Remnants of Fall

Bald trees and lonely motor home Buddy keeping an eye on it

What is left of the okra

shriveled persimmons

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.