Hike and Picnic on Deer Island

A beautiful New England day, blue skies, temperature in the 70s, a strong offshore breeze.

Mother Nature has her own garden out here.

 

The path is wide and level but starting a slight incline.

 

 We used to call these burdocks when I lived in Maine.  They would stick together and we would make garlands, necklaces, and bracelets.

 

 

Oh, oh, am I going to make it all the way up?

 

Yep, one slow step at a time.

 

Looking back down.

 

Winthrop

 
 

A space ship has landed.

 
 
 
 

 

 

Looking towards Portugal.

 

A grassy path down.

 

 
 

 

My picnic lunch consisting of chicken salad sandwich, Lime Rickey soda,, a Whoopie Pie, and the Winthrop Transcript.

 

 

A young man walked by and said, "Wow, you have got style.

 

He turned and came back and said, "This the absolute best thing you could do for yourself."

 

Little did he know.

 

 

 

Boston

 

 

 

The breeze off the water was cold so I was glad I brought along a warm jacket.

 

 

I may be closing in on 78,  have a "broken heart", an overactive thyroid, and  prostate cancer but

I am damned if I will let it stop me!

Spanish Class Pool Party

On Friday I hosted a pool party for my Spanish Class

Una celebración de las frutas de verano

Bienvenido, la clase de español de Glena

Fruta Fresca

Sopa fría de arándanos

Panini bocadillos

Batata fritas

Sangría de Glena

Mango Italian Ice

Verano de pudín de las bayas

I made two salsas, one with Mango, tomatoes, onion, and cilantro, the other with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, and fresh mint from the garden.

The very colorful table with fresh fruit

The Peruvian flag in honor of our teacher, Glena and her husband, Raul.

No, that is not Glena in the pink dress.

Unfortunately it was a chilly cloudy New England  summer day and you can see the guests looking wistfully at the pool.

Actually some of the men did go into the pool and seemed to enjoy it immensely.  The temperature of the pool water was 10 degrees higher than the air temperature.

Our class members and teacher are very creative people, so I asked them to bring some samples of their arts and crafts.

Glena brought samples of her painting and quilt making, Paul brought several of his paintings, Sandy brought beautiful ceramics she had made, and I displayed some of my needlework pillows and tapestries.

Sean brought brought three lovely paintings.

This is Glena's painting which is a depiction of a photograph of my garden pond which I had posted on Facebook.

The main course was make-it-yourself panini sandwhiches, from a selection of:

chiabatti bread

focacia rolls



fresh mozarella cheese

provolone cheese

basil

roasted red peppers

prosciutta ham

honey baked ham

salami

mortadella

Here are Sandy and Roberta building their sandwiches.

Glena and some of her students.

I was very pleased that everyone seemed to enjoy the party.

I think I will have a sandwich for lunch

Sharp cheddar cheese

Mustard

Apple

On to the hot panini grill

Press

Perfect!

Now if only I had a glass of apple cider

Thank you for the birthday greetings

Thank you family and friends.

I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of facebook greetings, emails, telephone calls, greeting cards, and gifts.

I am very touched and very grateful.

I am also overwhelmed by being 76!  I am in good health, happy, and well taken care of.

Thank you all.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

I looked out the back door and decided no walk in the garden this morning.  Sunshine will return tomorrow.

Back inside for the breakfast bowl I enjoy every morning.
Corn flakes, a few walnut pieces, a banana, handful of blueberries, and 1% milk.

I enjoyed a nice lunch with former co-worker Brenda Dinsmore.  We dined at Braza Grill where the meat was brought to the table on long skewers.  The waiter carved and served individual portions according to your wishes.  A little green card was placed on the table.  We were to told to turn it over to the red side when we wanted no more servings.  First, the waiter brought a skewer with a large piece of roast beef cooked medium rare.  A little later he brought pieces of chicken wrapped in bacon, followed by Brazilian and Italian sausages, roast pork, and then more roast beef.  We never turned over the card but the skewers tapered off.

A steam table off to the side of the dining room contained a dozen or so side dishes.  A couple of rice dishes, green salads, carrot salad, fruit salad, okra, and some dishes I did not recognize.

A lot of fun and very tasty.

I had my camera with me but no memory card so no pictures.


The light rain lasted all day.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The day begins cool and wet with light rain, 61 degrees, and 94% humidity.  Yesterday I moved this planter of bright yellow marigolds to just outside my living room window.  It looks very nice as seen through my blue glass connection.

An early walk in the garden reveals a dead leaf strewn path, a harbinger of the coming fall season.

The pond is close to overflowing due to a couple days of light rain.

This beaten down rose bud looks so forlorn but it is still beautiful.

Back inside for 20 minutes and 3.6 miles on my exercycle and then breakfast.

I have finished reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, published by Dial Press.

I had idly picked up this book from a table at the bookstore and being a little put off by the title, put it back.  A woman standing next to me said, "Oh no, you should read it.  It is very good.

Mary Ann Shaffer was an editor and a librarian.  This was her first book and when the book's editor asked for some changes, Ms. Shaffer was too ill to make the substantial changes so she asked her niece Annie Barrows to finish the book.  She passed away shortly thereafter.

The novel tells of the struggles of the residents of Guernsey Island in the English Channel during the occupation by Nazi soldiers.  It sounds grim and some parts of the novel are heartbreakingly sad but it is beautifully written and it is a delight to read.

The story is told in the form of short letters to and from the characters involved.  At the very first this device seems a little odd but you quickly become hooked and look forward with anticipation to the next letter.

I highly recommend this book.

I am bored with the Republican debate so I am taking my crossword puzzle and going to bed.

Peaches

Jim and I, and Jim's friend Kenny made our annual pilgrimage to Acushnet

to get some of the best peaches in this area.

After driving for about an hour through beautiful New England countryside we arrived at Ashley's Peach Orchard.

We parked in front of what I believe were nectarine trees.

But we came here for peaches.

Here are some of the peach trees.
Farm workers brought baskets of freshly picked peaches
directly to this little farm stand.

The peaches are sorted by hand into two groups'

the best are called firsts,

the ones with blemishes are called seconds.

I purchaseds a basket of firsts

pictured at the top of this blog.

They also had freshly made peach cobblers

and blueberry cobblers.

I bought the peach cobbler.

they also had freshly picked vegetables

grown in this garden.

They also were selling these flowers from their garden.

After the tiring wait in line to buy peaches

we were hungry.

We ate at Persey's Place

home of New England's largest

breakfast and lunch menu.

I had a Portugese Scrambler,

a large plate of eggs scrambled

with cheddar cheese and chourico sausage,

served with small pot of baked beans

and grilled cornbread.

When I got home I opened the cobbler

to discover it was more like cake,

but Delicious!

I did share it with Mary and Ed at dinner tonite,

and they loved it.