Week 134, 7/15/2018

Thoughts and Quotes: Summer, summer, summertime, time to sit back and unwind.
                                                      From the song "Summer"

And that's what I've been doing the last couple of days, after a whirlwind beginning to the week. As you'll recall, I left off my last post rather abruptly when I got a call from some friends from Minnesota who said they were 200 miles away.

I knew they were going to visit on the way to a Camparee sometime in the middle of July, but somehow didn't get a definite date on my calendar. Oh, dear! 

When I have company, I like to do the "little extra", but no time for that. I ran to the store and picked up some supplies, but no time to do anything special. It worked out okay. They'd just eaten lunch (at 3:00 p.m.), so we just had reuben sandwiches and chips in the evening, and the next day we had cereal and bananas for breakfast. Then off to Wonders of Wildlife. We stayed the entire day and had dinner at Golden Corral (burp!), and were ready to turn in early. I did give them a decent bacon and eggs breakfast on Tuesday before they left for the campgrounds. I'll make up for my mediocre hostessing the next time they visit with a pretty table and a good dinner.

I know you've seen photos before, but if I send these to my friends by email, I can only send a few at a time. If I post them here, they can see them all at once, and then give my blog address to friends so they can view them. They were both quite impressed with the place and want to tell all their camping buddies about it. So here goes - and remember that all the backdrops are handpainted. Wonders of Wildlife (WOW) is a part of the original Bass Pro in Springfield, Missouri.

We went to the acquarium side first, and didn't take pictures. It's difficult through glass, plus no flash. These are photos I've taken on prior visits.

And if you want more WOW photos, go to the archives and click on Week 105.

George, I found your camera batteries in the back seat of my car. Two nights and one day is a very short visit. You must stay longer next time.

Tasting: I finally took Nancy to Keeter Center, and since she was off in the middle of the week, Martha could go too. Martha and I had the chicken-fried chicken (our favorite):

Nancy had the deconstructed pot roast pot pie.

They always serve wheat rolls, cranberry scones (they call them biscuits), with homemade apple butter and butter from their dairy.

Tips: Bev introduced me to a Facebook closed group which is perfectly delightful. If you're on Facebook, you can join and you're accepted immediately. Just log on to www.facebook.com and search for Tea Cups and Cupcakes Group. Wonderful photos and I was inspired to do some -

Thrifting: I was running errands but got that little niggling feeling that I should visit our local thrift shop. Woo hoo! 30% off on all dishes. Baby is still there, snoozing away, as usual. I swear she's related to Stormy.

I found a St. Patrick's Day teapot for $3.50.

A granite tea warmer to go with my brown teapots for 70 cents.

A shell dish which I'll use for butter for one of my theme dinner tables for 70 cents.

Looks as if I need it for the Beachcomber Brunch.

And this mystery piece for 70 cents.

I finally looked on the bottom - Duh! It said Carol Wilson Fine Arts. I Googled Carol and she's that lady who makes the beautiful cards, notepads, etc. Click HERE.  Don't you want all of them? I've even had some of them. I'm guessing this came in a set, like this one from Lady Jayne Ltd. Click HERE.

But it's mine now, and I'm using it like this.

And another mystery, also for 70 cents.

This one says Lady Jayne Ltd on the bottom.  She also makes notecards, but mostly jewelry. So take your choice.  But I could also use it like this.

I was on a roll, so I decided to go to Goodwill (where yellow tags were 50% off), and I found two pretty little glass dishes.

The oval one was 50 cents.

And the rectangular one was $1. Camera distortion - it's not square.

So I'm disposing of this. It's a tea party in a box.

I also bought three scarves for 50 cents each. Washed, but not ironed yet.

So I'm discarding two cheapies I bought in China.

And this one from Spain which I bought in haste, believing it to be Don Quixote, but instead turned out to be a bull figher. Great size for a tea table, but not a suitable subject.

The Pepper and Pals Report: The heat seems to be making Stormy and Pepper very lethargic, though they're in the air-condioned house. I call them my Sleepy-head Cats, which is fine with me. Guess the heat works on people, too, because we all took a long nap yesterday afternoon.

Sadly, BJ has only one remaining kitten. That's the heart-wrenching part of feral kitties. A litter of six, and only one survivor. I'm ready to try trapping BJ again, but the baby looked so vulnerable, I didn't have the heart to take her mommy away for 4 or 5 days. Besides, she's still nursing. She's eight weeks old now. Next week for sure. I'm sure the baby is a girl. Of course, since the vet charges more to fix girls than he does for boys, she'll be a she.

This morning, I found them like this.

Tasting: Remember the scone mix in my CARE package from last week? I made the scones for breakfast - so easy. You just add water, mix, drop on parchment, and bake. Fantastic! I made myself stop after two. I could have eaten the entire dozen.

I ate them with my yummy butter from Ireland (which I save for special times) and red raspberry seedless jam. The tray was from my Special Girls up North too. It came laden with goodies.

No stores in my area carry Sticky Fingers Bakeries products, but I can buy them online HERE or HERE. The first link is direct to the company so you can see all their products: scone mix, muffin mix, curds and jams. I want them all. The second link is for Amazon's carriers of the products.

Tales: I just finished Book 4, and I find this author worthwhile. The Garden Girls live in a small town and the protagonist, Gloria - a widow, is an amateur sleuth. She's like Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher. Someone is always getting murdered, but you're not really attached to the victim, so you don't mourn very long. And it's never a descriptive murder, so you're not trying to control your gag reflex. Just a nice little Cozy Mystery murder. This is also the Cruise Ship mysteries series starting with Book 7. Somewhere I figured out that one of the Garden Girls is going to accept a position on a cruise ship, so I guess the setting will change from small town to cruise ship at that point. More books in the series, but I still have eight to go, so like Scarlett, I'll think about that tomorrow. Hope publishes only ebooks.

Teaching and Learning: Only two lessons left in my Travel Writing Class. One will be released on Wednesday and the next on Friday. I hoped to pick up some tips to make my travel journal more interesting when I visit the Dakotas this fall. The best part of the course has been the information on resources. But I've had fun. I highly recommend that you check your library for free learning. If you can't find anything by computer, by all means, ask the reference desk. That's why it's there. 

Or just Google "free education" and you'll be amazed at what is available. Or study on your own. Choose a subject, get some books from the library, research the internet, and get those brain cells buzzing.

Tidbits: We haven't done National Days for awhile. Let's see what's happening this week.

Monday is Corn Fritters Day - I can do that.

Tuesday it's either a tattoo or peach ice cream. I love peach ice cream

Wednesday it's sour candy or caviar. Not fond of either, but candy is cheaper.

Thursday - Hot dog! It's hot dog day.

Friday is Pennsylvania Day. If you know someone there, give them a call. If not, we could study the state (see Teaching and Learning above). Or take the easy way out and suck on a lollipop.

Saturday - a great idea. I'm going to just direct you to see how to celebrate Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day. Click HERE. Or if you have no regrets, you can eat junk food.

Sunday - if you don't have a hammock, you need to eat some penuche fudge.

Looks like a fun and fattening week to me.

SO GO FOR A WALK EACH DAY

DRINK YOUR COFFEE

AND TEA

EAT YOUR APPLES

HEAD TO THE POOL OR LAKE

HUG YOUR FAMILY AND PETS

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE