Halloween Present, Past, and Future

several years ago
I know the title is out of order 

There will be no Halloween decorations or Trick or Treat here. The wind is too high for me to set up my graveyard under an oak tree with dead limbs, some of which have already fallen. Plus, it is cold and windy. UPDATE: It is now Halloween day and the wind is about 3 mph, and my left shoulder is frozen, so no dragging things around!

 

I did buy candy corn three weeks ago. Why so early? I found a small bag of Brach's for $2. Those would be gone soon, so in my infinite wisdom, I bought them. Later bags were much more expensive, larger, and went fast. Now, I just have to get up the nerve to open the bag and give myself an overdose of sugar.

There probably won't be any Halloween for g-daughter in NY where trees are down. However, she did get to go out Saturday night at her father's house in PA.  She went as an 80s girl, her own idea. My daughter told her, "Good, you don't need a costume. We have all you need." I am quite sure my daughter was dreading buying an expensive costume. I know, I know. She always buys costumes. I always made costumes for my three children or put something together for them.

When my now 37-year-old daughter was still a newborn, I entered her in a costume contest, hoping to get the award for youngest in costume. She was 34-days-old. I put on her a pink, plush, terry sleeper. I had made a bonnet with bunny ears for the occasion. There were so many disappointed parents with really old babies, three-month-old babies had no chance. I sort of felt sorry for the parents who had their first babies, such young couples, when they looked over and saw her. My daughter won a monkey holding a banana. You know the kind I mean.

The son wanted to be the Fonz. At first, the Fonz wore a denim jacket on Happy Days. So, son wore his denim jacket, a t-shirt, and jeans. The best part was his slicked-back hair. Foolish me put Vaseline in his hair to make the slicked back pompadour. Oh, it looked stupendous, but it took three or four washings a day for about 3 weeks before it came out of his hair.

The same year, I made a Wonder Woman costume for my daughter. Actually, she wore her red leotard from tap. I made the golden lasso, belt, head and wrist items. She had to wear tights because of the weather and just because. Both children were ecstatic with their costumes. NOW, they buy costumes for their children. I thought modeling behavior was a good thing they would follow.

Next year, I will have all my Halloween pictures with costumes I made during the year. Maybe I will put out my graveyard.

As for me, right now, I am going to open candy corn right after I get back from purchasing a 50 cent corn dog from Sonic. Yes, I do have business down that way.

I love Halloween.

Your turn
Are you decorating? Handing out candy? Taking children out? Tell me about past Halloweens or anything to entertain us all.

Update on Sandy in Brooklyn and My Daughter

 I heard Brooklyn was dark, but my daughter never lost her electricity. She lost Internet, home phone, and TV when a tree fell on the lines. She can still use her cell phone. About three months ago I got 200 minutes of texting plan each month for $5, I just texted her since she wanted to save her cell battery in case she lost  electricity. She only has a car charger and did not want to have to leave the house.

She had NO flooding! I am amazed.

The fire that burned 100 homes now leaves me with a new fear--overburdened fire department that might not respond in time in her neighborhood. You know how it is to be a mother.

I hope the people you all worried about being hurt or affected by Sandy fared as well as my daughter.

The post about Lucy and Ethel has been eaten by Blogger three times! I have to start over.

Your turn
How did you, your family and friends fare during Sandy? Got snow?

What was I thinking? Sewing Room Decluttering

okay, not as bad as I thought

 

 

As I unfurled the piece of fabric on top of the leopard print, I caught my breath.  What was I thinking??? But, it was okay. The fabric was something I had forgotten, a flow-y, crepe piece I bought for a skirt. With black tights or leggings and black blouse or something on top, it will be beautiful. Did you ever come across something put back, not remember it and become alarmed for half a second? The print i a very small leapard spot! Whew, it could be worse.

 

I have coppery earrings to wear with this--one of a kind earrings I designed myself and commissioned someone to make. Yes, I could afford things like that, once upon a time.

 





more skirt fabric

As I lay these aside, I was struck with the composition. The red and black houndstooth check is less than 1.4 inch. The polka dot is a pin dot, barely visible from ten feet away. Do you think these all are classics, not liable to go out of style anytime soon? I do. Maybe you don't. I will wear s black top with the red/black houndstooth and red top with the polka dot or maybe yellow sometimes.

 

I have never had any kind of animal fabric print before. This is not large and I promise I won't buy anything else. If I were to break down and buy another print, I certainly would not wear it with this!

 

So, now you know how my taste ran ten years ago. It is the same now. I bought all this on sale, getting enough for two ankle-length skirts of each print in case something happened to one, I could make another. All three of these will need a lining or a slip. I usually just make an A-line slip that can be worn elsewhere. These all three need different colors. The houndstooth need red to make the red less muddy in the skirt. I will wear black under the polka dot and probably beige under the leopard print. Do you wear animal prints?

 

 

As I sort through all this material, I have to shake out dead bumble bees. The neighbor catty-cornered from me insists on mowing the street and threw a rock into the window, a poured window that is 112-years-old.  I found a thousand dead bumble bees all over my sewing room! I am not kidding. Since they flew through the broken window pane and ten plus years have passed, I now shake bumblebee parts from the fabric.

 

 

Found also is plenty of material for tp if I cut them up and use once and toss them. If I don't have electricity, I won't be saving them to wash. I may serge them all on the off-chance I want to wash and reuse. If it were long, long term power outage, yes, I would be washing the cloth tp. There are also scraps for a rag bag. The only fabric I will dispose of is fabric I hate now but is not suitable for any other use. I will sell, donate to thrift store, or give to an individual.

 

After I injured myself and could not sew, I regularly bought fabric just like I always have, a piece her and a piece or ten there until I came to my senses! Have you ever bought fabric and gotten ahead of yourself on supply? Since then, I did buy chicken fabric for napkins. As I typed chickens, one said something to me, wanting food, I suppose, She is on the porch and continually begging, so I have to go.

 



Your turn
How is your fabric stash? Have you ever bought fabric (or wood/whatever or you guys) and realized that you need to stop? Do you like or not like my tastes? ...lol...if you don't, no problem.

Help Me Keep up with Hurricane in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York

This is a nervous mama and memaw. My daughter and her children live in Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, New York. I am paralyzed with fear right now. Okay, maybe I exaggerate! You know how it is, not being there or not knowing what will happen.

If you live in NYC or anywhere and hear anything about this area, let me know on the blog. Yes, I will be checking it every 10 minutes on Monday night,

Please do NOT tell me not to worry. That will not be helpful. I gave birth to her. I need information, NOT prayers. Conversation is okay. Maybe you understand?

Maybe this blog post is ridiculous. Hey, I wrote a blogger I follow, and he gave me information last time when I could not contact her.

At least, my daughter has her son home from his girlfriend's house tonight because of the wind and all the trees he walks under on his 20 block walk to and from her house. It must be love. She said he will not go out at all until this is all over because school is out tomorrow.

She and daughter (11) sleep in same bed in my daughter's room, so son (17) will sleep on the floor in her room. She wants them all together. That makes me feel better.

Humor me. Thanks. Any news will be helpful.  Okay, I feel better knowing others are watching for me. I am not sure I can figure out if her electricity is out or if she is flooded. She rents the second story of a house. She is high which in itself could present other problems.

I am sitting here wondering if I should hit publish or not. Okay, here goes.

Nuts!

hickory nut and quarter

These are treacherous and scary.  They are hickory nuts, impossible to crack but delicious if you can get anything out. Some people tell me they are black walnuts. Would you like one to hit you on the head?

8 hickory nuts in the path I walk to the car

Every day when I go out, I take my life into my own hands, trying to walk through a yard full of these. Last night, I was spread-eagle in mid-air, thinking I was going to do a belly flop on the ground as I slid backwards with left food and out to the right with my right foot.  I was lunging forward with my arms sort of reaching for something not there. You see how many there are in a small space? Even if I recover and don't fall, I can never be sure that I will find sure footing with the next step! Do you see all eight of the hickory nuts?

Once a very macho friend was standing talking with my husband in the backyard. The friend picked up two nuts and squeezed them in both hands to crack them. He looked at the uncracked nuts, squeezed again, getting red in the face, then squeezed them again, getting even redder. He asked what they were. My two-year old got a hickory nut, laid it on the concrete step, picked up a brick she used and smashed the nut until it cracked. She had had lots of practice!

tiny acorns from water oaks next to quarter

Then, there are the two huge oaks that rain down tiny acorns all over the yard, my car, and my head! It's like walking on ice when there is a solid mat on the driveway or street.

Exbf came in the house on Monday and asked how long it took me to get accustomed to being hit with acorns and hickory nuts. "Never!" Seriously, it is frustrating since the hickory nuts could do major damage to the head. They bruise my shoulders and arms if they hit me. He is not amused. So, not only are they underfoot, they are overhead.

I manage to get into the house with my purse or any bag with a few acorns inside. There are days I put my purse, a newspaper, or a magazine over my head for fear of being banged on the head by hickory nuts. It is a treacherous walk to the car or back to the house this time of year.

Until I had it cut, there was a hickory nut tree in an inside corner of the house, really close to the house. The tree sent hickory nuts flying onto the steep roof where they careened downward bouncing all the way until they landed with a thud and a roll on the flat roof part of the house. Friends were quite startled by the ruckus on the roof.  My children clung to me at first during the barrages but soon learned to take them in stride.

Why could I not be blessed with just one pecan tree? The people behind my next door neighbors have a pecan tree, but not me. The people catty-cornered from me have a pecan tree and told my children not to pick up the ones in the street. This year, I will pick his pecans that fall in the street! He was mean to me this year, so I will just do what is perfectly legal! No, my children did not pick up one pecan from the yard and were not accused of getting any pecans from the 10 feet of city property, just the pavement.


A few days ago, I was in the backyard and saw three women in the yard behind my neighbors, frantically picking up something. Aha! Pecans? Yessiree. When I asked them what they were picking up, they looked frightened and told me. It turns out they do not live there because the house is empty. I am not sure I ever knew there was a pecan tree back there. However, the people living there are always rough people, so we don't visit. I just listen to drug- and alcohol-fueled arguments, report to them the children throwing rocks at my picture window, listen to the puppy farm that one couple ran, and let the wisteria grow up to shield me from seeing them and hearing them.

Yesterday, I decided to step over the two-foot decorative fence that has been there for 70 years. Nope, it was four-feet high. It grew. So, I drove around the block and parked behind the house. I am going again this afternoon.



I scored these--29  free pecans

Earlier in the day I went to the market. Saturday will be the last day. I had two $6 vouchers given to low-income seniors. So, the $8.50/qt of shelled pecans were calling me. I got another quart of unshelled pecans for $2 and garlic cloves for $1.50. I am not sure why they broke the heads apart. I'll plant some of those.

Your turn
Are you lucky enough to have nut trees in your yard? Did you plant them? Have you ever picked out hickory nuts ? They are so difficult. Does anyone consider pecans as their favorite nut like I do?

The Year Without a Summer

Sun behind smoke--eerie

 

Sun at the very bottom

The sun

In 1815, My Tambora erupted. From 1812 through 1814 four other eruptions occurred. The solar activity was low. Europe, China, Canada, and the US suffered from cool, rainy, foggy, and freezing in places that usually provided food for the people.

This event has been credited for Western expansion in the US as people starved and left the northeast, looking for a more hospitable climate. Today, it was just a huge fire at the the salvage yard. Since the city is expanding toward and around the salvage yard, it is in close proximity to lots of people in apartments, mostly low-income people.

 I saw this from five miles or more and thought it was a local tire store. I got to the tire store and took pictures. I am still 2 miles as the crow flies.

As I drove closer, I called Lena to see if she was okay as she is about a quarter of a mile from the fire. She is the one who told me it was the salvage yard.

Back to The Poverty Year, 1816. Snow fell in Albany New York in June. Crops failed in the UK. Prices rose in Germany. Had enough?

Of course, 5 volcanoes, one of them a record setter in a time of little solar activity is not likely to happen.

In Switzerland, Percy Shelley, the "rock star" of his day was vacationing in Switzerland with his physician, Polidori, Lord Byron, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and Claire. They could not go out because of the rainy, unfriendly cool weather. So, they entertained themselves by telling scary stories.

Shelley challenged everyone to write a scary story. Mary wrote Frankenstein and Polidori wrote a story that eventually became Dracula. The movie Gothic is a recounting of part of the summer. It is not for the faint of heart or those holding religious qualms.

Could The Summer that Never Was happen again? I don't know. But, the history of this event should be enough to give one pause. How much better prepared are we to deal with ice in July as far south as Pennsylvania? The cold weather was so severe in China that trees died and flooding led to widespread cholera. It was the worst famine in Europe. Riots, arson, and looting at food markets were the result.

Now, are you convinced that maybe there is a method to the madness of canning? Dehydrating? Not depending on the sun being faithful?

I must admit that the best way for this English major to learn history is by knowing why certain literature was written. That's why I had to include the story of the writing of Frankenstein.

I think that the lowest the temperature change anywhere measured during that summer was no more than 1.3 F (0.7 C). That is not much change. Have I gone mad? No, but the dimming of the sun and the deep shadows cast because of the black smoke reminded me of stories of Switzerland in the summer of 1816. Sure, you can see the blue sky, but that made the weird sun even more spooky. I know! I am weird. I thought how life is more fragile than we think.

I wondered today if the people in 1816, during The Year Without a Summer, thought of it as the end of the world? Read about it here.

Brought to you by a junkyard fire!

Your turn
How would you fare without a summer?

Cooking Oil Comparison Chart

 

cooking oil comparison chart

 

 

It is so confusing, trying to sort the grain from the chaff, truth from myth, in many concepts in this life. Every time I figure out which oil is best for me, the rules change. So this Cooking Oil Comparison Chart  may give me a clue.

 

At the moment I use canola. Actually, I use very little oil.  Do not jump on me! NOW, in the last few years since I bought the canola oil, I heard it is not good for me. grrrr I bought this on sale several years ago. It is all stored in the refrigerator. Maybe there are two more 48 ounce bottles in the refrigerator and one on the shelf. I will use it up. Before that event I have time to make a decision.

 

I am not sure how I feel about lots of the facts on the chart, but it is food for thought. Some days, I feel betrayed when I hear something is best for me, then in a turn it is not!

 

Olive oil is also in my cabinet, often used. I decanted a gallon to dark green jars, stored in the refrigerator.

 

Your turn

What kinds of oils do you use? Why?