It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.
But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.
There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Monday, October 31, 2016

HAPPY HALLOWEEN



I wonder ...

The girls, lolling around, talking about the days plans.
I remember when they both hissed at the sight of each other.
Merlin still looks surprised when he sees Honey .. I don't know if he forgets her or if the size of her constantly shocks him.
Every time I have to pick her up, it shocks me.
And then Minette weighs nothing and Merlin is like picking up a large soft feather. . with a cranky voice.
My arm muscles must be getting stronger .. my back is getting more achey ... she is just enormous and dead weight when I pick her up. I think she makes herself heavier when I pick her up ..
Her little legs look so short .. if she was the right weight, her legs might look like they belong on that body. lol ...
I totally love her though. We lost our mama .. we are totally bonded now.
And Miss Minette and Sweet Merlin are part of Honeys family too.
I wonder how they would feel about a dog .......



Saturday, October 29, 2016

Let Sleeping Cats Lie
















Honey is an expert cat napper.
I have been taking lessons from her.
I seem to be a quick learner.

Have a great fun Weekend ! and don't forget to take a nap !

Sunday, October 23, 2016

A Lovely Sunday

Today is sunny, with blue blue skies and no clouds and not very hot at all.
A perfect day in Florida.

One of us decided it was a perfect temperature for a long afternoon nap.
Others of us enjoyed napping outside in the sun and one of us enjoyed a shopping spree with the daughter.

All in all, so far, a Lovely Sunday in Florida.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

All of My Life

 Through all of my life
summer winter spring and fall of my life
All I ever will recall of my life
is all my life with you

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Pretty in Pink

While I miss the colors of Autumn back up North, I think I miss more the colors of Spring, back down South .. in Argentina.
This time of year , there are Lopacho trees, up and down the Avenues, in the Parks, everywhere you look ... hot pink trees.
At the end of winter, which is mild but can be dreary ... it is such a pleasure to see the signs of awakening, the trees budding, that pink haze wherever you look in the parks .. they are truly fabulous when you see a whole group of them in full pink glory.
Thank you to Sandra at My Buenos Aires Travel Guide for the use of her photos ( without asking first) ....un beso.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Autumn






































Upstate New York ... my old stomping grounds  ... this is the time of year that I miss New York.
The look of it, the smell of it, the feel of it .. crisp Autumn days and chilly nights with the scent of woodsmoke in the air.
An especially good time to have someone to snuggle up with at night ..

Sunday, October 16, 2016

My Grandfather

I was telling someone recently that my Grandfather had been a chef in a New Orleans restaurant, way back before I gave a hoot about restaurants or New Orleans.
Then suddenly, reading a blog that comes out of the UK .. and recipes are spoken of and I was reminded of something about my grandfather and now I am wishing that he was alive now to give me cooking tips.

He was not your typical Grandfather.
He was actually my mom's stepfather but he loved us all and we belonged to him and you knew it. When my mom had me, she was super young, my dad died in an accident and she went to live with her parents ..
That Marine Sgt Grandfather of mine, was known to put me in his Studebaker and drive me around in the middle of the night ..in San Diego... because I had colic and apparently the only way I would fall asleep was in a moving car.
So there went the car, slowly cruising through the neighborhood, my grandfather driving, no one would ever mess with him .. and this wee baby sound asleep on the seat next to him.

Apparently he never slept.
He was big enough and tall enough and man enough to never think twice about being the best Nanny a wee baby girl ever had.
He would have friends over to play cards.
When I was about 4 he had his regular Poker night.
They were all Marines, quiet and respectful to my mom and grandmother and sweet and "Auntie-like" to me.

He would pour them all beers and they would play cards for hours.
Those games took all of their attention.
I was able to get into small bits of mischief without anyone noticing.

When my mother noticed me acting strangely, silly and off balance, she was frightened and picked me up. And she said the smell of beer on my breath almost knocked her over.
I had gone around and finished the wee drop left in each glass.. while the men played cards and paid no attention.

Grandfather was in the DogHouse for weeks over that one !

He got out of the Marines and became a chef.
My mom remarried and we moved from California to North Carolina.
Where everything was different and I missed my Grandparents all the time.
Then he got a job as chef in a New Orleans restaurant.
Then he sent me a book, made of paper he had written his own recipes on ..
I saved it all these years .. I can't find it now.
I will find it but you know how it feels, that sadness for something you have kept so long and now need to see... even if I never use one recipe, I have to keep that book.

I thought of him today because I found a small cookbook from the restaurant where he worked in New Orleans .. I should make one of those dishes.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Paris, Across the Street

I wouldn't mind having my old view back.
It is so French to me. We had an apartment in Paris where we stayed each year and it didn't look as "French" as this view, in Buenos Aires .

At night they would turn on their lights, massive chandeliers , summer nights they would throw open the French doors.  I felt like I lived in Argentina but Paris was across the street.

If you think about it... or when I think about it .. after our first couple of trips to Paris, we started renting apartments for our stays. This is, in my opinion, the very best way to really visit a place. Being plunked down right in the middle of it all, with neighbors and shopping and managing with or without knowing the language that well.
The first time we ever did this, was in London.
After years of going to London every Autumn  and staying in a hotel, we decided to try renting a holiday apartment.
My husband had lived in London and we had visited enough times to know just which neighborhoods we wanted to stay in ... We rented a little one bedroom in Knightsbridge and with the shops, restaurants and museums, not to mention a certain Palace and Changing of the Guard ... we were always happy with our visits.

One year we had 2 weeks .. we arrived in London, moved into our flat and for a brief time, pretended it was our home. We packed an overnight bag and took the train to Paris for a 3 day weekend.
Leaving all our belongings in the London flat, we went to Paris.
We stayed at the Hotel Lutece on the Ille St Louis. It was perfect in every way.

After that visit, when the following year rolled around, my husband said what did I want to do this year on our vacation time... Paris I said .. I want to go back to Paris.
So once again, we rented an apartment, this one just blocks from the Eiffel Tower and we went to the markets and shopped, ate in local cafes and generally spent 2 weeks pretending.

Years later ... Imagine my delight when we visited Buenos Aires for the first time.
The architecture is very French.
There is a heavy French influence in many things but to look at it, you can see why my dreams of living in a flat in Paris, came true in Buenos Aires.

Molding, high high ceilings, doorways, French doors, the only door in the house that was solid was to the loo. The rest were all French .. I spent a fortune on sheer curtain panels to put on the doors. To at least give an impression of privacy.
It was a dream to decorate. We shopped for so much .. happily we brought it all back with us.
The desk that a man made by hand .. a lamp bought in San Telmo in an antique shop, our sofa that is the favorite spot for anyone who wants to be able to stretch full out for a nap ..
Which was what my husband and our dog Tate often did ..

Visiting a country, city, state, is fun. No matter where you go, even if it is just the next town .. you can experience the little changes that make you appreciate your own view and place you live or make you consider changing that view and where you live.
But be careful, you might walk into a room one day, and across the room are these windows, and there is this view and you will be planning to live there before you know it.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Found

This morning. In my bathtub.
Now ... sunning himself in the grass in the back gardens ... adventurous little gecko .

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Small Unexpected Treats

My daughter bought a condo and is preparing to move in ..
My very nice brother offered to come to her house from his house in the Carolinas, and paint for her.
He brought along his step brother.
I got the treat of stopping by her new home and getting to see my Baby Brother ... and his step brother, who I last saw when he was around 10 years old, if that old.
I babysat for him when he and his siblings were little.
But there he was, this nice looking young man with this great smile and those eyes that some smiley people have ... like they might twinkle.
I had not seen him since he was a little boy. He grew up quite nicely. And he acted nicely .. the little boy I used to know.
It was a treat on a day of sadness and feeling lonely and sorry for myself.

Good news ... I did the laundry and the machine works , quietly , water stayed where it is supposed to stay and nothing bad happened. That was a treat for sure !
I am not sure how long it will take for me to get over my fear of washing machines flooding. Perhaps never. I might have to move to a home where the laundry is not on the second floor of a condo that is fully carpeted.
Or better yet, live somewhere like Buenos Aires where you take your laundry to the lava ropa down the street and they do it for you. plus ironing. Does anyone see Anything wrong with that ???
I thought not. It is a treat.

The skies are cloudy but there is no wind.
It is getting dark ... Yesterdays storms are out there somewhere   ... I think Florida is being skipped by one but I am sure there are others lurking out there ... making sure I am never relaxed. Although I think when it is officially winter, the hurricane season ends ... right ?


But for now .. my daughter will soon be living close by, which includes my blue eyed grandson and his killer smile ... it will be nice. Just knowing they are there.
I will be a great mom/grandmother, I will only visit when invited.

I hope they invite me !! :)



Sunday, October 9, 2016

Storm Free

On a hot Summer day in Recoleta, where we used to live.
And now here I am, on a sunny warm day in Florida ... not the same but at least it is sunny.
The Hurricane blew through with no fuss and around here, hardly any muss ..  one dead pine tree lay down quietly in the forest behind my home .. there is no sign today that there was even a wind or rain.


You know, they don't have snow storms or blizzards in Buenos Aires.
And while they have summer storms, the streets overflow until the gutters drain it all down .. there is no snow.

The weather is not really something to watch out for , to prepare for .. unless you count Sunblock .. remember that.
 I love that Florida is so close to Argentina ... heh heh.

On a Sunday in Recoleta, we would have coffee and the scones that the bakery nearby made fresh every day. Full of dried fruit or plain.. soft and tasty. I wish they would send me some.
We would read the NYTimes online, have our coffee and scone then head to the park where the massive Feria was taking place .
After our initial arrival, I didn't feel compelled to buy something , every single time I went to the feria. But we did wait to go to the feria to buy certain things that we liked and the prices were great.

My sister in law bought 6 purses on her first visit, she liked the feria :)
She and I were the delight of the purse vendors, you can bet on  that.

I loved just walking through the quiet streets with Tate and my husband. We would chat or not, Tate would sniff things and just enjoy being a well loved dog.
We were all well loved, those were magical days. And no hurricanes :)



Have a good safe storm free Summer day ...

Saturday, October 8, 2016

And Things That Go Bump In The Night

The last time I lived in Florida, my husband and Tate were with me. There was a hurricane warning. Then right on top of that, came warnings about Tornados. I am terrified at the idea of a Tornado.
There is no staying and riding in out .. putting your things out of harm's way .. nailing down the shutters. Your house is finished it that thing hits it.
You have to have your Emergency kit ready to go ..

This happened suddenly. Or perhaps I ignored/blocked out the idea of a Tornado  word when they used it on the news.

I got all heart pounding dry mouthed anxious and weepy. And that was just with the news .

My daughter called and said pack your bag and the cats and come to my house.

Now never mind that her house is exactly like my house and very close ... but the best would be that we would be together, I would not be alone here terrified and explaining Hurr -I -Cane  to a cat. Or worse, Tor Na Do.

So I packed everyone up and off we went .. There was no real sign that things were going to get bad, weatherwise .. grey and breezy and quite nice. Also quiet.
Most people know what to do and when to do it and they were long gone.

My daughter has not fully moved into her new home. The kitchen was almost finished, there just was no furniture.
I looked around the neighborhood and knew that everyone had left, they weren't dummies, they packed the kids, cats and dogs and went to Grandma's house up North ..
And here, poor daughter, has Grandma and her cats at the door, with that white panicked face and shaky hands ...

The cats were not sure how they felt about any of it but they were thankful to be sleeping with me.
They saw my daughter's cat. They were not quite sure about it .... What is that thing ??
He is a Persian. His name is Habibi .. Beebs for short. He is beyond adorable, with his summer cut and big eyes.
I think Merlin was a little jealous. When I was holding him and loving him, he said something really crabby and frowned at me.

It continued to get more windy and the sky got dark early in the day ... very dark as the day went on.
I wondered what it would look like but was determined not to be able to see it ... I would be under a lot of things. With cats.

And then ... it was here ... quiet and calm one minute, then the tops of the trees were thrashing around and whipping back forth and it was loud and kind of made your ears feel like they needed to pop.
Then it rained even harder and I could clearly hear my daughter say, OK, it's gone now.

No sight of a girl with a little dog .. a witch on a broom ... just black clouds on a summer day then blue skies again.

It was horrible in the fear I felt, insecure through and through, but amazing and nothing like what felt like a near death experience to make a person grateful for a sunny day and a house that is all in one piece and family alive and well.

The kitties came home with me this morning.
We all miss being at my daughter's house.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Pre-Hurricane

Yesterday there was a nice man here installing more machines to suck the water out of the walls and ceilings.
Today, he removed them all.
The cats and I were so very thankful.
Although I think Merlin was not quite aware of anyone even being here, he just enjoyed the warmth of that loud fan.
We all slept in my bed, hid in the bedroom as much as we could. We went out on the lanai and watched the sky change.

Now there will be a hurricane in the vicinity.
My daughter and grandson, all of our cats and I .. will be staying at her new place.
Air beds, picnics on the floor, hopefully no power outage and no flooding. Here or there.

Funny, when I was here before with my husband, this happened.
We sold the house and moved to Portland, Oregon. Hmmmm.

All morning I watched my neighbors load their cars up and leave.
That is a weird feeling. To see everyone leave and just be left standing there ...

So that is the story so far.
I will post here when I can. A sort of You Are There Live !! hurricane reporting.
And my hope is that this is the last time I have any reporting to do on a hurricane.
You can hit me on the head only so many times before I get the point.


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Hurricane Watch

You know, I love going to the ballet and watching those dancers !
I enjoy a Polo match in Buenos Aires, watching those men on those horses ...sigh ~
I love watching a good movie ... Almodovar comes to mind.
I can sit and watch my grandbaby ( he isn't such a baby anymore) doing what little boys do with such concentration and imagination ..
I can sit and watch my grandson have a discussion with his mom ... he definitely is no baby anymore.
I probably watch the cats all day... there is always something going on when you have 3 cats, one very young, one about the same age and until recently having been an only (child) cat ... and the one old one .. fragile, easy going, gorgeous but not into the young girl cat spats .. so I watch out for him.

The ONE thing I have no wish for, no desire for .... a Hurricane Watch.
This is nothing I ever want to participate in.
This is something that I left Florida for , years ago.
And my husband was with me then, he made me laugh, bringing me a drink and snacks while I sat in the bathtub, no water, fully dressed, having read that it was a Safe Place ..

Now it is all up to me.
I have 3 cats to protect and all I can think of is what if the house collapses on us , there is nowhere to drive to .. there is no one I know to visit that I could get to before the storms hit here.
Everything I have is here with me in this condo .. and there is a Hurricane Watch.

When this season is over and the weather turns cooler and so pretty, everyone forgets times like this.
I still remember times like this - a time - and I had my husband to share it with.
Sharing with cats really isn't the same thing.
I don't want to live like this. I don't care if everyone in Florida lives like this and likes it anyway.


Let us all hope and pray that it fizzles out and is just a bad rain storm for a few days ...

The cats want to know who gets to ride in the front seat when we GetTheHellOuttahere ...

Monday, October 3, 2016

Throwing in the Towel

I threw a couple of towels and some nightgowns into the wash and went to the lanai and made sure everything was neat and tidy then back into the house to send some emails. While sitting here, I heard this sound ... it was familiar .. I walked out of the room and stepped onto soaking wet carpet.

Yes... again. Another washing machine flood.

This time, thank goodness, I was here and knew what to do ... sort of.

I turned off the machine, pulled out the plug, put every towel in the house on the carpet and mopped up the laundry room floor.
Then I called the owner ... who is not in the country ... but he is sending those very nice people who will dry out the carpets and make it livable again, fast.
He will also buy me / the condo , a new washing machine.

The cats are annoyed, they stepped on wet carpet, it ruined their whole week.

I am annoyed, not as upset as before but I had plans to do things this week ... sitting around a house with soggy wet carpets, washing machine removal and deliveries, ( if that even happens that fast) and no cinnamon rolls.
If I had a cinnamon roll , I would not be so cranky.
Now I will need a whole package of them to get over this.
You know what I mean.

And there is an out of town guest that can't be a guest now.

 Minette is howling.
Merlin is napping.
Honey is napping.

I think I am going to be looking at real estate. I am not howling ... yet.
 

A Walk in the Park

Because we had a large dog, we had to go to the park, first thing in the morning. Most mornings, my husband, the early bird, would take Tate down the block and a half to the parks that ran along the boulevard for miles.
We were beyond lucky when we found the apartment of our dreams and it was so close to the parks .. and across the street from the park you see here, is the fabulous Museum ..

How many times have you dreamt of being able to just meander down to the museum and see what's new ? or old :)

How many times have you dreamt of walking out your door, and a block away are miles and miles of parks ? some with grand statues and monuments, some with fountains and one with a soccer field.
Those were our "backyard" ..

How many times do I dream I am still there :)

I am thankful beyond words to all who send me notes and sweet words.
I am thankful for all  who read my blog.
I will continue although life in Florida might not live up to Life in Buenos Aires but for now, I am here because as much as it might be interesting to someone, tempting them to visit BA too, it is a lovely way for me to remember those happy times.

besitos ! C

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Where I Used to Live

Where I used to live.
These were my neighbors.
This was Spring in Buenos Aires with the Jacaranda trees in bloom. The skies almost always that amazing blue. The old buildings made of stone and plaster from the  early 1900's s up until now .. Balconies , Cupolas and French Doors. Grand rooms with ceilings 14 feet high and higher. Chandeliers with crystals, twinkling in the evening ... living in one of those old buildings made our life there even more magical.
With that lovely Porter who waited and opened doors and gave directions and generally watched over his building and everyone in it.
Who wouldn't miss that ? !

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Korea Really Is Hell on Earth

God Bless the Dogs

Why does the United States continue to do business with Korea ? Why are they not completely shunned by the rest of the world ... where Humanity still exists ? well, we won't talk about the Other places where it does not exist but you know what I mean.

There is a Hell.
Right now, dogs in Korea are in Hell.
There are dogs being rescued, we all have to contribute to the rescues and force Korea to stop this completely.

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