His and hers

Hers


His

Little things in a relationship that make me happy

I am not young and of course not a spring chicken anymore in fact I am as old as the chicken sunning on my deck. Like the chicken I am soaking up all the sun and enjoying my life. I am not giving up living and of course I am having the time in my life. I have a little to crave for, I am past envying what people have or to keep up with the Jones. I care little of what people say or think.

What I care now, is the little things that my husband and I do to show we care and love each other. I suck in every time my husband hugs me and tells me he loves his nutty wife. Sleep contentedly after he tucks me in and try to sing a lullaby out of tune, every night. Wakes me up or nudges me out of bed for subuh prayer and blabs every time I delay my prayer when the azan goes off from the computer.

I love the smell of warm food coming from the kitchen in the evening and the smell of baking especially in cold nights. Above all I love being served with a piece of warm brownie or mug of hot chocolate at night when I am sitting in front of my computer.

Still love taking a shower together when my toes are being dried lovingly and hair rubbed to dry. Love the way my husband rubs my feet with balm to moisturize my very dry cracked feet.

I may not have much in materials, but I thank God for this beautiful life I have now.

Soaking up the sun

Remnant of summer

Beautiful foliage

Colorful leaves that change everyday.

Am I in the Fall of my life?

The days are cooler now as it is the fall season, the season I like best. Leaves are turning into colors. Some are yellow, some are red, some are brown and of course some are still green. Squirrels are every where jumping from one tree onto another as well as crossing the roads. There are of course some casualties when many young squirrels did not look left and right when chasing their lovers. Squirrels mate in the fall and hibernate in winter to have babies just in time for spring.

If Fall is what I am having now, let it be Fall forever. Life is serene and peaceful and blissful. Happy leaves flying off the trees and be blown by the wind in a merry go round. I just want to live this way forever if I could.

I have had my springtime of life, full of anticipation, full of energy just like the spring in Oklahoma. Flowers bloom, garden growing and new leaves turning green. Birds and critters of the woods, mating bringing new life into the world.

Made my hay while the sun was shining in the summer. gather all the fruits and nuts for the coming winter. While in the fall or Autumn, I sit on the hammock all day under the colorful foliage of my big oak tree, watching and admiring the nature that God created; Enjoying the nice crisp weather with the sky so blue.

Winter will come no doubt. I wish i can hold on to Fall a little longer.

The raya it was

Raya means celebration. End of Ramadan is something to celebrate. My husband and I celebrated our end of Ramadan on the last Iftar. The next day the first of Syawal, after prayer, we just did what we always do everyday. There wan't anything special. I did have a webcam conference with my sisters and family in Penang. That was it. It was fun because they had 2 laptops and webcams and everyone was having a good time stuffing their faces with food.

Mimosa for the little visitors

My husband planted the tree just so the tiny humming birds could feed when they come visit every summer from the south.

MY Roo Girl was bitten again

My Roo was bitten by a copper head again last week. Poor girl, her face was swollen so big that she looked like a monster. She drooled and her mouth was kind of flapping. She was in pain and I was advised by the vet to give her benadryl in case she developed an allergy. Praise be to Allah she was alright after a day. Love that dog. She would put herself in front of me and she would protect me when she thinks I am in danger.

Ramadan

We completed our first day of fasting at 7:53pm. The weather was almost good, cloudy and the high temperature for today is 92F.

I did my Tarawih last night, the minimum and InsyaAllah tonight I will too. Surprisingly, I did well on my first day. Usually I would have headache and after breaking the fast i would throw up. Praise be to Allah all went well.

My little kingdom 2

Daun kunyit/tumeric



Okra/bendi or kacang lendir



Tomatoes (leftover dunno what to do with them)



Serai/lemon grass


It is only early August, but my trees are turning colors. Fall is arriving. It has been so hot lately, probably the reason the trees are changing their color to minimize the water consumption.

However today we had a heavy downpour which immediately green my grass and burst or crack whatever left of my grapes on the vines. My plants, I am sure are thankful for the drink and I am thankful too as my water tank is almost full again. (We have a 500 gallon tank collecting water from the roof gutter). Of course, i don't have to water my tress and garden for a couple of days.

I cut some of my tumeric leaves and shred them and dry them in the house, save them for the rainy days when I run out of fresh ones. They keep good dried in the freezer (do not freeze them when still wet). As Ramadan is approaching I am sure I may need them. Since it is fishing time too, I might use them to flavor my ikan bakar, my masak lemak cili api etc.

My little kingdom

The above pictures of my grapevines are for Delicate Flower to see.


People blog about their everyday life, good restaurants to go to, new shoes to buy, office politics, vacations they take. All those gorgeous stuff that make people happy.

People say, once you retire from 9-5 working hours, you will be bored and restless and maybe depress. It did not happen to me. I took my retirement day by day. There was no hurry to get into anything.

Acquiring all those worldly goodies kind of slipped off too once i retired. There isn't any need to buy those branded items to wear or carry or show off. My dogs and chicken will laugh at me I guess if wear or use them. There isn't any pressure to dress up to show off or to brag about where I go to dine, whom I meet or where I go for vacations to keep up with the Joneses. Sound boring huh.

It does not take much to make me happy and contented. I love this little homestead that my husband and I carved. There is nothing much here when we bought it. Whatever we have now are tress and things we grow and create. There isn't much but when you build something with your own bare hands, they sure make you feel good.

My husband built little things for me to be closer to nature. The bird houses to watch what kind of bird come to live. The squirrel houses set up on the huge oak trees for the naughty creatures to keep warm in winter and of course the squirrel feeders and humming birds feeders.

We grow mimosa trees just so the humming birds can come and enjoy the flowers as well as the honey suckles along the fence. My husband also built a small garden patch next to the house so that i can grow my oriental herbs and plants for my kitchen (read: serai, cili api, kunyit, limau nipis, basil etc.)

I get enthusiastic when spring comes, when i get to grow my vegetables seriously. Not so much to eat, but just to see how things grow when you give a little love and care. As usual, I over do it. I plant rows and rows of them and in the end I give them away or just let them go back to fertilize the garden.

Birds having a party

Now I know why every morning when i open the door, i could hear birds singing and sound so happy. They are having an early wine party. They are partying on my grape vines. My grapes have ripen and ready for picking. So yesterday I went and look at them. Indeed they have, but i could not remember which is which, the seedless red Thompson or the black concord as they have twined together. The seedless Thomson has a lighter color and the concord is more purplish. Anyway, now I have them in my big basket. I have to separate them from the raisins though before I turn them into yummy juice.

I plan to turn the juice into jelly later on. For now I am drinking my very fresh grape juice, which is a little tart to the taste buds. I also have fresh tomato juice to drink as my tomato vines are loaded with big juicy ripe tomatoes. For those who have not tasted tomatoes grown and ripen on the vines in Oklahoma's hot summer sun, I cannot even try to describe how fantastic they taste. There is no comparison.

This afternoon while warming my leftover chicken soup, I thought of adding some dumplings into it. I have some round wrappers in the refrigerator, and some cheese plus the chicken meat from the soup. So while my chicken soup was warming up, I threw into the food processor some chicken meat, some onions and some of my squash. I added some ricotta cheese and made into balls and wrapped with the wrapper (wanton). Then i throw them into the boiling soup. They turn out to be tasty.

More fun at the lake

It is the thing for us in the boonies to go out to the water for some fun in the summer. Since we do not have the ocean to jump into, we have many lakes to enjoy. here are more pictures of the Beach clan having fun. Yours truly would not be displayed here as not to invite unsavory comments and menambah dosa org yg menengok.

Rednecks having fun at the lakes

Crayfish,crawfish or crawdad

Cray fish, craw fish or crawdad, they are the same critters. The pond dug out by my husband 2 years ago, are full of those crawly critters. The pond was meant for my dogs to go for a swim especially in the hot summer days. It was meant to be a bigger pond, but due to the ground being wet most of the time and the backhoe and dozer almost got stuck every time, it remains at the original size of 20 X 10 ft.

My dogs do not care for the size, they enjoy it all the time. Buddy will just jump in and out of it a few times everyday when we go for a run. Max just skirt along the side where the water just touches his belly. Roo and Dumdum always swim around it a few times before getting out to shake off the water.

A few days ago, my husband decided to work on the pond again. He pumped the water out to drain the pond to a reasonable level. To our surprise, the pond is full of those yummy critters. I have yet to figure out how to catch them especially those the size of lobsters. Their pincers look mean.

As to how they come to be in the pond, we have a theory. Most probably those migratory birds stop by and drop their food in the pond. Those crayfish eggs must have hatched and create a colony in the pond.

I will post some pictures when I get them.

My garden produce

Early spring vegetables

Strawberry


Collard Greens


Chives


Asparagus


Mint

Clouds

Towering clouds before the storm.

Spring is here again in the boonies

The spring is here.

Shortcut cooking

I am creative when come to cooking my favorite food. I make nasik lemak from leftover rice by sprinkling salted coconut milk and adding slices of ginger and onion. Microwave it for 2 minutes and I have nasik lemak.

I make curry mee by adding coconut milk to maggi instant noodles (curry flavour). Of course I add dried tofu, shrimps and vegetables. If I don't have maggi mee with curry flavor, I just use any instant noodles minus the flavor. I just boil fish curry powder with coconut milk adding to it crushed ginger root and onions. Then i add the noodles plus all the the garnishing that I want.

I grill/bbq my food often. To make sure my chicken or meat does not burn on the grill, I usually cook the beef or chicken first in the bbq sauce. If I am realy really lazy I just microwave the meats in the sauce. Then only I put them on the grill just to get the meat get dried and get the mark on them.

To have nicely cooked baked potatoes on the table at the same time as your bbq meat/chicken. Clean and dry the baking potatoes, then microwave them for 8-10 minutes or until soft. Then take them out and wrap them in tin foil singly/separately. They are ready to eat.

To make your meal look classy, just boil/microwave asparagus and serve it with butter.

How many ways do you eat your cottage cheese

I was introduced to cheese eating when i was still young. My grandfather used to buy them whenever he went shopping at the one and only cold storage in Penang. That was way back in the 50's and 60's. The cheese and butter came in those gold colored cans that I can't remember the brand. It is called iceberg or something. I also remember my father liked melted cheese on his roti bangali but my mother did not like even the smell of it especially when she was pregnant.

Later in that period of time, the cheese and butter were hard to come by and my grandfather did not make many more trips to the cold storage as the estate he was managing had changed ownership. So, I think after the early 60's we did not eat 'western' anymore. Then there was planta margarine.

When I was studying in London circa 70's I hated having to pass the cheese department of Sainsbury on Holloway road to get to the bus stand on Seven Sisters road. The smell could give me a bad headache. I did like the soft cheese and gouda or edam. Back in Malaysia, I could not find any decent cheese to eat. There was cheddar from Australia that sucks and tasted like fermented rubber, so I quit eating cheese.

When I was in Hawaii in the 80's I found that American cheese are yummy. Found that their cottage cheese is not like those imported from Australia. (probably very old imported stock that are sold in Malaysia).

I like to eat cottage cheese in a variety of ways. When I was in Uzbekistan, I bought cottage cheese by the bucket (that was how it was sold then) from the 'secret farmer' who kept his cows and operation hidden from the authority. I ate it in salad, I ate it with salt and pepper, I ate it with home made preserved fruits etc. because that was the only luxury food i could find then. I bought home churned butter too to eat with pon their kind of bread.

My husband eats his cottage cheese with pineapple chunks sprinkled with salt and black pepper for breakfast. I eat mine with cocktail fruits and nuts. I also eat it with sliced fruits sprinkled with salt and pepper. I have yet to try eat it with shrimps.

Baju Kurung

On my last visit to Malaya, I met with my best friend from school days. My friend and I sat next to each other in the classroom from Remove Class until Upper Six. Eight long years. The last time I met her when a friend and I did our round the peninsular drive in 1981 before I went to the East-West Center in Honolulu. She was teaching at this small town by the south china sea. She already started a family. She had three cute babies. We did keep up with each other but not met since then. It was during my last visit me met again after 27 years.

Right, we got to sit and talked about the good old days in a boarding school. We recalled that on certain night of the week we had to wear baju kurung for dinner. Baju kurung hijau. During that time there wasn't any ready-made baju kurung to buy and those tailors never heard of readily arranged pleats for the sarong. So most of us who were not originally from the southern part of the peninsular found it very challenging to make the pleats from the sarong and have the sarong tied securely.

During one of the night outings to see a talent time, a singing contest at the Dewan Jubli Intan, my friend and I wore the baju kurung. One of the contestants for the night was Sheikh Abdullah ( better known as Datuk Sheikh now). I think one of the contestants was my classmates. We went to cheer my classmate. We got all excited and clapped and stood and jumped i guess, and I discovered I was standing with my sarong on the floor. What a shock. Luckily all of us were standing and I managed to scoop up my offending sarong and tried my best to fix it the way the northern people wear, like real sarong. At that time I swore I would never wear baju kurung again for outing. I would stick to my green gingham pinafore school uniform.

My new wheels

We just got this pickup last week. I like it. I feel tall driving it. Have to literally climb into it.

Rombongan

What is wrong with that word? It used to be alright to use it to mean moving in a group. My mother used to go on a rombongan to Kuala Kangsar in the 60's. I used to go on school rombongan to visit educational places. Nowadays that term has a different connotation. That's what I just realized what a BIG mistake I made. I supposed I could have been forgiven by using that term since I belong to that generation that the word rombongan means something exciting to do with your friends.

I was in transit at Inchon, Seoul recently. We boarded the flight that was heading home to KLIA. Flights on the code sharing, called sky team. I was on Delta from Atlanta (DL), and there were passangers on MH and KE whom actually were sitting on KE aircraft KLIA bound.

I guess I was the only one who originated from Atlanta, GA and terminate at KLIA. When we boarded the aircraft, I could hear a familiar language spoken. Unmistakably, it was my mother tongue that I missed a lot. I was excited to talk to these group of people whom themselves sounded very excited with their trip to Seoul. They were loud and talking about their shopping etc. Some were even talking about making a similar trip to the US namely NYC.

In my excitement meeting this group, I turned around and asked in a very friendly manner "You all ni mai rombongan ka or ikut rombongan?" Then to my utter disbelief, everyone went silent. I did not know what I said that was so wrong. I thought these ladies were rude, they did not answer my question. I thought they did not hear me, I stood up and turned and asked the same question again to give them the benefit of the doubt. Again nobody said anything and I noticed nobody looked at me. Then I was confirmed that orang melayu memang rude.

I only learned later that the term rombongan is only referred to those group travels synonymous with makciks on a bus or coach trip. How out of date I am with my language. I supposed I have offended those ladies making their overseas trip sounded very kampong.

You learn something new everyday, don't you.