Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

Goodbye January

Well here we are with the first month of January into its last hours. It’s hard to believe that one month of the year has gone already. January has been a bit of a crazy month. Both long and short at the same time. We said goodbye to 2023 and got ready to start a fresh new year. Lots of snow and ice for us. I read 4 books and listened to 2 audio books. I will have a rundown on those for you in an upcoming post. I finished several knitting pieces and the heart cross stitch. I had a lot of winter snuggly time at home and that is fine with me. 

Last week we again had the taste of rural living. Remember I told you the week before, that we had the downed tree and we had to cut it off of the driveway before we could get out. Last week we lost power for over two hours. It went out around 6:00 AM Thursday morning. When we lose power we also lose our water, because we have a pump, and our phones because we have to have power for the internet. So there we were.

We always like to report our outages to the power company and not just hope that someone in our area will do it.  To do this we have to go to the top of our driveway and get a cell signal to call the utility board. We then get a recording and we report the outage. The driveway was very dark because the outside light on the driveway was out as well. And I forgot to mention it was sooooo foggy. Oh and we have to back up the driveway because we always pull down the driveway when coming in.

My husband and I both went to the top of the driveway so that one of us could get out and open the gate. It was not easy backing up the driveway with no lights except the back up lights. The fog made it even worse. I had left the house without my glasses. That added to the difficulty, because I wound up behind the wheel doing the driving. We finally made it to the top, we have a very long driveway, and got the outage reported. It had already been reported by a neighbor. But you never know. 

This is what it looked like at 6:00 AM

The power was out for over two hours and I was a little late getting into work. We never found out what the issue was. It was a widespread issue on our road. Several houses were affected. We do have a small generator that we can use if the power is out for hours or days. 

Over the weekend I felt like I was running a bakery. Secretly this has always been a dream so it was actually a lot of fun. It started with my nephew requesting sourdough bread. I make this from a starter that I have had for probably fifteen years or more. It stays in the refrigerator until I feed it. He also requested some peanut butter pies to take to his coworkers. He just moved and started a new job a couple of weeks ago. It was also my brother in law’s birthday and I wanted to bake something for him as well. If you want to read more about the sour dough bread and how I make it, visit this post I did a few years ago. It is definitely a process.Making Sour Dough Bread

I made six loaves of the bread, 20 small peanut butter pies, and about 2 dozen cake pops. The cake pops were just something I decided to do at the last minute. I had never made them before. They were okay but I definitely need to work on those. So I did a lot of baking on Saturday morning and delivered bread, and pies and cake balls all over town in the afternoon.  I finished the evening with a visit to my little mother in law at the assisted living village.

The peanut butter pies were a big hit. 

I also spent some time over the weekend cleaning my silver bracelets. I am ashamed to say that I haven’t worn them in forever because they looked so bad. I bought some cleaner and got to work on them. I feel like they are new again. 

This is not my cat. Well she sort of is I guess. She lives at work. She is feral and we haven’t been able to catch her. We are trying to get one of our team members to agree to take her home. We named her Anthe. Isn’t she beautiful? We feed her and take care of her the best we can. She has been with us for several months. I hate to trap her but that may be the only way we can get her to someone’s home where they might be able to tame her. 

How is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Friday Favorites

Hello and happy Friday. A full week back at work was a little rough but I left early today to have a late lunch with my friend Lorie. So that was definitely a favorite. We hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas and hadn’t even gotten to share Christmas presents. So we took care of that today. It’s always so good when we get to catch up and solve all the world’s problems. 

Here are a few other favorites I want to share with you.

I just had to show you these shoes. I actually bought them last summer. I was in Knoxville with my friend Lorie, yes same one I just mentioned, and we stopped at Ross. Ross is a discount clothing store sort of like T.J Maxx or Marshalls. I found these in the clearance section and I couldn’t believe they were like $13.99. Just my size too. I wore them a couple of weeks ago for the first time. The hearts are just a plus and quite appropriate for Valentine’s Day. They are so comfy and great in wet weather. My husband is not always a fan of my shoes. When I showed him these and told him I had only paid $13.99 for them he said “I can see why”. HA!!! It doesn’t stop me from wearing the shoes I love. I guess that’s what 33 years of marriage does to you.

My favorite Valentine candy is out in the stores. You can pretty much find it everywhere. I had to have a couple of bags. I often place these little candies around the house so my husband will find them. They have really cute sayings. Although some of the sayings on them are quite different from what they used to be, bae, goat, what??? I guess I’m old school.

Isn’t she pretty. I got her from my mother in law’s house. I probably told you that my MIL has moved into an assisted living village. She has her own little room and kitchen area and bathroom. She has been there now for several years. She has never wanted a lot of her things with her. I don’t actually think she remembers now that she has a house. Her dementia is slowly getting worse.

This swan sat on her hearth for as long as I can remember. Probably even when my husband and I were dating. I never really paid much attention to her. She was just always there. Last week we were over at the house doing some things. I told my husband I wanted to bring the swan home and put it on our hearth. I cleaned her up. My niece suggested that I fill her with the yarn balls that I had made at Christmas. I did and I think they look great. I named her Gracie.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I went to one of my local thrift stores and bought a couple of things. I saw the most beautiful flower patterned platter, that’s a tongue twister. I looked at it, examined it, I walked by and gave it a few sidelong glances. I went back to the same spot in the store several times. This is usually a good indication to me that I should just buy whatever it is I have been looking at. It was only $5.00 but I just didn’t know if I needed another platter. It was sunny looking and reminded of spring. I left without it.

Last week the snow and ice came and left us pretty much snow bound for several days. I don’t know why but I kept thinking about the platter with the flowers on it. As soon as I was able to get out last week I returned to the thrift store. I just knew I was going to march back to the spot and find it. I was already thinking about what I would serve on it. Probably my homemade bread. I went into the store and went back to the spot where the platter had been. It wasn’t there. I looked around and around and around thinking someone had moved it. It wasn’t there. I looked for that platter for several minutes before I admitted it was gone. That’s why you should buy it when you see it. Lesson learned. With all of that said. I did find these four little green vases that I thought were really cute. When I bought groceries today I picked out a small bouquet of fresh flowers. I think these look like spring and sunshine.

I will place these in several areas around the house. I put the bigger one on my table with the kitchen clock. The fresh smell of these flowers are so nice.

I am in the middle of this book by Ann Patchett. It is a collection of essays by her, about her, her family, her writing and a lot of day to day things. It is so good. I am loving it.

I am also loving:

That we are having warmer temps, it almost feels like spring.

That my nephew still loves my homemade bread and wants me to make it for him and his friends.

The way the rain sounds on the metal roof when I am at work.

Crossword puzzles.

Having kitties sleeping on my lap while I read a good book.

Catching up with my husband after a long day at work.

So what are some of your favorites this week? Have a great weekend.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Sunday Morning Coffee Share

Happy Sunday. Come in and let’s share a nice hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate or tea. It is 10 degrees F and a northerly wind is blowing and it is soooo cold. The sun is shining brightly but is so deceiving because there is absolutely no warmth coming from it.

If we were having coffee I would share with you that I missed several days of work this week because of the weather. It was nice being home and warm working on some of my favorite things. But I hate the trapped feeling of not being able to get out and go when I want to. The ice around our house has been so bad we have been afraid to even step out on the driveway or onto our front porch.

This was my road when I finally made it out Thursday morning to go to work. It was scary in several places until I got down to the main road.

If we were having coffee I would share with you that I finished the book by Abigail Thomas, What Comes Next And How To Like It. Abigail Thomas is quite an author. I have also read, A Three Dog Life by Abigail. She writes her life. Good or bad she is bluntly honest. After reading one of her books you will feel different about going along day by day in your own life. That may seem like a bold statement but it is true. As I said she is quite an author. 

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I have been thinking a lot about retirement. It is still a few years away but from everything I have read you should start looking at all the details involved several years before you actually take the plunge. Scary and exciting at the same time.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I was supposed to be on a trip this week to Greensboro North Carolina with the Attractions group that I am involved with through my work. I chose not to go. We have so much going on at work and have been out of work for several days. This has really put us behind.  Plus with the bad weather and cold temperatures it did not seem like a good time to make a long drive for the few days I would be gone. I felt that I needed to stay home and be at my job.  I am overjoyed that I stayed at home.

If we were having coffee I would share with you that it has been a bit of a sad week.  My nephew moved last weekend, just a couple of hours away. But I guess just knowing he is not as close as he was is sad. Plus the area he moved to had even more snow than we did. I always worry when loved ones have to be out in the snow trying to get to their jobs. My husband had to go out on Wednesday to get to his job and the roads were horrible. Because we live in a rural area there is not cell phone service along some of his route. I made him call as often as he could to make sure he hadn’t run off of the road. He made it fine. 

If we were having coffee I would share with you that I am fortunate to be here as I am and I will tell you some of the things I have loved about this week.

Ice fell on top of the snow and made it a beautiful shimmery blanket of white. So dazzling it almost hurt your eyes to look at it.

Icicles formed and dripped and were just beautiful.

Warmth. We never lost power. We had lots of heat and light.

Lots of books to read and puzzles to work and plenty of yarn to knit.

My husband and my kitties and I all snuggled together during our downtime.

Downtime to relax and regroup and recharge.

How was your week? What do you have to share over our coffee?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!  

I am joining Natalie The Explorer over at Weekend Coffee Share you can check out some of the other posts here # Weekend Coffee Share