Mom's Meatballs and Sauce, Painting the Kitchen

Grandson Jack, who is nearly thirteen, came to stay with us last weekend. Amid the weekend activities I asked him what he would like for dinner on Sunday. I gave him a list of options and he chose spaghetti and meatballs. Our meatballs and sauce recipe comes from my Italian mom. I recall my mom and Aunt Katherine both making their sauce the same way so I assume it came from their mother, my grandmother. Grandmother Irene was an immigrant to the United States from Italy. My mom did not have this recipe written down. She dictated it to me and I typed it on a recipe card in the early 1980's. It has endured a lot of wear.

Recipes for meatballs and sauce are as varied as Italian regions. Every Italian family has their own sauce and meatball recipe. If you have been raised eating a particular sauce and meatball, (eating it at least once a week throughout childhood), it is hard to accept the taste of any other. So, I am not offended if this recipe is not to someone's liking. It does benefit from adding the red wine. The only change I have made is to the meatball recipe. I make breadcrumbs from the bread slices and sprinkle those with water. This makes a more uniform consistency. My least favorite part of making meatballs is frying them in olive oil. It is time consuming and I dislike standing at the stove frying things. In the past I have tried baking them instead. I thought the taste was not the same. They need the olive oil for flavor.

  

Jack helped me make the meatballs. In my opinion, if you are going to make a batch of meatballs and sauce, you might as well double it and freeze a batch or two. It is the same amount of work either way. 

We cooked in a chaotic kitchen setting because we are in the midst of painting the kitchen cabinets. I procrastinated this job because it requires all the cabinet contents to be removed in order to sand the wall and base boxes. The cabinet contents were scattered between the living room, dining room, basement, and our bedroom. Once we finished the sanding, we washed all the shelves and replaced the shelf liners. Now it feels like move-in day, all fresh and clean! I purged a lot of unused items and then put everything else back in place. The next step is to prime and paint all the sanded doors and drawer fronts. This will take another week or so. The last time we painted these was about fifteen years ago. I used a paint sprayer that time. I did not like using a sprayer. Aside from having to create a spray "room" with plastic sheeting, I was not adept with a sprayer and I hated the whole process. This time I am rolling the paint on with a four inch roller. The finish is uniform and lovely. I also feel that I am much more in control. We are using Benjamin Moore Advance for cabinets, doors, and trim in a satin finish. We are using the same color as before, Dove White. 

The kitchen is nothing fancy but it is highly functional. We bought the refrigerator in 1991 when we built our house in New York. The thing won't quit. We are ready to upgrade it and the laminate counter top to granite but that's for another day. Steve and I were both brought up with the mindset, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." So, we tend to wait until something needs doing rather than doing it just for the aesthetic. I cannot say if this is sound advice, it is just the way we are.

 

A Spontaneous Act of Kindness

 I witnessed the loveliest thing at church on Sunday.

An older couple sat in the pew in front of us. The lady was slightly bent and walked with a cane. She wore a smart dress and a denim jacket with the collar turned up. Her husband stood close to her and I noticed a slight tremor in his hands. In front of them sat another older lady who I know just a little bit. She devoted all of her time to operating a food pantry for veterans. She wears her hair very long and dresses in flowy clothing. This week she was wearing a beautiful, turquoise necklace and large, dangling, turquoise earrings in the shape of a cross.

As we sang the last song of Mass and began to leave our pews, I noticed the lady on front of us lean forward to the other lady and compliment her earrings. Without blinking an eye, the earring lady took them off and gave them to the admirer. This lady gestured as though saying, "No. No." But the earring lady lovingly pressed them into her hands.

 At that point we were walking away so I did not see if there was any further interaction between these two strangers. I thought it was the loveliest thing.

Williamsburg, VA...A Crafter's Delight

 I could visit Colonial Williamsburg many times over and never tire of it. Two friends and I drove there for a three night, mid-week, girl's getaway. We rented an Airbnb which was a ten minute drive away from Colonial Williamsburg. 

The three of us have gone away often together and we have our travel routine down pretty well. We typically go exploring during the day and settle in with sewing or hand work for the evenings. On this trip, we met up for lunch with a mutual friend who lives in Williamsburg. She recommended Carrot Tree Kitchens . It was a very nice, bustling place. I had a slice of spinach and feta quiche and a cup of tomato bisque soup. It was a rainy day and this was a cozy, satisfying meal. After lunch, we headed over to Liberty Hill Needleworks . Oh my, this is a wonderful shop for cross stitchers! I was here last December and thought I shouldn't need anything this trip. But that thought went down the tubes fast. 

 

A wall of linen, nicely arranged by count and color.

All types of floss plus another wall of DMC and yet another of silks.

After that bit of fun, we checked into our Airbnb. It was pouring rain and we got soaked to the skin carrying in our suitcases and gear. We changed into dry, comfortable clothing and settled in for an evening of stitching and gab.

The following day, we headed out to Willow Grove Primitives.  What a fun and well stocked shop. It consisted of two buildings, one being an historic house. It was nice to see that much of their stitchery, applique, and hooked items were crafted by local people. I found a pretty fall garland and three stuffed pumpkins made of gold flowered cotton. Next, we went to the New York Deli for lunch. This place is a must. We dined here last December and I could not wait to come back. After lunch, we stopped at Lightfoot Antique Shop where Kay found two nice antique frames. From there, we went to the Premium Outlet Shops. This conglomerate of stores seems to still be doing well as far as outlet malls go. I found two shirts for Steve at the Columbia outlet and nothing for myself anywhere else. After this full day, we again headed back to the Airbnb for an evening of stitching. For dinner, we had ordered Greek salads to-go when we were at the New York Deli for lunch. They kept in the car until we got home.

 

Now that's a Reuben!

 

The next day, we once again headed out early. The rain stopped and the day was beginning to brighten. Our first stop was back to Liberty Hill Needeworks. I am not sure why we did this, but Kay wanted to go back. I wasn't planning to get anything more until I spotted a pattern that had been on my wish list for a year. I don't know why I had not seen it when we were here two days ago. It is a sampler titled, "Louisa Barney 1892" by Reflets de Soie. The pattern is so beautiful to me that I decided to add it to my purchases. The Needleworks shop owner and her staff gave me a huge amount of time to get this pattern set up. I decided to stitch it in silk floss and they needed to convert all forty colors from DMC to Needlepoint Inc. Due to the cost of silk floss, I bought only fifteen colors for now. This is enough to get started. I may have to stretch this project out over a couple of years. The pattern is so beautiful and I know it will give me joy to stitch it.

After the Needleworks shop, we drove over to downtown Williamsburg. We were all hungry and decided to at at the Cheese Shop on Merchants Square. They make delicious sandwiches on all kinds of wonderful bread. We dined at the tables outside and enjoyed our lunch while we watched passersby. We ducked into the candy shop next door and each bought a milk chocolate covered caramel turtle to eat while we walked up the main avenue to take in the town and sights. (What great restraint it was to walk out of this candy shop with only one candy!) There were many people out and about. As always, it is easy to imagine oneself in Colonial times when walking around this place. Since we were just here last December, I did not take many photos. 

 

All the gardens are lovely here. I like the simplicity of this boxwood and Gomphrena.

This man was playing a lively fiddle tune. I hooked arms with Kay and got her to take a turn with me : )

Sadly, our week was coming to an end. Our plan was to make one more stop on our way home the next day. We wanted to go to Millstone Quilts in Mechanicsville, VA. Kay and Pat had been there several times in years past, but not recently. It is getting harder and harder to find reproduction quilting fabric and they knew that this wonderful shop carried a lot of it. The old mill building was fun to be in, albeit a little dark. There were several rooms of fabrics within two and a half stories. I was able to find yardage I needed for backing on a Jo Morton quilt I am piecing. There were so many beautiful prints that I was quite overwhelmed with wanting to buy everything. In addition to the backing fabric, I carefully chose some fat quarters to use in specific doll quilts I hope to make. We agreed that we will need to come back to Millstone Quilts again some time.

Back home to reality. There is work to be done! 

 

 

 

 

Reworking the Perennial "Step" Bed

 

 

We have garden steps that go nowhere. 

Twenty-two years ago, the vision was to replace this barren hillside with a garden. In reality, it  would have taken a crew of men with machines plus an expensive amount of plantings to bring that vision to fruition. But all was not lost. We found ourselves always climbing this little portion of hill when we wanted to walk up to the gravel road at the top. So we put in a mini version of the hillside garden. Back then, Steve got free railroad ties at his workplace. He brought a bunch of them home and then axed and shoveled out the clay hillside to set the steps in place. We then topped each step with pea stone. Over the years I have tried several different plants and shrubs to cover the area. It still a largish garden I always struggled with what to put there. It gets weedy very easily and it never looks pretty at the end of a hot summer. 

Lately, I let the weeds go for a long while and everything got really overgrown. When I knew Steve would be away for a few days and the weather would be cooler, I decided to tackle the task of cleaning it up. I drove the pickup truck to the landscape store and got a load of garden mix soil. I pruned back the shrubs and dug and weeded and dug some more. I pulled out old landscape fabric (what was I thinking using that stuff?!) and shoveled new dirt onto the area. I transplanted things I wanted to keep and added a few new plants to fill in.  

It took two days of hard labor. It also gave me great  satisfaction to complete the job. When I finally turned on the sprinkler to water everything in, that was my, "Hallelujah! The job is done!" I sat in the shade of a tree with a can of sparkling water and watched the sprinkler oscillate back and forth. The air was cool with a little breeze and it felt so good to just sit there and be finished. 

One of my best memories of the day was going back to the run-in shed, where we used to store hay for the horses, to get the garden cart. It has been years since any horses have been in there but it still smells like hay and horses. I love that smell.

I skipped the gym the next morning. I figured I had earned it, the hard way.

Ecclesiates 3:4, A Time to Cry

 Grief came to visit this week. It often lingers in the dark corners of everyday news. Most of the time I address it with prayer and introspection, determining to do more good and counterbalance the evil in this world with good. Love more, love better, love unconditionally...look to our Lord and Savior for guidance. But Wednesday's news of the assassination of Charlie Kirk darkened the sun and stilled the breeze. It caused a vacuum that momentarily sucked all common reason from the world. 

My heart is so heavy for what we have lost in the death of this good man. Evil attempted to take away our freedom of speech and open, civil debate. This same darkness wants to take away so much more. 

I found comfort in Charlie's widow's words of faith and encouragement and in her vision for her husband's legacy. And I find eternal comfort in knowing that darkness has lost. It was finished the moment Jesus defeated death on the cross. 

Erika Kirk's Words 

Wind's From the North!

 

The sky is clear and the upper and lower fields are mowed.

 Oh what glorious, cool air comes through the windows on the north side of the house! We have waited all summer for this change. It lifts our spirits and fuels our creativity. It induces me to clean and freshen every room in the house. I open windows on opposite sides of the rooms so the air flows right through. We keep some windows open at night and let the sounds of crickets and owls lull us to sleep. The screen porch is our evening haven now that the heat and humidity are gone. It was tolerable to sit there on a hot summer night but now it is downright pleasant. 

We have also begun to refresh the garden. The fields are mowed for hay which makes the entire property look brand new. The sweet scent of cut hay is everywhere. We tackled the tired vegetable beds and pulled out all the sodden, rotten tomato plants. What a disappointment they were this year. The pole beans came down too. They produced like gangbusters but were all spent now. Steve is harvesting hot peppers every day. He dehydrates some and grinds them into powders. He also makes a lot of hot sauce. I know it involves brine but I don't pay enough attention to his process. I took a turn with the dehydrator and filled it with sweet basil. I also made two batches of pesto which I will store in the freezer. 

Grandkids romped around the hay bales.

 

 

 

We had a happy Labor Day weekend with three of the four daughters and their families here for a cookout. It was an easy picnic with meats on the grill, a few sides, and two kinds of fruit cobbler with ice cream for dessert. We took walks, played outside, ate good food, and shared stories and dreams for the future. Tess and Audrey have declared that they enjoyed the family gathering for Violet's birthday party so much last month that they want to keep the gatherings going throughout the year. I say, "Amen" to that! Next month is Tess' birthday, Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will have plenty of opportunity to celebrate.

Dried basil leaves ready for crumbling into recipes and three jars of pesto for the freezer.

 On the quiet front, I finished stitching a large-ish cross stitch pattern. Now I must find a frame. I also took two quilts to the quilting studio and just picked them up this week. I need to bind them and then give them a wash so they pucker up. I will include them in my next post. Tomorrow Kay and I are driving to Lewisburg, WV to browse the antique shops and have lunch out. It is a very pretty drive with barely any traffic. It is my reward to self after having a routine c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ py today. ; ) 

PS. I can't decide which font I prefer. ??  

 

Visiting New Hampshire and a Day at the Beach

 

Photo from our 2022 visit. It looks exactly the same today.

 

 

 

The Follansbee Inn at Kezar Lake, NH has become like an old friend to us. This is where we stay when we visit our daughter and her family in New Hampshire. This year, we made our annual August trek to the beautiful state of New Hampshire in our old pickup truck. It is not the most comfortable for long range travel (and I questioned its road worthiness) but we had a load of furniture that Chelsea wanted and I was happy to endure the truck ride in order to clear it out of our basement.

The common rooms at the inn are lovely and comfortable and the breakfasts are a culinary treat. We always enjoy the dock and the beachfront area. Guests have free use of the inn's kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. We spent two days exploring the lake, swimming off the beach and dock, and relaxing under the big pine trees. One afternoon we formed a three boat caravan and Simon guided us over to an inlet at the lake where we paddled through rushes and lily pads. We looked for water birds, turtles and little fish as we paddled along. Our three grandsons are already energetic outdoorsmen and keep up quite well with their father. 

Other activities we enjoyed were the League of New Hampshire Craftsman Fair, a beach day on Plum Island, MA, dinner in Newburyport, MA, a home cooked lobster dinner eaten on the picnic table, an afternoon of candlepin bowling, reading books to the boys, and quiet evening chats with our daughter and son-in-law. I had hoped to get away from the Virginia heat but it was also hot in the north. We were able to sleep with the windows open at night and that was nice.

We spent a total of twenty-eight hours driving to and from New Hampshire. It is a long, painstaking drive in the moment but it is always worth it in the end. We try to have an audiobook, which helps with the long drive. This trip we listened to Peter and the Starcatchers on Audible and it was fantastic! The narrator was excellent and Steve enjoyed it as much as I. I don't often give five-star ratings but this was a full five star book for me.

It is always sad when we have to drive away from our family. Our final morning leaving the inn, we drove to the highway instead of to our daughter's house. I fought the lump in my throat, as I always do at times like this. I feel like I straddle two worlds, the north and the south. My heart longs for one but our life is rich and full in the other. There is no solution and I have come to accept that this is how it must remain. 

The dock at Follansbee Inn

 

Watching the family from my napping spot under the pines

Scotch eggs, roasted potatoes, pear tart, fresh fruit

 

Egg- brie- prosciutto and pear quesadilla, beignet, roasted potatoes, fresh fruit

Our three grandsons at the League of NH Craftsman Fair. 

The beach at Plum Island State Park

Steve at candlepin bowling

Playing with Violet and a Sad Day for the Mimosa Tree

 

Violet's pal, Muttsy, comes with her on her weekly visits with me. She loves him dearly. This week he was wearing a little harness but had no leash. I told Violet to choose some fabric she liked and we would sew Muttsy a leash. I found a perfect sized leash clip in my toolbox and we sewed it to one and. On the other end, we made a loop for holding. Lucky Mutsy! 

We decided we wanted to go see the Mimosa tree and see the hummingbirds and butterflies on it. We walked up the hill to the back road and past Darys' house where the Mimosa tree lived...except it was gone! To our dismay, only a rotted stump was left. It must have fallen and been taken away. It was a glorious tree and we will sorely miss it. 

Below is the tree in July, 2015. This tree is so beautiful to me that it is hard to believe it is considered a weed tree and cannot be found to purchase in nurseries. We  saw little shoots growing at the stump and I may go dig one up and see if I can grow it. There were several more baby Mimosa trees on the road bank but they were surrounded by poison ivy. I think it is time to go Mimosa hunting.

 

In more Muttsy news, Muttsy got to swing with Violet. Then he watched her swing for a while. We had some cloud cover which made it bearable to be outside and swing for a little while under the shade. 

 

 

 

The July Garden, Too Wet

 The garden is massively overgrown this summer. It is not often we see too much rain like this. Combined with the heat, it brings an uncomfortable humidity. Not shown in the photo are the ugliest tomato plants I have ever seen. I think I will harvest what fruit remains on them and then pull them up. 

I bought pole beans by mistake this year. I had never planted them before and always used bush beans. When I realized my mistake, we scrambled to give them something to grab onto and climb. They overtook the snow peas that were planted on the arched trellis and completely covered over them. Steve now likes the pole bean variety better because he can pick them without bending over. I canned Dilly Beans for him this week as a reward for all the beans he keeps bringing in. We gave bags of beans and tomatoes to Audrey and Tess and we have eaten green beans at every other meal. My dad always grew green beans and having them reminds me of him and his garden and all the goodness we ate in those summers long ago. I like to cook them as my mother did, cooked until tender,  then added to a saute of fresh tomatoes, garlic, and basil. 

All the marigolds and dill were volunteers along with the basil plants that are growing on the gravel paths. I let those three plants go to seed last year and the birds loved them during the winter. I think the birds dining habits scattered the seeds which created a more widespread propagation. There were marigolds everywhere and I had to transplant several to get them off the pathway.

 

The Days of High Summer

 

It has been a very hot summer here in Virginia. One big, long, stretch of heat with no nighttime dips in temperatures to give us a break. We perform the bare minimum outdoor tasks like harvesting from the garden, mowing the grass, watering flower pots, and minimal weeding. Any other yard related work we say we will do when the weather cools down...in another month or so. The one, happy, outside activity I do enjoy is the aquatics class. It begins at 9:00am in the outdoor pool at the gym and the water is always refreshing. It is a happy place where everyone is in good spirits and the exercise feels good.

Fresh vegetables abound and our meals revolve around the seasonal produce. Local corn is in season and we have been finding ways to enjoy that. We  did enjoy some corn fritters for dinner one night. They aren't the healthiest of foods but they are a treat on occasion. Another absolute favorite summer meal of ours is tomato pie. We have eaten them twice for dinner so far. Our tomato plants are scraggly and ugly this summer but they still produce tomatoes. Steve always adds some of his hot peppers to his side of the pie. : )

It turns out that summers in the south are a good time for indoor projects. I started piecing another quilt. It's an older pattern by Jo Morton called "Cut the Mustard". Getting the points to line up is a challenge for me as I am not an expert quilter. But I am going slow and ripping seams and re-piecing when need be. Four squares down, thirty-one more to go. I cannot seem to get inspired to work on my rug hooking. I know the mood will come back around at some point so I will just have to wait for that.

Other highlights of this month have been Tuesdays with Violet. She is so much fun to play with and the day always goes by quickly. She prefers movement play over quiet play so we hit the softball, target shoot with Nerf guns, swing and climb, play "Bear Hunt", a throw foam balls into the basketball net. All this occurs in the basement because it is too hot outside. She hasn't even wanted to go to the pool this summer, even though I suggest it. I will be sad when school starts and our Tuesdays together come to an end.

We went to one Salem baseball game with Tess and Blake, which ended up being rained out by a thunderstorm. It was still fun anyway. We also went to a trivia night at Big Lick Brewery with them and that was a lot of fun.We have dinners with friends and others with family. We dog sat Bok Choy,  had Claire and her family here for a weekend, went to a couple of movies at the little Buchanan theater (two movie tickets, two bags of popcorn and a can of beverage cost $17.), played Scrabble, and sat on the porch in the evening a little bit. 

Summer is passing nicely in its simplicity. 

 

 

Summer Fresh

 

With no specific intentions in mind, I puttered around the house, cleaning and freshening odds and ends as needed. I washed the bathroom floors with a scented Spic N Span product and laundered the quilts from the upstairs twin beds. I hung the quilts on the porch to finish drying in the outdoor air. 

I went away from the house (to do something that I can no longer remember) and when I returned home and walked inside, the happiest, freshest scent greeted me. I was immediately brought back to childhood summers and the clean scent of my mother's cleaning and laundry hanging on the clothesline. What a good and happy reward for a small bit of morning cleaning. 

When I went back into the hall bathroom to put things back in place, I looked out the window and saw a sky with clouds that looked unreal. I imagined Teletubbies would come romping over the hill under that sky. The blue sky and cotton ball clouds were peeking out above the window curtain I replaced a couple of weeks ago. I like to use vintage tablecloths for our bathroom curtains. They are so pretty and it seems a shame to keep them tucked away in drawers where they never get used. Anyway, the fresh, white curtain and the Teletubby sky in the happy-scented bathroom had me feeling pretty good.  

 

Sticks and Stones Quilt

 

Time finally fell into a calm, summer pace this week. I was happy to have time to putter at home. Since it is too hot and muggy to be outside more than necessary, I decided to begin piecing a quilt. 

My friend Pat gave me a jellyroll of Jo Morton's "Timeless" fabric collection that she did not want anymore. I used a Missouri Star Tutorial to stitch it up in the Sticks and Stones pattern. I pieced it randomly but there are many ways this could be pieced using lights and darks to form patterns. I did purchase an additional charm pack of the Timeless fabrics so that I would have enough for a complete piano key border without having to leave part of the border plain as they did in the tutorial. The pattern sews up easily and quickly and caused me no piecing panic. I will drop it off at the quilt shop in Rocky Mount to be quilted.

In summary, I am not a fan of this color palette. But, it matches our old oriental rug in the living room and  it was free. I have another jellyroll and charm pack of "Collections for a Cause: Etchings" which is what was used in the tutorial and which I much prefer. So, I will stitch this again at some point. At sixty by seventy inches, it will be a perfect lap quilt when those cold winter nights are back and we want to cozy up with a movie. 

 

Preparing For a Pilgrimmage, A Jubilee Year of Hope

 

 

The Catholic church has declared 2025 to be a twenty-five year Jubilee. Specifically, this Jubilee is designated as a year of "Hope".

In short, a Jubilee Year is a time for renewal; a pivotal, transitional moment when something begins anew. It is also an opportunity for a "coming together", to bring our joy, our hearts, and our hope to the church. 

This year, Rome expects thirty-five million pilgrims to visit for the Jubilee year. Here in our little Fincastle church, we are preparing a pilgrimage of our own. When Father Xavier suggested  we have a pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year, my heart leapt at the chance. I have never participated in an intentional pilgrimage but I knew this was a special moment in time to further my faith and to participate in what my friend and collaborator calls a "soul altering" experience. 

In order to have a pilgrimage, there needs to be a destination. Saint Andrew's Basilica in Roanoke was listed by the Richmond Diocese as one such destination for a pilgrimage. Lucky for us it is located only thirty minutes away! Father Xavier, Kathy, and I visited the basilica this morning in order to plan our pilgrimage with their coordinator. This was the first time I stepped foot into St. Andrews. The architecture and beauty took my breath away and my eyes filled with tears. The experience was multiplied by the sound of the organist practicing in the choir loft. As we entered the Narthex (entrance vestibule) I could smell the soft, woodsy scent of incense. Further entering into the Nave, the cathedral ceiling soared upward and reminders of the heavenly realm and the history of the church were everywhere. The paintings, statues, and stained glass depicted images and reminders of where we have been and where we are going. 

I felt very lucky to have this chance to roam the church at will, to sit and reflect, and to plan for our pilgrimage. My heart is expectant and ready and my soul yearns to listen and see. My flesh only asks that I do not trip and stumble when I walk up to the Lectern to read. That would be my earthly style. 

I wanted to record this moment of peace and to remember this feeling of expectancy and hope.  

Garden Eats! Beans and Greens

 I ended up having to go to the doctor for the poison ivy rash. He prescribed a twelve day taper of Predisone along with Bactroban ointment for the worse area on my forearm. Relief and healing began immediately. The steroids gave me an enormous amount of energy and I have been channeling that for good.

 The garden is producing good things to eat! We have had our first two large tomatoes and a few cherry tomatoes. The lettuce is finished and the Swiss Chard is coming big time. I harvest the Swiss Chard on the spot, right before I want to cook it. It cooks down to nothing, like spinach, so I gather a big armful for the two of us. I plunge the stack of leaves into a cold water bath in the kitchen sink. It amazes me that there are never any bugs or dirt on the leaves. 

 Once the leaves are trimmed of stalks and sliced into ribbons, it goes into the pot. This night we are having Greens and Beans. This is an Italian dish that my mom cooked every summer from my dad's garden. It uses lots of garlic and chard, chicken broth, cannelloni beans, and olive oil. That's it! It is so healthy and delicious and satisfying to eat. I served some roasted Italian sausage on the side. A good sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan is a must. The best way to eat it is with crusty Italian bread but Steve and I are foregoing bread most of the time these days. 

 

 

 

The Bane of My Existence

 

As I lay in bed the other night, feeling sorry for myself, I asked God if it was really necessary for me to have a poison ivy rash every summer of my life. At sixty-six years old, must I really continue to suffer these miserable rashes? 

As a child, I played in fields and woods, ignorant of the plant that would hijack two weeks of my summer vacations with itching misery every year. Back then, we gave no thought to sunscreen, tick repellent, or plant identification. Summer vacation was pure freedom to swim, play outside after dark, explore streams and woods, and get into general mischief. 

I don't recall any of the other kids in our neighborhood having poison ivy, only me. I remember one day in particular. I was sitting on our front stoop and my friends came to call me out to play. I was too miserable even to play. The kids studied my legs as though they were a circus wonder. The rashes are hideous when they weep. The best treatment we had at that time were oatmeal baths and Calamine lotion. Neither had any good effect on my rashes. No, having poison ivy meant enduring the rash until it was good and ready to go away. Those rashes lasted for two weeks at the least. On hot nights when it was too hot to sleep, it felt even worse as we tossed and turned in our beds. Oh, the misery. Poison ivy was the bane of my summer existence.

The year that I was entering fifth grade, on one of the last evenings of summer vacation, I went with my  friend, Rosina, to her grandmother's house. It was an old farm way out in the countryside of Averill Park. This was Labor Day and it was our next to last night before school began. We were very excited about school starting but we were soaking up this last freedom. We played under shrubs and hedges, we explored an empty camp building and we generally ran around with no purpose whatsoever. I remember finding a fuzzy leaf and rubbing on my cheek. It was not a poison ivy leaf, I am sure of that now, but we must have been crawling through a patch of the poison plant while we played. The next morning I woke up with my face swollen and burning. My eyes were swollen shut and my skin felt tight. To my horror, I had poison ivy all over my face. That was the first time my mother ever took me to the doctor for poison ivy. The doctor gave me an injection and some cream. That rash went away quicker than other rashes had done, but I had to miss the first two days of school. When I did return to school, I still had oozing sores, red skin and no self-confidence about my appearance. It was difficult walking into a classroom filled with new classmates who had already chosen desks and had begun school without me. In my anxiety I wanted to turn and run home. To my utter relief, there were three girls who were kind and pitying of me. Each of them invited me to sit next to them. I still remember their names and faces and the feeling of melting relief I had for being accepted. To this day, I think of them as my heroes.

So, here we are today. I can identify poison ivy in a flash. It grows in all the outlying edges of our property and I always steer clear. BUT, in the last few years, it is cropping up in our yard. Seedlings grow on our patio, under shrubs and in our groomed beds. I think the birds are dropping the poison ivy berries they pluck or eat from the mature vines in the woods. These berries take root in our yard. I have seen the thick, hairy poison ivy vines that climb twenty feet high on old tree trunks back there. Those old vines have clusters of berries on them. 

Last weekend, I decided that I needed to pull up a poison ivy vine that I had let go last year for fear of touching it. It was growing up one of our Viburnum shrubs and I was afraid it would strangle it. I put on gloves and very carefully reached under the shrub to pull it out at the root. I tenderly tossed it aside where it could shrivel up. Then, I went into the house and, out of caution, washed my hands and arms in rubbing alcohol and then dish detergent. Then I showered. The next day the rash appeared on my arms. Welcome misery. Days later, new patches are still appearing. This is the worst rash I have had in many years. I know that a course of steroids will minimize it. But, I am on the fence whether to endure the rash or the side effects from the steroids. For now, I scrub it three times a day, put Caladryl on it, then bandage the worst arm to soak up the weeping of the sores. It looks hideous but at least it's not my face.

 

 

A Party for Claire

 

It is hard to believe Claire turned forty years old. Was it really that many years ago we had our first baby?! To mark this special occasion, her sisters and I planned a surprise party. Chelsea flew down from New Hampshire and Daniel made up a good reason to drive Claire and their family up from North Carolina. Claire was certainly surprised when she found Chelsea standing out on our patio! We made a celebration of the entire weekend from food shopping, to prep, to party.

We rented a large picnic shelter at Douthat State Park and threw a Tiki themed party.  Audrey and Tess bought lots of decorations, Chelsea made an excellent play list, and we all found Hawaiian recipes to prepare a picnic feast. 

It was a pretty setting for a party out in the woods. It was raining on and off but the kids,grand kids, nieces and nephews all managed to get in a little time on the lake. The rain didn't stop us from eating well, listening to good music, and celebrating Claire. Chelsea switched the music over to forties swing and all the dancers took to the area they had cleared for dancing. 

 

I was a little bit sad for the day to be over and to say goodbye to Claire and her family as they departed back home. Claire was my introduction into motherhood and I could not have had an easier, sweeter baby for my first. My heart is always full when I can have all my girls together at the same time, 

Torrential Rains

 I forgot to post about the torrential downpours we had earlier this week. Right around dinner time on Monday it rained so hard and so quickly that water accumulated in a flash. It was alarming to see flooding occur so fast. I heard reports that in some places four inches of rain fell within thirty minutes.

The flume I built was overwhelmed by too much water flowing down the hill. A normal rain would have caused a light flow of water but this was a gushing stream. The bricks did help prevent erosion of the soil so that was something positive. Some water still backed up to the house and into our basement. Steve kept up with the flow by using the Shop Vac. 

In the midst of all that downpour, I had to drive Chelsea to the airport. Tess went ahead of us down the road. We slowly rolled through high water and carefully avoided washed out gravel and fallen branches and debris. We came upon one small incline in the road that was rushing down with water such that it looked like a waterfall! Tess thought it was too dangerous to traverse. When we saw her turning round, we did the same. We took another back road to cut across to the highway. We saw fields turned into lakes. The hills were sending water into ravines that ran like rushing streams. Emergency vehicles passed us heading north, toward Eagle Rock. The whole scene felt apocalyptic. We could only think of our West Virginia and North Carolina neighbors and what they endured last year. I never saw so much water rise up in such a short span of time. I always thought we were safe in the mountains and on high ground from flooding. But, all the hills, hollows, streams, and ravines serve as channels for heavy rainfall. The water rushes down, carrying everything with it.

Eerily, as we left our county and headed into Roanoke, not a drop of rain had fallen. The roads were dry and flights were on time. I drove back home in a light rain. The washed out gullies left a lot of debris in the road but the flooded areas had receded. I was glad it was still light outside for my drive. 

The forecast shows chanced of storms again on Thursday. Steve and I will need to get outside and work  more on the grading near the back corner of the house to better channel water away. Aside from keeping the house dry, there is really no way to prepare for such flooding. It comes too quickly and the roads became impassable so fast that one cannot safely drive to get away from it.

Our road quickly turned into a fast flowing creek.

This is where we decided to turn around and find another route.