Dad’s Hardware Store
The chimney guy came today to replace our badly rusted galvanized (yes, those two of words go together when the galvanized is 38-years old!) chimney chase topper. The new one is customized stainless steel and will last as long as we need it to. I am eager to see what the woodpecker think about it […]
Island Trip Prep
On the 26th I head to the Island for a week and a half. We’re getting down to less urgent projects… Stella is settled. Yay!!!!! This trip I’ll be: Doing a material take-off for an electrical fence around dad’s garden. Mowing and weed whacking. Spraying hawthorn… Carefully. I have a pesticide license and know what […]
Round Two of Covid Birthdays
This afternoon we enjoyed meeting virtually with family to celebrate one of my daughter’s and her husband’s birthdays. My dad’s early May birthday used to bookend the Spring birthday season. It’s still odd to have the ‘season’ conclude 15-days earlier than it used to. We are all working on getting vaccinated. Hopefully this will be […]
Tales of My Parents
After a loved one passes, particularly if they struggled with an illness, it takes a while to remember them as they were as robust and vibrant individuals. It seems the longer the illness or decline, the longer it takes to recover one’s sense of that person before they were ill. Both of my parents were […]
Daughter
Our Sunday paper has a light weight home section that I take a look at each week. It’s geared towards those who call the plumber to clean the p-trap under the sink, or who try to keep up with trends. That’s OK. Everyone needs resources. I always flip through it because there’s usually one article […]
Dates
‘They’ always say that the anniversary of meaningful dates will hit you hard after a loved one dies. Holidays, anniversaries of special milestones together, birthdays… 2020 pulled a gossamer curtain across all these dates in regards to my mom. As I review my 2020 calendar, it looks like the last time I saw mom was […]
Easter Eggs
My mom had a unique way of making Easter eggs. We used the usual Paas dyes, but she put a little vegetable oil in each color and whisked it before the egg went in. This created white spots where the oil got to the egg before the dye. Then the egg was removed from the […]
Wild Mushrooms
Mom was an avid mushroom hunter. In the vast book collection some Xeroxed recipe pages were tucked into a mushroom recipe book. I looked at them earlier this week and was delighted to find that I had everything on hand to make a wild mushroom stock. Further, in this stack of papers was a recipe […]
Spring Teases
The temp approached 55 today. We briefly discussed opening up the house… Very briefly 😂. In our region (USDA 8B) we don’t often have hard frost after 3/15 yet the forecast is mumbling about snow on Monday. Not that it would stick, if it happens. After a year of seclusion and isolation we are eager […]
Urns
When my parents pre-paid their cremations with the Neptune Society, mom instructed me, “If anything happens to your father or me, there are urns in the upper barn. You’ll need to retrieve them. It’s part of the contract…” Paraphrased, but the message is spot-on. Dad passed eight-years ago tomorrow, on the mainland. Neptune was flawless […]
Dementia Dance - Travels with Mom 