Monthly Archives: March 2022

1st Day of Spring 2022

Pinterest

Hooray! We did it! We made it to spring! Whoo HOOOOO!

I was beginning to give up. In Arkansas it almost never snows after my birthday on the 9th, but we broke records in temperatures and amount of snow this year AFTER my celebration of adding another year to my personal total. I couldn’t be happier that MAYBE we’re through with frozen precipitation of any kind. I’ll continue to watch the forecasts for freezing temperatures for awhile yet.

My spring garden is mostly in now. I’ll continue to see if I can find some head lettuce, and I will plant some radishes, but the main part is in now. (The scraggly-looking things you see in this photo are red onion sets)

Spinach
Leaf lettuce
Broccoli
Cauliflower
One of the planter boxes

My husband looked in the shop, but didn’t see our irrigation control timer yesterday. Today I’ll see if I can uncover my counter in the garage and find it. My counter has become the catch-all for everything – including my husband’s zero sugar soft drinks, zero sugar gallons of tea, plus my seed planting stuff, plus tools (garden and otherwise) and more. It is truly awful. At least I’m actually looking for something I need, rather than JUST having to label this a character-building exercise. It MAY keep me going on what will probably be an all day project…

In the meantime, let’s all give Spring a huge hug!

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Seasons, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Today’s the Day!

Harma Hommad

Last night I finished re-reading the 52 books that precede this one. Today I’ll dive into my latest paperback in the series, #53 Forgotten in Death. I’ve also ordered the paperback of the NEXT one in the series, Abandoned in Death, that comes out in July.

I feel rich that I have all the books in this series. I’m fascinated by the future New York J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) has created (2050 and beyond), plus the people in it. Homicide detective Eve Dallas lives a very full, intense life. Her character brings out either love and loyalty without bounds or intense hatred. The story has built and built with each book giving us bits and pieces of the real humans who populate it.

You know what I’ll be doing later today. :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Authors & Books

Spooning

Victor Fritch Art Beats – Etsy.com

Tipsy Toad – etsy.com

Leave a comment

Filed under metal art, spoon - cutlery - art, Victor Fritch Art Beats - Etsy.com

Tara Turner Art 3

A Place to Rest in the Dark
Let Us Speak in Love
The Secret Path of Night
Tree Spirits in a Winter Night
Walking into a Fairytale

Tara Turner

Leave a comment

Filed under paintings I love, Tara Turner Art

Job Humor

The Balance Careers

For about eight years I did medical transcription and bookkeeping for a group of 8 very busy general surgeons. When I got the job, I had no experience and had to learn as fast as possible. It was a pretty stressful, demanding job, but I loved the people I worked with and was glad to do my share on making sure we took good care of patients.

I had to ‘teach’ my doctors to realize that my job took a bit of skill. At one point, they were flirting with the idea that they would use special equipment where they could simply dictate their notes and the equipment would provide a copy for the patients’ charts.

They told me that ‘all I had to do was type what they said.‘ So I did that for two full days so that I could do transcription for all of them. I provided two copies – one for THEM to review and a second that went into the chart. At the end of the two days, they were begging me to NOT type what they said, realizing that they made mistakes when they were tired and distracted and needed someone with a head to ‘translate’ their words, rather than simply type them. A couple of them actually tried one of the new gadgets – quickly giving it up as the gadget typed gibberish, not understanding much of what they said. :0)

Sometimes what the docs said made me laugh out loud. I began to keep a document just for me to enjoy, recording their ‘bloopers.’ When I left after 8 years, I gave each of them the printed out document. I could hear them laughing all the way down the hall. Here is a sample:

  • “It was recommended that she get manual anagrams…”
  • “It hurts every time she has a bowel movement in her lower abdomen.”
  • “Enclosed is a copy of the path report showing the lesion on Mr. ___’s buttock that I removed on 10/23/95 in the office was benign.”
  • “On digital examination, there is no perianal region.”
  • “She can place her head on her sternum without pain.”
  • “These are office fixations — fictations — from…”
  • “Following that, we can to annual, every other year mammograms.”
  • “She is certainly not just a typical internal hemorrhoid.”
  • “Send him a copy of ‘this blue thing’ that’s the first two pages under the diagnostic testing ‘stuff’ that has the most recent report.”
  • “Both breasts are inverted.”

Leave a comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, memories

Thoughts on a Saturday 3-19-2022

Tenor

I’m reading Life Force by Tony Robbins. One of the suggestions is that you drink half your weight (in ounces) of water daily. My eyeballs are already swimming, but I’ll work on it. (He says that coffee actually dehydrates you. Since I’m a coffee-a-holic, this is a sad thing to hear.) So I’ll try to cut back on my coffee and TRY to drink even more water.

Another is to eat a more plant-based diet. My husband tends to dig in his heels, so I just talked to him, telling him I will include more veggies in our meals. Since he told me last night he LIKED the way I cooked the broccoli, I’m encouraged that I can do more of this type thing without riots. Small, gradual changes in a good direction.

I’ll go out later to visit our new early spring garden to see how our new plants made it through the latest rain. I’m hoping that the rain was greedily slurped up and that all are feeling happy. I’m reading about growing cauliflower better, since I’ve only been minimally successful, growing very small heads before having to harvest. Fingers crossed. I’ll take some pics.

Shutterstock

I’ve been neglectful regarding saving stuff on my computer lately. SO neglectful that I actually had to refer to my NOTES on how to make a new system disk and save my data to another. I’m embarrassed, but I got it done. I’ll put it on my calendar now so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

Norman Machine Tool

I told you that our air compressor suddenly quit working. My husband took apart the top of it, finding the part that he thought was causing the problem. He ordered what he HOPED was a replacement part, and it arrived yesterday. So when we got back from Lunch Bunch, he took it out to the shop. He spent a couple of hours, and he FIXED it! He replaced the part, put everything back together and tested it. It worked perfectly. So now we’ll be able to change our snow tires on the truck for the regular tires once we really believe we are finished with snow and ice for awhile. :0) Another wonderful thing was that he fixed the compressor for around $80. If we had had to buy a new one, a much smaller one would have cost around $450 plus tax, plus shipping. He’s a miracle worker.

Giphy

I’m starting to feel a difference in my efforts to move more. I’m feeling less creaky in my afternoon old lady yoga practices, and the working in the garden is definitely getting me moving more. I’m going to see if I can increase this as the weather improves.

Wishing you a happy Saturday.

Leave a comment

Filed under .gifs I Love, DIET!, exercise, Gardening, getting the lard off, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Delightful Lunch Bunch

Thrillist

For the first time in a long time, ALL of us were there at Lunch Bunch. It was delightful and healing.

Our waitress, Mikey, was in a playful mood, too, and made us laugh a lot. My friend Kay’s back is better, and she is aggravating her husband, Bud, by doing things she shouldn’t. He is understandably frustrated with her, having done everything in his power to get her the help she needed after she fell and hurt her back so badly. Two months or so of doctors, procedures, and your wife in pain makes you take life more seriously.

My friend Linda and her daughter, Patty, were doing fine. Patty has been traveling a lot, going back and forth to see her granddaughters, plus helping with a new baby. Patty has arranged for a woman she trusts to be available for Linda when needed, plus gives her a boost weekly, helping her shop, clean, and more.

To be able to talk, laugh, and share a hug or two was HEALING. Sharing time with friends is priceless.

Leave a comment

Filed under Friendship

Live With Love

boredpanda.com

Leave a comment

Filed under love

I’m Drooling

Ellen Bounds
Phyllis Sickles – gourdvisions.com
Whitney Peckman Art

Leave a comment

Filed under Gorgeous Gourd Art, Gorgeous Gourds

More Julie Rhodes!

Truly, Madly, Deeply
Pale King
From the Shadows
Sleeping Lion

Julie Rhodes Wildlife Art

Leave a comment

Filed under animal paintings, drawings, Julie Rhodes

Ah – Rain!

Quora

It started raining last night and is still raining today.

I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)

Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.

Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.

I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.

Leave a comment

Filed under Friendship, Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Happy St. Patrick’s Day 2022

Live Science

May the Good Lord take a liking to you… but not too soon!

There are only two kinds of people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were.

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
~Irish Blessing

Leave a comment

Filed under holidays

Squirrely

photo-spokesman.com
photo-Sue Capuano Art-fineartamerica.com
Margie Limqueco on Twitter

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Longing for Walter

Figuring out what’s happening in our world is more and more challenging.

I read several sources on my computer daily and also watch news programs on TV. The disparity I find is confusing and frustrating, to say the least. I’m not sure whether I need to read more or less!

The images I see say one thing. The explanations from the media say another. It’s difficult to judge what is real, what to think, what to believe in the face of some stories reported on a source or two, yet completely ignored by others. When the subject is covered by several sources, the slant of the media people is like night and day.

It makes me frustrated and hostile, so I tend to vacillate between spending more time trying to find out and avoiding the whole thing.

Walter Cronkite

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll.

I’m so old I remember listening each night to Walter Cronkite. No bells. No whistles. No fancy stuff. Just a reading of what happened during the day. I don’t remember him ever giving an opinion, but I was young at the time and not aware as I should have been about things like that.

I don’t like to be cynical. I don’t want to have to ‘weigh’ what I read or hear, trying to figure out if I can trust the information – if the person speaking has an agenda – skin in the game – an axe to grind.

It makes me tired. I wish I could have Walter back.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges

Spring Lard, Sweet Chariot….

Hippopottermiss on DeviantArt.com

Lard is CUTE on this sweet hippo, but not so much on me.

Now that we finally seem to be calling winter over – at least according to the calendar officially designating spring this Sunday – I’m trying to call comfort food eating over, at least until next winter!

My husband and I have discussed NOT putting food that is NOT on the list in the shopping cart. This goes in one ear and out the other with SOME of us. Since my willpower is laughable, I have seriously asked for his help. We’re going to try to get back to our once a week salad night, as well as eating the good individual frozen meals we’ve been getting from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ and Real Food, both of which are easily accessible, now that getting snowed or iced in isn’t nearly as possible. I’m trying to include a side veggie from my list of ‘good’ veggies from various lists that are supposed to maintain or improve the status on our various health concerns. We also have some good low carb dinners we like that I can cook, freezing leftovers into individual dinners.

Happily, spring already brings me to more physical activity with our garden and trying to get the yard and our planters in shape. I’m also continuing to do my old lady yoga stretches each afternoon. If I can, I’m going to TRY to include a session three times a week on my elliptical trainer, now that the garage isn’t freezing.

Losing the lard will be in two phases –

PHASE I – getting back to where I was before the winter hit.

PHASE II – starting to enjoy new territory.

A full two-armed embrace of spring for my garden and hopefully, less of me, with the exception of a huge smile on my face.

Happy Spring!

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise

The Spring Garden Has Sprung

I had filled up our raised bed, square-foot planters with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and three kinds of compost) at the end of fall. We put a square plastic bucket in the middle of each planter, then stretched a tarp over each box, using bungee cords to secure them. We had to replace the tarps about a month ago or so, since the weather and sun had pretty much disintegrated them. The purpose of this was to try NOT to have to spend several days prepping the garden before I could plant.

When I started yesterday, the tarps were completely water-laden. I pulled them off the planters and spread them beside the shop, holding them in place with bricks, to dry in the sun. I stored the plastic buckets and bungee cords in one of the trash cans and put it under one of the planters.

There were VERY few weeds in the planters, so I was able to get started with the planting almost immediately! Hooray!!!!!!

If you look carefully, you can see the wire we strung in two directions, creating the ‘squares’ for planting. I was able to get spinach, red onion sets, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and cauliflower plants in town.

I got everything planted except for the red onion sets. I’ll try to get those planted today.

I need to find the timer for our irrigation system, put new batteries in it, and hook it up to the garden faucet, and then hook up the hoses that go to the garden planters.

You can see the hose that runs down the middle of the three planters on one side of the garden. You can also see the sprinkler in the middle of each box. Both sides are set up the same way, then tied together so the whole system works as one on the timer.

I’ll try to get the red onion sets planted today. We’re due for rain late this evening-into-tomorrow, so it’ll be okay if I wait until the weekend to get the irrigation system set up.

I’ll see what other plants are available the next time we have a chance.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

A Spoonful of Love

I have a favorite spoon. It isn’t valuable to anyone except me. It’s a great spoon for eating soup and such, kind of between a regular dining spoon and a soup spoon in size. It has a wooden handle, and that sealed the deal for me. I LOVE wood.

I’ve used it for YEARS. One day several years ago, the wooden handle split. I tried to be adult about it, but I was really sad. I’d never seen one like it and knew I couldn’t replace it. My husband managed to find a wooden shape that was perfect. He spent a long time carefully drilling a hole down the middle of the complicated shape and glued it on the metal end of the spoon. I was delighted, and have used THIS ONE for years.

Well, as you’ve probably figured out, the handle finally gave up the ghost again. I mentioned it to my husband, but figured he probably wouldn’t be able to get more wood the right shape. His hands also shake now, making precision work much more difficult. I put the spoon with the split handle in the cutlery drawer, just keeping it, even if it couldn’t be used anymore.

When I was getting my coffee this morning, my husband went outside. He came back with this –

It might be dumb to cry over a spoon, but I did. He explained that he got more than one piece of wood years ago so he could repair the spoon again if the handle failed.

The hole I’m digging in the back yard for him will definitely have to wait awhile. :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under Cause for Celebration, Family, love, marriage

Julie Rhodes Wildlife Art 3

Sanctuary
Serene
Eyes of Green
As I Dream

Julie Rhodes Wildlife Art

Leave a comment

Filed under drawings, Julie Rhodes

Amazing Idea

I’ve told you over the years how proud we are of our son, who lives and works in Thailand.

To give you one example of why we are proud –

flashcards

He is really good at languages and keeps finding ways to improve his skills.

He speaks English, of course, and also Mandarin and Thai.

When he was home last time, he showed me that there was an app on his phone where he could help people with the language. People wrote in, asking for a translation, or ‘how do you say,’ questions. He would read the question and then answer it. Sounds simple? Sometimes the writer was Chinese, sometimes Thai, sometimes from an English-speaking country. He had three keyboards on his phone that he used to answer in the language of the writer, telling them how to say ‘—-‘ in Thai, or Chinese, or English. I would have happily watched him doing this in real time forever.

His newest thing is flashcards. You notice there is no English on them. These are for Chinese people trying to learn Thai. He is using these to refresh himself on Mandarin and learn how to spell Thai words. (He knows how to SAY many more Thai words than he can write.) He will work with these every day to increase his expertise in both of the languages.

I have no idea where he gets his ability to learn languages. His mom and dad still struggle with English from time to time (I’ve heard word retrieval problems are one of the perks of getting older.)

He considers learning a language well as respect for the country and the people where he is living.

Leave a comment

Filed under empowerment, Family

Stunning Gourds

artsyshark.com
Aynur Bayir
Debb Doyle Chiappisi
sculpture sideshow-CarolKrollArt.com
Sculpture Sideshow-CarolKrollArt.com
welburngourdfarm.com-Carol Kroll

Leave a comment

Filed under Gorgeous Gourd Art, Gorgeous Gourds

More Victor Fritch Spoon Art

Victor Fritch Art Beats

Leave a comment

Filed under metal art, spoon - cutlery - art, Victor Fritch Art Beats - Etsy.com

Soaring

HMA Moane-flickr.com

With all that’s going on in the world, it’s hard to keep your head above water. It would be easy (and understandable) to simply give in to all the ugliness and pain and be crushed under its weight.

I’m finding ways to get through –

  • Do what I can to help
  • keep up with enough news to know what is happening
  • Immerse myself in the beauty that ALSO abounds in our world – the arts, books, music, stories of what others are doing to make our world a better place, talking to our son, hugging my husband and our pets, reaching out to friends and family
  • escape to my art room to try to create something healing for myself, and maybe others
  • look for plants for my early spring veggie garden
  • start to plan to get our yard in shape after the winter
  • exercise to try to make myself stronger physically
  • ACKNOWLEDGE that there are many, many things I cannot control
etsy.com

What do YOU do to cope?

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, coping mechanisms

Timeless Topiary

bellagio.com-Concervator and Botanical Gardens
grownuptravels.com-Montreal Botanical Garden
Montreal Botanical Garden-tripadvisor.com

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, topiary

Tact

QuotesGram

You’re not fat, you’re just… easier to see.

psychologytoday.com
Quotemaster.org

Leave a comment

Filed under Funny Signs - Humor

Loving Deeply

Greeting Ideas

Leave a comment

Filed under aging, love

Acorn Elf Life

Skating

Petr Vaclavek – Dubanci.cz

Leave a comment

Filed under acorn art, Petr Vaclavek - Dubanci.cz

Wonderful Willow Art

emma-parkins.co.uk
outtolearnwillow.wordpress.com

Leave a comment

Filed under sculpture, willow sculpture

Late Start

eBay.com

hahahahhahahahah. Actually, I’m not stressed, just late today. I just loved the picture above. :0)

I’m having a very late start to blogging today. I had a haircut appointment and errands to do this morning. By the time I got home, it was time for lunch. THEN, after we ate, I got sleepy and took a nap…

We’re having a weird day today.

We were just checking a detail on our investment account and saw that Schwab had generated a corrected tax form for us. We printed it, and then I emailed our CPA that we were having to mail him a correction for our tax stuff.

My husband wanted to check to see if we had gotten a delivery from Fedex or UPS (sometimes left at our mailbox at the bottom of the driveway) and said he would mail the corrected forms when he went. We talked about how it would be mailed, etc.

Then I started to work on the computer. I heard the driveway alarm and realized my husband had left. The form was still where I left it, so my husband didn’t take it. Wonder what he’ll think when he gets to the post office. Getting old is SO much fun. I’m glad I don’t have to do it alone.

Leave a comment

Filed under aging, Challenges, Thoughts on a ________

Spoon Art

Victor Fritch Art Beats

Leave a comment

Filed under metal art, spoon - cutlery - art, Victor Fritch Art Beats - Etsy.com

Julie Rhodes Wildlife Art 2

Courageous
Resplendant
Intensity
Nala

Julie Rhodes Wildlife Art

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, drawings, Julie Rhodes

Houston Quilt Festival 2

Indian Paintbrush, by Margit Kagerer
Ruffled Feathers, by Roxanne Nelson
Sandia Mountain Spring, by Betty Busby
Sheer Whim by Maria Elkins

Thanks to Linda Teddlie Minton – Houston Quilt Festival

Leave a comment

Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art, quilts