The Week Behind: In Which I Wait

Saturday:  John must work tomorrow so I put a corned beef into the crockpot last night before we went to bed and turned it off this morning when I got up.  I let it cook all night long from about 11p until 7a on low.  It turned out so tender and lovely!  I seldom cook meat that long even though that is what the crock pot/slow cooker is meant to do. I'm certainly going to consider doing more of this low and slow cooking in the future.  I was able to cut it by simply pressing the knife against the grain of the meat.  I steamed cabbage wedges atop the potatoes I was cooking.  And that was our  Irish dinner today.  I kept it very simple.  It was delicious.

Coffee Chat: Almost Spring

Hello all.  We shall not sit outdoors with our coffee.  It's a little cool yet, though I dare say you northern girls would feel it was downright balmy.  Never mind, the pollen is thick yet outdoors and John's mowing will only make me sneeze twice as hard.  Grass smells so very good to me but...ACHOO!  

I was outdoors this morning, very early, well before 9am because John had called to say he was running later than usual in coming home.  I figured while the air was heavy with dew I'd just go right on outdoors to pull some weeds.  I got the bulk of the ones from the back flower bed and pots pulled up.  I'm calling myself done with those though you can see a few very tiny weeds here and there.  I need to put out fresh mulch.  It is looking rather thin.  And so the list of outdoors jobs for the coming months is growing and growing.  Just so is it each Spring.

The Week Ahead : It's All Up Hill From Here

There is so much to do outdoors that I am itching to get at it.  Mind you, if I did, I'd be itching for sure!  The pollen counts have been in the HIGH range for the past few days.  But oh how my spirit says "Get outdoors and get things painted, planted, spruced up..."  Well I might do the weeding and the planting but painting is futile until pollen is done.  And I can only do what I say I might if I shower immediately after.  

Mama and I were out the other day and drove through a great cloud of yellow pollen that stretched across the roadway.   Shortly after, Mama complained that her eyes and nose itched.  I got rather snuffly myself and had a slight headache.  

The Week Behind: Blooms!

Saturday:  I rolled out of bed this morning at 6:45.  It was daylight enough to clearly see that morning had broken.  I don't typically get up quite that early but I knew that this was my last daylit morning for a few weeks to come, so I got up and enjoyed it.   I tell you truly that my most favorite hour of the day is the early hours of daylight, sitting near the window in the kitchen with my Bible and first cup of coffee.   It's not half so appealing when it's dark out the window and that's fact.

Sweet Violets

So many of you have commented on the new wallpaper I put up last week.  It makes me smile.

I've always loved violets for as long as I can remember.  I think I first read of them in one of Louisa May Alcott's books.  Was it in Little Women or An Old Fashioned Girl?  I'll lay odds it was the latter book, as I loved it long before I grew to appreciate the virtues of Little Women.

The Week Ahead: Spring Songs

The birds are chirping, the peepers continue to peep and soon the frogs will be booming and the crickets humming.  Typically, this week marks the last frost of our year.  According to the weather app on my phone, our frosty mornings are over.    I won't be rushing right outdoors to plant (pollen is too high for that anyway) because the soil must begin to warm, but it's definitely the time to start thinking of our summer pots and any other flowers I'd care to plant.

The Week Behind: A Prudential Home

Saturday:  Sent John off to work in the usual manner.  He was surely not happy about this constant cycle of work, come home to lethargy, cram in everything into 14 waking hours and then going back to work...and who can blame him.  He must feel a great deal as though he's got on the hamster wheel and can't get off.