Under a Red Roof

Summertime

July 12, 2022 in Cooking + Baking, Eating, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle…

In the garden gives category: we beat the birds to the cherries this year! I made an amazingly delicious tart (definitely better when home grown) and three jars of equally delicious cherry jam. Like spreading a little bit of pie on your life, a.k.a. heaven. Smoked chicken, salad with ranch, and pancake/fritters with our first garden grown zucchini and some of the chili jelly/jam I made a short while ago. Yum, yum, yum.

In Rainbows, with a serious nod the most stellar Radiohead album of the same name. More, please.

echinacea – with and without rabbit nibbled petals

The parents! We had a fun weekend of eating (green chile, Cherry Bakewell tart with my own jam!), gaming (Sequence, canasta {they cleaned our clocks good and proper!}), more eating (biscuits and jams and bacon, grilled steak, homemade focaccia with grapes and rosemary, salad, grilled asparagus, the remaining Bakewell tart), more gaming (Spades!), library browsing, movie watching, dog cuddling, and porch chilling. Not too shabby….

Last Monday

May 16, 2022 in Exploring, Listening, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

Howdy from the Ogden Theater last Monday. Fontaines D.C. baby! Even though we loved live music and only lived ten blocks away in our early marriage days, this was our first time at the Ogden. In an old people with money to spare fashion, we paid in advance for nearby parking, arrived early enough to snag actual seats, and were utterly shameless in saving our hearing with neon green ear plugs. The lush life and a damn good time. Also happy to report there were plenty of other grey-haired attendees having fun in equal measure. Awesome, yup, yup.

I guess this is us openly admitting that we want the damn pandemic to be over. I am not in denial about numbers rising or the staggering number of people without a single shot, but we are thrice vaccinated and don’t want to live in a state of fear and anxiety. SO, when a favorite band announces a date in the area and all works in our favor to attend, we are doing it.

The show was fantastic – great crowd, great energy! We loved the opening band, Just Mustard, which is always such a fine gift. Grian and the gang were on top of their game, everyone doing their best at their given role, yours truly included – singing at top of voice, of course. They didn’t play Roy’s Tune, but did Jackie Down the Line, so it was all good in the end. Very, very good, actually.

We stayed with my parents, which kept us from being uber-fatigued drivers on the south bound 2-5 Monday night. We made a right deal out of it, packing the pizza oven for a tip-top luncheon, playing the usual games, watching movies and comedy (Nate Bargatze!) and such. Five out of five stars, peeps. F I V E .

Refreshed

April 1, 2022 in Cooking + Baking, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

Does anyone else remember the 80s t-shirt of Richard Nixon – Tan, Rested, & Ready? Well, I’m not exactly tan, but am feeling refreshed, thank goodness. Could be the dazzle of sunlight on my keyboard or maybe something else. Whatever it is, I’ll take it!

Biscuits two ways! With crunchy-sugary blanched almonds and and ye olde gravy topped version with left over smoked chicken and mushrooms. Small luxuries.

Homemade minestrone, damn good. When I was a teen and bussing tables at the Italian joint, I ate this all the time, dunking crispy hunks of garlic bread like there was no tomorrow. It didn’t have zucchini noodles but did have tortellini, which was better, truth be told, but I made do.

Sunday is raw marrow bone day for the Juper-dog, and darn it if she doesn’t know. She gets it in place of her usual afternoon snack and is positively wild with anticipation. She works herself into a lather for about half an hour, utterly cleaning it of any doggy desirable, before collapsing with exhaustion on the couch. It is ALL the things and keeps her teeth clean, too.

In a strange reversal, my constant coldness pre-menopause has turned to coziness or straight up hot flashing, barefoot on the frozen porch and loving it! Poor Greg is often left shivering. So this started as a joke, a weird contraption from Poler called a Napsack that had me chuckling. It’s basically a sleeping bag with arm and leg holes! Then the genius of it sunk in, and here we are, peeps. The hubster loves it!

In an attempt to be less wasteful, instead of donating a sheet that got a small tear (Juniper and her bed hopping!), I repaired it. Looks nifty, I think.

Out the Other Side

February 28, 2022 in Learning, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

The other day, out walking Juniper on a frigid frost day, Greg and I were chatting (as we always do), and there was a moment where I could not remember an essential detail germane to the conversation. Down the hill to the under the bridge tunnel, now laughing. Sometimes, it’s a bitch getting older, we thought aloud. Important threads of thought lost to the wind.

As I walked, I slowed my pace, trailing a step behind, the tunnel icy with wind and damp. For the first time in memory, I did not mind it: the forgetting. I am nearer to fifty-one than fifty and like it just fine. I realized I have no desire to spin backward the hands of time, to less sagging and wrinkled quick-memory days. Those when I saw so little of my own value and strength. Those when I thought I deserved mistreatment. Those when I was gas lit and sad. Those when I feared to make my voice heard. Those when I saw so many problems.

As I came out the other side, I felt a lightness and strength, a sheer joy I had never experienced. How beautiful the day and my presence of mind to love it for all it was and I am.

Five Years!

February 22, 2022 in Celebrating, Loving by Colleen | Permalink

who might be unwilling to admit it – dog.

J U N I P E R ! ! She’s our everything super-pooch pal. We’ve now had her in our lives for FIVE years. How lucky we all are to have found her adorable face on the internet, driven to the PetCo in Littleton to meet her live and in-person, and brought her into our hearts and home.

Without question, she is the best dog we know. Full of her own gumption and sweet silly joy, I cannot imagine a better four-legger for the Cooper-Sohn household. Keep on keeping-on Juni B!