Winter Color

My plant identifier says this is a viburnum, but I think it's a toyon or California Holly.. Whatever is is, it was a patch of color on our walk this morning which has been pretty monochrome through the summer. But my reason for using this picture today is that our small rainstorm of a couple of weeks ago has had an effect. Barely discernible underneath the mat of last year's dry grass is a haze of green...Soon the hills and fields (and our front 'lawn') will be carpeted in new green grass. It won't take a lot of rain, but It will take some to keep it going all winter.

I thought as I cleaned the kitchen this morning about why I always clean 
before  the mad cooking marathon begins and the house is filled with family who are more interested in seeing each other than examining the condition of the oven or the kitchen floor. Nevertheless, I soldiered on. I cleaned the inside of the microwave  and the toaster oven. wiped down the cupboard doors and scrubbed all the surfaces. A friend is always saying to me, "your house is so clean" and I am always replying, "no, it's tidy, but it really isn't clean" as I discover when I start looking closely....

My new ironing board cover arrived today. I ordered it yesterday from Amazon. As with so many things, there were 500 ironing board covers to choose from but none that was a replacement cover for my 30 year old ironing board. I briefly considered buying a new ironing board with a cover that presumably fit, but ironing boards haven't changed that much in 30 years, unless I want to pay $179 for a titanium one, and besides what would I do with the old one? In the end, I ordered the cheapest one that came closest to the measurements of mine and arrived the soonest.

It was a battle to get it on as it was a somewhat different shape from mine, but with brute strength and a few bad words determination I got it on. It should be ok for the few times a year that that I am forced to iron something. I even did some napkins to test it out.

Tomorrow it is the floors. Timing is everything because the dog hair, dust and spiderwebs  need to be left late enough that we don't have to do it again before Thursday. I added to the dog hair today when I combed Spike, finding four live deer ticks ambling around on his head. He takes a monthly pill that keeps them from embedding themselves invisibly under his fur (deer ticks are tiny) but we have no such protection, so it wouldn't do to have ticks wandering about the place....

Time to go to Dana and Jim's where John is going to take pen and paper  and try to organize a list of who is doing what and what he will need to buy at the store. Whatever it is, he will do it Tuesday because Wednesday will be a total madhouse...a confluence of senior citizens' 10% off day and the day before Thanksgiving. It will be all hands on deck....