“crashing into the picture”- Brigitte Alcalay Marcon – bbc.com
Good morning!
I got a new used phone yesterday. We were able to install the updates plus transfer my information from the old to the new. This morning we’ll go to our phone place for a SIM card, whatever records they need, and I’ll get a new phone protector.
Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. My to-do list is running off the bottom of the page. Some will depend on the temperature today. Other things I just need to plow through. I’m hopeful I can get some things checked off.
I LOVE this guy. I want him to come live with me. :0)
We’re having a beautiful morning, cool and sunny. It’ll get to the 90’s this afternoon, but we’re enjoying the cool while we can.
We’re going to see if we can find a roll of black weed barrier fabric to spread on the top of the Mel’s Mix in each of my raised bed square foot garden planter boxes. I’m still glowing over the compliments I got from my husband – who mentioned it again last night! – on what a good job I did of weeding and harvesting. (I’ll try to remember to get a picture of the onions we grew.)
We’re hoping that the weed barrier will keep the weeds from taking over the boxes again. With the tarps we put over the boxes last year, we had to worry about trying to drain rain water off so it wouldn’t puddle in the middle of each tarp. What we did was better than nothing, but didn’t work as well as we had hoped.
With the barrier, the rain doesn’t NEED to drain, except as it normally does, going right through the barrier. We’ll put bricks or stones, or both, in each box to hold the barrier down. This will be a good experiment.
We’ll get our mail as we go and HOPE that we don’t have to stop and re-gather trash from yesterday….
My husband just came in from walking around outside. He said, “You did a GREAT job of weeding in the garden.” I’m still amazed.
He wanted to go to Yeager’s tomorrow to buy tarps to go over the boxes as we have done in the past. My good friend, Marsha, had suggested that I use weed barrier fabric stuff and plant through it to keep the weeds from coming up so enthusiastically. I suggested to my husband that we use the barrier stuff to keep the weeds down until the spring, instead of the tarps. We wouldn’t have to worry about the water draining off the tarps. It would just go THROUGH the weed barrier. I could check it from time to time to see if I needed to add more until it was time to plant in the spring.
In the spring, when it’s time to plant. I’ll remove the barrier, add more to plant through, or plant things, then put strips of the barrier stuff in between the plants. That should save me a LOT of work.
Today is DAY 60 of my “trying-to-practice-yoga-every-day-no-matter-what” project. I LIKE round numbers (except when we’re talking about age), so today is a good day.
“What is the 21/90™ rule? Basically, we believe that it takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to make it part of your lifestyle. After you complete the 90 days, the habit will be as much a part of your daily lifestyle as brushing your teeth.“
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“It can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.”
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I’m not sure which of these is right. Maybe it just boils down to determination. Whatever it is, yoga is becoming a priority around which I plan my afternoons. I’m still delighted to put a sparkly star on my desk calendar after I do my daily practice, so I haven’t ‘matured’ much, but it DOES motivate me, and gives me a small pat on the head for doing what I ought to be doing anyway.
I’ve added 4 new poses to my basic routine lately. One is called, “The Cobra,” and another is called, “The Boat,”. I’m not sure what the others are called. They are still quite difficult, but they’re good for me. Slowly but surely I’m becoming a little less stiff, a bit more flexible.
This morning is nice and cool. In fact, my husband dressed in jeans, instead of shorts, for the first time all summer. We have to enjoy it while we can, though, because the forecasters said ‘summer is returning.’
Britannica
We caught an opossum in our humane trap overnight. Not only had he eaten all the seed on the deck, he had gotten through our dog door in the garage and broken into the bag of trash we had gathered to go out today. We re-bagged the trash and put it at the bottom of the driveway and cleaned up the garage. My husband will dispose of the hostile possum later today.
Fantastic Pest Control
My bites/stings are larger than these, but you can get an idea of how ‘pretty’ my arms look today. The swelling in both arms is WAY down from my ant bites/stings and I’m just trying to keep anti-itch ointment slathered on myself today.
123RF.com
My friend Linda is in the hospital for tests. They did some yesterday, but didn’t find anything, and so will do more today to try to figure out why she is feeling so weak and dizzy. I hope they find something that is easily fixed so she can feel like herself again.
Are you brimming with energy, eager to start a brand new week? Neither am I. :0)
I’m still licking my wounds received from my “weeding-the-garden/harvesting-the-sweet-red-onions” project. Even though I was careful, hosing down the remaining garden boxes with Seven, I got bitten/stung by several ants on my right arm. So now I’m sporting BOTH arms swollen and pink with raised welts and stings. I’ve tried popping the little bumps to get the stuff out, but it seems to make it take longer to heal, plus I read that spreads bacteria and might lead to infection, so now I just take my allergy medicine, wash the area well, take Tylenol, and put anti-itch ointment all over the area. My husband winces in sympathy every time he looks at me. I did get the project finished, though, and will rest today.
123RF.com
My long-time Lunch Bunch friend, Linda, is not doing well. Her daughter is trying to get her to a doctor today. If she can’t, she’s taking Linda to the hospital. I’m hoping someone can figure out what the problem is and do something to make her feel better.
I wanted to share this with you. The contestant is from Ukraine. Rea Garvey (coach) and his wife found a family in Ukraine and have opened their home to them. He wrote and sang a song to try to convince Yasya to choose him as her coach. There is still good in the world.
Yoga Journal
Today is DAY 59 of my daily yoga practice. I really wanted to skip it yesterday after two sessions weeding the garden and the ant bites/stings, but I did it anyway. Today should be easier, since I’m taking it easy today.
A cool front came through sometime early this morning and it’s only 68 degrees this morning! Woo HOOOOO!
Yesterday I worked almost 3 hours in the garden, trying to harvest our sweet red onions. I did two sessions, having to weed AS I harvested because the weeds were SO bad, I couldn’t FIND the onions. (I know. Embarrassing, to say the least.)
I got what I thought were 3 ant bites, but it turned out to be a few more. No big swarms of ants, but several teed-off ants got me. My left arm is a bit swollen and tender, even though I took allergy meds and put Benadryl ointment on my arm right away.
I got three of the six wooden planters weeded and harvested, and will try to finish the job today.
I’ll mix up my bug killer before I go, so I’m locked and loaded, ready to hose down any ant that even looks in my direction.
Meanwhile, we’re enjoying a cool breeze with the front and back doors open. Ahhhhhhh.
Okay. Picture the mess above on six 4’x4′ wooden ‘table’ gardens chest high and you will have an idea of what a MESS my garden is right now.
I’ve just come in from working for about 45 minutes and I can tell this is going to take SEVERAL sessions, possibly over a couple of days or so do to the FIRST thing on my list for outside – harvesting the sweet red onions.
I have to pull the weeds in order to FIND the onions. :0(
So far, I’ve harvested half of a big bucket of onions which I spread out on our trailer bed by the shop as I came back to the house just now. I have an entire large trash can full of weeds to dump before I start another session after lunch, when I’ve had a chance to rest and cool off.
I’ve finished one and a half of the six wooden boxes. I’ll see how hot it is, and if I can simply ignore the heat and sun for a bit. It IS cooler than it has been, with a high of 90 predicted for this afternoon.
I have THREE ant bites, but I haven’t dug into a bed of them where they swarm up yet. Hopefully, that won’t happen.
My husband thinks we have another raccoon eating all the seeds on the deck, so he’s been setting our humane trap nightly.
The only thing we’ve been catching is squirrels. Our dog, Amber, goes absolutely nuts when we catch one. My husband thinks it’s funny. Amber barking REALLY gets on my nerves – not only for me – but also because her ‘voice’ carries and I don’t want her really annoying bark to bother our neighbors.
We trapped a squirrel recently. Amber went nuts. I ended up yelling (as I do when my husband does the opposite of what I need him to do). I can’t figure out how to open the trap, or I would do it myself. I have asked my husband to show me how to do it – when things are calm around here – but he knows me and doesn’t WANT me to know how to do it. He finally let the squirrel go before I made myself completely bald pulling my hair out. Amber slept all afternoon afterwards.
Yesterday we trapped ANOTHER one. Amber predictably went nuts. I went out and demanded Amber come into the house. (All this was happening while we were trying to bring in our purchases from the truck in the garage, so we were going in and out.) I got Amber in and started to unpack groceries again and heard Amber barking again! I went out and she was back out on the deck, barking at the poor squirrel. I demanded again that she come in. She did – and then ran RIGHT OUT the garage door past my husband, who had let her out the second time, grinning. I yelled at him NOT to let her out, but he did it anyway, laughing. He has a perverse sense of humor and thinks making me go ballistic is funny.
I finally got the dog in AGAIN and threatened my husband about calling our tractor guy to start the hole in the backyard into which I will throw my husband – probably still laughing.
This morning I’m planning to get SOMETHING reasonable done outside. I worked outside Wednesday, making some good progress, but then life and other commitments got in the way while it was cooler on Thursday and Friday. I’m hoping to get my sweet red onions harvested from the garden and spread on the trailer bed in the sun to dry today. My garden is awful now, but I’m going to ignore that, doing what is pressing on me the most outside each day possible until things are under better control. Our weather is supposed to be cooler for a couple of day starting tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that and hope to spend a lot of time outside.
Bookshelves – Guest Room
I cleaned out the books in the guest room and on my side of the bedroom about a week or so ago. My husband just noticed last night when we were getting ready for bed.
Bookshelves – My side of bedroom
Things got busy and I pooped out last night, so we just had soup and crackers for dinner. I’ll cook the chicken and rice dish my husband likes tonight.
And that’s our quiet, happy day. I hope YOU have one, too.
Our switch to Mediterranean is ongoing and seems to be good for us, though my weight loss efforts have slowed. My digestive problems have stopped, though, and that’s huge. We’re eating lots of veggies and fruit now, and our lunches are pretty, plus colorful and delicious. My husband and I are both enjoying them.
For dinner tonight, though, my husband requested an old favorite, where I cut up chicken into bite-sized chunks, cook it with onions, mushrooms, and cream of chicken/mushroom soup and spices, serving it over rice. We haven’t had this in a long time. We’re at the age where comfort food is important from time to time, so we’ll splurge and enjoy tonight.
I’m still enjoying my discovery of Linda Howard. She writes sensual thrillers, I guess you would call them. Her characters are strongly drawn, with the main character a strong woman facing character-building/scary situations. I get Amazon and Thrift Books websites up at the same time, seeing what each has to offer on her used books.
I finally finished cleaning out and reorganizing my bedroom bookshelves upstairs (HOORAY!) , and so I now have room for my new collection.
I love this photo. I wish my flowers looked like this. Maybe next spring…
I had a quick chat with our son this morning. He is just getting ready to go to sleep when we wake up, but a lot of times we can check quickly to make sure each of us is okay. He’s doing fine, so my heart is calm.
Today is Friday, and that means Lunch Bunch for us. I didn’t get any texts on my phone, so it looks like everyone is planning to be there. It’ll be nice to see their faces and catch up. We’ll run a few errands afterwards, but this will basically be a quiet day for us.
I just read that cooler weather is on the way! I couldn’t be more ready. I’m planning to get outside early tomorrow to get some yard work done. My mantra is ‘one-day-at-a-time..’ until it looks like someone cares out there.
I hope that you enjoy your Friday and have a wonderful weekend, as well.
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