I have "Spring Fever", not like when I was a teen grabbing the bathing suit, baby oil and iodine (mix it and that was suntan oil). My girlfriends and I would huddle next to a building to stay a little warmer. Bathing suits now a days are only for the beach because I know I will never see those people again. Now it is time to air out the house, do the down comforters, a little cleaning and of course put on my flip flops. Ready or not spring, this ol'gal is bringing it on! Even the horses are ready to shake off their winter coat. As I'm typing this blog my mind is wandering back to "what did I accomplish" this winter. For some reason I need to keep account of my time. After all I am retired but still try to keep a full schedule going. Now that I have moved from winter to spring it will be more work and less of my 'sit down' hobbies. I don't know if the body is ready but the mind says, GO! There will be mornings I will barely be able to get out of bed. Like my very spry sister in law says, never lose the "pep in your step". Great advice Natalie, she is going to be 80 and still could walk the legs off a good hunting dog! So now there are two things to remember, "keep the pep in your step" and always "Pass it On". The good stuff of course!
With warmer weather or at least hoping for it comes a new eating pattern. Not only do we live where we have the four seasons our eating habits are also seasonal. Wild leeks and asparagus from the garden for sure, more grilling and salads. The goody baking will slow down and it will be breakfast and supper with a snack (maybe). Always a water bottle with us and most often an afternoon break with a cup of Jamaican Me Crazy. No matter how warm the temperature that coffee hits the spot and pushes us on to finish our work. After supper we take the dogs for a walk, it seems to relax us and tire the dogs out.
So people know I have my screw ups I will let you know last night I burned the potatoes! The last I looked there was plenty of water simmering. The next thing Dick said, "something smells good". Thinking to myself.......there is nothing cooking that should smell good, lifting my nose to smell it was an "oh crap" moment. That awful smell of potatoes burning, blah. So lets start over and watch the boiling pot this time. I remember that some days water boils away faster and yeast does not work as well on certain days. I have no idea which days and why but I will blame the day rather than me. Just makes me feel better. Kinda like a little kid doing something wrong and always has an excuse. Our garden stash of potatoes ran out three weeks ago. I had sticker shock to see how much 10 pounds cost, they are not very good either! That means double up the seed potato planting this year. Speaking of potato, flash back to 1960 something when a teacher said........remember a potato does not have a toe but potatoes do. Am I the only one that has odd flashbacks?
Here are a few pictures that prove Spring is in the air at Cook'n by the Creek.
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| Outdoor fresh smelling sheets tonight. |
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| Down comforters getting freshened up. It's a German thing. |
The reason I say hanging quilts and blankets out is a German thing, when we visited our son 25 years ago houses had bedding hanging out their windows and balconies. Everyday! We were there in March, the weather was about like ours for March. Cool-cold and scattered warm sun days. Another thing I noticed, they didn't fly the German flag everywhere like we fly our beautiful USA flag. Beau was 14 and when we landed at JFK he said, "look our flag'. Funny what ya notice. We took a walk up a hill to a beautiful castle and right there along the path kazillions of leeks were growing. No tasting but they had a great leek aroma going through the air. I fell in love with the beauty and "old world" feel of Germany plus in love with their candy and Easter celebrations. Every store front was beautifully set up for the holiday. I brought back a dozen Kinder Eggs. I wish they sold them in the states. Kids would love them. I do get a little German candy fix from Aldis ;)
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| A German Kinder Egg. Delicious chocolate egg outside, toy filled plastic egg inside. The toys are unique, they snap together and much bigger than the egg when assembled. |
