Last night I was once again stuck in the fun files of family photos. We have so many over a few generations. I didn't mean to get stuck there, although I should never be surprised when I go in for a photo and come out hours later,
I was looking for some photos of when my siblings and I restored a vintage truck for my Dad. I didn't find those yet, but I found lots of others that took me traveling down memory lane.
I don't know how young I was when we had our first bonfire in our yard. We called it a Weenie Roast and it was usually in October. When I was a child, we would have to scour the local woods and fields for kindling and fallen branches in order to make it happen. When I was 20'ish, my folks moved to a house that has several acres of woods around it, so after that, there wasn't much hunting needed. After a while there, it became a habit all year to put brush and fallen limbs that needed to be cleaned up in a pile where an October gathering would be, so at first there was always a huge bonefire, that slowly burned down to a pile of glowing embers where we would roast weiners for hotdogs (with all the trimmings waiting of course).... and then we'd roast marshmallows afterwards to simply eat right off the stick or to make s'mores with. I always liked mine nicely toasted on the outside, to just eat right off the stick... well... after a minute or two when the inside of the marshmallow was no longer the temperature of molten lava. Oh yum yum !
Along my photo hunting journey I came across these photos of one of those fires. Fires are so fascinating (when they aren't burning your house down or the such). I'm guessing it's a primal somethingorother.... but for whatever reason, they are fun to start and watch and play in a little.
I thought they'd be fun to share so I pulled them out on my desktop file so that I could get to them easily for a post.
Such a wonderful pile of warm embers, perfect for cooking whatever you can put on a stick....and to keep warm by on a brisk October evening.
Coffee !... I love coffee. I didn't use to love coffee. I only started drinking it around the age of 41'ish. I didn't mean for it to become a daily habit, I just slowly got drawn in when all the different flavors started popping up. Vanilla coffee was the tempter that drew me in. All these years later I have tried many flavors and eventually started drinking some nearly daily.
I usually keep about three kinds going around here. Variety... spice of life.... and all that you know. One time years back I tried Starbucks Veranda because it was called a "Blonde Roast" and was not supposed to be as harsh as the Starbucks signature blend. I am not an avid Starbucks fan, although I certainly have been there now and then through the years, mostly with a friend or out of town family member where we would meet for a leisurely visit over coffee and maybe even shared some vanilla bean scones or a piece of lemon pound cake. When I saw and tried the Veranda though, it was just a bag of ground coffee from the grocery store shelf. I liked it and bought it for the rotation for a while, but eventually it faded away, replaced by some unknown NEXT coffee that I found and liked.
I was putting in my online grocery order to be delivered yesterday. I decided to check out what types of coffee they carried. I came across the Veranda that I hadn't had in a few years and decided to grab a bag. Hasn't coffee gotten expensive !! I had looked in other places for some that I have currently kept here the last few years and couldn't believe how much they had gone up recently for bags that were less than a pound....maybe 12 ounces. JEEZ-LAweez ! Now, at this moment in my life, I have the money to buy what I want on this type of level, but that doesn't mean prices don't still matter. I thought this was not a totally bad deal though comparedly at $12.48 for 18 ounces. I was a bit surprised that for the Starbucks brand, it was still cheaper per ounce now than the other ones I've been using. Go figure !! Anyway I decided to get some to add to the rotation here and just made the first pot this morning.
Yesterday after it got here I was surprised to see that it was described as "Notes of toasted malt and Milk Chocolate". I won't swear on it, but I don't think what I was drinking before by the same name had anything about chocolate included in it. Am I remembering right? I don't know ! It was ok though, because I do love me some mocha coffee. I was very happy on my first sip a while ago, nice firm coffee flavor with mocha hints in the background. I like it that way. I never want mocha/chocolate coffee to taste like hot chocolate first with barely a coffee flavor background.
I might just keep it around for another while.
Although it is half past noon now, I am still sipping some of this while I am making this post. I didn't get up early and I didn't start the coffee early either.
I'm not going out to Mom's today. I wasn't sure if I was because my trick knee has been fussy all week and using my walking stick for balance assurance for a few days has now caused my neck to hurt if I stop taking the Advils... .LOL... getting old is fun ! ...and quite a challenge at times. I had not decided if I was going to get out today or not, but Mom called last night and had been invited to a musical performance that includes one of my cousins who is a pianist and teaches musical performance and stage presentation at the local college and one of my past SIL's sisters who is a professional singer, so she won't be there this afternoon. Because of that, I no longer had to make up my own mind ! Gotta love that !
Ok... I know you"re dying for some more of my drivel, but this will be all for now. I don't want you overdosing on some Jacey this morning.
