Booming Banter

This week brought some chances to take some country roads.

The sky was clear and with the snow on the ground the barns and farms stood out.

Farming must get imbedded in the genes and I don’t mean the Levi’s!

The great expanse of the Ohio fields is certainly different from those of Ireland. The barns too have a different aspect but when it comes to the crucks of the matter the sun and rain still stay the same.

Tuning in to a good old country music channel and stopping at the farm shop to buy some local ham and cheese takes you back to the roots and is most refreshing.

Blessing # 272 – A Little Bit of Country

On this International Woman’s Day a little tribute to a special woman in my life. Granny Gibson.

Born Elizabeth Herdman, in the mid 1890s, you will win no prizes for guessing she was a farmers daughter.

The farm called The Crow’s Nest is in the heart of County Down in the town land of Magerally. Today it is run by her great great nephew.

Lizzy, as she was known to all was the eldest daughter in the family. She fell in love with Johnny Gibson and loved him with her heart and soul every day of her life.

 

They married when Lizzy was only eighteen and had their first child, a son, just before the First World War. Johnny went off to France but must have been back in Ireland a few times because they had another two boys before the war was over and a baby girl to welcome Johnny home on Christmas Eve 1918.

In 1920 my Mum was born and they had a pause for seven years until the next three children arrived just before Johnny left again for another war.

Each of her children loved her beyond measure. She was simply a wonderful mother. They had a fairly good life while the kids were young with a small holding and Johnny working a job as well. Those were tough times though with the depression and Lizzy didn’t always have it easy.

Johnny died young at just 54 but by then Lizzy had grandchildren around her feet too. She went on to have 23 in all!

Her influence on us was to teach us kindness. Never once in the 19 years I shared with her did I ever hear her say a nasty word about anyone.

She did the rounds of ever one of her children’s home and cuddled into bed and slept with the youngest child or children. She did snore a bit but she was so snuggly.

Her face was round and soft and her voice was sweet and gentle although she would raise it on occasions if you happened to get naughty.

Her pleasures were her family, her bible, tea, buns, rice pudding and her flowers.

She was particularly gifted with Christmas Cactus, Geramiums and of course her BizzieLizzies. Her little flat was coming down with pots in every corner and at every window. She took such joy in sharing making little slips of her plants to send out like disciples to other homes.

Granny could calm ever storm and hug away every danger. A great lady whose demeanor defied her power and strength!

Blessing # 271 – A gentlewoman

For our upcoming fundraiser my friend Jo had a great idea of making cookie, brownie, pancake and soup mixes and packing them up pretty in glass jars.

She made some prototypes and shared these among some of our volunteers. They were all excellent so we decided to proceed.

Jo got all the recipes together and bought the ingredients and yesterday we got together at her home to make them.

It was just the two of us for a while and then her friend Linda joined us.

Jo is very gentle and calm and her home is so welcoming and cosy. The whole production was like a little therapy session.

Each one had their job to do, we measured and filled the jars and cut and pinked material to top them off.

Within a few hours the labels were on and we all felt a sense of fulfillment and tucked into the lovely lunch Jo made us.

It was one of those experiences that I just know I’ll look back on with joy and for an enduring sense of peace!

Blessing # 270 – Two or Three Togetherness

 

Today is Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent. That means Easter is forty days away so very late this year. Almost as late as it can be!

Seems the weather maker got the message as it feels like mid winter here rather than the start of spring.

Sixty million people are under a winter weather advisory for extreme cold all across the USA. It is -12C (10F) here in Columbus but with the wind chill it is much much much colder!

Dawn was beautiful though. With the snow on the ground the vibrant colors really stand out and Venus is so bright right now the sky is picture perfect.

As I took the bins down to the road a little bird was singing its heart out. Maybe looking for a mate or maybe just giving me the message that days for long walks, barbecues and cold beers are coming soon.

Blessing # 269 – Spring Song

 

 

This morning the First Lady’s solo tour around the country was covered on the news. She is promoting her Be Best campaign that focuses on well being, social media use and opioid abuse among young people.

We saw her meet with children in their classrooms and talk to them in a very gentle and loving way.

She came across so warmly and is so softly spoken. She asked one little girl if she had written the note on her desk. The girl said she had and the First Lady said it was really very beautiful.

For sure that little girl will never forget this moment and how it made her feel.

I can only imagine that these must be  difficult days for this beautiful woman. She must hurt sometimes. Let’s hope that someone is lifting her spirits too.

She may be a very important person but some part of her, just like that little girl, needs to hear a kind word and have a hug!

Blessing # 268 – Encouragement

We are having a fund raiser on Saint Patrick’s Day for Kairos and I have to provide the recipes for the soda bread and apple crumble.

Our volunteers will make these items the day  before the event so on the day itself we can focus on making the stew!

To be sure that the recipe I send out for the soda bread is good I’ve tried it out on the boys.

We usually don’t buy buttermilk so I used yogurt whey instead but put it like this it wasn’t like my Granny made it!

Today I’d planned to get buttermilk and start afresh. The boys are very kind but I’m sure they’re sick of soda. So it was with some joy that I read a mail last night from Pastor Dave asking if anyone would make bread for our TMG tomorrow.

Man the timing couldn’t have been better as I was so glad to have new tasters.

With a spring in my step and hopefully to bring one to the soda too I set off early to get the buttermilk. As with everything in the USA there was a whole cabinet full of different types of buttermilk    Low fat, full fat, goat milk (!), economy, premium the list goes on and on!

All had gums and starches though, I suppose to prevent separation so I wasn’t sure how that would impact performance and so it was that Gourmet was the only option! Why is it that things that have just what they are meant to have in this case buttermilk cost the most! Even the gourmet had a color added. Why oh why is that necessary?

Now to the baking board and all went to plan.

Krishna tastes and proclaims it good and then asks how are we going to serve this tomorrow. We agree with butter and jam would be best and then the man has a brain wave!

Instead of cutting the round into four farls why don’t you cut it into eight then each person can have one. Eureka for the fundraiser this is perfect much less hassle and handling!

He’ll be in my good books for weeks after this and along with his homemade yougurt we know have another item for the B&B menu!

Blessing #267 – Bread of Life!

Yesterday we went to visit the would be B&B and it did not disappoint.

The place is really dry, no mold or bad smells and many wonderful original features.

The cabinets in the kitchen are the originals from 1860 and the wood is simply beautiful.

All the old hardwood floors look to be in good shape too and while there are some funky color schemes the structure looks sound.

There are two staircases one out of the kitchen and the other sweeping up grandly from the hall. Little details like a cedar cabinet in one bedroom, to keep the furs flea free, an exposed stone cellar and a tree house in a big cherry tree make it really special.

A lucky little frog fellow was sitting in a window box on the back porch too. Should we kiss him and see if he turns into a prince?

All of this got us digging deeper into the history of Marion City and it’s most famous son President Warren Harding.

He was the owner of the local newspaper, ran his presidential campaign from the porch of his house across the street and died suddenly in office in his late fifties.

He also has a reputation as a ladies man having had several mistresses all Marion natives. Surely there is potental for a movie here as well as a B&B!

Funniest event of the day though was finding this quote coming from of all places the Harding Financial Group.

No relation to the President just a nudge in the right direction.

Blessing # 266 – History Trails

There seem to be weeks for focus on all causes. Heart disease, cancers, mental health, animal welfare, the list is long.

Today, thanks to several posts on Facebook, I learned that we are nearing the end of Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Many of us know someone who has had an eating disorder. Some of us may have had or have one ourselves.

One of the Facebook posts today Had a link to BEAT the U.K. group that encourages  people to speak up and share their stories.

As a teenager I was a normal weight. I’d go on a diet now and then to loose a few pounds but it was in my early twenties that I started to take dieting seriously.

The reason for this was that I was spending a lot of time with someone who had anorexia. We started a diet together and being very competitive I could not let her win!

The more weight I lost and the more compliments I got about the new svelte figure the better I felt.

My weight never got too low because I took to eating huge quantities of breakfast cereal at night. My preferred cereal was of all things All Bran because it made me feel so full. Dieting was all about control and eating the cereal was all about loosing control.

This radical cycle of dieting and eating went on for theee years and it wasn’t pleasant. It stopped when I left the U.K. for Switzerland.

Once you have lived though this I’m not sure it is possible to ever loose consciousness of weight and keeping it in check.

Many people struggle with obesity as well as with eating disorders.

What would be really helpful is to hear from the people who have no issues at all in controlling their weight. If they spoke up and told us how and what they think of food it would be very insightful.

Some say the French are natural regulators because they eat everything in moderation but I’m not convinced. Having lived there and observed the nation first hand it strikes me they are just as weight conscious as the rest of us. They just have a good word for dieting it’s a REGIME! Vive la révolution mes amis!

Blessing # 265 – Sharing Stories

This morning a few local friends posted that they didn’t sleep well last night. Me neither! Maybe high pressure! Happens when you have things on your mind!

The year seems to be flying past and chez nous there is little to show for it! Already the first day of March! Spring just around the corner but snow in the forecast again!

The clock is also ticking on getting taxes done and we haven’t even started to get the paperwork ready. Another year another extension to file we’ve been there and done that so many times before.

There are other Groundhog Day events happening around us too. What can we learn from this? Perhaps as one friend posted today you calm yourself and not the storm.

As a speed freak patience is something that is not innate to me. Any lemons that come my way have to be squeezed fast and furiously. Usually things turn out fine and we have a good big jug of lemonade.

Maybe though it is better to  wait a while and suck those lemons just like we did as kids with those old fashioned sweets.

There are always multiple choices even if by nature you wish to choose the familiar option. It’s never too late to learn you can change, be selective and use a new formula especially if the one you are faced with is getting old!

Blessing # 264 – Resilience

This weekend sees the annual ARNOLD Sports and Fitness festival here in Columbus.

This event has been building strength over the past thirty years and Arnold himself always makes an appearance.

People from all over the world take part. This year up to 20000 participants and 200000 spectators are expected.

On occasion I’ve been traveling around this time and it is really something to see all these super fit people in the airport and to fly with them. They literally are solid muscle.

That’s about as close as we’ve come to the event until this year.

As you can imagine all the hotels in the region are booked out and Aaron is anticipating a busy weekend of work and maybe a little overtime. Glad he’s on the housekeeping and not on the breakfast shift or we’d need to be up at three in the morning to get the eggs and pancakes ready for these hunks.

Strong is certainly an understatement to describe the participants. Strong in mind and strong in body! Not something that would naturally come to mind when for myself.

So it was with great surprise, on arrival in China in 2001, after my physical to show I was fit to work, that I was told I was REALLY VERY STRONG.

I walked around for the next half hour with my head held a little higher than usual. Strong! I’m strong! I was so chuffed until someone was kind enough to tell me that STRONG is the Chinese way to say YOU ARE FAT!

Blessing # 263 – Getting Stronger