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Wednesday, May 29, 2019

More odds and ends days


           
Either I am catching some thing or all the damn pollen is choking me. Neither is acceptable! I also find it of great interest that I mentally am able to handle this packing business, but physically, not so much. My formerly broken leg still hurts, then there is the matter of the knees needing replacements. I still manage to pack another box or two per day, and get most of them out to “central box staging” in the living room.

This morning I went to breakfast with delightful friends. One of those marriages made in heaven, wherein Jim not only does the shopping, he does the cooking! Lynn does the mopping up. And they seem to eat most every meal out!

We went to a favorite dive of theirs in Kenmore. Going anywhere with the two of them is like a scene from Driving Miss Daisy. Getting to Kenmore could be a short run on the freeway, or the scenic route through downtown Akron, currently in the midst of its version of A Big Dig. Since we all three are Akron kids, it’s memory lane passing the rehabbed buildings. 

Central Planning is installing a couple of roundabouts in sacred old Main Street. The two of them thought roundabouts are sacrilege, so I sang my praises of them, and we no longer entertain roundabouts.

I did have a burning question for Jim. How much is a pound of butter? He responded three or four dollars, once in a great while, five. I told him of my limited investigation, as I have not been the grocery shoperer for these last many years.

A couple of months ago I glanced at the receipt Laura handed me, and asked “Since when has butter been eight dollars a pound?” Well, she didn’t know. I looked in the fridge and saw I’m eating butter from Ireland. It is very good. However, I suggested she look down a shelf or two at Kreigers, and find Land ‘O Lakes, or some comparable brand.

The next time I remembered to look, the butter line item was four dollars.

Last week I shopped solo. At the butter counter, I realized butter was down to four dollars because Laura purchased the half pound pack of Irish butter. I know there is more local butter somewhere in that store, and I’ll find it.

Yesterday I stopped for a picture of the golf course returning to nature. Quickly, I might add. Those greens are rapidly becoming roughs.





35 comments:

  1. And there is the heron! So beautiful

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  2. I wonder if Laura liked the Irish butter better or simply didn't see anything else.

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  3. A very funny butter story! I stock up when unsalted goes on sale. But European butter is better...IMHO. It's interesting how quickly things change when no one is taking care of them.

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  4. Loved the picture with the heron. It is "sad" as we age and our minds want to do something that our bodies won't cooperate with. I find myself taking several Motrin after the wee one is over and I'm trying to keep up with him. The spirit is willing, but not always the body.

    I would have no idea what a pound of butter would cost. I haven't bought any in years.

    Breakfast with friends sounded delightful!

    betty

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  5. Hooray for breakfast with friends.
    The cost of Irish butter has meant I have never tried it. Perhaps if I did I would be a convert and would short-change other shopping items to buy it.
    Sigh on the recalictrant body. They are not fun, and don't play nicely.

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  6. Jim must not have to cook much if they eat out all the time. I love a responsibility that doesn't actually take any work. I didn't know that Irish butter was available. Is it different or special in some way? The pollen is terrible here. Favorite Young Man mowed my yard on Saturday, trimmed bushes, and bathed the dogs. He didn't feel very well afterwards because of the pollen.

    Love,
    Janie

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  7. Here recently there is a shortage of butter and the only one you can buy is butter from Europe,it is tasty and inexpensive.

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  8. Three Euros and seventy five Cents for a Pound of Kerry Gold butter here in Ireland. Which converts to four Dollars and fifteen Cents. Great photos.

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  9. The greens are looking very lush, the sort of place a kid could run around with a dog in.
    Butter is expensive here too, depending on whether you want nice tasting unsalted butter at $3.70 for half a pound, or any-old-thing-will-do cheap generic brands which I don't know the price of because I don't buy them, but probably half the cost.

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  10. I'm buying organic Scottish butter at £2 for 250grams..but I don't use a lot. Farmers still hardly get what it costs to produce,even though its better than selling milk.
    Old injuries do react to the weather, even when well mended..just to remind you of what you got up to in the past!

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  11. Just for comparison, 500 grams (just over a pound) of English butter from Sainsburys supermarket is £3.20 or £4.04 dollars, So 8 dollars is way over the top.

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    1. Actually, it is $9 per pound, on sale lately for $8.

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  12. Here, Irish butter is often cheaper than butter made just down the road. French butter can be too. European subsides.

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  13. Yes, that's a lot for butter. I'll chime in, too. Here, if I can find a sale on Canadian butter at $2.99, I'll stock up and freeze some, but we don't go through much of it unless I'm baking.
    When it comes time for you to do your own shopping, if it is still a problem with mobility, there is likely an online service at a grocery store. Here, you can order online, then arrange for a pick up time. You drive to the store and park in a designated spot, text them, they bring the groceries out and put them in your car! -Jenn

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  14. 113 grams for 500 colones for Nicaraguan butter...

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    1. Check my math, Helen. A quarter pound of butter is $15?

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  15. I shop on a limited basis. The Retired Man does that a few times a day as it gives him something to do and he enjoys it. He once bought Irish butter because it was on sale (but still more expensive than others). It did the same thing that other butters did and not worth the difference in price from the store product.

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  16. It is going to be so interesting to watch as that golf course returns to nature. I hope you keep posting pictures of it.
    My physical struggles seemed to happen so quickly. It's weird. I really am not happy about them, either.

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  17. I buy the store brand of butter. I have absolutely no idea how much it costs. Now I want to know.

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  18. I can usually buy butter for $4. It's not from Ireland, though.

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  19. Laura has expensive taste...she'd best get a REALLY good job.

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  20. we looked at that Irish butter several times at Costco before we finally bought some. I loved it and the pale tasteless by comparison store brand languished until we used it all up. I plan to buy some more next time we go. I meant to ask last post, will the movers have to dismantle the loom to move it? and yeah, Ms Nature wastes no time in reclaiming what's hers.

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  21. I watch for sales and pay $2.99 when I can get it. Usually it’s between 5 and 6.

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  22. I have been told, I don't know from experience, that the Irish butter is better. We're buying Land 'O Lakes with the canola oil in it. We can keep it refrigerated and it's malleable when taken out for use. It's too hot here to leave butter on the counter, which we used to do in Seattle.
    And yes, how are they going to move the loom?

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  23. Sometimes our store has a BOGO that puts Irish butter on a par price-wise with Lake o' Lakes or Cabot and I'll stock up. But recently this "Amish Country Butter" (I doubt any Amish have been within a mile of it)has been cropping up, a 2 lb roll for $9. Butter's been up to $5.50/lb, though I'm hoping it will drop now that summer's here, so that's a good savings. I cut the roll into week-sized portions, and freeze it.

    Good luck with the packing. And the unpacking. I really don't know which is worse. I've read moving is up there in traumas with death, job loss and divorce. This state of fugue they've got you in cannot be helping.

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    1. Actually, Amanda, I'm not that far gone. I'm a pretty tough old broad.For real, I'm told that.

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  24. I love that beautiful rough. So are you almost ready to move over? Can you sit in an office chair to pack. I shelve books at the library from a chair that rolls.

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  25. You are such an organized person, Joanne. Well done on the packing.

    Butter is $4 to $5 here, although it's frequently on sale. I'll have to look the next time I shop to see if Irish butter is available and what the price is.

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  26. I've tried all kinds of butter Joanne and hands down, my favorite is goat butter. They sell it at Whole Foods and it is exquisite. It is best for eating on bread and food, and the rest of butter brands are good for baking.

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  27. I assume it is Kerry Gold at double the price and it is excellent.

    Roundabouts solve a lot of trouble here as long as the eejits can translate "yield".

    I've been to Akron a few times, twice, maybe three. So didn't realize you lived close to there.

    Some nice old buildings there.

    XO
    WWW

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  28. Oh, that was funny about half the butter being half the price. It is a very Irish type of joke, which I can say because all my Irish friends and relatives have a great sense of humour and would laugh at this.

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  29. Both of my parents are from Akron, graduates from Akron U. I tend to buy two kinds of butter - eating butter (LOLakes) and cooking butter (store brand/cheapest). I don't know if I could bring myself to pay $8 for a pound of butter! Isn't it amazing how fast nature will reclaim a piece of land?

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