The Potty Boys

Today I'm on my own.  Friends of Ron's have picked him and his wheelchair up and off they've gone south to Seattle, to check out a huge pottery supply store.

We wives call this group of guys the "Potty Boys," although to be accurate they are the "Pottery Boys".  They all took beginner and secondary pottery classes from a fantastic artist, Brian, who also happens to be the local high school art teacher.  If you think your kids make a mess when they play with clay, you've never seen a bunch of senior men (and almost seniors) messing around with this stuff, and I don't get me started about glazes.  Unfortunately, they have all had enough science and math in their backgrounds to make you think they were creating the Acropolis all over again.  Some day archeologists will dig through the rubble of our back yard and base their assumptions on 2011 civilization on what they find buried here.

To be totally truthful, this is just another wonderful aspect of Ron's art (and the other men's also).  They have a kiln in Jim's big garage (now their man cave) and spend hours talking about ramping the heat up and down, they set and stare at the temperature gauge for hours (kind of like watching paint drying, not grass growing because ours actually grows pretty fast.)  Our clay salsa bowls are really pretty nice and best of all are the friendships that flourish right along with all of that wet clay.

Pot on Potty (oops!) Pottery Boys!

Two Subjects, Civility and Antiquity

Two subjects moved my heart today.  Two subjects that may seem different, but in actuality are a part of the whole.

First of all how, as the political strife in Egypt expands, Egyptian civilians are rallying to surround the Museum of Antiquity to protect the exhibitions there.  Can you imagine the loss were rioters and looters able to ransack this place, stealing and setting fires?  I know, some would say it's just stuff, but it's really the heart of a people, their inheritance from the past.  In some ways it's our heart and past also, the world is no longer separated by weeks of travel, hours or months between communications, it is now a whole and as such we are a part of all of this.

Secondly, and something that is close to my heart is the word "civility".  The dictionary defines this word as a code of conduct, treating others with respect, in spite of differences.   I just watched two politicians, a Democrat and a Republican talk about being a part of a "Civility Caucus".  Amazingly, when I googled this there were numbers of people who were verbally against anything so "PC".  Luckily for them they are in a Country where they can feel and act on this rationale, our Country protects their rights, as it does mine to believe and say on-line what we feel.  It protects my passionate belief that civility is an important part of our world's peace.  My Christian belief mandates me to love my neighbor as myself.  Civility lets us respect our neighbor's differences, be they left/right, black/white, green/red, Republican/Democrat, young/old.

Again, we are all a part of the whole, let's treat the world and each other with civility.

Words from the heart from the Boat House

The Hidden Prize

I have to start by saying, today has been one of those days (SIGH!!!).  This day's problems actually started yesterday.  We invited our dear friends Jim and Mary over for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate Mary's birthday.  As it happens, Jim is a master baker, so even though I'm a pretty good cook, I never try baking for this pair. Mind you, they would never, ever, be critical,  but I couldn't  even begin to make the wonderful treats he makes for us so I normally don't even try.  But, this is after all Mary's birthday, you have to have a beautiful cake for that, don't you?

While waiting to go through the checkout counter at the grocers yesterday I spot a magazine with a photo of the perfect birthday cake/dessert.  My friends love flan, they also love chocolate and here in glorious color is something called a Chocoflan.  It's a creation that Jim would never make, it's just beautiful with caramel on the bottom, a layer of flan next and a beautiful home made chocolate cake next, the caramel created the day before and chilled, then the other ingredients the next day (today).  The recipe says prep time is only 40 minutes with 1 hour and 15 minutes of cooking time.  WELL, after using every bowl in our house Ron and I finally managed to get this concoction into the oven.  Almost three hours later not only is the cake still runny, but the flan is now a part of the chocolate cake, and the caramel is so tough it would take the fillings right out of your teeth.  To top everything off my right earring is missing.

I told Ron, I'm going to scoop the gooey part into parfait glasses, with layers of whipped cream, and tell my friends that whoever finds the gold earring in the dessert will have luck for the rest of the day.  Just make sure you avoid the caramel.

Bon Appetite Everyone!!!

My Favorite Garden

I just finished commenting on a wonderful blog that I have been following, the Oregon woman who wrote this blog was discussing all of the wonderful food options that are just outside of our back doors here in the Pacific NW.

This reminded me of a local county park here in my neck of the woods, Hovander Homestead Park, in Ferndale, WA.  This is a go-to place whenever we have company from out of town, or for just spending a wonderful day in a lovely setting.   This park's gardens are maintained by the local university's agriculture department, they keep a lovely aroma garden on the grounds of one of the old homes.  The aroma garden has every kind of herb imaginable and heavenly scented plants.  The other old home (what was the original homestead) has other traditional gardens around the grounds, including a salsa garden (hot peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, etc.) but my favorite garden of all is their weed garden.  Yes, you heard me right a weed garden.  Nice, neat rows with little signs by every plant that show you exactly which of the multitude of weeds you too are growing in your very own garden.  I can tell you right now, according to that plot of land I am a master gardener.

Enjoy!

Nancy at the Boat House

Where Do Slugs Go in the Winter?

Okay, here's the scoop!!!!  Today is January 26th, it's supposed to be winter time out there, it's supposed to be cold, possibly a layer of snow, at the very least a layer of frost on the ground, but non-the-less cold.  I guess it's not cold enough.

Tonight, at our home, during our church home group, Pepper the Pup begged and begged to go out.  When I did let him out he made a total pest of himself, barking at imagined critters in our creek (or maybe real critters), running around unlike his usually lazy self, ignoring me when I told him to be quiet.  When I finally convinced him to stop his shannanegans and come inside the house in he traipsed with something black and wiggly on his fur, which was immediately deposited on my clean floor in front of all of the home group.   EEEEEEWWWWW!!!!!!  It was a SLUG!!!!!!

Shouldn't slugs freeze in the winter?  Shouldn't they become snow birds and go south for the winter like the birds and RVers?  What kind of summer are we going to have if the slugs are already here?  Nothing is worse than accidentally stepping on a slug in your bare feet, they are almost impossible to get off, water just makes them spread, and you have nightmares for months afterward, and here they were already invading us.

The Boat House is going to equip our feet with galoshes, and lots of salt to sprinkle on the diabolical creatures.

I'm afraid we are in for a SLUGFEST this coming year.  Prepare yourself people!!!

Skeletons and Rats in My Closet

Here I was, checking out blogs and enjoying my morning coffee, Ron still asleep (or so I thought) when Pepper the Pup started yapping at the bedroom door. Oh no, I thought, somethings happened to Ron.  Well, something had happened, he had gotten up and into his power chair, drove it into our closet to get a clean shirt (I usually do this for him) and managed to get himself and his chair stuck.  I told him, he could have turned into a skeleton in our closet if I hadn't found him.

As to the rat part, Ron bought Pepper a remote controlled rat for Christmas, something he (Ron not Pepper) saw on television last December.  Well, Pepper thinks it is the best toy ever, but he runs, barks, growls, and creates havoc every time that rat is out, even if it isn't being controlled by the diabolical Ron.  Sooooo, the rat lives on a shelf in our closet except for special occasions when Ron is ready to drive Pepper (and me) crazy.

Anyway, Ron is rescued, Pepper is calm, and it's time for coffee with my darling husband.

Happy boating all!

A Treasure Hunt Worth More Than Diamonds

I've just discovered the way to hunt for amazing treasure from the comfort of my own home.  No, I'm not cleaning out my closets and rooms, although I should.  What I'm doing is finding blogs that are just amazing, following those clues and bread crumb trails that bloggers who already interest me leave.

Rosaria, thanks for leading me to Bethany Wiggen's, it's such an inspiration to find someone who started writing later in life.

I'll pass another treasure on to all of you, check out Jane Kirkpatrick's blog, she is an amazing Oregon author who has won many awards and has just been nominated for a major Oregon book award.  

Anyway, happy treasure hunting all!