Unsanitary ER Restroom

Yesterday my mom had a visit to her specialist in another city. She has visited this doctor a few times the last year, and every single time I have been along as chauffeur we have had an interesting experience.

This time my mom ended up in the Emergency Room at the hospital. Her blood pressure was waaay too high, and neither the specialist nor her general practitioner trusted it. So off to the ER we went. On the way, we rode in the elevator with a former English teacher of mine. Seeing someone who taught me over 40 years was interesting, but there was more to come.

After getting all set up behind the curtained cubicles in the ER, we waited. Luckily my mom's blood pressure went South (even before medication), and she was visited twice by a very kind and communicative doctor who seemed convinced that maybe Mom had eaten too much salty food the day before. Others in our family are sure that she has a bad case of the "white jacket syndrome." Whatever reason, she was checked out after about four hours and given the okay to go home.

She says she feels fine today, by the way.

Back to the ER situation. If you have ever been there, you know that there is no privacy. Our neighbors heard our conversations, and they even commented on what we said to each other. We tried not to comment on what they were saying to each other, but what a couple of "whackos." The poor woman professed to be in severe pain, but in the meantime she and "Daddy" analyzed the health care plans (they do not have any!), the end of time with our present government, and their own personal finances (not much to brag about).

After listening to that drivel, I tried out the nearest WC (toilet). Dirty! It was dirtier than most roadside service station toilets I have used. And they are far from clean. It was a shocking experience. (The ER neighbors let us all know they were surprised when they heard me tell my mom.)

Now I plan to tell the hospital CEO how dirty his ER toilets are. Hope I never have to go back there to see if he responds to complaints.

Winter and Summer in The Netherlands

I am sitting behind the PC where all of the photos are stored.

In the top photo, I thought I'd show you a January kind of day at our old house in The Netherlands. That was over 6 years ago. Today the temperature in The Netherlands is the warmest January day since they have been keeping track of the weather. 12 degrees C/ 53 degrees F!!!!! No Snow!

The lower photo is on a summer day. Since I wrote about sitting to do my gardening this morning, I thought I would show you that we had raised flower beds around the old hay stack.  The new owners knocked them down :(.

Back in the days that we lived in Zoeterwoude, I did my gardening sitting on the edge of the raised bed or on my little scooter.

Things haven't changed much except the scenery.

Gardening While Sitting

Several years ago we purchased a rolling garden box. Actually it works like the Fisher Price bus that our toddler son scooted on back 27 years ago. I sit on the garden scooter and am just the right height for weeding our raised veggie beds.

And that is what I have been doing the last two mornings. All five of the beds are weed free and ready for new nourishment (compost) and new seeds or plants.

Sometime in the last year, we purchased a child's schoffel. It isn't a hoe, but it works sort of like that. Instead of chopping down and then pulling towards you, with a schoffel you push away from you and under the weed. This loosens the soil and sometimes cuts the roots. The soil in our garden beds is so soft, that the weeds just push right out. With the child's schoffel, I then drag the weed plant closer to me and throw it into my compost collector basket. Easy Peasy!

(Funny Note:I just checked out the Dutch translation of the text above, and notice that weed is translated as marijuana. LOL Sorry, we do not have that stuff growing in our garden. Just Weeds!)

She Did It Again!

My blog follower M did it again! She put my blog over the 7,000 viewers mark. Thanks for reading my drivel (wonder if Google will translate that "nonsense" word).

How do I know that it was M and not V? I can see on my blogspot Stats the country location of the follower. And I know that M uses an iPad. Oops, V uses an iPad now, too. So maybe it was V who pulled me over the 7,000 mark. I will have to ask her.

Anyway, 7000 hits in 370 days is not bad.

As for numbers, I now have over 500 followers and 13,500 pins on Pinterest.

Now to just put into practice some of those garden tips on http://pinterest.com/wetcreek/beauregard-master-gardeners/.
http://pinterest.com/wetcreek/beauregard-master-gardeners/

Not Your Mamma's Cinnamon Rolls

This morning as I pinched off a big grapefruit size hunk of bread dough to get ready for the oven, I decided to give a cinnamon roll a try with another big grapefruit size piece.

The dough was not too sticky, and I floured the countertop so it would not stick. Then I smooshed the dough out as flat and as big as I could and smeared on melted butter. A lot of melted butter!

Then I sprinkled a lot of plain white sugar over the salted butter.

Lastly I sprinkled on speculaas spices (good, but next time I will stick to cinnamon).

Then I rolled up the dough tightly from the long side of the rectangle, pinched the edges of the bottom and flopped the whole thing into a baking paper lined pan.

I then treated the roll just like my bread. They both rested in the light heated oven for 15 minutes. Then I set them on the countertop to wait for the oven to heat to 450 degrees F. Just before I shoved them into the oven, I used my kitchen scissors to snip the tops. The cinnamon roll got lots of cuts down into the butter, sugar, and cinnamon. That is to let the heat get to the rolled up dough.

After 30 minutes the cinnamon roll looked done, so it left the heat while the regular bread continued baking for 5 more minutes.

Here is the results of the cinnamon roll. Not overly sweet, since this is "bread" dough. But it isn't a bad cinnamon roll. (not Memaw's, but a lot easier)

Directly from the Farmers' Almanac

Think I will try this:

This calendar lists favorable and not so favorable dates for various gardening and farming chores.

January 2013
24th-26th Favorable Planting Days: First Two Days Are Best For Planting Aboveground Crops. Especially Good For Peas, Beans, Cucumber, And Squash. Last Day Is A Most Fruitful Time To Plant Beets, Carrots, Onions, And Other Hardy Root Crops. Also Good For Transplanting.
27th-30th A Barren Time. Best For Killing Weeds, Briars, Poison Ivy, And Other Plant Pests. Clear Woodlots And Fencerows.
31st Favorable Day For Planting Root Crops. Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.

February 2013
1st Favorable Day For Planting Root Crops. Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
2nd-4th Plant Carrots, Turnips, Onions, Beets, Irish Potatoes, And Other Root Crops In The South. Lettuce, Cabbage, Collards And Other Leafy Vegetables Will Do Well. Start Seedbeds. Good Days For Transplanting.
5th-6th Neither Plant Nor Sow On These Barren Days.
7th-8th Any Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Do Well.
9th-11th Barren Days. Fine For Clearing, Plowing, Fertilizing And Killing Plant Pests.
12th-13th Plant Peppers, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, And Other Aboveground Crops In Southern Florida, California, And Texas. Extra Good For Cucumbers, Peas, Cantaloupes, And Other Vine Crops. Set Strawberry Plants.
14th-15th Seeds Planted Now Will Grow Poorly And Yield Little.
16th-18th Fine For Planting Beans, Peppers, Cucumbers, Melons, And Other Aboveground Crops Where Climate Is Suitable.
19th-20th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
21st-22nd Fine For Planting Beans, Tomatoes, Corn, Cotton, Cucumbers, Peppers, Melons, And Other Aboveground Crops Where Climate Allows. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
23rd-26th Clear Ground, Turn Sod. Kill Plant Pests.
27th-28th Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops. Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.

March 2013
1st-2nd Excellent Time For Planting Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now And For Starting Seedbeds. Good Days For Transplanting.
3rd-5th Poor Planting Days.
6th-7th Any Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Do Well.
8th-10th A Barren Period, Best Suited For Killing Pests. Do Plowing And Cultivating.
11th-12th Good Days For Planting Aboveground Crops. Fine For Vine Crops. Set Strawberry Plants.
13th-15th Cultivate And Spray, Do General Farm Work, But No Planting.
16th-17th Favorable For Planting Crops Bearing Yield Above The Ground.
18th-19th Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In The Ground.
20th-22nd Best Planting Days For Aboveground Crops, Especially Peas, Beans, Cucumbers And Squash Where Climate Is Suitable. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
23rd-26th A Most Barren Period, Best For Killing Plant Pests Or Doing Chores Around The Farm.

Where Would We Be Without Aluminum Foil?

Scrubbing pots and pans! That is where we would be!

I am a firm believer that if you can line a pan or cookie sheet with aluminum foil and bake your dinner either on it or in it, then you have saved yourself a lot of time in washing up.

Tonight was no exception. We had a real "Little House on the Prairie" root dinner with a piece of fish. And the veggies and also the fish were baked in aluminum lined pans in a hot oven. When we were finished eating, I folded up the aluminum foil and dropped it into the garbage. The small square metal pan for the salmon and the large metal cookie sheet for the sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, and garlic were spotless, so they were returned to their usual storage places as clean as before the bake.

Whether you call it tin foil (not made of tin anymore), aluminium foil ( not the original British spelling), or aluminum foil (Americans claim this spelling), "The first use of foil in the United States was in 1913 for wrapping Life Savers, candy bars, and gum. Processes evolved over time to include the use of print, color, lacquer, laminate and the embossing of the aluminum." (Wikipedia quote with my spelling changes)

Sooooo Happy 100th Birthday to American aluminum foil.

I can't cook without it!