Happy Thanksgiving.

I was musing this morning while prepping our dinner, and it was such a good muse that I thought -- must write this down. I was chopping cabbage for our cabbage salad -- it's a dish from Jim's family -- some call it "Aunt Rita's Cabbage Salad" referring to Jim's Mom; some say "Gram's Cabbage Salad" as in his Grandmother, but I always think of it as "Pap's." 

The Hovey family cabbage salad is extremely simple -- chopped cabbage, finely shredded carrot (for color), mayonnaise (Hellmann's), pepper and maybe some paprika sprinkled on top. The absolute most important detail in this recipe is the word "chopped." Not box-grated, not sliced, not pulsed in a food processor. It must be hand-chopped as small as possible with a very sharp knife on a cutting board. 

In the 70's we used to eat many Thanksgiving dinners at Gram and Pap Hovey's. We lived around the corner from them and I would pop over early in the morning for coffee [a treat in itself for coffee-lovers -- Pap would make the coffee the night before in one of those old metal percolator pots and just heat it up in the morning--STRONG and so good]. Anyway, Pap would be at the kitchen table hand-chopping the cabbage, methodically and slowly. Gram would sidle over to the table once in a while and push around some pieces on the board and smile and say "oh yes, that looks good." It's a tough job and takes about an hour to chop a good-sized head of cabbage, but I am totally convinced that it's the chop-chop-chop that makes it Pap's Cabbage Salad. 

Oh, I could go on for days about French Canadian cooking -- Gram's pork, potato and sage stuffing, tourtiere, boiled dinner, potato soup (no cream or milk), apple dumplin' (whipped cream always). Yum, tres nostalgique right now. Also faim. --cds

Again With The Randomness

I glanced at the February 15 date of my last post and thought, huh... not all that long ago, but then realized it was a freaking year ago.  It's funny how even in a retirement community Sunday mornings are more quiet than other mornings.  And when it happens to be a gorgeously sunny 74 degree morning, cloudless sky, slight breeze fluttering the palm branches, mockingbirds all atwitter, I don't want to be anywhere except my front porch.  Felt like writing this morning, so here I am.

Like many others, I'm done watching network news.  I keep a local news app on my phone along with our county sheriff's emergency notifications, but other than Skyping and keeping in close touch with kids, we're isolating like nobody's businesss.  Personally, I am a very patient person and have no trouble with waiting, but when we don't really understand what we're waiting for?  To become sick? To hear that, God forbid, loved ones are ill? Seems perverted somehow. I don't like it.

So that's that.  I'm gonna take a break to grab some hand stitching to bring out here on the porch.  Did I mention how gorgeous it is outside?  Oh, here's an awkward and probably fuzzy photo of my front porch.  It's small, but I had James build us a bench for added seating and/or napping.  Mostly napping.  The oilcloth striped skirt is temporarily duct-taped until I decide how I want to make it permanent, but you get the idea. --cds

Still Here!

Today's haul from the Farmers Market is brought to you by the Vitamin C.  Perhaps a strawberry-orange cocktail concoction will be prepared for this lovely Friday afternoon.  --cds

Randomness

My,  what a fine blue and green day it is.  That phrase just popped into my head today -- I've read it before somewhere -- and it perfectly describes our weather.  After yesterday's line of windy, rainy thunderstorms blew through, knocking out our power for a bit, we woke up to a breezy, cool, sunny and bright as all get-out morning.  Shiny grass-green palm fronds waving against a bluebonnet sky are making me happy today.  'Course I believe I was thinking pretty much the same thoughts last evening, sitting here on the porch and watching charcoal-colored clouds race west to east and thinking how silvery and ominous palm branches look bending flat in the blow of a storm.  I do love weather.  And palm trees.

Speaking of trees, last week I watched as one of our neighbors out back had the beautiful magnolia in his yard hacked down by tree murderers.  And it was in bloom!  I couldn't bear to watch. 

Something much more pleasant -- updates on grandchildren!  First day of school photos from September 2017:  Isabella is a freshman, age 15;

Evie is in the 5th grade, age 10;

Ruthanne is in 2nd grade, age 7, and Marcus is in Pre-K this year; he just turned 5.

Both Utah and Vermont gathered here in Florida with us in December for our first Christmas together ever!  It was lovely, so much fun.

Morning golf cart ride in Christmas jammies.

Since January, Jim has been to quite a few Classic Car shows with his old truck.  I like to go if it involves travel to shows in more rural Florida -- we avoid I-4 and I-75 and stick to back roads through south-central Florida -- it is countryside worlds (ha!) away from tourist-Florida, just pasture, farms, beautiful old trees and swampy rivers. Lots of cows and horses, hawks, osprey, herons and egrets.  I am on a quest to spot a Florida panther.

I notice I need to do a little housekeeping on my blog.  Some of those "favorites" on the sidebar no longer exist.    --cds

Lucky

I just took a few pictures of our community post-Irma.  No one's home was badly damaged, thank goodness.  Mom's roof lost some shingles, so she's one of the very few around here with a blue-tarped roof.  We'll get it fixed in the next few weeks.  So many people along the coast are still in bad shape, flood and power-wise.

Slowly getting my home back in order -- I had emptied the china cabinet and put all breakable treasures in the dishwasher; cherished books (ha! aren't they all??) and photo albums went into plastic bags-into suitcases-into plastic bags; frames and mirrors were taken down from walls; and since I've been trucking them around with me for nearly 60 years.....

Barbie, Barbie and Ken rode out Irma packed safely away in a suitcase.  Lest you think your Family Curator has not been taking her job seriously of late, rest assured that the dollhouse and other ancestry notes, ephemera and photos were safely packed and bubbled wrapped inside our shower stall surrounded by quilts and pillows.

So I'll be back at the unpacking job later today.  But first, a swim, then a smoothie.  Hooray for normalcy.  --cds

Power!

Just popping in briefly -- after five sweltering days and nights, our power is back on.  Many many thanks to every lineman working out there in this awful heat and humidity on our behalf.  All else is all good here in our little sphere.  No real structural damage, no hurt neighbors, we have food and good water.  And now, coolness.  Think I'll google the inventor of air conditioning and set up a little shrine or something.

Back soon, I pinky-promise, because I have Vermont pictures to share.  --cds

Gimme Shelter

Oh, of course this song has been running through my head the past few days.  So here is our updated, final, not-changing-our-minds, let's do this, hurricane plan.  For the past six days we have had various ideas on how to survive this nasty-looking storm, including hotel reservations just north of Atlanta (the closest I could find along the routes North, no lie).  That was Tuesday.  After a long week of careful consideration (panic, yelling, endless supply gathering, drama -- literal drama, too: Evie desperately wanted us to drive to Utah and after gently explaining that could not happen, she composed an interpretative dance for us via Skype that involved much shouting of "Death"  "Destruction" and falling gracefully to the floor), we agreed to stay in town, but head to the public shelter, our local high school around the corner.  But......, I kept visualizing ourselves spending two days in a high school gym with a thousand other people, waiting in a bathroom line for God knows what sort of facility.  Big ugh.  I have real trouble as it is just walking around our very odoriferous local flea market.

Therefore, in true Claudi-style, yesterday I tried making a last ditch reservation at a Disney resort and managed to snag two nights at one of their value hotels -- around a hundred bucks a night and so totally worth it to me!  Just one visit to a clean bathroom of one's own is something I would definitely pay for.

I realize I sound very shallow and persnickety, but I figure I'm quite willing to pay and get out and leave my space in a shelter for someone who really needs it.  And so, this morning we will head up I-4 through the already visible bands of showers and breeze and be safe and sound in a block building that hopefully will not blow down.

I'll be back tomorrow with an update on our encounter with Irma.  --cds

It's May Already!

May is a busy birthday month in my family -- I would surely leave someone out if I tried to list them off the top of my head, so I'll just mention that here are a few happy flower photos from my vintage collection (delphiniums from my old Vermont garden, Dad's zinnias, and Grandpop's dogwood) for two important women in my life who celebrate May birthdays -- these two:

Auntie Claudia and Auntie Ann.  I would not be the person I am without either of them, and that is a very very good thing (if I do say so myself).  So Happy May Birthday, with enormous love and hugs.  --cds

Fairly Recent Sewing Output

So I haven't been too much of a slug in the sewing department lately.  Below is a pair of baby quilts for the cutest twin boys I have ever seen.  The fabrics are "Lion King" themed and the backing is a brown and white pawprint flannel.

The Boys are my nephew Jake and Lyndsay's babies born in December.  Now this photo was not labeled, but I believe that's Mason in the white sleeper and Jaxson in the green. 

Who knew pillow cases were such fun to make?  This is a Dr. Who design flannel for Isabella.

Marcus needed a big boy quilt for his big boy bed.  I was hesitant about this very soft fleecy Star Wars fabric because it had a bit of a pile, but it wasn't too bad to work with.  The design is all one piece, not individual blocks sewn together (I'm not that crazy). The back is a flannel, so I did not sandwich any batting in between figuring it would be warm enough as it was. I machine quilted following the block design, and it came together like a dream (walking foot!).

I also finished up a flannel quilt for Josh that I did piece.  This is to replace an old flannel quilt that I made him years and years ago that is ready for the rag bag.  I gave him permission to give it the old heave-ho, but he says he's keeping both.  Linus.

The Vermonters are always in sleepers, when not running around in underpants.  I made these a year or so ago.

 

 

It's feast or famine when heating with a woodstove.

 

The Utah girls stayed with us for about three weeks this past summer and since they had plans to attend the Salt Lake City Comic Con in September with Dad (where attendees apparently dress up as favorite comic book/cartoon characters?), Evie decided she wanted to make her own costume for Mabel from Gravity Falls.  This is Mabel:  purple skirt, pink turtleneck sweater with star and rainbow design, and braces on her teeth.

 

 

We got some pink fleece, purple cotton, felt for the applique, and pieced together a couple of patterns.  Aside from a little help with the pinning, zipper and applique, Evie stitched every seam and did a great job.

 



 

 

 



 

I told her she was on her own with finding fake braces for her teeth as I did not think Dad and Mom would spring for orthodontia just for Comic Con.

 

It's Inauguration Day.  I have the TV on, sound off; I hate to be shallow, but I'm here for the fashions.  I'd give my right arm to study Melania's powder blue church outfit.  I bet it's cashmere and silk and hand-tailored, of course.  It's gorgeous.  --cds

 

 

Reset

"Reset" is the word of the day.  I was swimming my laps this morning, minding my own business, thinking about what to have for breakfast, then thinking about how bad I've been about not swimming every day, and how I've not been paying attention to the junk I've been eating, and how I was unable to zip up my favorite jeans (it was coolish the other day), and why haven't I been listening to music lately, and what, am I letting myself drift into someone else's old age and forgetting about all the stuff that has been important to me all my life?  Look out.  My 19-year old self is knocking on the door and I just may let her in...... well, parts of her anyway.  I'm not about to go braless or anything.  I'm not demented, yet.

First up.  Fire-in-the-sky sunrise this morning, fading to carnation pink and lavender, then gold and gray/blue clouds.  Lovely.  I kick up the steam from the warm pool making all this color a little misty-looking. 

Second, breakfast.  No smoothie today! SOME people, apparently, don't appreciate photos of emerald green smoothies that sit on my unattended blog for weeks on end (sorry).  Today I had egg and avocado on toast.  Yum.

Third, and most important, updated photos of grandkids:



  

Beautiful Bella.  Her 8th grade picture, she'll be 14 in February.

 

Evie is 9 1/2 now and in 4th grade.

 



 

This is Ruthanne's 1st grade photo and she'll be 7 in June.

 



 

No school photos for Marcus just yet, perhaps pre-school in September.  He's be 4 in February.

 

This is a Christmas photo from last year, 2015, of the Utah girls that I just love.  Below is a visit with Santa picture of the Vermonters from this past December.

 



Evie's been in dance since she was three.  Below is her most recent recital from jazz class.  She's back in ballet this year though.

My soccer girlies: Evie from 2015, and

 

 

Ruthie from this past fall's season (pink soccer cleats!)

 



Marcus is all about trucks and Star Wars and likes football, but roots for Green Bay.  I think he likes the cheesehead hats.

At the Magic Kingdom last April:

Halloween in Vermont has been a routine trip for us for the past few years.  Cutest astronaut and Princess Anna I've ever seen.

So there.  Back on the blog and hitting the sewing room later today.  I'm thinking Buffalo Springfield on the iPod.  Groovy, huh.  --cds

Not A Political Post...

In the midst of the post-election spew-fest that is nearly impossible to ignore, I was abruptly reminded of the huge importance of calmly talking with our young children about this election aftermath, in particular.  As I was chatting with our Utah son about the results, he told me to never mind his disappointment, he was concentrating on talking his own girls (ages 13 and 9) down off the ledge.  "Dad, he hates women!"  "Dad, he's going to drop bombs on people!"  Because Jim and I, despite our bumbling about, somehow managed to raise two good, decent men who are fabulous fathers, Jamie gave his girls a quick Civics lesson (so proud!) about checks and balances, Congress, etc.  Apparently middle schools are still a hotbed of political conversation -- remember Khrushchev's bellowing outbursts in the very early 1960's?  Had us all petrified to be out on the playground, fearing we'd be buried by a bomb blast. 

I suppose it's silly to believe we should be able to shield our kids from all of the hate in this beautiful world, but I can't help feeling embarrassed, I guess, when smart, caring and unbiased kids are subjected to the behavior of adults at their worst. --cds

Your Morning Smoothie

Hmmm, I am not in love with my new phone -- my peach smoothie looks much peachier in real life -- fresh peach, a few red grapes, vanilla yoghurt, pecans and some orange juice.  I've been loading up my freezer with lots of fresh fruit since a smoothie a day is good for the soul, and these peaches are fabulous right now.  Here is my freezer drawer at the moment:

--blueberries, peaches, cantaloupe, pineapple, blackberry puree, strawberries and mango.  I like to mix up different combos.  I've been known to throw in a few handfuls of kale, which grosses out my family, but it doesn't have an effect on the fruity flavor and adds lots of goodness.  I like to eat healthy in the morning so that in the afternoon, if I happen to fall into a bag of Doritos, I don't feel so bad.  A few of my favorite things...  --cds

Mother Nature Says...

So Mother Nature (aka Aunti Ann) tells me that our caterpillars were actually Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars and that I should check out our soffits to look for the chrysalis that will turn into the actual butterfly.  First I had to google soffits.  Turns out these are the eaves that overhang our front porch roof.  However, I see no chrysalis-thingies hanging there.  Those fat caterpillars would have had to crawl all the way up our screens to get there and I never noticed them doing that.  Plus they were so stuffed with our parsley that they probably just said screw it, that's too far, and they are likely hanging somewhere under our decking.  Hope so. 

Our Utah girlies are arriving in Florida with their Dad in less than two weeks for a summer visit.  We will just ignore the heat, stay hydrated and sunscreened and wear hats.  Summer in Florida is like winter in Vermont -- you just stay in the house most of the time.  But we have lots to do and the girls love to draw and paint and bake and sew and swim and stuff and go to libraries and museums.  Can't wait.

Here are some pictures from our visit to Moab, Utah and Arches National Park.  Jamie, Isabella and Evie walking down to the Colorado River.

At Arches National Park:

Our sketcher, Evie -- she's becoming quite the geologist.  She has a rock tumbler and some serious-looking rock-hound equipment.  They take weekend adventures looking for cool rocks.

 

Look closely at this photo below.  We scrambled up to this outcropping on the right (I had to have some assistance with the scrambling), and suddenly we could hear music, a flute or some sort of horn.

 

 

 When I zoom in you can see this guy standing down there playing.  So beautiful and a little eerie.  Natural acoustics!

I like this picture of Jim --

It's so hard to get a handle on the scale of these formations until you see tiny people climbing around inside.  I wish I were a better photographer, or had a better camera, but at least I'm able to capture the memory in my little blog-writing, and in sketches and watercolors (I'm branching out!) and maybe next in fabric.  It's never boring here at The House of Arts and Crafts (and Food and Beer!).

How 'bout this Guardian - looks kind of like the Sphinx, huh?  --cds