Hello, you all, y'all, darlings, folks, sweethearts,
Do you remember when I found a four-leaf clover near the foot of my lovely concrete bench? It was only a couple of months ago, or maybe more. Well, each time that I sit there, to wait for the senior bus, or Bill and Jen, or just to sit and relax for a while, I look around my feet to see if there are any more four-leaf clovers. There are small clover plants that come up and show their pretty 'wings', and I adore them. I look all around my feet, and can never find any. Well, yesterday when I was waiting for the senior bus to take me to the grocery, I suddenly saw a four-leaf clover! I took note of exactly where it was, because the house door was locked and the bus was coming.
When I returned from my grocery trip and got the bags of groceries into the house, I went out to pick that wonderful four-leaf clover. It was still there, almost smiling at me, and I picked it up, took it into the house, put it between two sheets of paper, and this evening it is dry. I'm quite proud, I yam. Gram B used to find them every time she would look for them. That is one thing I didn't quite inherit from her ... or did I? Maybe my finding them is just beginning!
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Another item: I've been using a certain brand of butter ever since I came here to this area. I like to cook my egg in a dab of butter in a small frying pan, cook it just two minutes over low heat, sunny side up/no turning over, and it's always good. Well, there was only one pound of butter left in the freezer and it was four long sticks in the pound of butter, unsalted. I noticed that the butter would make a loud sizzle, as if there was water in the pan. I began to notice it every time. The box said "butter", and the ingredients underneath said "milk, cream". I didn't like that at all. I want BUTTER in my pound of butter. Why do they have to add these other liquids to BUTTER? To make more money, that's why!
I used up two sticks because I didn't have any other butter and wasn't going shopping much because of all the doctor appointments taking up so much of my time. Finally, yesterday I went to the grocery by senior bus, and took along my little box of butter with two sticks in it, and went to the service counter. "I would like to return this butter." The girl didn't hesitate a bit about taking the butter, wouldn't even look at the register tape I had, and gave me three dollars and some change. The cost of the butter was $2.88, on sale; I am wondering if other people had returned this kind of butter, to make her ask no questions. While shopping, I bought a pound of butter, proudly; no liquids added.
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A few days ago, I went to sit down on my lil bench, and there were several pieces of butternut shells on the ground, right where I would be putting my feet. I bent down to see what it was. I don't know butternuts very well, and two were not broken open yet. I brought one into the house to take a knife and see if I could open it. Never got to it, yet. I thought that the outer rough shell was off. I wonder if that falls off automatically when they mature and dry. I wondered if a child came and sat there with the nuts, or did a squirrel. There didn't seem to be any tooth marks from a squirrel, and I kept wondering about it.
Well, after I had come home yesterday from the grocery store, it hadn't rained yet. We were supposed to be getting rain all day. After I got most of the purchases put away, the rain began to sprinkle down. I went to the bathroom in the back of the house, looked out the window to see what's what, and there was a squirrel hurrying across on the top of the fence. He looked perky and eager, and it had been sprinkling already. I wondered why he was out in the rain. He went along the top of the fence about fifteen feet, suddenly stopped so he could jump down to the ground (I think they sort of use their claws on their way down to the ground) and as he had stopped at the top of the fence I noticed that he had something in his mouth. One butternut stuck forward out of his mouth, and he had one in each cheek, sticking outward, and I wished with all my heart that I could have clicked my camera! But the camera was still in my purse/bag. I kept watching him. It was such a cute sight to see, this little squirrel with such a funny triangle on his tiny face!
He clambered down to the ground, gingerly leapt across the pebbles and then the lawn. He stopped about a foot across the lawn, laid the nuts down onto the grass, put one in his mouth and leapt a few happy leaps farther toward the house, and stopped. He looked around, then quickly dug a hole in the lawn as his little front paws worked so fast. He bent his head and put the nut in that hole, pulled dirt over it, and grass, and his paws went this way and that, patting the debris over his buried treasure. What a whimsical sight that was! It was raining a little heavier then, and he went back to find his little pile of nuts. I had to leave the window, and yearned to see him bury the other two.
Then I pondered, and wondered if he was the little guy who sat on my lil bench gathering butternuts.
So there you have it! Three little items making a short story long!
I'll see you at the Corner Post ...
