Dorie’s Different Reality

Vera has been itching quite a bit; also shedding her fine fur all over the house. In an effort to help, the fools that keep house for her have been bathing her with oatmeal shampoo twice a week. You can tell she’s thrilled.

Ever notice they come up with “new” vegetables all the time? A couple of years ago, I started seeing orange-yellow cauliflower. It tastes the same, it just looks like somebody already put the cheese sauce on it! The agronomists of the world need to consider the zucchini, known in some places as a courgette, or plain ol’ summer squash. Cross the thing with a lentil and feed the world! If you stand quietly in one place you can watch the things grow! Any veggie that grows five or six inches in a day, they need to find a way to put protein into the veggie! I’ve already had to sacrifice one to the compost fairies- the thing was at least 18 inches long. Like I told you, my frugal father would try to palm those monsters off on the neighbors, saying they were delicious stuffed. Nah, the little guys taste better!

So, to deal with the population explosion, I’ve got the dehydrator going. Bought it two seasons ago, and then with the bad drought last year didn’t have enough veggies to dehydrate! Here’s a pic of the mean machine:

If it were a car, it would be like the BMW of dehydrators. It’s great. I sliced up a bunch of the squash and it’s dessicating away. The plan is to put the goodies in jars and use it up later. I also sliced up a one pound bag of carrots and wow- they’re really tiny once the water is gone! It occurs to me that since we’re at the height of cherry & blueberry season, I should get some of those and dry ‘em! Dried fruit, apart from raisins, is fairly expensive, but always nice for baking.

Went to the “undoctor” today. I’ll live. In fact, my blood pressure is down to normal range. So the “antihypertensive” little orange pill is working. On the other hand, I have “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” I think I was born with it. My whole life I’ve never stopped worrying. Even when I’m sitting still, inside me the winds still blow. Sometimes worse than other times. Panic is not good. As an added bonus, I get depression with it. So great- stay up all night worrying! I’ve only had a few anxiety free moments in my whole life.
I had a little break from it for a few days several years ago. Back when everybody was trying Redux and Phen-fen to lose weight, the doctor let me give phenteramine a try. The amphetamine part of the phen-fen- so for most people, it’s a mood elevator, perhaps an appetite suppressant. My Lord it was amazing! You know how quiet your house gets when the power cuts out- all the hums and ticks you don’t normally notice until they’re not there? That’s what it felt like inside my head. Peace, freedom- drug induced to be sure, but wow. One of my coworkers asked me if I’d lost any weight taking the pills and I answered quite honestly, “No…but even better, I don’t care!” And I totally understood why people take drugs. Like the glow of two good stiff drinks, but lasts longer.
So anyhow, as fun as it was, I never refilled the prescription. I took an antidepressant that took some of the big dips out of the road for several years, but a couple of years ago, due to lack of insurance and the stuff I was taking being expensive, I stopped taking it. I have to admit, I have a tired, worried, serotonin deprived brain. So Mr. R. gave me an Rx for one of the older SSRI’s to try. It’s $10 a month stuff, so if it helps, that would be fabulous!

Dreaming of a Gothic Garden: I’d love to expand my flower bed out back, get a couple of nice benches. And maybe one of those copper fire pits to sit outside at night, enjoying the fire and listening to the crickets! I’ve seen pictures of gardens with lots of white flowers that seem to glow in the moonlight. Eventually, what I’d like to do is have sort of a black and white area in the garden. “Black” flowers aren’t really black- more dark red, purple, etc. But I like the light/dark contrast idea! I have “Queen of the Night” tulips and they’re pretty black-deep purple. I bought a ground cover called “black scallop” It reminds me of that lettuce that has brown on the leaves. It’s interesting. Took a picture of one of the daylilies in bloom now. I planted them a couple of years ago, and they really took off this year. This one is called “Strutter’s Ball”; I guess that’s the Politically Correct flower name based on the old song, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” I think it’s such a cool flower- dark maroon, and it’s really a lime green in the middle. Memo for next year- put a couple of white lilies next to them!

The echinacea (echinaceas?) have started blooming. I think they look like happy hula girls!

I went to JoAnn Fabrics the other day, and they were stocking the Fall things! I just mention it in case you need a maple leaf wreath right now. It’s just the way the retail world works- three months ahead. You can get excellent deals on party ware, leis for your next luau, etc. right NOW, but if you wait a month, you’ll have a hard time finding it. And if you decide you need a new bathing suit, better check the catalogs because about all that’s left in the store will be the size 6’s.
We’re having some typical July weather today. Too bad it’s June. On the television news, they always say the three H’s - hazy, hot and humid! I hope we get a thunderstorm. We haven’t had any rain since the big deluge two weeks ago. I’ve been watering the garden from the hose to keep things going. But thirty seconds on a plant with the hose isn’t the same as an hour long summer shower.
Hey, I picked a pickle! Well, really a cucumber, but it was the kind with bumps and I call those pickles. These little offerings from the garden are just right for us. I’ll chop up the cucumber and add some vinegar/oil and it’ll be great. If I had 40 cucumbers get ripe all at once, it would be pickle making time. We only planted four plants this year since we aren’t supposed to be eating a lot of pickles- can’t have the salt. But if you ever yearn for a good homemade pickle, just get yourself a “Ball Blue Book” and follow their recipe for Bread & Butter pickles. It’s the best.

Cuteness! Neil Sedaka singing with some go-go girls I’m going to call “The Interchangeable Blondes”. I’m going to guess this is about 1962. TV was better back then- check out the costumes! Love the little prom dress.

Well, let me give a big Yahoo! to the Supreme Court for upholding the Constitution! Gun laws are stupid. The people who are going to break the law don’t worry about registering their guns, trust me. We don’t even own a gun, but know plenty of people who do. None of them are criminals. Swords are covered in the Second Amendment too, “keep and bear arms” etc. I’m hardly Ninja Dorie, but I do own some swords. Earlier this year, a ban on the sale of less expensive “reproduction” swords went into effect in the UK. But as one critic noted, better put a ban on the sale of bricks, cricket bats and meat cleavers too, because violent people will find a weapon to use.

Culture Clash! We are having a bit of this in central Maryland these days. This county and adjacent Frederick county have mandated agricultural preservation laws. So say you have a farm that’s been in the family for 75 or so years. If Mom and Dad have had enough and they’re ready to sell out and move to Myrtle Beach, the property has to be sold in keeping with the zoning ordinances for the area. Sometimes when a person owns a 40 acre farm, it must be sold as a 40 acre farm- even if a developer wants to buy the property for houses, 40 acres of building sites for “executive” homes would be worth a lot of money; more than a small family farm.

On the Frederick radio news, I heard of a confrontation the other day. There’s a farm that’s in an area where the zoning “flip flopped” As I understand it, some years back, the zoning was changed to “low density residential” and some houses were built along the road. Then the powers that be changed the zoning back to agricultural. Stopping the development and preserving the farm land. Sounds good but…

The owners have to make a living and pay their property taxes so they keep farming. Anyhow, this particular farm, the pasture is across the road from the buildings. So twice a day the cows are taken across the road to the pasture. The farmer pulls his tractor with a tow trailer across the road to block it and takes the ladies to the pasture. This is really dangerous anytime. A few years ago, somebody at a horse farm got killed in the road trying to get horses across and a driver just plowed into him!

“Rush Hour” around here anymore is anytime between 5 a.m. and 9, and from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, some people trying to get to work, got really mad about the road being blocked. One fellow got out of his car and unhooked the trailer to get it out of the lane. Then a woman attempted to drive on, resulting in a confrontation with the farmer. Nobody was hurt, but the police were called in. The report says that he’s had an offer from a builder to sell out since 2004- he needs that zoning change for the sale to go through.

Zoning laws always irk my inner Libertarian. I understand- nobody wants a pig farm next door (trust me on this- eewww!) So to provide for the general welfare and all, there are restrictions on land use. But while it’s desirable to have rolling farmland, instead of suburban sprawl, the farm owner is the one trying to make a living- it’s his land to sell and the zoning ordinance rips him off. This report says he’s going to get his hearing about the variance this week.

About time! We don’t need a range war out here!

Not quite the “first fruit” Because I snitched some squash last week and chopped it up in a salad. A small harvest yesterday. Took that nice big cabbage in and used about 2/3 of it for coleslaw. Our things aren’t quite organic, because we really have a war with the insects. There are so many farms around here that have been spraying the crops for years, so I think there are a lot of uberbugs. The pest of the moment is earwigs- they enjoy the rainy season so they’ve been out in abundance munching on things. A relatively low toxic product, like Safer’s Insecticidal Soap, chases them out. Did you know that tobacco is poison? <grin> If a baby chews up a pack of cigarettes, it’s very serious. Anyhow, one of the older bug killing methods is to infuse tobacco with water as a sort of tea. One of the organic gardening places sells tobacco seeds for gardeners who want to grow their own plants, dry the tobacco for making “natural” insecticide. Hmmm- might try it on flowers but I wouldn’t use it on food items.

The squash is a little slow growing, better than having a mountain of it I suppose. We had that one heatwave, but it’s been a cooler, wetter growing season than last year. I pick the little squash to throw in with things. Growing up, my dad would always be trying to palm off zucchinis, big as baseball bats, off on the neighbors. We are going to have a LOT of pumpkins this year. I’m going to try dehydrating it; makes sort of a pumpkin flour.

We got green tomatoes all over the place, but small yet. I bought five plants from the garden center (boring old red ones) and we have a DOZEN of the heirlooms from seed. I love those- it’s like “mystery fruit” because I won’t know which varieties until they set their fruit!

So I was reading a book, Land of Mango Sunsets by Dorothea Benton Frank. I’ve read three or four of her books now and they’ve all been excellent! Anyhow, one of the characters made a tomato pie for dinner. Hmmmm- there’s two kinds of ‘mater pie. There’s one that’s more a quiche with ripe tomatoes. Nice summer fare. Also, there’s a “mock apple” made with green tomatoes. I’ve never made one, but it sounds interesting. Green tomato slices with lots of cinnamon and sugar. I guess you have to remember that tomatoes are fruits. Rhubarb is a vegetable, but it’s inedible without sugar-Nature does some funny stuff at times!

Oh back to the book- she writes about life on places like Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina. She makes it sound like heaven. While being able to walk along the shore and watch the dolphins play sounds wonderful, I am skeptical. Marshy coves are full of insects and they like to eat me! Once we went to Cypress Gardens and with all the water features, the bugs found me! If you go there, wear your repellant. Mmmm, Citronella perfume? Could there be a market for it?

Nobody has ever done the Olympics better than ABC with Jim MacKay: I’m just saying. NBC has been doing the Summer Games for years now and I’m always disappointed. ABC used to take a sport not so well known, tell the viewer about it, and cover the events. These days, it seems like several events are just ignored, or they’ll mention when USA wins a medal, but not cover the event. I was just looking- there are ten events in fencing. I would love to watch it. People with swords….works for me!

Very Creepy! I was playing around with the Google Earth maps yesterday. Kept zeroing in on our neighborhood. The weather thing is amazing. The weather radar overlays the map, so I could say to Pyrate, “the front is now crossing Buffalo Road, so the storm should be here in a couple of minutes” That’s really high tech! BUT  Oh my goodness! You can see my car sitting in the driveway! I feel “spied upon” I’m not sure how this works. Are there satellites up in orbit just taking pictures of the whole world? If I find out it’s “real time” LIVE, I might go out in the driveway and do a nekkid dance or something. Spy on me and I’ll give a show!

Not quite, but that’s what Friday was on The Mickey Mouse Club show when I was a wee’un. Sometimes Bobby would tap dance. I can’t remember, was it Jimmy or Roy that did rope tricks? Often they had special guest kid performers; like a 13 yr old ventriloquist-stuff like that. I tell ya- it was a good time to be a kid!

Finished Object! It’s the “cabled baglet” from the book, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders

I have a beef with this book-it’s full of typos! This was frogged twice and I was about to give up. I couldn’t find an errata sheet at the publisher’s website. Then I checked on one of the knitting message boards and somebody mentioned they found the corrections at the designer’s own website. She said the errors were made after her pattern was submitted to the editor, somewhere along in the process. According to one person reviewing the book on Amazon, the publisher at one time had a link to a printable errata sheet- and it was 47 pages long! It’s not there anymore! I feel sorry for some unsuspecting person who gets this book at the used bookstore and wonders why the designs aren’t coming out! Printing a needlework book with typos is as bad as printing a computer program with typos- no way it’ll ever come out right!

So anyhow, now I have a cabled baglet. Looks like a sporran! Actually what I made it for was the exercise in learning the cable which is called a “Saxon Braid”. Didn’t use a lot of yarn at all-less than one 100 gm ball; that’s a plus. I think what I’ll do with it eventually is use it as a gift - a snazzy presentation for a couple of pairs of socks, or it would fit nicely over the bottom of a good sized vase, sort of a vase that comes with a nice wooly cozy deal.

For the first time in months, I don’t have anything on the needles. Pretty soon I guess. I have some good Regia sock yarn in the queue. Meanwhile, there’s the garden what always needs weeding. I have some nice fabric I’ve meant to turn into a tablecloth with a crocheted edge as well.

Craving! Time for me to order some nice proper black tea. Two years ago, I ordered in some Yorkshire Gold. Lasted a few months and it was lovely. Then last year I got three boxes of Lyon’s. Tasty tea from Ireland. I ended up giving Duchess one box, but that still left me with 2 boxes- 160 teabags and since I’m the tea drinker, lasted me quite a while. This time around I’m going to look for a Scottish brand to try; they are serious tea drinkers up there.
Reading: Started the very latest Hamish MacBeth story called Death of a Gentle Lady That may be what’s set off the tea craving.

Heehee! I remember this stuff! This was back when nobody had heard of the Ozone Layer!

for our little friends waiting at the Bridge…

Moonlight, Thomas Cole, 1833-34

Empress Bardula
On Summer’s First Night
Held a Grand Convocation
In Solstice Moonlight….

She called forth the Creatures
Most fortunate All
Well groomed and stately
They arrived at the Ball

Two tiny turtles
Were first to arrive
Then Perry the Budgie
Bearing wild oats and chives

Diplomatic Bardula
Invited kittens and cats,
Who danced the Fandango
and wore party hats!

Three guinea pigs
Squealed out their delight
When gold salad bowls
Were served at Midnight!

Later arrived
Three other fair birds
Conrad munched spaghetti!
Peaches tangoed with Herb!

The ducks quacked their Welcome!
For last but not least,
Finally the Doggies
Arrived for the Feast!

Tiny Victoria entered
And fair Becky followed,
They curtsied to Bardula
On this evening most Hallowed.

The little dog ladies,
Gave yips of delight,
When the two handsome Princes,
Came into their sight!

First Little Stormy
Pomeranian Knight
And finally Brave Hercules
Dignified and Polite!

The pets laughed and danced,
And the Party went on,
And much, much too soon
Came the faint glimpse of Dawn

Bardula thanked them all
And wished them good cheer,
She said, “I must go now,
I’ll see you next year”

She took a running start
And flew up with a Leap
to the End of the Rainbow
Her vigil to keep

Near Cassiopeia
Across the Galaxy Far
There’s a great Rainbow Bridge
And a little dog star

-DDR,Copyright 2008, all rights reserved

Sooooooooo, since BOTH parties know who their candidate will be. (so do the Libertarians, who’ve already met) Why don’t they forego the conventions this year and put the money to better use? Yeah, I know- big business for the host cities- hotel rooms, restaurants, etc. Think of the jet fuel it would save though!