Category Archives: grandchildren

I begin the year with Christmas Day.

Christmas, food and cooking, grandchildren, , , ,

Before January is half over, I will share the last of my Christmasy activities and images. I don’t want to wait until next year to tell of the occasion shown above, when my grandsons Raj and Rigo were quick to lend a hand moving decorations into the church, the Sunday before Christmas.

I went back to having a freshly cut tree this year; it only required getting help from a friend and a son. But I had no time to trim it before family started arriving, so Raj and Rigo helped me with that, too, almost as soon as they walked in the door.

One toy I bought in advance of figuring out whom I would give it to, was these Magnet Men. They turned out to be the perfect toy to give to the whole bunch of (nine) kids to play with together, and in my house they provided hours of fun. For most people, I think, the refrigerator might be the only object they could interface with, though I heard of children using a set of dumbells for a Magnet Men playground.

They are very acrobatic, and hold on to each other, as you can see, but my entry and stair railings made the perfect equipment to show off their gymnastics. I sent all the cute toys home with the grandchildren, but maybe I should have kept some here, where they are the most fun.

I had a friend over for tea one day and used some of my Christmas gnome placemats for the last time, serving up the last of the Christmas cookies I’d baked, and four little pieces of rose-flavored Turkish Delight that I’d bought especially for Christmas. That rose candy was so beautifully flavored, to me it seemed the exotic star of every plate of sweets. If only it weren’t so, so sweet…. but then, it wouldn’t be Turkish Delight.

We Glads have a few Christmas traditions that we return to, not always every year, but when the combination of people and days aligns properly. I’m thinking of oyster stew, which came through Mr. Glad’s German and English families. Or was it just the German side? I have made it many times using the recipe in the Joy of Cooking that my mother gave me at my marriage. This year son Soldier volunteered to make the stew, which is really a bisque or soup, and he began to read the recipe in that book.

Soon everyone in the kitchen was laughing uproariously as he read aloud the amounts of some ingredients. For example, 1/4 teaspoon chopped onion, and “a sliver of garlic.” I didn’t see how much onion Soldier put in, but I heard that several cloves of garlic were minced and added. From my garden I brought in chives and parsley, which were used in generous quantities. After all 18 of us were seated at two tables, the oysters were dropped into the broth, and soon the glorious stew was served into bowls and set before those who were willing or eager to try it. I found it to be the best I’ve ever eaten.

I have another “Overthrow the Tyranny of Months” calendar from Beauty First Films, which leads me in joyful anticipation of upcoming weeks, often several more than four at a time. Here is the page I’m looking at now:


How sweet is it, to have my 2025 calendar start with Christmas Day?? I’m waiting until February 2 to take my tree down, and will wait until next December to write any more about Christmas. More feasts and seasons are upon us, the days full of good things.

One of those that happened in our family recently was the birth of my son “Pathfinder’s” first grandchild, my second great-grandchild. I may need to meet him before I will think of a nickname, and he lives a good distance from me, so you will have to wait for details. The Whole Glad Family welcomes Little Guy ❤

Rejoice Evermore!

 

Maggie and other marvels.

grandchildren, my garden, ocean, , , , , , , , ,

Granddaughter Maggie was here for a few days with her mother Pearl. Maggie continued her road trip back to college but Pearl is with me still. They fill my heart and my days by being their sweet selves. Since I typically do all my own work, I am constantly startled when I notice that someone is loading the dishwasher or shredding the lettuce for tacos or whatever task, before I even get to the point of realizing it needs doing.

We went wine tasting for a short while one day; at one vineyard we took a one-mile walk through the rows of vines, and it smelled really good in there: chardonnay, cabernet, syrah, viognier, dried grass, all lending their scents to the air, but mildly, because it was a coolish day.

Ice plant at the beach.

The next day, to the beach! Pearl and I walked down the shore quite a way, and when we came back we all just lay there in the sun. I lost consciousness for at least a few minutes, lying on my back with the sun heating my face through my hat. As we stared out past the edge of land to the vast Pacific, Maggie said that the ocean seems to our eyes as big as outer space. I thought how nice it would be if I could restart the regular beach outings that I made so often in 2020 and 2021.

My granddaughter spent quite a while collecting tiny pieces of sand. She was conceiving a plan to use them in the Instagram-alternative scrapbook she is starting; she will glue them on to the page and then paint over them with clear nail polish so they might continue to look wet.

That evening we were able to sit on the patio for a dinner that I made, which included chard from my garden. I had washed it up a few days before, during which process I realized that I had four varieties of Swiss chard growing out there.

I pulled out some of that chard, to make room for new plants that I grew from seed in the greenhouse over the last month, and most of which I have set out in the planter boxes. Portuguese Kale, two varieties of collards, Italian Silver Rib Chard — and a new one from the mustard family: Tatsoi. Here it is when its true leaves were barely emerging.

Also Detroit Red Beets. If half of the seedlings I set out thrive, I should have plenty of greens to get me through the winter and into next spring.

Lastly, I show you the barrel planter, where the the snapdragons and Tropical Sage seem to take care of themselves and keep reseeding and blooming. The salvia that was pink for two or three years just last week sprouted stems of red-orange flowers. I saw them from the kitchen window, and had to run out right away to see what they could possibly be. When I give my attention to the garden, even just a little bit, it rewards me abundantly.

Tending the boys and the garden.

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This morning I walked to the neighborhood recreation center with the boys to play with their stomp rocket. We had a lot of fun, until suddenly the grass was itchy and they were hot and/or tired. We headed home to have a cold juice and play in the basement for a while.

After that we made paper fans, played War with a deck of cards, put together a puzzle of the world, played with trains, and made some progress on a large Lego project that is a bit too hard for their ages. Two Lego workers had only one tiny walkie-talkie between them, which didn’t bother the toys, but caused the boys to fight over it. I slipped it into my pocket to make peace.

In the afternoon Tom went out back to tend the little garden, and we all joined him. I identified a few plants with my Seek app — Scarlet Bee Balm is a favorite with the bees, who taste its value deep inside the narrow tubes that are its petals, even though the flowers generally look a little worse for wear. I put my nose down close and found that flower to be the sweetest of the collection. I’ve never grown it in my own garden, but I would like to.

One prickly looking plant was the Carolina Horsenettle, Solanum carolinense, not a true nettle but a member of the nightshade family, which has set fruit that looks like tomatoes. Horsenettles are evidently all toxic.

Carolina Horsenettle
anise hyssop

The whole back garden seems to have been planted with bees in mind: anise hyssop and echinacea were attracting three sorts of bees as well, and in the heat, the bees were moving fast. But I managed to take a few pictures!

Scarlet Bee Balm

Maybe I should take figs.

family, grandchildren, my garden, , , , ,

Last week’s weather caused a windfall of strawberry tree fruit (Arbutus unedo) on the ground. Much of it was in great shape, and there was more than I could eat fresh, so I tried dehydrating some. I’ve been getting figs, and I bought a box full of Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples, so I put a load of the three fruits into the box for about 16 hours.

I expected that as they dried, the tiny half-spheres would likely fall through the rack, so I put that rack on top, hoping they might get caught by larger pieces of fruit underneath.

The little buttons did fall through, but I caught them all sooner or later. They are chewy and crunchy and I hope I can preserve a few more of them this way before the harvest ends. The wind knocked down four lemons, too, which got into this picture.

The same day that I officially became a vermiculturist, an opossum wandered through my garden midmorning. I cornered him behind the snowball bush just to get his picture — not that I consider him particularly handsome… especially if I look at his mouth.

This weekend I’m headed up to Pippin’s to be present for Ivy’s tenth birthday celebration. Many of you commented on my announcement of her birth way back then! Here are pictures from previous years, including the Baggy Doll I made her for her first birthday.

I guess I’ve sewn more for Ivy than for any other grandchild. Two items — haha!

I haven’t made it up every year for her birthday, but often enough that I know it’s the right season for drinking in the beauty of my daughter’s extravagant dahlias, and for encountering deer on the property. I’ll leave you with this picture that Pippin sent me recently, of those neighbors looking for a handout. They might be wondering where the crabapples are; late frosts damaged their blossoms as well as destroying much of the apple crop in northern California this year. Maybe I should take them some figs!