Category / Cora

by princesshotflash

Cora’s garden: Stick Garden

Currently in Cora’s garden there are 2 sections of sticks stuck in pots. All bougainvillea from when we did the spring trim the front bougies (as mom calls them).

Cora is growing sticks

When I first got home these sticks in a pot made me laugh. I would ask what they were and if they were dead. They are just of funny looking to have in the someone’s garden.

Well, my mom takes the trimmings and give them a good soak in water then sticks them in some rootone and put it in a pot a soil with rock for support. It takes a long time to root but it does happen.

I think this is a flower on stick–haha
leaves sprouting

I have to give it to her, she has a green thumb as she can make a stick with rocks and sprout leaves and flowers.

by princesshotflash

Cora’s 90th

Mom and Dad with her birthday banner

It was Mom’s 90th birthday yesterday. I think she had a good one. I surprised her by asking a couple of aunties, uncles, and cousins if they could stop by to wish her a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”. It worked out great because everyone showed up at different times and kept her busy all day. She also go calls from my sister, niece, nephew, uncle from the mainland, good family friend, and video from my cousin and girls in NYC.

I say her day was filled with happy birthday surprises. Here a few pictures from the day.

Birthday Gifts

You only turn 90 once so I decide to make her two birthday desserts–Mixed Berry pie and Chocolate cake. Share with all her visitors.

Mixed Berry pie recipe adapted from Midwest Made’s Big Bold Blueberry pie; Ina Garten’s Beatty’s Chocolate Cake Recipe
by princesshotflash

Cora’s Pixs 2

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Cora’s snapdragons. My grandma’s favorite

I’m slowly teaching mom to turn on Netflix on her own. Let’s see if it happens by the end of April. My hopes and dreams will be she can navigate it herself to turn on and off (not just by turning off the TV) on her own.

This month’s pixs, a little late because I’m trying not to sit at my computer as much. But that doesn’t stop mom from watching her shows.

Memories of Alhambra
Not really sure what this one is about. Looked good from the Netflix ratings. But once it started with a strange scared man running through a city, the businessman checks into ratty bed and breakfast

All to strange and fast pace for mom. The time travel or alternate environment story with fast cuts, not a lot of screaming and fighting ladies made this one a “Can we change it to another one?” right away.

Nine
A man goes to look for his missing brother. He discovers that a mysterious bundle of incense has the power to send him back in time, where he has the opportunity to alter the past.

In the beginning, she liked it because of the setting and the characters but once again, time travel and very subtle time travel, she couldn’t track the difference between the time changes. Some screaming with goofy Korean male characters. I had high hopes for this one but alas it got a “Can we change it to another one?”

The Hymm of Death
“During the Japanese colonial period, married playwright Kim U-jin falls in love with soprano Yun Sim-deok, one of Korea’s notable New Women.”
I “googled” this description because all I couldn’t tell from the short time I watched it with my mom what was happening. All I could tell was it took place in Japan, there was an anger playwright and an a standoff-ish singer.

This got a “Can we change it to another one?” Too serious and not much screaming and fighting. A bit too historical for her.

The Lady in Dignity
Once again, I “googled” the description.
“The wife of a corporate heir finds her luxurious life overturned by a mysterious woman who joins the household as a caregiver for her father-in-law.”
But the little I watched it I couldn’t tell you if that is a true description. I could tell from the little snippet that I saw was screaming, fighting and my mom glued to the screen.

This got “This is so good!!!” It was right up her alley, lots of ladies fighting and screaming, scheming to get the family’s fortune, the mystery woman and trying to kill off the father.

FYI: I added some flowers from Cora’s garden. She has many blooms come up this spring.

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Cora’s geranium

 

 

 

by princesshotflash

Mom said

“I want you to take a picture of my irises in the back. They are in bloom.”

Irises

Mom wanted the 2 buds in the shot
close up
other bunch

And like a good daughter, I took the pictures. Yes, pictures. I even took more than one. The crazy daughter I am, I took pictures of the flowers in the back. And yes, the irises are beautiful but there are other beauties back there, too.

Orchid

Not sure what these are called but they are quite striking.

Joe McGyver

Can’t be in the backyard with seeing a gadget that my dad, Joe McGyver, made up. This is a papaya picker when they had a very tall papaya tree. Made with items around the house. Now hidden by the calamansi tree.

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hand woven wire basket

Speaking about calamansi, that was the whole reason for being in the back yard, to pick and prune the calamansi. I got out the rickety wooden ladder and climbed up to prune the branches that were leaning into the neighbors yard and one that were too high for use to reach. I did cut away a few branches with flowers on it. Oops! Mom thought the pruning would help the tree produce more fruit. Not that we need more.

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our bounty

Here’s our small papaya tree with fruit on it. Mom said that it isn’t really doing well and not sure if the fruit will do well.

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More flowers

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Akulikuli came to mom’s garden by way of Uncle Robert. She is always getting plants from him. This flower in made into leis–beautiful pink lei. I got on from for my HS graduation many moons ago.

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Anthurium patch with this unusual bloom. Kind of a plum color not your usual red.

 

by princesshotflash

Mom and Netflix

I introduced Mom to Netflix about 3 months ago. I showed her all the Korean dramas they had. Well, that “sparked joy”.

The only problem–she doesn’t know how to turn it on. Mom is very unsure of the TV. She knows how to do the cable but to turn on Netflix, there are just too many buttons to press. She thinks if she presses the wrong combination it may blow up. So, my job is to turn on Netflix on and put it on the right program. I also help her select the new program by thumbing through each show for her to read the description.

Yes, I created a monster. But at least, she watches them slow one or two episodes per day. And Korean dramas go on forever (the first one she watched had 30 episodes), so selecting isn’t so bad.

Here’s the start of a new monthly feature called Cora’s Pixs. A summary of mom’s selection and review of the show she just watched on Netflix. FYI she loves the dramatic family dramas with a lot of fighting, screaming, and crying.

Mom’s Korean drama rating scale
  • This is so good!!!
  • It’s good.
  • Can we change to another one?

Heaven’s Garden
This drama is about a mom takes her two daughters to live with her estranged father that lives in the countryside after her husband goes to jail for bankruptcy.

This got a “This is so good!!!” from mom. It had lots of fighting amongst the villagers and family to keep. It also has an estranged mother comes back into the picture, gossipy neighborhood family, ghost and bunch of funny kids.

Immortal Classic
Two culinary families fighting to have the best chef and keep their kimchee recipe secret.

This has a mean grandma that starts the drama off the secrets and fighting, her new daughter-in-law who carrier of all the secrets, an evil daughter who may have murdered the father, another runaway daughter that was banished by grandma, and a goofy dr/chef “Cinderella” character. All amongst a group of handsome male doctors to calm everything down.

It almost got a “this is so good!!!” but wasn’t as good as Heaven’s Garden. Too many time period changes for mom to get top honors but still “It’s good.” plus.

This is it for now. More to come from Cora’s Pixs.