MRB's Talking Fingers

My mother's family were of German decent, with several major moves in their history. There are few details of her grandparent's move from Germany to southern Russia, during the reign of Catherine The Great, but we were told of the importance of the toasted buns which were, and still are, a special treat. In preparation for their long journey, they believed that to stay healthy, it was importance to bring a supply of drinking water with them as well as an abundance of homemade buns, toasted so that they wouldn't spoil. Mother frequently made toasted buns but I was never much for helping in the kitchen during my school years. All I had to say was that I needed to practice my piano lesson, and I would be excused from kitchen duty because Mother loved to hear me play the piano. My interest in cooking began to increase when I started my first job after graduating from nursing school. I rented a small basement suite and I had my own kitchen, and a recipe book from my mother.

Music has had my attention much of my life. I enjoy different genres but my favorites is Southern Gospel and Old Country Gospel. The Gaithers have been making music since 1956, and their first big song was recorded in 1964, titled 'He Touched Me'. It is still a favorite. These two videos are on their latest album, released in 2020. With the Gaither music, it is always important to really listen to the lyrics... it's not just fluff! Bill Gaither is singing with Larry Gatlin, and backed by the Gaither Vocal Band.  You can also hear Gaither music performed by Elvis Presley, Oakridge Boys, Blackwood Brothers, Statler Brothers, Alabama, Vince Gill, Buddy Green, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, Marty Stewart, ... and the list goes on and on.

This week has gone so fast for me… and I almost missed Thursday. This is my ‘Throwback Thursday’ Blog, and the event happened over fifty years ago. My husband and I met in a small prairie town where we both worked. He was the telephone foreman in town, and I was a nurse in the 19-bed hospital. We loved the community but some of the “traditions” were new to us. We had a very personal introduction to a “chivaree” party, traditionally conducted for ‘newlyweds’. Google has this example posted online: A few days after the couple got settled, the community held a shivaree. The shivaree was a post-wedding noisy party for the community where the newlyweds were pressed into service as hosts. In short, the shivaree was a mock serenade and a roast of the newlyweds. We had taken a road trip to the mountains for our honeymoon, and on our way back, we stopped to pick up our wedding gifts at my parents’ home in the city. It was a great evening of opening gifts in our new home, tossing wrapping paper

I haven’t written a blog for some time, and I’ve been “off The Hill” for longer periods of time. It’s all about life, and what happens when we least expect it. We are doing well… in the midst of our major/minor physical “overhaul”! But rather than giving a detailed medical report, I thought I would share some activities in our backyard. Early in July, I was enjoying some sunshine from my valley-side window when I witnessed a brief visit from a young bobcat. I haven’t seen one up close in years, and to be on the safe side of the glass was a bonus. He stopped briefly by my window but darted when I made a move to reach my camera. No picture to show you! I’m often entertained by a variety of birds who take turns at the ‘Bird Cafe’. Yellow finches, tiny wrens, a couple of bluejays who return year after year, and the barking of a red squirrel who thinks he’s a bird and is a manager of the Bird Cafe. The most unusual visitor stayed for a very short time, but it was the beginning of s

For those of you who have dropped by my ‘spot on the hill’, you will have learned about my most recent hobbies. I would think that most people have developed a hobby over the years, and I’m wondering how they settled on a specific interest. Was the idea passed down from an older family member? Did it start with something you learned in school? Did it just happen? I’ve had a wide variety of ‘hobbies’. I think my first real personal hobby was making scrapbooks… not the kind that had fancy kits with paper cutters, theme pages, stickers, and punches, but a book of plain paper pages that we could stick clippings from magazines and newspapers, save our birthday and Christmas cards, and write stories on lined paper and paste them in our scrapbook. We saved pictures of movie stars, heros from many different countries, and special events that caught our attention. I still have several that I put together… the coronation of King George VI, 1947 wedding of his daughter, Princess Elizabeth and Pri

My weekend was wonderful … the weather was ‘ify’ and I was happy to stay home. The housework was done, I don’t have a garden, and I’m feeling quite well. I’ve missed so much of what has been happening with my friends here on The Hill, so I spent much of the day, sending private messages to those who are on my list of friends. I discovered that a number of my long-term friends have not been on The Hill for almost a year. I do know that one of them had been very ill, and I’m wondering how she is or if she survived her physical challenges. All of this activity has got me thinking about the cyber friendships that we make here, even though we probably will never meet them in person. How do we decide who we would enjoy meeting and getting to know, and do we accept every invitation to join someone else’s group of friends? I registered on NOTH only weeks after it was launched, and have enjoyed many wonderful friendships. I’ve also made some errors along the way. Having been a staff helper for

Many of my cyber-friends know that I’m not much for watching TV. I love music, and I love to learn new stuff, so I am a fan of YouTube. Politics is something that I won’t discuss if at all possible. So much of what is on TV is focused, either directly or indirectly, to current trends and politics, peppered with antagonistic, hurtful, and unsubstantiated accusations. I’m a Canadian, living in an area that apparently produces ‘dirty oil’. Maybe they meant to say that oil makes your clothes dirty!!!! We have our share of domestic and government problems, as do many other countries. We are inundated with American News and politics, as well as our own, but in a democracy, it is our votes that count.  Voting to me is still a privilege, and I have never missed an opportunity to cast my ballot. Some will applaud the outcome of the vote, others will disagree, but we have to live with it. Why is it so hard to find a positive result instigated by a government decision? In my opinion, the rhet

Once again, I’ve been a bit absent from The Hill. It seems that I have been getting distracted by some annoying personal requirements that needed more of my attention. At one time, I thought that there would be much more leisure time when we officially retired, but that has proved to be incorrect. The newsworthy events that occurred in our area the last few weeks have kept us home more often, and given me time to do some ‘catching up’ on things I love to do, including activities on my computer. I’ve been wandering all over The Hill, and have become involved in ‘Buy and Sell’ local sites to try and ‘declutter’ our home. Things sure have changed in many areas. All the stuff that we have saved to pass on to our family members is no longer needed or wanted. I still have and treasure items that belonged to my parents, but what do I do with them now? Speaking of things that have changed, I have something to say (are you surprised?).In my wandering around 'The Hill', it seems that t

The Garden Shed is in our yard, and was my hubby's winter project the year I became a one-handed typist. The 'boxer' break of my dominant hand required a lot of physio, so we were stuck at home. We had visited a Garden Center and Farm Antique Collection in northern California, and one display of several Garden Sheds, constructed with old barn wood, and resembling one-seater or two-seater outhouses, caught our attention. Cute idea, we thought, and would create a lot of conversation and smiles from our visitors at home! When we arrived home, it was discovered that our septic tank was frozen solid because cold weather had arrived when we were away. We should have arranged to have someone pile snow over our septic tank, but that didn't happen. The Septic Service truck made three service calls to get our system up and running again. During a coffee break around our kitchen table, we heard one of the guys ask, "On days like this, where is the outhouse when we really ne

I don’t think that I ever explained … and perhaps no one has asked, but I’m here nonetheless! It’s about my username here on The Hill. I’ve often thought I should change it and pick one that sounds less “self-centered”! There is a story about how I picked it in the first place. About thirty-five years ago, when our children left our ‘nest’ and ventured on their own, I was looking for something to help fill my time… being that I had been a full time homemaker, taxi service, and weekend hostess to a gang of kids. I had been away from the nursing profession for too long, and not interested in returning to the ‘halls of learning’. However, I had been introduced to a fancy machine that was called a computer, and it grabbed my attention. My hubby thought that if I learned how to use a thing like that, perhaps it would be of help in his real estate business. That was the beginning of my ‘love affair’ with the computer. The first thing that I had to learn was the language in the instructions

Well, I did it! You would think that if I was going to make a spectacle of myself, I would do it in some deserted corner of town where there would be no witnesses. But no, I did it right in front of the shop that I had just left. I had even asked the clerk to put my purchases in a small bag so that I wouldn’t drop any of it when trying to unlock the door of my vehicle. Last Friday was a great day, especially after the piles of snow that we were gifted with a couple of weeks ago. The roads were clear and I had a list of things on my ‘To Do’ List, and my husband was pleased that he could stay at home instead of waiting for me. He knows that when we get to town, I will stop and talk to anyone who looks familiar when I am shopping. The routine for the day was to first head to the city for an appointment and fill our van with gas (at a cheaper price than in our town). Next, I would take the north highway to our favorite town, purchase groceries, replenish items in my pantry at Bulk Foods,