Last Post - All is well

Last Post - All is well

2016 - A NEW YEAR again. They are coming round faster than ever. I haven't even got around to making a new blog page...
But I will.
Coming soon
You will see from my hastily put together photo that I found something to do with the beer can caps that are threatening to take over one drawer in my kitchen.
So in my new mode for the new year.....
Keep it short and simple Shirley...
                        Happy New Year       
to all my family, my friends, my sort-of-friends, my once-time friends and my friends that I still have to meet.
I hope this lovely new year is a blessing for you all.

And no I didn't drink even one of the beers...
And please send ideas for beer  bottle caps.

Fruit Pizza and Christmas Pud for Christmas

Fruit Pizza and Christmas Pud for Christmas

One for tradition and one for modernity.( is that the right word?)

                                          Fruit Pizza

I found the photo and recipe for the fruit pizza on Pinterest and thought that it  would be a good  desert for  after a large Christmas dinner. It was really easy to make with a biscuit crust and different fresh fruit. Very tasty as well as the fruit are all placed on a cream base made with cream cheese and whipping cream. Voted a success!

Tradition dictates also having a  Christmas pudding so this year I made one from scratch and it turned out very well ( to my surprise).
I have made puddings in the past but really not many people these days like the heavy, steamed, suet pudding made with a combination of dark fruits and spiced with rum and brandy. In fact the only way we were persuaded to eat pudding when we were children was that inside the pudding were hidden presents - silver sixpences, and if you were lucky enough to find one , you kept it. A real treasure. 
( I think now that it probably was quite dangerous as a small child could easily have choked on the treasure but that was then...)  
No hidden presents in my pud. We did do the lighting of the pudding which I always like to do plus it gives us a chance to talk about the old-fashioned kind of Christmases we so enjoyed and remember.

Our Christmas was lovely. There were 16 people of many ages  mostly family and friends  collected together and  we had good food, good wine and drinks, lots of fun , warm weather, laughter and caught up on all the family news. No TV and phones/tablets kept to the minimum.!!
Thank to son Trevor and his wife Laura for being such good hosts.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

This is a book about immigrants to America and basically the hardship they face.
It tells the story of a Mexican family. a mother, father and disabled daughter who sell up all they have and buy passage to move to Delaware. They do this primarily to get better medical and education help for their daughter. The father like many other immigrants works in the only job he can get at a mushroom farm.
The motel and area where they live, is home to many other kinds of immigrants coming from many other areas of the world.  It is through their interaction we learn of the trials, fears, homesickness and desperation of these new immigrants, these unknown Americans.
The younger immigrants cannot understand their new land or even much of the language and even  their parents find it difficult. within their own communities  the young ones have problems because their parents old customs   don't fit with the customs
It is a sad book to read because it tells us that we could do better and be more welcoming and understanding  to others.

Welcome Kartier

Welcome Kartier

I got a very nice surprise from my son this week. In the mail came a heavy box."What could it be?" I thought as I opened it.
Well, inside was the cutest little black dog you have ever seen.The best thing about it was this one is already house trained, extremely quiet and a friendly fellow who attracts a lot of attention.Everyone who has seen him, loves him.

So cute when he puts his head to one side 

We decided to name him "Kartier". a nice posh sounding name for a very unique little dog. 
There are other reasons as well as the letter that also came in the box explained that the origins of Kartier came from a 30year old Canadian Wonderland JuniorKart used in the "KartSTART" program.This for anyone who doesn't know is a Canadian program that teaches young children to drive with Go karts.

Like all dogs he is always ready for food!

For those that are interested in the finer details of Kartiers' genetic makeup,  here they are:- his head is a muffler, the main body is an axle, the rear legs are part of the kart frame and the tail is a tie rod end. The ears are a Rotax dashboard arms, the eyes are axle collars and the front legs are seat struts.

You will see he is already settling into his new home and even has made friends with Mr Froggy, the hockey playing frog from Canada.

Challenge ." Fall"

Challenge ." Fall"

Water color " Fall" 9" by 10"

This was the painting I did for the challenge Fall . It had to be done fairly quickly as November was a somewhat busy month. Fall was really peculiar in our part of Texas as it was fairly warm and we also had a lot of rain. Rather more like Spring. That said, the leaves were really late in starting to change color but just a few of them on my Bradford pear  tree had changed so I decided to paint those.
Even now the leaves haven't fully changed although they are falling rapidly so this year won't be a good color for the Autumn leaves.
Here is a photo of the leaves from 2014. A much better year for leaves!

Goodbye Miss Tabs

Goodbye Miss Tabs

    So the spirit of our loving and calm cat Miss Tabs has passed on to join her brother and all the other kitty friends she lived with at our house over the past 18years. 
So many it is hard to recall all of them in detail-, Spindles (Miss Tabs twin brother), Cooper- the big old white fluffy one, Black Lucky, so shy and gentle with  lovely eyes, funny Pugs, who loved the water, Blue cat, who just loved people but wasn't that happy with his fellow cats, Pixel and Wizzywig, the computer cats and probably a few more that came in as fosters and then passed on to new homes. The ones we remember well are the ones that came but stayed.

So what will we remember about Miss Tabs.

She came in as a feral kitten from a feral mother with a feral brother so it's not really surprising that she preferred the great outside rather than the warm and cosy inside. The few times we tried to keep her confined inside was the only time she was any trouble making her feelings felt by peeing in bad places and yowling! 

She would usually appear once a day  to come and feed and then again disappear into the woods and garden to do her own thing.She would accept a gentle stroking from time to time but didn't want to be held and getting her into a cat carrier was very frustrating for both the cat and me.
She has one bad eye and as she got older it became worse and gradually we realized she was in fact blind. It was amazing to see how she still managed to find her way around the yard. It was only in the last few months I noticed she was suffering from kitty Alzheimer's. She would start walking around in circles and I would have to go out and put her down in another place that she would recognize so she could get her bearings again. 

Then she became deaf and started to lose her sense of smell. Finding her food became a challenge as she could be right by it and even with me banging on the plate she still had trouble finding it. But she managed without complaint .I knew her time was coming to an end when her back legs started to become so weak she could no longer jump up on to a favorite chair or onto the stool to get in the cat door.

We will certainly miss her as we do all our pets when they pass on but we know from a very uncertain beginning, she had a great kitty life- one of the best.
Rest in peace Miss Tabs. 

Read about her as well at my earlier blog  
 only700.blogspot.com March26 2013

The Dog Master by W.Bruce Cameron

The Dog Master by W.Bruce Cameron

If you like dogs and a good story, this is the book for you.
It tells the fictional story of how the first wolf just might have been introduced to the first human in order to form  a new species, the dog.
It takes place in the Paleolithic age, about 30,000 years ago when a variety of different tribes were roaming the earth. It was a time when man lived solely by hunting and gathering . It was also a time of the beginning of the ice age and food resources were  in short supply so competition for food was great.
That is setting the stage for the novel.
The plot of the book tells the story  a young deformed man, Mal of the Kindred tribe who befriends a dying mother wolf and her litter of pups and of his experiences within his tribe and with other tribes, both friendly and not so friendly. Mal,  after he is thrown out of his tribe, gradually  trains the young wolf pup, that he has saved, to become his helper.
 The book is well researched and it certainly could have happened this way that "wolf" became "dog".
It is a good story.
I really enjoyed it.