Classical Music Cartoons (playlist)

Though all my  bunnies are ready for Easter, Bugs is still my favorite and he's always ready.  Love Easter, the sense of renewal and change.

Happy Easter to my family and friends and  to my Jewish friends Happy Passover. 

Well and Truly Hooked

I like a good mystery, Mac does not, but what we both like is a good story, great scenery and interesting characters.  We love Poirot and watch him repeatedly (nobody says, "I say", better than Hastings), but it was time to find something new.
We'd seen previews of several British crime series  and decided to give one, namely Midsomer Murders, a try.  I knew it was a long running series so I ordered the first one from Netflix,  The Murders at Badger's Drift, and we loved it.  Great character actors who look their age, no botox here--American shows only have beautiful people.  It's fun to pick out people we know from other movies and shows---oh look, there's Daisy from Keeping Up Appearances, and isn't that Stephan from As Time Goes By?
Each one is about 100 minutes long and we've been going through them about 2 a week.  Love the English villages, we're assuming the stories are supposed to take place in the county of Somerset, the gardens, the gossip, the tittle-tattle, they way everyone lies.
We like Sgt. Troy and the fact he can't drive worth a flip and his investigations are never by the book.
We like DCI Barnaby and his family.
Watched Death's Shadow last night (they're killing folk off in Badger's Drift again) and coming up this weekend will be Beyond the Grave.
As I said, we're well and truly hooked.

A Great Gift

For Christmas last December my daughter gave me a great gift, a bag to microwave potatoes in.  I love the convenience of microwave potatoes, but it's definitely true that the microwave, which cooks from the inside out, really dries potatoes out.  Well this little bag holds the steam that comes off the potatoes as they cook and puts it back into the potatoes and you end up with lovely, moist, baked potatoes.  The directions with the bag recommends cooking the potatoes part way and then turning the bag over.  I did that the first time or two I used it, but since then I just throw the bag, with the potatoes inside, into the microwave and cook, they turn out fine.  It can be used for peppers and other veggies too.
 I highly recommend it and it looks great.

Fresh Beans

Picked our first Fava Beans from the garden yesterday.  The Spanish call them Fava beans, others know them as Broad Beans.  In fact when I order seeds ( I get them from the Territorial Seed Company) they  list them as Broad Beans.
We often sow them in the Fall and then they come up in early Spring and are done by Summer, they can't deal with the heat.  But we had such a mild winter they came up right away and we're eating them the first week of Spring.  They were delicious.
Mac says he always remembers his Dad growing them.

Bean plants

The Freesias are in full bloom and smell like heaven.  In the other garden  the lemon tree is blooming and the orange tree is starting to bloom.

Freesias

Spring Time

Mac finally got my new header picture done, he's been painting for a while.  Must say I'm very pleased, have wanted a bunny painting for some time.  This one looks springy without being Eastery.

STT

Though we get lots of junk mail Tuesday is the total junk mail day.  When I picked the mail up this Tuesday Mac asked what was in it and I told him it was STT.  What's that he said, and I replied it's  Straight  To Trash mail, I don't even bring it in the house.
Except for the odd bill that comes by mail, most come by e-mail, nearly all  of our mail is junk mail, if it's a credit card offer we shred it, otherwise it's into the trash.
What a colossal waste of paper and trees, but it's my understanding that this 3rd class mail is the only thing the post office makes money on.  From the look of my mailbox they must be making a lot of money.

It's About Time

I was at Wally World this week and I was ready to check out so I picked the shortest line I could find, there were just 2 people in front of me.  I thought it would go pretty quickly but it didn't.  There was a little old lady who looked to be about 100 (all right I lied, she looked to be about my age) pulled out her checkbook to pay for her purchases and it took forever.  She wrote the check, handed it to the cashier, dug in her wallet to find a picture ID, had to write something on her check, and then hand it back to the cashier.   I was standing there thinking, why is she using a check, why not a Debit Card or a Credit Card or a last resort cash?  I hate it when people pay with checks, it takes forever and a day.
Then it hit me, I never pay with checks when out shopping, then why do I carry a whopping big wallet that has a checkbook in it?  There is no answer to that, so I'm pulling my checkbook out and putting it away, it's about time.

It's Spring

It's officially spring, the vernal equinox arrived at 7:02 AM this morning and even though it was much warmer yesterday (well up in the 70's) today actually feels more like spring.  It's a bit overcast, there's a chance of a shower later and it's a bit breezy.
On our walk today I was admiring our neighbors Azaleas, they're just beautiful.  Our plants are still quite small even after nearly 10 years.  Mac says we don't water enough, but you know what, this is the south, we live in a swamp and by golly there should be plenty of water without me getting a hose out.  So no pictures of our Azaleas, but the Wisteria is coming along nicely.

Our Wisteria

                 The Canada Geese are back, in fact many of them never leave anymore.

Paul Bunyon Was Here or At Least His Southern Cousin

We have loads of pine trees in our yard and they're not the most stable trees in the world, they're shallow rooted and in wind storms they come down on a regular basis around here.  When we first bought our house there was a dead tree next to the house and we had it taken down right away.
Since our neighbor had tree come down last fall we've really been watching our trees and there was a big one, more than 50 feet high, that has been steadily leaning towards the house and we decided it had to go.  So a friend of ours recommended someone to us and they came out Saturday to take a look at it. They had such thick southern accents we had a hard time understanding them, but the bottom line was they'd take the tree down for the same price we'd paid 10 years ago and we told them to saw away.
One of them shimmied up the tree and topped it.  When that hit the ground it was so loud I heard it way in the backyard and when the rest of the tree came down it literally shook the yard, could only imagine what it would have been like if it had hit the house.
I didn't get a before picture, but the tree we took down was at least as big as those still standing in the yard.

St. Patrick's Day

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all whether you're Irish or not.  My Mom's side of the family provides the Irish for me.  She was born a Kennedy, alas a poor one, her mother was an Anderson, also an Irish name thanks to Viking invaders, and her mother was a Finn, her father having been Michael Finn an immigrant from Ireland via Liverpool around 1857.
So to pay homage to them, and because my husband loves it, I'm cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage in the crock pot today.  Mac asked it I was putting potatoes in too, I laughed, "It's Irish food I'm cooking isn't it, so of course there's potatoes in it."
I remember visiting Ireland back in the 90's and being served potatoes at every meal and sometimes 2 different types of potatoes at one meal, did my heart good.
Mac was wondering what the Irish ate before the discovery of the New World and the importation of potatoes to Ireland, anyone know?
Mac made me the hat on the left as  St. Patrick's Day gift, he made it out of a flower pot.  I asked him where he got the idea and he said Pinterest, oh dear, even he's hooked now.
I was reading a blog today, Sightings Over Sixty,  and the writer was talking about snakes in Ireland; he was like me and thought that St. Patrick had driven them all out.  Well it seems that times have changed and people in the   Celtic Boom years of the 1990's and early 2000's people thought it was cool to buy snakes as pets.  Then when times got tough and it was expensive to feed them they took them out to the countryside and let them go.  They've thrived in the wet, mild winters and they've found a 16 foot python in Westmeath.   I knew Florida had a problem with pythons, but Ireland?  Where is St. Paddy when you need him.

New Shower

I mentioned yesterday that the man was here to install our new shower and he worked all day getting it done. Our old one had become rather badly deteriorated and very old dated.  We know that some day we'll be selling this house so it's important to keep it up to date, so this year's project was the shower in our bathroom.
Before it was builder grade with lots of 80's brass trim, even though our house was built in 2000 it looked very old and worn.
We worked with Home Depot and are very pleased with the results.  It was finished reasonably quickly, though there was a week's delay when one of the pieces of glass got sent somewhere else.
It has to sit for 24 hours for the silicon to sit and the weather to warm up because when it's cold I want my hot bubble bath.
 It is frameless and only has the trim at the top, the door is huge and opens in or out.   Now I need to pick out a new shower head, I want one of the rain ones.

New Shower

Old Shower

Notes From the Swamp

Up early this morning, something we've given up doing since retiring, but they were finally here to install our new shower, will tell you about that tomorrow.
I started Spring Cleaning yesterday, I moaned the whole time--Mac asked why I was doing this to myself, but I have to give the house a really deep cleaning before summer because I know that once it turns really hot here about all I'll do is give everything a lick and a promise.
I started with our bedroom and it took all afternoon and that didn't include the bathroom because I'm waiting till the new shower is in before I do it.

I "Think" This is the Color I Want

Up next is my craft room, also known as the white bedroom when it's color can be picked out from all my mess.  It's not going to stay white too much longer, I have plans to paint a least part of it  a dusty pink.
Through the year as I've sewn and worked up there things have been pulled out and not put back so it needs a bit of work.

The Closet of Shame

In other news Savannah is getting ready for its yearly drunken bash known as St. Patrick's Day, more than a million (I can't even believe I'm writing that number) people showed up last year.  We never to near Savannah this time of year, drunk and disorderly I do not need.

Pinterest Inspiration

I saw this on Pinterest and thought what a great idea, no more tooth paste mess, no more yucky sandwich bags (that's how I usually transport our toothbrushes), just throw it in the wash after a trip.
The ones I saw were colorful, but the only hand towel I had around that was small enough to use was a rather blah oatmeal color.  So I decided to embellish it with some yellow flower trim.  Turned out pretty well, except I didn't get the ties on well enough and one fell one during our trip to Florida, but I resewed it yesterday and it's ready to go again.

Great Evening

Another reason last week flew by was an evening with Jerry Seinfeld.  We went to see him the last time he came through Savannah and we enjoyed him even more this time.  He's so funny without being the least bit vulgar, at times I laughed so hard I almost cried and I thought the lady behind me was going to explode.
At the end, as last time, he came back out and took questions from the audience.  He of course did his "Hello Newman" bit and had us roaring at his description of people deleting people from their cell phones resembling a gay French King.
Needless to say, if he comes back we'll go see him again.

Antique Restriction

Mac and I are both on antique restriction.  When we went to pick up my music cabinet from the dealer he found a settle that converts into a table and fell in love with it.    He has been looking for a settle forever.  We almost bought one in England, but the dealer wanted a fortune and we knew shipping would cost an arm, a leg and our first born feline, so we didn't buy.
But when he spotted the one at the dealers last week, was hemming and hawing even though the price was more than reasonable I knew he had to get it. It's a lovely dark oak, hand carved with a leopard, an eagle and a green man.  The dealer said that it could be as early as 1890 and no later than 1910, about what we thought.   So when we got home I called the dealer and told him we'd be back to buy it.
It's setting up in the "pub" area upstairs and looks great.  Now Mac has decided to sand down and restain his "pub" to match it.

Florida

Our B and B Windemere Inn

Last week flew by and then on Friday we went to Florida for a couple of days.  We love baseball and decided to head to Florida to see the Washington Nationals play.  Their Spring Training park is Space Coast stadium and that's near Melbourne, FL so we booked a B and B on the beach and make a leisurely trip out of it.
Our B and B was  the Windemere Inn and  it was a gorgeous place full of vintage furniture, a bed so high we had steps to get into it and luscious breakfasts and afternoon tea.

Crepes, fruit and sausage

The baseball game was hot, crowded and overpriced, glad we went, won't go back.

Park where I painted

Mac went fishing on Saturday and I sat and painted a picture, he caught 5 pufFER fish (I made the letters get big 'cause that's what the fish do, they puff up.
Florida was beautiful, the water gorgeous, but all in all just too many people, we were glad to get back home.

Our balcony on the left

Our B and B's deck at the beach

I Think It's Fabulous

As I said yesterday, after not being out for a while, and feeling like the walls were closing in on us,  we decided to head into Savannah for some antique looking that turned into antique buying.  What I bought was a Victorian mahogany music cupboard from around 1890-1900.  It's gorgeous and I just love it.  We took my car yesterday and picked it up and brought it home.  It's very solid and quite heavy for such a simple piece.  We loaded it onto our dolly and brought it up the stairs to sit it next to my piano.  Haven't put any music books in it yet, but as soon as I get it polished up I will.