California Golfing!

Just a quick update to share that Hubby and I are in beautiful Palm Desert, California, enjoying the week at that Desert Springs Marriott. We're playing golf everyday, enjoying the magnificent views, and basking in the warmth. At home it's quite cold with snow predicted by the end of the week. I do think that yesterday was just about the perfect day: an amazing breakfast buffet, 18 holes of golf (I beat Hubby!), a gorgeous day, a post-game cocktail by the pool, and a lovely dinner here at the resort. We're getting plenty of sleep, plenty of exercise, and plenty to eat! Now, off to play more golf!

Sore Muscles Feel So Good!

I've been a bit busy of late. I've joined a local gym and I'm trying to get the exercise that I need during this cold winter. Usually I walk 2.5 miles every morning, but my next-door neighbor who I have walked with for 20 years, has moved away. Now, my friend Andrea (yes, of the socks fame) and I are meeting everyday to go through our paces. 40 minutes or so on the treadmill, a round of stretching and sit-ups on the mats, and twice a week we use the Nautilus machines. I am going to be buff! Hahaha!

I have a few sore muscles to say the least, but they feel so good all at the same time. I'm reminded that it's good to move, good to sweat, and good to have someone to share the time with. We have no competition (Andrea's much more fit than I am anyway) and we just encourage each other on. It would be easy to just stay at home and not exercise, but I'm being held accountable. For 20 years, my neighbor would always be waiting at the end of the driveway for me each morning, and now, Andrea expects me to be at the gym. I need that push, that extra reason to get going, and after the work-out is done, I feel so good! So these sore muscles are a good reminder that I'm doing something healthy, something necessary, and I'm sharing it with a good friend which makes it fun!

Ode to Big Socks

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here is my friend Andrea's poem about Judy's socks. Thanks to Andrea for allowing me to publish it.


It all began at the knitting store
When two friends checked out yarn galore
Knitting socks was the latest fad
In stripes and even bright colors - egads!

But off in a corner, the friends did spot
Some subtler socks from a different dye lot
Many dark shades of greens, grays and browns
Filled their faces with big smiles, not frowns

Then suddenly, the two had an amazing idea
To their long-footed friend they’d bring great cheer
They would knit her some Christmastime socks for her feet
That would match almost all of her frocks – it’d be neat!

The project began with turning the toe
Four hours later, they shared feelings of woe
They were proud of their work, and determined to do it
A few times, they almost said, “Forget it, oh screw it!”

With perseverance and averaging an hour per inch
The sock grew to a length so the toes wouldn’t pinch
Foreboding took over as they approached the heel
“We can do this ourselves”, they exclaimed with great zeal!

Now the socks were practically knitting themselves
Keep in mind, they had to be almost size twelves
They were cruising along, could this pace really last?
Bear in mind by now Christmas was way in the past

They met to compare and bind off with glee
Believe it or not the socks matched – Yippee!
We give thanks that we didn’t have to knit two socks
Because we now know, we are not sock knitting jocks!

Tonight, we are happy to bring this story to an end
We hope they will fit our long footed friend
Thankfully, she’s cheery and fun and not moody
Good luck, hope they fit, we love you Judy!

Project: Warm Tootsies!

My friend, Andrea, and I have a mutual friend, Judy, who is very tall, 6 ft. 2 in. Judy always has trouble finding clothes to fit her....the sleeve-lengths are too short, pant's inseams are never long enough, and she has long feet (probably to keep her tall frame from blowing over in the wind!), so even proper-fitting socks are a difficulty for her. She takes a size 11 1/2 shoe and always has trouble finding socks long enough for her feet. On a recent trip to the Outlets, the only store she had to visit was the sock store because they carry socks for long-footed women.

So, two weeks before Christmas, Andrea and I decided we would knit Judy a pair of socks which we could adjust to her special long need. We would each knit one sock to make them a gift from both of us. Off we went to the wool shop, talked to the very knowledgeable shop owner who printed us out a pattern adjusted specifically to Judy’s shoe size, and then tried to decide what beautiful wool we would use for Judy’s Christmas gift. We finally chose a thin, multicolor Merino wool in colors that we knew would appeal to her. We studied our pattern and decided we would need some help to “turn the toe” so agreed to come back to the shop a few days later for some help with our knitting. All excited and ready to knit, we spent almost four hours learning to make the toe correctly. During this time there were stitches to count, rows to count, dropped stitches to find, and not a lot of talking. Andrea and I have never been together for that long a period and said so few words to each other!! Once the toe was made, we left for home, ready to tackle the next seven inches of knitting around and around on four, size 1 double-pointed needles. Little did we know that each inch of knitting on those tiny needles would take an hour each! The week before Christmas was not a time when either of us could find that many hours to just sit and knit, so we knew that our plan for the socks to be a Christmas gift was evaporating. Once Christmas was over, we set in again to finish the socks and soon we found ourselves at the dreaded “turn the heel” portion of the sock. Could we remember what we had learned and manage a good heel all by ourselves? We agreed that we had to be together to get it done right, so we spent an entire day together, the knitting interrupted by tea and fresh banana bread, the delivery of Andrea’s new living room furniture, a quick run out for soup and sandwich, and her three children coming home from school at three different times. But by dinnertime, we had done it, two wonderful heels!! Now we were on our own again to knit three more inches on those four needles to cover the ankle. That accomplished, and after a quick consultation, we constructed the six inches of ribbing up the leg. This is the photo taken this morning when we met to bind off our socks. My sock is on the pink needles and Andrea's on the green. We shaped the socks into the form of a heart and wrote Judy's initials with our binding off yarn!



Over more tea and cranberry orange coffee cake, we finished our last stitches together sitting in my kitchen. What joy when they were done and we could each actually model our own sock!! Here they are, our gift of love to a special friend.



We will give Judy her belated Christmas gift on Monday evening at our Church Ladies monthly gathering. It’s a craft night here at my home and so appropriate for her to receive them then, even if Christmas was four weeks ago! Andrea is writing a poem to go with our labor of love, and I will find suitable gift wrappings.

Today we realized that each sock took 20 hours to make, and being the professional women that we are, we are worth at least $25 per hour, so this makes each sock worth $500, plus the $12 for each of the two skeins of wool we purchased, so all in all, these are Judy’s $1,024 pair of socks!!! She’d better wear them every day for the rest of forever to get our money’s worth. Hahaha!

Not only was this a special gift for a special person, but it was a gift for Andrea and me as well. We had so much fun, laughed so hard, and spent precious hours together enjoying each other's friendship. Here we are about a year ago, I'm on the left, Andrea on the right.



As a PS: I am very grateful to live in this time, when I can just run to store to buy a new pair of socks. If I had to knit my family's socks, they would each have one pair that they would have to wash out every night! I told Andrea that it was a good thing we were each knitting one sock because if I had gotten to the end of the pattern and read the dreaded line, "make the second sock", I think I would have cried!

Tools of the Trade

Hubby and I have spent the weekend painting our bedroom. We last painted it about four years ago….and I never liked that color blue from the very first brush stroke!! But Hubby loved it, so I put up with it and tried to get along as best I could. But now time has come to replace the carpeting, and since I just couldn’t live one day longer with that BLUE, the painting tools came out. So now the walls are a lovely shade of warm yellow, new sandy tan carpet will be installed tomorrow, and with the new comforter and window treatments, this will bring us into the 21st century.

Normally, painting a room would be a fun project, but this makes the fifth room we’ve painted since October. I’ve been on a redecorating binge of late. In the above photo, you can see that awful shade of blue on the sanding tool….it took three coats to cover it and I worried for a while that it may require four. I declared this morning that if a room took more than three coats of paint to cover the old color then I just wouldn’t have the energy for it. But now that it’s dry and I’ve studied it carefully, I declare the job done! So this post is a declaration of accomplishment, an homage to change, and a sigh of relief that we don’t have any more rooms to paint in the foreseeable future!!

What about you?

This is me! Every time I take these tests, this is my result: Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging. I definitely take things to heart, do better one-on-one or in small groups, and have compassion and empathy. I'm a good friend. Funny that this test says I'd be a good interior designer.....I've just spent the day painting our bedroom!

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excell at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

What's Your Personality Type?

The Passinghams

Inspired by reading another blog, I decided to tell the story of my great grandparents, Walter and Beatrice Passingham. This photo was in celebration of their engagement to marry and was taken around 1894. The original photo is actually a postcard of sorts. They presumably mailed the cards to friends and loved ones to announce their betrothal. They married in London, England in 1895.


This photo was taken at my great-grandparents’ wedding and they are seated in the center of the photo. Walter’s brother Arthur is seated on the ground in front of him and his sister, Mary (Polly) is on the left. You can certainly see the family resemblance! Behind them are more ladies of the family who really don’t look very happy to be attending this wedding, but in those days, one had to hold perfectly still while the photograph was being taken because the shutter stayed open so long. Walter worked for his father's company, Passingham Processed Meats, as did most of his brothers. When his father, George, died, the management of the company went to Walter's older brother, Jonathon. Now Jonathon wasn't a savvy businessman, and he was a bit of a swindler, and as the story goes, he lost the business because of shady dealings.

Around 1908, so despondent over the loss of the family company, Great Grandfather Walter up and deserted his family and fled to Australia. Not knowing what had become of him, Beatrice had him declared dead seven years later, and married Claude Boulter, hence I always knew my great grandmother as Granny Boulter. Walter worked on a sheep station in New South Wales, Australia until his death in 1932.


Here are Beatrice and her children in 1909 or so. Her son George (my grandfather) is standing next to his mother, daughter Ivy is seated, Charles is the little boy in the sailor suit, and Leonard is the baby. Sadly, Leonard died as a child and Charles died as a young man. Ivy never had any children, and as my grandfather only had daughters, the Passingham line from Walter is dead.

I am fascinated by the lives of my ancestors. One's experiences make us the person we are, the parent we become, and colors the shape of the generations to come. I know my love and gift of music comes through this Passingham line. My grandfather and his sister were both professional musicians. What impact will my life have on those who come after me?

The Joys (?) of a New Computer

For Christmas, Hubby gave me a new laptop computer. This was a wonderful addition to my life as now all my ancestors are portable. I can take my genealogy research "on the road" with me and thousands of bits of ancestral facts will be at my fingertips. But there is a downside however.....I have had to get used to this new piece of technology. There is a new interface with the World Wide Web, my instant messaging tool is upgraded and different, and Hubby just moved all my photographs to the new computer and even they are organized differently now too. And those passwords!! A new computer requires that you enter them all again for even the most familiar sites. The more recent ones I've kept track of, but some of the older ones, well, it was an interesting process trying to figure out what I could have possibly used to log-in to each site. Hubby kept asking questions too....."Do you want this on your new computer?", "How do you want this set up?", "Do you want me to upgrade this for you?"....well, how do I know unless I try? I appreciate the hours of work he put in moving my entire computer life for me, but I know he enjoyed it. At one point, with cables, parts, disks, paperwork, wires, and technology spread out all over the office floor, he exclaimed, "This is Geek Heaven!!". Being a tad reistant to change, my laptop lives in its docking station most of the time. That way I can still use my full-sized keyboard and my full-sized monitor, and that feels comfortable. I've had some frustrations but for the most part, I think I'm growing to like my new and "improved" computer.

The Best Wine

Over the last few years, we have become more intrigued with finding good wine. Hubby and I could never agree on a bottle of wine to share. He preferred the reds, cabernets in particular. I preferred the whites, white zinfandel was my choice for a long time. (I know, it’s the Kool Aid of the wine world!). We have both made some concessions and our wine tastes have both migrated toward the middle. Now we can share a good pinot noir or a shiraz, and occasionally I’ll find a wonderful white wine that Hubby will drink too. He tends to drink merlots now and I go for the pinot grigios, and so for Christmas, he gave me this great wine cellar with a side for white and a side for red, each at their own temperature. Notice which side contains more bottles!

This year we hosted a wine tasting for some friends with Spanish wines as the centerpiece. We had a knowledgeable sommelier who explained the regions of Spain and which wines come from the different areas. It was very informative and many of us bought many bottles!

Do you have a favorite wine? How did you find it? What do you love about it? To anyone who's out there reading, I’d like to hear your recommendations.

Winter Wonderland

Here we are on the second day of January and we've only had a trace of snow. Some would say that's a good thing, but I'm starting to miss the quiet, pristine scene after a good snowfall. This photo was taken last year from our front door. There is something about this fluffy blanket of winter transforming the dull brown of late fall. And in the spring, it's exciting to see the heads of the crocuses poking out from under their mantle of white. The seasons change and with those changes come our own, but what if winter never comes this year? Will I miss my own changes as well?