My Cozy Place by Balisha

Everyone needs a cozy place. A place to sit and read, knit, sip tea, or just be alone...away from the noises of the house. My little place used to be in the breakfast nook....right near the sliding glass doors. I could look out the window at the bird feeders and the woods. Yesterday I was in the mood to switch things around....and switch I did. My dear friend Ruth used to say, "Looks like the wind blew through here!" whenever I changed furniture around. Things weren't so heavy then and I was much younger....so things got moved around more often. Now days I must move little things and our heavy furniture stays in the same place. So, doing what I did yesterday, gave me a feeling of accomplishment as well as something new to look at. I just hung a bird feeder out the window ...by my chair and filled the feeders. 

Windows become so important in the winter. I like mine to be shiny clean and the window swags freshly laundered. I'm not a fan of heavy draperies or curtains...so I have swags on all the windows. Some are lace and the new ones are a swags of red and white toile fabric with birds. The dining room has drapery swags with a floral print. 

Now that I am in the front of the house....I sit awhile and look out the window and think of how I could make winter window watching more interesting. Thus came the feeder. When Christmas comes, the railing of the porch will be decorated with greens and red cardinals....white lights. 

Looking out the window will give me more to look at. People going by, kids getting off the school bus, the mail lady, delivery people, and company coming in the drive. I will still have the birds to watch and squirrels too. (Last week 15 wild turkeys were in our neighborhood)

This isn't a place just for looking out the window. I'll have a new place to sit and read for a bit, and listen to my little radio on Sat. morning. I often get up before Joe...so it will be a quiet place for me to start my day. This collectible plate hangs near my cozy spot. Here's a little poem this morning....

My Cozy Place by Balisha

I love a little cozy place  to sit so quietly..

To see outside the window at clouds and pretty trees.

The birds that come to visit for seed most everyday..

A squirrel who delights me with his entertaining ways.

A favorite quilt, a candle bright, some lovely potpourri..

My mother's table, with a book, sits very close to me.

 A special place for me to sit and plan my life ahead..

I'll think of mostly pleasant things... not of a life I'll dread. 

Now, I have that cozy spot to read and do some things...

A place to just enjoy myself... until a sign of spring.

I hope this encourages you to make a little cozy place for you to sit this winter. It doesn't have to be big, fancy and grand....just a little spot off the beaten path inside your house....hopefully with a window. If not a window...a pretty picture or mirror to look at. You don't need a rocker....an old chair that you've been meaning to fix up with pillows... and a throw or little quilt over the back, to cover up with. A place to have a little snack and read the paper or a book. A place to pray and meditate perhaps. Let me know if this inspires you to fix up a spot for yourself in your home. You'll be glad you did.

Balisha

Parsley and a Fall Drive

Here's what my parsley looked like before the weather turned. I always plant a couple plants...both the curly and the Italian flat leaf. I think that the Italian has more flavor. Once in a while, they come up again the next year. I've had this big cup and saucer for several years. It's been handy....right outside the door where I can grab a handful easily I think that other than salt, pepper and garlic....it's about the most used seasoning I use in cooking. Years ago, I used to dry it and use it all winter. I don't do that anymore....but I do miss it... fresh...in the winter. I know you can put it in ice cube trays and freeze it....but it seems like kind of a bother. Growing it in the house has never worked for me.So, I go with the dried variety.

Today is pool day. It's really a treat to drive to Oregon and see how the colors change from day to day along the river. We live in a part of the state where we have the Blackhawk Trail going through our town. It's a scenic drive along the Rock River. The highlight of the drive is the statue of Blackhawk...the Indian chief... standing tall in amongst the beautiful colors of fall. It's really unspoiled...no advertising on big signs, the curving road following the curve of the river. Birds of all kinds....shore birds and even pelicans... and deer are to be seen. We drive into town and cross the river and sometimes think nothing of it. We just take it for granted. Many people drive to our town to see the colors....I always appreciate the sights I see. It's one of the best drives in N. Illinois for fall color. Our area has state parks and many forest preserves. We have a forest preserve just up the road from us. So, we are leaving in a few minutes. It's a bit cloudy today....or I would take some pictures. The pictures in my header are sights that I have seen on that drive. Now, I have to get the day started. 

Balisha

My Views About Our Way of Communication....Texting

This is going to be a post that some will agree with and some won't. I don't text.  I love words and conversation. I enjoy the surprise, when someone emails me with news. I love being able to say, "Hello, how are you?" I've always loved phone conversations with women friends. Sometimes long newsy chats with a cup of tea. Women have always loved to communicate with each other. We connect, relate and share our lives this way. Communication is a way of forming a lasting bond.

I can remember conversations into the night with a friend whose mother had just passed. Conversations with another about her ailing husband. Talking with one about our grand kids and their accomplishments. Talking with my husband when he was on a fishing trip.Talking to a relative in the hospital. Cheering up an old person with a phone call. The first phone conversation with a baby. Talking with Joe when he's on the way home. These are all the things that I would miss with a text. 

People don't make eye contact anymore when they are talking.

Phone conversations are more important as we age. We look forward to someone calling us....especially a family member and not a telemarketer :)  

I've noticed lately that some women I used to email with are still emailing, but with one or two word sentences. No punctuation just abbreviations. I had a very stern teacher for college prep English in high school. She was a great teacher and taught me so much. She would be appalled at the way the English language is being slaughtered today. The emails I receive have no salutation. No friendly "Hello, or even Hi" and no ending either. Just stopping not saying "Goodbye, Love you, or even Later." 

I write a blog post almost everyday. I enjoy writing...enjoy putting words down on this blog that will make someone else happy or relate something serious or funny. I play with words......finding new words and trying them out in my conversations and writing. I play word games...like the 8 yr online scrabble game with my daughter. 

Thank Heavens my kids don't text me. I would miss their wonderful voices and hearing their reactions to things I tell them. A conversation with a child.....precious words are lost in texting. 

I don't know....maybe I'm old fashioned, but when I get an email from a dear old friend that says her message in three words....it gives me pause and I might not feel the way I used to with her. Maybe words aren't as important in this fast world.....but a world without words is not for me.

Balisha

Slush!

Slush is predicted for sometime today. Is Mother Nature playing a trick on us? Is she bringing back memories of the worst winter I can remember? I'm one who normally likes winter....but last year, even I was complaining. I was thinking this morning, as I peered out the window....watching for "slush"...... am I ready for this cold weather to start? Are things around the house done...to prepare for this? What is left to do? Here's my list....with a few chuckles from me this morning.

Are the closets ready? Turtlenecks, thick sweaters, sweats, coats, hats, boots, scarves, winter robe, the list goes on and on. Did I mention scarves??? I'm always knitting a scarf....should I make more? Slippers and long nightgown. Heavy socks.

(All this heaviness of clothing reminds me of my children. The last one, John, was always dressed with thick clothes. He looked like the Michelin  Man. He couldn't bend over. What was I thinking? Just wanted him to be warm. )

On with the list.....

Reading material....are my fall and winter books stacked and ready by my fireside chair? Is my winter afghan on the back of said chair? Where is that heated throw...a Christmas gift from John last year? Fall candles, potpourri, fall decor etc. 

I mentally move into the kitchen. The freezer is getting low. Do we have enough canned soup? Hot chocolate and marshmallows ready? My head cold things.....chicken broth, ginger and lemon tea, lemons, cream of wheat, jello.
Winter cookbooks are ready on the shelf....for comfort foods. Casseroles, baked vegetables, soups and stews, hot beverages....and some new recipes to try.

We got our flu shot and I must stock up on cough medicine, ricola lozenges, and vicks. Toss out the old and start anew.

My head is spinning...

Now the bedroom..... flannel sheets, cozy comforter, extra pillows, heat adjusted, boxes of tissues. (Did I say flannel sheets? Last year I bought some sheets from QVC. They are a soft polar fleece sheet. I don't normally like flannel, but these are like Heaven. Can't wait to put them on the bed again.)

My head is spinning again....

There's still so much to do (fall cleanup too) and I haven't even mentioned the furnace and other mechanical things. I'll just let Joe do those things...I have to get busy knitting...another scarf  :)

Balisha

The Fruit Cellar

When I was a girl living in the 1940's, there weren't any processed foods. The TV dinner hadn't been invented yet. The grocery stores didn't carry the produce that they do today. A fresh pineapple was unheard of. We ate things that were in season....and that's why an orange in the Christmas stocking was started. We didn't have oranges very often in the winter. The freezers were small little compartments that hung down in the middle of a small refrigerator. No ice makers in those days. We seldom had ice water, tea, or even Kool Aid back then.

My mother was a canner. She "put up" quite a few of the fruits and vegetables that we ate during the winter. Late summer found her in our un air conditioned kitchen... peering over a kettle of tomatoes to put in jars, seal and put into the canner. She had two canners going at a  time. I remember a hot kitchen in the summer....not from the weather but from the stove with canners boiling. The familiar "ping" to say that the jars had sealed was a sound that she asked me to keep track of.

We were recipients of bushels of apples....the person giving them to us would say...."This were under the tree....you can just cut away the brown spots." Mom was thrilled with anything she could get. Those apples meant that we would have applesauce throughout the winter. Mom would ration out the applesauce so that it lasted for a couple months. I never had jarred applesauce until I was a teenager.

I remember getting bushels of peaches and pears. I loved having a peach with cottage cheese salad for lunch. Mom and Grandma used to make blushing pears. They would be cooked with a few cinnamon red hot candies. I love these to this day. The last thing that she canned each year would be chili sauce. I can still smell it in my memory. We would have that with beef and pork roasts.

Then there were the tins with Mom's fruitcakes inside. She made these for everyone... for gifts at Christmas. They were her treasures.

Where did we keep all of these canned things? We had a house with a basement that wasn't heated. Part of it had a dirt floor. There was a monster furnace. It looked like a big octopus in the middle of the room. There was a coal bin on one side......and across from that was an old stairway coming down from the outside. Much like the one in the photo. Remember the old song....Playmate come out and play with me...and bring your dollies three....climb up my apple tree. Look down my rain barrel...slide down my cellar door and we'll be jolly friends forever more.

Well, we had that cellar door and the stairs led down to our basement. There was a little room, partitioned off from the rest of the basement, that Mom called her fruit cellar. I've heard it called a root cellar, but ours was a fruit cellar. She decorated the shelves with fresh shelf paper each fall and put her jars on those shelves. All lined up like jars of jewels. The window to this little room was always cleaned...so that the sun could come in and shine on her jars. She would have a gunny sack of potatoes, carrots in sand, and onions hanging. I loved going into the fruit cellar. It was my job to bring up the jars as she needed them.

We were healthy in those days...I think because of the fact that we got good nutrition (no processed foods yet) plenty of sleep, (no tv) and we played outside in all kinds of weather. 

Those were the days of my youth....I'll never forget.

Balisha

My First Pair of Garden Gloves

My mother wasn't a gardener. She never owned a pair of garden gloves. She was a very stylish woman, who enjoyed making a home for us. Her strengths were in the kitchen and decorating. Our small house was very pretty. She was one of the first to cut figures out of wall paper and apply them to the walls or ceiling. My bedroom had rose wall paper in the dormer and the same roses were carefully cut out and applied to the ceiling. The same for the kitchen. She cut out the little Dutch girls and boys and put them on the wall. This was her way of saving money, not having to buy a lot of wall paper.....and still having the illusion of wallpaper on her walls. 

She saved money in her clothing too. She used to take an organdy dickie and dress up an old black or navy dress. She often changed collars and cuffs so she could have something fashionable to wear.

In the days when I was growing up....the girls and moms wore white gloves. Going to Church found us dressed to the  nines. We always had "Sunday clothes" After Church we would come home and change right away to take care of these clothes. 

This is where the story takes a turn. My dad was a wonderful gardener. His garden was the envy of the neighborhood. Straight rows...no weeds....good crops....all from his careful tending. He worked long hours, and not having a car meant that he walked many miles to work each afternoon. He gardened with such a passion. I can see him now in his white t shirt and long pants (no shorts for men at that time) and his leather garden gloves. Those leather gloves were the only expensive thing he owned for gardening. He had the same pair for years. He took special care of them at the end of gardening season.....rubbing them with oil and storing them carefully until next year. Well, one day he needed me to help him. I didn't have any garden gloves....only my Church gloves. I ran to the dresser and got my gloves out and went and helped Dad. I tried to wash them before Mom saw them, but they didn't come clean. Sunday came and I appeared with no gloves. Mom said, "Run and get your gloves." I had to tell her. That's how I got my first pair of garden gloves....and I think about it every time I put my old worn leather gloves on my hands.

The picture shows a planter made out of cement and a pair of garden gloves. I thought it was unique and would show it to you here today. I have the website if anyone is interested in making them. http://easycraftidea4u.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-planter-made-with-hands.html If you decide to make these...let us see a picture of your hand planter. I have a planter that was given to me as a gift that is much like this. It's supposed to be God's hand.
This is another pool day. It's cloudy out and cool. The leaves are coming down fast now.
The little chipmunk is at the feeder in the window....looking in at me. His cheeks are stuffed with seed....he's preparing his larder for the coming season. Winter...hope he and his family are safe this year. It wouldn't be the same without his antics in my garden.

Balisha

A No Plan Kind of Day

I tried to lighten this picture up and messed up the view out the window. You'll just have to close your eyes to the brightness out the window. The geraniums that I brought in are doing well. Very few leaves have turned brown. Looks like I will have a window full of geraniums this winter.

Speaking of out my window...there's a small finch like bird on my feeder right now that has a soft orange patch between the wings on his back, finch like markings, and a very soft orange breast. I don't know what it is. He's traveling with finches. This fruit and nut seed assortment is attracting some different birds. The old visitors are learning to enjoy it. 

There are leaves down all over the yard right now. Our lawnmower man just mulches them. You might find this funny.....when Joe asked me to marry him there was a stipulation on my part. I had lived in a house with trees all around. I spent hours each fall raking and bagging these leaves. It was a given... each day, that raking would be involved.....unless it rained. If it rained....it was worse...had to wait until the leaves dried to rake again. Back to the stipulation....I was promised that I would never have to rake....and he's kept that promise. We laugh about it every fall as the leaves come down. 

Today is pool day. We went yesterday and just a couple of people were there. When they left, Joe and I were the only ones in the pool. When our time was up...two little toddlers came in with their moms. One went right into the water, splashing and kicking...so cute. The other, a little girl, was more hesitant. She and her mom got used to the water first and then went all the way in. The little girl is having private lessons. They were so much fun to watch that we stayed on the sidelines watching them for quite a while. I love this routine that we have now. Swimming is doing us both a world of good. When I say swimming, I don't mean doing laps. We do exercises in the water....Joe does water walking and I combine that  with other exercises. I try to keep moving all the time I'm in the water. We use the hot tub too. We only stay in a little while...it really relaxes me...so much so, that I have a hard time getting any work done when I get home :)

No plans for meals today. I really don't like having no plans. Hopefully I'll come up with an idea. We just had poached eggs for breakfast, so that will hold us for a long time.

Well, I had better get ready to go. 

Maybe later...

Balisha