FOCUS ON THIS ~ WEEK #15 ~ TREES

 

I first read this poem in high school and it has been with me, in my mind and heart, for about 50 years. I love the poem and so have used it for inspiration in this blog...

 

TREES

 

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

 

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

 

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain’

Who intimately lives with rain.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree…

 

By Joyce Kilmer ~ 1886-1918

 

I think that I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree.

Truly…

FOCUS ON THIS… WEEK #13 ~ HOT

 

With the temperature hovering in the mid-90’s day after hotter-than-hell day here in Florida, I am practicing tried and true ways to keep cool and to stay hydrated.  So, while I sit in front of the air conditioner, I am consuming mass quantities of one or more of my following refreshment solutions….

This is nothing more than lemon, lime and filtered water.  Be sure to wash your fruit well!  It is a cool drink that is guaranteed to be refreshing.  Of course, you can add sugar and call it lemonade/limeade.  I just prefer without sugar.

Up there among my favorites is tonic water with raspberries and a sprig of mint.  In this one, I have used spearmint – fresh from my little container garden!

Filtered water with any kind of fruit is just great.  This one is simply filtered water, a sliced strawberry and a sprig of regular mint – also from my container garden…

I get creative with salads.  A pasta salad is a great meal all by itself!  Other favorites in this house include a garden salad topped with grilled chicken.  The chicken is grilled in the George Forman grill in 6-8 minutes and add practically no heat to the kitchen.  I encourage you to explore salads as an option for meals.

And for dessert?  Why add heat to your house with the oven or even the stove top?  I keep tubs of diet gelatin in the fridge.  I boil the water in a glass measuring cup in the microwave and make several flavors at one time.  When someone wants a dessert, just dish up the gelatin and add a squirt of whipped cream or a dollop of Cool Whip.  Or…if you are avoiding sugar like I do, just top with a little half & half.

 

That’s how we do it in the South.  Ya’ll stay cool now ~ ya hear?

FOCUS ON THIS… WEEK #12 ~ HIDDEN

 

Our cat is always hiding somewhere…  We found her in our garage when she was really too tiny to have found her way here by herself.  We think our big marshmallow hearted cat stole her and hid her in the garage.  I spotted her little tail as she tried to run and hide from me.  At approximately 4 weeks, I was faster.  And so, Lil Lulu became a part of our family.

 

Lil Lulu still hides and it is fun for me to catch her with my camera…  She wasn’t very good at hiding when she was a kitten.   (No birds were harmed in the filming….)

She got a little better at her hiding game as she grew…

But not much better…

Lil Lulu hides really well in the winter….

Summer is too hot.  She hid in a tree to try to catch a breeze…

But, her favorite hiding place is the window sill of the living room window…

She thinks it is the best place to hide and nobody can see her because she is behind the curtain.  Yeah…right….

And sometimes, her hiding place is a total fail….

Everyone should have a Lil Lulu around.  There certainly is never a dull moment in our house…

FOCUS ON THIS… WEEK # 11 ~ DELICIOUS

 

Did I ever mention that I am the Queen of Quick Meals?  Well…Now you know…  I am most famous for taking a time consuming recipe and turning it into E-A-S-Y…  Same ingredients…  Same flavor…  The end product might look different or it might not...

When I was a working gal, I sure didn’t want to spend a couple of hours in the kitchen after spending 8 hours in the office.  It didn’t take long to come up with shortcuts.  One example is Stuffed Peppers. Sure they look all pretty in the peppers, but what a lot of work!

My shortcut recipe is this:

Dice one red & one green bell pepper and one small onion.  Set aside. 

Brown a pound or so of ground beef.  Remove to a colander and allow excess grease to drain into a bowl with a paper towel in the bottom to make cleanup easy.

Select a large pan – your choice – I use a huge stainless steel skillet with metal handle so I can go straight from range top to oven in the same pan…  Then I dump drained ground beef, peppers and onions into the skillet.  Season with salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder to your taste.  Stir fry just long enough for your veggies to turn a brighter color…no more or you will lose your texture. 

Add 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes and 2 cups of water.

Bring to a boil, then add 1 cup of uncooked white rice.  Stir and allow to return to a boil.  As soon as the liquid reaches the second boil, cover the pan with aluminum foil, then the oven proof lid to seal the pan.  Pop the whole pan into the oven @ 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Done! 

All of the flavor of stuffed peppers.  A fraction of the preparation work/time.  Delicious!

FOCUS ON THIS…WEEK #10 ~ MY PET ~ I WISH

 

Last week was a very different week in our home, which will also explain my “disconnect” from the cyber world for the same approximate length of time…

Monday before last, I saw a little dog running all over my neighborhood.  I saw different neighbors trying to catch the little guy, but he just danced away from everyone.  I’m sure we all had the same concern that he would get hit by a car.  I lost track of him after he lured me down to the lake, then hid on me.  Arriving back home with everything hurting, I was extremely worried about the dog.  But, I’m too old to chase fast little dogs around the neighborhood. 

It was near quitting time for the working population, so I said a prayer and hoped the extremely clever little dog would be sitting innocently on the doorstep when his owners arrived home.  I went to my kitchen and began preparing our evening meal.  But then…another neighbor knocked on my door to ask me if I lost a dog.  A quick peek into her car confirmed that she caught little Houdini…  We chatted a minute while I explained that he was not my dog and she explained why her two large labs were the reason why she could not take him home.  Sooo…I ended up with a houseguest.  He was housebroken, crate trained and walked well on a leash, so he was no problem except to the old cranks around this house…who shall remain unnamed…

Well…without going into a lot of details, I will just say that the poor little guy was 7 pounds of too much spunk for our household of old people and old pets.  With lots of help from the neighbor lady, I posted signs in the neighborhood, listed him on craigslist and in our local county animal control pet forum for lost pets and perused every lost pet site I could find – no luck finding the little guy’s owner.    It became sadly apparent that nobody cared what happened to him. So, after a week of no-luck, we were forced to find a Chihuahua rescue to take him. 

I called him Squirt and he will be in my heart always.  Just before I handed him over to the lady from the rescue organization, I hugged Squirt and wished him a wonderful life.  And then my heart broke….