“Night Under the Bridge” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Ned Hardy
I’m grateful that my wisdom tooth chose this late in my life to act up so my dentist could do what was necessary to get it out without scarring my psyche for life.
I’ve been lucky several times, when I had a problem, that the medical community had learned how to deal with it, lessening my suffering. For example, RH factor used to cause death for the mother and/or the baby. I inherited this from my maternal grandmother, who quietly took care of 5 small graves. By the time I had a baby, shots had been developed to help both my son and me.
When I had Graves Disease (a thyroid problem where your body gushes hormone, affecting every part of your body) they irradiated my thyroid and I take very inexpensive pills now that regulate things.
When my gallbladder went on strike, the removal of it had evolved from a really awful surgery with long recovery time to a laparoscopic procedure from which the recovery time for me was about a week. Amazing!
By the time I needed to have cataracts removed, the procedure was a 15-minute one, with my eyes fixed two weeks apart, with very little problem. (My husband has a picture of me with a patch on one eye. He paired that with a picture of Mad Eye McGurk from Harry Potter. We looked remarkably alike…)
Over and over, I have found that I have been so lucky that by the time I have a problem, knowledge and techniques have improved so my suffering is so much less than it was in the past.
So, even though my jaw is still sore from my wisdom tooth extraction last Monday, I thank my lucky stars…
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Attitude, Challenges, Changes
Natural New Age Mum- Little Miss from Gardening for Kids
Not long ago I posted pics of our garden, battered by a hail storm and eaten by ‘someone’ other than us. Happily, the garden seems to be rebounding! We’ve still had too much rain for me to start really trying to combat the insects, but I cut off and cleaned things out, bringing in what was good to eat and composting the rest.
Here are some pictures I took yesterday of the garden –
These are the tomato plants in what we call “the nook” – a planter we built beside the back porch behind the easternmost part of the house. The plants are more protected here from the gusty winds we get, so sometimes, these are the only tomato plants that do well. My husband built some super-sturdy things to which we’ll tie the plants as they grow, since the medium grade tomato cages collapsed with the weight of the plants last year.
The is the brick planter to the east of the house that we also converted to be a square foot planter. We now have six tomato plants, planted at three different times, hopefully to expand our tomato eating season.
These are newly transplanted celery plants. I cut the bottoms off celery bought at the store, plopped the bottoms in glasses of water, and put them on the window sill.
These are older celery plants. I have no clue if I’ll actually get celery to eat, but I’m sure having fun trying.
This is the largest spaghetti squash plant, also grown from seed from one I bought and put in soil in a pot on the window sill. Again, who knows if anything will come of it, but I’m like a kid at Christmas…
The romaine lettuce and spinach have rebounded. We’re still enjoying the harvest of broken leaves I gathered after the hailstorm, but the plants seem happy now.
The broccoli and cauliflower plants look pretty good. I don’t know if I’ll actually get much from them. Last year I had good-looking plants, but not much actual broccoli and cauliflower to harvest.
It has lightened up outside now, but the wind is really whipping our tree branches around. The forecast is for scattered showers (80% chance) the rest of the day today and into tomorrow, so I won’t be outside again, probably, until Tuesday, when I hope to get more flowers!
Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Greenwood, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
We built 3 brick planters to divide the driveway area from the front yard. (Seeing this, you can see what my first job with the power washer will be this year…)
We went to our local nursery because I saw some ground cover that had little blue flowers on it that was gorgeous. I called, and they said they had it! When we got there, though, they only had one, and it was in the same family of ground covers, but wasn’t what we wanted. The lady guided us to another area where they had lots of ground covers. We found Bugleweed, Chocolate Chip. I bought six plants, two for each of the planters. I’m hoping that they will spread, covering as much space as they can in the planters. They have tiny blue flowers with evergreen foliage. When they finish blooming, you just cut off the blooms and the foliage looks good all year round. They’re perennial, too!
I spent all afternoon yesterday pulling out huge, lacey-looking vine-y weeds with really sticky, small pods on them. They stuck to my gloves. I then pruned everything so that I could see where I could plant the new ground cover plants. My husband dug out a Rio Samba Rose bush that died. You can see the disturbed dirt area on the right end of the planter. They had already sold the 15 Rio Samba Rose bushes they had, so we’ll look for something else that’s wonderful. (We still have two healthy Rio Samba bushes.)
In the center of this picture you can see one of the new Bugleweed plants. You can see the slightly lavender flowers sticking up from the nice dark green foliage. I’m hoping these will be really happy, spreading more each year, so I can just dot some colorful annuals around each year.
We also got four mandevilla plants for the deck. Plants go really quickly here, so my husband said he was afraid these would be gone if we didn’t go ahead and get them. We still hadn’t gotten the old roots out of the planters from last year, so my husband said he would get them out while I worked in the brick planters in the front.
We got all red mandevilla this year. Usually we get two different colors, but we’re hoping having four red ones will invite the hummers to come check them out.
We have two mandevillas on either side of the deck.
Since it’s wet and rainy today, we can enjoy the feeling of a day well spent yesterday while enjoying glorious peace and quiet – a good day to enjoy a book.
Birthday Greeting Cards by Davia
A hundred years or so ago, when I was a child, they sold chicks for Easter at the local hardware store. A bunch of us persuaded one of the moms to take us to get one. (This was before it was generally known that this was not a good thing to do to the chicks)
There were about 5 of us and we each got a different colored chick. We named our chicks and proudly brought them home – to appalled moms all over the neighborhood who had no place for a chick, and the resulting grown chicken if the chick happened to live. (I now look at this through a very different lens. Back then, I was in Heaven and couldn’t figure out why my mom wasn’t delighted with my CUTE light blue chick I had named Elizabeth.
They grew – as chicks do. As they did, the dye faded or the baby chick fuzz left, replaced by feathers. Some of the chicks died. Mine didn’t, but my mom was adamant she was not going to make a chicken house. I kept Elizabeth in a box in the garage for a time, and then my friend Ann’s mom said she would take the chicks at her house. I walked to Ann’s every day to see Elizabeth. Soon, though, it was harder and harder to tell one chicken from another.
Added to this, the sweet, CUTE chicks had become pretty LARGE, mean chickens – who pecked us!
I visited Elizabeth less and less during the coming weeks. Finally, the mom who was raising the chickens for us told us that if we wanted our now fully grown chicken, we should come get them. Otherwise, they were going into the freezer.
By that time, I wasn’t upset that Elizabeth was to become a fried chicken dinner. I learned a valuable lesson. Chicks, rabbits, miniature turtles, and all the other things that are so CUTE when they’re young really shouldn’t be sold as temporary playthings to children at Easter or any other time.
I was lucky that my friend’s mom was willing to build a chicken house so that Elizabeth and the others had the best possible life they could have had, given their start in life.
Source Unknown
Filed under holidays
Crosswalk.com
I loved Easter as a child. Fond memories include getting something new to wear. I remember in particular the year when I got the softest, fuzziest pale pink sweater I ever saw – before or since. I LOVED that sweater and how ‘girly’ I felt each time I wore it.
One of my favorite things was dying Easter eggs. My mom wasn’t really into it, but she allowed us to get some dye. I still love to see all the creative ideas people have for decorating eggs!
Easter Egg Hunts were highlights of my childhood. Usually, we went to the one held on the grounds around our church. They would allow the smallest egg-gathers time to find some eggs before unleashing the next youngest group, giving each group the joy of finding eggs. I always had a basket and brought the eggs home as a carefully guarded treasure. I put the eggs in the fridge – separate from my brother’s stash – and would hope I got to eat every one. My parents got us a chocolate Easter Rabbit in our basket of fake grass. I loved it!
I went with my friends to a lot of different churches when I wasn’t at my own. The Easter celebration I remember most vividly was the Episcopalian celebration. I was in the child’s choir. I loved the look of the church, with its beautiful stained glass windows and lofty ceiling. I loved the beautiful hymns we sang in harmony created by the choir director. I loved all the pretty Easter dresses, moms with Easter bonnets, and black patent leather shiny shoes.
Now I’m older than dirt and can hide my own Easter eggs, except that I might not find them all again….
I hope you have a wonderful Easter!
Filed under holidays
As I walked around the yard a few minutes ago, three of our four furry friends walked with me. (Bambi was inside asleep on his bed.) This is Abby.
Our hummingbird bird bath came on automatically as it should this morning with NO LEAKS! Hooray!!!!!!!
Camellias are starting to bloom.
This is Molly.
Rio Samba Rose Bush
Smoke and a hydrangea plant.
We’re enjoying clumps of blooms like this all around the yard and down one side of the driveway. I had hoped that the dark purple iris and the pale yellow iris would bloom at the same time, but the purple iris is gone before the yellow iris starts to bud.
Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Greenwood, Mother Nature
“A Little Purple – Magnolias” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Mother Nature, Paul Militaru Photography
Easter Images
“Alzheimer’s Advantage #2: You can hide your own Easter eggs.” ~ Unknown
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays
After another fix and leaving things to dry overnight, we plugged in the pump today and HOORAAAAAAAY! No leaks! To be sure, we ran the pump for a couple of hours before declaring it leak free. Then we got out duct tape to secure the trash can top with the holes we had to cut for the various hoses, power lines, etc. We tried to be very careful not to jostle the tub as we did this, and then waited again to see if we had any problems.
I’ve just finished add the ‘stuff’ to the bird bath. Since it’s deep, I put bricks in the bottom and then some river rock on top of those so the hummers will have plenty of places to stand if they just want a shower. There are plenty of places they can simply dive in, too.
Here is the set up. You can see the tub above and the trash can on the deck under the tub. The garden hose is always on. There is a float valve inside the can that will trigger the hose to add more water if the level in the can gets too low. The float valve shuts off the water when it’s happy with the level.
The water is attached to a timer. We decided to run it during daylight and let the pump rest when it’s dark, so no skinny dipping or midnight swims for the little hummers. They can always stand in the water in the tub, but there won’t be a waterfall during the night.
We get a lot of gusty winds, particularly during storms, so I made a point of securing things as best I could. I THINK the greenery will stay put. Time will tell.
The last step is planting flowers. A good friend of mine from Lunch Bunch told me about getting hummingbird flower seed packets. I went to WalMart to find them. They had them kind of hidden, but I finally found them and bought several packages. I’m planning to put a big flower pot on the table beside the chair and see if I can get that seed to grow. If that doesn’t work, I’ll fill the bowl with annuals when we get the other flowers for the deck.
We have two feeders out and the bird bath. Come on, hummers!
Filed under Lewis projects
Awhile back I posted some pictures of a glorious new bright yellow iris we got from Nanna’s Garden in Charleston, Arkansas. I love this time of the year because we’re rich in iris! The deep purple iris is pretty well gone, only to be replaced by pale yellow iris and this lavender color.
My husband insists these are WHITE. Then, when we talk about it, he says these are white compared to the bright yellow new ones we have…
This is a nice blue iris blooming in the iris bed we made for the new ones from Nanna’s Garden.
This is the planter for the new iris. My plan is to thin these out, this year or next, to eventually have these all over the yard.
These are more of the bright yellow ones, plus some yellow with rust colored centers, plus a peek at some medium purple ones in the center of the picture.
These pale yellow iris are all over the yard now. We had so many at one point that, after no one wanted iris, I simply threw down the hill off the edge of the civilized part of the yard. To my amazement, many of them grew!
These are the ones I threw off the edge of the part of the yard we mow. (Molly is checking out a lizard as I took this picture.)
Evolver Social Movement via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Pictures, Favorite Quotes
This is the back of the Easter rabbit and egg mailbox decoration. I tried to blend the support bar into his feet.
This is the front. I used Snow-Tex on the tail to give it more texture.
The ladies who deliver the mail drove up the driveway yesterday, instead of leaving the mail in the mailbox because we got a package we had to sign for. My husband came in, grinning. He said the ladies both told him how much they enjoyed ‘our artwork.’
ClipArtKid
Happy Easter!
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
(1) Our hummingbird bird bath is proving to be quite a challenge. We’ve tried several different approaches to getting the water to circulate, but not leak. Today we installed a regular toilet float valve in the trashcan under the bird bath. we hooked everything up, smiled, and then frowned again because it was leaking from the flapper valve in the tub. We have again drained it, leaving all the rest of the system intact. We’re going to spray all around the flapper valve with FlexSeal – the stuff on TV that’s supposed to repair holes in boats, etc., to see if that will solve our problem. We’re also going to shorten the flexible hose we have that goes from the bottom of the tub to the trash can. We’ll let the FlexSeal dry, and then we’ll test the system again. We’re SO close to having something that we can set and forget – except for extreme enjoyment. Fingers crossed!
(2) I’m trying to dye some pillowcases. I found a gloriously deep purple fabric dye. Instead of being able to do the whole process in the washer, as I did once before, we had to boil water, pour it into a large bucket, add salt and dissolve, then add the dye and dissolve. We then put in the pillowcases one at a time, submerging each. The directions say to keep stirring constantly for 15 minutes, then stir every 10 minutes for another 45 minutes. I feel as if we’re making witches brew! They said to use eye protection and wear gloves. When the 45 minutes is over, I’ll put the bucket in the sink, squeeze each pillow case out into the bucket, and then rinse in cold water while my husband dumps the rest of the dye and water. Then they go into the washer and dryer.
And why am I doing this? We have little bitty foam contoured travel pillows we use on our bed. My husband won’t use anything else. The pillow cases for them are EXPENSIVE. When they got stained, I dyed them, but the only color I could find was pink. Needless to say, we’ve been putting up with them, rather than enjoying them, for longer than we would like. I decided to give them new life by dying them a color that would go with our bedding and preferences better. If this works, we’ll be in good shape for our extra little pillows for quite awhile. (Meanwhile, I’m setting the timer for 10 minutes and stirring the cases around with a large stick of PVC pipe.) I’ve done three of the four times now. Fingers crossed on this project, too!
(3) The other project we hope to tackle today is getting our new-to-us riding lawn mower working. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so it would be really good if we could get the civilized part of our yard looking like someone cares. I’ll be a go-fer while my husband uses his smarts to get it going, figure out how it works, and then teaches me, too.
I’m still healing from having a wisdom tooth pulled Monday, so I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be functional. The horrendous pain is gone, but I still have aching jaws and a headache. Other than that, I feel as if I were run over by a truck. Since I was ready for the dentist to shoot me to put me out of my misery Monday morning, I’m very grateful to ONLY have aching and a headache. Small price to pay for the wonderful work of our dentist.
By the way, if you’re in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area, you couldn’t find a better dental service. His name is Wesley Moore, DDS. Moore Dental Care, 2913 S. 74th St. Fort Smith, AR72903. (479) 484-5050.
The timer went off for me to stir my witches brew for the last time.
Hope you’re having a good day, too.
Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Bright Ideas, Challenges, Changes
The Reader’s Nook via Cathy Ruggiero
One of my favorite authors is Nora Roberts. I like the worlds she creates. I like the characters. I enjoy reading some of her trilogies (and what do you call a 4-some?) over and over again. I slide into her world, forget my problems, see old friends again.
For years and years I have resisted her series written as J.D. Robb. It bothered me that they wouldn’t be like her ‘normal’ writing that I loved. For some reason I decided I just didn’t want to try them.
Marsha, a good friend of mine, told me that she LOVED the J.D. Robb “In Death” series. She convinced me to try one. I bought it used on Amazon for the price of shipping.
I’m hooked. Eve Dallas, the main character, is a detective in a world of the future. She’s an interesting, many-layered woman you want to know. I would like to be her friend. I’m fascinated and admire her. She has courage and grit, and yet remains vulnerable. The world is very different from the one we live in, and yet in the ways that matter, it’s the same.
There are 45 books in the series so far. I’ve bought 12 of them and am in the middle of a great adventure!
“Let’s Get to the Bottom of Things” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Mother Nature, Paul Militaru Photography
Theodore Roosevelt via Messages.365 Greetings.com
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
BlissPlan.com
When I was 5, my mom took me to the beauty shop for a hair cut. I looked at the hair stylist and told her, in my most serious voice, “You can cut my hair, but DON’T GET IT ANY SHORTER!”
Pain makes us feel helpless, like little children. We hurt, we’re scared. We want it to stop.
Our dentist worked me in at 10:00 yesterday morning. We had been monitoring my wisdom tooth for quite awhile, since it was eroding. He told me that if it started bothering me, he would refer me to an oral surgeon because there wasn’t enough tooth showing above the gum line for him to grab.
I had been hurting since Thursday. I found out yesterday that – had I called him on Thursday (the last day of their work week) – I still would have had to wait until yesterday because he left early to go to Tulsa for a meeting. I have a gift for having a problem on holidays, spring break, etc.
His assistant got an x-ray of that side of my mouth. It hurt so badly I cried. She felt awful, and I felt bad because she felt bad. I asked the dentist to either make it stop hurting, to amputate the whole left side of my head, or to shoot me. He has the kindest eyes I think I’ve ever seen. He said, “Let’s take it out now.”
He had me bite down on a Que tip soaked in some kind of numbing agent. I was shaking all over and couldn’t stop. When he gave me a shot of Novocaine, all I felt was a tugging sensation. Then he asked if I wanted to be awake for the procedure. At this point, I had used every bit of stoicism and bravery I had to GET to Monday, so I asked what my options were. He said he had a ‘conscious sedative’ that wouldn’t knock me out, but would make it so I didn’t care, and wouldn’t remember. That sounded like Heaven, so I opted for that.
I woke up later at home in my own recliner under my favorite throw. I ended up sleeping until about 6:00 yesterday evening, when my husband made us some soup. We stayed up pretty late and slept late this morning.
I’m a bit sore, but SO much better today. I’m just taking Advil, rather than the pain pills we got from the pharmacy. We’re going to run some errands, but I’m going to take it easy today – maybe taking a nap this afternoon.
I’m so lucky to have a kind, caring dentist, who was able to stop my suffering so compassionately, plus a husband who takes care of me when I’m feeling like a little kid.
Filed under Challenges, Changes
Grand Parkway Smiles
My normally ‘bubbly’ personality is seriously strained. A wisdom tooth in the very back on the left bottom of my mouth has been eroding for some time. When I have my teeth cleaned, the hygienist and the dentist both look at it, agreeing that we don’t need to do anything unless it bothers me. He told me, though, that when I DID have to have something done, he couldn’t do it because there wasn’t enough left of the tooth above my gums to grab. :0(
Well, until Thursday, it hadn’t. Since then, I’ve been kind of a mess. My dentist and his staff work Monday through Thursday – so, of course, my problem started when he was not available until tomorrow.
This has been a very long 4 days. I’m taking lots of whatever I can find around here. Ibuprofen seems to be the most effective – plus I started using the heating pad when the pain got me up in the middle of the night. I held it to the left side of my face while I read for an hour or so this morning, and then used one on my pillow for the rest of the night.
I woke up this morning with no pain! That didn’t last long, but, OHHHHH! It was wonderful while it lasted.
I’m about to go and medicate and heat pad again. I’m hoping that we can be started on a fix – with an appointment with the oral surgeon and hopefully some more serious medicine for the pain. Right now having the left side of my head amputated sounds good….
Filed under Challenges, Changes
Purple Clover via Cathy Ruggiero
“Come On – Float With Me” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
I spent another couple of hours getting the garden under control, and things are looking a lot better now. I cut off dead stuff, harvested some broken stuff and leaves that were torn or had bites out of them, but would still be good to eat. I washed everything carefully in the sink and then patted the leaves. I harvested two gallon bags of lettuce and two of spinach. This is the lettuce I harvested today. It’s mostly romaine.
And this is the spinach. I hoping that the roots are good and strong and that the fact I had to harvest way more than I would have normally won’t hurt the plants. I got a pretty good workout with the 3-1/2 hours of gardening today, and I feel good that I managed to save a lot of what I had to remove from the plants for us to enjoy.
Filed under Arkansas, DIET!, exercise, Greenwood, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
“For the Love of Pink” via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Favorite Pictures
No Time for Flash Cards
My poor garden veggies have been/are under triple assault: hail, bugs, and weeds. I just came in from a session of weeding, cutting off broken limbs, harvesting some of the broken/hole-y stuff, pitching the rest. It looks like it will take several sessions to get my plants happy again.
We’ve had a lot of rain (with hail and other severe stuff), then good sun, resulting in all of the problems. I do pretty well for an hour out there, particularly with our new raised beds, but I think it will take three or four more sessions to catch up. And THEN, guess what! We have more rain forecast for four days next week…
When you first glance at things, it doesn’t look very bad.
The closer you get, though, the more you see.
Here you see a BUNCH of broken tops on the onions. This doesn’t matter as much on onions as it does on other plants.
The spinach has broken leaves, and someone is trying to eat the spinach before we do. I harvested a BUNCH of broken leaves that will still make good eating, but not ‘pretty.’
This is one of the spaghetti squash plants. You can see the holes in the leaves. I don’t know if that will kill the actual squash trying to grow or not.
The romaine lettuce is basically really healthy, but you can see broken and/or eaten leaves, plus little bitty weeds that have sprung up in the last couple of days.
Red lettuce leaf isn’t really a ‘pretty’ plant to my eye, but it tastes good IF it doesn’t get beaten down by hail and eaten by bugs…
The celery plants are still alive and kicking! You can again see the teeny tiny weeds, though.
I’ll try to get back out several times today and again tomorrow. The rains aren’t supposed to start until late tomorrow night – and hopefully, we won’t have hail this time…
“Go to the Market, My Love” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
creativeartworksblog 