The one chore I hoped to accomplish today was to clean the outside of the living room windows. It's been sunny the last few days and the windows are so dirty that it looked like there was film on them. Not a pretty sight. But a sunny day is not the day to clean windows because the sunshine makes them streak from drying too fast. I checked the weather and it's supposed to be cloudy tomorrow morning so that's when I planned to do it. However just after 5 o'clock I realized that the sun had gone behind the neighbors' trees and the windows were in the shade so I raced out with my step stool, Windex, and stack of newspaper sheets (which don't leave lint on the windows like paper towels) and got the outsides cleaned. I'm saving the insides for tomorrow. Don't want to have all the fun in one day.
The landscapers admired Dad's roses yesterday, especially the fragrance. He thought that they smelled like a florist shop. I think they smell like roses are supposed to smell, not just cool and clean like hybrid roses smell these days, but it was gratifying to have a "professional" appreciate them. They're still going strong since we haven't had a frost yet. Most of the blooms are kind of blowsy and a little ratty-looking but this one looks the best.
I like the color of the rose hips too. I think people used to make tea with rose hips. I wonder what they taste like. Perfume? I have issues with rose-flavored things.
The copper mums have caught up and are blooming like crazy. Aren't they pretty?
I frittered away most of the day binge-watching episodes of Call the Midwife on Netflix (thanks for the reminder, CS!) and slowly knitting the crown of October Preemie Hat #1.
13 October--Barbara Malcolm, Better Than Mom's.
. One morning a few weeks later John said, “I am lonely here, Mister Brady and Miss Fay, even with my cousins and friends from home. I want to have my Rosa with me in my new home. She is coming to visit me, and I will ask her to marry me.”
Fay’s eyes filled with tears and Brady cleared his throat a few times when they heard the longing in John’s voice. At that moment they pledged to do whatever was needed to make John and Rosa’s evening special.
Everyone in the place knew she was coming and knew how excited John was for her to come, and how much impressing her means to him. Fay and Brady spent some time planning how to make John and Rosa’s meal special. On the night they come in, Fay worked for Taffy, so she fixed a table in the back with a cloth tablecloth and cloth napkins she picked up at the dollar store. In the center of the table was a cheap vase she also got at the dollar store with a few grocery store flowers and one fern frond. The trip to the dollar store also yielded a votive holder and candle, unscented so the fragrance did not compete with the aroma of the food.
All that morning after he and Brady had the day’s food prepared or prepped, John worked on special dishes that Fay would serve him and his girl. Finally, around four in the afternoon, Brady and Fay shooed him out. “Go,” Fay said, “go and get ready to pick her up. We’ll take care of everything. Just go.” She pushed him toward to door. As he was backing out, John said, “Now the tamales steam for twenty minutes only, just twenty minutes, then they get garnished with cilantro and I made a tomato peel rose for the sautéed corn. Make sure the table has a tablecloth and …”
Fay took his arm and said, “John, I know how to set a table. It’s all there, tablecloth, napkins, flowers, even a candle. We got this.” To stem the flood of nervous advice, Fay shoved John out the door and closed it in his face.
Today's toss was an electronic gadget that I've never been able to make work. Maybe some Goodwillian will have better luck.
As we stood on the slope in the backyard yesterday, the landscaper asked who mowed my lawn. I said I did and he said that there is such a thing as a remote-control lawn mower. Kind of a Roomba for the lawn. It sounded very tempting but I don't even want to think how much something like that would cost. My big splurge today was a pizza for supper. I had a couple slices and the rest went into the freezer for suppers later on. Three more meals, more investment cooking!
--Barbara
1 comment:
You definitely scored on the autumn leaves picture. And the mums as well. So pretty. I'm going to try your trick of window washing with newspaper. When I did the doors to the lanai with paper towels, they looked worse afterwards. All that effort and when the sun shown through them, it was a mess.
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