Jeffro Uitto – Steve Pseno
Sugar Plum Foal by Heather Jansch
Tony Fredriksson – Open Sky Wood Art
Vivax Oliva Woodworking
Monthly Archives: June 2023
Heat Indices
5News
The local TV station says heat index ‘up to 108’ in my area. My computer heat thingie says “110”. (You say tomaaato and I say tomahhhto…. ) At least we’re agreed that it’s TOOOOOOOOO HOT!
Kay and Bud were at Lunch Bunch. We went to the local grocery afterwards to get some stuff. Even with the truck A/C on, we were hot. By the time we unloaded the truck, we were both wilting. We got a cold drink when we finished putting things away.
Needless to say, I’m NOT working outside now. I’ll check to see how things feel at around 5 this afternoon (though the heat warning is active until 9pm), plus whether the planter I want to weed is in the direct sun or not, and then decide. We don’t have anything scheduled tomorrow, so maybe I’ll just wait until tomorrow morning.
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I would like your opinion on something, please. My friend, Marsha, suggested that I show more of what I’m listing for sale on HandmadeHavenbyLinda, my Etsy site, on this blog on a regular basis. I would really like to know what you think. Would you rather I didn’t do that? Would you find it irritating?
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Guess what! In the category of ‘adding insult to injury‘, the Dyson people said on their website that they are no longer making the battery-powered vacuum I have and are not offering parts for it. We got a battery that was supposed to be compatible with it a couple of weeks ago. It won’t charge and make the vacuum usable, so we went to the Dyson site. NOW we’ve ordered another one that is supposed to be compatible that has more power. If that doesn’t work, we’ll either have to buy another vacuum or I’ll just use my regular vacuum.
Please try to stay cool and hydrated.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
It’s Friday – So, Lunch Bunch
IceGif.com
It’s Friday, so that means Lunch Bunch.
A priceless time for me. We’ve been doing this for over 20 years now, meeting every Friday possible to share lunch, good news, bad news, laughs and hugs.
It started when I decided to go to City Council meetings in Greenwood to find out what was going on in the town, taking an interest and seeing if I could participate. Linda was the City Clerk/Treasurer. Kay was in the audience, too, each month, and we started sitting together and getting to know each other. This went on for several years before we went to lunch together a few rare times.
When Linda retired, we decided we wanted to continue and build on our friendship. The Pizza Barn was central to all of us, so we met there and went through the buffet. The pandemic and new rules forced the owner to stop the buffet, but we continued to meet there, ordering from the nice menu. The friendship grew. Others joined us, but none permanently. The core is Kay, Linda and me.
The years passed. My husband finally joined us and has become an accepted member of Lunch Bunch. Kay’s husband is in his 80’s, but still works heavy equipment from time to time. He is also now a valued member of the group. Linda’s daughter, Patty, comes when she can, and is a delight. Other people are always welcome, but the core is the thing.
A lot happens in 20 years. When you share that – even basically only seeing each other on Fridays – the bond becomes a pillar of your life. Friendship and sharing, loving and caring. I am lucky.
Filed under Friendship
Spirit-Lifting Watercolor
YouTube.com
FulcrumGallery.com
Glenn Plum
Pinterest – unknown artist
Filed under Watercolors I Love
2nd Tomato Harvest 6-29-2023
Larger ones
Cherry tomato size and a bit larger
Whole harvest with more to come!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The Great HOT Outdoors
We have three brick planters end to end between our front lawn and the driveway area. These are the 3 I’ve been trying to weed and get Bermuda grass out of.
My husband wrote them off, saying they were too far gone and that we’d just have to burn it all to get the Bermuda out.
I’m STILL saying, “Let’s talk about the planters” today, in celebration of how pleased he was that I managed to get things under good control.
Here’s another view of the planters from one end to the other.
And HERE is a happy surprise. I gave up on the elephant ears, thinking that they hadn’t made it through the winter. (Another planter to add to the weeding list)
Filed under Gardening
Thursday 6-29-2023
Forwarded by a friend.
I’m having a grumpy day. I’m still feeling the stress about spending the whole day yesterday doing really laborious and possibly dangerous stuff, not finishing until well after dinner.
I’m delighted that the used air pump we got for the bed seems to be working and the mattress held the air pressure last night. In fact, the mattress was a bit TOO firm. :0) I’ll adjust that tonight.
LightUp.com
We changed out the tubes in one 4′, 4-tube fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen, taking out the old T12 (I think) tubes and putting in the new LED T8 tubes. We finally got it accomplished, but it took all afternoon.
When we were both tired, my husband decided he wanted to put the big thermostat in the master bath window. I got in there to find he had torn a hole in the screen trying to do it and was busily trying to make another one. A ‘discussion’ ensued and I finally got the thermostat. I stood on the whirlpool tub and shut the top part of the window that shouldn’t have been opened at all. I opened the bottom part and slid the thermostat in where it belonged. My husband realized this morning what he did, so now the replacement of the screen is on our ever-growing list.
The replacement battery for my Dyson isn’t working. It ISN’T a ‘Dyson’ battery, but that shouldn’t be a problem. My husband is looking into the problem, seeing if there is another, more powerful one we can try. Apparently, he didn’t look at the actual Dyson replacement batteries, to see if they are affordable, so hopefully, he’ll do that today. He is also working on trying to get the old air pump for the bed to work. If he can do that, we’ll have a backup.
5News
My sweet cousin/friend Murray has just moved to Fayetteville AR and is in the 105-109 degree part of this. Welcome to AR, Sweet Murray!
We are in the 105-115 degree part of this in Greenwood, just southeast of Fort Smith. I think we have at least one more day of this ‘intense heat warning’ before we move to ‘just-plain-too-hot’.
If you’re in the super hot warning areas, please be safe.
Filed under Challenges
Grrrrrrr
Clipart Library
I may very well be bald as an egg by the end of the day. My husband is on a tear and it’s impossible to stop him without completely decking him – though I’m thinking about that as I type.
We got the new/used air pump we bought on eBay today. My husband disappeared, when I thought he was in his chair reading, and took the old one out, put the new one in, and it WORKS! We just now went up with soapy water to see if we could find any leaks in the mattress. We didn’t, after extensive testing, so we’re suspecting that the leak came from the connections to the failing air pump. We are now letting the mattress dry before we try to put the bed together again, put on fresh sheets, etc.
I have the washer going to wash the mattress pad and then the sheets we took off, or I DID. My husband came in and announced, “The washer isn’t working.” Since it was when I left it, I got up and checked. ‘SOMEONE’ had pushed buttons – putting it in a waiting state. When I asked him, he said, “Well, it wasn’t working, so I pushed some buttons.” I got it going again.
Then I saw the stair lights were on and figured out he was upstairs again. I went up to find him with one of the new LED tubes in his hand, looking around. I finally found out he was looking for his glasses. I pointed to his shirt, where they were hanging on his front. He had the good grace to look sheepish, but I asked him why he was up there with the tube. He then said he was going to put in one of the new tubes in the kitchen.
We had a ‘discussion’ at this point, since he told me earlier that we were only going to tackle one of the project things today and were already in the middle of the bed project. He said, “Well, that’s drying and we can see if this tube stuff is going to work. I objected, since I am usually there to receive the old tubes and hand him the new. AND this will be a matter of taking the ballast transformer out, rewiring, and THEN putting new tubes in. I told him I really didn’t want to get into that today.
He said, “That’s fine. I can do it myself.” After growling to myself (I think) I mentioned that if he was going to do this, he should do it in the utility room where the only ceiling light we had only had one dim tube working.
I’m giving myself a chance to cool down mentally a bit and then I’ll go check on him. It used to be that we could do our separate projects, if needed, without even thinking about it. This is no longer the case and I find I may need to check on eBay to see if they have any used brains with an extra supply of patience for sale.
Filed under aging, Challenges
All RIGHT!
Dribble.gif
I just came in from weeding. I finished the other two planters in the trio of brick planters running between our front yard and the driveway. I’m sitting here with my sweatband still on, drinking like a camel, and trying to cool off while patting myself on the back. That’s IT for outside today.
While I was weeding, the UPS man came up to deliver a package! That is amazing in that most of the drivers now just leave packages by our robot at the bottom of the driveway. Some let us know. Some don’t. I thanked this man profusely and made sure he had another bottle of water. We laughed together when he showed me that the package had ‘FEDEX’ on the side… :0)
He brought us the replacement for our air pump for our mattress. My husband just put it in and it seems to work fine. The next step is trying to find and repair leaks in the mattress before putting things back together.
My husband went to town to return a box of fluorescents. He discovered that yet another insult to how old we are and how long we’ve been here in this house is that our fluorescent tubes and the ballast transformers that go in the fixtures will no longer be made starting in August of this year. He read a bunch of stuff and figured out that LED tubes don’t use ballast transformers. If you take out the transformers and rewire the fixture, you can then use the LED tubes in the existing fixture. So this starts a pretty big project for us, changing out the transformers and wiring in each fixture. I’m hoping that we’ll do this in a calm fashion, but I’m dealing with EverReady Man who thinks he’s still 25…
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Frith Cold Cast Bronze Sculptures 2
Angora Goat with Kid-Veronica Ballen
Baby Donkey Foal – Veronica Ballen
Barney Cockapoo Playing – Adrian Tinsley
Barn Owl Exiting Old Church – Guy Redwood
Filed under Frith Cold Cast Bronze Sculpture, sculpture
I Love Matt Dixon
Filed under Matt Dixon, Robot Paintings
Ugh
Digital Mom Blog
Today and tomorrow Arkansas is under ‘excessive heat warnings.’ This is serious business, as you can die from heat exhaustion or dehydration before you realize you’re anything but ‘really uncomfortable.’
Yesterday we had quite a storm after we got home from errands. Rain had spit on our windshield, but that was all while we were out. Once we got home, though, the sky turned dark, the wind came up – whipping the branches of our trees around – followed by thunder and lightning, and finally pretty heavy rain for half an hour or so.
Bonnie Plants
I’m planning to do some weeding in the middle planter of the planter trio today. I’ll do very short sessions, rest, and drink lots of water, then repeat. I would like to get that middle planter under control today.
We have no other errands, so I can concentrate on inside stuff otherwise today.
The Artful Parent
I got an idea of what I want to make for my friends for Christmas this year. I think I have everything I need already, so it’s just a question of starting one and seeing how it goes. I’ve been dreaming about it, so I’ll get up to the art room soon.
Have a good Wednesday!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Welcome Home!
We are home from doing errands. We got sprinkled on several times, but didn’t actually get caught in any rain. We stopped at the bottom of the driveway to see if our humongous trash can was empty. It WAS, so I laboriously dragged it up to the place higher up on the driveway where we keep it.
As we started up the driveway from there, we saw a doe and her fawn cross our driveway! They were at least 2/3 of the way up the driveway from where we were, but we could see them clearly. In fact, Amber, who was in the back seat, went nuts. :0)
By the time we were traveling up, the deer were gone, but it was a really pretty sight. Amber was teed off, but she didn’t need to get out and scare them, really, though she certainly WANTED to.
We are home for the day now. Severe thunderstorms are forecast until around 1pm, so we’ll keep an eye out. I’m hoping we’ll just get a bit of rain and the temperatures will cool off while I can get out and weed the second planter. Fingers crossed.
Filed under Amazing Animals
Delicious Driftwood Art
Easter Azali
Insolite-photo by Beatrice MS.1968-flickr.com
Jeffro Uitto – Marcella Niles
Sonja Berner
Filed under Driftwood Art, When Wood Comes Alive
Tuesday 6-27-2023
Send by my friend, Carol.
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Yesterday I waited until 5pm and THEN went out to do some weeding in the planter trio that runs end-to-end between our front yard grass and our driveway. The three planters are totally overrun.
The first thing I did the other day when I was weed whacking was take the loppers and hack back the total overgrowth of our forsythia and wisteria in the planter that is farthest from the house. Only then could I get close enough to the planter to weed whack.
Yesterday I started on the OTHER end and attacked the Bermuda grass that had taken over that planter. I spent half an hour, got the planter nicely cleaned out and started cleaning up and getting ready to go in. (The sun was fading a bit at that hour and I wasn’t in the direct sunlight, but the heat index was high and I had promised myself to do a short session.) My husband came out with the dog to check on me as I was gathering things to come in.
To say he was amazed at the planter is an understatement. :0) He used the word, “Miracle” several times. :0)
I’ll try to do the same on the middle planter this afternoon.
Our day should be a quiet one today. We’ll go mid morning to get our mail, pick up a few groceries at the local store, and drag our trash can back up where it lives higher up on the driveway.
I wish you a happy, productive, safe Tuesday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Anna Chan Seashell Art 3
Filed under Anna Chan Seashell Art, Seashell Art
Monday 6-26-2023
Mark Gray Photography
This man’s photography continues to amaze me.
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We are home from our errands – our trash gathered and left in the humongous container from the trash company. My husband did NOT skid on the gravel today. :0) We got our mail and then drove to town to mail the memory box I sold. Even though it is ONLY 88 right now with a high of ONLY 96 this afternoon, I am grateful for good air conditioning. I have found that as I age, my ‘comfortable’ temperature range narrows considerably.
I will fix lunch soon and then will probably take a nap. (Isn’t my life exciting? – ACTUALLY, one of the best things about being older than dirt is that I can just pretend I’m from Mexico. When I visited there about a hundred years or so ago, everyone took a nap in the afternoon and then started their work day up again, stopping for the day about 9pm. I thought it was civilized then, and I really like it now. :0)
All About Gardening
After my nap I’m planning to do a couple of sessions of yard work. There are MANY things to do. We have the lawn and weed whacking mostly under control now. The weeds and Bermuda grass are trying to take over several flower planters, so I’m going to see if I can do some good out there today.
Hoping for a calm, quiet day and evening. I wish you the same.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Look What I Did!
Earrings – Dangle/Wire – 1-3/4″ Purple, Turquoise and White Round 3D Light-Weight, Painted, Wooden
Totebag – “Earth Love” Extra-Large Hand-Painted One-of-a-Kind
Journal – “Plant Lovers” Spiral Bound Hard Cover Hand-Painted
Memory Box – Hand-Painted – “Purple Dream”
This is a sample of what I have in my Etsy shop called “HandmadeHavenByLinda” Come and visit anytime. You can find one-of-a-kind things for yourself or unusual gifts you’ll be proud to give to friends, family and co-workers. :0)
Filed under HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy
wow
Yahoo News
Wow. I’ve just finished my second session weed whacking outside and I’m bushed. It’s 97 right now with a heat index of 110 or so. Since I’m not as stupid as I look, I’m keeping my work sessions out there short and then resting and cooling off while drinking a bunch of water in-between sessions. Unless the weather is uncooperative, giving us a thunderstorm, I’m planning to get out for a third and last session for the day soon. I think I should be able to basically finish the back yard. The job is never really finished, but it’ll definitely look as if someone cares about the yard between the efforts of my husband and me.
When I finish the work outside for the day, a great shower awaits. AHHHHHH!
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance
Watercolor Fix for The Day
advocate-art.com
Kovacs Anna Brigitta Art – fineartamerica.com
Sophia Rodionov Art – fineartamerica.com
Filed under Watercolors I Love
Thoughts on Sunday 6-25-2023
NickMackmanSculpture.co.uk
While I was sitting at the computer, trying to wake up, even before I had gotten a cup of coffee, an order showed up in my email from my Etsy site, HandmadeHavenByLinda.
I sold one of my hand-painted memory boxes. This one is called, “Woodland.”
What a nice way to start the day! I’ll box it up carefully today and put it in the mail to its new home tomorrow. :0)
http://www.parsons-health.org.uk
We’re under an ‘intense heat warning’ already, and it lasts until 9pm tonight. I need to weed whack, so I’ll do really short sessions, with lots of rest and water in-between, and see if I can get it done.
Adobe
We really enjoyed our first cook out of the season last night. We had our LED colorful rope of lights on, making the deck festive. We didn’t start the fire until about 7:30 because of the heat. My husband enjoyed a beer while he cooked. We ate around 9pm. We shared one of the steaks and each had a small baked potato. It has been about a year since we splurged like this and we savored each bite. We’ll share the leftover 2nd steak this evening with steamed veggies. YUM. :0)
I wish you a calm, NICE Sunday.
Rabbit Pellets
Giphy
This morning was DAY ONE of eating Fiber One Cereal. We put blueberries and milk on it.
My husband and are are of the same mind – the rabbit-pellet-looking cereal has very little taste. I was very happy for the blueberries. The cereal wasn’t objectionable in any way, other than making me feel like a rabbit eating Purina Rabbit Chow.
The fact that one serving is 18 grams of fiber is really important to us. The fact that it contains NO sugar is equally important. That outweighs any other considerations, and we are super grateful.
Filed under DIET!, taking care of yourself
First Tomato Harvest 6-24-2023
Ahhh. We finished our errands and I headed out to check the tomatoes. Good thing I brought a big bowl because I was stunned at how many ripe tomatoes we had – and more coming!
I only had to toss ONE that bugs had gotten to. I’m thrilled.
Needless to say, we’ll have tomatoes with lunch in a few minutes and our cookout dinner tonight. HOORAAAY! My lettuce and spinach this year were pretty much a bust, but the tomato plants are LOVING the heat and the sun.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
creativeartworksblog 