sunflowers!

Not complaining, but I'm definitely over winter. To shake off the funk, I ordered some Crème Brûlée sunflower seeds from Burpee. Honestly, how could I not? Crème brûlée is one of my favorite desserts.

The catalog's description was the icing on the cake: "Bound to be the sweetest, most sophisticated sunflower on your block. Elegant crowns of golden-yellow petals surround fluffy, amber-bronze centers – a floral reflection of the caramelized sugar atop dessert classic ‘crème brûlée’. Refined plants stand 4-5’ tall with a bushy, branching habit and a continuous bounty of blooms. If you’re craving something new and spectacular for your border, this sunflower is for you."

Now I'm craving créme brûlée!

 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

On the road last weekend to watch some college basketball. The Dayton Flyers belong to the A-10 Conference and we made the trek to PPG Arena in Pittsburgh to watch our Flyers in their tournament games. The road to March Madness begins

Back in the day of traveling from the Midwest to visit my grandparents in New Jersey, we always took the Pennsylvania Turnpike which primarily cuts through the Appalachian Mountains. It was a long, boring drive for four young children but what got us through the tedium of the drive were the stops at the service plazas and going through the tunnels that were cut through the mountains. We always looked forward to the Kittatinny and Blue Mountain Tunnels - one right after the other. 

On the drive to Pittsburgh didn't take us on the Pennslvania Turnpike but we did get to drive through two tunnels, one in Wheeling, WVA, and one right before getting to Pittsburgh. That little kid excitement of going through these tunnels is still there.

My son and grandson joined us to watch the games. 3 1/2 year old Owen could watch only so much basketball so to help him get his wiggles out we went up and down the escalators too many times to count. "Let's do it again, Didi!"

All smiles after an exciting win to get into the championship game. We beat #1 seeded Saint Louis University by one point in the last .5 second.

Nothing like a messy red, white, and blue popsicle to keep a kid happy!

One of Pittsburgh's nicknames is the Confluence City. Three rivers converge at Point State Park. The Allegheny River is in the forefront of this photo, the barge is starting its voyage down the Monongahela River, and Point State Park where the concrete platform comes out into the rivers marks where the Ohio River begins. 

Pittsburgh is also known as the City of Bridges. It has 446 bridges, which is more than any other city in the world.

While walking around Pittsburgh I saw lots of references to "Yinz" and "Yinzer." Come to find out "yinz" is equivalent to "you all" or "y'all." It originated from the Scottish-Irish immigrants who used "you ones" (or "you'uns") and it evolved into a signature phrase of "Pittsburghese" dialect. A person who speaks this way is often called a "Yinzer." 

We arrived home Sunday night and then in the wee hours of Monday morning, I woke to the sound of howling winds and rain slamming into the house. Very scary. No tornado sirens going off but it was enough to keep me awake for a couple hours. Monday morning my neighbor was in the street with his chain saw cutting up a huge branch that had broken from his old, massive tree and was blocking the street. He wanted to clear a path before the school bus arrived. He got a lane open and then the city street crew arrived to finish the job.

The storm caused our power to go out for a few hours and our wifi was out for most of the day. My son's power was out longer than ours so he came over to do his laundry. It was nice to have him around and have a catch up visit. I invited him and his wife to come over for dinner. I wanted to surf the 'net for some dinner ideas and got shut down because of no wifi. So I went old school and thumbed through a lot of cookbooks. It was like becoming reacquainted with old friends. I do love my cookbooks and got a lot of smiles from finding old favorites and just being taken back to how I used to plan meals when the internet wasn't around. I found a recipe and prepared Chicken Cacciatore from Cucina Povera. Comfort food that came from the stress of a storm.

st. patrick's day

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go. ~ Irish Blessing

Oh, the music in the air!
An’ the joy that’s ivrywhere –
Shure, the whole blue vault of heaven is wan grand triumphal arch,
An’ the earth below is gay
Wid its tender green th’-day,
Fur the whole world is Irish on the Seventeenth o’ March!

~Thomas Augustin Daly

monday's mulling: shine!

Walt Whitman believed that life should be lived fully, authentically, and joyfully. In this short and concise thought he’s essentially saying:

You can choose any path in life.

The specific activity matters less than the spirit behind it.

What truly matters is that your actions create genuine joy, vitality, and meaning.

Whatever you choose to do in life - work, art, love, travel, learning - make sure it fills you with a sense of joy and aliveness. 

In other words, don’t just exist - live in a way that lights you up!

"donut" fear the ides of march

 

the daffodil debut

A drive past the "Daffodil House" shows some bright yellow buds and blooms. In a week or two the yard will be a sea of gold.

The Daffodils' Debut

On the sloping lawn where winter lingered thin,
The daffodils arrived like whispered news -
Small trumpets lifted to the wind,
Bright as a promise the cold couldn’t refuse. 

They gathered first along the hill’s soft spine,
Where thawing earth breathed out its sleepy steam,
Gold cups tipping sunlight into time,
As if the yard itself had learned to dream.

Each stem a quiet banner newly raised,
Each petal catching morning’s silver thread,
Till even the bare trees paused, amazed
At little suns where frost had lately spread.

And walking there, you’d swear the hillside knew
The art of celebration long before you -
For every step the spring breeze softly made
Was answered by the daffodils’ parade. 

the friday feed: fresh squeezed orange juice

In February, we took a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate our grandson’s second birthday. While we were there, my sister-in-law called and asked if we had received our oranges. She didn’t know we were out of town. When I told her we weren’t home, she said, “Well, you have two boxes of oranges sitting on your front porch. Can Patrick go pick them up?”

“No,” I told her, “Patrick’s here with us. I’ll call my neighbor.”

Unfortunately, the oranges sat outside overnight - in 0° weather.

When we got home, I called my neighbor to let her know I was coming over to pick them up. She laughed and said, “You might want to bring your car. There are two big boxes.”

She wasn’t kidding. The two boxes held four dozen oranges - 48 in all! That’s a lot of oranges for two people. I did have to throw a few away because of the frigid temperatures, but we still had a mountain of citrus.

Oranges from Florida in the winter are the best. They’re at their peak for freshness, flavor, and juiciness. I started eating a couple a day, but it takes a while to make a dent in 48 oranges. Before long, a few more were starting to go bad. Time to go the fresh squeezed orange juice route.

So I bought a juicer - and that finally solved the orange surplus. As that long ago orange juice commercial said, "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." We've enjoyed our liquid sunshine!