Youngest daughter visited us in Arizona last month. She, who introduced me to Pour Paints last year, showed me another way to play with color – by making dots. Where Pour Paintingis imprecise, dots go exactly where they are told to go!
Andy Amazon delivered me a set of Dotting Tools a day after I ordered them. Daughter chose some flat rocks to make dots on. I used eight of my small (3 to 4 inch) discarded pour paintings – so I had nothing to lose!
The best part of having the right tool to do the job is this: when I dip the stylus into the paint, I can make a row of four to six dots, (each dot slightly smaller than the one before it) before I have to pick up some more paint.
So, here is what I ended up with:
Chaos in the Kelp Bed…Angels and Demons (I’m reading ‘Good Omens’ – can you tell???)A Look Inside a Blood Vessel (not sure what the green bits would be, though)When I Grow Old I’ll Wear PurpleInvasion Routes: Green if by Land, Blue if by Sea, Pink if Just ObservingRed Mars OneRed Mars TwoSpaghetti with peas and corn (maybe in a bowl or maybe in the garbage…)
So, which ones are keepers, and which ones should go back into the discard pile?!?!?!
The former Guest Bedroom, which had, before that, been my Office, which had, before that, been the grandchildren’s bedroom (when the grandchildren, and their parents, of course, had lived in the Red House and The Car Guy and I didn’t because we were living in England and then the Middle East.)
In a previous post I revealed my latest Reno Grand Plan! I wanted to convert a guest bedroom into a Paint Pour Room.
Well, the job is done! It took the better part of two weeks (because these things always take twice as long as planned.) Why? A narrow strip of wallpaper border was stuck there by forces rarely encountered in normal life. I removed the baseboards and sent them to the wood recycling pile because no woman in her right mind would take the time to turn that spicy red colour into Benjamin Moore Snowfall White. Surprisingly, it took only two coats of Benjamin Moore Manchester Tan to get the walls one colour.
Many thanks to The Car Guy who installed the new baseboards and upgraded everything that involved wires that carry electricity. (Ever since the incident with my putty knife and an electrical outlet… well, lets just say I steer clear of anything that makes sparks…)
The finished room, same viewpoint as the bedroom photo, but now there is a painting table and display area for book folding.On the other side of the room are shelves for displaying paintings and bare walls for hanging my tangle and paper tole pictures.
And so ends that reno project!
Sort of related, but maybe not, I keep up my energy for doing stuff by eating an egg for breakfast. Every day. Egg brands come and egg brands go, but this one caught my eye because it specifically says “WHITE” eggs. In this day and age, declaring something to be ‘white’ is quite a bold statement and to put it in all caps is even bolder. So I researched ‘Sparks’ eggs and they are indeed sourced from smallish Alberta egg farms and each farmer sells either white eggs or brown eggs. The colour of the egg depends on the breed of chicken. Nutritionally they are the same. Often the brown eggs are a bit more expensive, but I don’t know why.
Moving outdoors to our Red House Property, the photographer, who frequently sets up shop near our woods, has been doing dog photos. This is one of her latest.
Proud mom and pop dog with their litter. Quite amazing that all the dogs are in a row, though you just know that one of them will have a shorter attention span than the rest.
As for gardening, I’ll do a post of the yard later, but am happy to report I planted the vegetable garden in far less than a day. (The very next day it rained.) Timing is everything, they say, though I’m not sure timing will affect the output of this year’s garden. My heart wasn’t really in it, so I randomly scattered seed in each of the plots then added a ‘not too thick, not too thin’ layer of wood chips (of which we have many cubic yards of ) thanks to men with big saws and chippers who have spent the last 5 years chopping down dead trees and creating big piles of chips.
Dead trees – forests make them no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t. Climate change enthusiasts might point out that the last few years of low rainfall are why some of our trees have died. I would heartily agree except for the fact that a certain percent of our trees die every year, even during wet years. I think a more likely explanation is that our woods thrived all too well during the twenty-five years we had more than enough rainfall and didn’t give any thought at all as to how they would support all their ‘spawn’ when we had a few dry years… poor planning on their part…
A few days ago I heard the Whoo Whoo of a Great Horned Owl, then a response by something that did not sound owlish at all. So I slowly circled the area where I had heard the hoots coming from and eventually saw an adult Great Horned Owl. More circling. Finally found the owl’s nest about 18 feet (6 m) up in a spruce tree. I am staying well back from the nest – not so much because I don’t want to spook them but because I can’t stand near the bottom of a spruce tree and see much of anything buried in the branches at the top of the tree…
It looks like there are at least two owlets. I don’t know how many weeks old these nestlings are, but probably not old enough to begin flight training!
This is the second time I have been able to watch baby Great Horned Owls develop here at the Red House! I have been able to monitor nests at the Bland Beige House in Arizona three times. Right Place, Right Time!
Owlets, June 5, 2024
As for the non-owlish sounds I heard, apparently Great Horned Owls have about 17 different vocalizations. I was hearing owlets reminding the parents it was lunch time. The Car Guy, who has been listening to my vocalizations for 54 years and 5 months, tells me I have an ‘is dinner ready yet’ vocalization too. Also one for ‘I think I saw a Dairy Queen!’…
Sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami are five taste elements that build our overall perception of flavour. When each element is perfectly balanced – not only on the plate, but across an entire meal – the dining experience is lifted above and beyond.
– Le Cordon Bleu –
Did you know that Salt enhances most other flavours present in a recipe – particularly sweetness?
With that in mind The Car Guy chose Bacon Wrapped Oreos to conclude our dining experiences as we closed out our Snowbird Entertaining season in Arizona.
A Simple Recipe with Few Ingredients:
The National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) introduced the Oreo Cookie in 1912. Nabisco has introduced many new flavors over the years, including my favourite – Double Stuf Oreos – which The Car Guy used for this recipe.
Bacon is very fatty – one-half to two-thirds of a strip is fat! In this recipe, he used regular cut bacon, not thick slices.
The prep work is fairly straight forward. Wrap the Oreos in bacon. After some trial and error, The Car Guy perfected this. The key was to use two pieces of bacon, (each piece long enough to cover the top, sides and bottom of the cookie but with no overlap) and to wrap the cookie once from left to right, then a second wrap from top to bottom. (I don’t know how else to explain the wrapping. Look at the photo below if what I said makes no sense…)
(Some people only use one piece of bacon and only wrap in one direction. The Car Guy tried that but the cookie became crumbly after cooking where it wasn’t wrapped. Some people sprinkle a BBQ spice on the bacon before they cook.)
He put the bacon parcels on a metal baking pan covered with parchment paper. The cut end of the bacon was on the lower side. (See photo again).
All four sides of the cookie were covered with bacon. The artistic arrangement of the stripes on the bacon was purely accidental…
He slid the pan onto a Traegar Wood Pellet Grill.. (You could use a regular BBQ or you could cook these in an oven.) Some people put the wrapped cookies directly on the BBQ grill.
The Car Guy flipped them once when the bacon was getting crispy.Ready to eat! They are as good cold as they are when still warm!
Other Observations about Bacon:
What did the Hershey’s bar, the marshmallow, and an Oreo cookie use to communicate? S’mores Code.
Bacon Bourbon Milkshakes… because sometimes being an adult is hard.
As yet unanswerable questions:
Will ‘Cooking with The Car Guy‘ be a one off or an ongoing series?
Is there a two ingredient recipe that triggers the umami taste buds that can be cooked on the Traeger? (If there is, then maybe ‘Cooking with The Car Guy’ might not be a one off…)
Why hasn’t anyone come out with a line of mouse-flavored cat food yet?
Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?
Since tomatoes are a fruit, should ketchup be considered a smoothie?
Why is bread squarish and sandwich meat roundish?
If revenge is a dish that’s best served cold, and revenge is sweet, then is revenge ice cream?
Apparently puns — even ones that are gleefully awful – require both the left and right sides of the brain. The left side is the linguistic hemisphere that processes the basic language of the pun. The right side analyzes the surprise double-meaning of the punchline!
Now, in an unprecedented ‘two for one’ event, I give you Signs of the Times and Puns!
I can’t decide whether to grill chicken breasts or chicken thighs
I guess I’ll just wing it.
How to earn a ton of money in 1 easy step.
Put 5 female pigs and 5 male deer in your backyard.
You now have ten sows and bucks!
Due to COVID-19, the German government was advising that people stock up on sausages and cheese. They are preparing for a wurst käse scenario.
This reminds me of the always present road work on the I-15 going through Salt Lake City. There are 164 miles of HOV lanes (total both directions) which makes the highway both a dream and a nightmare, depending on how often you get behind a slowpoke…
A length of freewaywalked into a bar, and yelled out “I’m the meanest bit of road west of the Pesos, nobody wanna mess with me!”
Then some duplicated overpass walked into the bar. “Anybody think they’re tough enough to take on this piece of transit infrastructure? Well, are ya?”
Finally a stretch of dual carriageway walked into the bar. “This bad boy is badder than all you weaklings, whaddya gonna do about it!”
As they were all glaring at each other in a Mexican standoff, some bicycle laneway walked into the bar, threw a chair out of the way and kicked over a table. “I’m the roughest, toughest, meanest, baddest piece of asphalt there is! You’re all soft snowflakes! Ain’t anyone who has the guts to take me on!”
The first three roadways all immediately turned to the bar and started meekly sipping their drinks, trying to look inconspicuous. The bartender asked them “What’s the matter, are you going to let him get away with that? Why don’t you stand up to him?”
“We aren’t going to mess with him”, they replied, “He’s a real cycle path“.
You have a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right…
Parked outside my favourite restaurant and ended up with a parking ticket…
Fined dining.
What do you call a human swimming in the ocean?
Shark-uterie.
My wife sent me a heartwarming text that read, “If you’re sleeping, send me your dreams. If you’re laughing, send me your smile. If you’re eating, send me a bite. If you’re drinking, send me a sip. If you’re crying, send me your tears. I love you!”
I replied, “I’m on the toilet, please advise…”
‘Lend me your ear’: When an early bird and a night owl are stuck in a vehicle for hours on end – conversation will be somewhat painful for the night owl..
And so it was that the Quiet Husband (The Car Guy) and his Overly Talkative Wife (me) were in The Dingo (the Dodge Durango) for four full days on the annual Snowbird trip from Arizona to Alberta.
On the first day, the Wanting Some Quiet husband stopped at Navajo Bridge where he embraced the peaceful magnificence of the area… until his Wanting to Talk Wife got to chatting with another tourist who pointed out a Black Blob on an overhang above the river. Black Blob was also blissfully enjoying some time out of the strong and gusty wind, unaware of the great excitement on the bridge where a bird watcher had identified Black Blob as a rare California Condor. Talkative Wife had never seen a Condor before and she, well, talked about it, and birds in general, for many, many miles once they were back in The Dingo again.
Navajo Bridge
California Condor
Now, to be fair to the Overly Talkative Wife, (who has 54 years and 4 months of experience in trying to be quiet, especially in the morning), she really was doing her best to curb her tendency to think aloud. But on the second morning, when she blurted out that she had a Grand Plan to turn the extra bedroom into a Paint Pour Studio, she wasn’t really expressing a well thought out idea. In fact, she didn’t think she was lobbing a missile that could very well be shot down before it even gained any altitude. No, she was just thinking out loud.
Fortunately, Red Canyon, Utah loomed on the horizon and that was such an awesome place that the Quiet Husband and his Talkative Wife were nearly speechless!
Red Canyon
Red Canyon
Red Canyon Tunnel
Red Canyon
Further down the road, Bryce Canyon was wonderful too and for the next few hours their conversation was primarily “WOW” and more “WOW”!
The third day started with driving the loop road of the The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah. For the most part Little to Say Husband stayed in The Dingo (with the windows rolled up to keep the insects out) while Chatty Cathy Wife was outside, talking to the birds while taking pictures. It should be noted, though, that both of them discussed, and agreed, that they didn’t expect to see so many Canada Geese with goslings. Rather disappointing, from the Wife’s perspective, since she often sees Canada Geese in her back yard in Alberta. She didn’t really want to see more of them claiming refuge status in Utah.
White Pelican
Western Grebe
Snowy Egret
American Avocet
Great Blue Heron
Cinnamon Teal
Canada Goose
White Faced Ibis
The Grand Plan for the Paint Pour Studio gained some traction that afternoon as The Dingo continued north to Helena, Montana. Once the Verbose Wife backed down on major structural modifications (like taking out a wall between the new studio and the old craft room) the plan grew in estimation in the eyes of the Quiet Husband. Wise man that he is, he knew that Wife was now very keen on the project and would do most of the work… whether he agreed to the plan or not. He has 54 years and 4 months experience too…
The next day the Quiet Husband and the Talkative Wife were both increasingly happy as the anticipation of ‘going home’ grew. No matter how ‘at home’ a Snowbird feels in Arizona, it always feels good to cross the border into Canada. Conversation after the border was limited to discussions of which Tim Horton’s Restaurant to have lunch at, how green or not green the fields were, whether to stop to get groceries before getting home and whether the daffodils would be in bloom yet. The mundane in preparation of landing, as it were.
Epilogue: The Tim Horton’s Sandwich Wrap was very tasty; groceries were bought; the first daffodils had just started to bloom and the Paint Pour room reno is at the ‘who would have thought that wallpaper would take so long to remove’; ‘how many coats of paint will it take to cover Casabel Chile with Manchester Tan’ and ‘does the lumber store even carry that style of baseboard any more?’ stage.
When I look back on the past few months, I am surprised (once again or maybe as usual) that my ‘Adulting’ skills are not progressing much. I’m not sure why. I’ve been surrounded by people who seem to have adulthood figured out. For the most part they are even younger than I am. With three quarters of a century of living under my belt, shouldn’t I have progressed a bit further?
But no, I’m still impulsive when I should be cautious, vocal when I should be listening, inappropriate when I should be, well, appropriate. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be an adult. Maybe I should just move on to being something else – maybe a mermaid.
Adulting, Adultery and Other Thoughts on Being (or Not Being) an Adult
English, being the complicated language it is, deems adulting to be a perfectly acceptable use of ones time, while adultery is not. I’ve discussed this in another post wherein I compare my job of webmistress with the possibly lucrative avocation of Mistress. (Once again, one of these occupations is frowned upon by society.)
Adultery is a sin: you can’t have your Kate and Edith too.
– United Methodist Church –
Being an adult is like folding a fitted sheet.
– Author Unknown –
Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250.
– Author Unknown –
1. Going to bed early. 2 Not leaving my house. 3. Required Naps.
My childhood punishments are now my adult goals.
– Author Unknown –
I never met anyone who didn’t have a very smart child. What happens to these children, you wonder, when they reach adulthood?
– Fran Lebowitz –
Today, of course, our paranoia about child safety has reached this fabulous zenith whereby kids are only allowed to trick-or-treat accompanied by an adult… But back in the blithe, porno-soaked, latch-key seventies, the idea of trick-or-treating with a parent in tow was unthinkable — like publicly disclosing a preference for Barry Manilow.
– Steve Almond, “Night of the Living Freak,” Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, 2004 –
When you grow up your mother says, ‘Wear rubbers or you’ll catch cold.” When you become an adult you discover that you have the right NOT to wear rubbers and to see if you catch cold or not.
– Diane Arbus –
…how many people today even know what it means to wear the kind of rubbers that were supposed to keep you from catching a cold?
I walk every morning when I am in Arizona. Just me and my camera. I photograph birds and flowers – and this year an ant hill too. I talk to other walkers and I talk to their dogs – though only the dogs that respond enthusiastically when I say “Good Morning Dog”.
One of my favourite walks is to (and through) an 18 hole Putting Course in the community next to ours. This time of year (snowbird exodus time) the course is empty and peaceful in the morning. With no eyes to judge my lack of ability, I’ve been taking my putter with me. I pretend I am a good golfer!
Happiness is a long walk with a putter.
– Greg Norman –
Here are some of the Birds I see at the Putting Course:
Great Blue Heron
Cormorant
Cardinal – male
Phainopepla – male
Great Tailed Grackle
Bald Eagle
Here is the Course – you can see why the birds like it there!
South entrance to the course. “Over the hills and fore away…”The red flag on the right side of the photo is Hole 11. I’ve only made a ‘hole in one’ once and this was the hole!
Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white, sold by the dozen, and a week later you have to buy more.
This is one of the two man made lakes – home to ducks, coots, cormorants, herons… and probably fish.This is the second lake. The tree on left often has cormorants sitting on the branches. Now and then Bald Eagles perch there too.A waterfall – herons usually stand on the rocks.The cormorant tree again. I dislike cormorants. They make a huge mess in the trees.A smaller water feature.
I’ve been playing at this course regularly for the past month. Usually The Car Guy is still asleep when I set out, so he is unaware of how much time I am gone or who I spend time with while I am out.
Here is a story about a man who didn’t trust his wife as much as The Car Guy trusts me!
Dear Abby,
I’ve never written to you before, but I really need your advice. I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. The usual signs. Phone rings but if I answer, the caller hangs up. My wife has been going out with “the girls” a lot recently although when I ask their names she always says, “Just some friends from work, you don’t know them.”
I always try to stay awake to look out for her coming home, but I usually fall asleep. Anyway, I have never approached the subject with my wife. I think deep down I just didn’t want to know the truth, but last night she went out again and I decided to really check on her. Around midnight, I decided to hide in the garage behind my golf clubs so I could get a good view of the whole street when she arrived home from a night out with “the girls.”
It was at that moment, crouching behind my clubs, that I noticed that the graphite shaft on my driver appeared to have a hairline crack right by the clubhead.
Is this something I can fix myself or should I take it back to the pro shop where I bought it?
The first Great Horned Owlet left the nest on about April 29. Now most (or all) of the owlets are flying from the nest to nearby trees, to the ground below the trees and back to the nest. They look identical, so it is impossible to tell if they have all actually taken that first flight or not!
Great Horned Owlet – April 27Great Horned Owlets – April 28Great Horned Owlet – April 29. Possibly the first to leave the nest and looking none too pleased with the location it landed.Great Horned Owlet – May 3
Watching these owlets has become a very popular activity with our neighbours and with many of the walkers in our community. I stop by the tree every morning to take pictures and have had the privilege of meeting and talking to dozens of people. I am going to miss these ‘social’ mornings when the owls have left the nest the last time!
Speaking of leaving, we are getting the Durango packed and are almost ready to start our annual trek to The Red House, north of Calgary,Alberta, Canada.
Apparently it is finally spring there, though the last frost often occurs as late as May 23 and it has been known to snow in May and early June.
Last, but not least, but still about birds (I found this item interesting because The Car Guy and I used to be motorcyclists… as in he drove the bike and I was b…. on the back):
The RCMP found over 2000 dead crows on Alberta hwys recently, and there was concern that they may have died from Avian Flu. A Pathologist examined the remains of all the crows, and, to everyone’s relief, confirmed the problem was NOT Avian Flu. The cause of death appeared to be from vehicular impacts. However, during analysis it was noted that varying colours of paints appeared on the bird’s beaks and claws. By analysing these paint residues it was found that 98% of the crows had been killed by impact with motorbikes, while only 2% were killed by cars.
The RCMP then hired an Ornithological Behaviourist to determine if there was a cause for the disproportionate percentages of motorbike kills versus car kills. The Ornithological Behaviourist quickly concluded that when crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow to warn of danger. They discovered that while all the lookout crows could shout “Cah”, not a single one could shout “bike”
I thought it would be nice to make the Goldfish smile, but could not decide where its mouth would be… but It looks Like a Goldfish, Right!?
I was motivated to do a Goldfish when I watched the TV series ‘Ted Lasso’.
‘Ted Lasso’ is a three season sports-comedy-drama show on Apple TV. Ted, an American college football coach, accepts a job with an English Premier League soccer team. Though he knows nothing about soccer, he knows how to motivate the players with his folksy, optimistic stories:
You know what the happiest animal on earth is?
It’s a Goldfish.
You know why? It’s got a ten second memory.
– From the show ‘Ted Lasso’ on Apple TV Plus –
‘Be a Goldfish’ is perhaps the most famous piece of advice in the entire series. One of the soccer players makes a mistake during practice. He has trouble moving past the error. Ted tells him the Goldfish story to encourage the player to quickly put the error behind him and get on with the game.
Some more wisdom from Ted Lasso:
All right, fellas, you gotta remember, your body is like day-old rice. If it ain’t warmed up properly, something real bad could happen.
Hey, takin’ on a challenge is a lot like ridin’ a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doin’ it, you’re probably doin’ it wrong.
You could fill two internets with what I don’t know about football.
I know you are expecting this post to end with some wisdom that I found on the internet!
My goldfish started a band, but they only play scales!
Two goldfish are in a tank
One looks at the other and says: “Do you know how to drive this thing?”
When I look back on the past few months, I am surprised (once again or maybe as usual) that my ‘Adulting’ skills are not progressing much. I’m not sure why. I’ve been surrounded by people who seem to have adulthood figured out. For the most part they are even younger than I am. With three quarters of a century of living under my belt, shouldn’t I have progressed a bit further?
Speaking of leaving, we are getting the Durango packed and are almost ready to start our annual trek to The Red House, north of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Amusives 