I remember Syl's . . .

Because I like the look of the feathers.

Had reason to go back and reminisce about my first job. I was sixteen. It was the summer of 1969 and I drove to Taftville every morning to open Syl's Restaurant by myself. I got there for around 5:30, unlocked the back door and hoped there were no customers waiting at the front door because I had to get the monster coffee machine brewing and the grill fired up as well as get the eggs, bacon, sausages, pancake batter, bread ready for cooking and toasting. I opened the door at 6 but sometimes regular customers would be hanging out and I always felt guilty if I didn't open early. Generally the early birds were accustomed to start their day with coffee and a donut. They plunked down their 25 cents on the counter and I would be happy to keep the dime tip. I had to cook the bacon and eggs on the small grill that we had in the eating area, made up of a horseshoe counter and booths, so I didn't have to leave the cash register unattended while cooking and waiting for 7 o'clock when Ruby or Edna came on to do the real cooking in the back kitchen for the day. It got to be pretty wild sometimes but I never remember anyone hassling me about waiting too long for service. Man, I used to be fast and organized.

The reason I bring this up is Puppy's Pop and I were in Taftville yesterday morning and we stopped at Syl's. Of course it is no longer Syl's and has had many iterations since the original restaurant. I was so happy to see that it is now a real honest to goodness bakery and coffee shop. Two old men, yes older than I so they're officially old, who have baked their way around the Norwich area for years, have opened a real bakery. We only bought two single serve blueberry pies for our desert for supper yesterday evening but you can order breads and pastries of all descriptions, take a seat and they will deliver to your table. The place was rocking and the parking lot was almost full. What a great place to go for real home made goodness. We watched through a window as one of the old men was checking a yellowed recipe as he was making what looked like a crust of some kind, very rich looking and crumbly. Heaven on earth. Looked like the people eating and ordering were a very happy contented gang. I think I like old fashioned good food and people. Really nice to see my old haunting grounds still going strong.

Nothing exciting to report about selling this old house. I have to be careful not to let that put a damper on our lives so I just go about my daily tasks and hope for the best. We did have a chance to meet our old Vermont friends for lunch in Manchester, CT this week. They were down visiting relatives and gave us a call. We don't go up to the Hot Rod Show in Essex Junction any more so it was wonderful to talk with them. They look healthy, wealthy and wise . . . I mean that in all sincerity. They are a very together couple in all aspects of their lives. They hinted they would love to visit Louisiana.  Now that would be spectacular if we get there one of these months.

Quote:  Love one human being purely and warmly, and you will love all. __The heart in this heaven, like the sun in its course, see nothing, from the dewdrop to the ocean, but a mirror which it brightens, and warms, and fills.     _______Richter

Tried to snag a Gucci bag . . .

              Feeding the baby girl


 Sitting on the garage swing while P&D's Pop was practicing horseshoes when a neat gray car came up the drive. My merchant marine cousin, his wife and her sister from Sweden had come by for a visit. It was really pleasant to sit outside and chat. They all enjoyed my flowers and my cousin gave me heck for not having any dahlias but I explained that I'm not really a good gardener and had given the dahlias to my brothers who don't mind taking care of them! No one seems to believe that I am a derelict gardener! If something grows I say "Yay." If it doesn't grow I say "Domage." So that's it. No special treatment except - I do try to keep the gardenias healthy. They love to summer outside under the dogwood and have a tough winter in doors. In any case when our company started to leave I picked up a beautiful black leather purse that my cousin wife  had placed on the ground next to her chair. I asked if she would care to leave it with me because it really was a beauty. She declined the offer with,"It's a Gucci." I smiled and thought I would have liked it anyway! Gee I hate pocketbooks and since Angie died almost 7 years ago I have only bought one purse and that was when I had brought my younger sister shopping in Granby! Angie always kept me supplied by passing on her purses as she replaced  hers pretty systematically! Still miss her terribly.

Have a meeting with the realtor tomorrow. We're disappointed that he did not follow through on telling us what actually transpired when the two men came to look at the property even before it was on the market.  People have noticed that there is no advertising for the house except for the sign out front which does not indicate that it is a MLS listing. We've had a couple of nibbles ourselves and asked them to speak with the realtor because we've never bought or sold property in the conventional sense before. I'm even thinking of speaking with our realtor in Louisiana who has found at least two properties we would have really liked but since we have no idea if and when this old house will sell we should probably have her quit looking for now and wait until we have a buyer. It's already driving me batty to not be able to act on buying our southern home. There are options, of course but neither of us is at all brave with spending money we don't have. Oh well, we'll see if our realtor can explain why he hasn't told us what transpired with the two local powerhouse buyers!

Quote:  There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear.  -Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable.    ____ Bovee

So lax I am . . .

Thought I had killed the Mandevilla but voila, it has lived.

Can't believe I'm not keeping up with this poor blog. Not sure why. I really don't do anything special but it seems I'm too occupied to sit down, relax and put a few words on the iPad parchment.

We spent a quiet 4th of July at home. It was a gray day but we still cooked up some hot dogs and hamburgers that were very tasty. Perhaps they were so good because we don't indulge in them often. The best part was the strawberry shortcake I made for dessert. The berries were so sweet I ate too many as I sliced them. They hardly needed any sugar. I had bought some Bisquick, first time in many years, to make the galettes. Wow, Bisquick has improved over the years. The galettes were out of this world delicious - warm, sweet with just the right crispy top. I broke down and bought a can, yes a can of real whipped cream instead of Kool Whip! It was a storybook ending to a perfect 4th of July with the best love on God's green earth.

Bought a new camera and I can't seem to stop playing with it. It has so many settings but I'm not even afraid of it. We bought a very good camera about nine years ago and it befuddled me for all of those years. For some reason I want to play around with this Panasonic.  Perhaps it's because there are actual YouTube videos that explain the camera in terms that I can understand, at least I get a little of the instruction. The nice thing is I can repeat watching the videos until some of the instruction sinks in. I have also downloaded a free eBook about the camera which backs up the videos. I do have the CD instruction book but it's a painful exercise to even know where to look. In any case it will take me years to get all of the particular information I need to take perfect photos but in the meantime I'm having a great time missing the best shots of my feathered friends because I'm so slow at setting up. I have to leave the camera in the house when I go outside to relax on my garage swing or else I'm always looking for the next perfect shot. We have so many beautiful birds in the yard I can't keep up with them. I often sit on my swing and will see hummingbirds at the feeders near the house and in the dogwood; there will be bluebirds hunting in the garden and up on the hill; the rose-breasted Grosbeaks, the various woodpeckers, finches, doves, cardinals, towhees, blue jays, sparrows, titmice, catbirds, cowbirds, nuthatches, chickadees will be attacking the feeders near the porch and the robins, grackles, crows and starlings will be searching for bugs on the lawns as the hawks fly in for a tasty morsel from time to time. I will see the the turkey vultures and swallows skittering overhead while a stately heron will glide by. The birds take turns, except the hummingbirds, bathing in the burned out stump of the largest tamarack.  Along with all of the flying creatures we can watch the turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, foxes, neighborly dogs and cats when they also come out to play. All in all a pleasant way to enjoy this sweet existence on planet earth.

Quote:  No nation can be destroyed while it possesses a good home life.   __J. G. Holland      (Are we ever in trouble.)