'Nother one

Here is second favorite collectible from my Llardo group. I call it "The Old Grandfather" I don't believe that is the correct name but I like it. Notice the baby's intent it to give the mustache a yank and is being told "NO".

Don't forget that you can click on the picture to make it larger.

Collecting

Many years ago when my husband and I were not drawn nor had the money to collect anything I saw an acquaintences Llardro collection of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and various animals in a creche. I mentioned to my husband that if we ever collected anything I would enjoy having a display like that. Many years later, he surprised me with something even more beautiful See pictures. This beautiful image is called
"Flight to Egypt"

Corn bread

I have always enjoyed cooking, especially cooking for my family. I have been looking for years for the perfect corn bread recipe, have tried many and eventually become disappointed in that recipe for some reason or other. I have recently been catching a TV show occasionally called "America's Test Kitchen" and tried a recipe for corn bread they worked out. This may be the one!

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour ....and set aside

Mix into food processor:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
a dash or two of hot sauce (I put in a dash and didn't even notice it when we ate it)
blend a bit---not too much, you don't want to make mush out of the corn.

Fold in the dry ingredients
Fold in some melted butter---I didn't get the amount.
Heat iron skillet on top of stove with oil in the skillet until very hot then remove from heat. Pour batter into the skillet, smooth out and put into a 450 degree oven and bake until done. Tooth pick test it. They said to let it rest for 20 minutes but it didn't get to rest in this house.

GOOD STUFF.

Nothing, ziltch, Nada, zero,

I have nothing to share this a.m. I will try to find a picture once again that you have not seen. Hasta Manana Wonder if that is even close to correct?
Hummm. Even the blog site knows I have nothing. It won't even let me add a picture. See you tomorrow.

A-W-W-W RATS!

DURN! My photography skills let me down. I have been waiting for the best opportunity for two years to take the attached picture. The opportunity would be:

The right season
Just the right time in that season
Heading for church or town at just the right time
The best light (early in the morning
I took my camera to church with me yesterday. Was passing thru the
"Camino de Lozania" and hoped it all worked together and as you can see, it didn't. The trees are almost all Palo Verde trees in full blossom. There is a short stretch of road on the way down the frontage road on the way from my house to Tucson that is truly beautiful at this time of year. It just doesn't show up here.

By the way, I looked up the translation online because I don't speak Spanish. Camino de Lozania is the best I could come up with for the translation for Corridor of Blossoms.

No empty baskets

I thought about showing you the empty baskets along with the finished projects that came out of them but the baskets are already filled with new projects so I will just show you three of the projects that I have finished in the last two weeks when I was ill. I believe the hat on my grand daughter was finished before I got sick. The afghan I started over a year ago and the little baby sweater had not been put aside for such a long time. I started and have almost completed a crocheted jacket in that two weeks but I can't show it to you yet. I didn't like the way the trim turned out and will rip it off and do something different then I will show it to you. The baby sweater will perhaps fit a 6 month old. BB admired the colors in the afghan and when I ask if he would like to have it he accepted it with alacrity. (I am the worlds worst speller. I know many words that are not commonly used and enjoy using them but can't spell them. My little electric pocket dictionary told me, "sorry, can't help" on my first try on alacrity).

Get up and go?

My GO didn't happen with my GET UP this morning. I am sitting here sipping my coffee waiting for the GO to happen. I have been "visiting" with some of you lovely ladies and seeing what lovely things you have done in your homes and appreciating all. That is as far as I will go with my interior and "out-terier" decorating. Way too much effort. I am not a lazy person. I simply have energy that only goes so far and it doesn't cover the "pretty" things. I am content with what I have. I was sitting on my back porch with BB last night, (do you remember that BB means baby brother?) after supper last night, full tummys and a feeling of great contentment came over us both. Right now, my desert is mostly green and yellow. The Mesquite and Palo Verde trees are filled with blossoms. The air is alive with the buzzing of bees. He mentioned that there is no place in the world that he would rather be than right here on my back porch. Frequently there are questionaires that come on e-mail to fill out that suggests that filling out the answers is a way to get to know your friends better. There is always the question, "If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would that be?" My answere is always, Beautiful Marana, AZ. Oh, I know, it is not so beautiful in the middle of Summer when it is 110 degrees more or less and everything has turned brown, but I know that the rains will come and turn things green again for a while. My sweet late husband used to say to people that complained about the heat, "Yeah, but you don't have to shovel it!" We lived in CT., CO., & IA for periods of time. We know about ice and snow. Fortunaty, the times we lived in those places, we knew the time was limited and we enjoyed getting to know the area. Another "fortunately", the Lord chose to take him home when we lived in MY desert. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

Try, try again.

I tried earlier to set up Friday's post but the picture part of the blogspot wasn't working. Here goes again. Wish me luck.

HAH!. I slipped the pictures in. The first one is the very young Palo Verde Tree. This tree is unique in that is has all green trunk and branches. The second two pictures are of a Creosote bush that is almost gone to seed. The blossoms have all turned to what will be the seed and looks like tiny puff balls. The next two pictures are of a creosote bush that is not that far along yet. Has about half blossoms and half puff balls.

That is all until tomorrow. Gotta go pick up my yarn. I have been milking goats, feeding chickens and ducks and the goats, (Becky is at a garage sale her church is having to earn money for the kids to go to camp) watering my garden so BB can pull some more weeds and erect some more supports for the tomaotes and peas. Now, time to rest for a while.

Too much too soon

Finally, yesterday, I started feeling better and regaining some energy. True to form, I went out to the garden to water and pull weeds. I believe I worked out there for about an hour. Most of the rest of the day I was inside playing with yarn. It was such a beautiful day that when I was expecting BB to come home I started walking to meet him. I used to do that when my husband was alive. I have the Bible on tape and every day my husband would call me when he started home and I would put on my walking shoes, my walkman in my ears and work my way through the Bible. Amazing how the Bible comes together when you "read" it every day. Anyway, last night, I started walking and walked about 1/2 mile before my energy was used up. I sat on a large utility box to wait for him. Or Bob (son-in-law). One neighbor was on the way out and saw me "getting dusted" as she said in an e-mail. Finally another neighbor saw me and stopped and took me home. Thankfully. Very thankfully. This morning my body is telling me I did too much too soon. I think today I will have to take it easy once again. Meanwhile, I will try to find a picture you haven't seen.

The picture is of my back porch. I didn't want a large back porch. This one is just right.

Emptying baskets

I didn't know a cold could wreak such havoc on an OLD PERSON! I have been "under" for...this is the 11th day. I know I will be better someday but meanwhile the weeds have taken over my garden.

BB brought home a GODSEND, as he called it, last night. The night before when he was here I was describing how Martha Stewart poled her green bean plants. It involves a tripod of
6 ft. tall bamboo poles, string and anchors for the string, all of which allows the beans to climb. He found in a pile of trash where he works, a whole bunch of PVC pipe that had been used for something and was no longer wanted. He believes it has a value of appx. $60. (We a are very wastefull sociaty, we Americans) At any rate, he was excited about his find and when he arrived, he immediately started pulling weeds and erecting tripods. He put the two he built over the top of my volunteer tomatoes. When he got the garden ready to plant this spring(tilled it) there were many cherry tomatoes that had fallen to the ground and had never ripened because of the onset of winter. The volunteer tomatoes are taking over my garden. I am happy about that, home grown tomatoes are one of my favorite things.

Oh yes. Emptying baskets. I can seldom sit with my hands folded and do nothing, even while I am very ill. (That did happen a couple of days while I was the most ill) So...I sat and decided that I would finish projects. I never tie into to something and work until it is finished. I do something for a while and then move on to something else. I NEVER SAY BORED! (Baby daughter says, "Mom, that sound like a little A.D.D kicking in) I just keep doing different things all day. I have so much to do that interest me that bored simply doesn't enter into my mind. I have several baskets (perhaps 7-8) with ongoing project in them. While I was so ill I decided that I would try to get some of those finished. It takes less energy to do what is in front of you rather than go find new things to do. At any rate, I have been emptying baskets. When I have more energy I will take pictures and show you what I have finished.

I just added a picture for you. BB was playing with my camera last summer and took this picture. Not a very interesting picture I know but it is one you haven't seen. It is taken from my back porch. You see the OLD PERSON walking from the garage. There is a cloths line my son-in-law put up for me shortly after I moved in. I have always hung my clothes out to dry whenever I can. This OLD PERSON is and old fashioned person.

TERRIBLE, AWFUL......................

TERRIBLE, AWFUL, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY. I don't know if I have all the words in there correctly or the right sequence (Clif and Kala would know) but that is this day. Couldn't go to church. I think it is the first day I have missed church in over five years if I were in town. Nasty cold, nastier cough, wondering if it is turning into pnumonia. I have had pnumonia 2-3 times and understand that once you have it, it is easier to get it again.

All you sweet and wonderful ladies are always putting in the prettiest pictures of your home and what you have in it. I decided that I will put in a pictre of my new (kinda new) pillows. I bought them at a thrift store for $3 each. Perfect pillows for my bed, perfect colors and the price cannot be beat. I believe decorator pillows are sky high in price these days. Click on the picture to make it larger. I would go in there and make use of those pillows right now but I can't breath well lying down.

Poor pathetic me.

Busy, busy, busy

I have finally found relief from most of the yearly doctors appointsments. One of those was in Phoenix. I still go to the same eye doctor the day I take my tax information to the tax lady up there. So...I have been doing some catching up 'round here. Always the weeds in my veggie garden and then I got involved in cleaning and sorting the garage. Our church has a yearly yard sale and looking around my garage I found things I haven't used since I moved here over five years ago. BIG JOB. No time for blogging. Yesterday I came down with a cold!! Big surprise to me for I almost am never ill. So I spent yesterday doing small thing inside.

A couple of days I saw a Roadrunner making tracks across my property. I seldom see Roadrunners around here. I caught a couple of picture before he/she left the area. In one, the bird was almost out of the view finder before I got it snapped. They are really fast. The other is a pretty good picture.

Old knees

I told you I would let you know about my knee. The pain I have had in my knee is greatly affected by the shoes I wear. I went to a podiatrist and we talked and he poked and he sold me a very expensive shoe liner? support to put in my shoe. It seemed to make a difference yesterday. I have not given it a full test yet but I think it will help. He believes the pain in the knee is related to an injury of five years ago to the ankle. It just may be. I think I will give it the untimate test by going out in the garden and extracting some more burmuda grass.

Some of you have mentioned that you enjoy the pictures I put on my blog. I will put one on that two of my neices will get a big laugh out of. It is of my BB and their dad.