ON MY MIND — Just a picture or pictures and a few words
September 29, 2010
Moving to our new location and into our new home.
September 29, 2011
Look what a lot of hard work and the Lord’s blessings can accomplish.
I am content at Cozy Acres.
Wordless Wednesday – Hollyhocks Return Yearly from a Seed
Linking up with Wordless Wednesday
Yay, it’s fall!! The trees around here are starting to turn, the days are still warm, the nights are cool, and the Wednesdays are… shhhh, LETS GET WORDLESS!!
Cooking once; eat several times
Monday morning, looking into the refrigerator and seeing a package of ground beef and one of chicken breast tenders, I knew I would be cooking today. I like cooking several main dishes one day and being able to eat for several days, like a mini smorgasbord. I checked in the cooler for available veggies: bell peppers, summer squash, zucchini, and fresh eggs.
I began with a egg/veggie/ham casserole for the Farmer’s breakfast.
Looks good, doesn’t it.
The Farmer brought in a butternut squash that had split, so although I hadn’t planned on baking squash, now it was on the list.
Ready for the oven.
Yummy!
The ground beef became meatloaf, most of it filling bell peppers. The part left was baked for sandwiches, one of my favorites.
One can of salmon and a can of mackerel became a salmon loaf using the Farmer’s mother’s recipe.
I baked both the bell peppers and salmon loaf at the same time.
I was adequately fueled by coffee.
Next, I attacked the chicken breasts tenders, Spike, Seasoned salt and flour coated the chicken and fried in olive oil. We’ll have these for dinner tonight, Chicken Alfredo.
Cooking results: which night do you want to come to dinner?
Now I’ll go back to my quilting, thinking to bake oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.
Oh, I did clean up my mess!
I’m enjoying playing house in this kitchen. Yes, this is the whole of the kitchen. At the left edge of the picture is the refrigerator. Not a lot of counter space (understatement) but pleasant and homey.
Finishing Quilt Projects
“Finishing” has been the goal during sewing sessions the past two weeks.
Flannel quilt top using the puzzle block for Elizabeth was finished in 2010. Last week, Emily, of Quilt’m , did the wild large meander quilting. I bound and labeled the quilt and made a pillowcase to match the flannel backing material, a precious moments little girl and goose print.
McKenna’s quilt was started November, 2010. Emily quilted it with curves, and petals, and a gentle meander accenting the piecing. Now it is bound and labeled and ready to be mailed.
Elizabeth has a little brother, Jonathan. Their father was raised in Montana, when I saw this fabric with printed forest scenes, I knew it was what I wanted for Jonathan’s quilt. The top was finished in November, 2010, the backing was made from leftover print squares. Emily quilted it with close attention to the patterns in the prints and the quilt block. This week it, too, was bound and labeled. Tonight Elizabeth and Jonathan’s quilts finally made their way home.
I am member of Kaye England’s “bread and Butter” quilt group and I have been working on a log cabin quilt for several weeks. This week I finished the log cabins.I’ll add a 3 inch border around the cabins. Tonight I’ll be putting together the backing, by making two rows of the 5×1 1/2 inch pieces leftover from the cabins. These two rows will give me the length I need. I’m still trying to decide if I need to do something to add to the wideth. This picture is taken in the guest room at Brother Bob’s.
I already have two projects in the queue, I’m not sure which one to start next. Of course, there are several in my playhouse in various stages of completion.
Pictures for Brother Bob
Bro Bob lives here.
Now he is visiting family in Athol, Idaho.These pictures are to show him what is happening here while he is away.
I’ve taken over the game table to try to finish this log cabin quilt.
The Cats still come to eat morning and night. Marmalade is getting more and more friendly, actually coming for a pet and scratch around the ears.
Chili peppers
Chili peppers
Chili Peppers
Sweet Potatoes or Yams?
Sunflowers are calling it quits, birds get the rest.
Go to the two previous entries to see more of the garden.
Hurry Back, Brother Bob, you are missed.
On My Mind – The beginning, the ending and the beginning again
On my mind …
This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you’re part of “On my mind…
I’ve been thinking about this for several days every time I look out at the garden. Here in California, September is the beginning of fall and the garden shows its age.
May I show you what I see:
Sunflowers- June 22
today
Cucumbers June 22
Today
Tomatoes June 22
Today
As I wandered around to the back of the tomatoes and cucumbers, I found this new beginning;
Beets, carrots, spinach, and turnipsThrough all the starts and stops, this Farmer is still found on his knees.
To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastics 3:1-2
Five Minute Friday – Growth
We write bold and beautiful and free. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just write or not.
Start
During these first days of fall, I walked through the garden and realized the garden was getting old and tired.
This garden has grown, and bloomed,
and produced day after day after day.
Now is the ceasing,
the garden is growing brown,
it is withering,
the produce is sparse and small.
During the first days of fall, I found new beginnings
new growth
new promises
new hope
and the farmer still on his knees.
Stop
Adding pictures now.
A to Z about Me
I have read several lists of ‘100 things about me’; this is the first A to Z I’ve seen. Filling this out was fun, and I learned a little and remembered more.
A- Age: 62 and I get my first social security check the third Wednesday in October, 2011
B- Bed size: Full, remember we live in an eight ft wide trailer
C- Chore you hate: bathrooms, enuf said
D- Dog’s name: no dog now, I was real fond of Rosie the wandering basset
E- Essential food/item: catsup
F- Favorite color: I’m drawn to all shades of yellow in nature, but seldom wear it
G- Gold or silver: not into jewelry, my favorite watch had a woven gold and silver band
H- Height: 5′4 3/4
I- I am: thankful
J- Job: learning to live in the now
K- Kids: 5 – 3 girls and 2 boys, all adults somewith families of their own. I have 12 grandchildren, 1 son-in-law, 2 daughters-in-law
L- Living arrangements: We live very contentedly in a 8×27 ft RV as assistant caretakers of the 7 acres on which the church we attend is located. We share the grounds with the head caretaker and 27 chickens and three stray cats who think they belong here (coz they get fed, tender hearted head caretaker).
M-Mom’s name: Frances, she is absolutely MOM #1
N- Nickname: When I was young, Mom called me Lessie, the Farmer calls me Hon, the kids call me mom, the grands call me, grannie
O- Overnight hospital stay: 5 babies, twice for a ruptured bowel (one illness), multiple times for complicated gall bladder/pancreas episode
P- Pet peeve: Having a car hurry to pull out in front of me causing me to break for it when there is a mile of empty road behind me
Q- Quote from a movie: …my very favorite quote is the scripture in the Old Testament in Malachi 3:6 ” For I am the LORD, I change not; . . .”
R- Right or left handed: I’m a right handed
S- Siblings: I am the oldest and only girl with 4 brothers
T- Time you wake up: no sooner than I have to
U- Unique thing about your car: it always has sunflower seed shells on the floor
V- Vegetable you hate: bok coy at least in the recipe I used
W- Ways you run late: I always think it will take less time to get somewhere than it does, so I leave later than I should
X- X-rays you’ve had: teeth, knees, abdominal, neck, back, chest,
Y- Yummy food you make: no one has turned away from my Chicken and Rice and I make a killer meatloaf, both original recipes from my Mom
Z- Zoo favorite: giraffes, and I could spend a lot of time watching farmyard fowl, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys…and I have.
On my mind – Finishing
On Friday DOWN TO EARTH shares what’s on her mind and
asks what’s on your mind?
This quilt is ‘on my mind.’
I pieced this flannel quilt for my great-niece, McKenna.
My goal for today: bind McKenna’s quilt.
Auntie Em did the beautiful quilting.
Postscript – Friday, 8:40pm, PDST — DONE!
GCrain’s Watering System and the Gardener
Join me as we tour a special place.
Located on Candy Cane Lane in Redding, CA
down a partially paved private road to this driveway
enter here and you will find a garden.
The soil is very porous and rocky. Water puddles very little. The ground looks dry on the third day after watering. So this garden gets watered every other day. The watering system is a combination of plastic pipe, hoses, timers, sprinklers on the top of 5 foot poles, oscillating sprinklers, and a bubblier. Sprinklers attached to hoses are positioned on plastic grates:
1. stability and 2. to remember where to put the sprinkler next.
The picture gallery is of the different spots in the garden, I’ll include flowers as we walk around the yard.
One day this rose bush is covered with blooms, that night the deer have dessert!
Trumpet creeper uses this tree as a trellis.
If you don’t find GCrain here in the potting shed,
you might find her here making a flower arrangement,
but always look first right here.
After breakfast, her first stop of the day is with the Word of God.
If you ever have an ‘every other day’ free and would like to see this garden freshly watered. GCrain and Aunt S would be glad to have you come and visit with them and water for them.
In the Grandma Crain’s Garden
In Redding, that arid looking place, is a garden that gets watered every other day rain or shine! Or that’s the way it seems. There are 28 stations to be watered marked by plastic crates or permanent sprinklers. Some of these stations have “old man” timers as Dan would call them, others are changed because the timed ones ran out of time.
But you know, there is a peace in the garden. There is something special to walk in a fresh watered garden, something special about walking through the garden and have hummingbirds flying around, dragonflies and butterflies flitting from flower to flower, and something special about seeing the small changes from day to day. Perhaps one of the reasons God meet with his people in the cool of the evening in the garden.
I need to take pictures of the watering system and Ill add them to this post, next time I have internet access. 🙂
Five Minute Friday — Rest
We write for five minutes flat on Fridays.
We write bold and beautiful and free. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just write or not.
Today’s prompt — Rest
Where is the rest?
You know, the part that is left
that part that somehow always seems missing
the illusive part
the shy part
the part where you must be quiet before it will come
busyness, loud noises, strife, contention, sharp words scare it away
but if you find a place that is still, even if it is only inside you
and you wait
and you listen
you will find rest for your soul.
Job 34:29 When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?. . .
A portion of Grandma Crain’s garden.
This wasn’t what I was thinking of when I started, but how many times when I just open up, my Father is there to again bring rest and assurance that He has all things under control.
On My Mind – Working on a log cabin
It’s Friday and I’m linking up with Down to Earth sharing a picture of what’s been on my mind.
Last week I sent helping family recovering from surgery, I took my log cabin pieces with me and set up cabin raising. I was able to finish half the blocks I need and get started on the second half. This half will have blue chimney squares, I hoping to get a secondary pattern with using different colors. I’m sure the log cabin will be on my mind again.
Thoughts of Grace 