Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, lost in translation
“Nosey Bear” – Diane Whitehead – artoutwest.blogspot.com
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
my-little-poppies.com
I waited, hoping for a chance to go out and celebrate some much-needed rain. I finally gave up, read awhile, got sleepy and took a nap in my chair. When I joined my husband in our office later, the window was wet! My husband said, “You missed a nice rain.” :0(
In the evening, when we went bowling with friends, they were envious because they didn’t get any rain at all, and live only on the other side of town from us. It was so humid last night it was like wading in pea soup. The bowling alley was nice and cool with a/c and fans. We walked outside to be enveloped by a blanket of suffocating air again. We were wet by the time we arrived at our truck. Thankfully, we either celebrate or console our bowling efforts with a scoop of Braum’s ice cream afterwards. I got the best flavor: chocolate, of course – (my Nutrisystem FLEX snack for the week!)
Filed under DIET!, Friendship, Mother Nature, quality of life
Justyna-Tumblr-artdecorationsdesign.com
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
Rebel Circus via http://www.pinterest.com
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor
This is the back of the Godzilla mailbox decoration we put up on the way to do our errands this morning. He’s one of our favorite ‘characters.’ You can see how I tried to blend in his feet into the mounting piece.
We enjoy making these a lot. I’m not sure what we’ll make next, but we always have an eye out for something interesting to tackle. We’re now loving to add some 3-D effect of something else unusual.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art
I just finished cleaning out the aquarium, adding some of the things we used to have in the hummingbird bird bath we built that we finally took down. The hummingbirds – and no one else – seemed to want to take a bath there. The sound of the water was nice, but I was having to clean it out a LOT and it was a big – at least half a day – job.
My fish aren’t unfriendly, but they aren’t good conversationalists. I have no clue if they LIKE the renovation of their tank, or wish I would put it back the way it was. The water is clean now, with a fresh filter cartridge, so they should be happier with the state of life in general, if nothing else.
The only thing they show interest in is their twice-a-day feedings. When they see me coming, the four of them gather in the corner of the tank, wriggling their tails as fast as they can and opening and closing their mouths. I speak to them, but it’s hard to come up with new and different things to say about feeding time.
I DID notice them checking out the woman in the bathtub, though, noses downward as if they were sniffing….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
My husband and I have long deluded ourselves, thinking we’re smarter than our doggies and that we’re training them to live in our home, behave when meeting someone, etc.
Amber is in the photo above. She is a yellow lab, now 16 months old, weighs 92 lbs, and we’ve been told that she’ll continue her ‘puppy-ish’ ways until she’s at LEAST two years old. We’re working on all the regular commands, plus a few particular to our home, but Amber is very independent and will do almost anything to get her way.
Example: We have taught her to bark at the door when she would like to come in or go out. Amber has ‘learned’ this, but has embellished the lesson to include us. We now respond quickly if she either sits beside us and then says, “BARK!” so loudly that we jump straight up in the air, saying ripe words and moving quickly to let her out. A creative alternative to this is that she sits beside me when I’m on the computer and then puts her nose into my left armpit and then routes around, harder and harder until I laugh, get up and let her out. We are now trained to get up and go to whatever door she has decided to go to. Not only that, but she has taught us to reward her for barking to come in with a cookie. If we’re distracted or try to ignore her – she follows us around and then, when we’re least expecting it, yells “BARK!!”
She knows what time it is and starts running around the living room like a mad thing when it’s time for us to feed her in the evening. She won’t be put off, either, adding routing around, trying to climb up in the chair with us, or the dreaded, “BARK!!!” until the humans do what she wants. She herds us to the kitchen, waiting impatiently as we feed cats in the garage, fish in the tank, and then make food for her and Molly. She DOES go to her eating place and WILL sit until we put the food down and tell her “OKAY.”
This is sweet, elderly Molly, a cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross whom we adopted many years ago to cheer up our pit bull. She is now about 13 years old. Her mission in life is to make us laugh or say, “AWWWW!” She has been a treasured member of our family, and she’s now finally adapting (mostly) to her bull-in-a-china-shop ‘sister’ who regularly runs right over her and considers her a personal chew toy. Without our doing anything, she has picked up on the bark at the door behavior and then demanding a cookie upon entering the house. We have dubbed ourselves ‘doggie doormen,’ not knowing what we did with ourselves before we were letting animals in and out. She growls and yodels to add to the furor surrounding dinner time, thinking she is one fierce doggie.
We are very rich in doggies, and they are DEFINITELY smarter than we are.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
keywordsuggest.org
I just came in gasping and weaving, from getting the garden cleaned up – making a check to make sure I harvested all the onions yesterday – pulling off the demarking strings (most of them snapped the minute I touched them) and re-spraying the bug killer in the boxes again.
The last step will be when I can get my breath back and my temperature down below ‘WAAAAAY – too – hot.’ I’m going to mix up weed killer and spray it on the floor of the garden, and all around. At another time I’ll do the weed eating of what I hope will be dead weeds around everything and then I’ll be ready for fall, hoping that we don’t go directly from lethally hot summer into way-too-cold fall.
We have GOOD air conditioning in our home and in our vehicles, so we can insulate ourselves from it, unless we’re determined to get yard work done. I’m counting the sessions working in the garden as most of my exercise for the day. Once I’m finished with that, I’ll do my yoga and then head for the showers.
I hope that if it’s hot where you are, you have somewhere to go to give you some relief.
englishitaliantranslations.wordpress.com
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, lost in translation
99.9 KTCS via Cindy Basnett Thurman
(We are in Greenwood, just SE of Fort Smith)
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Mother Nature
Our heat index this afternoon is forecast to be 105. Our hottest month here in Arkansas is August. I can’t wait.
Yesterday I started a weekend project of cleaning out our raised bed square foot garden, since Mother Nature has cooked it despite daily irrigation. The first thing I did was spray the six 4′ x 4′ chest high wooden boxes with EIGHT, a spray that kills bugs, but doesn’t harm plants, animals, or people. Then I started pulling out dying plants. This took several sessions, but I got it done. I had to re-spray one of the boxes because when I pulled out some bolted lettuce, the ants came spewing up. They didn’t bite/sting me this time, though, thank goodness. I dug onions out and spread them on the screen part of our trailer to dry in the sun for several days.
Today I’ll do a bunch of clean up. I need to empty the two or three trashcan-fuls of plants I pulled and take them over to the barrel composter. I’ll take the strings off that mark the planting squares, since several broke when I was taking plants out. I still haven’t been able to find a string that doesn’t degrade rapidly in the sun, but I’ll continue looking. I’ll make sure I got all the onions and then re-spray the soil in the boxes with the bug killer.
I want to mix up some weed killer and spray it on the wood chipped floor of the garden area, and then around the perimeter of the garden, plus around the propane tank, trashcans of Mel’s Mix, etc.
I’ll feel happy if I can finish the “Cleanup of the Garden” finished by the end of the day.
Filed under Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Gill Cordiner.blogspot.com
I’m making reasonable progress, even though I’m melting into a puddle.
I sprayed everything in the yard with the EIGHT bug killer. I have two of the six 4’x4′ raised garden boxes cleaned out. (I had to stop, go into the house and wash my arms and hands because I ran into another bunch of fire ants in the garden when I pulled out a plant.) I didn’t get stung or bitten, and went out and hosed that box down again with the bug killer. I’ve put in three sessions so far today and am about to go out again. Getting lots of exercise, a reasonable number of steps on my pedometer, and am still alive. :0)
Filed under exercise, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
amazinganimalstoriesl.com
I’m inside, trying to catch my breath, drink a bottle of water, and relax a bit before going outside again for another session on my weekend project – cleaning out my raised bed square foot garden boxes.
The heat index is now 97 degrees (90 degrees with 55% humidity). Our forecast temperature is 98 today. Unless the humidity drops drastically, that will be a heat index of 117 this afternoon. UGH.
Mother Nature has pretty well killed off my spring garden. The plants are no match for her, even with daily irrigation, so I’m throwing in the towel and cleaning things up for next time.
I’m going to do this in SEVERAL sessions during the weekend, trying to stay hydrated and not get heat or sun stroke.
(My husband is smarter – tackling a project where he can work inside our shop. He turned on the A/C this morning and has just gone out there soon to start work, refurbishing a roll-around chair for our wonderful hair stylist and friend, Michael.)
Since the outside work needs to be done, the garden and flower planters are my domain around here, and it’s not getting any cooler for the foreseeable future, I’m just going to be careful and get it done.
If I can finish this by the end of the weekend, anything ELSE I do will be gravy.
The Awesome Daily
I told you yesterday that I was having pain in my lower back. My massage therapist made it feel better for a time, but by afternoon I was moving V E R Y slowly, hurting again. I took some Aleve and used the heat pad in the evening and at night and that seemed to help.
I’m just stiff (not in pain, thank goodness!) As soon as we get back from “Breakfast Bunch” and errands, I’ll do my yoga stretches S L O W L Y , plus my new “Oyster” abdominal core exercise, hoping to ease up the stiffness while strengthening my old-but-still-kicking core.
Filed under exercise
“Florida Wetlands” – Karen Margulis – kemstudios.blogspot.com
Filed under Creativity, Pastels
Filed under Creativity, When Wood Comes Alive
“Gulls and Coots” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Doreen Virtue via Cathy Ruggiero
I’ve spent much of my life working to avoid my fears – deluding myself that I really had CONTROL. I’ve gotten halfway there now. I’ve admitted that a lot of the things I fear I CAN’T control. I haven’t been able to shut off the worry, but at least the acknowledgment allows me to put much of my energy elsewhere. I’m also doing better at living in the moment. Before my husband and I finally married (49 years ago now), I would wish away the present because I was waiting for his next leave from the Marines. I was waiting to finish college. I was waiting – wishing away much of what should have been an enjoyable time. I was ‘there,’ but didn’t really appreciate a lot of people and things I should have.
I’m doing better at living NOW. Appreciating what I have. Trying to show the people in my life how very much they mean to me in every way I can. I’m trying to do what I can on a daily basis to get healthier – getting the lard off gradually and exercising. I’m trying to pull my husband in on this so that we can squeeze out all life has to offer – together. I’m sticking my neck out and trying to learn new things. It’s all a work in progress, but by the time I kick the bucket I should have things figured out. :0)
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Patsy Saudeda – quotesgram.com
The heat index is 105 degrees right now. Not fit for man nor beast.
Thankfully, my husband mowed the yard last night right before dark, so the Lewises are lookin’ pretty good (for the Lewises). One of the many reasons we don’t live in the city limits is that we didn’t care for trimming our lawn to a required height and in the proper frequency, agonizing over brown spots, moles, voles, or other ‘ole’s, etc. We usually mow once a week, weather permitting, and my husband is delighted when we get to the stage in the summer where we aren’t getting any rain to keep the grass growing before our eyes. “Brown and crunchy’ is his favorite grass.
I never got back outside yesterday after gathering tomatoes and getting into the hostile ant pile. My ankle is FINALLY only a bit puffy today. The swelling is such that you can actually SEE the bites/stings rather than my ankle being one pink puffy area all the way around. I’m planning to try to get the garden cleared tonight, but I’ll mix up more EIGHT to spray all the plants, all the raised bed planters, and the ground around them before I try to start clearing things out right before dark this evening.
I’m going to pull out all the plants, including the onions. I’ll put the onions on a screen we have on the side of a trailer so that they can start drying. They’ll need to do that for several days and then I can store them in mesh bags in the pantry. I’m hoping we got a good crop this year. Last year we had home-grown sweet onions throughout the winter and into the start of April!
If you’re having similar weather, don’t forget to take frequent breaks and drink lots and lots of water.
Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Greenwood, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
“Mountain Water Symphony” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Supriya Billapati – fineartamerica.com
Filed under Creativity, Gorgeous Glass
I went for my monthly massage with Lynn Moody this morning. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to it. I was stiff and sore in my lower back and Lynn made it feel much better, as usual. I’m so lucky to have found her.
I’m feeling encouraged because Lynn said she could tell I’ve lost weight! I’ve lost 15-1/2 pounds so far, and two people have noticed: Lynn today and our wonderful hair stylist, Michael, yesterday. They might just be being nice, since they know my husband and I are trying to get the lard off, but they didn’t have to say ANYTHING.
Officially, I’ve lost 15.5 lbs and 17.3 inches.
I wish I could tell you that I feel so much more energetic, but I don’t. Maybe in another 15 lbs or so. I’m still old. I still have to push myself to get onto my elliptical trainer, do my yoga stretches, over-the-door shoulder pulley exercises, and weight exercise for my shoulders. I’ve added one new exercise called, “The Oyster” which is supposed to be a really good, effective exercise for people who are essentially pear-shaped, like me. It is supposed to strengthen whatever the muscles are that go horizontally around your core, rather than the ones that run vertically, as most abdominal exercises do.
The Oyster
You’re on your back. You pull up your legs so they’re bent. You come up with arms straight in front of you. You push your lower back into the floor as you do this. You come up so your hands are even with your legs and hold it for a count of 5. You do as many repetitions as you can.
I’m still waiting for the 0-6 Pack Abs DVD I bought. I’m standing on one foot and the other to get started with these because the exercises are especially for people like me, who need to strengthen the horizontal core muscles in the right way for my body type so that I don’t injure myself or make things worse, making my belly stick out MORE. These exercises are also supposed to lessen the pain in my back as I strengthen the core muscles, which makes sense.
I know, it’s hard to listen to me being impatient when I hate to exercise, but I’ll stay with it if I feel it’s beginning to help me.
I’m hoping that each time I get my hair cut or go for another massage, there will be noticeably less and less of me!
creativeartworksblog 