Thirty-Six Years Ago Today...

 


... our beautiful, talented, incredible DD was born.  Happy happy HAPPY birthday, DD.  We are eternally grateful that you came to live with us.  (and I'm almost done with your present, I'll get it into the mail next week, I promise)

I heard noises outside this morning and went out to find this--men working.  Well, actually, men making the hole around the manhole in our front yard bigger so they could do something to the big pipe it's connected to before filling and tamping the dirt and rocks back.  I know they'll be back because not only did they not fill it all up with soil and throw grass seed on it, they didn't fix the 4' of curb they broke when this whole mess began.  We're afraid it's going to be a long summer of loud noises, big trucks, and bad roads.  Yippee.  (the question needs to be asked:  why is there a manhole in our YARD when the one down the block is in the middle of the STREET?  do other people have manholes in their yards?  I don't think so.)



While taking a photo of one of Dad's roses I saw something move in there.  I peeled back the petals to find two Japanese beetles munching away down there.  Oh goodie.  The beetles are pretty, all shiny green and copper, but they turn my roses into shredded lace.  *sigh*

The only way to console yourself when beetles are eating your roses is with chocolate so I baked a batch of Chocolate Covered Cherry cupcakes.  It's a very simple recipe, a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest winner from the '70s that the Cake Mix Doctor added a boiled chocolate glaze to.  Of course the recipe says to make the cake in a 9 x 13 pan but I wanted cupcakes (better portion control, you know, plus I can freeze the majority of them) which meant instead of just pouring the hot glaze over the warm cake and letting it spread out, I spooned it onto the cupcakes thereby drooling glaze between the cupcakes and the tin.  Durwood sat with a plastic knife and scraped most of it off into a custard cup.  I don't know what we'll do with the scrapings but it would have been a crime to let it go to waste.

July 13--Elizabeth Twining, Cruciaceae, Cruciform Tribe: Nasturtium, Iberis, Lunaria, Erysium, Cheiranthus.  Leah turned the pages of the old book she'd taken off the shelf in Pappaw's office.  The book was big enough that it covered the desk blotter and it was so old that the leather of the spine was powdery.  She had been surprised to see the book on a high shelf.  It was nothing like the ledgers and record books she knew him to use.  Between the pages of this book were pressed flowers and leaves with their Latin names written in coppery ink in a spidery hand, not at all like Pappaw's handwriting.

This afternoon we had eye doctor appointments.  Durwood's eyes are unchanged.  Mine changed a whole lot so I got to choose new glasses.  I can see better, that's for sure, but I forgot to tell them to put the bifocals up as high as possible so I don't have to tip my head back to read the computer screen.  Guess where I'm going tomorrow.
--Barbara