Adam Baker – Tuolumne Meadows, California.-via Daniela Capdepoj MD-PhD-LinkedIn
Monthly Archives: August 2019
Beautiful
Inna Kashkovar – LinkedIn
Chat Desh Photography via Mara Spirig – LinkedIn
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Escape
Unknown Artist via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
I received my paperback copy of Nora Roberts’ “Connections in Death” – the latest in her “In Death” Series. I ordered it months ago and then tried to put it out of my mind instead of waiting, crossing off days, like a kid waiting for Christmas. Finally, I have it in my hands!
I’m re-reading the other 47 books in the series, thoroughly enjoying the escape of living in the gritty, absorbing world of Eve Dallas, a homicide detective in New York City in 2058 and beyond. I admire her strength, determination, absolute dedication to her job. I love the people in her world and how she reacts to them. I can dive in and lose myself and my worries for awhile, caught up in her latest case and situation.
Right now I’m on #10 – “Witness in Death.” When I finish the first 47 books, I’ll give myself permission to enjoy the latest.
I spent many, many years not really being able to make time for reading for pleasure. I was earning my teaching degree, then teaching full-time and taking night classes and summer school for my Master’s. It was YEARS before I could actually sit down, become absorbed in a book, relaxing – reading for the joy of it – finally realizing I wouldn’t be TESTED on it later. Now it’s one of my greatest pleasures. I’m grateful I found Nora Roberts years ago. Her books have reminded me of how beautiful life can be, full of humor, love, and interesting, good people. The In Death series is another part of that, with strong, sometimes wacky characters, who each have lovable flaws that bring you closer.
Filed under Hobbies, quality of life, Reading is FUNdamental
Monday Morning
“Innocent Sounds” – Alina Ciuciu
I love Alina’s painting for several reasons –
The subject, colors, and texture speak to me.
My reaction to the painting was to melt into a puddle. It is so SWEET.
It also speaks of the many sides of friendship. On any given subject, in any given situation, some will share a similar thing that happened to them; some feel the need to give advice; some will comfort; some will listen; some will simply be there with you for support. I value each and every one.
Filed under Challenges, Friendship, paintings I love
Pet Peeve
Madeleine Jacobs
One of my pet peeves is products that don’t work the way they promise. I know, I am old enough to KNOW better – I just can’t quit HOPING that one day, one of the products will actually work.
I just used Clean Shower. It says you spray everything down, then walk away. I did that. Twice. The dirt and soap scum was still there. Today I will take good old Comet, scrub the shower down, and do the same for our tub, toilet, basins, countertop, etc.
I’m the ultimate lazy person. I LOVE the idea of some way to get out of scrubbing. To this end – the ‘Eternal Optimist’ searched the net for shower cleaners today and ordered the top two products on the ‘BEST list – supposedly from customer reviews.
The top was “Rain-X Shower Door Cleaner.” Since we have used Rain-X on our car windshield, I am hopeful that it MIGHT perform as described –
- Provides an extreme, dH22:L23deep clean on shower doors leaving behind a sparkling shine
- Specially formulated to clean soap scum and hard water stains on shower glass
- An ideal cleaning prep for Rain-X Shower Door Water Repellent
- For glass surfaces only
The other product I ordered was “Method Daily Shower Spray Cleaner, Eucalyptus Mint”
- Contains (1) 28 ounce bottle of shower cleaning spray
- Naturally derived daily shower cleaner
- Use daily. No scrubbing required
- Non toxic, plant based powergreen technology dissolves and prevents soap scum
- Cleaning spray works on showers, tile, fixtures, glass tubs
Since it’s rainy today, I have switched to my inside to-do list – including laundry, stripping beds and changing sheets, scrubbing our master bathroom, dusting and vacuuming up there.
I am HOPING that once I have things clean, I can use the two new products arriving soon to KEEP them that way – without all the scrubbing!
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob, Pet Peeves
Post for Irene
These are the two owls I was talking about in my post about Fritz the Cat as our current mailbox decoration. Each is about 2-1/2 feet tall and about 18 inches wide. We put them on top of posts on either side of the driveway toward the bottom, where we have a bar we can use to close the driveway.
This is the picture I SHOULD have posted, where you can see one of the owls and just a hint of the one on the other post.
I hope you’ve been having a wonderful day, Sweet Irene!
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis yard art
Be
The Age of Enlightenment via Janet Melendez – LinkedIn
Filed under Attitude, Challenges, Encouragement
Our Beautiful World
Thomas Moran via Elena (Livia) D – LinkedIn
Filed under Mother Nature, Oil Paintings I Love
Garden Progress
I’ve been working on our garden, trying to get it cleaned up after I had to neglect it for about a week. My husband came out there with me today – a rare and delightful thing – and we did a good amount to prune and clean up. I have another session to do out there, but it will wait.
There is always more to do in the garden, but we improved things a lot today. I pulled up my radishes a couple of days ago, the last time I was out there. For some reason, they didn’t make successfully this time. I was disappointed, because I got spoiled with a really super crop with the last batch I planted in the spring, having enough to give to my friends and having lots for me to enjoy. I’ll concentrate on trying not to be greedy. I’ll plant another group soon.
The zucchini plants are still looking healthy, although I’m having to read everything I can get my hands on to figure out what I’m doing.
We have lots of these small cantaloupes! I didn’t know they start out green, but we made sure each one is now sitting in a plastic bowl to keep it out of the dirt, as I read they like. Fingers crossed that they actually grow into something delicious to eat!
Red onions.
Our weather has been really different this year. Our tomato plants are looking pretty sad right now. I have no clue whether we’ll get more or not. We’ve had such a good crop this year. I hope I can extend the season some. I took bags of ripe tomatoes to our friends at Lunch Bunch this morning, and then another bag to our hairdresser on the way home. I love it when we can share the wealth!
Obvious Fun
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
“Fritz the Cat” Mailbox Decoration
Fritz the Cat is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a “supercity” of anthropomorphic animals, the strip focused on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades. Crumb began drawing this character in homemade comic books when he was a child. ~ Wikipedia.
This is one of my husband’s favorite comic strips and characters. This decoration will stay up until the middle of August.
We cut the outline out of sheet metal using our CNC machine. My husband did the computer coding that makes it so the computer can ‘see’ the design we’re trying to make and can guide the torch. This was a difficult one for me because it was mainly just bare sheet metal with the mailbox mounting on it. I did a lot of work with our overhead projector marking the metal so I could then try to paint the design on both sides of the piece. We sprayed the finished piece with polyurethane to protect the paint as much as possible.
You can also see our ‘welcome’ robot and one of the two owls on either side of our driveway.
It’s easy to see that you are passing a weird place as you drive by. :0)
Filed under Hobbies, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art
Friday “Awwwww!”
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Happy Fish?
Because of life getting in the way lately, I’ve gotten behind on my responsibilities around the house. Yesterday I finally vacuumed our first floor – first the tiled areas and then the carpeted ones. I have a very nice vacuum. The only thing it could do better would be for it to run itself. (We actually HAD one of the round turn-it-on-and-it-runs-around type thingies at one time. It would regularly get stuck under something or wedge itself into a corner, or choke itself to death on the dog and cat hair, so we gave it up.)
Another thing I had neglected was the aquarium. I finally cleaned that out yesterday, putting in different decorations, clean water, new filters, etc. The fish didn’t say anything, but breathed sighs of relief when I put them back in their now clean home.
Here you can see all four of the fish. We have one that has gotten huge – they were all about the same size when I bought them – about an inch long. The largest one is now at least three inches long in the body, and then has a long tail. All seem to be doing fine.
Somehow, the girl-in-the-bathtub’s feet broke off quite a while back. I glued them back on and the fish don’t seem to mind it that she isn’t perfect.
I’m not sure if the weather will cooperate and I can finish getting the garden back in control or if I’ll have to tackle more projects in the house today.
The best thing is that we have Lunch Bunch – our every Friday meal with long time good friends in about an hour. Our son will go with us today, and it’s been years since our friends have seen him. I look forward to the reunion.
Have a happy day!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Friendship, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Goal
Shlreline Primitives via Carol Auclair Daly
Filed under aging, Challenges, Changes, Encouragement, taking care of yourself
Thursday’s Happy Wake Up Call
Eunice I – LinkedIn
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography
creativeartworksblog 