what ever.  Recently it has been pointed out to me how necessary it is to provide traditions for both children and adults.  These children here will have many happy memories of these barbeque parties. 

May 24/

Some Memorial weekends are great, and some are boring, lonely, wet or all of the above.  This Memorial Day started at noon yesterday at a local biker/grey hair/farmer grill out side in the sun with blue burgers and blue beer flags waving. This was followed by an unexpected find of a  winery.  Then we went and bought our bi yearly cell phones.  What more could you ask for?  Good food, good drink, and a toy.  Love it! 

Our winter has been long and arduous. Grueling is redundant, but necessary addition. Today it is warm the doors are open, and the bees are covering the chives in flower. Bees are alive and well at my house.  Theoretically the last day of frost has past.  I have moved my little tomato spouts into bigger pots.  More planting will happen when my friend comes to carry the big sacks of soil for me, so I can plant more peas and zucchini. I now have endless tarragon and chives.  The California poppies announced themselves.  Only if you live in a place with a long winter, and many days of grey  skies, do you truly appreciate a weekend like this. I feel like I am on dope.  Oh wait, my purple poppies are not in bloom yet. 

 

P.S Daughters, plant herbs now. 

may 21/ Obama statistics

This is actually a test.  Today I had the courage to look at the statistics of my blog.  They were  poor.  The point of this is that in all my low figures there was a day when 462 people looked at the blog.  I could not imagine what I had written to create such a stir. 

I turns out that that was the day I wrote about the White House sending Airforce 0ne flying over New York.   I tried to Photoshop a facsimile. The blog was on April 28, and Obama was in the title.  So today I am seeing if I can spiff up my numbers by  putting Obama in the title.  But for those of you who have made it through the post this far, I add the following. 

*********

Because I am waiting for the Maytag range repair man, is perhaps why I was drawn to the article in the New York Times about dishwashers.  Why does not my dishwasher clean?

 

The number one reason is that people put the dishes in the dishwasher too clean.  The detergent loves, loves food.  If it does not find food, it will attack your glasses making them milky.  That is a sad thing to do to your Waterford scotch glass.  

Use a rinsing agent particularly if you live where there are minerals in the water.  The agent makes the water wash off the slippery dishes. 

The best time to open your dishwasher is the minute it has ended the program. The dishes are still hot and water will evaporate quickly. 

May 19/ letter of Cursillo

This is a  letter that I received at Cursillo , which I have slightly altered. 

 

Dear_____,

 

You and my Mom are probably the 2 most spiritual people in my family.  You guys have inspired me like no one else could.  When we go to church in summer, I really like that.  After going to church a lot more often this summer, I decided to engage more spiritually.  This is because of your inspiration.  Thanks so very much.

May 18/ Cursillo weekend

Well now I have been to Cursillo.  And I consider myself privileged to have attended. I stayed in bed a long time this morning letting the experience wash over me.   I was given a weekend of abundance and love. 

There were 25 or 27 candidates in the progran.  And for every candidate there were 2 people at the weekend working for you spiritually, in the kitchen, cleaning toilets, or writing notes to you. 

Who goes?  All kinds of people attend, from socialites to people who do not know if they will have a job at the end of the month. Young and old, and even a woman in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s came.  All candidates are already on a journey with Christ.  You must have a sponsor and sometimes there is a waiting list.  If you want to go, ask someone at your Church what you would have to do to go.  Usually there is someone to sponsor.  It is a big deal to sponsor and also to work at the weekend.  They enjoy it as much as the candidates.   

I have a fabulous family so I was not quite as needy as some, in the love department.  But most people did need the gush of love. It was beautiful to see people learn to receive love and have it given to them unconditionally.  I know I am loved by God and my family, though it is really nice to hear it again, and again.  For me, this weekend gave me many tools to go forward in my spiritual journey.  For example, how to stay in better touch with Jesus. 

The theme song of this particular retreat was Go,Go,Go. I forget the first verse, but the second is, “If you love me, really love me, feed my sheep”.  It is still hanging in my head.  The trick is having a meaningful, personal relationship with God.  Then knowing how, and being open to feeding the sheep is the next step.

 

 

 

A similar program is taken to the prisons here in Washington twice a year.  Thousands and thousands of cookies are baked for the inmates.  They will also have a weekend and I guess it is a many hanky weekend including for the workers seeing the response from the inmates who may have no one to ever love them.  First the inmates come because of the food, but they stay to listen and they are for the most part ready to think about God.  After the program the men and women continue their journey in groups within the prison.  

May 13/ off for the weekend with the Holy Spirit

I am leaving Thursday afternoon for a Cursillo weekend with the Episcopal Church. Other Protestant and Catholic denominations have the same thing, although it might be named something else.  My sponsor shows up at my house and takes me out to dinner and then deposits me with sleeping bag, cot, pillows, and clothes at the Church where the event is held.  They do not tell you in advance what exactly will occur. But I do know there are lectures by laity and Priests.  I have been asked to go for years, but have hesitated because if this event is  something where a great deal of self examination happens, I did not want to cry for a whole weekend. 

 

You know how there are some things you are really against, and you say to yourself, I will never do that,;  somehow you end up doing just that very thing.  I can’t think of anything right now, but it has happened to me.    Well a couple of times I ate breakfast bra less under my T shirt. But this weekend is about you and the Holy Spirit.  And I am thinking what happens if I talk in tongues.  Yikes!  This is all a joke, but there is this little knob of worry. 

 

So anyhow I am going.  In fact I feel quite good about it, and I know I will enjoy myself.  Four women from my church are attending, but I think that number is high.  There are 24 churches sending women.  And there are no chores.  Holy Spirit, here I come. 

May 12/ Cake world

I am rocking now.  I have finally baked a few things such as a cake and cupcakes and they have actually risen and look presentable.  I have taken up the two stage mixing process which is essentially put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and aerate for about 30 seconds then add in the fat, butter and /or oil, and lastly add the eggs and flavoring and then a little liquid.  I am not encouraging anyone to do this, but the formula has worked several times.  But llikely the real reason for cake success is that I read the expiration date on my baking powder can and it was dated as expired in 2006.

The upper picture is from Bon Apetite this month. And the lower is Mother's Day cake

May 10/ Mother's Day

This is a remembrance of my Mother.  She was a lovely woman.  She, Susie, had four children and she took her mothering seriously.  Really too seriously.  It wore her out. 
She was always a lady, was an over the top wife.  One of the things I remember about  her is that sometimes when I got home from school she would make tea kettle tea which was tea with a lot of milk and sugar.  It was nice to sit with her after school and before she told me what my chores were.  Aside from the vegetables, salmon, and liver, she was a good cook for her day, budget, and circumstances.  She died in 1980.  And I sorry that we do not know each other now.  I would have loved for her to know my girls and my grandkids. 

I had a lovely Mother's Day with my two local daughters.  Much fun and laughter and great food.