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.)

And he is still a marvel . . .

I received a message from a good friend who has had awful luck trying to get her riding lawn mower working. A few people had tried to take it apart and put in new parts and still nothing would work. In desperation she asked if P&D's Pop could look at it. So . . . this morning we went to her home while she was at work and there was an incredible sight: riding mower in pieces; it literally looked like a basket case; actually was a basket case. In about two hours P&D's Pop got it working. I helped by trying the starter and stepping on the clutch as often as necessary but he's just so persistent in figuring out what's wrong with things and then fixing the mess. I'm sure our friend is grateful. She has a big yard and too many people who know little to nothing about engines. Now she's back in business. That's a big YAY!

We stopped for lunch at the Roadside and as we were leaving one on the owners gave us a super loaf of bread right out of the oven to take home with us. It smells so good in the kitchen. Now would be the time for someone to want to look around and see if they'd like to buy! I spent a good part of yesterday dusting etc. I figure someone will want to see it when we're completely not ready. Not too much action on the property; that's for sure.

Have to pick Kiddo up late today as he has gone to a baseball game with Groton Rec. He'll be pretty revved up by 4 of the clock!

Yikes, I'm slipping big time. I forgot to post this earlier today! Grampa and Kiddo are already asleep. Both were exhausted. Grampa had a very busy day fixing the mower; mowing the flying field and bringing Kiddo to the field tonight to fly the new electric RC plane. They did well together. I like that! I thought Kiddo was going to fall asleep in the car - being out all day;  going to a college baseball game; watering the garden for me and being nervous while flying the new plane will do that to a guy.

And off to Oakland Beach we went . . .

Bright as the day

It is such a perfect day that after a nice breakfast and chat with the cook at Lizzy B's we went to the flying field in Brooklyn where P&D's Pop flew and I walked. Decided to go for a nice ride to Oakland Beach and have lunch at the Top of the Bay. Decidedly a bad idea on a gorgeous Friday with school out and every one who lives in RI lined up at Iggy's or Top of the Bay. We hardly managed to drive through their parking lot! It was wicked full. So we took the leisurely ride back to Connecticut on 101 and ended up at The 99. So for $27 we ended had a superior Margarita pour moi, a Bud draft for Grampa, Fish and Chips and a BLT Fish Sandwich pour moi. More than satisfactory - nice day. A cousin stopped by as I was out on the garage swing to ask where the heck we were going. The For Sale sign intrigued him. He said he was going to pass the information on to one of his sisters. Might be interesting to see if this old house stays in the family in some way. I would not be averse to that prospect. On a slightly different note we found out that one of my cousin's sons is building the beautiful wall at the new digs for Jewett City Savings Bank and when he's not working as a stonemason he lives and fishes in Alaska.  That is extremely cool.  He must only be about 30 years old. Go young man!

I've already closed the windows for the night. It's supposed to go into the 40's. This climate change has got to stop. Pretty soon we won't have to put in the air conditioners. By the way our gas bill this month was $38. No complaints whatsoever.  Tomorrow we will head out to Wrentham so Grampa can give a couple of planes to a friend.  That should be a nice trip.

Quote:  Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason and imagination, rarely or never.   ___Coleridge

Middle child's birthday . . .

Back to York, England.  Taken in 2010

Haven't written in a few weeks.  We've made a big decision - our property is for sale. We hope to move to Louisiana sooner rather than later but as I was driving to East Granby yesterday it dawned on me just how many homes are up for sale. Ye gads! It's outrageous. Half of the population is getting out. So I doubt we'll be leaving any time soon. P&D's Pop has done a tremendous amount of work cleaning out all the 'stuff'' we don't need. He's made at least four trips to the dump and we still have 'stuff.' I've been trying to organize the upstairs. Yikes, we still have things that were here when we bought this old house in 1969. Younger brother stopped in a couple of days ago and picked up two smallish boxes of photos and letters that belong to the Carons. Pretty interesting odds and ends. The truth of the matter is that now that the selling process has begun I would like it to happen quickly but I have a sinking feeling that it will drag out forever. Que sera, sera. I'm really excited about  moving to a new place and P&D's Pop is so ready it is palpable but we can't afford to give the property away so we'll just have to let the realtor do his job. I'm trying hard to take everything in stride but that's not my usual MO.  I'm always full speed ahead.

It's a rainy, muggy day and Grampa is at the flying field working to repair the club mower. It's pretty tight quarters but the club has a small shed to hold the mowers with a few extra feet to spare so at least he'll be dry as he works. I'm so far behind on the reading that I may just sit and veg the day away. And, bien sur, we shall call Middle Child and wish her a Happy Birthday. Kids grow up much too fast.

Quote:  Some men can never state an ordinary fact in ordinary terms.  -All their geese are swans, till you see the birds.  ___J. B. Owen

No one is driving Miss Irène . . .

Star Flower

Wild Madder (?)

Bluets

Bird-foot Violets

While P&D's Pop was at school yesterday helping out with the flying and the mini car I drove myself to Sacred Heart Cemetery in Wauregan to get photos of an unusual flower. I also borrowed two of the plants and put them with my other odds and ends plantings near the garage. After watering Angie's flowers I wandered on to Green Hollow Road to All Hallows Cemetery in order to water the flowers on the Caron plots. Decided to meander up Green Hollow into Danielson where I joined Wescott Road and headed  onto Route 6 into Rhode Island where I took beautiful Route 102 pass Chopmist Hill all the way to Plain Meeting House Road. I wanted to photograph the beautiful odd looking violet flowers Grampa and I had seen on Memorial Day. The only way I can get to the Plain Meeting House Cemetery is over the main roads. Grampa has driven me there quite often on the old dirt roads but I would most certainly get lost on my own. I love the old cemetery. It's a very calm and peaceful plot of earth and most welcoming. I managed to get some pretty decent photos. Once again I borrowed a couple of plants to bring home for the garage spot. With the dark, rainy cold weather today the new plants are looking pretty chipper!

After I returned home and planted the newbies I left for Groton to pick up Kiddo after his classes. I stayed in Groton late so middle child and I could attend his Spring Concert. Wow! After the disaster at the Christmas Concert we were blown away by the Cadet Band, the Chorus and the Junior Band. Kiddo played a duet with his friend Hannah on the flute and he also played Frère Jacques as a solo. Really well done. He's the only sax player in the cadet band so it's not hard to pick him out when they're playing together. Really nice. Not sure how that poor mild mannered young music teacher is able to get so much from the kids who only meet once a week for a group lesson with flutes, trumpet and saxophone. But he did a good job.

Took a trip to East Granby to visit with younger sister. Went out for lunch and an ice cream snack before we repotted a couple of plants she had received at Christmas. It was a good day - even saw her lovely lady hummingbird close up!

Quote:  Ignorance gives a sort of eternity to prejudice, and perpetuity to error.  ___Robert Hall