A Special Day

      This is myself and my DH 53 years ago today!   Oh but we were so young!!

Thanks for popping by,


        Granny Marigold

500th Post

Yes, this is the 500th post. I find it hard to believe I've reached that number  and not bored you all to death.

As you've read in my last post my DH's brother died quite suddenly. It has been a week of lots of people coming and going and a mixture of sadness and joy in seeing each other. These pics were taken just before we left for the memorial. We really don't get "dressed up" that often so we made sure to take photos.

                          With us here is Kate, our eldest grand.  ( The picture behind her is not really crooked, it's the way the pic was taken.  I'm far too OCD to have crooked pics.)

                        The White tree is up....

                    and the Christmas cactus still has quite a few blooms

                  In the dining room it's a mix of Fall with the gourds still on the table

            The sideboard has a bit of Holly and Cedar and  a few cards but I need to put the tea set away and get out more Christmas decorations, after all, it's almost December!

I hope you are having a great week,


Thanks for visiting,


             Granny Marigold

Old House

I happened to see this fine old house on the internet. Empty and neglected, just waiting for the right people to rescue it before it's too late. Apparently this house is in Iowa.  Built in 1901, it has 7000 square feet of loveliness!  ( Except for the kitchen which has been remodeled and looks way too modern for my taste) I love all the woodwork.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

This last photo is my favourite.

Thanks for visiting,


               Granny Marigold

A Visitor and a Suprise

A noisy bunch of crows harassing  something in a tall tree very near our house led to the discovery of this Barred Owl.  All the fuss the crows made didn't seem to have much effect on him and we all got to look at him as long as we liked.  We looked for him this morning but he must have chosen a quieter spot for today's nap.

Now this sweet little girl is no visitor. She's my new bunny and she's kind of shy just yet.  Like several other of our adopted pets, she was found at my son's complex. Seems people get tired of their pets and release them to fend for themselves.
Oh yes, her name is going to be Cinnamon,  short for Cinnamon Bun ( she's actually a lot more brown than she looks on the photos).

Hopefully very soon she'll be more relaxed and feel at home in her hutch ( which my DH got done lickety-split).

Thanks for coming by today. And thanks to all who left condolences on my previous post.

       Granny Marigold

This and That

Our week began in a sad way when we received a call early this morning that my DH's oldest brother died rather suddenly. He would have turned 81 on the 24th of this month. And we are reminded again that " The rope that tethers life to eternity frays when we least expect it"


On a brighter note, our two trees are up and the lights have once again been painstakingly put on yet look like we just threw them on. I know there's a trick to getting them to look right but we have never found it. Nevertheless in due time I will cover as much of the trees as I can with ornaments and garland  and we won't notice.  I knew a woman who used to shove her decorated tree in a closet after Christmas and the next year just get it out again. That may have been just a little extreme.

I just popped a casserole of stew in the oven for our supper.  I always feel that if I have the oven on I should make more than one thing. But I don't feel inspired to make anything else.  On the weekend I tried a recipe for a lemon square that  I found on the Pioneer Woman's blog.  It turned out okay but I don't think I'll make it again. I have so many different recipes for lemon squares that I really don't need another one.
 

Have a great week.   I know many of you will be busy getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for visiting,


              Granny Marigold

Books and Teddy Bears

In the past week I have acquired a number of books and magazines. The Golden Books were .05 and .10 cents each. Can't beat that price. They'll go in my Favourite Kids Books box.

These magazines were a quarter each. The Cottage mag. which costs 12.99 new is a very recent issue. I'm used to buying older magazines and was surprised that this one was so quickly donated.
 

          Another fine magazine and a "keeper" which is Trisha Romance's book.

         I love cute books and these two definitely qualify. The illustrations are wonderful!!

Along with my library books I should be okay for reading material for some time.

I added two more stuffed animals to my collection. The Teddy bear was originally holding a Valentine so was super cheap. Too bad his eyes are black and practically invisible. He makes a good friend for my Scottie dog, don't you think?  

                  The Winter bears have come out of hibernation.

Thanks for visiting today. Please leave a comment so I know you came by.


                               Granny Marigold

The Doldrums and Body Scrubs

The dictionary defines the doldrums as "in low spirits, gloomy".  Lately I've been in the doldrums and yesterday I decided enough is enough. I cleaned my house then baked cinnamon buns. After that I went to read some blogs and noticed that several people  were making body scrubs. I looked up how to make them and found that it sounded quite easy.

The only ingredient I needed to buy was coconut oil. I went to  Walmart and bought a 500 ml jar for under $5.

I had enough of the coconut oil to make three different scrubs:  a sea salt scrub with lemon, a Chai tea with honey, and a Lemon Mint.  I found 4 cute little jars to put the first two kinds in. Still have to get more small jars for the Chai tea one. I may need more for that one because I made sure I used up the remaining coconut oil.

               I think these scrubs will make nice token gifts at Christmas, don't you?

By the way, these photos are off the internet. My pics were not nearly as cute.

So my question to you is this: Do you get the Doldrums from time to time?  If you do, how do you get out of them? Do you have a strategy ?  
Have you tried to make body scrubs or anything along that line?

Thanks for visiting,


Granny Marigold

Old Houses

5 days since I last posted. Where does the time go?  Our weather has been rainy and uninspiring so there's not much to blog about. Instead I'll show you some photos of old houses in poor shape but interesting to me. I always want to go prowl around in them although most just have rodents and birds in them.  These are pics off the internet, not ones I've taken.

Have a good week,


                         Granny Marigold

Sadness

I really debated whether to post about this because it's such a downer but finally decided I'd go ahead.
Yesterday I ran some errands. The last one was to return some library books at the library just a short walk from our house. When a new high school was needed a few years ago it was built to include this lovely big library and also various community rooms. It's a great place. 
A few hours after I was there a deranged man with a knife barged into the high school part and stabbed two young girls ( aged only 13 and 14).  Staff were able to subdue him and hold him until police arrived. Tragically the 13 year old has now died.
  Our community is changing. Almost weekly we hear of another drive-by shooting or some other gang-related horror.  People high on drugs terrorize citizens. Just last week one of those unfortunates crashed through some people's front window and ran bleeding  to cower in their bathroom where he stayed until police came to pick him up.
This post should have come with a warning DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE DEPRESSED.

A saddened Granny Marigold

November

 November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows

With night coming early
And dawn coming late
And ice in the bucket
And frost on the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing
And earth sinks to rest
Until next Spring.

Did you learn this little poem by Clyde Watson when you were in the early years of school? It's kind of cute although I doubt we'll see any snow in November. Not impossible but unlikely for our area.


 My Christmas cactus, both the red and the white one, are setting buds.                                   

                     It's time to stir up a fruit cake.....

 Here it is 2 hours later. Sure smells good. I can never understand why so many people say they don't like fruit cake. I must admit I'm not a fan of the bought ones, but homemade?  Yum!

           Rather an uninspiring post today but I did want to wish you all a happy November.


                   Granny Marigold