Monthly Archives: May 2019

Very Magical

I Love Reading Books via Cathy Ruggiero

I’m in the middle of re-reading Book 3 (Eclipse) in the 4-book series, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.)

 

I loved the series the first time I read it, even though I don’t really consider myself a connoisseur of vampire and werewolf books. It’s so well written and the characters are so compelling you find yourself accepting their world as real and caring what happens to everyone.

So, each day, no matter what else is happening around here, I make time to at least read a chapter or two before heading off to bed.

If you haven’t read this series, you might enjoy it.

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Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews, Reading is FUNdamental

Bethany Kerr Watercolors

Bethany Kerr

 

Bethany Kerr

Contact Bethany if you are interested in prints of these.

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Filed under Watercolors I Love

My Totes on ArtFire

“Flower Basket” – XLG tote on ArtFire

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Happy Roses!

I cut our three Rio Samba rose bushes, plus a red rose bush WAAAAAAAY back, quite ruthlessly before winter. They were all in sad shape, having some kind of fungus and having grown out of shape, having some branches that died, etc. I figured that either my severe pruning would work, or we would have to start over and get new plants.

Happily, my pruning seems to have given them all new life!

This is the red rose bush and you can also see one of the Rio Samba bushes further back in the trio of planters.

We love Rio Samba roses because they start out bright yellow. Then they develop coral edges on each bloom. Finally they turn coral before it’s time to prune them off to encourage new blooms.

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature

Dentist

Daily Mail

 

We just got back from a dental appointment for my husband. He was flossing a week or so ago and a cap came off one of his teeth.  We went in and the dentist found that the part of the tooth the cap was on came out with the cap, so he would have to have an implant.

We had the remainder of the tooth pulled and the prep for the implant done today. We go back in 5 months, when the area is fully healed, for the post and the tooth replacement.  My husband is doing fine. I gave him Tylenol for the discomfort he is having, and he is on antibiotics and two other meds for the procedure. He is resting now, under strict orders NOT to forget and chew any ice!

We are SO glad we have such a great dentist – Wes Moore, DDS in Fort Smith.

 

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Filed under Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business, taking care of yourself

More Fun in My Art Room!

I painted part of yesterday afternoon and some of this morning, finishing two tee shirts for me. These were old shirts that had spots on them, so the idea of bringing new life to them appeals to me. :0)

I got the ideas from the net. These are not my designs, but I tweaked what I found to make them more my own.

This is the Dandelion Tee – “Make a wish, then blow!”

This one is “Let It Bee”

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Photos I Love

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

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Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography

Chicken Recipe is “YUMMY!”

I really like Karly, of ThatLowCarbLife.com.  I’m finding more and more recipes my husband pronounces, “YUMMY!” from her website.

In a post here recently, I told you about her “Easy Baked Chicken Parmesan.” 

This time I tried her “Creamy Lemon Chicken with Garlic.”

 

Karly Campbell – ThatLowCarbLife.com

This is a different flavor than we usually eat, but my husband kept remarking about it as he took bite after bite. :0)

We buy a big tray of huge chicken breasts by Tyson. The first thing I do when I bring it home is cut each breast lengthwise because a whole one is too much for either of us to eat at a meal. I then put 4 halves into a freezer bag, label it, and put it in the freezer. One tray gives us a freezer full of chicken for lots of meals. Then it’s easy to thaw what we need for a recipe, actually making enough for two meals for us. :0)

I go to Karly’s website regularly now, having bookmarked it on my computer.  I like the fact that she uses easy-to-find ingredients. Her directions are clear, and her recipes don’t take a lot of time, and yet you end up with a meal that brings compliments!  Check out ThatLowCarbLife.com if you want to try some YUMMY food!

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Filed under Cooking/Recipes/Low Carb Lifestyle, DIET!

Ready to Plant More!

This picture gives you a good idea of how our raised bed, square foot garden is set up. You can see the six boxes. Each is 4 foot square. Each has a sprinkler in the center with hose connecting the boxes to one master control that irrigates the garden each morning for 10 minutes. Each box is divided into ‘squares’ by running wire in two directions. You can also see that there is fencing around the garden to keep out large critters. It also has chicken wire running around the bottom for little critters.

The rains lately caused an explosion in the garden. The plants were spilling out of the top over the sides. I couldn’t see the squares anymore. It took me three days to get things harvested, washed, and either put in the fridge or distributed to friends. I finished cleaning up the garden this morning so it’s ready to plant some new things. My husband and I will see what is available in the coming week that looks interesting.

We have about 5 heads of lettuce that might still make. The green part of the onions is over my head. :0)

I think this is zucchini squash. I also have some cantaloupe plants.

The jury is still out on whether sweet little plants like these that are dotted around the garden are weeds or spinach. I’m hoping for spinach. Time will tell.

This sweet little guy is celery, transplanted from sprouting in the kitchen. I cut off the end of some celery I bought at the store and put it in water. It’ll be fun to see what happens.

I keep telling you about Mel’s Mix, the soil alternative I use instead of real dirt in my garden. I buy peat moss, vermiculite, mushroom compost, barnyard compost, and cotton burr compost from the local co-op and put each ingredient in one of the garbage cans. I then put the ingredients in the correct ratio into our portable concrete mixer.

This is easy to use and mixes things SO much better than I was doing before with a shovel in my wheelbarrow. When mixed, the mixer will move down to dump the ingredients into a bucket, the wheelbarrow, or whatever, and I transfer it to the garden boxes.

I’m hoping we’ll find something fun to plant next week. Fingers crossed!

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Fun In My Art Room

Kiddipedia

Since I did some good work this morning –

  • three loads of laundry – done, folded, and put away
  • finished cleaning out my garden, getting it ready to plant again
  • weed whacked for 45 minutes
  • general cleaning in the kitchen

I decided I deserved a break and I’ve been playing in my art room this afternoon!

I found two ideas for painting tee shirts on the net, and I’m doing ‘my spin’ on them. I love being able to bring older tee shirts to new life by painting them. They never turn out quite like I planned, but they ARE one of a kind, and I enjoy painting them.

I’ll try to take a pic tomorrow of the first one and post it.

I hope you’ve had a fun afternoon.

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Linda Brunker Art

Linda Brunker via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

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Wonderful Paintings

Alina Ciuciu – “There’s Only One Moon” – LinkedIn

 

David Uht via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

E J Paprocki via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Tolanta via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Emil Ciubotaru via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

 

Fabio Cembranelli via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn

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Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love, Oil Paintings I Love, Watercolors I Love

Happy

shutterstock.com

 

I let our sweet dog, Molly, in this morning after her morning run. When I came back to our office, our son’s face was on my husband’s computer!

Our son lives and works in Thailand. We chat almost every day on a secure chat program he set up for us, but today we also had a conference call with him!  This is similar to Skype, but a LOT better, with good quality video, good quality audio, and very few interruptions.

I’m prejudiced, I know, but there is little that makes me happier than seeing our son’s face, watching him smile, trying to make him laugh, catching up on what’s new. We can almost forget he’s across the planet from us.

We won the lottery on sons. He’s a wonderful communicator and we’re very close. The only thing we don’t get is his world-class hugs.  I’m lucky because when we saw him in December, he very generously filled up my hugs bucket to overflowing.

He has just moved to a new place and is getting settled, making the workplaces he wants, moving things around so he’s comfortable.

So – I’m still grinning from ear to ear, feeling extremely happy with my world this morning. I hope you’re happy with YOURS, too. :0)

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Day Three of Harvest

I tackled the last of our six 4’x4′ wooden raised boxes in our garden today. I got 4 heads of lettuce, leaf lettuce, and radishes. This finishes the harvest of the food that suddenly grew after all the rains we’ve had. I still have some heads of lettuce and other things in the garden. I’ll clean up the last box after the harvest.

I’m really new at this, not having a clue what I’m doing, but I have so much FUN trying to grow some of our food!  Today, after harvesting, washing, and bagging up the produce, I called several friends and asked them if they would like some of it. I had some extra one other year, but this is the first time I’ve had such good-looking produce, and the first time EVER for actual heads of lettuce! :0) I spent about an hour driving around and spreading the wealth!

This is the last of the radishes I planted. Radishes are wonderful because they produce quickly and can be grown directly from seed in the garden in any season except for the dead of winter.

 

I can’t believe how much leaf lettuce I got! Since I harvested the large heads, I also processed the leaves around the heads.

Usually our weather is too ‘something’ (too hot, too cold, too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun) for a nice crop. This year we lucked out and I couldn’t be more delighted.

I’ll try to get pics tomorrow after finishing the cleaning up. I’m hoping we’ll find other interesting things we can try to plant at the local stores tomorrow, too!

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Anwar Haq Art

Anwar Haq – LinkedIn

I love Anwar’s style. His paintings seem happy, colorful, and full of life. They lift my spirits.

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Plan Your Pet Portrait for 2020

Niki Firmin Portraits – Feline Furbaby Trio

As you can easily see here, Niki not only does a portrait, but creates one that makes you almost expect the cats to turn their eyes to look at you, the doggies to pant or lick their lips. She mentioned on LinkedIn the other day that she is taking commissions now for 2020. If you’d like to contact her about creating a portrait for YOUR furbaby, here is a link – NikiFirmin.com

Niki Firmin Portraits – Glen

 

Niki Firmin Portraits – Jake and Meg

 

Niki Firmin Portraits – Jet

 

Niki Firmin Portraits – T’Pol and Tonyx

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Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits

Flowers Add Quality of Life

After the rains I walked around the yard, delighting that so many flowers are happy right now. I wanted to share them with you.

These are Rio Samba roses.  They start bright yellow, then slowly turn to coral.

 

Impatiens like the shade of our front porch.

Camellias

My husband’s clematis.

Wave petunias on the deck.

Periwinkles

A new color of iris blooming that I’ve never seen before!

When we first married – almost 50 years ago now – my husband wasn’t into flowers.  He didn’t mind them, just didn’t care about them one way or the other and tried to make me happy by taking me to the local nurseries to find things to plant.

Now he actively works at getting our wisteria to grow up a tree, weeds his clematis, notices and remarks on the roses, LOVES the deep purple iris – now his favorite flower.

Flowers are a quality of life thing – and we’re rich in them!

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature, quality of life

Working in the Garden

We have two planters of tomato plants. We converted the planters from being regular planters – filled with regular and potting soil – to square-foot planters, filled with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.) The planter above is 8 feet long by about 2 feet wide. Last year I planted six plants in this planter and they soon grew to be a dense ‘jungle.’ This year I’m planting 4, trying to give them more space. I also read that I should prune them more to encourage fruit production, rather than greenery. I have to admit that this scares me a bit, but I’m going to try it, limiting their vertical growth in particular and trying to prune any large sideways branches. We LOVE sliced fresh tomatoes, and could eat our weight in them daily, so I’m HOPING that this experiment is successful…

 

This is the second tomato planter. It is in a ‘nook’ formed by the back of the house and our back porch. It is shielded from the elements more than the other planter, and sometimes results in the only plants that do well. These actually have some yellow blossoms!

 

And THIS – is a really nice weed, or SPINACH!

I am finding several like this, right in the middle of squares of Mel’s Mix in the garden planters – as I harvest and weed around them. I was unable to get the seeds to sprout in the greenhouse for some reason, and I was unable to find ANY spinach plants being sold locally, so in desperation I finally just planted some seeds in the middle of several squares in the garden and kept all of my appendages crossed. As you can see here, I put a popsicle stick in the soil showing ‘spinach.’  Appendages – including my eyes – are still crossed, because I’ve never seen spinach at this early stage, so it looks different from the plants I have purchased.

Since it is not raining right now, I’m planning to get out and tackle the last of the six 4’x4′ wooden box planters in my raised bed, square foot garden today. It’s so full I can’t tell what is there. I’ll report back, and then plan to see what exciting things the locals may have for me to plant to take the place of the things I’ve harvested. I’ll try to get pics of what’s out there now. I’m still stunned that so much needed harvesting already!

I plan to call friends and share the veggie wealth this weekend. :0)

I hope YOUR weekend is fun and productive!

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Day Two of Harvest

Yesterday I harvested a bunch of radishes, two heads of lettuce, and some broccoli. Today I harvested MORE radishes

And FIVE heads of lettuce!

I’m going to call some good friends to see if I can spread the wealth over the weekend.

My husband fixed our new-to-us riding lawn mower this afternoon and got the lawn mowed while I worked in the garden. I just listened to the weather and it sounds like we may have just finished in time for the heavy rains to start. They’re supposed to last all evening into tomorrow morning, so it was good we could take advantage of a break to get some things done outside.

I hope you’ve had a wonderful day, too.

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

One Person Can Make a Difference

Kasthuri Gunasegaran – LinkedIn

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Filed under Cause for Celebration, Encouragement

One Extreme to Another

Joe Bailey-Engley Bear

 

Kong – Sculpture by Joe Bailey – Painted by Bruce Horton

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Your CUTE for the Day

Geert Weggen – Just Something

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Geert Weggen

Today’s Harvest 5-2/2019 – So FAR!

This is actual head lettuce!  I’ve only had one other head form like this is the past several years, being content to enjoy cutting off the outer leaves as long as possible and enjoying them in salads. I think there are several more heads out there NOW!  Woo HOOOOO!

My broccoli isn’t impressive to look at, like the nice heads you see at the grocery store, but it’s nice and tender. Since my husband isn’t overly fond of broccoli, I make soup from it for myself. :0)

 

These are absolutely the best radishes I’ve ever grown. They are large and perfect – no spots or anything, and better than you see at the store! I’m like a kid at Christmas!  I enjoy eating lots of raw veggies and some dip for my lunch, so my mouth is watering in anticipation!

I’ll do another session in the garden after we have some lunch. I have a lot more to harvest, and then there is a LOT of weeding to do. (The weeds love Mel’s Mix, too.) Mel’s Mix is the soil alternative we make to go into the planters. It’s a combination of peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different types of compost as you can get (I’m using mushroom, barnyard, and cotton burr, plus compost I make on my own – when it works. :0)

I recently planted some zucchini squash and some cantaloupe. I also tried planting some spinach seeds directly into the garden, since I am still a serial seed killer on the ones I’ve tried in my greenhouse. I’m eager to see what’s what – WHEN I get things thinned out enough to tell!

I certainly don’t save any money trying to grow some of our own veggies, but I LOVE the planning, planting, care, and harvesting – plus I know our food is healthy. Since we eat a lot of raw veggies and salads, this is a truly fun thing to do.

I’ll let you know if any of the spinach seeds have sprouted and will take more pics as I get the garden back in control.

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

My Garden Exploded!

I’ve told you we’ve had non-stop rain the past day-after-day-after-day around here. I haven’t been able to even THINK about getting out to the garden. The rain has stopped for a minute, so I went out there, not knowing whether my sweet little plants would have been washed out of their little squares, totally inundated with water and lying sadly dying, or what.

What I found amazed me. My garden is happy, healthy, and has exploded! :0)

This first post is to show you the raised bed, square foot garden as a whole.

My husband and I made six 4’x4′ wooden planter boxes and then mounted them on metal support ‘tables’. We have irrigation hoses that attach to a sprinkler in each box. We have a timer on the main hose so that the garden is watered daily (except for lately – since Mother Nature has no idea when enough is enough!)

I had one lettuce plant in each marked off square. I also planted one broccoli plant in each of other squares. I planted 12 radish seeds in each of several squares, and then I planted a BUNCH of sweet red onion sets in one whole box, since they won’t be harvested until the end of the summer or the fall.

As you can see, it’s hard to tell where one plant ends and another starts!

Apparently, the plants really love the too-much rain (we made drain holes in each square.) and the intermittent sunshine.

 

As you can see here, the broccoli is blooming. That’s bad, and it means the probable end of the broccoli crop. I cut off the blooming part because I have read that sometimes, when the main broccoli head is gone, the side shoots will produce heads.

In the next post I’ll show you what I’ve already harvested today. There is MUCH more out there, plus a LOT of work to do, harvesting more, weeding, etc.

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Filed under Delightful Surprises, Favorite Things, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Encouragement

Depositphotos

For a long time I’ve been at an ‘awkward stage’ when it comes to finding jeans that fit reasonably.

One of my good friends gave me some jeans to tide me over several months ago. It was funny because women’s sizes are so wonky that some of the smaller ones fit while the larger size was too small!

Anyway, the last couple of times we went bowling, she said my jeans were baggy. My problem was that yes, these were baggy, but the next size down was too small!

My husband and I went to the exclusive department at Walmart yesterday with the goal of either finding a ‘skinny’ cut in my current size or ‘fat’ cut in the next size down.

We ended up with a ‘W’ stretch version of the next size down in petite. (In real English this means I’m short and wide.) I actually did a happy dance (woo-HOOOOO!) in the fitting room when I actually was able to pull them up and zip them with no problem! I came out to where my husband was waiting and he gave them a thumbs up. :0)

We went back and found a second pair, so now I can wear one pair while the other is in the laundry.

Since I’m planning to lose another 30 lbs, these two pairs of jeans will hold me over until I reach another landmark.

Business Victories

 

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Filed under Cause for Celebration, DIET!, exercise

1st Hummingbird of the Spring! May 2nd

Tim Fitzharris

 

We were sitting at the dining area table this morning -groggily trying to wake up – when we saw the first hummingbird of the season (that we’ve noticed) at the hummingbird feeder!  I had mainly put the feeder out to welcome the first hummingbirds, not actually having seen one.

He was only at the feeder just a second, sipped a bit and then flew off. We went out and got the feeder, filled it with fresh food, and put it back out. We feel so rich when we see hummingbirds dive-bombing each other at the feeders. We will put out several, so there is more than enough food for all, but nature overcomes. I hope this is a good year for the hummers.

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Mother Nature, quality of life, Seasons

Gorgeous Animals

R J Bennett – LinkedIn

 

Jeff Jett – LinkedIn

 

R J Bennett – LinkedIn

 

*These photos represent the work of several talented photographers all united in a effort to preserve these magnificent animals and their habitats.

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Arrgh! Too Much of a Good Thing

Tail and Fur

We are thankful we live on top of a ridge line. The ‘monsoon season’ continues in Arkansas. The latest forecast says we might have 5 inches total by the end of the day tomorrow.

Last night we were enjoying listening to the rain while watching TV in the living room. There was a lot of lightning and rolling, rumbling thunder. It was pretty impressive. Suddenly we heard a loud CRACK! and both jumped in our chairs. It sounded like the lightning had hit something really close. I’m no judge of these things, but I don’t want it any closer than that!  I wonder if you hear the lightning if it strikes YOU…..?

I haven’t noticed any damage here, thank goodness, but it’s still raining, so I haven’t ventured out far.  I have no idea if my garden veggies have been washed out of their sweet “squares” or not. The greenhouse is still standing, so I think it’s okay.

One things I’m really happy to note – the rose bushes I cut back so viciously are blooming now!  I’ll get some pics if this ‘wonderful’ rain will finally stop…

 

 

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Good News – Bad News

123RF.com

I already told you that two of the fourteen planters we built around the yard collapsed. We’ve been trying to get bricklayers to come and give us estimates on rebuilding them for us. We have the brick already, waiting on a pallet. We already have concrete bases ready to receive the brick.

GOOD NEWS – Today I finally got a call. Because of all the rain we’ve been getting, one of the guys we’ve been trying to reach called and got directions to come give us an estimate!

BAD NEWS –  The bricklayer was really nice. He even put up with Amber greeting him when he opened the truck door, covering him with kisses. I finally got her into the house and we looked at things. His estimate for the job was $700. That’s too steep for us, particularly since we’ve already had to buy the bricks.

SO – when the monsoon is finally over and it looks like we’ll have several dry days in a row, we’ll go to the local hardware store and buy umpteen bags of Qwik-Crete and will rebuild the planters ourselves. Even though we don’t know what we’re doing, the other 12 planters we built some 30 years ago lasted, so maybe we’ll do well enough again.

I’m excited about getting them functional again and deciding what we’ll plant…

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Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises, Housekeeping - Maintenance

“It’s Raining, It’s Pouring….”

Daily Express

 

“It’s raining.

It’s pouring.

The old man is snoring.

He bumped his head.

and couldn’t get out of bed

in the morning”    – English Limerick

 

It started to rain late in the evening, storming all night with lots of rumbling and bumbling – really great for sleeping. It’s still raining today, and is supposed to tomorrow, too. A bit too much of a good thing.

This is the equivalent of ‘monsoon season’ in Arkansas. Things are about as lush as they get around here. The trees on either side of our 650+ foot STEEP driveway are trying to grow across the driveway. We don’t have any trouble, but UPS and Fedex truck drivers look a bit wild-eyed when they come up to deliver.

Once the rains stop, we’ll be lucky to get enough to wet the grass during the summer. We have an irrigation system that – once working – waters every day so that flowers don’t completely croak around here. We used to get out each evening and water everything with hoses, but that wasn’t enough to counteract the strong sunshine and over 100 degree F. weather we routinely have. The plants would simply burn up.

We’re enjoying the rain we’re getting now and working on the irrigation system to repair blow-outs before the system is really needed. We’re making good headway on a leak we found in the well house. We think maybe one more session will finish the main system. We still have a problem on the other side of the driveway from the well house, but that can wait a bit.

It strikes me funny that we can’t work on the irrigation system because it’s raining.  :0)

Happy day, everyone!

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Filed under Mother Nature

Ducks and Seagulls

“Sparkles in the Water” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“Ducks and Seagulls” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“Flight Against Wind” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“Philosophy of a Lonely Duck” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Paul Militaru Photography