Good Things Happened: home, sweet, home

It's been days and days since I posted.  There was a minor medical issue that kept me at home for a few days - all better now.  Being at home with nothing much to do gave me a renewed appreciation of it, as seen below.

On the first day, niece Amanda and her family sent me flowers.  I can't think of the last time I got flowers!  It was thrilling.  I'm still enjoying them.  The delivery man seemed to enjoy my reaction, "I got flowers!!!"

I was looking for something else in a kitchen cabinet and found these two forgotten items.  The one on the left is a handy thing in which you can pull tarragon through the holes to strip the leaves. Stripping tarragon is kind of annoying, so I guess that's why I bought this.  It doesn't come up that often, but when it does, I'm set.  :)

There was clean out the refrigerator cooking.  Do you ever buy stuff for recipes you end up not making?  I made roasted vegetables, using carrots, fennel and the red onion that is in the bowl in the first photo.  (Yum.)  And yesterday, there was still a bunch of unused flat-leaf parsley, so I made pesto out of it.  That's it pictured above.  Parsley, olive oil, toasted walnuts and Parmesan cheese in the food processor.  I'm having some of it on penne pasta for lunch today.

And I enjoyed breakfast on the back porch yesterday.  There has been so much rain in Georgia, that the trees are nicely leafed out now.  It was cool and lovely.  And a hummingbird whizzed by a couple of times, probably to remind me about putting that feeder up.

I'll be playing a little blog catch up in the next few days.  Hope you have a good week!

Good Things Happened: Bunny, good shopping and glorious

A cute Easter treat that looked so bright and shiny in my kitchen.  "Looked" is the key word.  I needed some chocolate this week and the ears went first.  :)  

I parked in front of this beautiful loading dock door at Builders Steel Supply in Lilburn, Georgia last Saturday, when I was attending the Spring open house at my favorite antique shop up the street.  Amazing door - I wonder where it came from?

I snagged these two wine glasses for $3.50 each at the open house.  My sister has a set that she bought in Germany years ago.  I always liked them, so wanted to take these home.  She says they are Roemer Glass, made to drink sweet wines from the Rhine region of Germany.

And finally a glorious sunrise as I stepped out of my car at 7:15am yesterday morning, as I got to work.  Such beauty in the midst of an industrial area got my day started out just right.

Thank you for visiting today.  I'll be around to yours in the next couple of days!

Early morning gift, another batch and pure bliss

The rain stopped just as I got to work, one early morning, a few days ago.  And this lovely rainbow appeared, like a gift.

At home, lovely vegetables waiting to be put in another batch of Alice Water's Ratatouille, which was so delicious and made my home smell so good, that I had to make another batch.  The avocados were just hanging out here waiting to be put on toast or in salad.  :)

And at the park, friend Janice's dog, Chili, enjoying a blissful roll in a puddle. 

'Maters, summer beauty, and stumped

In the south, we jokingly refer to home-grown tomatoes as "'maters".  :)  These beauties came from coworker Bobby's garden.  He's been bringing in a small basket every couple of days.  Those of us without gardens pounce on them as if they are gold.  My favorite is a 'mater sandwich, but these are probably going into some ratatouille.  I'm going to try Alice Waters's recipe.  

I love the little purple petunia that popped out among the Dragon Wing Begonias next to my front door.  I am leaving for work way earlier than I used to in the morning, and find that I love the time on the front porch, in the 5am hour, watering everything so they'll be good for the day, since it's been so hot.

I've posted a pic of this guy before - the "chair" carved from a stump at Mountain Park Park.  Now it's sporting mushrooms - spotted on a gloomy sky walk last Saturday.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks work-wise, so I've been a little tired from it.  I'll be around for blog visits though.  I missed you guys!

They're heeere!, not camping and smile

The Girl Scout cookies arrived!  I couldn't say no to the delightful Brownie Scout who gave me such a good sales pitch.  (She had tried the new S'mores cookies at a troop meeting and liked them very much.)  I'm supposed to be on a diet, so took the S'mores cookies to my volunteer organization, but the Thin Mints are all mine.  Currently in the freezer at home - just waiting for a rainy day.  :)

Were any of you Scouts?  I was a Brownie Scout and went on to be a Girl Scout, finally dropping out when I was 12 years-old or so.  I hated camping and that's what did me in with the Scouts.  So when I saw the magnet on the lower left (that lives on my fridge at home), I laughed out loud and had to buy it.  

And I love that a fellow administrative volunteer at my volunteer organization always draws a smile on the back of envelopes that she mails to me.  I hope she does that for everyone.  It never fails to make me smile.

Could it finally be the weekend?  Halleujah!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends.

Drama queen, happy tune and so thoughtful

Having a belated birthday dinner with some friends yielded some very nice gifts, an "Espresso" orchid (hope it lives!) and a bottle of Middle Sister wine.  I'm a middle sister, as is friend Janice, so it's OK to be called a "drama queen."  :)  I think. 

 The plants are hanging in there - the temps have been mostly above 32 degrees, so I'm thrilled they are surviving the winter and will be able to grace the front porch in the spring.  I loved the cardinal who visited the feeder and whistled a happy tune.

A friend who has been very ill left this belated birthday gift of kitchen candle and birthday cake chocolate bar at my front door on Valentine's Day.  So thoughtful!  It had been a long day of work, and then volunteer work.  I was very weary and this perked me right up.

And - I finally got to this book, but actually listened to the audio version in the car during the last few days, finishing yesterday.  It was worth it to hear Reese Witherspoon's lovely voice reading it, but I still wish this book had stayed dormant.  I need to go back and read To Kill a Mockingbird again in order to shake this one off.  So I guess the good thing about it is - I finally got to it.  :)

Hope you have a great weekend, my friends!

Gazing at the sky, stump chair and a grand thing

As usual, I was racing to my car, so I could get in the line up on the expressway for the journey to work. But this sky was so glorious, I had to stop and gaze and moment and capture it with my phone. And then it was off to the races.

Someone cut this tree stump into the shape of a chair. How about that? It was another glorious sky last Saturday morning and I noticed the stump chair when my friends and I were saying goodbye after a walk in the park.

My favorite cookies from Ryal's Bakery in my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia. A hometown friend, Chuck, posted this pic on Facebook and it made me smile. :)  He also posted a quote from author Agatha Christie this morning that resonated with me:

"I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

Busy bee, sharing and fun holidays

- This bee was so busy on Saturday, going from flowering plant to flowering plant, I finally managed to snap his photo while he was in motion.  It's so delightful to see them around, when there has been so much in the news about them vanishing.

- Coworker Bobby brought in mountain apples to share at work on Monday.  They smell so good and are delicious.

- This is the fun holidays of the month calendar I produce these days - I hang them on the bulletin boards at work.  So it was fitting that Monday was Johnny Appleseed Day and we had apples.  Google tells me that Johnny Appleseed was an "American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia."

It's also National Chicken Month - I amused myself by finding cute chicken clip art.  :)

Ethereal, yum and once-in-a-while treat

 - These vegetables from my Blue Apron box were so pretty that I snapped a photo of them.  The ones on the upper right are Fairy Tale eggplants.  Love that ethereal name!  They were among the vegetables included in the Summer Vegetable & Queso Tostadas.  Each box contains three recipes and the ingredients you need to make them.  Each recipe serves two.

- I made the tostadas while at the mountain cabin, but didn't take a photo.  I know - that's not like me.  They were yummy.

- And I love how they give you step by step instructions on making everything.  I'm a good cook, but love this once-in-a-while treat.  They only ship to the contiguous United States, but I expect there are other companies elsewhere that do this kind of thing.  It probably sounds like I am advertising for them, but this just seemed like good blog material.  :)

Semi-local peaches, good family time and commemorative

- These peaches from Pearson farm in Fort Valley, Georgia were delectable.  And what makes this such a good thing?  I was able to buy them at the Thursday afternoon farmers' market held in my little suburb of Atlanta.  Click on the red link - they'll ship them to you, if you want.

- Peaches and blueberries on top of plain yogurt and granola.  So good.  Peaches just say "summer" to me.  My family used to drive to Fort Valley, Georgia, from our home in Milledgeville, Georgia, to pick peaches when I was growing up.  The orchards would allow you to pick them yourselves.  We had so much fun doing that and always brought at least a bushel home. 

- Georgia is known as the "peach state."  I've always loved this poster, hanging in my home office.  I worked as a volunteer on the floor of the Democratic Convention, when it was held in Atlanta in 1988.  When I was leaving on the final night, someone handed me a rolled up poster at the exit, which I didn't look at until I got home.  Here's what the text on the lower left says,

"Your participation in the 1988 Democratic National Convention Recycling Project made possible this commemorative poster.  
     The poster is printed on recycled paper produced from waste paper collected during convention week in Atlanta July 18-21.  Several tons of waste paper were collected each day of the convention and recycled to illustrate the valuable role recycling plays in transforming waste materials into usable products.

______________________________

This recycling project was sponsored by Recycle America, a Waste Management, Inc., Company, in conjunction with Georgia Clean and Beautiful, the Georgia Conservancy, and the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club."

I did remember all of the big recycling bins around.  I was delighted with this poster and had it framed.  As someone who now works for a commercial printer, I can't imagine how they pulled this off in time to hand them out at the close of the convention, but anything's possible, I guess.  They must have pulled an all-nighter!

Have a lovely weekend, friends!

Red gold, gift and so good

- It's "home-grown" tomato season in the south.  Look at that beauty - friend Rick had his trunk open after church on Sunday, asking if anyone wanted any tomatoes.  Of course!  Between he and friend Bren at work, I've had some every day for a week. 

- Here it is, sliced up for lunch, for a sandwich.  What a gift to have these in my kitchen.  I like to make Caprese Salad with them, too, using basil from my potted garden.

- Here is the sandwich from lunch yesterday (I've had this for lunch every day for a week.)  So good!  I never get tired of this, while home-grown tomatoes are in season.  It is tradition in the south to make a tomato sandwich with white bread, mayo and salt.  I like Duke's mayonnaise, but do use fresh, whole wheat bread for myself.

Read this ode to the tomato, if you have time, titled, "One Tomato, Two Tomato" by Virginia Willis.  Click on the red link.  She calls the tomato sandwich "cheap and cheerful."  A perfect description.

Window, so good and making its way back home

 - The kitchen window at the mountain house in the Nantahala Forest - taken a couple of weeks ago when I was there.  So much going on in that window:  I like that my sister's late mother-in-law put items in the house with Native American touches, like the artwork on the left, since there are two documented bent trees on the property.  Native Americans used the bent trees as trail markers.  The watermelon and duck tchotchkes on the sill evoke Northern Florida, where the family is from.  And the tree outside the window is a Japanese Maple tree - I loved the sunlight playing across it and it's what made me snap this photo in the first place.

- Friend Leisa and I like to meet at L'Thai, near my home in the Atlanta suburbs, for dinner sometimes.  This plate of shrimp and vegetables in Panang sauce from our last visit was so beautiful that I had to snap a photo of it.  And it was so good!  There are so few patrons there during the week, that we wonder how they stay open, but so glad that they do.

- On a somewhat somber note - my late father was a veteran of World War II, in the US Navy on a minesweeper until the end of the war in 1946.  This photo album was taken from a captured Japanese soldier and considered a "spoil of war", I guess.  My very kind dad and I talked about it before he died.  He said he wanted to see if I could return it to the soldier or his family.

     So the journey to return the album began, but efforts to handle it through the Japanese embassy in Washington failed (long story), until I was watching CBS Sunday Morning two weeks ago and saw a story about similar efforts.  The story focused on the flags (Yosegaki Hinomaru) that Japanese soldiers took with them into battle.  They were signed by their family members and friends before they went off to war and they kept the flags with them in battle.  Many American soldiers found them and took them home.

     The story featured a non-profit organization in Astoria, Oregon, called the Obon Society, that is handling the return of the flags to the families, which sometimes takes time, but they are having some success.  So I contacted them and they most kindly agreed to take the album, warning me that this might take some time, that 67 cities in Japan were burned to the ground during the war, so they are finding that often the families have moved on and can be difficult to trace.  However, they are having some success finding the families if they are / were living in rural areas.  There is a name and address in the front of the album, faded, but legible, so I'm hopeful.  I sent it to the Obon Society on Wednesday.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday treat, all done and the forecast

- Coworker Joanne brought these in to work yesterday as a treat.  They are from Sublime Doughnuts that I've heard so much about.  It took about five seconds to go off my diet.  :)  That one on the middle right - the "A-Town Mocha" (the A standing for Atlanta), was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life!  So I had to blog about them.  There are two locations in Atlanta and one in Thailand (?), so if you are ever there, I recommend them. 

- My sister and niece are on their way to visit from Florida to celebrate Mother's Day weekend - an annual tradition now.  I hurried up and finished all my spring potting and re-potting and am finally pleased with how it looks.  It was 48 degrees outside on this cool Friday morning when I transferred the Mexican Heather to that pretty green pot I found at Ace Hardware this week. 

- Look at that weather forecast!  I texted this to my niece last weekend so she could see how cool it will be this weekend in Atlanta.  It's been very hot and humid in Florida already, so she is excited.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!  Hugs to friends who are moms and celebrate this holiday!

Rescue lily, blooming like crazy and so good

- When friend Marty and I were placing Easter lilies in our church sanctuary on Saturday morning (a delightful annual pre-Easter event), I told her, "Uh oh - we have a leaner!"  So I rescued it and took it home, adding a little more dirt to it to keep it from toppling over.  It's still pretty, I think.

- Azaleas from a friend's yard.  They are blooming like crazy in north Georgia and are a little early.  Some friends who are from Augusta, Georgia say that landscapers at Augusta National Golf Course put ice on them so they'll still be blooming for guests and TV cameras for The Masters Golf Tournament, which is coming up next week!

- And a very cute bunny and some Peeps decorated cake at friend Laura's Easter dinner.  The cake was an Italian Cream Cake - it was so good. 

Gone too soon, so pretty and jelly bird eggs

- One of my favorite authors of all time, Pat Conroy, passed away last Friday.  Three of his books are displayed here on my bookshelf that features authors from the south.  The first book I ever read, written by him, was The Water is Wide, a memoir of the time he spent teaching children on Yamacraw Island, South Carolina.  I've ordered a used copy to add to this shelf - I loved it so much.  How I will miss his presence in the world.

- When I was leaving for church on Sunday, I got out of my car to snap a photo of neighbor Rhonda's pansies.  They have weathered all manner of cold weather and ice and still look so pretty.

- My late mother loved black jelly beans and I used to pick up a bag for her when I'd spot them.  They had them at Publix this week, so I picked up a couple of bags.  I kept one bag for my desk at work and shared the other bag with the printing plant manager, who likes them, too.

Desert island feast, fab pen holder and warrior angel

- My dinner group met last Friday night at the home of some real cooks.  I was asked to bring the appetizer and then got conflicted about what to make - many online recipes and magazine appetizer recipes were poured over.  But in the end - I decided to bring what I would want with me if I were stranded on a desert island:  cheese, bread, olives and nuts.  I loved that heart shaped Brie that I found at Publix (I guess leftover from Valentine's offerings,) The other cheese is Le Roulé herb cheese - found at Fresh Market.  It was a hit.  The heart napkins belonged to the hostess - leftover from another party.

 - More refrigerator magnets (it's been a slow Good Things period).  This pottery pen holder came from a shop in Winchester, Virginia (near where sister #1 lives.)  My fridge is full of photos of loved ones and the piper in the magnet above it advertised a Highland Games in Savannah, Georgia.  I didn't attend, but loved the image, so there it has stayed.

 - The battered warrior angel magnet came from the gift shop at Stirling Castle in Scotland.  I laughed when I got home and saw the sticker on the back:  Made in Oklahoma City.  :)