The Dackel Princess

Purple Beans

Hubby wet out to the garden on Friday and picked 2 pounds of these “fun” beans. After all, when was the last time you sat down and snapped a purple bean?

I’d never seen a purple bean until we moved to this town and my elderly neighbor gave me a bunch for my dinner. This year when I went around the neighborhood passing out my cucumber seedlings, he gave me a container of purple bean seeds! I came home to Hubby and looked at him and the seeds and said, “I’m game!”

So we planted them along the sides of the garden near the string sides and watched. They’re actually pretty plants and before long we noticed that they were doing well.

After Hubby picked them, I snapped them all and got them in some cold water to wait until it was time to cook, and the real “fun” would begin!

Once I was ready to begin cooking dinner, I got the camera ready. You see something amazing starts to happen when they come to a boil and cook.

Ah-ha! Can you see?

Yes, as the beans cook they slowly turn from purple to GREEN!

Once they are done, they are completely green. I think they taste fuller, nuttier, but Hubby says he thinks this is just because they are so fresh.

Perhaps this is true. All I know is that I think these have to be the best beans I have ever had!

Still it is hard to believe that these beans start out deep dark purple,

and cook down to deep dark green!

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~Clouds~

Another Sunset where the clouds were so magnificent!

The Zucchini Queen!!!

It’s zucchini season! I wonder sometimes why I even bother to plant the stuff. I like zucchini. The first time I have it anyway. But day after day, after day…..well, let’s just say, it gets old really fast!

Tonight I made stuffed zucchini boats. They came out well and Hubby seemed to enjoy them, but all I could think of was that this is only the beginning.

In the past I used to make a lot of zucchini bread, muffins, starchy things, things that are now forbidden to me on my quest for smaller thighs.

As we sat eating tonight Hubby also reminded me that in a few days our purple string beans will be ready to eat. We have a lot of those! I like purple string beans, perhaps more than I like zucchini.

Let me share with you a true story about me and my very first attempts at gardening and perhaps the reason why zucchini is no longer my favorite vegetable.

I was a new bride to Hubby and I had moved into his farm in Southern New Hampshire. That spring I looked out and mentioned that it had always been a dream of mine to have a garden. Hubby was so sweet. He went right out and plowed the garden for me. Then we went and bought the seeds for the garden. Oh I just new I was going to be the very best little gardener ever!

That evening Hubby was preparing to go to work as a pilot, and he remarked that this was the weekend to plant the garden.

Terror filled me! I had no idea what I was supposed to do. However, I was stubborn and determined to succeed, so the next day after I said good bye to Hubby, I stood in my garden and tried to think.

I remembered all those movies where the people dug trenches, scattered the seeds and covered them. Surely that was all there was to it!

Carefully I laid out my row after row after row of vegetables. Using up the very last seed in every package.

For those of you who know, you are probably guessing the outcome with some laughter. For those of you who have never gardened, I will tell you the result.

I had more zucchini than the local grocery store. I sent it into work with Hubby until even he couldn’t find people to take it. I put out a small table on the side of the road with a sign, “FREE ZUCCHINI”! No one stopped.

I made muffins and bread and zucchini boats and stir fry, until I never wanted to see another zucchini!

Hubby didn’t say too much during the growing season to me about my inaugural garden. He ate everything I cooked and only later in the season did he suggest that perhaps I had planted too many zucchini seeds.

I try to plant 2 hills of zucchini now and still I find it hard to eat what we have, it makes looking back at that first garden pretty funny. Like something you might see Lucille Ball do on “I love Lucy”.

Down 1/2

I went to Weight Watchers on Wednesday and was down another 1/2 a pound. I can’t say I was the best little weight watcher this week, but I sure was active. I think this is why I lost anything. I was thrilled, but also determined that now that I am so close to my goal, I’ve got to step up my moving around a bit and really watch what I eat.

I hadn’t been home too long when I noticed the dachshunds all smelled like they had been out rolling around on a dead slug! Ugh! Bath time!

Hubby was using the hose to water the garden, so I looked around outside, not wanting to bring the little devils into the house smelling like that! The puppy pool!

The water in there was reasonably fresh, and very warm. I brought out the doggy soap, towels and tossed the three dachshunds in one by one and soaped them up and rinsed them.

Can I just say how wonderful it is to have three sweet smelling dackels to go to bed with tonight. I think they are even happy with the way they are smelling!

Dinner was at Canoe this evening, courtesy of my friend, Gail. We feasted on Sweet and Sour Calamari, Mussels, and I had the most wonderful baby spinach salad with goat cheese spiced walnuts and three Cajun shrimp. Granted, this was not a sanctioned Weight Watcher meal, but it was good, and I did not have dessert!

My friend, Gail and her son leave us tomorrow and I know I will cry when she does. Our visits are always too brief and yet now all these years since we first met (37 years) I am happy to say that we can talk more on the phone due to Verizon cell phone service and we are closer than ever.

Here’s to friendship!~

Smaller Clothes & Scraped Fenders

Tuesday was spent with my best friend, Gail doing what we two do best….shop! We headed out to a local Outlet Mall, and after hitting the Outlet Office for coupon books, we started in Liz Claiborne. I’d been in there a month or so ago, and I had not found anything that fit me. But since then, I’ve lost more weight, and firmed up a bit, so I found quite a few items that look pretty darn good.

Now this shocked me! I mean, when I look into the mirror, I still see myself the way I did last year before I started Weight Watchers. Today I stood in front of a 3 way mirror in smaller clothes than I have worn in many years, and gazed at this person standing in front of me. Shopping was actually fun.

After dinner tonight I gave Hubby a little fashion show and I think he liked all the things that I got. One thing is for sure, I really don’t need much more in the way of clothes to wear for the summer.

The only down part of my day occurred when we came out of the grocery store and walked back to the trunk of my car and found that someone had sideswiped me! No dents, but the passenger side fender is badly scraped and will need to be repainted.

Oooooooooh, it made me so mad!

But then I came home and Hubby hugged me and I didn’t feel so bad. After all, I didn’t do it, but still it angered me that someone else did and didn’t have the ability to fess up and offer to pay for the damage they had caused.

The Big Boat

Monday we took a ride on the Mount Washington Cruise Ship. It takes you around Lake Winnipesaukee for a leisurely cruise. We sat on the upper deck, with the wind gently blowing on us to cool us off. We enjoyed a wonderful Lobster salad, and tall Starbuck’s coffees.

A sign for the cruise ship.

Waiting to board the ship.

Gail and I with the Lake all around us.

The home of the Mount Washington Cruise Ship.

I love going on this cruise. It is so relaxing and whenever we have guests we drive over and hop on board. I never tire of it and hope that I will always be able to share this with my friends and family when they come to visit.

Happy 5th Birthday Fritz!!!

Today was our Fritz’s 5th birthday. This is my boy when he came to us 5 years ago at the age of 8 weeks!

So we fired up the grill, invited Fritz’s favorite people over and had a cook-out! Hot-dogs and hamburgers were served along with potato salad, chips, dips and fresh local corn on the cob!

It was hot and humid and I personally would have liked to have been inside with the air conditioning, but we all stayed outside and the dogs played on.

Soon it was time for the cake which we served inside.

Fritz wasn’t sure he liked the candle.

We did get him to at least listen to us sing Happy Birthday!

He finally smelled the cake and decided it might not be so bad!

He got his slice of cake and quickly ate the entire piece before the dachshunds had a chance to steal it! The other pups all got theirs as well, and the humans too!

Fritz got some great presents. Balls, toys, bones and the like. He is one very happy dog. Especially when both Dori and Gail took him outside and played fetch with him. Fritz is the happiest when he is playing ball out back!

I think I can safely say that this was a very happy day for my boy!

Festival!

Each year in the neighboring town, my next door neighbor’s church has a festival of food, fun and music. Aglaia is Greek and the festival has always been a favorite of ours because we both love Greek food and appreciate their heritage.

This year I offered Aglaia another worker for her food table, and in the end two of us worked for her. Emily came with me and we put her to work too! On Saturday we went down to the church and worked serving goodies. Here is a picture of me at my station on the dessert table, with Aglaia’s youngest daughter, Elena.

Emily and I were were in charge of the lemon squares, fig bars and apple turnovers. People would walk down the line filling up their take away box with treats.

Then they got into another line for lunch. Their were lamb shanks, pastichio, stuffed grape leaves, greek salads and more.

I love that people from the local nearby towns come and spend part of their day at the festival. I saw so many familiar faces and everyone was having fun, at the same time the money made from the festival will go into their outreach programs.

As the afternoon progressed, the children came out in traditional costumes and danced for the crowd. They were very good and I loved their costumes!

At the end of the day I was exhausted, and still had to run home make Fritz’s birthday cake, potato salad for his party today and tidy up the house. I finally sat down with Hubby at 8 o’clock and watched a documentary on the Transcontinental Railroad, before falling asleep!

The Seasons

I’m a New Englander. I was born here, in Wareham, Massachusetts. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. When I was in my early 20’s I moved to New Hampshire with my first husband, and lived here until I was in my late 30’s. At that point Hubby and I thought that perhaps Southern Florida would be a nice place to retire, and once we sold our home here, we moved to a beautiful home in Punta Gorda.

We lived there, quite happily for 6 years, until I reached the point of not being able to handle the Florida “seasons”. You see, in Florida it is almost always HOT. Not only that, but the humidity is tropical and that will just kill you.

We had a small yard and I decided that I could mow the lawn and tan at the same time. In order to do this I would wear my bathing suit, a hat, drink a six pack of diet iced tea and top it all off by jumping in our pool to cool off. The mowing took me one hour and was done every 5-8 days.

I also learned during this time that Florida had several other “seasons” which one must learn to handle. Besides the “HOT” season, you have the “Rainy” season. There is also “Fire” season and “Tornado” season and “Hurricane” season.

It got to be that I felt I was constantly fearing one of those “seasons” with little to no break.

This girl needed to come home.

So Hubby and I sold our home and we drove our motor coach up north, built our house and have been here since 1999.

Today we have had tropical humidity, which led to terrible storms. I mean terrible. Just south of here it appears we have had a “Tornado”. Many homes are damaged and there is a report of one fatality.

So I ask, is there really any place that is perfectly safe to live?

I think not.

Perhaps the best one can do is find a place that you love, and enjoy what you do have.

For this New England girl, it’s the mountains and the oceans and the four wonderful seasons known as Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall!