Friday, September 12, 2014

Book on Wife



My husband only reads nonfiction and automotive nonfiction to boot.  That's right, owner's manuals, vintage salesman literature, vintage car magazines, and best of all "Hemmings Motor News".

  I can't imagine it!  There is nothing better than a good work of fiction. Historical novels, who dunnits, science fiction; especially in the winter on a cold, rainy day sitting by the fire....oh, my!

Well, any way, I have tried to get James to broaden his reading repertoire for years.  I bring books home from the library for him to read.....doesn't work.  I try reading him excerpts from whatever I'm reading.....really doesn't work! I had given up hope until I started reading a nonfiction book of my own recently, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  It was required reading for my niece and nephew when they were in high school.  It is about a woman in 1951 who had cervical cancer and whose cells were taken without her knowledge (or at least without her complete understanding).  Her cells were cultured and grew into an immortal cell line used to this day for research. It is very interesting from both the ethical and medical perspectives.

Now James works in the medical field, so I just knew that I had finally found the book that we could both read and have long "book club" discussions about.  I decided to go the "excerpt reading route" again to get him hooked.  (Granted, reading excerpts had never worked in the past, but who knows if the next time will be the charm.)  I laid in wait and trapped him at his desk when he was waiting for an email to be returned. I had chosen an especially interesting selection and read it with all the inflection I could muster.  When finished, I closed the book and waited.....

                                    
 "Most people have books on tape", he said, "I have books on wife, but if I ever go blind I'll be in good shape."
 
Foiled again :(


You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. ~Paul Sweeney

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. ~James Russell Lowell

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O’Rourke



Recommendations:
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Brother Cadfael Mysteries by Ellis Peters
Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall
&
a nonfiction choice
The Disappearing Spoon: and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World form the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean

Love ya'll, Shelli

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Date Night



If you enjoyed the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey, if you live in our neck of the woods, and if you are looking for a fun date night, I've got the thing for you.  Rosemary's Kitchen is hosting A Journey to Old Bombay, an Indian themed dinner event this Saturday night, September 13th. Here's the link:

Monday, September 8, 2014

Wedding Bells

www.sourcerer-events.co.uk
 
We are so pleased to announce
 the engagement
 of
 our daughter,
 Katherine,
 to a wonderful young man,
 Collin Jilbert.
 
 
Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river.
 ~Malagasy Proverb

Thursday, September 4, 2014

More Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Redecorate

So as you know from an earlier post, I am trying to clear out my attic and hot house.  Here are some items that have recently gotten a face lift and will soon (I hope) be residing at someone else's home.

 
Update: SOLD!!!!

Update: SOLD!!


                                                                     Update: SOLD!!!


Keep your fingers crossed,  Shelli

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Fairfield Market Blondies

OK, Ruth, here is the recipe for the brownies I brought to the reunion.  They are a staple at the Fairfield Grocery & Market CafĂ©' in Shreveport and the recipe can be found in their cookbook. They are super easy and really delicious, but not nearly as good as Kenny and John Wayne's chicken!



www.facebook.com
 
Fairfield Market Blondies
 
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup pecan pieces 
 
Directions:
1. Melt butter.
2. Stir in sugars, flour, and salt.
3. Stir in beaten eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in pecans.
5. Bake in 9x12 baking dish at 325/350 degrees for one hour or until done.
 
 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Muscadine Wet T-shirt Contest

Get your mind out of the gutter!!!
 
 

This is not that kind of a blog!!
 
 
Our second variety of muscadines got ripe and needed to be picked, but it was raining.  James and I were leaving that afternoon for his family reunion, and we were worried about leaving the grapes on the vine any longer.  So we just picked them in the rain......
 


 
Here's the wet T-shirt!!
 
 
Now we are in the process of making wine!
Our first batch ever!
 
2014
Turkey Creek Garden
Muscadine Wine
(about three bottles worth)
 
www.fanpop.com
 
Love ya'll, Shelli
 
 
 
 


Thursday, August 28, 2014

Master Gardener Program


I love gardening!!!!!!!

When I was young I loved to hear my mother talk about plants with her friends. It was as though she was speaking a different language. "Thorny eleagnus, aspidistra, aucuba, fatsia, quince, rubeckia."  I was also impressed with her knowledge about this hobby that is part science, part art. She started the garden club in our home town and one month they had an event where you had to use plant material in an unusual way.  Mom and her friend, Looney, hollowed out cabbages and put them on their heads. After the addition of other vegetables and flowers their "hats" could have rivaled anything seen at the Royal Ascot.

  I have a friend who says you shouldn't retire from something, but to something. One of the things I have been saving for retirement is becoming a Master Gardener.  I have gardened for a long time, but quite honestly, have no real idea what I am doing.  I am ready to learn!

The Master Gardener program started in 1972 in Washington state.  It got its start in Louisiana in 1994 in East Baton Rouge. Today their are 19 programs in our state and 235 yearly graduates.  It  falls under the umbrella of the LSU AgCenter.  Classes are taught by local college professors, county agents, and master gardeners.

The program is a twelve week study of the following topics:

     Basic Botany and Plant Propagation
     Basic Entomology
     Plant Pathology
     Weed Science
     Lawn Care
     Soils and Nutrition
     Pesticide Safety and Water Quality
     Organic Gardening
     Vegetable Gardening
     Composting
     Fruit and Nut Production
     Ornamental Horticulture

There is a test (open book) at the end of the course and a requirement of forty hours of community garden education projects over the course of twelve months to become a certified Master Gardener. I can't wait!!!!!

Love ya'll,
Shelli


There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler

I think that if ever a mortal heard the voice of God it would be in a garden at the cool of the day. ~F. Frankfort Moore, A Garden of Peace
I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden. ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666


In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~Margaret Atwood

Early to bed, early to rise;
Work like hell and fertilize.
~Emily Whaley