Health update and general catch-up (from the old folks of the farm)

~~

I want to say "Thanks" for the concern many of our blog friends have shown for both C. and me recently! I'm happy to say we're both feeling better and back to our more usual and known aches and pains (the ones we've grown accustomed to) -lol- SO...that's a good thing!

~~

I got this in an E-mail recently ...and I pretty much agree with Maxine on this!

Oh,well~ that's life!

~

The weather we're having now is very nice.  Haven't needed the heat at all today and...hopefully, have seen the last of our really cold days and nights... about time, too!
(but maybe not- since it's just the end of January!)

  The cold has been harder for me this time. Lol-I know my northern friends must think I'm a wimp...and I guess I really am!  Can't help it... I don't like to be cold..  :)  but I don't like the HOT either!

  I'd love to live in a place where it is '72' all the time!  ;)  Guess that's asking too much- but I can dream, can't I? 


~~

OK- back to reality...today I started a clean up- clean-out- fix-up project on the house...Lots of painting in the plans for the next few days, starting with all the doors and  door frames.

   I did a lot of cleaning out in my bathroom today!  How does so much useless junk accumulate in those drawers? One of life's greatest mysteries...at least I have no clue about it!

Anyway- I feel good that I've made a start on doing something beneficial in our life here!...Oh! I intend to tackle closets too...Goodwill, get ready! 


Junie Rose

Lazy December day...

~~~

Today has been a lazy day around here. I should have been doing something toward my decorating or cleaning or baking but not a thing has been accomplished toward any of that.

 ...Here it is, nearing dinner time, too, and what will I do about that?? Probably not a whole lot...there's always soup to open-or a sandwich to put together-or a frozen pizza!

LOL- We'll survive!

We had visitors for a couple hours today. My sister, Joy, and her husband Mike  came and brought a lemon meringue pie. We had coffee and pie and did a bit of chit-chat. We enjoyed their visit very much.

Joy and I have made tentative plans to take flowers out for Mom on Monday. Hope we can manage it because December is getting on!  With all the doctor appointments we've all had lately it's been hard to arrange  

other things.  Time seems to fly by so fast!

Haven't done much the past several days-except did a little shopping for myself this week. LOL- Well I needed some new jeans and tops so bought myself 6 tops and 3 jeans! That's the only shopping I've done so far...

and I feel very selfish in buying for myself when I should be buying presents for the family!  Oh! But it will get done-I promise! (the other gifts, I mean)

Also my son and daughter-in-law will celebrate their 1st. anniversary in one week- so more shopping for me! Wow!  This year seems to have flown by in a flash!!

 

We were out a couple nights ago

to dinner with Chris and Joy.

  We stopped by our down town square to see the lights! I hadn't seen the square decorated this year!  It was quite festive and pretty.

For the season we have a Ferris Wheel in operation!  Chris and Joy took a spin on it. Charles and I  didn't.  I got dizzy just looking up at it!
  :)

(My pics are not very good but I'm putting some on anyway!)

 ~~

OK-Soon I will have to tackle my zillion boxes of Christmas decorations and get a tree up!....but not tonight...

Maybe -just maybe- I might make some 

'Magic Cookie Bars' tonight!

We'll see!

Love,

Junie Rose

Travels with Charlie~NC~2006 (AND the real me???)

~~

Go here ~

 'Junie Being Silly'

~ 

...a very cool dip and a

hair curling event!

...and-'The Real Me??'

Having a bad day...so far...

....and I'll tell you why!

First off... I awoke feeling awful, with this cold that has been hanging on for days and days; renewed in it's intensity about 100%!

I drag myself out of bed (2 hours earlier than usual) and go to put on my robe over my PJs. As I was pulling it together, what did I spy, on the inside, crawling up from the hem??? Yep -you got it- a spider-a BIG, mean and ugly spider! I got out of that robe in a flash-dropped it but quickly picked it up again to look for the spider. It had gone (under my bed??) and I'm left wondering if I imagined seeing it. I DO hope so because I will eventually have to sleep again in that bed!

After finding another warm robe , and checking for spiders, I make my way out to the kitchen; hoping to find the coffee made. No such luck on this hapless day...as my husband is sleeping in front of the TV in his den.

Oh well- first I need to put the cats out. Only Lucy is normally indoors overnight-and the others sleep on the back porch...but with this extremely cold weather we've had I often let the 3 of them come in at night. They were all ready and eager to go out and face the cold morning.

I had settled down with my first cup of coffee a little bit later. I happened to glance at the sliding door that goes out to the porch and there sits my little Lucy! OK-at first I thought because of the cold she had got her fill of the outdoors quickly. As I was going to let her in I was able to get a better look...and there she was- wanting to offer me another gift of a dead bird! :( Made me very sad-and MAD at Lucy! You'd think the Meow Mix I always have ready for her would be enough!!

There was nothing I could do as the little bird was not moving and there was no chance of rescuing it...but I darn sure wasn't about to let that cat in right at that moment! I didn't watch any longer!

Some might say I should confine my cats to the house-at all times. It's not possible for us to do that for a lot of reasons. It's the natural order of things so, as upsetting as it can be at times, I realize I can't save the world -or even the birds and lizards that my cats catch...(not to mention the Hawks that get many more than my cats do!) It's in the Plan- nature is designed that way.

Nevertheless I am STILL not in a very good mood with Miss Lucy...but I will get over it!

My cats:

Lucy and Tiger
and
General Tommy Franks

Our temps were again in the high 20s overnight and everything was frosty when I first got up! It's depressing with all our plants brown and dead looking. Not sure how much will revive at all...if and when this winter weather gets over! Many of our citrus trees are hurt bad- if not totally DEAD!

Our place after the freezes:

Orange trees are badly damaged, with fruit dropping and some still hanging on but ruined

The green grass is Rye grass , a winter grass that my husband sowed-so we'd have some green. The brown you see in back would be the way our yard would look without the Rye grass.

Dead fern all around the fish pond...

Roses will come back but are pitiful right now!

(Click on pics to enlarge)











Thank God for the Camellias! They are a winter flower here and our bushes are very tall ( maybe 10 ft) and loaded with blooms! Our colors are red and light pink (the big bushes) and we have 2 small bushes with white blooms!
Only cheerful thing about this long, cold winter!!















If I can beat this cold I figure I might have a chance of making it to Spring!



SO....How is your day going-so far?? :)




Junie Rose

Mellow Yellow Monday~ Jan 11, 2010

~~~

*Find other MYM posts here!*

~~~

These girls must be thinking

'Spring'

in their pretty Mellow Yellow print dresses!






...And, even though, this girl is
wearing a light sweater -
notice she has chosen a pretty yellow-spring-like color!

:)


~~~

Count me in on the Spring-Thing!

I'm ready to say bye bye to the cold days and nights !


Junie

Snow in Ocala!

___

When we got up to get ready for our day trip to Winter Haven to visit the folks...THIS is what we saw! Yes - SNOW in Ocala!

We saw flurries, off and on, the 2 hours it took us to get to my cousins house.There was small amounts of snow on some roofs and along the roadside and on cars! One car passed us with a build-up of snow and with a small snowman some enthused person had built- riding on the trunk! :) You got to understand this snow thing is a novelty for us here in Florida! :)

When we got to my cousins house my sister Joy and her husband were already there. ( C. and I had stopped for breakfast at a Hardee's!) The others arrived in about an hour!

We got a few pics of us all together before going out to eat at Red Lobster!

My cousin (center) and my 2 nieces (sisters)

L-R-Diane-Inez-Evie

The guys

L-R-Clyde (B-I-L)-Charles-Mike (B-I-L)-John(Nephew thru marriage to my niece,Diane)

The girls!

Joy (sis), Gloria (sis), June

June-Joy-Inez (cousin)

OK-

...So we're home and facing another cold, cold night! My cats are all inside tonight because I don't have the heart to put them on the porch...I sure hope they don't mess up too badly while I'm sleeping! Got a litter pan set up for them so hope they will use it! My cats are not 100% indoor cats (except for Lucy.) but they like being in, in this cold weather. The 2 big guys have found a cozy, soft spot on my living room couch .

BTW-Lucy seems to be getting back to normal and is eating and drinking water...still rests a lot but she's found a good spot for that beside the fridge... I put a pad there for her. She likes the extra warmth of that motor running. She discovered that spot a few days ago! (Smart little cat!)

Chris and Joy were just here to get water...seems their water pipes have frozen ...hopefully Not burst! Oh, man!!

I will be happy to see the end of this cold weather!


Junie

Sad But true...

After 3, or maybe 4, nights of freezing temperatures recently we are left with about 20 trees of wasted citrus fruit!

At first I was optimistic, thinking if the fruit didn't immediately fall off the trees it must be ok. ( A lot of the fruit fell-a lot is still hanging!)

And it did seem so at first... with the fruit we sampled...but a couple days ago I again started to squeeze some juice and discovered that, although the oranges appear ok and are still juicy, the juice is sour! :(


The oranges are ripe in mid Nov and so we had fruit for the holidays and onward for a few weeks!

...but . .. Geesh-I sure am sorry we lost all these trees full of fruit! Several of our neighbors and relatives were also enjoying that fruit- especially the Honey Bells!



NEXT time I'm gonna eat those oranges

as fast as I can!!!


What a bummer!!

:(



Junie Rose

Visitors this weekend! (and UPDATE! )

Well, I tell you- Charles and I have been working like crazy the past 2 days, trying (in vain??) to get this old house pulled together for company this weekend.

Problem is, we are both collectors of 'stuff' ... things we like-PLUS-all the paper misc. that comes in the mail and of which I don't always know just what to do with- where to put it- or IF it should be saved or what!!

It seems the older we get the more complicated life becomes!! As we get LESS able to deal with things there are MORE things dumped on us! LOL! Is this just ME or is it really the way things are??

I have sworn off magazines for awhile...in fact am letting my 'Country Home' and 'Country Living' subscriptions expire! Have a huge box of them, too heavy to lift, ready to go...somewhere ; either in the shed to sell at a yard sale for a quarter each- lol- and even at that, I would get rich- or donated to a thrift shop! Also...a TON of books have accumulated here. These I will have to find time to go through and organize the ones I want to keep. This will have to be later. For now, many are boxed and stashed away in closets!

With my son recently moving (from my upstairs) into our small rental house, I have had a whole lot of de-cluttering and rearranging of stuff - to make those rooms usable up there.

We moved stuff around downstairs, too. These 2 cabinets I am able now to use for my little music center and have arranged all my CDs here-where I can find just what I want real fast and easy!

I made this picture last night with my computer camera. Of course, it's reversed, in real life here! I don't know how to flip the picture. I know there's a way and I have been shown how to do it but ...I don't remember! Just use yer imagination!
( I'm OLD...gimmee a break, will ya! haha )



The little desk will be where I will do my bills! Sorry- if it won't fit in that small space and those tiny drawers it will go in the trash! YEP!

Our expected company is my brother and sister-in-law from Alabama and a few days later my sister and brother-in- law from NC are coming too! We are hoping to have a mini-family reunion while they are here, with folks coming from south and central Florida and my sister and BIL who live here in Ocala-and all of my family! This, we hope, will come to be on Feb 7th! We'll see how it goes!

Oh! It's a rainy-gloomy day here! We need the rain, but still... NOT my favorite kind of day! Supposed to get colder again, too!

Well, seems the oranges didn't do too well with the recent freeze, after all. I tried doing some for juice and , even tho I cut off the soft part at the stem...the juice doesn't taste right! :( Charles says it's ok...but my taste buds know what Honey Bell juice is supposed to be!... Have to give it up and forgetaboutit! There's always next year!

~~~

Have a good day,

Junie Rose



Update:


Tonight we learned that my brother and sister-in-law will have to postpone their visit again as my SIL has developed a medical problem that has to be taken care of!
:( We hope they can make this visit in the near future!

~~~

The visit of my sister and BIL in NC is still on. (as far as I know). That will be next Saturday!

~~~~

Another icy day!

OK~

Alli - after reading my post today- reminded me of this other winter when we had icicles hanging from the citrus trees.

Actually, this was in our neighbor's yard.

Our neighbors had hoped to save these young orange trees from the freeze that had been predicted by running a sprinkler during the night.

When we saw this the next morning, Alli, of course, wanted to get some pics taken with this unusual sight! :)

...And I bet you folks thought we Floridians are only about SUNSHINE and BLUE SKIES!! ;)




Love,
Ginga

(Junie)

Something Very Special

This is something very special, 

received today in an email from my niece, Evie!

(Thanks, sweet girl!)

I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did!

Love,

Junie

Dan Fogelberg ~ Christmas

Here is some beautiful music from Dan Fogelberg's album

'The First Christmas Morning.'

( thanks to beggarsgame ~ Youtube)

Enjoy!

Love,

Junie

Watery Wednesday ~ Oct 8. 2008

OK

Here it is time for the Watery Wednesday photo challenge again... 

 Go here for more Watery Wednesday posts!



This is a chilling little pond... ( BELIEVE ME!! )


( Boone, NC ~ 2006 )








Go here for the rest of the story...

Love,
Junie 

 (The Cool One)

;)

Lazy day

Could it be that my music listens of late last night helped me sleep a long, restful sleep?
...( and without a sleep aid of any kind, I might add! )

What do you think?
I spent about 2 hours of viewing vids of Led Zeppelin and then ended the night's listening/viewing with some WHO at WOODSTOCK!

Naah!
It was probably the lateness of the hour (almost 2:00AM ) that promoted my sleep - NOT the music choices I had made! :)
Whatever- I had an enjoyable evening AND a good nights sleep!

Thanks ~ to whom ever or what ever is responsible in helping this to happen! :)

~~~

We had sort of planned a ride for today but the weather is not suitable; rainy and gray, along with chilly temperatures. So it's been a lazy day around here-so far!

Of course , there's that messy kitchen to get to- and that's the only excitement I see in my near future! lol- but it IS good to see the bottom of that sink, occasionally! Charles did me the favor (or not) of cooking us a big breakfast! Unfortunately, that doesn't usually include a clean-up!
Make that never! :)

Enjoy your day!


Junie Rose

Cold Oranges

Hey!

We DID have freezing temperatures last night and they are expected again tonight...but from what we can determine, our fruit was not ruined. Of course we can't say for sure yet, not being experts in growing oranges!

Lol- I DO know that one we sliced and sampled, off the tree early this morning was icy-cold...but it wasn't frozen!

Hopefully, it didn't stay below freezing long enough to do the damage~ and I hope it will be the same tonight! We don't sell the fruit so it's not a big $$ loss ...but I sure enjoy having the fruit to pick right out of my back yard.

These pics were made in the afternoon today. I was underneath the trees. These trees are not pruned much and the branches grow, touching the ground all around! You can part the branches and have this neat little hideout -like space under the trees. I was thinking today, while under there, how I would have loved a place like that when I was a kid ~ for a place to play!

LOL - I even love being under there now - as grown up as I am! :)

But just look how neat it looks under there...looking up through the branches!










The dark orange color ones are the Honeybells! The lighter color one is a different variety ~ Valencia- we have 2 of those trees and we also have a Navel Orange tree, here in the back yard. And have several Ruby Red Grapefruit trees and a few other oranges and tangerines, further back on our property!

I like having these right here in the yard and wish we had planted one grapefruit here too!
The grapefruit always do well and are more cold resistant than the oranges so I expect they will do ok with these freezing nights!

~~~

...But our Poinsettias went from this...









To... THIS! :(










They are not cold resistant at all but I still always plant the ones I get each Christmas...hoping they can make it through! These did make it through the holidays! yay!! And the plants will survive even this freeze...I just hate that the blooms got zapped when they were so pretty! They can survive a freeze if covered but there are so many planted here it would be a real job protecting them all. Charles bought a whole lot of plants last season-after Christmas at a very low price. They did well- and were looking great! I think most will come back!

We'll see!

Have a good night!

Keep warm!



Junie Rose

Florida cold

Hey, Today I'm doing THIS again...






...BECAUSE a hard freeze has been predicted for our area...several hours of freezing temps overnight! If that really does come to pass...I fear all this good citrus will be lost! :( There is just so much I can save...although the fruit will keep for awhile-refrigerated, but I am limited with space in my fridges. So I will just do what I can... I have never tried to freeze juice~ and besides...don't feel up to doing a whole lot of squeezing~ especially not knowing how it would turn out! There must be a way but I have never researched the subject and it's a little late now to face this situation!

LOL- Charles says,"Just let them freeze on the tree and then pick 'em and freeze them whole!" He was joking, of course! If only it could be that easy!! ;)

Oh,well! What will be will be!
(as Doris used to say in that song!!)

With a little good luck that freeze won't happen!!
We'll see!

~~~

Perhaps this will help!
We DID have our black eyed peas and hog jowl yesterday...to bring us good luck in the new year, ya know!







Oh, yes! This meal was prepared by the famous, 'Confused Chef!'
It was excellent, as one might expect!



Tonight I am making a pot of old fashioned chicken stew...and am doing it the way of the Confused Chef...which is to say ~ without a recipe. I did, however, cut off a lot of the fat! I make this with a whole chicken-stewed and the bones removed...then add chopped onions, carrots, celery~ potatoes. (in big pieces) Cook until veggies are tender. Then add canned tomatoes, canned or frozen corn, canned green peas or lima beans (or both) canned green beans... pick and choose the veggies as you like.. :)... salt, pepper, parsley flakes- as you like!

LOL- NO RECIPE- just all guess work!

Hope it turns out good 'cause I invited my sis and BIL to eat dinner with us. They are coming up for some more fruit before the freeze....

Charles just heard on the news of SNOW FLURRIES on the coast!

MAN!!
This is Florida!! What's with the snow flakes?

( HATE this global warming trend! ) :)

Gotta go and do that chicken stew now!

Later,

Junie Rose

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

:) Well- it's our version of cold, anyway! Actually, it has been necessary to turn on the heat -late nights and early mornings- pretty often.

This morning we went out for breakfast and as you see we needed light jackets! Of course I'm playing it up a little! I wasn't really cold to the point of shivering! :)

You can see Charles has grown his santa beard back-well- it's getting there, anyway! I like his beard! Don't you??

Later I went to do some Christmas shopping...got quite a lot accomplished! It's been hard this time, deciding what to get everyone! Oh, well! Hope everyone is happy with my choices! (I'm very uninspired-sorry!)

And finally got our Nativity set up! I'm pleased with it.


I'm going to try and make an early night of it tonight! I have a bad headache. Need to catch up on my sleep!


Junie