The Never-ending Song

The Thanksgiving luncheon held on the Tuesday prior to the holiday and catered by the Station Restaurant in Bedford was just as I predicted--turkey roll slices, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and tiny rather soggy rolls.  Catered was a term used a bit loosely as Robert had to go and pick the order up and return unused/uneaten items after the meal was over.  It was all just okay, but I did really like the green beans.  A surprise, as I am not generally a fan of green beans.  These had tiny bits of onion and ham in them and that made them very tasty.  In fact I liked them so much that I tried to imitate them for the dinner Terry and I shared on actual Thanksgiving Day.   One resident brought corn and some good dinner rolls.  Quite a few brought desserts and there were some delicious puddings.  Fried apple pies-a marvellous Southern idea, were made by one of the male residents who has a reputation as a darn good cook. The tables ...

First of all- for you Ginger fans:  She is still here and very much enjoying her warm house these chilly nights.  I have attended several meetings the past two weeks and though many issues were brought up, no one has mentioned Ginger.  Something to be thankful for. Now -thinking about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I have to admit it does not mean much to me anymore.  Mother of four, I used to go all out  when they were young.  I made several kinds of pies  (my own crusts too!), yeast rolls-two types, homemade stuffing for the 24 pound bird.  (Got up around 3 am to stuff him and put in the oven), all the homegrown vegetables, stuffed celery, cranberry sauce (not from a can).  On most occasions one set of Grandparents attended, so the special china was used and table decorated.  We dressed for dinner, the children, scrubbed hands and faces in their church clothes, and me, tearing off my apron at the last minute as the turkey was pl...

History has tales of kings and other persons in high places who would not touch the food they were served until it was considered to be safe. I guess food poisoning was a popular way of ridding the country of a person of power.  So their fears were not unwarranted.   In order to assure the king (or duke or whomever) of the safety of their meal, a young, healthy male (usually) was assigned the position of taste tester.  His job was simply to stand beside the king's chair at mealtimes and to sample a bite of each and every dish placed before the king.  This job came with several nice perks:  a comfortable home, nice outfits (as he must be clad appropriately to be in the king's presence), and best of all, he got to eat some delicious gourmet meals  well- bites of them anyway.  In picture books I noticed these young chaps were generally small and slender, so perhaps they only needed a few morsels from each platter to be sated. At any rate, this position...

Just a note for those concerned.  I set up Ginger's little insulated house with the heating pad in the base on my porch under a chair.  I am not attempting to conceal it.  I told Kathryn that was my plan until she did whatever she felt she must do about Ginger.  It was 24 degrees overnight.  Such a sudden change for the animals when it was 90 only 2 weeks ago!  Ginger recognized the house (which has been stored in my SUV all summer) and went right in last evening.  This morning when I went out with Hannah Ginger came  crawling from her cozy bed. Kathryn told my neighbor's daughter that she doesn't plan to do anything more about Ginger now.  She said that Joseph is having cameras installed thoughout the facility and then things would be caught.  She doesn't need to "catch" me-on film or otherwise, since I sent her an e/m telling her my plans for Ginger for the winter,. I am sure there are many more important concerns that the cameras m...

I love the "soft-mouth" breeds.  All those dogs bred to retrieve and carry birds back to the hunter who shot them.  Labs, Setters, Pointers, and of course the Brittany.  These dogs seem to have inborn manners too, or perhaps I have been lucky and only met those who have. But I know my Aussie and my Border Collie were not of that ilk. They had to be taught to take a treat gently.  My Aussie frequently sent me home with fingers dripping blood after a session on the agility course.  You see I carried pieces of garlic roast beef as training treats rolled up in my fist.  Running just ahead of her I held my fist down where her nose registered what was in there.  Once in a while, especially when training weave poles, I was too slow and Heather's jaws were too close.  Of course she was bred to heel drive. Hannah, my Brittany, is such a gentle dog.   She almost hesitates to accept a treat and when she does take it, she does so slowly and with her ...

I just don't know.  Dog trainers with years of experience keep telling me that dogs do not think as we humans do.  That is a good thing in most cases.  When I think of some of the things my dogs have done in the past and when I hear tales of some behaviors dogs have recently performed I have to believe they really do think like humans. Maybe living closer to their people now than in past years when they dwelt in the doghouse, hearing so many words and watching more closely human actions, they are absorbing some human ideas. Every day I hear about a dog performing some amazing feat that he was definitely not  taught to do.  Actions that require thinking, often a more than one step procedure and even in a few cases, advance planning. We have all heard about dogs who associate their leash with going for a walk.  We even know dogs who will go get their leash and bring it to their person when they want to go for a walk.  My son's Boxer took it one step b...

Halloween is not what it used to be when I was a child-or even what it was when my children were trick or treaters.  But then what is?   I remember taking my children out around our neighborhood in costumes mostly home made.  We never worried that some candy might contain harmful things.  We knew about everyone who came to their door bearing a basket of treats.  A few times when I was a preteen and we were out in a group with no parents along, there was one lady who had hot cocoa waiting on her porch for us, and a man who had his grill going with hot dogs.  The costumes were a big part of the fun, even for teens.  Only the very young ones seem to dress up any more.   Now home owners as well as children are afraid on Halloween--not of ghosts or goblins but of other humans. But I had my own fun this Halloween.  It was not planned. We had been enduring heavy downpour all day and as the rain began to let up, strong winds came through....