Movies

We don't watch many movies, hate to be preached at and told how bad I am.  Love a good comedy, but unfortunately Hollywood has forgotten how to make them substituting salacious behavior, bathroom humor and just plain dreck for it.
Not surprising when we do find a movie we like it's usually a British one and our latest was no exception.  We watched Mr. Holmes with Ian McKellen playing an aged Sherlock Holmes slipping slowly into senility, but wanting to remember his last case.
It was beautifully photographed, the acting exceptional and altogether a wonderful movie.
At the end we both had tears in our eyes and that doesn't happen very often.

Five on Friday

It's Friday, so time for Five on Friday.  I will be joining Amy (and others) at Love Made My Home for this weekly event.  I'm a little late with this because of item number one.

One:  I had my semi-annual visit with my dermatologist.  She only had to burn off a few spots, but OW.  I'm good for another 6 months though and that's good.


Two:  Earlier this week I wanted to use up some left-over hamburger meat so I made a pot of chile.  In order to make it I opened a couple of cans of kidney beans.  The problem was that one of the cans wasn't chile beans, they were cannellini  beans.  So I put them in the refrigerator and the next day I used them to try a new recipe, Tuscan bean soup.  I got the recipe online, tweaked it to fit out taste (used potatoes instead of squash, didn't put it in a blender and make it smooth) and used the cannellini beans.  It was delicious.

Three:  While this was cooking Mac said it would sure be good to have some crusty bread to go with it.  Well it so happened that I had a mix for crusty Italian bread sticks.  So I whipped some up and they did go well with the soup.

Four: Number four is a bit strange.  It happened while I was making the bread.  I mixed it and kneaded it in a bowl on one counter and then transferred it to a board on another counter to roll out the dough.  Suddenly while I was rolling the dough, the bowl---a favorite of mine that I'd brought back from Spain---jumped off the other counter and broke.  I was so upset, loved that bowl.  I have a bigger version of it, but this one was perfect.  Don't know what happened, I've always said this house has a poltergeist.

I was working on the counter on the right, the bowl was on the counter on the left, they weren't anywhere near each other.

This is the larger bowl, the pattern is so pretty, told Mac we'll have to go back to Spain.

Five:  Whenever I go to the doctor and they're going to do "damage" to me, Mac always gets me something to cheer me up.  Today it was a little blue piggy to save for a rainy day---and it is a rainy day today.  Isn't he adorable, I gave him some pennies to get him started.

That's my five, hope you have a great weekend.

  

This Cannot Be

First David Bowie and now Alan Rickman, no, no, no.  I've been a fan of his for years.  And not just the big movies, but the smaller ones An Awfuly Big Adventure, Bottle Shock, Truly, Madly, Deeply, Blow-dry.  Didn't matter what the movie was, good, bad, indifferent, he made it better. He was the only thing worth watching in Kevin Costner's God awful Robin Hood, there'll never be another Sheriff of Nottingham.
Saw his last movie A Little Chaos when flying back from England last year.  Can't believe his wonderful voice is gone.
He will be missed.

The Best Laid Plans

Today was the day of our yearly physical which meant that we had to be up early, eat no breakfast and head into town to our doctor's office.  Had a miserable night, way too much coughing, and did I say it was cold, Lordy, it was freezing, about 28º.  But daylight came, we dressed warmly and headed off, got to the office, signed in, filled out all necessary papers and were then told that the doctor was not going to be in today.  We could do all our labs and come back another day to meet with the doctor, but we elected not to do that because the last time we spread our annual over 2 visits our insurance company only agreed to pay for one of the visits.  So all had to be rescheduled.
Mac asked me if I wanted to go back home for breakfast or out to eat, you'll never guess what I chose, snark, of course I wanted to go out.
So breakfast was had at the local Denny's, not gourmet, but oh so good, eggs and sausage for me, eggs, sausage, ham, bacon and pancakes for Mac.  Couldn't begin to finish it all, we're use to coffee and toast for breakfast.
Then we bought more lottery tickets---they prize is up to 1.5 billion dollars for tomorrow night's draw.  It's so huge it sounds like Monopoly money.
Shouldn't be as cold tonight, only down to 30º, but loads of sunshine, I approve.

Winter in the South

Cold night last night, down to 31º and only in the 40's today, but so, so pretty.  Beautiful blue sky.  Hoping the frost will kill some of the things that are causing my allergies without doing my other plants any damage.
So many things in  bloom, spring will probably be a bust.

The Jasmine that grows around our pool

The Camelis Tree has outdone itself this year and is covered in blossoms

One of the many Lantanas, should have dropped all its leaves, but instead it's blooming.

We call it the Shamrock plant, can't remember its real name, but it's gone rogue and is growing everywhere.

The climbing white rose

Azaleas, months too early

More Lantana

Supposed to go down to about 30º tonight, so bundle up.

No Winner

There was no winner in last night's Powerball draw so it rolls over and the prize will now be at least 1.3 billion dollars---unreal.
On a happier note---I wouldn't know what to do with that kind of money anyway---our Amaryllis has bloomed and it is incredible.

Can't Even Imagine

Holy Smokestacks Batman, PowerBall is over $900,000,000 for tonight's draw.  We hardly ever buy lottery tickets, but Holy Moly, that's a lot of Tootsie Rolls, so we bought some.   They're saying it's possible it may hit a billion before it's through.
What in the world would you do with that kind of money?  Buy a new house, set your kids up for life, give to charity, disappear?

Experts say that you should:  

Sign the back of the ticket to keep others from claiming it
                     
 Stay anonymous if you can, some states make  you come out in public to collect, being known as a winner can be dangerous for you

 Before you claim the money assemble a money management team that

  includes a financial advisor and an accountant and find out what their 

  fees are upfront

Don't spend the money for at least 6 months, take your time to think 

 about how to use it    

So, to my fellow Americans, have you bought a ticket?

  

Five on Friday

Joining in with Amy at Love Made My Home for the very first Five on Friday.  Slow week here at the Little House in the Swamp, we're better, but the cough lingers and our clinic says it may linger for a couple of weeks.

My Five are a bit of a mix.

The First is my new header.  Mac painted it from a photo we took out at Fort Pulaski, a Revolutionary fort that's on the way to Tybee Island.  The animals were added to give it interest.  Mac  thought he'd painted a lizard in in and now he can't find it, so he may sneak by and paint it in.  Have you heard the joke about when is an artist through with a painting?  Well, if you'll distract the museum guard, he'll just hurry over and get a few more strokes in.  And that's the truth, a painting is never finished.

The Second is the puzzle I'm starting.  I got a new one for Christmas, but this is one I got last year and never got around to, so it's first.  I've sorted the colors and the edge, should get to start it tomorrow.

The Third is my Christmas throw that was supposed to be done by Christmas and of course wasn't.  I hope to finish is this month.  The green is so dark it looks black.  My daughter says it looks like the Italian flag.  It does rather.

The Fourth was a Christmas present.  We were watching Miss Marple, my hero and role model, one night and when she wanted to look more closely at something she whipped out her magnifying glass, a heart-shaped magnifying glass.  I fell in love with it and Mac searched all over the internet until he found one for me.  It's just perfect.

The Fifth is something that has helped us with our cough, St. Brendan's Irish Cream.  We have a cup of coffee each evening with a heavy dose of St. Brendan's.  My throat loves it.

That's my five.  Hope you have a good weekend.

January Ills

Mac and I both have croupy coughs, sore throats and sinus pain.  Couldn't get into see our doctor for 2 weeks so we went to the Minute Clinic at our local CVS Pharmacy--that's where I get my B-12 shot once a month.  Nothing too serious, but I have a touch of bronchitis so I'm on antibiotics and an inhaler.  We both have have some extra strength Dimetapp  DM to help break things up too.  It would be nice to have a quiet night's sleep.  Hope to be feeling better soon.

New Beginnings

Always feels good to start something new, particularly a new year, and a leap year at that.
We have stone tile flooring in our kitchen and standing on it for any length of time makes my feet hurt so I have thick mats to stand on, one in front of the stove and the other by the sink.  To start the new year I got a new pair, the colors look good in my kitchen.
One of my presents from my daughter was a cover for the keys of my piano, complete with a cat silhouette.  How appropriate.  In the middle of the night we were serenaded by Miss Kitty playing the blues.  Didn't recognize the song but it was definitely being played in a lower key.

Today I cooking a pork roast in my crock pot and trying something new.  When we were in Atlanta on our way to Memphis we had lunch at the Delta Sky Club and they were serving Acorn Squash Soup, go good.  This morning I downloaded a recipe and made some today.  A bit time consuming, but quite tasty.

New Year's Day

So quiet, no fireworks, no popping corks, just some silly frogs peeping out in the garden.  It is finally cooled down here, no more 80's, it was in the low 60's and it felt wonderful.  My daffodils are are coming up, some of the azaleas are blooming and little spring peepers think it's spring.  Hope they all don't end up freezing.
Mac has quite a jungle growing in the laundry room window.  I'm a bit worried about the Amaryllis, it grows more than an inch a day and is getting so thick.  It rather reminds me of the movie Little Shop of Horrors and I worry when I go in there.

The Jungle

The Amaryllis

The picture in the corner is a Japanese New Year's card our daughter gave us.  It's the year of the monkey which makes her happy, she was born in the year of the monkey.  I was born in the year of the dog and Mac in the year of the rooster.