Up and About

It feels so good to be up and about again, not outdoors, way too cold, but running about the house.  Went upstairs for the first time in forever, our bedroom is downstairs so unless I'm up in my craft room I don't go up there very often.
Others around Blogworld have been writing about their bookcases and I thought I'd show you one of my favorites.  It's definitely a "girly" one.
This bookcase is in the bedroom our daughter uses when she comes to stay, if you look to the left you'll see a painting her Grandfather did of her when she was a little girl.
On the top is a picture of my Mother-in-law on her wedding day, I love this picture, she was such a special lady.  Also up there are bears and miniatures, I'm addicted to miniatures.
On the first shelf you'll find The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift, one of my favorite books about building a garden, my Bible that dates back to my childhood, A Jane Austen

Education by William Deresiewicz,  The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson---I'm absolutely fascinated by the development of language and have read this book numerous times, Through a Brazen Mirror by Delia Sherman, good fantasy, Plato and a Platypus Go into A Bar--need a bit of humor from time to time--, The complete Alice in Wonderland, loads of Georgette Heyer, mainly her mysteries, Passages by Connie Willis, great SF writer, A Woman's Book of Days, Jane Austen's Christmas, The Go-Between, good Edwardian story told through the eyes of a child, The Blessing by Nancy Mitford, again, you need a goo chuckle from time to time., Legends a spy novel (strange company for this book), Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden--we got to visit this in Shrewsbury I believe-I don't normally read Jane Austen sequels but I do like this 3 book series (An Assembly Such as This, Duty and Desire, These 3

Remain) by Pamela Aidan, The Complete Miss Marple Stories, The Complete Hercule Poirot stories, Animal, Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver--if you don't know her books you should--To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a time travel take on Jerome Kern's classic 3 Men in a Boat to Say Nothing of the Dog, The Mrs. Tim books, classics, Helen Allingham's beautiful paintings of rural England, Tolkien, British Wild Flowers, Dinner at Miss Lady, a very southern book, Fairy Tales, the Diana Galbadon series, I have this on my Kindle and I may be moving the books on, At the Bottom of the Garden, fairies of course, A Cotswald Sketch book, if I could paint like this, Houses and Cottages of England, The Medieval Garden, some day I'm going to have a walled English Garden, the minor works of Jane Austen and all her novels.

These may not be my forever books, but most of them have been with me many years.
Filling in the shelves you'll find miniature tea sets and little bear.  To the right is Mac's Father's classic guitar.

Doing Much Better

• Follow up with my Doctor yesterday, he thinks I'm doing well.  More antibiotics and steroids to keep things at bay.

Fixed breakfast for the first time in a while.  Cleaned my "sick" area, few other jobs.  Feels good to be moving about.  It's been a long 2 weeks.
Still taking it easy, cups of tea, reading, crocheting.
Tomorrow very

cold here, down to about 20 degrees, but warming up by the weekend.  Hope to be out about by then.  Thanks for all the get well wishes.

Better Today

Kind thanks for all my well wishes, I am doing better.  Probably have enough steroids and antibiotics in me to sink a ship of germs, but if that's what it takes, shoot me up.
Mac has taken such good care of me, I know I've about worn him out.
What else has helped--besides my trusty Bean and Bacon soup--always a comfort food when I could finally eat.  Well Lord Peter Wimsey, I'd never read him before and I found a book of his short stories.  They have carried the day, just long enough to carry my interest without wearing me out.  Enjoyed them so much I 've ordered the first of his novels.

I quite like that he's a bit silly, not at all like Hercules Poirot.
Well I hear a nap calling so I'm off.

Round Four

Back to the doctor again, thank God they had a cancellation.  More shots, blood tests, inhale oxygen.  The doctor told Mac that he's seeing a few cases like mine.  Not quite sick enough to go in the hospital, but not getting well as quickly as one should.  Back on Wednesday, but if no improvement back in tomorrow morning.
Do feel a bit better, finally able to eat a little, stomach has been quite unhappy.
So fingers crossed.

Sick

Been sick since we got  home from the Everglades and it ain't been pretty.  Two visits to the Urgent Care Center because my Doctor couldn't fit me in, antibiotics started, steroid shot on second visit to speed up the progress and today I finally get into see my Doctor.  I'm better, but I'm a long way from well.  My throat has been so sore I have been unable to eat solid food since the weekend, all my glands are swollen, my ears are a misery and eating makes me choke.  Are we having fun yet?
Mac was sick too, but never as bad and is now well on the way to recovery.
I blame it on the fact we sat on an unhealthy airplane for nearly and hour  and a half waiting to be cleared for take off in Miami  because there'd been rain.  It rains all the time in Florida, haven't they figured out how to fly in it yet?  The air was stale on the plane  and everyone was coughing.
No more flights during flu season, we'll drive next time.

Five on Friday

I'm late, I should have posted this already, but we've been down in Florida, in the Everglades.  It was fantastic, we went last year and fell in love with the place, but I'm wiped out.  So it's mid-day on Friday and I'm finally getting around to posting.
So after looking through my five please stop by the other bloggers who are part of the Five on Friday group that Amy at Love Made  My Home has put together, I've listed them at the bottom of my Blog.
My five are some of the things we saw in the Everglades.

First has to be the alligators.  We have alligators here in Georgia, we even have one that lives in the lagoon out back, but we have nothing to compare to the alligators their growing down there.

This was a Mama alligator with 2 or 3 young ones, if we got too close she hissed at us.

You've not lived till you've been hissed at by an alligator.

Second  are the birds.

Anhinga

Blue Heron

Flock of Ibis

Purple Gallinule

Ibis

Pelican

Rosy Spoonbill, hard to catch the color it was very pink caused by the shrimp they eat

Woodstork

Third are the boardwalks that went back into the mangrove swamps.

This was at Big Cypress Swamp

Fourth are the tree crabs

They are omnivorous and enjoy tree leaves.

And fifth is the Everglades by moonlight.

We also saw a manatee and a dolphin, but were unable to get a picture of either, couldn't predict when or where they were going to come up out of the water.

Didn't see, and we're glad we didn't, the Burmese pythons that are becoming a threat to the wildlife in the park.

Love the Everglades, this wasn't our first trip and I'm sure it won't be our last.

Please join all the other bloggers on our Five on Friday list.

Wendy from September Violets

Michelle from Michelle's Make Or Bake Love Made My Home

Leanne from Today's Stuff

Pride and Prejudice, one of my favorite books was published on this day in 1813 .  In honor of that I borrowed the following from Flavorwire.

Four Things Jane Austen Actually Teaches Us About Love

By Emily Temple on Feb 20, 2013 12:30pm

1. Don’t get stuck on your first impression — whether positive or negative.

You can’t trust your first impressions. Elizabeth Bennet thought the patently terrible Wickham charming when she first met him, and as we all know, neither she nor the famous Mr. Darcy was too fond of the other at first blush. Same goes for Marianne Dashwood and Colonel Brandon. As William Deresiewicz, author of A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter explained, “For Austen, love came from the mind as well as the heart. She didn’t believe you could fall in love with someone until you knew them, and then what you fell in love with was their character more than anything else — whether they were a good person and also an interesting one. So I guess that means, date someone for a while before you commit, and don’t get so carried away by your feelings that you forget to give a good hard look at who they are.”

2. Don’t settle.

Austen’s ladies are constantly winding up in less than pleasant situations after settling for a husband because of his wealth: Mansfield Park‘s Maria Bertram marries Mr. Rushworth because of his fortune, and because she just got snubbed by Henry Crawford — she winds up living in sin, then divorced, then stuck shacking up with her Aunt Norris “in another country.” Likewise, in Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Lucas marries that dummy Mr. Collins because she doesn’t think she’ll get another offer (much to the disapproval of our heroine Elizabeth), and winds up organizing her life around seeing him as little as possible. Sigh.

3. Be honest, and tell your crush how you feel.

There’s no need to pull an Isabella Thorpe, but you can’t be too shy either. As Rebecca M. Smith, author of Miss Jane Austen’s Guide to Modern Life’s Dilemmas explains, “Jane Bennet almost loses Mr. Bingley by being so reserved. He has to know that her feelings for him are more than lukewarm. Similarly, you must be sure to show what Mr. Darcy called ‘symptoms of peculiar regard.’ Don’t embarrass yourself or act out of character, but ensure that he or she can see that you really care.” So, don’t play hard to get, then? That’s what we thought.

4. Think for yourself.

If the exploits of Austen’s heroines will teach you anything, it’s to go with your gut (once you’re past that tricky first impression, of course). Persuasion‘s Anne Elliot breaks off her engagement with Frederic Wentworth on the advice of Lady Russel, to the effect of years of heartache. Emma‘s Harriet Smith is totally into Robert Martin until Emma intervenes. Harriet had it right the first time, though — and both ladies end up pretty happy that she figured that out.

Words of wisdom from one who truly understood human nature.

I Really Hated It

Wild, a book by Cheryl Strayed, loved by many, made into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, supposed to be great book.  Well I hated it for so many reasons.  Not the least is the fact that even though it's supposed to be nonfiction I believe she made most of it up.
Let's start at the beginning, this book tells the story of Cheryl Strayed (took that name after her divorce because she'd strayed) who upon the early death of her beloved Mother (lung cancer in her early 40's) more or less has a break down.  She starts cheating on her husband, the love of her life,  with various and assorted people, decides she has to tell him what she's done, may or may not divorce him, doesn't finish college, goes off to Oregon/Washington, gets involved with another guy, starts doing heroin, sees a brochure about the Pacific Crest Trail and decides to walk it ( it's about 2600 miles long and she plans on doing about 1,000 miles of it, on her own) and turn her life around.
Has this lady ever done any long distance hiking, NO.  Does this lady try out her equipment before going, NO.  Does this lady talk with anyone who's ever done this trail, No.  Does this lady train for this walk, No.  Is this lady a complete idiot, YES.
Her story is not the least credible.  I'm supposed to believe she carried a pack that most of the men she met had trouble lifting, that with little or no orientating skills she managed to use a compass and not get lost, that every time she used up her money, and she was stupid about her money, others helped her out.  Of course being blonde and female everyone wanted to help her out.  We won't even go into her sexual reaction to everyone she met, too, too cliched.
In fact a good bit of the book was cliched and repetitive.  She's supposed to be a good writer, but I didn't like her writing style at all.
At the end (spoiler alert) she tells how now all that is behind her, no more sleeping around, no more doing heroin, no more wild adventures, yeah right, I'll bet she's  still the mess she  when she walked the Trail.
I didn't read a lot of reviews of this book until I finished it and I would say that those who liked it, really liked it and those who didn't like it, like me, really didn't like it.  Some complained that there wasn't enough about the Trail itself, but I was ok with that, I realized the story was of her personal journey, not the Trail.  But it wasn't even that, it was, as others have said, a long, boring whine fest.  I'm sorry she lost her Mother, she's not the first, won't be that last.  I say she was a mess long  before her Mother died, and in fact I wonder about her Mother-- she'd left her abusive husband, was scrambling to support herself and her 3 kids when she decided she had to buy a horse, give me a break.
So glad I checked this book out of the library and didn't waste any money buying it.

What's Cooking

Well yesterday it was an old fashioned southern lunch:  Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Corn and White Gravy.
Probably about a 2,000 calorie meal, but sometimes you just have to do it.
Today it's old style Spanish, we're having shrimp and rice, not to be confused with shrimp and grits which is southern.
For this you start by boiling potatoes and onions together.  While that's boiling merrily away heat 2-3 teaspoons of oil and enough paprika to color the oil, when it's sizzle hot pour it into the potatoes.  Now add about a cup of rice  and a dash of saffron.  Let it cook till the rice is almost done, now add a can of shrimp, juice and all.  If your liquid gets all absorbed by the rice you can add more.  My Spanish Mother-in-law taught me to make this and I guess it has a name, but I don't know what it is.
Great dish for a cold, windy day, thank goodness we're not getting the storm the northeast is getting.

A Tale of Two Shows

The other night while waiting for Downton Abbey to come on we watched Singing in the Rain with Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner and a 19 year old Debbie Reynolds.  We've seen parts of this movie, but never the whole thing.  Was it dated, I mean it was made in 1952, sure it was.  A classic though and considered the very best Hollywood musical ever made and that's a well deserved tribute.
It was funny, it was witty, if you like dancing the dancing was incredible.  Made us realize we need to see the whole movie.
Then we watched Downton Abbey a show I
usually enjoy, but not that night.  I'm use to gloom and doom with Anna and Bates, but this episode had Mrs. Pattimore unhappy because her nephew who'd been shot for being a coward couldn't be on a War Memorial and she roped Mrs. Hughes into trying to convince Carson to put him on the local one---you knew that was never going to happy-- so more unhappy people.  Then the police are sniffing around Bates over the death of the valet Green so Mrs. Hughes and Lady Mary are upset and Lady Mary after a week with Lord Gillingham wants out of that relationship.  Cora is feeling unhappy, so then the Earl is unhappy and of course Edith was unhappy---when has she not been?  Cora's maid is unhappy, Thomas disappears.  It just went on and on.

We almost turned it off and went back to watching Singing in the Rain.  The Abbey had better lighten up.

The Debate

When we were down town this week I went into the ladies room at the restaurant, something I almost never do, use a public bathroom and no Dr. Freud we won't be discussing this, when  I noticed that they had the toilet paper coming off backwards.  I'm a firm believer that toilet paper should come off the front of the roll not the back.  It was only my distaste for touching anything in a public bathroom that I don't have to touch  that kept me from switching it around.  And it's bothered me ever since, guess I should have changed it.