Confessions of a Grandma

Today is my daughter's birthday.  It is so hard to believe how fast time goes by.  She's 37.  Her daughter started fourth grade three days ago.  Good grief, I still remember my first day of fourth grade (1957) because we had just moved to Vermont, but my own birthdays kind of stopped after number 36.  Now that both of my children are older than I am, it must be time to revise my age in my head. Our trip to the Rhode Island beach was a fun time.  The weather was iffy, but the food was great and the company even better.  Now Mike wants to fit in another camping trip this week and we have a family reunion (his mother's side) next weekend.   I want to take a trip to see my daughter and grand kids over the weekend.  I have a lunch date, a hair cut appointment and my writers' group on Monday, so that means camping on Tuesday, get back on Thursday and pack for a trip to Connecticut on Friday.  It kind of feels like the ending of summer--...

Cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, fresh picked herbs, blueberries, sweet corn, beets, summer squash, little heads of cabbage--these are the things I can pick from my own garden or find at the local Farmers' Markets.  This is when food tastes so good--one of my favorite things about summer.  As a kid, summer eating was about hot dogs, watermelon, and ice cream.  I haven't had ice cream this summer.  I still go for an occasional hot dog grilled til the skin pops and covered with pickle relish--true junk food.  Watermelon...I'm getting a craving...may have to make a trip to the store. After considerable experimentation, I have decided that drying herbs in the microwave works best for me.  Also, I tried freezing vegetarian dishes so that on those days when I just am not up for slicing, dicing, chopping, etc., I'd have something on hand.  I find that I prefer to make something with the idea that I will have it in the fridge and have four or five meals of i...

Oh. boy! It looks like we are in for some nice weather in the coming week. I skipped the deck today and mowed the lawn instead. Mike spent the two plus hours it took me to do that scraping the deck and helping me "help" him. First, I could not get the lawn tractor to start. I checked the fuel; I tapped on the carburetor; I tried again and again; I walked away and then went back and tried again. Nothing. I finally went to get Mike and told him I couldn't start the lawn tractor. He stopped his scraping and went into the garage--that darn tractor started with his first turn of the starter. He went back to his job; I could not get the tractor to move. Once again, I interrupt him. The parking brake was on. I did not even know the lawn tractor had a parking brake. After a half hour of mowing I went around the lilac bush in the back yard. It's on a small but fairly steep hill. I tipped the tractor into the bush and got it thoroughly stuck. I couldn't back out and I could...

The weather promises to warm up for the coming week so I am holding on through another cold and drizzly Saturday. I did get out yesterday to pick bunches of lilacs and lily-of-the-valley. The house smells wonderfully like spring. I don't care for sprays or plug-ins that scent the air, but I do love the lilacs while they are in bloom. I am aching to get out and do some work in the garden, but there aren't even so many weeds to be plucked yet. It's too cold to put out the plants I've started. Garden work is just not something you can parcel out. Probably in a couple of weeks I'll be in over my head with too much to do. Being and equal opportunity complainer, I'll moan about that, too. I do have plenty of chives and they have been appearing in many recent meals...on one of our plates. Chives are another item on Mike's list of "nuisance vegetables." The chives are about to bloom and then I will make some chive vinegar by soaking the flowers in white vi...