Happy July 4th

enjoying friends and family

Our Corner of Rose Hill,   Have I mentioned we live in the woods, for now.  I get mice in my car.  I first noticed a roll of paper towels on the back seat of my car had become a pile of soft little shredded pieces of paper towel.  Some of these shreds had even been moved to a corner in the trunk of the car. I went right down to my local Ace hardware and got traps which I loaded with peanut butter and a dusting of onion powder, a tried and true recipe at this house.  Now I have lost count of the mice I have caught in those traps, maybe 10 by now, it seems like I get another one every three or four days.   I took my car to the shop and the mechanic said they don’t see any damage to wiring or anything and no obvious way that they are getting in so for now, I just keep resetting the traps.  I bet it gets ever worse when the developer finally moves in with his equipment.  We saw a story on television about rat infestations in cars and the extremely costly damage they can do.  One of the suggestions was a deterrent for mice and rats; to tie laundry dryer sheets to parts of the engine because the rodents don’t like the smell.  So now we are trying this and guess what after two full weeks I have had no new mice in the traps in the car.

Bounce dryer sheets = mouse deterrent 

Events and Happenings,    Since my last post Bill and I went to the Paramount Theater for a performance of Motown the Musical. It was the story of Berry Gordy the creator of Motown.  The music took me right back to my friend Deborah Kay’s bedroom, she had a record player and we would sing and dance to so many of those songs:  Baby, I need your lovin’,  My Girl, My Guy,  Please, Mr. Postman, Stop in the Name of Love and oh so many more.  

Another day Bill needed a break from his projects and decided we should have a play day.  We drove to a ‘park and ride’ and took a bus across the floating bridge to the University district from there we took the light rail south into the city.  We got off on Capitol Hill and walked around a while we walked through a park and up and down a few streets then got back on and went south again.   The light rail goes all the way to the airport now, we didn’t go that far.  We got off in Columbia City.  In the past Columbia City has been a rather neglected part of the area but with the light rail came other improvements including lots of home renovations and new construction, new businesses and restaurants.   We had lunch at Geraldine’s.  http://geraldinescounter.com/   My on My I had a delicious burger, cooked perfectly on a fresh potato roll.  Bill had the chicken pot pie and he said it was delicious but it was unexpected, there was no creamy sauce at all but a thickened chicken broth with an interesting herb flavor.   I couldn’t pick it out as I hadn’t ‘cleared my palate from my hamburger.  He did enjoy it.  I want to go back for breakfast sometime, the biscuits and gravy sounded amazing. 

One more unusual outing we had since my last post was on a Saturday night.  I had found a post about a poetry reading.  The place was an art gallery and frame shop in Bothell, only about 20 minutes away. I dream of being able to read my poetry out loud one day, we went as listeners.  I think about 10 people read in the first round.   They were asked to keep the readings to 5 minutes or less.   In the second round there were fewer readers but they had a few more minutes each.   Several people were there as a homework assignment to a college class they were taking.  I loved it.  I love ‘the spoken word’.  The poetry came in different forms and much different emotions and values.  There was a lot of pain expressed but also joy, survival, and exploration.  I know I will go again. 

In the Kitchen,    It is summer time and the Salads are Easy……. Actually I have so much mint in my garden so I did a little searching and came up with this recipe.

Cauliflower Tabouli

• 1/2 large head of cauliflower chopped up into florets (discard the tough core)
• 1 cup finely diced tomatoes (about 8 large tomatoes with flesh scooped out)
• 1 cup finely diced sweet onion (I added 1/3 cup diced chives from my garden, also)
• 1 cup finely diced red pepper
• 1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped (white and green parts)
• 1 English cucumber, peeled and finely diced (after seeds scooped out)
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
• 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint, plus more to taste
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
• cracked pepper to taste (I used lemon pepper) 

1. Place the raw cauliflower florets into your food processor fitted with the S blade and pulse a few times until the consistency of couscous.  Or just buy a bag of Cauliflower rice at Trader Joe's.
2. Transfer this mixture to a large mixing bowl and combine well with the other ingredients. Tweak flavors to taste - adding pepper, salt, lemon juice, olive oil or mint.

For Knitters, mostly;   I have been knitting hats lately.  They are easy and fun.  I can learn a new technique, twined knitting  and have had a bit of fun with it and then have a new hat for the gift box afterwards. Twined knitting is a Scandinavian technique and it is double thick so that the hat when it is finished is very warm.

 

On a Happy Note:   I got this sweet in a personal email after my blog went out last time and I really think we all could benefit from a little more of this attitude, even/especially me.

As I have matured/aged I have discovered something important about life. It you want to enjoy life find something that you love to do, see, or even talk about and your pleasure in life increases. I may never knit anything but I truly love to talk to someone about their passion for knitting or whatever the truly love. It can be painting, or old barns with Tabitha, or it can be horses and antiques with Tiffany, It can be guns with my friend, John E or even knitting with my friend CeLinda.  I can get just as excited as they are. I tend to feed off their pleasure and emotions about their passion. If you can see the beauty in anything you will find it everywhere you look.       love, J

Tell me if you like this next thought and then I will tell you who said it:  Dignity does not come from avenging insults, especially from violence that can never be justified.  It comes from taking responsibility and advancing our common humanity.

How Many weeks until football season.  (hint - just over 9 weeks)

I love sharing my life with you and hearing back from you after you read my post.  Thank you for being part of my world.