Far-away Osprey

 I am just so inspired by what little knowledge I have gleaned from Chatgpt about basil. I told you about the tea I made. I had some left in the fridge so I added a bit of it to a glass of iced tea this morning. Very good. 

I also made some garlic-basil oil. And, I've been using it on a number of dishes. 

First I made bruchetta (never had before and it's so easy). Of course it was sprinkled with the oil. 

This morning I started thinking of how I could use some ingredients that I already had and came up with this. Is it my invention? Probably not. But, it was new to me. 

I made cheese toast out of a piece of sourdough bread. I made an omelet and placed it on top of the toast then topped with slices of avocado that I had poured some lemon juice on and some chiffonade basil. salted it and then drizzled it with the garlic-basil oil I had made. Oh yum. I'll make that again 

In keeping with Photo-a-day. Far-away is the theme for today. 

Do you see the osprey that is far-away, high in the sky? 

Basil in my Kitchen

 In yesterday's post I showed you my basil.  I've grown it before but didn't know what to do with it much so it just grew and then died. But, this time is different. I let chatgpt give me some suggestions and here's what I did. 

                    First I made me a cup of basil tea. 

I just steeped some basil leaves in a cup of hot water, added some honey and it was good. I'm having me another cup right now, as I type. 

Then I found a little jar to put some oil in. I didn't have one of those fancy oil dispensers to use and you just make do with what you have. Now, I have basil-garlic oil to use in various ways. I drizzled it over my bruschetta last night... oh yes, that's another thing I had never made and having all this basil inspired me to do so. 

My supper last night. 

Bruschetta

So easy and so good. 

Now for today's Photo-a-day 

The theme is Close-up

Basil's Taking Over

 My granddaughter-in-law gave me a flat of small basil plants about a month ago. I love basil. Not that I use that much in cooking but because I love the smell. I'll just break off a piece and walk around with it sniffing it. Well, it's better than sniffing pot, don't you think!! 😊

Anyway, you gotta look at these plants now. And, they are blooming and I am trying to snip them down so they'll keep growing. I must be doing something right. My little pot of mint isn't doing too badly, either. There's a lot of things I can't grow but I don't think it's basil. Right!!

As I told you yesterday I started doing the Photo-a-day thingy and today's pick is 'an ordinary moment'. 

Here's my ordinary moment

Just me taking a break with some iced tea and a bit of lunch. That's pretty ordinary!

When It Rains, It's Pours

 We residents here at Centerbrooke have been thrown a huge curve ball. Will the drama never end!!

The apartment building is owned by multiply owners from places like New York and New Jersey. Now, I'm not throwing stones at people from those areas but I often wonder if those folks have any idea what older people need and want and have to have. They took over in 2017 and turned our common room into something that was a showcase and totally unworkable for the elderly. They wouldn't provide the van that we had had, the hair salon was shut down. 

They hired a management company from Virginia to oversee the place and there have been so many changes it's hard to keep up. And, we have had constant staff turn-overs so that's unsettling. Nobody seems to want to work here.

Well, last week we were told that the owners got rid of the management company, they'd oversee the managing of this place themselves (with various contractors etc). How they gonna do that from hundreds of miles away!! 

We had a wonderful staff member. I don't think he's been here much over a year but he was one that you could tell he loved us and cared about us. And, dog gone if he isn't leaving Friday. I am just heartsick over this. 

Okay, I've ranted enough. Thanks for listening. I needed to get that off my chest. I am very curious as to how the next few months are going to play out. I'll keep you posted.

              In the meantime I'll keep dancing.....

                                                     Hey, I want to play!

I thought I'd catch up with a few blog friends this morning and visited Mary at visitswithmary@blogspot.com. Her post really spoke to me... I need a distraction big time and I loved the thought of posting a different picture each day with oneseasontothenext.blogspot.com  

                           So, may I play along? 

                          (today's photo is a tree) 

                               Here's my Tree 

                 taken on Colonial Parkway in Virginia. 

I'll Get There One Way or The Other

 

I may not have been perusing a shelf of books looking for something to read....

I may have neglected my friends, not checking their blogs.....

So I apologize...

I am so invested in this novel that I am writing that most of my energy is going into that and lordy, it's a slow go. 

But, I do worry that something will happen that I won't get it finished. WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THAT COME FROM!! but it's true. That's how committed I am to getting this thing done and published. 

At this age, I have about 6 hours a day that I have the energy to be busy then I just totally poop out.

 Yesterday I spent 5 hours working on that manuscript. I did eat... ha ha 

So, hang in there with me. I don't have but about half of it done yet... But, I will get it done. That I promise !

I Always Did Appreciate A Cow

Today was COW APPRECIATION DAY at Chic-fil-a!! 

My daughter, Shirley, loves Chic-fil-a so she made arrangements for a group of residents from here at The Commons at Centerbrooke to go for lunch. We'd get a free entree if we wore something that reminded them of a cow. So... we cut out black felt and glued big spots onto white tee shirts and today we were ready when Shirley with her friend, Pamela, drove up in a big van to get us. Away we went! 

I had to be different!! I saw an ad on facebook for a tee shirt with a big cow head on it so I ordered me one. It was a hit! 

There were 17 of us that filed into that place, laughing, cutting up, having us a grand ole time. We got our food, ate, and then here comes the COW ... of course, we all had to have our pictures made with it/him/her. 

Here we are mooing at the photographer!

Then we all went outside to get a group picture before leaving the site and stood there waving and 'mooing' at all the people going through the drive-thru. We got lots of waves and a few honks of horns.

Shirley even arranged for me to take an order from one car driver. The real worker was there tapping the order in on her IPAD while I found out what the order consisted of.

Me:  And, what will you have today.

Driver: A Chic-fil-a sandwich

Me: Your drink?

Driver: French Fries

Me. Okay, some french fries and your drink is.....?

Driver: Coke

Job done, I took off  back to have my picture made with the group. 

Everyone said we had a blast and we did. Best outing we've had in ever so long and it's all because Shirley made sure everything was arranged to a tee and lordy that girl can keep the laughter going. She's a master at that. 

So, I'd say we did Chic-fil-a proud today. No telling what a bunch of 70-90 years old will do!!