Finally a new post and yes, finally a new spot! We moved to James' boss Ronnie's 'estate' in Ponchatoula, about an hour south of where we were in Amite.
And not a day too early! Due to the rains we were surrounded by nasty mud and we had to wait for a dry day to be able to get out without getting stuck.
Jeff, the owner of the B&B, did (get stuck) a couple of days earlier and had to pull himself out with his (brand new) tractor ..

  

Walking around the RV and to and from the B&B had become a  muddy, slippery undertaking. Thank goodness for our clogs and boots:

 

It looked like we would have only one dry day to escape, before the next rain would arrive, and we'd put plastic down two days in advance to create a somewhat dry 'runway' ..

And .. it worked! The truck had no problem pulling us out and over the first slippery part and once we reached the graveled pathway we were home free! Awesome!

We only had about 50 minutes to go before reaching our new site. We're parked at the end of about a mile long driveway that leads onto Ronnie's property, and in the yard of his sister-in-law Charlotte.

We'd hoped to be able to park underneath the large carport next to the house but we didn't fit all the way. 

We were very happy campers though to be able to set up our outside sitting area on the concrete slab, which meant ... no mud! Yeah!

As you can see, we found a pair of real dining room chairs in the shed, and we even  have an outdoor fireplace ..

This is the slab on the other side and the view from our living room windows ..

Due to the two very enthusiastic Labradors of the neighbors we created a little 'safe haven' for Merlin, by setting up a small fence around our, excuse me 'his', lounge chairs ..

 

But I'm allowed 'in' to have coffee .. 

On Sunday we drove into Ponchatoula, about 6 minutes away to check out our new coffee spot, the Berrytown corner Cafe.

     

Housed in a nice, old, turn of the century building, this place serves real good coffee and, even better, very nice mini Beignets!

We tried some plain ones, which were OK but we agreed they could use a little 'something', and some filled with chocolate, which were delicious! (and yes, we ate both plates!)

On our way back we picked up some boiled crawfish at Doo's :

  

Due to the very cold winter they are twice the price as normal so we had not bought any yet, but the season is progressing and I'm not going to be here for most of the rest of it, so we splurged!

             They were very good, spicy, but edible, just right! 

And yes, I've not mentioned this yet, but I'm leaving on the 19th, next Monday, for Holland!
I'm going to be there for 5 weeks, coming back on the 20th of March. Yahoo! It's been a year and a half, so it's about time again.
I'll be blogging from there!

Here are a few pictures of my new morning-walking-route, this is all on Ronnie's property:

The path is nice and graveled, winding it's way through some trees and meadows, complete with cows, and is about a mile long. So nice not to have to struggle through the mud!

Alongside the path I found 5 different types of Camellias this morning. 

Look at the size of these bushes!

 

                                                    

Aren't they gorgeous

Yup, it's very pretty here, I think I'm going to like it!

These last pics show me spinning cotton on my Indian Charkha. 

I bought it a while ago on e-bay for half of the price they normally go for. 

It needed some TLC, so I sanded and oiled all parts, and am now trying to get the 'hang' of it.

Ghandi, in his quest to boycott the British textile imports, requested Indians to bum foreign clothes and make the spinning wheel (charkha) "not only a symbol of simplicity and economic freedom, but also a symbol of peace." Through his teachings, Gandhi brought the use of the charkha into use among the masses referring to it as the symbol of non-violence, independence, and the tool needed to lift India out of poverty.

 

See, same thing, I just have more hair ...

     

OK, enough for today, I might post on Sunday, but otherwise it will be sometime from Holland.

Until next time! 

Cinnamon Rolls for the Birthday Boy!

OK, this is my 250th blog, according to Google also called my semiquincentennial or bicenquiquagenarial! Try that after a glass of wine!

It so happened to coincide with James' 59th Birthday, which I don't think has any such Latin translation, and is not a 'big' one, unless you think of it as the one before your 60th! Eeks!

Or maybe you should think about it as it says on this card ..

He had hoped to go golfing that day, since one of the courses here gives you a free round for your birthday but it was just too cold and probably closed anyway because of the snow.
Like this:

Any-who, he didn't 'want' anything so he got cinnamon rolls, always a winner in his book, and he took it easy for most of the morning ...

His only request was pea-soup, so ...

Ehm .. yeah .. I screwed up, I forgot to buy split peas, so I invented a delicious black-eyed pea/pinto bean/lentil soup with veggies, ham hocks and sausage. Almost as good!

Real 'stick-to-your-ribs' food, which was very fortunate since we had very, very cold weather that day. 

The overnight low was 14F (-10C)! I'm not kidding! On top of that we had some more snow ... 

Everything more or less froze (except for our pipes fortunately), and we found ourselves once again in a winter wonderland.
Being Dutch, that immediately set of thoughts of  .. skating!
We got rid of our skates when we 'downsized' for our RV-adventure, but I remembered I had a very old pair of wooden skates in my 'saved-from-my-childhood' stuff, in a box under the bed.

     

Here they are! These are called 'Friese Doorlopers' and I first skated on them in the winter of 1965-1966. Look, here's proof, although you can't see them very well, but you have to take my word for it. Those are them. Over fifty years old!

So cute, my sister and me!

I couldn't resist trying them on! My feet, of course, have grown a bit since than, normally you would see the 'point' sticking out in front of your toe, but my shoe just fit on the wood ..

Funny!

Unfortunately, the ice wasn't thick enough to skate. Or as they say in Holland: 't Ken net'! 

('Net', usually means 'just', as in 'the ice is 'just' thick enough', but in the Frisian language it means 'not', as in 'it can not', meaning it's not possible/thick enough.

This, as you can imagine, can be the difference between having fun or getting wet (or worse, drown)!)

It has been freezing for several nights since, but it looks like the forecast is for much warmer weather for the coming week.

I actually liked the cold, much better than the week before when we had rain pretty much every day and the, as of yet not landscaped grounds, looked like this:

 

Yikes! Mud-fight anyone?

I haven't walked much lately, mainly because of the cold but also because I've been helping with some cleaning and painting at the B&B.
The one time I did, the only bird I saw was this little Bluebird ..

But I've mainly stayed warm and cozy inside. I finished my 'Christmas puzzle' and started a very appropriate 'winter' one ...

                       Lots of snow in this one. Not easy, I can tell you that!

Other than that, I drink a lot of coffee and I baked some Pignoli, Italian pine-nut cookies (with fennel seeds), which are possibly my favorite cookies ever .. for now!

              

Merlin sleeps even more than he already did with these temperatures and constantly wants to sit in our lap to warm himself. This weather is too cold, even for him!
He sleeps in in the mornings, on the bed, and doesn't even want to get up when I start to change the sheets ...

Smart cat!

That's it for now. See you soon, most likely in much warmer temperatures!

Happy New Year Y'all and all the best for 2018! 
I like the sound of it, 2018, it's a nice and round number, rolls easily of the tongue ... oh boy, I hope I don't have to 'eat' my words later on ..
As usual, our New Years celebration was a quiet one, although we heard a lot of very loud firework being set off all through the day. (Or maybe they were gun-shots, this IS the south of course!)

Per 'our' tradition (sort of) we had 'surf and turf' for dinner:

Lobster and Rib-eye steak, a dinner fit for a King!

The next morning, I was up in time to prepare the batter for the eagerly awaited 'Oliebollen'!

The dough rose exceptionally well this year, it almost came out of the bowl!
There was a moment of horror when we realized that we had gotten rid of the big pan that we usually make them in .. gasp .. , but we made do with a smaller one and everything went just fine!

 

Look at those beauties! (the oliebollen, I mean)

As every year we vowed we will make them again over the summer, during the (dutch) 'Kermis' (Fair) season, and hopefully this year we will actually remember this and do it!

We watched the 'Rose-Parade' on TV:



And in the evening I made a traditional, southern, 'Good Luck' dinner (hey, every little bit helps), which consisted of: 
Black-eyed Peas (for coins), a Ham-hock ( for the pig, a 'forward foraging animal' which brings good fortune), Collards (for the green paper money) and Cornbread (for gold).

Another delicious, comforting dish made in my Instant Pot. 

I took me less than an hour to get this on the table (only 20 minutes actual cooking time), versus 3 to 4 hours if had prepared this on the stove.

And boy, do we need these 'stick-to-your-ribs kinda comfort foods!

It is brutal cold here in the south! 

The temperature had actually already come up a degree when I took this picture at 8 am, 20 degrees! Can you believe it? We're in the South! Now I understand why this is not really a 'Snowbird' destination per se ...

We'd let the water trickle overnight and had already wrapped up the water hose real good so we had no problems. What with all 3 electric heaters running (one in the bedroom) and extra blankets on the bed we were as toasty as bears in their winter den.

On Tuesday it never even got above freezing! Unreal!
When it warmed up to 45F today I braved outside for a short walk. After spending 2 days in the RV, I was in dire need for some fresh air.



And fresh it was, even worse of course if you consider the windchill.
Everything was frosty ...

James had until now been working as much as he could on the inside, but it was high time to tackle a project outside that needed to be done.
The balcony at the back, in front of the 3 guest bedrooms, needed to be separated by walls for privacy, so the guys donned their thermal underwear, multiple layers and hoodies and braved the elements!

      

It's at times like these that I'm so happy to be able to cuddle under the covers with Merlin in my cozy bed, when James gets up at 7 in the morning!

Talking about me, I'm not doing a lot at the moment I have to say. I'm working on getting our taxes 'done', or at least 'organized'. I've finished a pair of socks that I've been working on for over a year (!), I do a lot of (jigsaw) puzzling and reading and I'm determined to make even more use this year of the Instant Pot than I already have.

I made these Stuffed Cabbage Rolls. Actual cooking time: 5 +18 minutes!

Together with some mashed potatoes, oh my, they were delicious! That (sweet and sour) sauce!

OK, that's it for this week. I'll end with this hilarious play-off on the warnings on TV about the cold, and to bring your plants and 'pets' indoors!