Our new Christmas Angel is Flying Our Way

Our new Christmas Angel above is flying our way. Isn't she lovely?
I ordered her today online.
I am sad to retire our 20 year old angel but I noticed scorch marks around her lights, so it sounds dangerous. I will keep her and display her but not plugged in. Quite a few of you blog friends have commented on her being retired, and I realized, I am retired too. Now she (we) can sit back and enjoy the season.
Here is our graceful older angel below.

Lane brought over our beautiful tree. He went to three Christmas tree sales places, then went back to the second one and made the purchase. He also used a kit and made an ornament with Bounce's footprints on it.

The first two ornaments I put on the tree were Bounce's above and one that Colt gave me in church yesterday. His neighbor is short on money so sold ornaments she paints and he bought five. They are very pretty. He also bought one and gave it to my friend Carole in church. That was the first time he met her. The one I chose, below, has a cute whiskered gnome and a mushroom on it.

Our new Christmas angel arrived 3 days after I ordered her so today she is at home on the top of our tree. This Sunday Dec. 15 we will have a Christmas party at church with a white elephant gift exchange. You do NOT buy a gift, but bring something from your house that you don't want and wrap it up to exchange. I think then after you open your gift anyone can claim it. It sounds entertaining and I will let you know how it goes. Plus everyone brings food to share, I am buying a fruit tart to bring. The party will be after the first service, in our Bible study group, usually 20 people show up, but lots more might come for this gathering.
I am excited about this holy season and church is a great preparation for it, full of lights and joy. I hope your December is a good one.

Tea bags contain plastic, corruption in project to protect Venice

Here are some things I am mulling over recently.

Venice and that screwed up Mose Project, that is being built to protect Venice from severe high water conditions. The Mose Project is far from completion and has a huge cost overrun, now looking like costing $8 Billion dollars. The project began in 2003 and completion date is pushed back to 2023. It is a series of gigantic gates that are meant to rise from the sea floor and protect Venice in time of need, but thus far they can't get the gates to rise. The metal parts are very corroded from being submerged in the sea for three years and mussels and other sea creatures are causing damage to the hinges too. Thus far the gates don't work.
In contrast, the Netherlands built a huge project recently for a mere $500,000,000 dollars, it took only 5 years to complete and it works. Maybe some Dutch engineers could fix the Mose Project?
Did you know that Mose Project is dogged by massive corruption? A former mayor of Venice and 35 other people were arrested. This failure of Italy really bothers me because Venice is a world treasure.
Will the project ever be successfully built?

Above are my favorite new kitchen utensils. This kind of infuser is easy to use and to clean and the mesh is fine to hold in most tea.

Tea in Tea Bags
Did you read the article in the Washington Post on September 27, 2019, about how almost all tea bags are sealed with polyproplene, a sealing plastic glue, and when we steep the tea in hot water, microplastic particles get into the tea we drink? These tea bags each release billions of plastic particles into our tea, researchers at McGill University found and a quote from a researcher is "Some of the particles, she noted, would be small enough to potentially infiltrate human cells." I want to see more research on this. Maybe these researchers are wrong!
So when the paper tea bags are "crimped" a plastic glue is used. You can understand that regular glue might not hold up when immersed in hot water. Also some "silkie" tea bags higher end companies use, and that I often buy, are not made of silk but of Plastic. Who wants to immerse tea in a plastic bag and end up drinking plastic microparticles?
So I have switched to bulk tea and tea infusers which work wonderfully well. I am using up my tea in tea bags by cutting open the bag and putting the tea into an infuser, and brewing it that way.
There are tea companies that do not use plastic glue or plastic tea bags. Clipper, Teapigs and Pukka Herbs do not use plastic. Some tea companies fold the paper bags and tie them with a thread. That sounds a lot healthier.
Good news is that most tea companies are hurrying to eliminate this problem and moving quickly to fold and tie the paper tea bags with string, so sealant is not needed.
What shocking news about the pleasure of drinking tea.
Still, if we use bulk tea we can avoid that problem.
Here is some delicious bulk tea I bought recently. It was harvested in spring of 2019 and I like that they tell you when it was harvested. The tea is grown in India and the company is run by a young man in his twenties.

Happy Thanksgiving to One and to All

I love the colors, markings and variety of fall pumpkins and squash. So pretty.
Happy Thanksgiving to One and to All, in the USA and around the world, may your day be blessed.
Remember to pause and count some blessings.

My sons and I are gathering for a feast at my house on Thanksgiving Day. It involves little cooking for me, yay. This is the third year I am buying a smoked turkey that a BBQ restaurant spends hours smoking, the guys there work all night and earn a big tip for their hard work. My younger son will pick up the turkey for us on the day and we will eat right away when he arrives with the bird. The restaurant only makes 30 of the turkeys so I get my order in early.
Happy Thanksgiving.

I am a confessed bookaholic, new purchases finally allowed

Yes, I have rather happily admitted to being a bookaholic for decades, along with my darling husband, Will. I tested my will power recently by declaring a book buying moratorium for all of October and I sort of succeeded. My rules were no online book buying and no going into a book store and buying.

I did let myself get free books from my near by Little Free Library, buy cheap books from the Goodwill book store and buy inexpensive ebooks that BookBub offered to me. After all, I AM hooked on books.
So today in this new month I went to our local book store, spent my $11 buyers club credit there and bought two books in mystery series. Dying Fall by Elly Griffith, I read the first four in the series. Murder in the Marais by Cara Black. I got three free novels in this second series from a Little Free Library but wanted to start with the first in the series.

Then I ordered Elizabeth Berg's Still Happy : Includes The Book of Homer (collection of her Facebook posts and Homer is a tribute to her beloved dog who recently died) and Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems, edited by Wendy Cope. From what I can tell she wrote all the poems which is what I am hoping, as I read about Cope on Weaver of Grass' blog.
Two on my next buying spree are Leif Enger's Virgil Wander (I love this author) and The Second Coming by Walker Percy (I've read good things about him.). Also I will buy Anthony Trollope's The Bertrams. I have read about 28 of his fabulous novels.
I think my career choice of librarian suits me!
Do you ever self impose a ban on acquiring more books? Or other things you like?
What are your favorite recently purchased books or favorite new item?

Miss Hargreaves

I read a book that is so amazing and original that I am putting it on my list of 20 top favorite all time novels I've read.
"Miss Hargreaves" by Frank Baker.
Written in 1940 and set in England, a college age man named Norman and his friend Henry invent an eccentric old lady to explain their presence to a sexton in an old Irish church where they shouldn't be. As part of this lark they enjoyed making up all sorts of details about her. They decided her name is Miss Hargreaves (pronounced Har graves), she is 83, eccentric, travels with her talking parrot, dog, harp and a bath.
On a whim  Norman sends her a note inviting her to come visit him and his parents and sister, making up where to send it. The most amazing thing happens. Miss Hargreaves received the note and  arrives in town, causing Norman much fear and trepidation. She is sure they are old and very dear friends, which is pretty much impossible to explain to his family, his girlfriend, and circle of friends in town.
Miss Hargreaves establishes herself in town and amazing things happen.
I will say no more. I enjoyed reading it. Some reviewers didn't like it, as is always the case, people's reading tastes vary. I bought a used copy online and it is a keeper, one to loan to friends. In the comments Rita says she found online an audible copy, now that is one I would like to listen to.

My goal is to age a bit disgracefully

I am a senior citizen and have decided it is time for me to grab more silliness. Let's face it, life is short, whether 10 days or 100 years, I have always realized our time on earth is short. Just a blip of days or years.
I mentioned my goal of aging disgracefully five years ago in a Christian writers' group here in my town. We were truthfully telling our oldest member that she is a great mentor, both for writing and for living. Someone told her that she is aging gracefully.
That is a big compliment. I then chimed in that I have a goal of aging DISgracefully. You know, liven things up a bit. Wearing my hats even when no one else wears hats. Who cares? I have a selection of hats that are covered in sequins. One is a bright lime green. When I don't wear one one of my sparkly hats to my favorite garden store my favorite clerk tells me he is disappointed. Plus my wide brimmed lavender sun hat. Oh, and one with butterflies on it. I do care less now about pleasing other people.
Some of my hats and dresses below:

Another recent change is that beginning in September I started wearing dresses. Before that I hadn't worn a dress or skirt in more than 10 years. I bought a loose flowing dress and wore it to my son's birthday lunch. My sons were suitably surprised. I bought several more and am wearing them to church and to meet friends. Now that is NOT disgraceful, I know, just a change of pace for me.
A fun find I bought for me and for my niece, a daily calendar with inspiring and irreverent quotes.

Here is a quote from the above calendar: "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself." Eleanor Roosevelt
Another quote "As far as I am concerned, age does not exist. I know twenty-year-old girls who are older than me." Zsa Zsa Gabor
Another quote I found online is "Do a loony-goony dance 'cross the kitchen floor, Put something silly in the world that ain't been there before." Shel Silverstein
I think it is never too late or too soon to shake things up a bit. See you dancing in the kitchen.

Bougainvilleas, one that invaded our house, and Senior Angels program

I took these photos yesterday. What a richly colored happiness-evoking bougainvillea. And gold stars for everyone who can spell this plant's name, it is rather tricky.

I pass this magenta bougainvillea every day while walking with Bounce. The color is more like the top photo, and less of a red like the second photo, but I want to show you the size and shape of the bush, it reaches the top of the door.
A bougainvillea invaded our house
Decades ago when we bought an old wooden farmhouse, on the farm we transformed into a small winery, there was a stunning bougainvillea, which turned out to be growing into the attic and its vines were wrapped around the electrical wires to the house, inside the attic.
An electrician told us this monster vine had to be removed because it was a fire hazard as it clutched the electrical wiring. My husband had to cut it down with a chain saw, the trunk was about a foot across and very hard wood. The spikes or thorns were fierce and sharp and my husband was a brave man to do battle with it.
The plant liked what it decided was an invigorating pruning and quickly grew back and we kept it pruned to a modest size, no longer growing into our house.
Senior Angel Program
I don't recall which of my dear blogger friends recently suggested Chemo Angels and Senior Angels on her blog, to do as a volunteer. I want to thank you, please tell me who you are. I signed up to be a Senior Angel, haven't gotten matched with my senior yet, but I am excited to begin. It sounds like a good program that we can do from our home which is super convenient. The responsibility is to write notes of encouragement a couple times a week and to send small gifts if you want, I think it said the gifts should be only 2 or 3 dollars, just a friendly token.