A Summer Afternoon At Home: Rocket Pays Gizzard

July 7, 2015January 28, 2021 / Ally Bean / 17 Comments

Sitting on the screened-in porch. Reading a magazine. Sipping an iced coffee. Late afternoon.

Summer is all around me.

In the distance across the ravine hidden behind the trees I hear kids playing outside. They have a trampoline over there– and they play all sorts of “ball” sports, like football or softball or basketball.

These kids, who are around 8-10 years old, are a happy bunch. Boisterous.

And supportive of each other. I’ll hear some of them encouraging the other ones with “good job” and “awesome.”

There’s rarely an argument.

So, when I become aware of a lull in the kid noise, my ears perk up.

What is this, I think. Not the usual light-hearted chatter. Is there a problem over there in kid-topia?

As if on cue I hear one loud little voice yelling: “Rocket pays gizzard. Rocket. Pays. Gizzard. ROCKET PAYS GIZZARD.”

This child is insistent.

All sorts of other kid voices yell back at him: “That’s not right.”

Then silence. Nary a sound.

Of course now I need to know what they’re up to, so I wait to hear what they will be say next– and much to my surprise I hear an adult voice.

An adult who is laughing while trying to speak.

An adult who has decided to intervene to keep things rolling along smoothly.

An adult who is correcting the kids who are trying to play…

{Answer in comments below.}

Of Slow Cooker Wisdom And Simple Garden Plans

May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 / Ally Bean / 44 Comments

“Knowledge is the process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”

~ Martin H. Fischer, Physician and Author

• • •

WE SPENT MOST of this past warm and beautiful spring weekend working in the garden.

My goal, influenced by the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook , is to have what I’ve come to call a slow cooker garden.

A space filled with variety, but put together in a way that is simple to understand. Pleasant to look at, but requiring less and less effort each year to maintain.

That is, we’re going to fix it now with perennials, paths and stones; then forget about changing anything out there for the next decade.

• • •

SO WHAT HAVE we got going on? Well, we’ve got:

a plethora of roses + daisies + hostas in planting beds beside stone and/or concrete steps that circle the house;
a landscape island in the front yard near the street filled with grasses and mostly purple flowers;
a newly installed dry faux creek bed under the deck; AND
a lower terrace in the back yard down by the woods that features stone steps, grasses, roses plus the recent addition of difficult-to-find milkweed. *yeah*

• • •

I’M NOT SURE how our garden ended up being so multi-faceted and unique, but over the years, little by little, it did.

My hope is that when it comes time to sell this property, like the HGTV show CURBAPPEAL suggests, the awe-inspiring exterior of the property will be so amazing that this house’s relatively small square footage won’t hinder a sale.

However, be that as it may, in the mean time, I’m not worrying about real estate business-y things like ROI. Instead, I’m going to groove on all that we have going on in our pretty, pretty garden.

• • •

So tell me, gentle readers: how does your garden grow?

QOTD: What Are Your Dreams For This Spring?

March 19, 2015January 24, 2016 / Ally Bean / 28 Comments

Always looking forward. Always planning. Influenced by ~~Arrowsmith~~ Aerosmith. I’m rarely without a list of what I need to do next.

Usually my lists revolve around practical matters, but occasionally I make a personal list of a few simple things that I want to accomplish. So without further babble, I give you…

My “Dreams For Spring” List

I want to go for a walk almost every day. There will be no numerical goals attached to this walk, I just want to move more. Rain be damned.

I want to bake muffins. The reality here is that for months I’ve said that I’m going to start baking again– then I haven’t done so. However, now that it’s on my list, let muffin-palooza begin.

I want to travel somewhere. While this may seem vague, I’ve learned that when I talk about a specific vacation, the gods start screwing around with my life. So mum’s the word. I’m going to sneak travel by them this time. You just watch and see.

I want to work in the garden. Last year I was lazy about gardening because– well, I haven’t a clue why I was, but I was. This year I’m planning some new features out there– and some new color schemes. Nothing like a design project to ramp up my interest and keep me enthused.

# # #

So here’s the Question of the Day, presented to you on the last full day of Winter:

What are your dreams for this Spring?

Answer in the comments below and I promise that we here at The Spectacled Bean will cheer you on to victory!

# # #

Morning Calm Disturbed, Questions Raised

February 26, 2015February 26, 2015 / Ally Bean / 24 Comments

The Incident Described.

Me at 6:15 a.m. Ambient lighting on in kitchen. Coffee brewed. Mug in right hand. Sitting at kitchen counter. Left elbow on counter to provide support for head. Eyes closed. Thinking about a popular saying* and its applicability to the life of a writer.

Husband enters room. I mumble something akin to “good morning.” But husband, who is always too awake in the morning, decides to revert to his 8-year-old self, slobber on his finger, then put his finger up my nose. Leading to the following:

me wide awake;
me wiggling out of his reach;
me laughing; and
me wondering about something.

The Questions Raised.

After the above incident, the focus of our subsequent early morning conversation was on defining exactly what makes up a wet willy. Keeping in mind that this is a PG13 blog, I ask you:

What do you call a slobbery finger up the nose? A wet willy? Or something else entirely?

The Asterisk Explained.

The saying I was thinking about, taken from medicine, was: “when you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras.” In other words, go with the obvious diagnosis/explanation. Or as applied to this particular post, go with the most recent event in your life, even if it is devoid of profundity and seems a bit silly!