Interior Design Via Insomnia

I don't suffer from insomnia very often and so I don't have a lot of strategies for dealing with it.  I've tried solving the world's problems, but that drives me crazy and is better dealt with when I'm pulling weeds.  Don't like to count sheep, I always lose track which wakes me up more.  Can't toss and turn, that wakes Mac up,  and though he's understanding he  often threatens to tie me down.

I finally discovered that redecorating the house, room by room, is so boring that it usually puts me right to sleep.  Don't know why, when I'm awake it's something I enjoy doing, and in a house this size there's always room for improvement, but at night it's a real snooze fest.  Go figure.

Found Our Cottage

We found our English cottage, it's near Oxford, but in the south end of the Cotswolds.  It's a little beauty!  We confirmed it all today.  This is a beautiful area and I can't wait to do some painting and drawing there.   Near here is a place called Cogge's Farm that we really like. It is an 18th century farm that is run by a trust and gives you an idea of what life was like on a farm at that time.  We went to a steam fair there one year where they were using the old steam farm vehicles.  They're always cooking in the kitchen and the livestock wander about the place.  

Another place we like to visit in this area is Minster Lovell a beautiful little hamlet with a great restaurant and a ruined castle I love to paint.  We sat in the sun and watched a cricket game there one Sunday, though we still have no clue as to how this game is played or scored!

Lechlade is also near here, with good

pubs, a lovely church, a great junk store/antique mall,  and a walk along the Thames to Father Thames who is supposed to be the source of the Thames, and best of all lunch at The Trout.

We don't go for several months, but Mac has already dug out walk books and I'm starting to count days.

Raviolis Redux

It's ravioli time, no more putting it off, it's time to haul out the pasta machine and roll out the pasta.  I'm making a meat sauce to put in them, I'm not a big cheese freak and prefer it in small doses, I'll put some in the meat sauce but I don't want to stuff the ravs with it.

Mac is going to help me roll out the pasta, I've decided it's a two person or 4 hand job, whichever you happen to have.  My ravs get better each time I make them.  The first time they were too tough, last time they weren't tough but fell apart in the water.  I'm going to make them a bit bigger so there's more room for stuffing.

Fingers crossed, and just in case, I'm making spaghetti to go with it.

A Cottage in the Country

In the English countryside that is.  Our trip to England is booked, we think the seats have been sorted out and now I must find us a place to stay.  Normally when we go we rent a cottage, and for the last half dozen times we've gone we've stayed in the Cotswolds and that's probably where we'll stay again.  Beautiful part of the country, decent weather, nice people, lots to see and do.

We've stayed in a number of interesting places:  a 17th century mill in Somerset, a thatched cottage in Devon, another thatched cottage in Wiltshire, a converted cowbarn in Shrophire, a half-timbered cottage in Shropshire, and a brick cottage on a horse farm near Stratford on Avon among other.

All of them were wonderful in their own way.  Staying in a cottage is so much better than a hotel room.  Most motels, and  that's what we stay in when we need a place just for a night or so, cost about a $100 and you can rent a cottage for about that much too, so the choice is easy, that is, it's easy choosing cottage over motel, but it's not easy picking which cottage.

Delta, Delta, Delta ...

I'd hate to think that Delta is in the business of hiring the incompetent but one does wonder.

On Saturday, after 3 days of playing with Delta online, Mac booked us tickets to England, picked our seats and paid for the tickets.  When the e-mail confirmation came through the seats were wrong.  So yesterday Mac tried all day to call Delta, but their phones kept saying that due to the snow emergency they were unable to answer their phones.

Today, Monday, he finally got through to what sounded like a native English speaker, a wonder in of itself, and explained the problem.  The lady checked, they had the right seats, the ones Mac had selected, and said they would send us a new confirmation.  And they did, with the same wrong seats.  Mac says he'll call again tomorrow.  And I'm thinking, do I really want to fly with people this incompetent?

Waiting For Spring

I'm a gardener, I'd rather be in my garden than any other place I can think of.  It is said that God made rainy days so that gardeners would stay inside and clean their houses, and that's probably true.  I'd much rather muck about in my garden than dig in the corners of my house.  But this winter has seemed so long, and I've cleaned more house than I ever wanted to, so now I'm looking for signs of Spring which comes earlier in the South than other places.

One of the first trees to bud out it the Red Maple and they all started about a w

eek ago, freezing weather and all.

The first flowers to bloom are my Red Camelia which is in the garden,  

the Carolina Yellow Jasmine growing around the pool ,

 and  the Loeopetalum, Purple Diamond which is growing in a pot in the 

garden and getting way too  big.

The purple Hyacinths are coming 

up, but so far not as many as last

 year.  

I planted Spanish Bluebells last Fall and they'

re starting to break through the soil.

 I planted 20 of them but only a few have come 

up so far.   I know that in England Bluebells bloom in May, I'm not sure when these will bloom.

Next to them

 I planted Anemones and a couple of them have started peeking up too.

The Freesias are all up but not blooming yet and the daffodils are getting taller each day.

Today I planted California Poppy seeds, I should have put them in last Fall, I hope I'm not too late.

Each year I learn more about gardening and in particular about gardening here in Coastal Georgia.  It's a time an expensive education,  to quote H. Fred Dale, "My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view."

It's been said that what a man (or women) needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it, (Charles Dudley Warner) and I'd certainly agree, but time on my knees in my garden gives me more than time spent  on my knees on my kitchen floor does..  It renews me and makes me more appreciative of all I have.

A friend of mine in going through chemo right now  and says that if she could just sit outside in her garden it would all be so much easier and I know exactly what she means.

Schnee, Snaw, nix, yuki, snow, whatever you want to freaking call it, it's going to happen here today night and I'm not happy.

I live in the South, not more than 10 miles from the ocean and it's going to snow here!

No more Global Warming cagada, no more this is just weather not climate, it's cold and it's not pretty.  Where or where has my nice mild winter gone?

I refuse to live in Florida, though it's not much warmer there, left California ....too many people and I don't want to live on a tropical island, I just don't want winter.

...What a Beautiful World

One of the best things about being retired is having the time to do the things you want to do, as opposed to things they say you should do...save the world, climb the Himalayas, give back, spoil your grandkids, or become an activist.  

 We live out in the county in a small subdivision with all the homes on large lots or acreage, and cutting down trees is forbidden.  So though the Homeowner's Association came be like yard Nazis at times, it does make for a beautiful place to live.

And one of the things we do do every day is walk and our daily walk takes us down to a small bridge that crosses the lagoon.  We always stop there, look for turtles, check the trees to see if they've started blooming and in summer look for the resident alligator.

Nice way to start the day.

In Search of the Elusive Ravioli

We've been spoiled!  Where we're from in California there is a restaurant, still sitting in the same quonset  hut its been occupying since shortly after World War II, named Banchero's.  They serve the best Italian food in the world, trust me, I've been to Italy numerous times and have yet to find a restaurant that comes anywhere near it.  I've eaten Italian food all over the United States and though we found a pretty good Italian restaurant in Anaheim it still wasn't  as good as  Banchero's.

Every meal served there starts with a bowl of soup, if you're a crowd it's a big bowl, then an Italian salad, followed by  hor'dourves , followed by plates of spaghetti and raviolis, then you get your main course.  It's heavenly, particularly the raviolis, they melt in your mouth.  They're small and full of meat sauce, not cheese.  Cheese raviolis are ok, unless you've tasted Banchero's meat raviolis, and then there is no comparison.

Don't tell me about the Olive Garden or other chain restaurants, it's just not the same.  You need a place where the food, and its smells, have sunk into the walls, and when you walk in, take a sniff, you know you're going to be eating good Italian food.

So we're going out for Italian today, we're going to The Upper Crust, a local place, it's not Bancheros, but it's good, just wish they had meat raviolis!

California

California, it's time for us to talk.  For too long your illegal aliens have been drifting across the continent wrecking havoc wherever they went and it's time for it to stop.  Here in Georgia we don't need them.  We have plenty without any help from you, keep them at home or send them back to wherever they came from.  

My yard is underwater, when I mow I leave grooves in the lawn and my pool is full of debris.  You say what does this have to do with illegal aliens?  Plenty!  El Nino must go!  We're over 4 inches above normal in rainfall, December was the wettest on record in Georgia and January gave it a run, with February starting off the same way.  We had more than 2 1/2 inches of rain last week, more is due tomorrow and again on Friday and all because of El Nino!  I'm sick of it, we have too much rain in a good year here  and this is making it worse, so California, call your child home!

Seniors Need Less Sleep

I read an article that said seniors sleep less than younger people and that it may be because they need less sleep or have lost the capacity to go to sleep quickly.  Now I don't know which seniors they were talking about or studying, but let me tell you that the seniors in this house sleep a lot, usually 8 hours, if not more at night, and they take a nap every afternoon.

They conducted their experiment by asking young people and seniors to stay in bed for 16 hours in a dark room.  The younger participants got an average of 9 hours of sleep and the senior 7.5 hours.  Now I don't know about you but if  they put me in a dark room for 16 hours at a shot I'd be bored, I'd be thinking of a million other things I'd rather be doing.  Maybe young people go to sleep when they're bored, while seniors find other ways to fend off boredom. Anyway I sleep just fine, if I slept any more I could give my cat lessons.