Neue Aktivität
I cannot get NY bagels here, but I'm amazed that Dave's Bagels are actually very acceptable bagels, especially for a mass produced grocery store brand.
I have made bagels for years.I use sourdough and hand roll them then they go in the fridge overnight and get boiled in lye water the next day then baked. I make 2 doz at a time because they freeze beautifully. Slice , freeze toast. These are the chewy not big bready kind.
Everyone makes a big deal about
lye for bagels but it’s weak enough that there is 0 danger. The outcome is so worth it. It is the only way to get the right flavor and color and texture.
Some pics from my blog on The Fresh Loaf
” trailrunner ” there too.
Another aging gardener here who will be 82 this winter. I will always want my small veggie garden--I don't know how I would feed myself without it--but the ornamental garden which provides open privacy from the street and the neighbor is just now maturing. I put it all in from nothing when I built this house in 2021. Fortunately I found a great young person to do most of the heavy work, but I'm still doing quite a lot of work. I guess it's my exercise, but let's face it, it's getting harder and harder.
A word about Fothergilla. I planted a very small F. 'Legend of the Fall' in my very heavy clay my first spring and had to move it to more sun during the first summer. It just barely hung on the next couple of years, then grew well at last the following year and this season, though it's still pretty small--barely 2 ft. But the fall color is absolutely spectacular fiery red and I think it's happy. It's a slow grower and there's just no speeding it up.
I had Legend and Mt Airy and I tried moving and watering and feeding but after 3 years they had no leaves anymore and I gave up. I saw a gorgeous one the other day at a nurserie and the leaf color nearly sucked me in but not for the ridiculous price.
My neighbor has beautiful big big ones . I’ll see about propagation in the Spring .
Right now i am trying to get the grass seed to sprout . The soil temp here is mid 70’s with the nights getting low again in 30’s but no frost. They say soil temp is ok for Fall grass seed and I have been watering. I hate the uncertainty! c
i have had good luck with 2 fothergilla Blue Shadow in full sun. i pay attention to branches reverting to plain gteen and remove them quickly.
Still Trailing: i too love shasta viburnums- i had three. I could not keep up with watering during a two year drought snd cut down one that nearly dead from ”thirst”
These really need steady watering. The smaller Shoshoni is in flltered shade and is much more drought tolerant
What about including one of the smaller Fothergillas. 'Legend of the Fall' gets about 5x5 and has absolutely spectacular red fall color. Fothergillas are also quite deer resistant, though always, always keep any new plant sprayed because deer will try something new and you want their first experience to be a nasty one.
Dwarf pinus mugo, dwarf cryptomeria japonica/cedar or dwarf picea abies (birds nest spruce)
Nobody has mentioned "Doo Wop"
Or the Good Humor Man.
And not such good memories:
Avoiding public pools and large gatherings of children during polio season. Iron lungs and Sister Kenny.
Hiding under your desk for protection from an atomic bomb attack.
My second cousin died of polio at age 12. I raced home from school to watch American Bandstand every day.
Calling the radio station to request a song, then sitting by the radio with your finger on the Record button of the cassette player, so you could tape it. Posting a friend at the door to keep your little brother from making noise.
Neighborhood kids of all ages playing together.
My Mom didn't watch soaps, but she and a neighbor (who became her best friend) had coffee together in the morning and the afternoon. They watched each others' kids. They supported each other.
One of the big reasons it's different now is because most families can't get by on one income. When both parents work, there isn't a support system of stay-home parents, or a built-in playgroup in the immediate neighborhood. Today, if you are a stay-home parent, you are either alone, or driving to scheduled playdates or coffee dates.
All of my friends are just getting older--me too. Big parties are pretty much gone. And being outside--the tick situation is so bad, so dangerous, so ongoing that people don't want to be standing or sitting in anyone's yard.
When my parents passed away we continued having all 6 siblings get together with their spouses and kids, but the kids have grown up and many have moved to other cities, have families of their own, so the parties shrank. Now, my oldest sister is gone, my two oldest brothers are in poor health and my middle sister just moved to be close to her kids.
I will spend a few weekends baking my mom's classic pastries and take them around to family members for the holidays - spend some time with each sibling individually, see some of my nieces and nephews, get an invite to two or three houses, but there aren't any big gatherings anymore.
Time passes and things change.
I have cooked and hosted the family holiday meals for the last 45 years and I don't see that it will change in the near future, as long as I am able to do so.
There is an "ebb and flow" of attendees. Four decades ago there were 40+, then people died and got divorced. Parties got smaller, then cousins were replaced with grandchildren and then their "dates" and friends started coming and the parties are getting bigger again. This year there will be 18, I think.
The turkey is still here but now it's smoked, as the younger people all like that better. There has always been at least 3 desserts and one cheeseball and that will most likely continue, as will the traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving plates and tableware. The Princess has begun setting up a "coffee bar" with various flavorings and whipped cream and a frother and makes various and sundry coffee drinks, so coffee is still a big mover in my house, although it's the teenagers more than the adults.
Last year I was still recovering from my adventure at the Heart Center so we bought disposable plates and cups and paper napkins and did all the baking in disposable aluminum pans to cut down on the dishes and everyone pitched in and brought a dish. Even Amanda brought the cheese ball, although cooking not is one of the many talents she's blessed with, LOL. We change and adapt.
This year I'm back to cooking and the holiday tableware is coming back out, but I think I'm going to keep the disposable pans because I really liked not having to scrub pans! Christmas dishes are FiestaWare with a Christmas tree on them and go in the dishwasher, but the Thanksgiving plates are vintage Johnson Brothers transferware, so I do those by hand. I like them, though, so I'm using 'em.
We've never taken a walk after dinner or played games or cards, we mostly just sit around, talking and solving the latest world crisis. There has never been alcohol involved, so sometimes we actually do solve some things, LOL. By the time people start leaving, I'm pretty much ready for them to go home anyway. Everyone takes leftovers so no one has to cook the next day and I always cook way too much food.
Annie
I don't know what came over me. I was thinking about what we had read in high school almost 70 years ago and suddenly I felt I needed to read Alfred, Lord Tennyson's, The Idylls of the King. The entire thing. So here I am, reading for about an hour each morning Victorian epic poetry. It's a very, very long poetic epic.
I have always liked Tennyson's Crossing The Bar, but still......
Based on Stacey’s recommendation, read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, a collection of really fine short stories (the last one in three parts could be a novella). As with her first collection Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri’s world is seen through a highly specific ethnic, cultural lens.
Both these collections (and her novel Namesake) revolve around not just the Indian diaspora, but most specifically the Bengali community in the US, specifically Massachusetts. I’m of Indian origin, though not Bengali, but even a non-Indian will pick up a sense of the cultural milieu after a few stories and the characters will feel familiar.
I think Lahiri’s gift is successfully reaching into universal human experiences and emotions through this singular subset of humanity in a singular background. Her style of short story always reminds me of Rabindranath Tagore, a great Bengali writer from another century. (He was an educator, reformist, painter, composer composer, poet, fiction writer and a Nobel laureate, BTW.)
Thanks for the recommendation, Stacey
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall. I made the mistake of starting this at 10 PM last night and had to force myself to stop at 12:30! I didn't want to stop -- but my eyes were so bleary! I can't wait to get back to it this evening. I will definitely start earlier tonight. LOL
I didn't know anything about her so I just checked her out. If you are judging her by her personal relationships, that is her business. She was certainly an activist and worked for the betterment of people and I think that is to be admired. She came of age in a very contentious time and took on potentially dangerous work and did so in a time when women were not welcomed in the organizing of workers who were being taken advantage of and being held down from seeing the value of their labors. She was also a victim but seemed to not let that define her. Maybe her working to support Democratic candidates isn't something you agree with but trying to make this country a better place is something I would easily support.
Ah, Annie, around here everyone still uses checks.
Re-reading the OP, it stands out that she needed less than half a tank. I’m curious how many gallons were delivered. Looking at my COD suplier, their price differential for less than 100 gallons is almost a dollar higher than the next tier, and the differential is fall smaller between subsequent tiers. With automatic delivery, someone may be subject to that high price, depending on their contract. It sounds like perhaps an early delivery triggered a smaller delivery at a high price. I would definitely balk at that, but even if they adjust it I’d compare their regular rates against others, and consider switching service..
Talk to your local government ombudsman or other such authority. The fastest way to get a refund or credit on your account is to have an authority on your side.
I'm never been crazy about turkey, so for a couple of years when I made Thanksgiving for a couple of friends, I made a very good pork roast from a pastured heirloom pig. It was fantastic, but then both my friends got alpha gal from the lonestar tick, so farewell to the terrific roast pork.
Thanksgiving isn't what you eat, it's who you eat it with!
True. I will greatly miss everyone at the family Thanksgiving. Mr. Picky would never ask, but when I said I'd come make him a dinner he'll like he sounded so happy!
That narrow strip between the driveway and the fence sounds like a tough spot, especially with three pin oaks drinking up most of the water. I agree the roots and shade are probably doing more damage than anything you have tried so far. If the ditch lilies keep dying back, I would lean toward something really tough and dry-shade tolerant rather than fighting the oaks every season. A simple gravel path with a few hardy groundcover pockets might actually look tidy there and save you a lot of frustration.
Geranium maccrorrhizum is my go to for dry shade. If the area gets hot afternoon sun, try its relative, G. 'Karmina', very similar though slightly smaller and usually longer blooming.
kathy, Shakespeare did it all the time.
I was 71st in queue for Peck & Peck. I don’t feel too bad about the long wait now, lol.
Already have one in an entirely different area and it suckers too much for spot I mentioned. It's also a little too open and airy for the spot; I'd like something denser.
Dee, how wet was the spot where you planted the cephalanthus? I can keep it modestly watered and the heavy clay will hold water--but I can't keep it soaked.
Admittedly, the cephalanthus in my customer's garden was planted in what was practically a swamp! Along a small creek.
The one that will be planted in my yard was originally intended for a rather shady spot that has soil that has YEARS of undisturbed leaf fall etc. So the soil WAS nice and moist. The cephalanthus is still going to be planted in the same spot, but the electric company cut down a bunch of trees, so the area is now MUCH sunnier, and I would assume, drier. But I am still going to try the cephalanthus here. I will have to keep it watered but I'm willing to give it a shot, because it was so beautiful in the other yard. I looked for a photo but unfortunately don't have any.
Good luck with your decision! Let us know what you choose.
:)
Dee