Treat for me!

When I came home last night there was a basket arrangement of edible flowers waiting for me on the doorstep! The 'flowers' were cantelope & honeydew melon, grapes, pineapple and strawberries, all in a bright blue & silver basket. The flavorful blossums made my house smell all fruity & sweet! The edible bouquet was a present from, Doris, my niece in Brooklyn and her little boys; WilliamAllen and Marion . You know I love the West Coast, but the tragedy of it is not being on the East Coast to see my Great-nephews and nieces grow up.

Need I even bother to say that I have wolfed down enough fruit to feed a huge flock of Flying Fox Bats - uh... they're fruitivores, don't 'cha know. I thought about Doris and the last time I saw her which was when I was still living exiled in Riverside County. Hopefully I'll meet her boys before they get to high school.

Special note - before I went to bed I took the basket apart so I could get it into the fridge. The fruit was skewered on plastic sticks, which I assumed were stuck into a styrofoam frog or some such thing. Turns out the basket contained an entire head of iceberg lettuce wrapped in kale! In the picture above you can actually see the dark green kale at the base of the arrangement. So unless you count the plastic skewers and bucket, the entire bouquet can be eaten. Doris did her Internet homework, as the company that made the bouquet is based here in Sacramento. It was great getting a treat healthy enough that I could stuff myself without feeling guilty about it. Is my niece Doris thoughtful or what?

Fresno Hen Party - Fall 2007

Hens - Rhonda, Ingrid, Barbara, Nancy, Robbie and Fran
Bwawk, bwawk, bwawk! Which means, it was time for a hen party, so all the Not-Exactly-Spring-Chickens 'crossed the road' to Ingrid's house in Fresno. Talk about a weekend flying by! For that matter, talk about talking - no wonder these get-togethers are called hen parties - we clucked continuously.


Host Ingrid slicing Her Delish Homemade Bread

Best Dressed Wine in Fresno - This Nevada City White Wine is sporting a lovely silk dress that Robbie brought back with her from Shanghai
When hens haven't been together in a long time they have a lot of clucking to do you know. Our chatting, as usual, covered a wide variety of topics - from the serious n' solemn, to the silly n' seditious. A new tradition this year; from now on who ever hosts the party gets possession of our symbolic, brightly painted and carved Russian hens. They're pretty cute; when you get the pendulum swinging the hens all busily peck their platform. Not only do our 'little hens' represent our hen personnas, but they also demonstrate a poultry version of kegal exercises.

Rhonda observes the Symbolic Hens demonstrating 'you-know-what' technique
Our chatting went on deep into the night - but not too late. OK, everyone else stayed up quite late, but as most of my feathers have fallen out, I was the first hen to retire on Saturday night; a hen needs her beauty rest.

 

The following morning we all downed oatmeal and fruit for our breakfast, then realizing we'd hardly budged in 24 hours, we opted for a walk under beautiful blue skies. Ingrid's neighborhood is adorable; lovely homes, beautiful yards, brilliant autumn colors everywhere.

 

Preparing to Walk off our '1st' breakfast (Hobbit Style)

'Tailed' by a Couple of the Neighborhood Kitties
After our lovely walk we had our '2nd Breakfast', Hobbit Style and then before we knew it, the Hen Party was over and we all had to fly off home. Bugger. Fun times never quite last long enough, do they?

The Holidays are Here, YIPPY SKIPPY!

My heater is on the fritz. So I woke this morning in my ice cave - the thermostat showed it was forty-seven degrees. EEEP. But, no worries - a repair person will show up bright and early tomorrow morning. I just threw a nice phoney log on the fire - the crackling sort - and when I start feeling the ice cycles forming on my nose I stand in front the fireplace and bask in the lovely flames (and like set my rump on fire). In a bit I will be baking two pumpkin pies to take over to Rick & Nancy's house. One is going to have a bottom layer of cheese cake - YUMMMM. We'll be a small group this year, but Mark & Fran will be down from Grass Valley and Diego is home from college so we're going to be all snug, happy and loved.