WORD FOR THE DAY - EXCORIATE

Greetings,  It's a cloudy Sunday morning here in North Carolina.  It poured down rain last nigh; much needed rain.  I won't be writing much today as I have to read how to set up my web site.  I want a site for my jewelry line and it will probably take me a while to figure it out, but I will.

I was averse to acquiring this computer, but my son insisted.  He bought it for my husband and me and since I got it, two years ago, I've really learned a lot.  I still don't know all there is to know about this IMac and I probably never will.  All I know is that it's a wealth of information.  I used to spend a lot of  time looking in the dictionary and in encyclopedias but now all I have to do is go to Google and type in what I'm looking for.  Ain't life great!

I'll be back later,  as I've got to have some food in the house if I want to eat, so it's off to the grocery store.
Later - Pat

WORD FOR THE DAY - PERSIFLAGE

Hello again readers.  Each day I'll have a word for the day that you can look up.  I love words.  The larger ones vocabulary, the more one can understand.  I  believe there are three things God gave to man that are the most powerful, and they are:  love, music and words.  Love can conquer anything; it's the greatest power on earth.  Music has the power to soothe the savage beast - the one that's inherent in all of us.  Words can heal or hurt; they're very powerful, so choose your words carefully.

Keep a dictionary handy when you're reading and look up any word you don't know and try to use that word.  You'll be amazed at how quickly your vocabulary increases.

I have a book I'd like to recommend to you, it's entitled The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I read this book in May of 2008 and several years from now, I plan to read it again.  It's one of the best books I've ever read.  I write the date that I read the book on the first page, that way I know when it's time to read it again.

Well, it's time to get some things done around the house.  Have a blessed day all.  Pat

I Love Birds

Good morning, friends. You'll never guess what I just saw when I opened the shades in my kitchen - an albino dove. I've never seen one before. It was mostly a off-white color with tan splotches all over it. How amazing. There are albinos in every species. Hunters in our area have seen several albino deer. I sure would like to see one.

Bird watching is one of my favorite pastimes. I have three feeders close to my kitchen windows and have safflower seed and sunflower seed in them. I also have a dish of sunflower seed and corn in a dish for the squirrels. I'm trying to attract Bluejays to the feeders, but they are very elusive. I mostly have Carolina Chickadees, Nuthatches, Wrens, Sparrows, and Tufted Titmice. When the sun starts to set, I have Cardinals come but they are mostly ground feeders and eat the seeds I've strewn on the ground.

I called my husband and told him that I saw this certain type of dove and he told me that his friend, who is a hunter, had seen them and had killed one. OH! How could he kill something so rare? I don't understand some people's mentality. I do believe in hunting, though. God gave man dominion over the animals, but I don't believe in killing just to kill. My husband and his friend are fishing today. They love to fish. They'd go every day if they could. They're catching speckled trout now. This is the time for them here.

It's cloudy here today and supposed to rain for the next two days; I hope so, we really need it. Thankfully, we haven't had any hurricanes this year. Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we are always wary of hurricanes from June to the last of November. The last one we had was Isabelle in 2003. It was horrendous. My family and I stood looking out of our kitchen, den and bedroom windows and watched the trees fall. We, fortunately, didn't have any fall on our house, and only lost one pine tree that fell away from the house, but my neighbor had four huge pine trees fall on her house; we saw them fall. Luckily, she was staying at her sister's house but when she called me to access the damage, I hated to have to tell her the condition of her home. It took a long time to clean up after such a horrible storm. It cost her thousands of dollars just to have the trees taken off of her house and $35,000.00 to fix the damage done by the trees.

I know some of you will find my postings totally boring, but I have a need to compose on the computer. I love to write and would like to write a book but don't think I have it in me to do so. Later - Pat

My Very First Blog

Hi, this is my very first blog. I'm a 68 -year old Nana from North Carolina. I wanted to start my own blog because I have a wealth of experience to share. I am interested in many different things and would like to share my experiences, thoughts, ideology, recipes, etc.

I saw a great movie the other night - Julie and Julia. It was very entertaining and Meryl Streep was wonderful as Julia Childs. If she isn't nominated for an academy award, I'll be surprised. Amy Adams was also very good as Julie, the young woman that decided to buy Julia's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and take one year to cook all of the recipes. I highly recommend this movie. There was only one BAD word in it. This movie actually inspired me to, believe it or not, COOK. I don't do a lot of cooking these days, having succumbed to the lure of frozen entrees. I wanted to cook Boeuf Bourginon but the recipe was too involved for my time constraints; I decided to fix beef stew instead.

It took forty-five minutes to get all of the ingredients in the pot. It took nearly as long to get the pot out of the cabinet as it's one of those heavy black pots that weigh a ton.

I used three-quarters of a stick of butter to brown the stew beef chunks. I would normally never use butter because I am always aware of calories and fat, but I decided to cook it like Julia would. Julia always said, "you can never have enough butter." It took awhile to brown three pans full of beef. I also peeled and cut up carrots, potatoes, celery, and mushrooms, which I placed on top of the browned beef. On top of all of this I added two cans of organic, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. (I also added a little water to the pan drippings and dumped this in the pot.)

Needless to say, the meal was delicious. Even I was surprised, although I used to be a very good cook when my children were younger. I took the dinner to my aunt's house and we ate with another aunt and a cousin. They all highly praised my efforts and ate the leftovers today for lunch.

It's getting late and time for bed. More news tomorrow. Nana