This Past Week

Last Monday we had a little snow fall.  Most of it had melted by the afternoon.

It has been so warm here that many of my bulbs are sprouting and our trees are budding.  The snow doesn't seem to have bothered them.

This is Fats.  I named him that because he has such a fat face.  He has been coming to our house for 2 years now, wanting to be fed, then he leaves and we don't seen him again for several months.  I don't know if he belongs to anyone but he has decided that he wants to live with us.  During the snow I made him a bed on our front porch to try to keep him warm.  If he is still hanging around in March we are going to take him to the vet and get his shots and have him neutered.  I'm not ready to bring him into the house yet, you know, we have 3 cats already!



AND my daughter has rescued a cat that is pregnant.  Yes, I am sure I will bring home one of those kittens.  Looks like I will have 5 cats soon. 



On Tuesday the snow was gone but we had freezing fog which is much worse than the snow.  While driving you couldn't tell that the road was frozen, it simply looked wet.  People were crashing their cars all over the city.  I was glad I didn't have to get out until later in the day when it warmed up to 55 degrees. 

On Wednesday I decided to quilt a little.

Brutus decided he wanted to help and he buried himself under this quilt..cats..gotta love em.

Thursday I was back in the oncologists office for a check up and Friday house cleaning.

So goes it in the life of a retired person.  I LOVE retirement!!!

Until next time,

100 Degrees Again?

What is up with this weather?

I took this picture of our local weather man on September 1.  At that time I thought we were at the end of the hottest summer ever.....BUT Noooooooo.....today it was 104 degrees at my house.

BUT the State Fair of Oklahoma starts on Thursday which means rain and cooler weather is coming.   The weathermen are forecasting rain for Thursday.  It is so funny that it rains every year during the fair. 

It has been a while since I posted any pictures of my cats.  Today Nosey will be my model.

Behind Nosey (where the blue garden hose is) used to be nice green grass.

  It has all burned up in the heat. 

Guess I didn't use that blue garden hose enough.

And you can tell Nosey is sitting in a dry birdbath.  No birds for her today!!

She is sitting on top of the grandkids playground set, about 8 foot high.  She has a very good view of the garden from here. 

That's all for now.  Until next time,

Quilt Helpers

This is Beau and Brutus.  If I am quilting one of them is helping me.  This day they both decided to help.  They like to sit on my ironing board which means they get cat fur all over my ironing board.  As you can see I layed a piece of Chicago Cub fleece over the board and now they like to sleep here.  At least it keeps them away from the sewing machine needle.

Until next time,



Blooms and Cats

Look what I found in my garden this week.

Hellebores are blooming.  They have been blooming for 3 weeks now.

The last 2 daffodils. 

My 3 Cats

Nosey

Brutus

Beau

And hiding inside my garden shed is my lawn mower.  It will get to come out this week.  The lawn is ready for it's first mowing.

Until next time,



Chicken Breast Recipe

I have been reading my cookbooks, looking for a recipe(s) that sounds delicious and doesn't use too many strange ingredients.   I made a few things that were not all that special.  I have donated 10 cook books to the library booksale.  Maybe something in them will appeal to someone else.

This is a very tasty recipe that I made for dinner one evening this week.  

Chicken Breasts with Toasted Mustard Seed Sauce

6 skinless chicken breasts, boned

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp ground black pepper, divided

1 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions (I used finely chopped white onion)

3 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Place chicken breasts on a lightly greased rack in a broiler pan.  Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes; turn oven to broil, and broil chicken 6 inches from heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned.  Transfer chicken to a large serving platter.  Set aside and keep warm.

Place mustard seeds in a small skillet; cook over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until mustard seeds begin to pop and are lightly browned.  Removed skillet from heat.  Let mustard cool completely in skillet. 

Place whipping cream in a medium saucepan.  Bring just to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, stirring occasionally.

Stir in reserved mustard seeds, remaining 1/4 tsp salt, remaining 1/2 tsp pepper, onions, Dijon mustard and lemon juice; cook until mixture is thoroughly heated.  Pour sauce over reserved chicken.  Serve immediately.  Yield: 6 servings.

I served this over rice, with brocolli.  Since there are only 2 of us I halved the recipe and it came out great.

Now I must post a few pictures of the cats and of the evening sky.

Nosey sitting in the bay window.  She is soooo sweet.

Our new cat Beau, very content to be 6 foot up on top of the cat condo.

Our beautiful reddish pink evening sky. 

Until next time,



Meet our cat, Beau

Everyone, say Hi to our new cat.  I named him Beau.  I am studying french and Beau means "handsome" in french.  He is a very handsome and loving cat.

He is a stray.  My daughter lives in a rural area of town and Beau showed up at her front door 2 nights ago.  The sad part is he apparently belonged to someone.  He had on a flea collar and I can tell he has been a house cat.  He is rather skinny so we think he left home a few weeks ago or the former owner got tired of him and dropped him off in the country.  I have an ad on Craigs List lost and found hoping someone will claim him but if they don't I will give him a very good home.

For now I am calling him Beau.  We have 2 other cats and they are not very excited about another feline joining our family.  We will take it slow.  I hope within 2 weeks the 3 cats will start getting along. 

This will probably be my last post before Christmas so for now  MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Until next time,

Cooler Weather

Hello all my blogger friends.  I haven't posted in a while because it has been so darn hot here.  BUT the weather has been very nice the last 2 days.  Last night I was at the park with my 2 granddaughters and the air felt cool.  It was a little strange. 

I thought I would post a few pictures I snapped tonight in the yard.  Enjoy.

A view of the back yard. 

Flowers along the driveway. 

This is Dynamite Crape Myrtle and it has just started blooming.  The picture does not do it justice.  It is a bright red.

A little yard art. 

A look down the breezeway at dusk.

This is one of our 2 cats.  Her name is Nosey and she has found a little shade under the fire pit....(which I am so looking forward to using this fall). 

I have been sewing on several quilt tops but I never seem to take any pictures of them.  I am making myself a promise to post a few quilty pictures soon.

Until next time,

What I do during a Tornado

Today, around 5:00pm, we had several tornados touch down in the Oklahoma City area.  One was about 6 miles south of me, another about 5 miles south, another about 4 miles east.  My husband is out of town on business so I was responsible for keeping the cats and myself safe...that's scary!

So this is what I did.  My next door neighbor has a storm shelter but it was pouring down rain and hailing.  The storm sirens were sounding so I opted to go to the center of my house, which is my shower.  I loaded each cat in a crate and placed them in the shower.  I bundled up in a king size quilt, grabbed my purse, computer and camera.  Of course I had to take a picture of the cats!  The tornados passed quickly so I didn't have to stay in the shower long.  The cats were pretty calm during the whole ordeal. 

All of my family lives in this area.  They all know the drill.  Call Mom...me...and let me know where you are and how you are doing.  It seems tornados are always touching down during rush hour traffic.  What's up with that??  Anyway, the kids got home safely and my mom is fine.  The tornado touched down about 2 miles from my in-laws and they are without power. 

So that is my way to survive a tornado.  Hopefully I will never have to test my method to see if it works.   

Until next time,