Bean's Life: February 2014

I work two and a half days a week, it is a nice schedule and allows me to be available to babysit my grandchildren. I wouldn't trade my time with my grandchildren for anything, we have fun together, they amuse me, and I enjoy them very much.
I like having time to myself, I like to crochet, knit, sew, read books, quilt, all rather sedentary occupations but they keep me occupied during the winter months, I feel at a bit of a loss if I don't have a project going.
I am looking forward to spring, it has been a long, snowy, very cold winter, it is cheering to think that next month we can begin planting a few things in the vegetable garden. St. Patrick's day, March 17 is a traditional day to plant peas, and that is only four weeks away, that makes me very happy to think about. Peas, potatoes, onions, can be started early, I doubt I will plant on March 17, but just the thought that I could if I wanted to is very cheering.
I am so glad we keep a big garden and preserve so much of what we grow and I am glad we raised a couple of steers and have a full freezer of beef. We have had a tight six months, and the vegetables and fruit that we canned, the meat in the freezer, and the fresh eggs from our hens have been such a blessing and we have really been able to minimize our grocery expenses. Milk, butter, cheese, dog food, potatoes and onions seem to be the main items that appear again and again on our grocery lists. I think we save a lot cooking from scratch, as long as we have basic staples in the house we can make just about anything we want.
I feel very blessed, I see my grandchildren most days, most Sunday's all the kids, grandkids are here to eat and hang out, and at least once through the week, sometimes more we have a crowd for dinner, it is wonderful.Last night everyone was here, including my neighbor, for a big pot of chili, just the thing on a cold winters day, for desert we had yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was a fun, noisy meal.
Tonight I got home from work, I don't work again until Monday, it always takes me a bit to unwind from the hectic pace at the office. I had a nice cup of tea, putzed around on the internet, then decided to work on the bag I am knitting. I finished the second piece to the knitted bag last night, so tonight I had to block the pieces then sew them together and then make a lining and sew it into the bag. The house is very quite, I sat in silence at the kitchen table drinking my tea and sewing together the bag, then I went upstairs to my sewing room and again worked in silence while I put together the lining and sewed it into place. Silence is good! I feel calm, I feel myself again, I feel satisfied with a busy productive day at work, and a satisfaction in my almost completed knitting project, I still need to knit a handle for my bag, that I will do tomorrow.
I am reading another Alexander McCall Smith book, the third in the Scotland Street series, I really do enjoy AMS writing. And, I love the Kindle my kids got me for Christmas. It is so nice to borrow a book from the library via the Kindle, it might be three o' clock in the morning, I can browse the available ebooks at our library and once I find one it takes just a few seconds to download and have available to read - truly amazing. In my last post I mentioned I was reading Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, I thought I was going to enjoy it, initially I was drawn right into the story, but several chapters later I just lost interest in the main character and I didn't really like any of the other characters, so I skipped to the end to see what happened and then returned the book to the library.
I have really been enjoying The Waltons over the past month or so, I purchased season 7 a fair number of years ago, so took a few weeks to watch all of the episodes as I knitted or crocheted away. At our work Christmas party I won a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble, so two weeks ago I used it to purchase season 4 of the Waltons, it has taken me two weeks to watch all of the episodes. Now I want to get more seasons, but will have to wait. I do like season 7 except Grandpa is not in any of the episodes as the actor who played him, Will Geer, died between seasons 6 and 7, and Michael Learned who played the Mama left the show about two thirds of the way through the season.. John Boy is still in season 4, but I believe he left the show after season 5. I really like the episodes with Grandpa and John Boy still around. I don't care for season 8 or 9 so much, the show changed a lot, of course the children had grown up, but key characters were gone, Grandpa and Grandma were dead, John and Olivia were absent, John Boy returns but is played by a different actor. Cousin Rose comes to take care of the family, I like her character but always feel as it the Walton girls are kind of mean to her and put her down a lot. And poor Ronnie Clair, who played Cora Beth really had her work cut out as the character becomes more and more over the top. But even though Cora Beth is over the top she is still a very entertaining character, and as the seasons rolled on she became more of an eccentric rather than a somewhat mean spirited gossip she was portrayed as in the beginning of the show. A few episodes were silly, The Poltergeist being one, and another where suddenly it turns out Mary Ellen's husband, Kurt, didn't die in the war after all. But there are so many really good episodes, the Pearl Harbor attack episode is just one of them. I loved that Ellen Corby, who played Grandma, returned to the show after her stroke and was wonderful in the show.
The Walton's was produced by Earl Hammer, he is the "real" John Boy and the show is loosely based on his books and his childhood. I have read all of Earl Hammer's books, he is a very gifted writer, with a good sense of humor, and an eye for detail, I would highly recommend any one of his books and they are probably available at your local library.
Anyway, enough already, this post was not supposed to be all about The Waltons' but I love the show and I guess that is perhaps a bit too obvious :)

Well that is all that is going on in my mind this evening.

Good Night,

Bean

Okay, this is weird, and sad. I finished this post and went to Yahoo to check my email, and on the news page up pops a picture of Ralph Waite, the actor who played the father in The Walton's. Sadly he died today at the age of 85, RIP Mr. Waite, we sure enjoyed your work and will always remember you as the Dad in The Walton's.

Well we have had a very snowy winter, at least thirty-eight inches of snow for the season, and a very cold winter, we are sub-zero again and it is February! Roll on springtime. But the sun is shining, the snow is beautiful and the robins have returned, boy I bet they wish they had waited a little longer. The sparrows mob the suet feeders all day long, poor little things having to survive in these brutal temperatures.

I have read several books, I am on my second Alexander McCall Smith book, I read Espresso Takes from the 44 Scotland series and am now reading The Full Cupboard of Life from his #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. They are good reads, funny, AMS is good at picking up and presenting the quirkiness in people without going overboard. I read Jurassic Park, I had never read the book, it was a fast read, lots of action, but I kept feeling that the characters as supposed top experts in their scientific fields took lots of unnecessary risks and seemed to do rather foolish things, but if they didn't it would have been hard to have all the action and danger. Another book I enjoyed immensely was The Witch Doctor's Wife by Tamar Myers, an excellent story, well written, good plot, enjoyable characters. I am now reading Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, a recommendation from another blogger, here , so far so good, the opening sentence pulls you right into the story and off you go, I like books that do that.

I have watched many episodes of The Walton's on DVD while knitting and crocheting and have watched several movies, I really enjoyed re-watching Signs last week. Here are some pictures of my recent crochet and knitting projects, and some pictures of winter in NE Indiana.