This is as Far as I'll Get

Writing about my grandparents made me feel all fuzzy.......I even thought I'd get ambitious and make a batch of End of the Garden Relish.......
I'm afraid this is as far as I'll get......lol

Thoughts on a Thursday

I often have trouble making art just for the sake of the doing. I find myself asking why? To what end? What am I going to do with it? To sell? To share? To exhibit?

If I can’t come up with a satisfactory answer I don’t do anything. I get stuck in a quagmire of nothingness.

And I brood.

I get cranky which leads to depressed…..

Then I wonder what’s wrong with me.

And  I wonder if some of the adults I encountered in my formative years who tried to make me right handed......or questioned some of the things I did, or said , or thought or believed…..I wonder if they didn’t fry some of my brain circuits.

It would explain so much……

Wordless Wednesday

End of the Garden Relish

During the depression my uncle raised and sold chickens. My grandfather was out of work for four years during that time but my mother said she never knew until she was much older. She never felt deprived or poor. There was always food on the table. During the winter months they had what my grandmother had ‘put up’ (i.e. canned) from the garden.

Grandma was famous for her End of the Garden Relish. A sweet relish made from green tomatoes and other stragglers from the garden at the end of the growing season. She gave me the recipe and I’ve made it once or twice but it was never as good as hers. 

 

Grandma's recipe, in her own hand. Give it a try, it's yummy! 

Punny Monday

They begin the evening news with 'Good Evening,' then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

You Want a Toe-Mah-Toe Sandwich?

After all the hellos and hugs Grandma went into grandma mode…..feeding us! The first question out of her mouth after all the hellos was ALWAYS “You want a ‘toe-mah-toe’ sandwich?” Mostly she asked this of BigBro but I got in on the deal.

Toasted tomato sandwiches on homemade bread (sliced slightly thicker than store bought bread) with vine ripened tomatoes from their garden. In all my life, before or since, I have never had a sandwich that tasted as good as Grandma’s! And they kept coming! I don’t remember what BigBro’s record was, but I’m sure he put a significant dent in their tomato supply.

For my special treat Grandma made cinnamon toast for breakfast. Every morning of our visit I got to have cinnamon toast.  And eggs!  (keep in mind, as a kid, I was supposedly allergic to eggs….among other things. And Grandma conveniently ‘forgot’ all my restrictions.)

Now THAT’S love….feeding your grandchild food that could possibly have detrimental effects…..amiright?????

Thoughts on a Thursday

Next thought: Do you ever wonder…….. when some guy decides he’s going to pop the question to his girlfriend in a really big way and hires a sky writer to fly over a stadium at half time…….puffing out WILL YOU MARRY ME, REBECCA? Do you ever think about the statistical possibility of how many other Rebecca’s there are in a crowd of 80,000 fans? And out of all those Rebecca’s how many of them turn to their unsuspecting boyfriends shrieking YES and throwing their arms around his neck because all the way to the stadium in the car she was secretly hoping this would happen?

I wonder how many poor guys have been suckered this way?

Wordless Wednesday

More Memories of Grandpa

We only visited my grandparents once every four or five years. So when we did it was special. I remember the closer we got to their house (after driving for hours on the New York State Thruway, the MOST boring road in the universe) I would get antsy. I knew what was coming. I had to get through the ‘hellos’. I HATED that part. All the hugging and kissing and “My, how you’ve GROWN!” comments. But the part I hated most was Grandpa’s mustache!

I didn’t mind so much that it reminded me of Adolf Hitler. 

What I hated was he’d hug me and kiss me and ‘tickle’ me with that mustache. But it didn’t tickle, it scratched! And left red marks on my neck! I hated those first few minutes of every visit. But once we got that out of the way it was fun!

Punny Monday

I'm running out of good puns so I've decided to switch to PARAPROSDOKIANS.

PARAPROSDOKIANS (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

(I may still throw in a Trump pun when the mood strikes....so reader beware.....)