Shall we talk about the weather?

Last time I wrote a blog we were snowed in. Well, we really try not to talk about the news on TV right now. The weather is a better subject. More days are now warmer. Even though we bundled up in a coat for our walk today, I was able to just have my "walking sandles" on. Temp: 53 F or 12 C. If the sky is blue and the sun shining it can be quite ok. Just 2 days ago we had a tornado warning. Luckily only for 30 minutes. And only 2 weeks ago on a Sunday morning we had a tornado warning in the middle of our church service. We were asked to go into the hallway of the education building where there are no windows. That too only lasted a short time and we could return into church for the communion. The sermon was skipped that Sunday.

I ended my last blog with hyacinth poking through the snow. Well, just a few days later ...

We also had this visitor! We were still in bed when James spied this through the window. I hurried and was lucky to get these photos. The bird was on top of our rose trellis on the back patio. Quite majestic!

Saturday March 1 ... we were watching the news very early in the morning and they started of course with announcing what day it was. Yes, March 1, and we suddenly realized that it was the day James and I met 50 years ago. Oh, we decided that we needed to celebrate that. 

Just a few days earlier we had been at the Vietnamese restaurant Mekong and on the menu was "make your own spring rolls". By chance Sarah had a business dinner the same day in that restaurant and we had talked about the spring rolls because a colleague had ordered that and it seemed a lot of fun. So, we got some take-out orders. Our friends Martha and Jerry came over to play cards and we all tried our best on those spring rolls. 

Lidl had also provided some baked goods like German Brötchen for our more-than-foot-long hot dogs and sweets and with the cookies Martha brought nobody ended up hungry.

 

The next day was the 2nd of 3 season tickets for the Virginia Opera, always Sunday afternoon matinees. It was very nice.

This Tuesday (in Germany Rosenmontag) was the day before Ash Wednesday and our church youth group is always inviting the congregation to a pancake supper (the breakfast kind). It is a fundraiser for their mission trip and always very nice. The closest we get to Mardi Gras (Fashing).

But one of my favorite things are potato pancakes e.g. Kartoffelpuffer. They are savory and some of my favorite food. Well, that's what we had that day for lunch. Altogether a pancake kind of day!

And here are photos from our camelias along the garage from today. It's the little things which can bring a lot of happiness. 

Are they not gorgeous? 

School is out

February 12 - a Wednesday - no school for our three. Most retired people don’t like to drive on roads like that so Sarah dropped them off on the way to work. It’s mostly highway and quite well taken care off. 

It was early so they wanted to watch a little tv. 

I had written in the last blog about snow ice cream. I had made a little and the boys wanted to try it. They thought it was good but I didn't think so. I gave up on it. 

We had brought the bagatelle game down from the loft where it is wrapped up on top of a bookcase. The boys are always in awe about it because we can tell them that it is probably older than Papa and may be even older than his father. We don't know. It was always in a spare room in my father-in-law's house when we visited Windsor and our girls (and I) always liked playing. 

Needless to say we had a tournament. They are quite good doing the math.

Monday February 17 - President's Day - no school

This time I was better prepared because it had been on our calendar for quite a while. There had been an offer of gingerbread cake/cookies boxes at Trader Joe's and that seemed a good idea. The boys were all in favor. Caleb was the one who wanted to mix the dough. He told be that this is how he likes to crack eggs, ha-ha.

The dough had to be in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so we had lunch first. When James and I were on our last trip we saw half-meter long hot dogs at the Christmas Markets. These were organic etc from Costco but we thought the boys would have fun. Yes, they used my measuring tape. 

After lunch it was back to the cookies. The dough (from two boxes) was divided into 4 equal portions. Since I had only one mat and one special rolling pin the boys took turns. As long as they wanted or they had their dough.

I like my rolling pin because it is the same diameter all along. I have these rings to put on each end which are color coded. The green rings let you roll out the dough to the thickness of a quarter inch. It is perfect because you can't do it wrong. 

I also have the whole alphabet in cutters and at lunch time they thought what "message" they wanted to make. Oh yes, and hearts, cats, dogs etc etc. No shortage in this house of cookie cutters.

And in case you wonder about the message on my t-shirt.... I bought it on our last trip on Peascod Street in Windsor. Could not resist. 

When there was a little time before Wade picked them up I placed a FaceTime call to my sister and luckily  her daughter (my niece Maren) was with her. I think the boys like the call to Germany once in a while and it was fun. I tried to change my camera view to get them all in and chaos arose. Here are two screen shots. I must have pressed the wrong button because Ute and Maren are not in the picture. 

Today Thursday Feb.20 we are snowed in again but without the boys. We have fun watching the birds. Even hung up a suet block in a cage I found in our reserves.

I thought the birds looked fatter than usual but of course it is because they puff up their feathers because it is so cold.

I told James that next time I look in the mirror I will just say that I puffed up my feathers. Yup, we do have fun.

Hope you all stay nice and comfy. Spring must be here soon. Our hyacinths are already looking out of the ground. Of course right now through the snow.

Shut-ins today

It’s still winter. Hopefully just today. We had lot of winterwarnings on TV and everywhere else about this storm. The roads were supposed to be very icy and schools were already canceled. 

So -  a perfect day to write a blog.

James had his first office visit with the cardio people on January 27. Amazing how this works with the pacemaker. The nurse with her iPad (looked like one) checked how the little cables worked and told us that the battery life was 13 years, at which time James laughed because he would be 95 at that point. But she said immidiately that one never knows because they had patients 103 years old. 

Happy to report that he feels fine. None of those strange "episodes" any more.

Of course for 4 weeks he has to be careful with his left arm and that yoyo weather is not helpful with our walks. We try to take advantage of every warmer day. January 29 our outside thermometer told us 66 degrees. You bet we got some steps on our fitbits. 

Even though we can not do enough walking we are very busy. I was finally able to hand-over the monthly church newsletter to a younger person. She is lovely and dedicated and we worked on it for several month already jointly. It helped tremendously that she has the same computer system as I.

I had liked doing it but I was asked for several years already to be the president of the ECW (church women) group and felt that I really could not do both. Strangely enough without having an official president I was involved already a lot. What can I say, James and I love our church friends.

And here is an ode to my father. He loved his amaryllis and cared very nicely for them. I must have inherited that (as you might have noticed in previous blogs). The two stalks of this one had both died but a third one had appeared out of the same bulb. James and I both thought you could look at it and see it grow. It got so tall. This photo is from Jan. 27.

February 1 it was already open and showed besides the regular 4 trumpets also 2 more, all 6 on top of one stalk. It got so heavy that I had to cut it off and put it into a vase. Actually, I think that helped because it stayed nice even much longer than usual. So much fun for soooo long from one $6 bulb!

For several months and especially before Christmas I had contemplated about a new iphone. I do like the apple phone camera. Having had all sorts of expensive cameras in my life, I just love the practical side of this and the quality can't really get much better.

I had asked both of our girls whether I should trade the old one in or whether they have some use for one of their children for it.

On Jan.31 we received a text from Helen that William's phone's battery had now finally given up. It also used to be an old phone of mine. Poor boy now was without a phone. Since the school shooting in a Nashville Highschool and all that followed, Helen was very uneasy about him not being able to contact her. It was a Friday. Could we get something into the mail asap?

So we rashed out right away to the apple store. That is the easy part. I even was successful with all my passcodes. Wow.

Here is the first selfie with my new phone. Yes, that was actually easier done because of a little change in the new gadget. I always found it a bit difficult  before.

Sending it off was a bit more tedious because of the lithium battery it is "something dangerous" in the mail. Needless to say that the boy was very happy to hear that it was on the way to him. 

USPS came through for us and the parcel had arrived in time for Helen to have a new symcard installed. The text from William was precious. He sent me a selfie with a smile right away. 

I sent a selfie back but then said I wasn't so sure liking my new camera because it was too good. It showed every wrinkle in my face. His answer: "You are still beautiful, Omi!" 

Same day I had a routine appointent at my doctor. So much flu and other nastiness is going around, I decided I didn't want to catch it going for a check-up. So far so good!

I was invited to a painting party on February 6 and could bring a friend. I had never been to one and it was fun. It was a lesson and it was very interesting even though I am not that thrilled with my efforts. It was a lot of fun including wine and nibbles but I think I will stick to my other art work.

Sunday we rushed after church over the river to see the twins play basketball. We were very surprised to see how good this age children already are. Owen is a hassler, ends up on the floor often and got to throw twice from the line. Colin is excellent in handling the ball. It was fun to watch. 

And yes, the snow started today to arrive as promised. Since we were supposed to get several inches I put out a bowl to collect snow for "snow ice cream" just in case there is enough. But I don't have a lot of hope.

The birds are happy on our feeders though.

And now it is time to have a cup of coffee and play cards!