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Sunday, July 31, 2011

New Eggs

Hooray for Druscilla - the first pullet in my new flock to lay an egg!  Here's the pretty little green egg:



Nestled picturesquely amongst black grapes

and here's Druscilla:



She even laid it in a nest box.  Good girl!  Not two days later, I found a little brown egg under Fiona, who was also in a nest box.  How do they know??

Fiona is the white Delaware

I must admit to being puzzed as to why Lucy, the sex-link, hasn't kicked it into gear.  She was supposed to start about two weeks before the other breeds.  Hmm.

As for music and events, Ted, Judy and I saw a great jazz trio at a local restaurant the other night, the Pamela McGuire Trio.  They had only been together a few weeks, but sounded fantastic.  Pamela was flat-out amazing, and I look forward to seeing them again soon.

Not so amazing was the swing band Judy, Lillian and I went to see at a local park.  Now, it was wonderful being outside with friends,




I always like seeing the people in my neighborhood, like the Sesame Street song,


and it cracks me up when people put "service dog" vests on their pets to get them into a place where they may otherwise be forbidden,

A service Yorkie?  Really?

but the band wasn't that hot, so no picture for them.  Thanks to both my buddies for letting me eat their food and drink their wine as I didn't think to bring any - next time, I promise!

Finally, Ted loved the trout I made last night so much he said TWICE I should include it in my blog, so here it is:  Carmelize a pile of onions.  Dredge your cleaned trout in  egg whites (you may skin them first but that's a pain when they're raw).  Stuff them with seasoned panko crumbs and cleaned morel mushrooms, and fry/poach them in a frying pan in a little bit of olive oil and beef stock, adding more stock as it evaporates.  I also dumped more seasoned panko on top as they cooked, which in retrospect was kind of dumb since I skinned them before serving.


Bone and skin the trout and serve on a bed of the carmelized onions.  Delish!  Thanks to Ken and his guests for bringing me their fresh trout - love my neighbors!





Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Small Town Fourth of July, and Other Catch-Up

Our first year here, I wasn't inspired to go to our little town's Fourth of July parade, but this year I was going, dammit (despite the fact that Ted, Mark and Virginia took a pass).

Here's the very first thing to go by:

I mean, really, what the hell?

There's a miniature donkey farm across the street from the place we board the dogs, and next to that is a large field with these beautiful black clydesdales.  I had never managed to snap a pic of them before, but there they were in the parade:

It seems anyone could march in the parade - I mean, the local cell companies were marching with a banner, and our vet clinic made a nice appearance:

I thought at first this was Herself, but it was not.
 There were painted ponies,

 politicians,

 and a bunch of old cars.

It was a real blast, and when I got tired of standing up after two hours, it was still going!  I think next year, Andi, Stevie and I should make a banner and march.  How many chances does one get to be in a parade, especially if one is not in a marching band??

The next day, as I was taking Nigel to the vet, this lady was just off the front lawn.  Another slice of life in Oregon.


In a few weeks we have been to the Hullaballoo Festival in Bend,

Our neighbor Kathy bellydancing

Marc Cohn ♥


and a Bite of Bend, with still more good eats.





Ted's classical guitar teacher is on the right.

We camped and fished at Diamond Lake,



also known as Mosquito Lake.


Mt. Thielsen

Our toothless guide with the fish Gene and I caught


And to bring us up to date, here's what I saw across the street from the imaging center, where I had just endured that always painful examination to detect breast cancer.


Canada goose with adolescent goslings

It kind of cheered me up, you know?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Hostess with the Mostess

Yes, that's me.  I'm going to skip right over a bevy of activity to jump right to what an incredible hostess I am and how Jimmy and Laura can't wait to come back for  another visit.

First, a few days before they arrived, the air conditioning went out.  While we're nowhere near the temperatures of Las Vegas, it was still getting up to about 90 in the day, so that was a bummer, to say the least.  While we managed to get it fixed (new compressor and some other thingy), the morning that Jimmy and Laura arrived, we had a repairman out and he discovered that the computer board that opens some other baffle-thingies was out and we couldn't pump any more cool air into the living room area. You know, the one with all the west-facing windows.   Now that we have that background.....

Jimmy and Laura arrive on a late Thursday afternoon.  The house is clean (albeit a tad warm), and I've been marinating some lovely carne asada from the Smokehouse for two days.   I grill it, get all the fixings going and the four of us sit down to eat.   About mid-way through dinner, my charming husband says, "You know, there's a restaurant in town that makes a GREAT carne asada."

Silence.  Then lots of laughs, because apparently mine wasn't that GREAT.  Sheeesh.

The next morning, I get up early to get the paper.  I take Nigel with me, which means I leave the garage door shut until we're both in the car, then I open the garage door and pull out.

And back right into Laura's Cadillac.



My car, post-collision

Laura's car, post-collision

That is a sick and queasy feeling, folks.  I promptly confess and offer to pay for the damage to be repaired.  We're not getting off to a very good start, I fear.

The next morning, Ted gets up first, but promptly returns to the bedroom to tell me the plumber is here to fix a leak we've had for weeks, and has turned off all the water to the house.  While we have guests.

This is our friend and plumber, Ed, standing in hole and fixing a pipe.

 Since I'm betting our guests might like some water to wash with, I get up and head out to pick up some bottles of water for each bathroom and the kitchen.  Who knows when the water will be back on?  Well, fortunately it was back on before Laura got up but I appreciated the bottled water anyway.

Next, we had tickets for Alison Krause and Union Station in Bend at the Schwab Amphitheater.  Poor Laura didn't want to sit outside in the breeze, since from the moment of  her arrival in Oregon she had been sneezing hard enough to crack a rib, so Ted, Jimmy and I went.


While Ted went to get some beer, Jimmy and I agreed that our pet peeve about concerts is when they start late, like an hour or more.  Since there was no advertised opening act for this show, we were looking forward to seeing Ms. Krause right at 6:30.  Alas, it was not to be.  Some trio appeared on stage, performed a few songs, then left.  Our main event didn't start until, you guessed it, 7:30.


They were quite good, however, and I enjoyed it very much.  Even though it got a little cold when the sun went down, and Ted once again had to be labeled as over 21.



Despite all this craziness, Jimmy and Laura swear they had a good time.  I know we enjoyed their company and, who knows?  Maybe all systems will be operational by the time they visit us again!



Friday, July 1, 2011

Stevie Keeps Me On Track

As promised, I will complete my blogging on our family vacation in this post, with a focus on Stevie.

Every day we would discuss what we were going to do the following day.  Since my memory is now like swiss cheese, to say nothing of the fact we were busy, busy, busy every day, I would ask Stevie to remind me of the things she and I were going to do together.  For example, we needed to transplant some squash and other seedings, so I asked Stevie to remind me.  The next morning, this note was on the floor outside my bedroom door:


We spent a big part of that day transplanting, as a Grandma-and-Stevie project.

Moving the tomatoes out of the greenhouse

This girl can dress for gardening, let me tell you.


Planting crookneck squash, which I fear her daddy may have later sprayed with Round-up :(

Also planting blue pumpkins
Later that day, I looked at the floor and mused that it needed a good mopping.  Here's my note the next morning:

Never fear - no pics of us mopping
Finally, I asked Stevie to help me remember that we needed to make goat cheese out of the wonderful goat milk from Tara's Bantam Lane Goat Farm.  The next morning:


At some point in the trip, Bill bought Stevie a little bow with two arrows, and he and Ted took Stevie out to our "range" to practice.  She was naturally a very quick study and managed to hit the target sooner than I can remember doing it with a compound bow my first time shooting.  Check it out:


Look how well she anchors her release fingers against her cheek.

Love this face - I think she was getting a lot of unsolicited advice at the time!

Here's the first hit!

And here's the first stick!
Since the stick was a little low and right, Papa of course had to make sure the bow was shooting straight...

...because it's inconceivable - INCONCEIVABLE - that Stevie could have missed the center!
Throughout the Fabulous Embry 2011 Summer Tour, I could look at Stevie and see glimpses of the young lady she would become.





We still had fun playing,

Stevie discovered the concertina my parents bought me when I was in 6th grade.

A home-made quill.


My hair-do by Stevie.
but sometimes she would just surprise me and I felt I was looking into the future.




Please don't grow up too fast, sweetheart.   As a lullaby my mom used to sing said, childhood is but a day.
Grandma loves you.  ♥