Welcome 2010

....this is post #100 !!!

When I started 100's & 1000's I wasn't sure if I would get to 20 posts.....

I wondered if I would run out of colourful little things to write about, and I wondered if you would get bored, but now 100 posts later I am still enjoying this little venture, I hope you are too!! Any comments you have left have been encouraging and are very welcome...thank you.


Happy New Year.

Cities of the dead...another side of New Orleans

Back in New Orleans again, we got another chance to visit the cemetery which was locked on our last trip. We strolled around two of the 42 cemeteries that are in and around the city, one with grand ornate tombs and wide tree lined avenues, and Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District surrounded by a tall wall with narrow paths - it was also a location of filming for Interview With a Vampire.

http://www.nolacemeteries.com/lafayette1.html

http://www.experienceneworleans.com/deadcity.html

Christmas - New Orleans Style

Garland swags on Street Cars

on houses

and balconies too





Wreaths made with beautiful Southern Magnolia leaves





Beautiful ribbon.....cut work, sequins and gold thread



Sparkly hotel lobbies




Shop windows that glow




It wouldn't be New Orleans without green, gold and purple...the Mardi Gras colours

Another stop at Sucre

We were in New Orleans for a chilly wet weekend in December, what better way to warm up than to stop in for a coffee at Sucre. That delicious looking pastry was a hazelnut chocolate eclair filled with orange creme...yum! Don't you love their Macaron Christmas tree? The marshmallows were decked out in candy cane colours, I wonder if they were peppermint flavoured too.

Time to pick up the knitting again

I got a good rhythm going and knitted happily away until I came to the heel.....with a bit of concentration I managed the first stage. But the next stage requires a bit too much concentration and I haven't had time for that...you know how a really good book, hosting a party, a weekend away and Christmas all tend to put a stop to most other things.



I am looking forward to some cozy nights by the fire and picking it up again.

A day in the life of Baby-Girl Squirrel PART 3

Weaned and ready for freedom...almost

Baby-Girl Squirrel and cage have been moved from the screened porch to the "wild" backyard. One step at a time :-)

The idea is to slowly get her used to her new world. I spent several hours (some might say I wasted several hours) watching from inside as other squirrels came to visit her. The first reaction was fear, both Baby-Girl and her visitor bolted from each other, she froze and watched for a long time. The visitor was braver and quickly explored the outside of the cage, then left to hunt for food. Baby-girl was braver the next time, there was a bit of nose to nose contact through the wire. Now visitors come and go....maybe it's time for the next step.



I have been leaving her food once a day plus throw in a handful of acorns. Before I open the door I have to lure her away with some seeds, which I pass through the bars to her, she will run off to the back and sit on a branch to eat them, it is then safe for me to slip the food bowl in without her slipping out. This is a new trick I have had to play because while she was in the porch I would just let her out to play and run. So far so good.....until this afternoon. Chester was out there with me and he spooked her....she bolted for the open door and got out.....he set in for the chase and had a grand time teaching her that the backyard was his territory. My heart missed a few beats and I was in panic mode...I chased them both. Thank goodness she didn't figure out that going up....fences or trees would be her route to safety, she hid behind things and I was able to catch Chester and remove him from the scene. She let me pick her up - her being exhausted and in shock helped! I carried her to the cage but before getting to the door she jumped down and wouldn't let me catch her again. She explored the trunk of a nearby tree so I sat down quietly, picked up the camera to take what I thought might be the last photos of a departing Baby-Girl. The pecan I held out to her was too much of a temptation and with that I managed to maneuver her back behind bars. I was exhausted!!!




She was exhaused too!!

A day in the life of Baby-Girl Squirrel PART 2

Pillow play

A day in the life of Baby-Girl Squirrel PART 1

That pecan sure was good

The search for a White Christmas

There will be a lot of cities and towns having a white Christmas this year, the weatherman has told us that we won't be one of them.

There is a lot about a white Christmas that I love:
the quiet, the brightness and cold, snowballs, rosy cheeks, markets with hot spiced wine, warm gingerbread and caroling while wrapped up in scarfs and woolly mittens, snow falling on lit up houses, a warm cosy kitchen, a Christmas eve service in a freezing church, roaring fires and even chestnuts.......but most of all, the sparkle.

My search for our own white Christmas began though the house, where I found snowballs and Santas, a few silver snowflakes, sequins and glitter, there are flickering candles and twinkly white lights, even snowy white sheep - and finally on to the small town of Fairhope, where the streets are lined with sparkly white lights.

Growing up with a summertime Christmas where a white Christmas was only in our dreams there will be plenty that I will miss: the bare feet and shorts, the Christmas lunch outside under the shade, the family arriving with fresh raspberries and peas from their gardens, the worry about flies landing on the food, the uncles and cousins picking up a cricket bat and starting a game, sunscreen or sunburn, the very hot kitchen with hopes for a breeze from the open window, the delicious cold puddings...........

Down where it is summertime you are waking up to Christmas eve today, the shopping is all done, the cooking begins and Father Christmas is on his way..... Merry Christmas to all!

Something is brewing

My Grandfather, Poppa (Pavitt) would be proud!

Memories of his home brewing came flooding back, while his great grandson set out to follow in his footsteps.

I was very glad that I could open all the windows the day of cooking!!

I have been told that it tastes pretty good! And that batch #2 will be started very soon.

Hmm...a delicious feast?

Delicious? maybe, it depends on who is eating it. But four teenagers thought it was delicious!

2 onions, grated,

salt & pepper

5 pounds of ground beef.

Mix together and form hamburger patty.

Cook 45 mins.

Top with 2 pound grated cheese

continue cooking until cheese melts

Cook two 10 inch pizzas - (cheese stuffed crust)
Place one pizza on platter

Top with hamburger patty

Top with 2 packets cooked bacon

Top with remaining pizza

Take photos

Slice and enjoy!!

You are invited for dinner.

now she is knitting...

Hey, we all need a new challange now and then....my latest is socks!! Maybe it's got something to do with wanting to have warm feet on these colder days (I have plenty of warm socks already) sitting by the fire when it's dark and raining outside, or maybe I just need to add another thing to the huge pile of handwork I have....who knows??

It all started when I ran out of wool making more baby beanies and headed out shopping for more when I saw a free sock pattern. Hmmm I thought, I could do that, so I picked out the "sock" yarn (which isn't very warm and maybe even a bit scratchy) , found the pack of needles and headed home.

The progress shown took me at least four tries....cast on 56 stitches and devide onto three needles..... got that done, but no where in the pattern did they tell me to use a fourth needle to do the knitting - finally I figured it out!

This is complicated! and looking down the instructions I have no idea what half of it means, so watch for progress updates :-)

A good book

I recently read "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. Thought it was a fantastic read which I couldn't put down - it's a huge book, so not much else gets done! Once finished I got the sequel and am now half way thru that...another huge book. So today I was excited to read that an eight-hour TV miniseries has been made of the book. Will air in the summer (northern hem) filmed in Austria & Hungary. I can't wait.

....and more on Baby-Girl Squirrel

I know, I have left you wondering how she is.

Almost weaned now I think. A week or two ago she started to just take a mouth full of milk then run off to see the world in her enclosed back porch, coming back for another mouthful before running off again...feedings became very long!!! Since then I have given her the milk in a little ramakin dish for her to snack on as she likes. Some days it is lapped up and others it is ignored. We put a small bowl of fruits and veges put in her cage twice a day. To teach her to hunt we add a selection of things like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, peanuts, chestnuts, and acorns, which we scatter around in the piles of leaves on the floor of the cage. The main food outside will be acorns, which she rejects as a last resort...she needs to change her ways. Her one and only love is the pecan which is in season now but not to be found out in our yard or any nearby yards. Once she is free I can see myself hand feeding those if and when she visits us.

Watching her natural instincts develop has been fascinating. When she is happy and climbing on us she makes a faint grunt noise, similar to a cat purring but shorter. I am finding nuts hidden away under things on the porch. When eating she picks up a nut and runs off to a safe branch to eat. She demonstrated her alarm call for the first time when a cat prowled from the other side of the screen (from the safety of my shoulder - frozen but for her tail - it was hilarious).

She is fast!!! it is nearly impossible to get a good photo of her now, she will jump and zip around in a blur - here she is zipping around on James(just home from school with a fat bleeding lip after being hit in the mouth with a basketball during PE)....only eight photos out of twenty that I got a bit of squirrel in them. The last photo she is just about to take off and land on the camera - she did that many times. She has jumped on Chester too, his reaction happens way after she has moved on.