Gathering of the Clans

Sam and I really enjoyed the Scottish Tartan Festival yesterday! I saw a brief blurb on the local news earlier in the week, checked it out on the internet, and forwarded the information to Sam with a "Let's do this!" So, we did! We enjoyed the music, the dance, the food...Even though Sam thought the portions were small and stopped in Waskom TX for dessert...which became a full-fledged meal of salad, catfish, fries...with not even two hours passed since he ate lunch. LOL

Opening ceremony:Scottish Sword Dance:Notice the Irish dancers, watching her footwork.The Jackson (Mississippi) Irish dancers:Yes, the little once danced, too.Roll call of the clans:
Scottish Hieland cow:I have a varied Celtic heritage. Irish on my mother's side: Field and Phillips. Irish on my dad's side: Griffith. And Scottish on my dad's side: Glasgow. The Glasgow's were not highland Scots so therefore have no tartan. However the town of Glasgow developed a tartan back in 1992.Or I could wear the Texas Bluebonnet tartan designed in 1989. Both are registered in Scotland. I REALLY like that Texas Bluebonnet Tartan!!!

Flowers and Fish

Spring time...I love it! Meantime, in the house... I made this for a sweet young lady. I mean, I made it for her cats. Erin has two cats: Cricket and Bug. Do ya think the fabric is appropriate?

I keep telling Sam...I will never ever make another! At supper, he asked who I was talking to earlier. ??? I had not been on my phone. That I could remember. So, I pulled it out of my pocket and checked. Nope. No incoming or outgoing calls. I started laughing. What? He asked. I was cussing the fish!

Laughter in the Air

What a glorious sound! I stepped out on the front porch to clip my fingernails. Broke one the other day and can't stand the jagged look of one shorter than the rest.

Our neighbors have a little boy...and enough toys in the front yard for a preschool nursery! They have a fenced in backyard so we haven't figured out why the front yard is the playground. But it's nunya...none of your (our) business.

They are outside with the child constantly. As were he and his mother this morning. I loved the laughter and the giggles and found a couple of weeds to pull, untangled a wind chime, just stood and smiled while enjoying the sound of the little boy at play.

My little boy is 26 years old...and not so little either. ;o)

Roadside Ramblings

Remember this photo? Here's what Sam did with the beefed up jack hammer...It took less than one day to bust up the concrete pad. A whole lot better time than if he'd gone at it with a sledge hammer!! When the rubble is gone, he intends to make a gentler slope. His brother wants the rubble to control some creekside erosion. So...

LOOK! I have two new things! A new hummingbird feeder and...a Japanese maple to replace the Mountain Laurel I had to remove. The laurel required sweet soil. Did you see the azaleas? Acidic soil. I would add lime to the soil around the laurel and an iron supplement for the acid around the azaleas. LOL And I truly thought it might work. Not!

Oh. Funny story time. We bought the maple at Lowes. I was on one side of the trees, Sam on the other. A man - customer - walked by me and said, Oh. Those are synthetic Japanese maples. Excuse me? Yes. Real Japanese maples that size are $500.

Well. It was the right color and in a price range I was willing to shell out. The label stated it was a Japanese maple. I said something to Sam. The man realized... Hey...she's with someone. So he buggied on off and even said something to Sam about the trees. I leaned over to Sam. "He doesn't know what he's talking about." ;o)

After I got home, I did a search on the variety of maple that I came home with. It is the original variety brought to the USA in the late 1780s and cultivated in a nursery on Long Island! LOL

More azaleas are blooming. One of the three bushes here hasn't burst open yet. Be sure to check out my hosta...The bluebonnets in the bed are about to explode. Can't wait until they bloom down by the road! Yippee!!

We made two more purchases at Lowes. Live oaks. They aren't synthetic either...the Latin name had Virginiana in it...True Southern live oaks. ;o) Hmmm...Can't see them very clear here. So here's a close-up.Another variety of daffodils blooming.On the way to Mama's for a visit, I had to pull over and inhale the heady scent of wisteria. It's gone WILD and crazy on both sides of the road through here. I would love to have a vine (and know where to get it too!) but I can't handle this out of control-ness. Indian Paintbrush.Not very good photos of dogwoods speckled throughout.



Then...there is THIS! Both sides of the railroad track. I live in an area of trashy TRASHY people... And a county without a landfill... That won't set up dumpsters for tax-paying county residents to dispose of garbage like T H I S!!! I deserve to be a Cranky Old Woman today!

Happy Easter

What a beautiful day the Lord has made. It's been a little overcast and muggy, but still gorgeous!

Baby brother, Joey, you remember him don't you? I've promised myself not to refer to him by the Brat any more. I think I'm doing rather well...don't you? ;o) He sent this photo. It's a neighbor's dogwood in all its majestic glory! I don't know if it's the rain or the extended cold, but this year's dogwoods are really putting on a show.

Thanks Br...oops...THANKS JOEY! Love you!! ;o)

Right Hand Doesn't Know...

...what the left hand is doing. Or in other words...

Men generally complain about women using their tools all wrong...like using a screwdriver for a chisel...hitting it with a hammer to pry on something. Of course EVERYONE knows that women never put tools back in the man cave where the man of the cave had that one specific place reserved for that one specific tool.

Let me talk to you now about the illusive water hose. A couple of months ago, I needed a water hose at the front of the house. Before this winter, the water hoses for use around the house were stored in the garage. This year, some went to the new metal building...the remainder to the well house. (I was not the person who moved the house hoses to the buildings...You-know-who did it.) I purchased two new hoses last year because two old cheap hoses cracked and broke. Even though the two discarded hoses were used around the house, one of the new hoses has wound up (literally wound up on a hanger) in the new metal building. You-know-who has laid claim to it.

Back to the story...a couple of months ago, I rounded up the second new water hose and brought it back down to the house. I unhooked the styrofoam faucet cover and watered a few plants, washed off the porch, filled the bird bath. Because it was still winter, I knew that another freeze would eventually head our way, I drained the hose, screwed the ends together and coiled it in the corner of the garage. Put the faucet cover back on. Deed done.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day! I needed to mix up some broadleaf weed killer. Got my sprayer, the poison, a measuring cup...set everything out on the apron in front of the garage. Walked back into the garage for the hose. Hmmm. Not where I thought I put it. Must've put it at the back of the garage. Hmmm. Not there either. I didn't even need an AH-HA moment. I KNOW where it went.

So, being the lazy person that I am, I just filled the sprayer straight out of the faucet.

After supper, delicious if I do say so myself!, I took the scraps up to the compost. Opened the well house door...and there's the missing hose. Sam was still sitting at the dining table and saw me peek into the well house. He asked what I was looking for. I told him the missing hose.

Oh...he replied...I cleaned out the garage.

I noticed. I put the hose in there for a reason.

When?

Doesn't matter when.

Must've been before I cleaned out the garage.

I didn't say it. I promise I didn't say it. Out loud. ;o)

Supper:
Chicken thighs seasoned and baked until the skin was oh so crispy!
Roasted asparagus
Molten chocolate cakes

Didn't think to take photos. I have another batch of asparagus that was only 99 cents a pound! So will cook some more tomorrow most likely and take a photo then. I'll post the recipe too. In the meantime, in addition to the asparagus, you need some onion, mushrooms, green onions, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Kar, The bush with the red flowers a few posts down...that is a Camellia...not a rose. But I love it specifically for that very reason. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a perfume.

Happy Spring!

Sigh...School Detention

Yep. I got sent to lunch detention Tuesday. Today...the principal called me into his office. I've been a baaaaad girl.

While subbing on Tuesday, the assistant principal called that teacher's classroom for the 'real' teacher. I let him know that she was gone. Within 15 minutes, he walked into the classroom smiling and handed me a list of names. Since that teacher had lunch then a conference period, she was in charge of the 30 minute lunch detention (for habitually tardy students) for that day. So...I got to fill in for her. A teacher's conference period is an off-period for the subs. At first I thought RATS! Big time! It turned out to be the quietest 30 minutes of the day! I would gladly do it again. (If the kids aren't quiet, they have to repeat the detention. LOL That 30 minutes really cuts into their socializing time.)

Today as I got my assignment, the school secretary let me know that yesterday's sub went home crying! Before the end of the day!! One of the classes really did a number on her...and she didn't press the button for a principal...haven't figured why she didn't. However, because of block scheduling...not all of today's classes were the same as yesterday's. I assured the secretary that I would read today's classes the riot act.

As I was walking down the hall, the principal's office door opened. He and the assistant principal stepped out, and he asked the secretary a question. I heard my name. Turned and looked. I was 'invited' into the principal's office. Sent to lunch detention on Tuesday and the principal's office on Thursday. What's next?! ISS?? (In School Suspension) I better start acting better. ;o) The principal just reinforced what the secretary told me.

Wednesday was a terribly long day. Earlene picked me up at 6 a.m. We drove to Garland...2 hours and 45 minutes thanks to the traffic over Lake Ray Hubbard. The public library is getting a new computer program. Training was set up and Earlene asked me to go with her. You know. Two not knowing what to do are better than one not knowing what to do. ;o( The all day long class was good...even though there was virtually no snacks...I NEVER! My only complaint...we had no handouts. So when we get on the computer to go to the available website to practice, we have nothing to look at to assure that we are at the correct screen.

I don't remember what time we got back...about 7 p.m. I think. I was in bed at 9 and slept all night long...

Tyler Quilt Show

Don't know what happened...whether it was operator error or camera problems ...Yeah..right. We know the true answer. Most of the photos I took of the whole quilt are blurred. The zoomed in photos are clear. Figure that one out.

Here's just a sampling of what I keep going back to look at again...

Made out of ties.What a CUTE idea! Wouldn't this be a great birthday party project?!I am a hand quilting snob. But look at the machine quilting on this. I'm sure that many others were just as good, but the dark green border with the white thread really made this one stand out to me. (See the bit of blurr in this?) I think it was the local guild who did a CQ challenge. I loved the gloved hand. And these three friends. The border really made this Grandmother's Flower Garden.

Antiquing After Quilt Show

The Tyler quilt show was just the right size...not too big...not too small. Not like the overload of the Houston International Quilt Show (which I do intend to attend again!). The Tyler show still had plenty of gorgeous quilts. But I want to talk about what I purchased in Gladewater on the way home. Quilt show post will be later...

The cornbread/scone skillet...I'm gonna brag. $4.50. The other two skillets I purchased in Lone Star last week. The little skillet was $5. The larger was $6.00. The little skillet just needed a washing. The other two I will put in the oven the next time I turn on the self-cleaning cycle. The small skillets are great for pot pies! They make larger servings, but do feed a man-size appetite.

Okay. Not an antique or a collectible. I saw a tote made out of fabric with this design on both sides. Carol and I decided to buy it, split the cost, take it apart and make aprons. Then Carol found two tea towels at $6.50 each.I call 'em cup towels. So we bought them. Now we don't have to cut a tote bag apart.

I picked up a stack of six open work linen napkins pinned together in a bundle. "OH LOOK!" Carol said, "I want them." I clutched them to my breast and gave her the evil eye. She looked disgusted (I am exaggerating a bit) and turned away. THEN I found two more bundled separately. EIGHT napkins. My table seats EIGHT people. WOW! What a find! Are you ready for the price? $1 each!!

My fancy eatin' dishes are white. Sam and I decided on white because it goes with anything, and we all know how tastes and the 'it' color of the decade comes and goes. So I change my color scheme with my table linens. Carol found this and handed it to me. A whole $3! (That's before I wouldn't hand over the napkins.) But, LOL, what am I going to do with THREE white gravy pitchers?! I could use them alternately. The other two are...middle is Oneida. The large mouth on the right is made in Portugal. Both of those are relatively new.However, we all know which one I'm going to pick every time.

I make my own salad dressings and have just been putting the thicker dressings in a bowl with a spoon. Light bulb moment!! The store, BTW it is Antiques II on Hwy 271, the main drag through town, had numerous creamers...as in sugar bowl and creamer sets. Perfect for home salad dressings! The little creamer on the left was only $2 while the cut glass creamer on the right was $3.

I purchased this to go with my cruet collection. $2 I'm not going to tell you what the label was on the bottom. I've already scraped it off. Okay, OKAY! It's an Avon bottle. But isn't it so cute?

Quilt show will be reported on in next post...I promise!