Red

It's time to get the Fantasia poster framed for my office wall. It started with a black poster frame.

The frame came apart very easily, even though there is printing on the instructions not to remove the plastic "glass" part from the frame. It's just glued in in strategic spots around the frame so it didn't require much muscle to pop it out.

Since the frame was black and I needed red, I had to consider how to change that. If I wanted to custom frame the poster, with costs upwards of $250, I could get a red frame. I just want to spend $20. Black seems to be your only choice, unless you take your problem to an art supply store.

Violå. Originally, I expected to have to buy a tube of red acrylic paint and a brush and then spend hours meticulously brushing paint across a frame. It would require quite a bit because there would be, inevitably, brush strokes to hide and I couldn't be completely certain the paint would adhere. I put the problem to my local Dick Blick art supply store and he suggested red spray paint. I could get exactly the color I wanted and other than needing to not do this all in one shot because, you know, paint fumes, this particular paint would be perfect. This brand is made for spray painting on anything, from plastic poster frames to brick, concrete and steel. It's the preferred spray paint of outdoor artists. And here I thought they just went to the hardware store and bought a can of Rust-o-leum. It was $6 for this.

The hard part was going to be the actual spraying. If it was spring, summer or fall, I could take the frame out to the back yard, spray it and let it dry and air outside. Since it was February and I wanted this done, I needed to come up with some way to do it without making myself sick.

Step 1 was commandeering some cardboard from the office.

We have a TV in the office for training videos and this was the box in which it came. I pulled it apart and took it to the basement. 

The frame fit nicely inside this "L" shaped box. I wouldn't be spraying the whole thing at once. 

Every time I went into the basement to do a load of laundry, I worked a bit more on the frame. First one side was painted, and then the other. 

I had to make sure the inside of the frame and then the outside were painted. The box worked like a charm. The biggest problem was the smell. If ever I needed an example of how scents travel it was this. I'd do a section of the frame and let that dry. Then the heat would kick in and I'd smell the toluene or whatever it is in the can, in the home office. It had been sucked into the air vents and sent around the house. After a couple tries, I learned, very quickly, that I could only do one side of the frame at a time. This would lengthen the time it took to get it done, but I wouldn't be coughing for a couple hours later due to the smell. 

It came out very nice. 

Now to see how it looks assembled. 

It's perfect. I matched the red with the color of the words. It's at the office, but not hung. I need to get more of those instant hanger things that don't damage your walls. I'm happy. It did use about 3/4ths of the can of spray paint to do this, owing to all the sides in a frame. That's fine. Realistically, what am I going to do with a can of red spray paint? I did think, since this is made to be used on any surface, I could use it up on the deck come spring, maybe paint the bottom lattice part. I just don't want a partially empty can of paint in the basement for the next 15 years. 

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

GO [insert invective of your choice] AWAY

These. Oh lord almighty. These.

In case you don't have these and have no idea why I'm up in arms over something squashable, this is a stinkbug; a brown marmorated stink bug, to be precise; halyomorpha halys. They are native to China but, as with a lot of nuisance insects, were accidentally introduced to Pennsylvania in the late 1990s. They are considered a noxious pest and damage fruits and vegetables.

In late fall, they will enter homes to hibernate. Because they are around half an inch long, any kind of gap will allow them entry. They overwinter and come out in the spring, when air temperatures reach a consistent 60 degrees during the day. The interior warmth of a home, however, will cause them to come out during the winter. They are attracted to lights and will fly around a ceiling light, for instance, colliding with it. It's fairly easy to swat them out of the air.

Their common name, "stink bug", is from the pungent odor produced when the insects are mating or are crushed. Some people consider it freshly crushed coriander. Some people, myself included, think it just stinks.

I generally try to pick them up in a tissue, wrap it into a tight ball and flush. If we were having a normal winter, where the highs were in the upper 30's, I wouldn't see them all winter. As it is, we've had 40's, 50's and close to 60's this winter. Couple those temperatures, with the warmth from the inside of my house and I have seen close to two dozen of these pests this winter. It's beyond aggravating to be reading in the evening and have one drop out of the air onto your book page. I was doing dishes last night and one had found its way under the dish drainer. I'm going to have to take the drainer apart, pick it out and toss it away. If I find them in the kitchen, I give them a heave ho out the door."Freeze!" I usually say. They are probably finding some way back into the crevasses of the house, but, for a moment, I feel good about inflicting death on a noxious creature.

I generally believe that everything which evolved on the planet has a checks and balances and has, in some way, a good reason for existing. Mosquitoes, for all the disease they bring, are, in larval stage, fish food. Controls which involve putting a thin film of oil on top of a pond, for instance, which suffocates the mosquito larva, also kill fish. Bats love fully grown mosquitoes. There needs to be a balance in how many we preserve when they are food for other creatures.

But, I fail to see what could find food in stink bugs. I'll also add June bugs to that short list. June bug larva get dug up by skunks and that's a nuisance of itself. I can always tell when there's been a skunk through my yard by the small circular holes in the grass where a bug was found.

So, die stink bugs, die. The girls will watch them circle a light but aren't inclined to go after them to kill them. The only good thing about these is that killing one helps with eye hand coordination between a fly swatter and a flying insect.

Beverage:  Raspberry Seltzer

Deb

Fall Corn

I found these in the stash of photos I have to blog about.

I had been on an inspection job in northern Wisconsin. The road I was on was lined with corn.

It was a beautiful October day with a high temperature in the low 70's.

I stopped. There is a unique smell to autumn corn waiting to be harvested. There are no words which can adequately describe it. It's earthy. It's somewhat "burned". It smells of corn. Seriously. You can smell the corn.

I remember, as a child, wandering through corn fields. In August, with the corn towering over you head, it would be a good 10 degrees cooler near the ground. The air in the rows smelled sweet. I remember the harvest. Inevitably, some ears would not be removed from the stalks. Dad would pay us a nickel per ear for every ear we'd find. We would pull a wagon, fill it, and empty it over by the pig pens. I remember making a good $2.00 one Saturday. To a 7 year-old, that was a huge amount of money.

On this day, I stood next to the field with memories washing over me. Part of me wishes I lived in a small town where the corn fields were adjacent to my yard. But I'm happy where I am and happy to have the chance to drive into the farmland.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Fall on the Road

I've been on the road an awful lot in the past couple of months. It's not a "run into the city and back" kind of thing, either. We've had large jobs requiring a couple of hours in the car to get there. Fortunately, the late summer weather has been perfect so, although I'm tired of driving, the scenery has been great.

"Amber waves of grain".

Soybeans. Tofu in its natural state, if you will.

Corn awaiting harvest.

There's a smell that's only in the fall, the smell of ripeness, of crispness, a little burnt, but of the anticipation of harvest. It only comes in the fall. I swear the scent changes immediately on the autumnal equinox.

Leaves are changing.

One day, the bush is green. The next day, red has taken over. It's time for sweaters and pumpkins and apples and my favorite time of year.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Darling Datura

This is going to be a fixture in my garden for a very long time going forward.

The datura has set blossoms. I've had daturas in the yard before. They were solid white and grew to about 2 feet tall. This one is compact, only about 18 inches tall. It fits perfectly in the pot at the southwest corner of the deck and it seems to like it there.

I noticed last week that it set flowers. The trumpet-shaped blooms are big and quite distinctive. Datura is a night-blooming plant so I would have to remember, if I was going to get any photos, to go out onto the deck before going to bed.

I missed the first blossom but not the second.

I took a flashlight to see the plant but then just pointed the camera in its general direction and hit the shutter. The alyssum is doing quite well, too, spilling over the side of the pot in a cascade of white. The primrose at the lower left is bigger than it was when I got it, but I am not sure it gets enough sunlight with the competition from the other two plants.

The flash washes out the colors and design of the flower. Here it is this morning.

It is so pretty and so distinctive. I love the deep purple and the multi-petaled trumpet. I want to emphasize again that datura is poisonous. This pot will not be used to grow any food crop unless and until I completely remove the soil and wash out the pot. That's not likely so this flower is in a good spot.

As I sit here, typing away, there will be an occasional scent come in on the breeze. Daturas are great for providing nectar to nocturnal or early morning moths, butterflies and, in the southwest US, hummingbirds. Mostly, they serve as a curiosity in the garden, a night-blooming plant with an intoxicating scent.

We had the white version set seed pods, some of which fell into the pot's soil and came up the next year. I think, for three year's running, we had a white datura sprout in the same spot. I'm interested to see if this plant will set seeds and if some of those will overwinter. If it doesn't, you can be sure I'll get another plant from Select Seeds. This is quite the flower.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Doesn't Make Me Happy

Back in 2012, I started the process to use up the cologne I have accumulated over the years. First was the small cologne saturated squares Avon used to give out. Next came the small one inch glass tubes with cologne in them. I'm now up to the small jars of cologne. I lined them all up; there were 10 small bottles; and started with the fragrance at the left end. It was a bottle of 5th Avenue. I have no idea where I got it. I wore that, pretty much exclusively, when I wore cologne. This started in July of 2013 and I just finished it last week. Admittedly, I don't wear cologne every day, but that still is a long time.

In that time the "line" on the dresser had been smushed together so I formed it up again and Clinique's "Happy" came up next.

I had 3 small spray bottle samples of it. I figured I'd just lump all three bottle together and wear this until I was out of it. The sprayer on the first bottle would not work so I dumped it into a give away bag. They can deal with it. I grabbed the next bottle. I didn't like the smell. I thought perhaps it was the fact that I was so used to 5th Avenue that the change was startling. I would give Happy a week to grow on me.

Nope. I couldn't do it. I really didn't like the smell. It's too spicy for me. It did not make me happy. So, I dumped these two bottles in the give away bag and grabbed the next one in line.

I like this one much better. Ironically, checking the Clinique web site, they don't make it anymore. When I mentioned this to a friend, she said there is a lot of money to be made in discontinued fragrances. I should put this on eBay. I admit to thinking about it and, if a reader of this blog makes me a decent offer, I would sell it to you. But I don't have time to do a whole eBay selling research and learn session. So, it's just going to get worn.

I like the bottle design. Some fragrances spent as much to create a work of art for the bottle as they did for the contents. Given the two fragrances at the top, this bottle is very distinctive.

After this is gone, I have some very retro fragrances, Charlie and Jessica McClintock. Charlie has seen a resurgence of interest and you can buy it at CVS. I was rather surprised to see it when I walked through the fragrance aisle on my way to the pharmacy. "Oh wow! I wore that." My grandfather gave me a set one year for my birthday that contained a big and a little bottle. I still have the little bottle.

I got the Jessica McClintock in a bag of freebies from Carson Pirie Scott. I remember it with much fondness. It is a fragrance that I always meant to get a bigger bottle of because I liked it so well, but which I never did. So, I squirreled away the small sample bottle and here it is on top of the dresser. It used to be a very exclusive scent, sold only in "finer department stores". You can get it now at Walgreens. Nothing's rare about these two scents. I don't remember what comes after these two.

It's going to be interesting to see how quickly these are used up. I don't wear cologne on the weekend unless I'm going out. I don't wear cologne during the spring, summer and fall, if I'm out on a job site. I've had enough bees try to find the source of the floral smell that it's not worth it. I wonder if spray bottles are consumed faster than a bottle where you have to apply using your finger. I'll just be going by how long it takes to use them up.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

The Various Items of Christmas

It was an eclectic Christmas. I think I like those the best. It can be hard, in October, to assemble a Christmas list. I'm very aware of the amount of stuff I have. Paring down to what is essential is a goal and I do it in spurts, but it's important to provide ideas for things that bring me pleasure and happiness. The friendship of those who want to be in my company is the best gift I could receive, but, let's face it, it feels spectacularly wonderful to find some token of that friendship and present it. As much heartfelt, "Your friendship is the gift I treasure" that I say, I know how much joy I get when wrapping something I think the recipient will love as much as I loved picking it out for them. So, there is the list.

I used to save lists, year to year. I don't anymore. I don't know when I had an epiphany about that but I discarded several years worth of lists. It strikes me as hugely consumer-centric and if I'm going to consume, it will be with an eye toward quality, not quantity. When you're 10, the idea that you have a box bigger than your sister's is important. When you're 58, not so much. 

How about a blanket? 

This is so warm. I have it in the recliner in the living room. When I watch TV, I wrap my legs and feet in it. Plus, Mija loves it.

Also keeping me warm is this ruana. This is a Scottish shawl. 

Carole and Larry got this for me at the Celtic fest in Richmond. It's a light-weight wool and it's wonderfully warm. I wear it when I'm playing World of Warcraft and then wrap myself up as I trot around the house. I love the tartan, too. I haven't allowed either cat to sit on it. This gets folded and draped across the back of the office chair when I go to bed. 

What can I say about insulting bandages? I have 4 Minion bandages left to use up before I can get to these. What I really like is the notation "15 Large Assorted Plasters", "plasters" being the British term for bandages. I have not opened the container to be better surprised by the insult when I do need a band-aid. 

If you are not washing your hands religiously during the current flu epidemic, you are dumb. Seriously. Look at the scents I have to choose from to keep my hands clear of germs. Granted, it's just me in the house, but the peppermint scent went to the office where it's seen a lot of use. You don't have to smell like iodine to be healthy. Just wash your hands. 

Raiding snacks for the nights spent in front of the computer. The caramel corn is gone and the green M&Ms are nearly gone. I need to get a container of chocolate frosting to "properly" eat the shortbread cookies. What? That's not how you eat them? You must try it. Slather frosting between two cookies. The cherry M&Ms I love so well are out now. I bought a bag. I will be saving them along with the candy apple ones and attempting to ration my M&M intake. I'm sure I can do this. 

How could I not have one of these on my tree? Next year, I need the one that looks like a DD styrofoam cup. 

File this under "I laughed so hard". I used up most of my cards this past Christmas. If I could find a whole box of these, you'd get these in 2015. Maybe I should look at replacing the printer that broke and printing my own. 

Finally, I don't know where Carole found these, but they evoked the biggest memory. I can't have real Christmas trees off a lot anymore. The amount of chemicals used to keep a tree alive during the year and "fresh" after cutting are not good for anyone, to begin with. But I seem to have a huge allergic reaction to the sniffs of the scents on a tree lot. It makes me very sad. I don't have the problem when I wander in the woods so perhaps cutting my own would be a way to go. That's not going to happen without assistance so I'm content with my fake greenery. 

However, I miss the raw pine scent that trees provide. I can get that from some candles and this coming Christmas, from these. Yes, they are chemical reproductions and I'll have to watch how long I'm exposed to the scent, but you should smell them. WOW. 

I was riding on the back of a wagon in the cold of a December Saturday afternoon as we headed into the rows of trees on the tree farm. I didn't know there was any other way to get a Christmas tree other than freeze your feet off tromping through the snow to watch Dad and Mom argue about whether the one they were looking at would fit in the corner of the living room. I spent 15 years with a fresh cut tree and assumed the ones on the lots were cut right before Thanksgiving. Nah, not so much. I'm several layers removed from fresh now so these ornaments are going to bring back all the wonder and joy of Christmas in my youth. Best part, I don't have to remember to water them and clean up all the dropped needles when the tree was taken to the curb after New Year. 

So that's the round up of Christmas in my house. If you will excuse me, I have some M&Ms to eat and a cat to move off a blanket. 

Beverage:  English Teatime Tea

Deb

Autumn Smells

It's that time of year when the smells inside the house are as luscious as the smells outside the house. I made applesauce this weekend. It's hard to look at all the heaping displays of apples in the grocery and not think sauce and pie so I had to give in.

I bought 6 large Cortland Apples, Cortlands don't need a lot of additions once cooked, plus they were on sale. Step one is to peel and core the apples. I don't know about you, but I tend to eat some of the peel as I work. There's goodness in that and it seems like a waste to add to the compost pile. But, I can't eat the peel from 6 apples so quite a bit went to compost. The squirrels will love it.

As I'm peeling, I'm dicing these into large chunks. Some recipes tell you to splash lemon juice onto the apple pieces to keep them from browning. It's usually a negligible amount, but I don't. I find that the ones at the bottom don't brown if you're working fairly steadily and covering them with a new layer. Once all the apples were chopped, I added a half cup of water to the dutch oven, put the heat on low, and covered it.

I set the timer for 20 minutes and came back to check on the apples. Cortlands are a softer apple so they cook down fairly quickly. I also like my homemade applesauce on the chunky side so this is about done, after 20 minutes. I set the timer for another 20 minutes. Oh the smell!

Done. I smashed up the bigger pieces that hadn't fallen apart but this is what the sauce looked like at 40 minutes. A taste and I added about a half teaspoon of plain white sugar. It was just enough to bring out the flavor of the apples. I really debated on adding cinnamon to these but decided they were perfect as is. I should go get more apples and make cinnamon flavor or get some red hots and make pink sauce.

The batch was divided into thirds and put in freezer bags. I have some other fruit to eat so I will save these for November. It took about an hour and a half to go from apple to sauce and my house smelled wonderful. Other kinds of apples will give you different flavors of sauce, some more tart than others and will require a longer cooking time. I'm not a fan of Granny Smith apples, although they are great for pies which need to be transported as they are a very firm apple. I love Gala and Fuji, and they will make wonderful sauce that doesn't need much additions. I had a recipe for apple pear sauce that I made many, many years ago, but I couldn't find it. So, the pears I bought I'll just eat without saucing. Gee, life is tough. Hmmm...here's a recipe for pears with chocolate sauce.

Beverage:  Dunkin Donuts tea

Deb

Winter's Residue, Photo 21

In addition to the aches and pains of an almost non-stop shoveling season, winter has left me with one other thing, really dry skin. It's normal to have some dry skin. Winter air lacks humidity so it absorbs water from wherever it can find it. You'll see this in your home when you get cracks in the miter joints of your doors and windows or in the junctions of your walls. Even though things look and feel "dry", there is still water contained in the paint or the wood. Once spring arrives and, one hopes, the spring rains return, those cracks expand back to their original size and are less noticeable. Because the human body practically sloshes with water, the air is going to take whatever it can find and that dries out the skin; dries it out everywhere.

I like Vaseline Intensive Care for my hands. I've tried other, cheaper, hand lotions and I always come back to this. Right now, I'm using the Aloe version, but I'll use all of them and I watch for them to go on sale. Some things I'm just brand loyal on.

But for everywhere else, whatever I can find suits me just fine. I'm particularly drawn to fragranced lotions for the legs and arms. Right now, I'm using the lotion shown to the right. I like the scent and that's really my first consideration in selecting a body lotion, how does it smell. I don't remember how long I've had this kind but it's about half gone. I don't know about your skin, but I have to lotion up every day. It's still really dry and I don't like the itchy feeling on my legs or the back of my arms when my skin is that dry. It's a great feeling to slather on the lotion and feel your skin drink it in. This scent is great in that it doesn't clash with the cologne I'm wearing. I'm still working through those mini bottles. I have so many to use up. It's going to be years of the same scent.

So tell me, have you fought the dried skin battle this winter? Are you still fighting it? Any favorite lotion?

Beverage:  Dunkin Donuts tea

Deb

What's This?

We met snow, I think for the first time last night. I kept the back door open when I came home and then called to them. Mija came first.

Ears pitched forward, it took her a couple of minutes to set foot outside the back door. She got that one paw in the snow and then you could just see the wheels in her head turning. "Oh gosh! This is wet and cold!" She couldn't get back into the house fast enough.

I had to call Pilchard several times to come out. But when she committed to coming outside to be with me, she committed.

She came over to the stairs where I was standing, but I couldn't get a clear shot of a black cat against a white background. When I took a step up to get a better angle, she bolted back inside. Some day, I'll get that shot.

I'm fairly certain this was their first experience with snow. Val had an apartment without a deck so they would have just seen it but not been out in it. The cats that have gone over the Rainbow Bridge didn't mind the snow at all and would willingly go out onto the deck. In fact, we had to watch if it was a foot deep or more as they were fearless to see what was beyond that ridge over their heads. More than one time, we'd watch a cat jump into the snow, only to have to rescue them because it was over their heads. I won't have that problem with these two.

We have experienced snow. We were only too happy to come back inside and curl up with mom in the recliner. Wonder what scents they were picking up. Does snow have a smell?

Beverage:  Darjeeling tea

Deb

Autumn Leaves

The heavy rains of last week knocked down almost all of the remaining leaves from the trees. You almost couldn't see the grass in the front yard for the leaves.

In spite of the heaps in the street, water drained very well. There were no pools by the drains.

The big leaves are sycamore from the tree south of the house. My yard has a huge maple from which all the rest come. What I love about fall rains and leaves is the smell. Here I go again, telling you about the smell, but that smell defines fall for me. It's such an earthy, elemental smell. As it was garbage night, I just stood in the drive inhaling the aroma of wet leaves.

Yesterday, we had temperatures dip well below freezing. The resultant frost outlined everything, especially leaves.

I love the look of these. Edged with frost, the color really stands out and each leaf is more noticeable.

My allergies have been kind of bad in October so I have not been able to go out and inhale the fall air with its earthen goodness. Now that we have had consistent frosts, I'm hoping that will ease whatever allergens I encounter. Then I will be able to wander a bit and really enjoy the last days of fall.

Beverage:  Roobios tea

Deb

A Final Thought on Vacation

Yes, here it is, November already and I'm finally posting the last observation on the August vacation. I got a lot of mileage out of it, in terms of blog posts, in addition to adding around 1500 miles to the odometer. This is the last vacation post, unless, of course, it's not, but I'm thinking it is.

The Jeep doesn't have air conditioning. I don't care. It's a Jeep. If I take off the windows and drive 60, I have air conditioning. I grew up in a time where cars didn't have AC. I remember when this was a selling point for luxury models. I have memories of being piled into the back of the car and driven to and from Gram's, a two hour drive, in the summer, with my siblings, without air conditioning. We survived. Now, of course, we wouldn't dream of doing that.

Yet, I drove to Virginia and back without air. On the way out, it wasn't warm enough, at least from my point of view, to have the windows open. Particularly as you get up into the mountains in the evening, the air temperature can be downright chilly.

On the way back, it was muggy and warm. I had the driver's side window down and then, when I stopped for gas mid-morning, put down the driver's side window because I needed the air circulation. The windows weren't put back up until I realized I'd be driving through rain for some time. You need to remember, I have a soft top with soft side windows. I don't "roll the windows down". I have to unzip them so "putting up the passenger side window" involves stopping somewhere to do that. There is nothing electronic about windows in my car.

By the time I got to Ohio, I had noticed a curious phenomenon. My glasses seemed to be awfully dirty. It bugs me to look through dirty lenses. I must have four or five glass cleaning clothes scattered about the house, purse and office. I don't know how you can see properly when there is a film of dirt on the lenses. So, it was most annoying to me to have what seemed to be constantly dirty glasses. Every time I stopped, be it for food or gas, I was cleaning my glasses. I even took them off and cleaned them with my tee shirt as I was driving because it just got to be like looking through waxed paper. I couldn't figure this out. It was incredibly annoying.

Then it occurred to me that because my driver's side window was open, I could be exposed to road grime. This would be the natural dust and dirt and who knows what else kicked up by traffic traveling at high speeds over a roadway. Once I had to put up the windows because of the rain, the film on my glasses ceased to accumulate. I thought about this and washed my face when I got home. The soap suds were not a milky white.

I love the smells of road travel. Driving through rain yields the smells of wet earth and wet pavement. Spring has fresh air and the smells of the earth awakening. Summer brings the smell of earth after a rain, the smell of steam, the smell of hay and growth. Fall brings a crisp air smell with leaves and the harvest and winter has the smell of frozen air. Every season brings a reason to have the window down. Yet this was kind of disturbing to think about. What else is going on my face and in my lungs, kicked up by travel on a highway? I won't change my driving habits to avoid this, however. I will just need to make sure I have glass cleaner at the ready.

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold tea

Deb

So You Absolutely Don't Have To

And there is, yet, another entry in the M&M's "What Were They Thinking" adventure.

I have Francesca to "thank", "prepare", "warn", me about these. Back in September, I wrote about finding the Raspberry M&M's and how sad I was that they just weren't good. Francesca emailed me the following day.

One of my grandchildren brought me a bag of Candy Corn M&Ms. They've successfully ruined TWO of my favorites (and you can publish this!). They are orange, yellow and white and white chocolate inside.

Don't bother!!

But the thought was nice -- her mom knows I like both those candies so thought it would give me a chance to try these.

Again I say "UGH!!"

I had no idea what she was talking about. I hadn't seen anything like what she described. "Maybe this is a regional flavor," I thought. But when I went to Target and chanced upon the Pumpkin Spice M&Ms, right next to them were the Candy Corn ones. 

Although I had been warned, I simply had to check these out for myself. Let's just say I'm passing along the warning with some extra exclamation points for good measure.

These are awful!!!!

I cannot, in the strongest terms, explain how bad these are. I ripped open the package and was almost overpowered by the stench of sugar. It's a sickly sweet smell that just doesn't go away. I like the bright colors of the M&Ms, but the smell was constant. Real M&Ms don't smell like that. Real M&Ms don't really have a smell unless you stick your nose right into the bag. I would walk into the office and that's all I smelled, sugar.

Taste? Sugar. Sugar. And more sugar. The mix of candy corn and white chocolate destroys both flavors. I really like the Hershey white chocolate kisses. That's what white chocolate should taste like. I can eat a few pieces of candy corn. I even like the ones that are pseudo chocolate. You've seen them. They are beige, tan and brown instead of white, yellow and orange. There's a whiff of chocolate about them, real chocolate. These are, well, in keeping with Halloween, the term I could best come up with is "zombified". They are just bad...bad, bad, bad, bad.

A friend can't find these in her area so I happened to find myself in Target the other day. I had to search the candy aisle to find a bag. The pumpkin ones were gone too, replaced by bags of collections of candy. I don't know if this means this wacky experiment in taste combinations is over or if they only made just so many and if you aren't quick on your feet, you just won't get any. What I'm hoping is that M&Ms fires the guy (and it HAS to be a guy. No woman would unleash these abominations on the world.) who thought pumpkin and candy corn were great ideas.

If you happen to find these on your store shelf, do yourself and your wallet a favor and don't buy them. Leave them there. Leave them to rot. I ate a couple handfuls and said, "Forget this noise." The rest was left for the raccoons. I took the bag into the kitchen and it sat on the table for a few days before I put them out. Every time I walked into the kitchen, there was that smell, that overpowering smell of sugar. You shouldn't be smelling your candy before you get to it.

And, even though I know raccoons will eat anything. I felt kind of bad for them. At least with moldy leftovers, there might be some nutritional benefit.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Things I Saw - Part the Seventh

Ever think about the smells of a drive? You probably haven't because you roll up your windows, pop on your air and cruise at 75 down the Interstate. Oh the sights attract you. You probably have a CD or 2 or 3 ready for the changer or you button punch until some radio station comes into range that's playing close to things you might want to listen to for the next hour or until the signal disappears. But, I'm betting you've never thought about the smells of the open road.

I come from an era when air conditioning in a car meant opening all the windows and driving 60. Smells were everywhere. The Jeep doesn't have air conditioning. It's an "open the windows and drive 65" machine. On the way to Virginia, the wind was chilly so I spent most of the drive with the windows half open. On the way back, however, I was driving into heat, so the windows were open.

There is the smell of hot pavement. There is the smell from a semi full of cows, hogs or chickens. Chickens are the worst. Trust me on this. May you never find yourself stuck behind a truckload of chickens. The air rushing in through the windows brings the smell of haying in the fields, the smell of dirt, the smell of rain if you drive through a storm. I love the smell of freshly washed earth and the smell of driving into and out of a rain storm.

I came upon this as I was heading home on Thursday.

I had to follow him for a time because we were going uphill, into the mountains, in western Maryland, and the Jeep had slowed. At first, that natural slowing; how dare gravity tug on my vehicle; annoyed me. It was costing me valuable minutes in travel time. But then I realized that I got a better look at the scenery and had a chance to smell things I'd have passed right by.

Why is this important? This truck was hauling reasonably freshly cut pine trees. It wasn't quite like the smell of Christmas as there were diesel fumes mixed in with the pine scent, but it was close enough that I didn't mind being behind him until his speed dropped to 50 and I could easily pass.

In two months, the truckloads of Michigan fir trees will pass through the Chicagoland area on their way west for Christmas. For some reason, those don't have the smell this one load had. Made me remember that I really need to get back into crocheting scarves for presents.

Beverage:  Mixed Berry Seltzer

Deb

The Spice of Summer

Milkweeds are blooming now.

I'm not sure if it's because I don't pull them when I find them, but they seem to be all over the yard this year. And tall. Goodness, they are at least 3 1/2 feet tall with thick, sturdy stems which wouldn't yield even if I wanted to yank them out of the ground, which I don't.

I saw one monarch butterfly in the yard over the weekend. I'm hopeful that means there will be more. Given the huge die-off in Mexico over the winter, I want to do my part in my small plot, to ensure this spectacular insect survives while it's up north. While milkweeds are not their only food source, it's the one I can provide the easiest. Having a large birdbath is also helpful as they do require a source of water. If the robins would cease splashing the water all over the deck...

This year, in particular, I noticed the scent of the milkweed. I probably noticed it before but because there are so many plants in the yard and quite a few up next to the house, the scent is particularly apparent this year. Spicy is the only way to describe it. I had to actually stop and think, "What is that smell?" when it wafted in the bedroom windows last week. There is a sweetness to the scent, but it is quite spicy.

I wonder if that's how the butterfly knows where the plant is? Or perhaps, its ultraviolet color spectrum, something our eyes cannot process, causes the insect to see the plant, to know this is a milkweed and that it will have the nectar the butterfly requires. Soon, I will see these bright red bugs amongst the flower heads. I don't know what those are. I only see them on the milkweeds and only amongst the flowers.

I've never seen the butterfly cocoon anywhere in the yard. I have such an abundance of milkweed but never the cocoons or caterpillars. That's the part I really would like to see. Years ago, on one of the microphone stands for a piece of office equipment, a cocoon was left. I kept it in the backyard, watching every day for signs that it would hatch. Of course, it hatched while I was gone for a few days on vacation.

I always think the flower ball of a milkweed plant looks like plastic. I'm hopeful the sheer amount of food in my yard will entice some butterflies to linger. That would certainly be the benefit to the benign neglect of some sections of my yard.

Beverage:  Darjeeling tea

Deb