gardenia

i love gardens and flowers, although i am not a gardener---but they beckon to me like a dream lost in mid way--

i especially am fond of the lovely gardenia, and enjoy the fact that it is in the coffee family, tree so to speak--

of course it's amorous fragrance smells nothing like coffee, albeit the intoxication is the same for me-

when we moved to the house we live in now, over 25 yrs ago, we planted a gardenia bush, in our back yard---it never did much of anything, probably because they need lots of humidity and light----

some years later, frank made me a small garden in my front yard, with a beautiful fountain, that is no longer working----there he also planted a gardenia bush--it's location, has proved to be much better----with last year's bush, having the most blooms it has ever adorned---

it is something about the first scents of spring, that always bring me back to the gardenia and i will certainly be drawn to any lotion or perfume, that has just a hint of it's luxury----

in closing my "g" word post, i would love to share one of my favorite songs, at least in my top 20----and btw, if you don't know the movie, this song is from, you might want to look it up---sounds intriguing

familiarity

you know the saying "familiarity breeds contempt"---well this thought has been coming back to me the last couple of days--

you remember in the bible how it said "a prophet is of no honor in his own country"-----and how Jesus was not respected in his own circles----

of course we can say that the people who might be closest to us or that know us more intimately, would have reasons to think differently about us-----well, how did that relate to Jesus---as most anyone would suppose, to know Him was to only see more goodness--

and i am sure that part of the theory has to do with the fact that we would not accept contempt from hardly anyone that was not important in our lives----we for the most part would not care nor be affected-

but in cases, say a movie star or celebrity, this theory would include many nameless faces, as their whole life depends on people, that know little of the real them---accepting them and adoring them

maybe some of the theory could be the fact that as we let someone close enough to see the real us---we hate the reflection of that knowledge in our lives at times

whatever the true meaning of the basic theory, it holds true for most of us, as Jesus told us to be not a "respecter of persons"---we are anything but that----

Easter egg hunt

i have already shared much of my Easter traditions already, but seeing as this is "e" day, i thought you might like to hear a little about our actual Easter egg hunts-

first, you will take note, i said hunts----

the kids hunt first--followed by the kids hiding them for the "big kids"--then everyone hides them for frank---also known as dad or pop pop----

this year we had another kid, defect from the kids group to the "big kids" group----he is my youngest grandson, he will be 11 in june----so he felt he was way too old for the kids group----i wasn't about to disagree!

each year, they become more creative with their hiding skills-----trees, gas tanks--which is no longer allowed---light fixtures---neighbors yards--

i can't tell you how many eggs i have found days and weeks after the egg hunts----

this year's egg hunt being indoors, made for some interesting places as well-----what i can't believe is the fact that so far, i haven't discovered anything broken---although two of the kids crashed into my grandmother's china cabinet----i still haven't investigated too well into that--

this year unlike other years, we had prizes for the different groups---

problem was, it was a big egg, that if you found it, you were the winner

so the egg hunt winner, was not declared by the number of eggs----this was very upsetting to a couple of kids in the "big kids" group---my son colin---who almost always wins and my daughter robyn---

colin had eagerly declared his retrieval of the winning egg and thus stopped hunting-----when robyn made the declaration that she had many more eggs than colin and was still not the winner----well it was a big deal---we finally calmed her down when we told her, that her nephew would have beaten her anyway--

my brother, was part of frank's egg hunt this year----colin tried to give him a couple of eggs to start with, since he was kinda new to this----frank would have none of this and quickly took away bland's starter eggs---frank won-------

i still wish i had done what i was thinking for frank's hunt----but if i don't let him read this, i can do it next year---have him hunt-- non-existent eggs-

don't

today i would like to share some don'ts i have learned along life's journey---their order does not reflect on their importance:


1. don't always wait until asked
2. don't drink pickle juice
3. don't ask children, if this dress makes me look fat
4. don't go in a dressing room with a big straw hat with lovely flowers, until you are sure it is not a wall decoration
5. don't worry about keeping your enemies close--some of your friends will take care of this
6. don't worry too much about much of anything--most of it never happens and the bad stuff that does, is much worse than anything you had ever worried about anyway
7. don't use pyrex
8. don't make deviled eggs--especially when you are tired
9. don't threaten to walk out as, let's say a director of a play--unless you are closest to the door
10. don't take yourself too seriously, no one else does

cranberry salad

after reading my today's post on letter c, you may think i do have a theme---i assure you i did not plan it this way--as a matter of fact, i kinda feel like i am cheating today---but oh well--you guys know how i love to talk about menus-

this Easter, i hosted as usual the dinner and egg hunts----for those of you who read regularly, you know, i am a little chooky about my menu planning---this time it was no different, maybe no worse though

but one dish, i pretty much didn't waver on, was the "cranberry salad"---and let me tell you, it was the hit of the day, second only to my "dil's" green bean casserole---with my banana dream cake, coming in a close third---

the salad consisted of bagged italian blend greens, mandarin oranges, almonds and of course the dried cranberries----i dressed it with strawberry vinaigrette----i will certainly add this to my repertoire

my main item was country ham biscuits---along with scalloped potatoes----i added those fried onion rings to the potatoes this time and i really liked them this way--not sure they were well received though

there was my candied sweet potatoes, cabbage---and a kinda strange corn dish, that i made up---sounded way better in my head----fried corn with pineapple and green pepper----not terrible--just not much flavor, even after loads of butter and seasonings-

as i don't want to make these a-z blogs too long, i will let ya go---

oh did i tell you, it was pouring raining--hence the hunt was inside

biscuits

for years of my life, almost every other weekend, my family would go to the country, to where my father's mother, lived-"queenie"--

these pleasant visits for me, included a massive lunch meal, and sometimes if we stayed just a little longer, dinner---these dinners, were where i first learned to make biscuits--

now at my house, for some reason-probably the mess--my mother didn't let me do much cooking or helping-so when i was given this rare opportunity to cook, i was in heaven-

my sister martha and i would adorn our red checked very own aprons and precede to roll the wondrous dough---it would go right on this little cold enamel kitchen table-

there would be lots of flour and ice tea glasses, that were used to cut the biscuits shapes just right-

those biscuits tasted like no others and especially with a huge spoon of my grandmother's homemade pear preserves-

i have made those biscuits many times since those days, and when i do, if i look with my heart, i can see my grandmother smiling-

april love, accuracy and articokes

as the new a-z challenge begins, i have found the first letter to be more of a challenge than last years----if you are a follower of my blog, you may have noticed, i am all over the place--

so as i understand many of you have your month already written and some of you even have your theme---i simply must applaud each of you diciplined writers and thank you for the opportunity to join in on the fun--

and so it begins---

april love-accuracy and articokes---that's what kept coming back to me last night-

april love, well it is april today --but i fear, my concept of the dilema i was expereincing in my head last night, will be lost in translation---

it went something like---why is april so special and what if we treated our children the way we did our years months---you know, preferring one over the other---something i have written about before, but not with the children analogy----i told you i was going to have trouble with this one

accuracy----may be highly over-rated or extremely relative ---is one man's accuracy one man's question----okay, so all this has been said before----but it made perfect sense last night in my sleepy brain--

and now to those lovely always beckoning articokes----i cannot tell you how much they appealed to me as a child---i would see them on a tv show or in an advertisement and relish the thought of those meaty petals, dripping in melted warm butter--entering into my waiting mouth and how elegant i would be, as i partook of them--

and to my dismay, i had to realize, i have never had an artichoke this way ---maybe some april loves and most assuredly little accuracy-