This is a test.  Sort of.  I just want to see if this will work. Also I will post my itinerary for the trip in case anyone is interested.

I wanted to chronicle the trip without boring everyone, so if  you want to know you can look but you won't be forced to look at boring pictures every day.

I'm still trying to figure out how to actually get pictures from my camera/phone etc. onto here, here being my tablet, but maybe it will come to me.

So here is my itinerary

Sunday, July13,  Fly to Philadelphia, then fly to London arrive Monday morning 10am, British time which is 6 hours ahead of Missouri time.
Monday, July 14 London on our own.  We hope to see Kensington Castle, Hyde Park and the Victoria and Albert museum
Tuesday, July 15, Take a tour on a coach to Stonehenge, Bath and Stratford upon Avon (home of Shakespeare)
Wednesday, July 16, London still.  We hope to take a river cruise up to the Tower of London and tour that.
Thursday, July 17, Still in London.  We hope to visit Buckingham palace (though no one is home and no changing of the guard. :(  But also we will see the Horse Guards (Where there is changing of the guard.) and some other things around the palace.
Friday, July 18, we get on a plane at the crack of dawn (literally) and head to Glasgow where we start a coach tour and meet up with our other friends who are skipping the London part.
Saturday, July 19 (Happy 50th Birthday to me and Mary Kay!!!)  We visit Loch Lomond then head to Inverness.  On the way we have a short cruise on Loch Ness.  (Nessie please show your slimy self!)
Sunday, July 20, We go to Edinburgh (pronounced Eh-din-burrow for some silly reason) and see the crown jewels and do the town tour.
Monday, July 21, Edinburgh again.  Tonight we have a free evening to paint the town red. Sleep.
Tuesday, July 22, Leaving Edinburgh and heading to Belfast to see the Titanic Museum then Dublin where we also are not served dinner have a free evening.
Wednesday, July 23, Walking tour of Dublin, see the Book of Kells at Trinity college and go to the Guiness factory (have you ever tasted Guiness?  Ewww.)  In the evening we go for a river dinner cruise on an old refurbished (hopefully) Guiness barge. (?)
Thursday, July 24  Leave Dublin and head to Killarney.  Stop at the Rock of Cashal on the way.  Evening in Killarney.
Friday, July 25,  Day in Killarney.
Saturday, July 26  Leave Killarney head to Bunratty.  Evening is a medievil feast at a castle!  Sounds fun.
Sunday, July 27  Head to Shannon airport and fly to Philly again.  Then layover for 4 hours then fly home to arrive in St. Louis around 8:30.  Oh heavens.  That makes me tired.

We shall be circled over at length
by a remoter sky,
and flung into a starrier space
more deep, more high.

Some day the little mind of man
will crack and spin
to let the chattering years fly out,
forever in.

The sea will be more brief to us
than jewel of rain;
and what now stuns us with its might,
beauty or pain,

will be as faint as cheep of mouse
or swing of flower
under the gusty wing of heaven;
and what seems power

will drop away and pale to dust
held in the palm;
and what seems passion now will sink
to leveled calm.

Therefore be quiet with your breath,
all little men,
and hold some wonder, in the Now
for the great Then.

Jane Tyson Clement.

ash street upholstery

Hey see my frien Barb's website.

It's www.ashstreetupholstery.com


It's located in Springfield, IL

Semi-bountiful harvest

I want a farm (said in whiney voice). Today, I really want a farm. I have been looking at property on the internet. (start whiney voice again) I don't want to live in the suburbs. I don't like traffic. I hate Mother's Club (good thing my readership is non-existent). I don't want my children to grow up being materialistic, mall-walking, clothes horse, cell phone toting, ......CONSUMERS! Yesterday at the bus stop one of the mom's had on high heels. And she wasn't on her way to work. She always wears better clothes to the bus stop than I own. I was wearing stretched out shorts, a t-shirt with a black spot over the left boob from holding a dutch oven at camp and had really hairy legs. I don't fit in here. I don't want to fit in here. It's the ultimate paradox...am I rebelling against the suburban machine or just lazy. Hmmmmmm. While I ponder that, I will tell you about my semi-bountiful harvest.

Pretend, dear readers, er reader, that this is a homesteading blog. I am blogging about my marvelous journeys into sustainability and self-suffieciency.

Yesterday, we decided to harvest the potatoes. First let me tell you how we got to be potato farmers. It all started when we had a potato that was, shall I say, lacking a certain youth. It was sproutin' out in the pantry. So beings that it was spring and plantin' time, we cut it up and chucked it in the ground. (Evidently, I believe homesteaders talk with an accent.) We unfortunately didn't read up on plantin' taters so didn't know about hilling them and using seed taters and all. After researching and finding out how it was supposed to be done, we decided what the heck, it would be an experiement. So this is what we got.


The tomato is to show you size. Well, good thing we weren't planning on feeding the youngn's with these. However we did cook them (boiled) and served them up with some delicious butter and salt and pepper. That along with Thomas's famous chicken legs, a homegrown mater', green beans and fresh baked blueberry cake. Here's what it looked like. Note: Please don't notice that the chicken leg already has a bite out of it.

Here is a picture of the fresh baked blueberry cake. Actually it is a quick bread.

And in true homestead blog fashion here is the recipe: It came from allrecipes.com. Originally it was doubled and made two loaf pans, but I didn't have enough flour so I halved it. This is the halved recipe:

Blueberry Quick Bread

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
6 T cold butter
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
2 eggs
1 cup cold milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts. In a small bowl, beat eggs, milk and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour into 9-in. X 5 in. X 3 in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 65-75 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Comments:

I didn't have enough flour, so I replaced about 1/4 cup with wheat flour. I liked it. I didn't have any walnuts, so I used chopped almonds. Again, I liked it. I mixed the (fresh) blueberries in with the dry ingredients because I read on the internet that it would keep them all from sinking, and it did. I covered the top with powdered sugar after it was done because it sounded good. It was really good while it was still warm. And it was really good heated up in the microwave. And I bed it would be really good warm and with a little butter. Away temptation!!!

Today I will be canning all the rest of the tomatoes, making spaghetti and tomato sauce and putting up some blackberry jelly if the light doesn't run out. I will be attaching some flowers to the front of the dress Faith made and then we're going to finish appliqueing the quilt we are making for Nana.

ROGL!!! NOT!!! What I really am doing today is reading my e-mail, going to have lunch with Cuban and packing my kid up to go back to college. The part about the dress Faith made is true though. More about that later.

hugs to all.

Tommy Tomcat

Tommy Tomcat

1996-2009

RIP

I am making a new resolution. Write on my blog every day.

I have been singing the blues lately.
And it ain't a pretty sound. I can't seem to get comfortable in my own body. Personally, I tend to blame it on my friends. Or my old friends, I should say. You know them-Estrogen and Progesterone. They used to hang around a lot but lately, they've left me high and dry. No pun intended. Coming to terms with the new me hasn't been easy. The new grayer hair, the bigger butt, the longer um, boobs, and the urges to hurt people. Oh, and the knowledge that this is only the beginning.

Well, I could set the glass on the bar, change the name of my blog to Short, Bitter, Drunk and fill that glass up with pity. Get a divorce, hang out in bars, join a biker gang, and embarrass my loved ones more than I already do. Or...I could try to find a way to get through this with grace. That sounds better. And I do still have some of my old friends. Hopefully, I won't alienate them all before this is over.

Here is something I am doing to try to find me.

This is a mandala. The word "mandala" is a sanskrit word loosely meaning "circle". The shape is supposed to be a model for the organizational structure of life. A reflection on our relation to the infinite. If you look around in nature you will see this shape often and it represents unity or wholeness or the circle of life, whatever you want to call it. Drawing a mandala is supposed to bring us into touch with ourselves and how we relate to nature, the divine and the universe. Cool, huh?

Some of this information came from this website. I have made a couple of mandala's including this one. I really enjoy focusing on this kind of thing and thinking at the same time. My teacher is a friend of mine who is a nun. She took a class on this type of drawing. The woman who taught the class is named Judith Cornell. You can look at her website here. It is all about light and shading. Please go to her website as I am really not very good at it. The pencils are very special and are available locally at Artmart. They are called Prismacolor.

You can download mandala coloring pages from the internet here.

Have fun and good luck finding balance in your life.

Amanda's Baking Final

This post is LONG overdue. It's all the butt to the chair thing. Click on the photos to see them enlarged.
My wonderful daughter will soon be 20 years old. Who can believe it? Little Panda Bear 20 years old! On the day she was born, Nana said "This child will be the joy of our life." And she has been. She was the perfect baby. I mean it. Perfect! She rarely cried and was always content.

And now she has grown into a lovely young woman. She has an awesome spirit and a compassionate caring soul. She "feels" things and that guides her choices in life. She is concerned about animal abuses and the environment. She has spent many years volunteering for causes she believes in including Girl Scouts. She works as a unit secretary in the intensive care unit of the same hospital I work for.




Now she is studying to be a pastry chef. She is attending the very prestigious culinary school at Forest Park which is a community college but is very prestigious nonetheless. She studies under Chef Casey Shiller in baking and pastry arts. This is like a dream come true for me. My own child a baker, a purveyor of all things pastry. My own personal pastry chef (I'm not sure she agrees with this title). Oh happy day.




Recently they had their baking final. Well it was a while ago but I am just now getting around to posting. I am sorry darling pastry chef daughter.







I believe it was an awesome experience for her. Their final was to design, bake, transport, display and serve a wedding cake. How cool. They held a small tea type gathering for the public for the display, serving portion of the event. To make it even more exciting, a local t.v. station picked up the story and turned it into a human interest segment. The segment had to do with how difficult it was to transport the cakes and they sent Tim Ezell, a funny local reporter to observe whether all the cakes made it safely. Transporting was part of their grade and if the cake fell, they failed! Horrors!!! But luckily all the cakes made it safe and sound. The cake tea service thingie was wonderful. All the cakes were delicious. Amanda's was, of course, the most beautiful of all and tasted the best.

They have now moved on to ice cream and ice cream cakes. They will be holding another event to showcase their latest yummy delights next Wednesday. I can't wait.